The Willows by Algernon Blackwood

The Willows is a novella by English author Algernon Blackwood, originally published as part of his 1907 collection The Listener and Other Stories. Two friends are taking a break from a canoe trip down the snaking, sinuous Danube River when they discover the corpse of a peasant in the woods. When they return to their canoe the oars are missing. As night sets in, a general creeping sense of unease permeates the wild and rural setting...It is one of Blackwood's best known works and has been influential on a number of later writers. Horror author H.P. Lovecraft considered it to be the finest supernatural tale in English literature. ""The Willows"" is an example of early modern horror and is connected within the literary tradition of weird fiction.