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Welcome to Tales to Terrify. Good evening, children of the night.

Thank you for joining us again as we mark our 200th episode with a series of classic stories for your enjoyment.

We have a single longer story for you tonight from W.F. Harvey.

William Friar Harvey was born in 1885 into a Quaker family in Yorkshire. He attended Quaker schools in Yorkshire in reading before going on Balliol College in Oxford.

He took a degree in medicine at Leeds. In World War I, he joined the Friends Ambulance Unit,

but later served as a surgeon-lieutenant in the Royal Navy. During that time, he received

the Albert Medal for lifesaving. After the war, he worked in adult education for five years

before ill health likely stemming from lung damage sustained during the rescue for which he was awarded,

forced him into an earlier retirement. During this time, he published most of his best-known works. Much of his

retirement he spent with his wife in Switzerland, but returned to England prior to his death at the age of 52.

This evening, we will be hearing The Beast with Five Fingers.

When I was a little boy, I once went with my father to call on Adrian Bolsover. I played on the floor with a black spaniel while my father appealed for a subscription.

Just before we left, my father said, Mr. Bolsover, may my son here shake hands with you.

It will be a thing to look back upon with pride when he grows to be a man.

I came up to the bed on which the old man was lying and put my hand in his, awed by the still beauty of his face.

He spoke to me kindly and hoped that I should always try to please my father. Then he placed his right hand on my head and asked for a

blessing to rest upon me. Amen, said my father, and I followed him out of the room, feeling as if I wanted to cry.

But my father was an excellent spirit.

...