CONTENTS

Cover

Also Edited by Otto Penzler

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Introduction by Otto Penzler

THE VICTORIANS

At the Edge of the Crater

L. T. Meade & Robert Eustace

The Episode of the Mexican Seer

Grant Allen

The Body Snatcher

Robert Louis Stevenson

Dracula’s Guest

Bram Stoker

The Narrative of Mr. James Rigby

Arthur Morrison

The Ides of March

E. W. Hornung

NINETEENTH-CENTURY AMERICANS

The Story of a Young Robber

Washington Irving

Moon-Face

Jack London

The Shadow of Quong Lung

C. W. Doyle

THE EDWARDIANS

The Fire of London

Arnold Bennett

Madame Sara

L. T. Meade & Robert Eustace

The Affair of the Man Who Called Himself Hamilton Cleek

Thomas W. Hanshew

The Mysterious Railway Passenger

Maurice Leblanc

An Unposted Letter

Newton MacTavish

The Adventure of “The Brain”

Bertram Atkey

The Kailyard Novel

Clifford Ashdown

The Parole of Gevil-Hay

K. & Hesketh Prichard

The Hammerpond Park Burglary

H. G. Wells

The Zayat Kiss

Sax Rohmer

EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICANS

The Infallible Godahl

Frederick Irving Anderson

The Caballero’s Way

O. Henry

Conscience in Art

O. Henry

The Unpublishable Memoirs

A. S. W. Rosenbach

The Universal Covered Carpet Tack Company

George Randolph Chester

Boston Blackie’s Code

Jack Boyle

The Gray Seal

Frank L. Packard

The Dignity of Honest Labor

Percival Pollard

The Eyes of the Countess Gerda

May Edginton

The Willow Walk

Sinclair Lewis

A Retrieved Reformation

O. Henry

BETWEEN THE WORLD WARS

The Burglar

John Russell

Portrait of a Murderer

Q. Patrick

Karmesin and the Big Flea

Gerald Kersh

The Very Raffles-Like Episode of Castor and Pollux, Diamonds De Luxe

Harry Stephen Keeler

The Most Dangerous Game

Richard Connell

Four Square Jane

Edgar Wallace

A Fortune in Tin

Edgar Wallace

The Genuine Old Master

David Durham

The Colonel Gives a Party

Everett Rhodes Castle

Footsteps of Fear

Vincent Starrett

The Signed Masterpiece

Frederick Irving Anderson

The Hands of Mr. Ottermole

Thomas Burke

“His Lady” to the Rescue

Bruce Graeme

On Getting an Introduction

Edgar Wallace

The Fifteen Murderers

Ben Hecht

The Damsel in Distress

Leslie Charteris

THE PULP ERA

After-Dinner Story

William Irish

The Mystery of the Golden Skull

Donald E. Keyhoe

We Are All Dead

Bruno Fischer

Horror Insured

Paul Ernst

A Shock for the Countess

C. S. Montanye

A Shabby Millionaire

Christopher B. Booth

Crimson Shackles

Frederick C. Davis

The Adventure of the Voodoo Moon

Eugene Thomas

The Copper Bowl

George Fielding Eliot

POST–WORLD WAR II

The Cat-Woman

Erle Stanley Gardner

The Kid Stacks a Deck

Erle Stanley Gardner

The Theft from the Empty Room

Edward D. Hoch

The Shill

Stephen Marlowe

The Dr. Sherrock Commission

Frank McAuliffe

In Round Figures

Erle Stanley Gardner

The Racket Buster

Erle Stanley Gardner

Sweet Music

Robert L. Fish

THE MODERNS

The Ehrengraf Experience

Lawrence Block

Quarry’s Luck

Max Allan Collins

The Partnership

David Morrell

Blackburn Sins

Bradley Denton

The Black Spot

Loren D. Estleman

Car Trouble

Jas. R. Petrin

Keller on the Spot

Lawrence Block

Boudin Noir

R. T. Lawton

Like a Thief in the Night

Lawrence Block

Too Many Crooks

Donald E. Westlake

Permissions Acknowledgments