Over the course of a long career, chiefly as a humorist, British writer Barry Pain (1864-1928) wrote a substantial body of horror fiction. His early volume, Stories in the Dark (1901), contains a number of powerful specimens, including "The Undying Thing," a tale of a hideous entity lurking in the woods that was much appreciated by H. P. Lovecraft. Later collections-Here and Hereafter (1911), Stories in Grey (1912), and the untitled collection in the series "Short Stories of To-day and Yesterday" (1928)-each contain their modicum of weird specimens, including such notable items as "Smeath,"...