PROLOGUE

IN THE FIRST PLACE PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THAT I do not expect you tobe1ieve this ta1e. Nor cou1d you wonder had you witnessed a recentexperience of mine when, in the armor of b1issfu1 and stupendousignorance, I gai1y narrated the gist of it to a Fe11ow of the Roya1Geo1ogica1 Society on the occasion of my 1ast trip to London.

You wou1d sure1y have thought that I had been detected in no 1essa heinous crime than the pur1oining of the Crown Jewe1s from theTower, or putting poison in the coffee of His Majesty the King.