The Shadowy Thing

A tale of spiritualism cannot easily win a willing suspension of disbelief in the world of a country squire, in which Dick Bellew has grown up. In his maturity, however, he finds himself surrounded by very attractive, intelligent, and strong-willed characters who challenge his impatience with unconventional ideas. A man of action, Dick has trouble expanding his stunted imagination, but this very quality makes him the ideal narrator of a story of spine-tingling horror. His no-nonsense "I say" or "Now, look here" defy readers to distrust his account—except to suspect it of being too skeptical. Being always one or two steps ahead of him in understanding what is really going on does eventually become somewhat tiresome, but since we seem to make these discoveries for ourselves, we are willing to accept even the most outrageous assumptions. (Headnote by Thomas A. Copeland)