The Three Impostors

The Three Impostors, Arthur Machen, Ballantine, 1972

Written in the 1890s and set in London, this group of stories concern the sort of people that one may meet in any large city.

A man named Wilkins tells of his trip to America. Almost destitute, he is hired by a man named Smith to be his assistant on a business trip to the Rocky Mountains. Having no idea as to the details of Smith's business with a bunch of gold miners, Wilkins starts to feel that something strange is going on. Suddenly a group of vigilantes drag Wilkins out to a tree, throw a noose over it, and plan to hang him for being associated with a thief like Smith. After being saved by the local sheriff, Wilkins practically runs back to England, where his fortunes change for the better. He still lives every day in absolute fear that Smith will find him.

A man named Burton was stuck in a suburb of London after the evening's last train had departed the local station. He runs into a young doctor named Mathias, out for his evening walk, who invites Burton back to his place for the evening. Mathias is a collector of instruments of torture and death from all over the world. One of his newest acquisitions is a bronze statue of a naked woman called an Iron Maid. It is used for strangulation, which Burton learns to his horror, unable to release Mathias from its clutches.

A woman named Leicester tells the story of her brother, studying to become a lawyer. She is concerned with him spending all day, every day in his room with his law books. She asks the local doctor for a prescription, which is filled at the local pharmacist. For a while, everything is fine; the brother starts taking an interest in things other than law. But slowly, he begins to change. He gets sullen and short-tempered, he doesn't eat, and he has taken to locking himself in his room. The sister is getting more and more worried. She and the doctor visit the pharmacist and discover that what the brother has been taking is not what was prescribed. One night, on her nightly walk, she glimpses an inhuman creature looking out the window of her brother's room. In a panic, she gets the doctor, who forces open the door, to find a bubbling mass of putrescence with two eyes and what looks like an arm. The sister is now accused of having killed her brother.

I really enjoyed these stories. Written in another time, they're a combination of horror, satire and mystery. This is a fine and very versatile piece of writing.