Jacobs is known especially for his sea stories. His familiarity with the wharves and the people who frequented them gave him material for these stories. He is also known for some of his short ghost tales and stories of mystery and the macabre, such as the Monkey's Paw. Salthaven begins: Mr. John Vyner, ship-owner, pushed his chair back from his writing-table and gazed with kindly condescension at the chief clerk as he stood before it with a handful of papers. We shall be able to relieve you of some of your work soon, Hartley, he said, slowly. Mr. Robert will come into the firm next week. The chief clerk bowed. Three years at Cambridge, resumed Mr. Vyner, meditatively, and two years spent up and down the world studying the business methods of other nations ought to render him invaluable to us.