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Synopsis

The fifth of a five volume set collecting all of Hodgson's published fiction. Each volume contains one of Hodgson's novels, along with a selection of thematically-linked short fiction.

Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.

Table of Contents:

• The Valley of Lost Children
• Date 1965: Modern Warfare
• My House Shall Be Called the House of Prayer
• Judge Barclay's Wife
• The Getting Even of Tommy Dodd
• The Sea Horses
• How the Honourable Billy Darrell Raided the Wind
• The Getting Even of "Parson" Guyles
• The Friendship of Monsieur Jeynois
• The Inn of the Black Crow: An Extract from the Travelling Notebook of John Dory, Secret Exciseman.
• What Happened in the Thunderbolt
• How Sir Jerrold Treyn Dealt with the Dutch in Caunston Cove
• Jem Binney and the Safe at Lockwood Hall
• Diamond Cut Diamond with a Vengeance
• Eloi Eloi Lama Sabachthani
• The Room of Fear
• The Promise
• Captain Dang
• Captain Dan Danblasten
• The Ghost Pirates (abridged)
• Carnacki, the Ghost Finder (condensed version)
• "The Dream of X"
• Senator Sandy Mac Ghee
• The Last Word in Mysteries
• The Dumpley Acrostics
• An Adventure of the Deep Waters
• Captain Gunbolt Charity and the Painted Lady
• The Storm
• The Crew of the Lancing

Excerpt

The Valley of Lost Children

I

The two of them stood together and watched the boy, and he, a brave little fellow near upon his fourth birthday, having no knowledge that he was watched, hammered a big tom-cat with right lusty strokes, scolding it the while for having killed a "mices." Presently the cat made its escape, followed by the boy, whose chubby little legs twinkled in the sunlight, and whose tossed head of golden tangle was as a star of hope to the watchers. As he vanished among the nearer bushes the woman pulled at the man's sleeve.

"Our b'y," she said in a low voice.

"Aye, Sus'n, thet's so," he replied, and laid a great arm about her neck in a manner which was not displeasing to her.

They were neither of them young, and marriage had come late in life; for fortune had dealt hardly with the man, so that he had been unable to take her to wife in the earlier days. Yet she had waited, and at last a sufficiency had been attained, so that in the end they had come together in the calm happiness of middle life. Then had come the boy, and with his coming a touch of something like passionate joy had crept into their lives.

It is true that there was a mortgage upon the farm, and the interest had to be paid before Abra'm could touch his profits; but what of that! He was strong, uncommonly so, and then there was the boy. Later he would be old enough to lend a hand; though Abra'm had a secret hope that before that time he would have the mortgage cleared off and be free of all his profits.

For a while longer they stood together, and so, in a little, the boy came running back out of the bushes. It was evident that he must have had a tumble, for the knees of his wee knickers were stained with clay-marks. He ran up to them and held out his left hand, into which a thorn was sticking, yet he made no movement to ask for sympathy, for was he not a man?--ay, every inch of his little four-year body! His intense manliness will be the better understood when I explain that upon that day he had been "breeked," and four years old in breeks has a mighty savour of manliness.

His father plucked the thorn from his hand, while his mother made shift to remove some of the clay; but it was wet, and she decided to leave it until it had dried somewhat.

"Hev ter put ye back inter shorts," threatened his mother; whereat the little man's face showed a comprehension of the direness of the threat.

"No! no! no!" he pleaded, and lifted up to her an ensnaring glance from dangerous baby eyes.

Then his mother, being like other women, took him into her arms, and all her regret was that she could take him no closer.

An Abra'm his father, looked down upon the two of them, and felt that God had dealt not unkindly with him.

Three days later the boy lay dead. A swelling had come around the place where the thorn had pricked, and the child had complained of pains in the hand and arm. His mother, thinking little of the matter in a country where rude health is the rule, had applied a poultice, but without producing relief. Towards the close of the second day it became apparent to her that the child ailed something beyond her knowledge or supposition, and she had hurried Abra'm off to the doctor, a matter of forty miles distant; but she was childless or ever she saw her husband's face again.

Copyright © 2009 by William Hope Hodgson

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