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.