“It was pitch dark; here and there a white gate or a white stone in the wall guided them for a short space across the night; but for the most part it was at footpace, and almost groping, that they picked their way through that resonant blackness to their solemn and isolated destination. In the sunken woods that traverse the neighborhood of the burying ground the last glimmer failed them, and it became necessary to kindle a match and reillumine one of the lanterns of the gig. Thus, under the dripping trees, and environed by huge and moving shadows, they reached the scene of their inhallowed labors.”—from The Body-Snatchers

 

Robert Louis Stevenson, author of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, is one of the recognized masters of terror and suspense. In the three tales recorded here, The Body-Snatchers, a “crawler” in Stevenson’s own words, Isle of Voices, and The Waif Woman, the master lets his imagination roam into the darkest corners of man’s superstitious nature.