I had this story from one who had no business to tell it to me, or to anyother. I may credit the seductive influence of an old vintage upon the narratorfor the beginning of it, and my own skeptical incredulity during the days thatfollowed for the balance of the strange tale.
When my convivial host discovered that he had told me so much, and that I wasprone to doubtfulness, his foolish pride assumed the task the old vintage hadcommenced, and so he unearthed written evidence in the form of mustymanuscript, and dry official records of the British Colonial Office to supportmany of the salient features of his remarkable narrative.
I do not say the story is true, for I did not witness the happenings which itportrays, but the fact that in the telling of it to you I have taken fictitiousnames for the principal charac