Before You Begin

Before you begin.

Two friends stop beside a neglected cottage for a handful of bright yellow flowers. Within minutes, a broken window, an automatic pistol and a nearby train wreck turn a roadside pause into a night watch.

Harry Irving Shumway’s compact 1923 story plays its haunted-house premise with a grin: the uncanny house is real enough to frighten, but the mystery finally belongs to roads, cargo and human disguise. The gallery that follows keeps those clues visible without giving away the last turn.