I first came across this story in The Best Horror Stories from the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. I was mesmerized. I think it was before I found online cataloging, so pre-2012. It is the second story I had read and loved by MWW and it made me seek out the book of Silver John stories: WHO FEARS THE DEVIL. It ended being the only story I really liked in it.

John gets invited to a party in the woods because the other musicians backed out due to them being scared of the event. We really get a feel for the party and the reason for it. A woman is cursed and a ghost train is due to collect her at midnight for her bad deeds. While learning and playing the song that tells the story of the curse, John has a hand in effecting the outcome.

I heard a voice of warning,
A message from on high,
'Go put your home in order,
For thou shalt surely die.
Tell all your friends a long farewell
And get your business right -
The little black train is rolling in
To call for you tonight.

A bold young man kept mocking,
Cared not for the warning word,
When the wild and lonesome whistle
Of the little black train he heard.

'Have mercy, Lord forgive me,
I'm cut down in my sin!
O death, will you not spare me?-
But the little black train rolled in.

Go tell that laughing lady
All filled with wordly pride,
The little black train is coming,
Great ready to take a ride.
With a little black coach and engine
And a little black baggage car,
The words and deeds she has said and done
Must roll to the judgement bar.

Oh, see her standing helpless,
Oh, hear her crying tears.
She's counting her last moments
As once she counted years.
She'll turn from proud and wicked ways,
She'll turn from sin, O Lord,
If the little black train will just back up
And not take her aboard.

{short story} ( )