This audiobook is narrated by an AI Voice. Mr Wraxall is an English travel writer of modest means and considerable curiosity, gathering material in a quiet corner of Sweden. His hosts at the manor house are hospitable, the family archives are extensive, and the more he reads of the estate's seventeenth-century master, the more he wants to know.

Count Magnus was a hard landlord and a harder man. The peasants say he went on the Black Pilgrimage and did not come back alone. His mausoleum stands in the churchyard, sealed with three great padlocks.

Wraxall visits it more than once. Each time, half in jest, he says aloud that he would dearly like to see the Count. Each time, a padlock is lying open on the floor.

One of the finest ghost stories in the English language, and a lesson in the danger of idle wishes.