Status Updates From The Hound of Death and Othe...

12. S. O. S. *** A traveler has a car breakdown during a storm and goes to the nearest cottage for shelter. Although welcomed, he has foreboding feelings about the family there and when he is shown to his room for the night he finds an “S. O. S.” has been drawn in the dust on top of a cabinet. No previous magazine publication date and source are known, so this 1933 collection seems to be its first printing.

11. The Last Séance *** Before retirement, a medium is asked to perform a final séance for a client who wishes to connect with her dead daughter. Tragedy occurs during the séance. The story was first published in Ghost Stories magazine in November 1926 under the title The Woman Who Stole a Ghost and then in The Sovereign Magazine in March 1927 under the title The Stolen Ghost.

10. The Call of Wings *** A rich man becomes obsessed with the music played on hand-pipes by a legless street musician. He begins to imagine that he is being lifted up into the air as if by a pair of wings. No previous magazine publication date and source are known, so this 1933 collection seems to be its first printing.

9. The Strange Case of Sir Arthur Carmichael **** Two doctors attend a case where a young nobleman who was about to be married has somehow become enchanted and is beginning to act with animal-like behaviour. No previous magazine publication date and source are known, so this 1933 collection seems to be its first printing.

8. The Mystery of the Blue Jar **** A man who regularly goes golfing in the early AM before work begins to hear a cry of “Murder - Help! Murder!” at 7:25am. No one else is hearing it though. He asks a “Doctor of the Soul” to help investigate the situation. First published in Issue 233 of The Grand Magazine in July 1924.

7. The Witness for the Prosecution ***** Leonard Vole is accused of the murder of an elderly woman, but expects that his wife will give him an alibi. Instead, the wife ends up being a witness for the prosecution. Basically the same as the later full length stage play, but with a different ending. First published in the US with the title Traitor Hands in Flynn’s Weekly (Volume IV, No 2) January 31, 1925.

6. Wireless **** A rich lonely widow has her nephew as her only companion. He encourages her to get a wireless radio for entertainment, especially for the evenings when he is out with friends. But then she starts hearing the voice of her dead husband interrupting the radio broadcasts. First published in the Sunday Chronicle Annual in December 1926.

5. The Lamp *** A woman, her father and her young son move into a house which is rumoured to be haunted by the ghost of the son of a former owner. At times the crying of a child can be heard at night. No previous magazine publication date and source are known, so this 1933 collection seems to be its first printing.

4. The Gipsy *** A man has been haunted by dreams and visions of a fortune telling gipsy his entire life. Then he meets a woman who bears an uncanny resemblance to the gipsy of his dreams. No previous magazine publication date and source are known, so this 1933 collection seems to be its first printing.

3. The Fourth Man *** Three men are travelling in a railway carriage with a fourth man who is apparently sleeping. They discuss a famous case of multiple personality disorder. The fourth man (who was actually listening) rouses himself and says he knew the woman back in childhood and tells them the background story. First published in Issue 250 of The Grand Magazine in December 1925.

2. The Red Signal *** The men attending a séance after a dinner party are warned not to go home afterwards as danger awaits. As the evening proceeds one of them is murdered and one of the others is accused of the crime. First published in Issue 232 of The Grand Magazine in June 1924.

1. The Hound of Death *** An unscrupulous doctor is supposedly treating a refugee nun but is actually attempting to harness her destructive psychic powers for himself. No prior magazine publication is known, so this 1933 collection seems to be its first printing.