Algernon Henry Blackwood, (1869 ù1951) was an English writer of supernatural fiction. Blackwood was also a journalist and a broadcasting narrator. Blackwood had a varied career, farming in Canada, operating a hotel, a newspaper reporter in New York, and essayist for various periodicals. His works included ten collections of short stories, fourteen novels, childrenZs stories, and several plays. Many of his stories reflect his love of nature and the outdoors. His two best-known stories were "The Willows" and "The Wendigo". In The Centaur a traveler encounters a handsome man and his son who will be sharing his cabin aboard ship. A trick of the light seems to at times blend the two into one or shows a third presence near them. Is the traveler going mad? Is it the light? Or is it something else?