The Master of the World | Page 8

shall leave Washington; and the day after, I shall be at Morganton."
How little suspicion had I of what the future had in store for me!
I returned immediately to my house where I made my preparations for departure; and the
next evening found me in Raleigh. There I passed the night, and in the course of the next
afternoon arrived at the railroad station of Morganton.
Morganton is but a small town, built upon strata of the jurassic period, particularly rich in
coal. Its mines give it some prosperity. It also has numerous unpleasant mineral waters,
so that the season there attracts many visitors. Around Morganton is a rich farming
country, with broad fields of grain. It lies in the midst of swamps, covered with mosses
and reeds. Evergreen forests rise high up the mountain slopes. All that the region lacks is
the wells of natural gas, that invaluable natural source of power, light, and warmth, so
abundant in most of the Alleghany valleys. Villages and farms are numerous up to the
very borders of the mountain forests. Thus there were many thousands of people
threatened, if the Great Eyrie proved indeed a volcano, if the convulsions of nature
extended to Pleasant Garden and to Morganton.
The mayor of Morganton, Mr. Elias Smith, was a tall man, vigorous and enterprising,
forty years old or more, and of a health to defy all the doctors of the two Americas. He
was a great hunter of bears and panthers, beasts which may still be found in the wild
gorges and mighty forests of the Alleghanies.
Mr. Smith was himself a rich land-owner, possessing several farms in the neighborhood.
Even his most distant tenants received frequent visits from him. Indeed, whenever his
official duties did not keep him in his so-called home at Morganton, he was exploring the
surrounding country, irresistibly drawn by the instincts of the hunter.
I went at once to the house of Mr. Smith. He was expecting me, having been warned by
telegram. He received me very frankly, without any formality, his pipe in his mouth, a

glass of brandy on the table. A second glass was brought in by a servant, and I had to
drink to my host before beginning our interview.
"Mr. Ward sent you," said he to me in a jovial tone. "Good; let us drink to Mr. Ward's
health."
I clinked glasses with him, and drank in honor of the chief of police.
"And now," demanded Elias Smith, "what is worrying him?"
At this I made known to the mayor of Morganton the cause and the purpose of my
mission in North Carolina. I assured him that my chief had given me full power, and
would render me every assistance, financial and otherwise, to solve the riddle and relieve
the neighborhood of its anxiety relative to the Great Eyrie.
Elias Smith listened to me without uttering a word, but not without several times refilling
his glass and mine. While he puffed steadily at his pipe, the close attention which he gave
me was beyond question. I saw his cheeks flush at times, and his eyes gleam under their
bushy brows. Evidently the chief magistrate of Morganton was uneasy about Great Eyrie,
and would be as eager as I to discover the cause of these phenomena.
When I had finished my communication, Elias Smith gazed at me for some moments in
silence. Then he said, softly, "So at Washington they wish to know what the Great Eyrie
hides within its circuit?"
"Yes, Mr. Smith."
"And you, also?"
"I do."
"So do I, Mr. Strock."
He and I were as one in our curiosity.
"You will understand," added he, knocking the cinders from his pipe, "that as a
land-owner, I am much interested in these stories of the Great Eyrie, and as mayor, I wish
to protect my constituents."
"A double reason," I commented, "to stimulate you to discover the cause of these
extraordinary occurrences! Without doubt, my dear Mr. Smith, they have appeared to you
as inexplicable and as threatening as to your people."
"Inexplicable, certainly, Mr. Strock. For on my part, I do not believe it possible that the
Great Eyrie can be a volcano; the Alleghanies are nowhere of volcanic origins. I, myself,
in our immediate district, have never found any geological traces of scoria, or lava, or any
eruptive rock whatever. I do not think, therefore, that Morganton can possibly be
threatened from such a source."

"You really think not, Mr. Smith?"
"Certainly."
"But these tremblings of the earth that have been felt in the neighborhood!"
"Yes these tremblings! These tremblings!" repeated Mr. Smith, shaking his head;" but in
the first place, is it certain that there have been tremblings? At the moment when the
flames showed most sharply, I was on my