The Master of the World

I.
WHAT HAPPENED IN THE MOUNTAINS

If I speak of myself in this story, it is because I have been deeply involvedin its startling events, events doubtless among the most extraordinary whichthis twentieth century will witness. Sometimes I even ask myself if all thishas really happened, if its pictures dwell in truth in my memory, and notmerely in my imagination. In my position as head inspector in the federalpolice department at Washington, urged on moreover by the desire, which hasalways been very strong in me, to investigate and understand everything whichis mysterious, I naturally became much interested in these remarkableoccurrences. And as I have been employed by the government in various importantaffairs and secret missions since I was a mere lad, it also happened verynaturally that the head of my department placed in my charge this astonishinginvestigation, wherein I found myself wrestling with so many impenetrablemysteries.

In the remarkable passages of the recital, it is important that you shouldbelieve my word. For some of the facts I can bring no other testimony than myown. If you do not wish to believe me, so be it. I can scarce believe it allmyself.

The strange occurrences began in the western part of our great American Stateof North Carolina. There, deep amid the Blueridge Mountains rises the crestcalled the Great Eyrie. Its huge rounded form is distinctly seen from thelittle town of Morganton on the Catawba River, and still more clearly as oneapproaches the mountains by way of the village of Pleasant Garden.

Why the name of Great Eyrie was originally given this mountain by the people ofthe surrounding region, I am not quite sure. It rises rocky and grim andinaccessible, and under certain atmospheric conditions has a peculiarly blueand distant effect. But the idea one would naturally get from the name is of ar

BU KİTABI OKUMAK İÇİN ÜYE OLUN VEYA GİRİŞ YAPIN!

Sitemize Üyelik ÜCRETSİZDİR!