Three Ghost Stories opens with “The Signal-Man,” a narrative that turns an ordinary encounter beside a railway into an experience of growing unease. A visitor calls down from the top of a steep cutting to a worker standing outside his signal box. Instead of looking toward the voice, the signalman first turns and searches along the railway line, a response that immediately catches the narrator’s attention. Their meeting unfolds through hesitation, distance, and watchfulness. A passing train sends vibrations through the earth and air, interrupting the exchange with an overwhelming rush. When the visitor asks how to descend, the signalman eventually indicates a rough zigzag path. The slow journey downward gives the narrator time to consider the strange reluctance he has noticed in the man below. The setting supplies much of the opening’s tension. Wet stone walls shut out almost everything except a narrow strip of sky. A red signal light stands near the entrance to a black tunnel, while cold wind and an earthy smell make the place seem removed from the natural world. Against this oppressive background, the signalman waits with an intensity the visitor cannot explain. These opening pages invite readers into a mystery built from uncertain impressions: an unexpected glance, a delayed answer, and a solitary workplace whose familiar machinery acquires a disturbing atmosphere.