A gale howls in from the sea as a traveller takes shelter with a smallholder on the Cornish coast. Above the hearth hang two relics: an old cavalry trumpet and a weathered drum, bound together with a brass-lettered lock. No one knows the word that opens it. As the fire burns low, the smallholder begins to tell a tale—half history, half haunting—of shipwrecks, silence, and the names that must still be answered.

The Roll-Call of the Reef was first published in 1911 in Noughts and Crosses, a collection of stories by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. It remains one of his most enduring supernatural tales and has been reprinted in The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories.

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (1863–1944), who published as “Q”, was a Cornish writer, critic, and anthologist. He is best known for his editorship of The Oxford Book of English Verse and his lifelong dedication to the literary life of Cornwall.

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