As always, the master of suspense can be counted on to provide delight, chills and spine-tingling terror, as he does in this latest of the biennial Hitch- cock anthologies. Here is what he has to say about the book:

"I trust that you have been profitably occupied since our last meeting. My unemployed Uncle Albert often told me that idle hands lead one to mischief. So I myself have been busy in the interim preparing this new collection for your reading pleasure.

"As you well know, I am in the busi- ness of entertainment, and in all the long years of relentlessly searching for likely material, one's appetite is apt to become jaded. So the discovery of original stories, stories that can excite or delight, that will chill or perhaps even kill, provides a rare gratification. "Now the word 'kill' may of course be somewhat of an exaggeration. The printed page is not generally fatal. On the other hand, no foundation or trust that I know of has ever financed any re- search into this area. It is not beyond the realm of possibility. It is a biologi- cal fact that excitement makes the heart beat faster. And an accelerated heartbeat could conceivably pump an existing embolism into some critical artery. This has been known to stop the works completely.

"Caution, then, is the watchword. If you are a candidate for so gruesome a fate, you should not be here in the first place. You should donate this book at once to some worthy charity. I suggest instead that you read Ferdinand the Bull or Little Women.

"A final word.

"Unlike television, the editing of this volume requires no sponsors. As a con- sequence, we do not have to waste time listening to peddlers hawking de- odorants or denture fixatives that per- mit octogenarians to chew salt-water taffy. We can get right down to the busi- ness at hand.

"So, if you please, make sure the door is locked, then double-lock it, turn the page and start to read."