approved by every other gentleman who, like Mr. Eames junior, happened
to hold analogous views.

Gentlemen being rather scarce nowadays, we cannot but feel grateful to
the Crotalophoboi for devouring Saint Dodekanus and paving the way, VIA
the ANTIQUITIES of Monsignor Perrelli, for the refined personality of
Mr. Eames--even if such was not their original intention.






CHAPTER IV





Next morning, at precisely 4 a.m., there was an earthquake.

Foreigners unaccustomed to Nepenthean conditions rushed in their
pyjamas out of doors, to escape the falling wreckage. An American lady,
staying at Mr. Muhlen's high-class hotel, jumped from her bed-room on
the third floor into the courtyard below, and narrowly escaped bruising
her ankle.

It was a false alarm. The sudden clanging of every bell on the place,
the explosion of twelve hundred mortars and the simultaneous booming of
an enormous cannon--that far-famed gun whose wayward tricks had cost the