Author of "The Air Pirate"
NEW YORK
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1922, BY
HARCOURT, BRACE AND COMPANY, INC.
PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. BY
THE QUINN & BODEN COMPANY
RAHWAY. N. J.
TO
SIR GRIFFITH BOYNTON, Bt.My Dear Boynton,
We have had some strange adventures together, though not as strange and exciting as the ones treated of in this story. At any rate, accept it as a souvenir of those gay days before the War, which now seem an age away. Recall a Christmas dinner in the Villa Sanglier by the Belgian Sea, a certain moonlit midnight in the Grand' Place of an ancient, famous city, and above all, the stir and ardors of the Masked Ball at Vieux Bruges.—Haec olim meminisse juvabit!
Yours,
C. R. G.
NOTE
By Sir Thomas Kirby, Bt.
The details of this prologue to the astounding occurrences which it is my privilege to chronicle, were supplied to me when my work was just completed.
It forms the starting point of the story, which travels straight onwards.