# Short Fiction — Chapters explained

> Chapter companions for Short Fiction by Clark Ashton Smith.

- [The Malay Krise](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/the-malay-krise.md): A sword-dealer recounts to the narrator the story of Sultan Sujah Ali, a pirate who terrorized the Malay Peninsula and China Sea until the British captured him with the help of his jealous wife Amina. The krise (Malay kn
- [The Ghost of Mohammed Din](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/the-ghost-of-mohammed-din.md): The narrator, a skeptic of the supernatural, wagers with his friend Nicholson that he can spend a night in a haunted bungalow in Hyderabad. The house, owned by Yussuf Ali Borah, was formerly occupied by Mohammed Din, a m
- [The Mahout](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/the-mahout.md): John Hawley witnesses a mahout training an elephant to toss a dummy, later recognizing the same mahout during a royal procession where the elephant, Raja, hurls the Maharaja Krishna Singh to his death. A letter reveals t
- [The Raja and the Tiger](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/the-raja-and-the-tiger.md): Bently, the new British Resident at Shaitanabad, initially finds the Raja cooperative and agreeable. After settling a land dispute, the Raja invites Bently on a tiger hunt at an ancient Jain cave temple. During the hunt,
- [The Last Incantation](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/the-last-incantation.md): The aged sorcerer Malygris, weary and disillusioned despite his immense magical power, summons the ghost of his long-dead beloved Nylissa. However, he finds that the apparition lacks the perfection of his memory, leading
- [The Abominations of Yondo](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/the-abominations-of-yondo.md): The narrator, a heretic tortured by the Inquisitors of Ong, is released at the edge of the desert of Yondo, a place of cosmic desolation and supernatural horror. He struggles through a landscape of decay, ancient ruins, 
- [The Ninth Skeleton](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/the-ninth-skeleton.md): Herbert Albert Adams sets out to meet his fiancée Guenevere on Boulder Ridge, but the sky darkens unnaturally and he loses his way in a nightmarish landscape. He encounters a field of ancient tombstones and is horrified 
- [The End of the Story](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/the-end-of-the-story.md): Christophe Morand, a young visitor at a monastery, becomes obsessed with a forbidden manuscript shown to him by Abbot Hilaire. Despite the abbot's warnings of dire peril, his curiosity is inflamed. The next morning, he l
- [Sadastor](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/sadastor.md): The demon Charnadis tells a lamia the tale of his visit to the dying planet Sadastor, where he found the siren Lyspial weeping in a dwindling pool—the last remnant of her former ocean. Despite his offer to carry her to a
- [The Phantoms of the Fire](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/the-phantoms-of-the-fire.md): Jonas McGillicuddy returns home after three years to find his cabin and family destroyed by a forest fire. He witnesses a phantom vision of his wife and children before being engulfed in flames, only to awaken and learn 
- [Marooned in Andromeda](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/marooned-in-andromeda.md): Mutineers are marooned on a desolate world in the Andromeda constellation, where they confront an alien landscape and a monstrous bird-like creature, only to be saved when the creature is killed by a giant vegetable anac
- [I](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/i.md): Three mutineers—Albert Adams, Chester Deming, and James Roverton—are marooned on an alien world by Captain Volmar after attempting to seize control of his interstellar vessel. Bound and confined, they are eventually rele
- [II](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/ii.md): Three mutineers, marooned on an alien world in the Andromeda galaxy, struggle to survive in a desolate, eerie landscape. They encounter strange luminescent microorganisms, a carnivorous plant-like organism, and are event
- [Marooned!](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/marooned.md): Three mutineers—Roverton, Deming, and a third—are marooned on an alien world in the Andromeda galaxy. They struggle to adapt to the strange environment, experiencing eerie sounds, unusual gravity, and a growing sense of 
- [A Strange Land](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/a-strange-land.md): The mutineers, stranded on an alien world in the Andromeda system, explore a desolate landscape illuminated by strange luminescence. They encounter bizarre flora and fauna, including carnivorous boulder-like organisms th
- [III](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/iii.md): The mutineers are herded by pygmy-like creatures riding lizard-monsters across a desolate alien plain. They are forced to work, fed a strange paste, and eventually led into a cavern, uncertain of their fate.
- [Captured!](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/captured.md): The mutineers are captured by grotesque lizard-creatures and their cyclops-eyed riders, who herd them across a desolate alien landscape. They are forced to march at a brutal pace through a barren plain under a dim sun, w
- [A Conference](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/a-conference.md): The mutineers, having been captured by pygmies, are led to a ravine settlement where they are forced to help process a strange food paste. After a meal and a night's rest, they wake to find a large assembly of pygmies en
- [IV The Brink of Doom](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/iv.md): The mutineers, blinded by darkness, descend into a cavern where they encounter a monstrous, many-mouthed god worshipped by pygmies. Forced off a ledge, they fall into a pool and escape through a narrow underwater passage
- [The Brink of Doom](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/the-brink-of-doom.md): The mutineers, having descended into a dark cavern, find themselves on a ledge above a stagnant pool. A monstrous, multi-mouthed creature rises from the water, and the pygmies, along with a lizard-monster, perform a ritu
- [Into the Stream!](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/into-the-stream.md): Roverton, Adams, and a companion escape a monstrous entity with multiple mouths and eyes by swimming into a narrow cave. They are carried by a swift current through an underground world, facing darkness and uncertainty, 
- [Into the Pouch](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/v.md): Roverton, Adams, and Deming, exhausted from swimming across a desolate lake, are captured by a giant bird-like creature and carried in its pouch. After a long flight, the bird is attacked and killed by a massive vegetabl
- [Into the Pouch](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/into-the-pouch.md): Three men—Adams, Deming, and Roverton—swim across a desolate lake beneath high cliffs, only to be captured by a giant bird-like creature with a massive pouch. They are carried in the pouch for a long, disorienting flight
- [A New Horror](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/a-new-horror.md): Roverton, Adams, and Deming find themselves in a nightmarish jungle on an alien world, surrounded by carnivorous plant-monsters. Adams is devoured by a kraken-like plant but is later ejected, as human flesh proves indige
- [VI: The Great Plain](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/vi-the-great-plain.md): Roverton and Deming recover from their violent expulsion from the carnivorous jungle and traverse a vast, eerie plain of resilient clay. They discover a table-like elevation with dead plant-monsters and alien ruins, incl
- [Volmar Again!](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/vii-volmar-again.md): Roverton and Deming, marooned on a hostile alien world, are attacked by a swarm of giant insects. After fighting them off with fire, Captain Volmar unexpectedly arrives in the space-flier, apologizes for his earlier hars
- [The Uncharted Isle](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/the-uncharted-isle.md): A mariner discovers an uncharted island that defies geography and time, inhabited by a perplexed people obsessed with celestial calculations. He witnesses a horrific ritual sacrifice to a monstrous idol, flees in terror,
- [Endnotes](https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters/endnotes.md): This chapter contains endnotes that clarify the term 'Andromeda' as a section of the heavens and define a marine animal that gives off phosphorescence.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/short_fiction_9_se/chapters