Fernan Caballero's "Juan Holgado y la muerte/Juan Holgado and Death, " Antonio de Trueba's "Tragaldabas/Glutton, " and Pedro Antonio de Alarcon's "El amigo de la muerte/Death's Friend" all have as their subject a desperate man who makes a pact with Death to achieve his ends. Written by three of the country's best-known short story writers, these three Death-and-the-Doctor tales fill a lacuna in the Godfather Death motif of Western European literature and highlight the universality of Spain's folk tradition. Each tale is printed in both English and Spanish.