"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 farm of Wildon, less than a mile from the Great Eyrie. There
was certainly a tumult in the air, but I felt no quivering of the
earth."

"But in the reports sent to Mr. Ward --"

"Reports made under the impulse of the panic, "interrupted the mayor
of Morganton." I said nothing of any earth tremors in mine."

"But as to the flames which rose clearly above the crest?"

"Yes, as to those, Mr. Strock, that is different. I saw them; saw
them with my own eyes, and the clouds certainly reflected them for
miles around. Moreover noises certainly came from the crater of the
Great Eyrie, hissings, as if a great boiler were letting off steam."

"You have reliable testimony of this?"

"Yes, the evidence of my own ears."

"And in the midst of this noise, Mr. Smith, did you believe that you
heard that most remarkable of all the phenomena, a sound like the