Arthur Machen

Title: The Terror Author: Arthur Machen A Project BookishMall.com of Australia eBook eBook No.: 0604051h.html Language: English Date first posted: July 2006 Date most recently updated: July 2006 This eBook was produced by: Malcolm Farmer Project BookishMall.com of Australia eBooks are created from printed editions which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is included. We do NOT keep any eBooks in compliance with a particular paper edition. Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this file. This eBook is made available at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project BookishMall.com of Australia License which may be viewed online at http://BookishMall.com.net.au/licence.html

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The Terror

by

Arthur Machen

  • 1. The Coming of the Terror
  • 2. Death in the Village
  • 3. The Doctor's Theory
  • 4. The Spread of the Terror
  • 5. The Incident of the Unknown Tree
  • 6. Mr. Remnant's Ray
  • 7. The Case of the Hidden Germans
  • 8. What Mr. Merritt Found
  • 9. The Light on the Water
  • 10. The Child and the Moth
  • 11. At Treff Loyne Farm
  • 12. The Letter of Wrath
  • 13. The Last Words of Mr. Secretan
  • 14. The End of the Terror

    • 1. The Coming of the Terror

    After two years we are turning once more to the morning's news with a sense of appetite and glad expectation. There were thrills at the beginning of the war: the thrill of horror and of a doom that seemed at once incredible and certain; this was when Namur fell and the German host swelled like a flood over the French fields, and drew very near to the walls of Paris. Then we felt the thrill of exultation when the good news came that the awful tide had been turned back, that Paris and the world were safe; for awhile at all events.

    Then for days we hoped for more news as good as this or better. Has von Kluck been surrounded? Not to-day, but perhaps he will be surrounded tomorrow. But the days became weeks, the weeks drew out to months; the battle in the west seemed frozen. Now and again things were done that seemed hopeful, with promise of events still better. But Neuve Chapelle and Loos dwindled into disappointments as their tale was told fully; the lines in the west remained, for all practical purposes of victory, immobile. Nothing seemed to happen, there was nothing to read save the record of operations that were clearly trifling and insignificant. People speculated as to the reason of this inaction; the hopeful said that Joffre had a plan, that he was "nibbling," others declared that we were short of munitions, others again that the new levies were not yet ripe for battle.