Work on a series of tales of terror, or, as he called them,
"crawlers," planned in collaboration with his wife, soon superseded
for the moment other literary interests in his mind. _Thrawn Janet_
and the _Body-Snatchers_ were the only two of the set completed under
their original titles: _The Wreck of the Susanna_ contained, I think,
the germ of _The Merry Men_.
_Kinnaird Cottage, Pitlochry [June 1881]._