BY CLARK ASHTON SMITH. Having presented William Beckford's Gothic/Oriental novel VATHEK in its entirety (see our last several programs), we begin Clark Ashton Smith's "The Third Episode of Vathek." Possibly we could have ended it, too, but an unexpected visit from KrOB delayed that pleasure to our own next episode. Lurking in the future beyond that will be our presentation of one of Smith's most horror-filled stories-- in the critical estimation of some, his most horrible. Indeed, in the critical estimation of some, it is the most horrible story EVER. Well, one can only go by what one has encountered; literature is a terra incognita potentially concealing even greater frissons of this type. And even within what we have read-- well, what about H.G. Wells's "The Cone," for example? --there are other contenders. Montague Rhodes James's "The Ash Tree" comes to mind...