The stories in this book are centered on a dockside pub where the same people come to tell each other stories and let the night watchman cadge a pint from them. (Goodreads)

William Wymark Jacobs was an English author of short stories and novels. Quite popular in his lifetime primarily for his amusing maritime tales of life along the London docks (many of them humorous as well as sardonic in tone). Today he is best known for a few short works of horror fiction.