an instant later, forcing a bright smile as he glanced from face
to face. "And why not? How better could my last years be
employed than in piercing the clouds of mystery, and doubt, and
superstition, with which this vast tract has been enveloped for
uncounted ages?"

"Is it really so unknown, then, uncle Phaeton?" hesitatingly
asked Bruno, touched, in spite of himself, by that intensely
earnest tone and expression. "Of course, I know what the Indians
say; they are full of a rude sort of superstitious awe, which--"

"Which is one of the surest proofs that truth forms a foundation
for that very superstition," quickly interjected the professor.
"It is an undisputed fact that there are hundreds upon hundreds
of square miles of terra incognita, lying in this corner of
Washington Territory. No white man ever fairly penetrated these
wilds, even so far as we may have been carried while riding the
tornado. Or, if so, he assuredly has never returned, or made
known his discoveries."

"Provided there was anything beyond the ordinary to see or
experience, shouldn't we add, uncle?" suggested Waldo, modestly.

"There is,--there must be! No matter how wildly improbable their
traditions may seem in our judgment, it only takes calm
investigation to bring a fair foundation to light. In regard to
this vast scope of country, go where you will among the natives,
question whom you see fit, as to its secrets, and you will meet
with the same results: a deep-seated awe, a belief which cannot
be shaken, that here strange monsters breed and flourish, matched