It's very evident that this short story was written years and years before Dracula. The premise is promising: a sinister group of very old, creepy, and practically corpse-like soldiers are out to get the handsome, young hero. However, Stoker did not do much to develop upon the plot line. Why are these people out to get the protagonist? Why did their leader, a morbid old woman, tell him stories about herself before "unleashing" her henchmen upon him? Why did she keep looking at a ring he wore? After a chase seen that extends for pages of pages, the abrupt ending of this story leaves such questions unanswered. It is definitely good for Stoker that he was able to extend upon his plot lines by the time he got to writing masterpieces such as Dracula and Jewel of the Seven Stars. Good thing he "dug himself out" in the early years of his career.