ed as
the best of their type.

The humorist, thank heaven, we have always with us. Spectres cannot
afright him, nor mundane terrors deflect him from his path. He takes
nothing either in earth or heaven seriously, as is his God-given right.
Some of the best examples of what he has done in the general field of
mystery are presented here for the first time in any collection.

JOSEPH LEWIS FRENCH.

CONTENTS

PAGE

I. MAY-DAY EVE 3
_Algernon Blackwood_

II. THE DIAMOND LENS 38
_Fitz-James O'Brien_

III. THE MUMMY'S FOOT 77
_Theopile Gautier_

IV. MR. BLOKE'S ITEM 96
_Mark Twain_

V. A GHOST 101
_Lafcadio Hearn_

VI. THE MAN WHO WENT TOO FAR 109
_E. F. Benson_

VII. CHAN TOW THE HIGHROB 143
_Chester Bailey Fernando_

VIII. THE INMOST LIGHT 158
_Arthur Machen_

IX. THE SECRET OF GORESTHORPE GRANGE 203
_A. Conan Doyle_

X. THE MAN WITH THE PALE EYES 230
_Guy de Maupassant_

XI. THE RIVAL GHOSTS 238
_Brander Matthews_

Masterpieces of Mystery

MYSTIC-HUMOROUS STORIES

MAY DAY EVE

Algernon Blackwood

I

It was in the spring when I at last found time from the hospital work
to visit my friend, the old folk-lorist, in his country isolation, and
I rather chuckled to myself, because in my bag I was taking down a book
that utterly refuted all his tiresome pet theories of magic and the
powers of the soul.

These theories were many and various, and had often troubled me. In the
first place, I scorned them for professional reasons, and, in the
second, because I had never been able to argue quite well enough to
convince or to shake his faith, in even the smallest details, and any
scientific knowledge I brought to bear only fed him with confirmatory
data. To find such a book, therefore, and to know that it was safely in
my bag, wrapped up in brown paper and addressed to him, was a deep and
satisfactory joy, and I spec