The Well Book download in PDF, ePub & Mobi

The Well is a short story by W. W. Jacobs and first published in 1902.

It opens with two cousins whose easy banter curdles into blackmail over incriminating letters. Pride and desperation spark a confrontation, followed by a sudden disappearance. At the edge of the estate lies a disused well shrouded in shadow, a place the family treats lightly—until it becomes the grim center of events.

As rumors stir and nerves fray, an innocent visit to the spot hints at a cry from below, a lost trinket, and the need to recover what has fallen. Plans are laid at dawn with rope and candle, and the descent turns the well into a pit of guilt, fear, and buried truth. What is drawn up from the depths forces everyone to reckon with the cost of secrecy.

Jacobs builds psychological suspense that feels like a ghost story, then seals it with a chilling final image. The tale’s power lies in how a hidden act refuses to stay hidden.

"Two men stood in the billiard-room of an old country house, talking. Play, which had been of a half-hearted nature, was over, and they sat at the open window, looking out over the park stretching away beneath them, conversing idly."