THE CITY IN THE CLOUDS
BY C. RANGER GULL
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 andexciting as the ones treated of in this story. At any rate, accept it asa 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, acertain moonlit midnight in the Grand' Place of an ancient, famous city,and above all, the stir and ardors of the Masked Ball at VieuxBruges.—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 ismy privilege to chronicle, were supplied to me when my work was justcompleted.
It forms the starting point of the story, which travels straightonwards.
CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
ENVOI
THE CITY IN THE CLOUDS
PROLOGUE
Under a gay awning of red and white which covered a portion of thefamous roof-garden of the Palacete Mendoza at Rio, reclined GideonMendoza Morse, the richest man in Brazil, and—it was said—the thirdrichest man in the world.
He lay in a silken hammock, smoking those little Brazilian cigaretteswhich are made of fragrant black tobacco and wrapped in maize leaf.
It was afternoon, the hour of the siesta. From where he lay themillionaire could look down upon his marvelous gardens, which surroundedthe white palace he had built for himself, peerless in the whole ofSouth America.
The trunks of great trees were draped with lianas bearingbri