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Page 98
"Although my father was no traveller, I think I was born with the
wanderlust. I started to explore the world in my Harvard
vacations, and when college days were over I set about the
business whole-heartedly. Where I went and what I did, up to the
time that my travels led me to India, is of no interest to you or
to anybody else, because in India I found heaven and hell--a
discovery enough to satisfy the most adventurous man alive.
"At this present time, gentlemen, I am not going to load you with
geographical details. The exact spot at which my life ended, in a
sense which I presently hope to make clear, can be located at
leisure by the proper authorities, to whom I will supply a
detailed map which I have in my possession. I am even prepared to
guide the expedition, if the Indian Government considers an
expedition necessary and cares to accept my services. It's good
enough for you to know that pig-sticking and tiger-hunting having
begun to pall upon me somewhat, I broke away from Anglo-Indian
hospitality, and headed up country, where the Himalayas beckoned.
I had figured on crossing at a point where no man has crossed
yet, but that project was interrupted, and I'm here to tell you
why.
"Up there in the northwest provinces they told me I was crazy
when I outlined, one night in a mess, of which I was a guest at
the time, my scheme for heading northeast toward a tributary of
the Ganges which would bring me to the neighbourhood of
Khatmandu, right under the shadow of Everest.
"'Once you leave Khatmandu,' said the mess president, 'you are
outside the pale as far as British influence is concerned. I
suppose you understand that?'
"I told him I quite understood it.
"'You can't reach Tibet that way,' he said.
"'Never mind, sir,' I answered. 'I can try, if I feel like it.'
"Three days later I set out. I am not superstitious, and if I
take a long time to make a plan, once I've made it I generally
stick to it. But right at the very beginning of my expedition I
had a warning, if ever a man had one. The country through which
my route lay is of very curious formation. If you can imagine a
section of your own west country viewed through a giant
magnifying glass, you have some sort of picture of the territory
in which I found myself.
"Gigantic rocks stand up like monstrous tors, or towers,
sometimes offering sheer precipices of many hundreds of feet in
height. On those sides of these giant tors, however, which are
less precipitous, miniature forests are sometimes found, and
absolutely impassable jungles.
"Bordering an independent state, this territory is not at all
well known, but I had secured as a guide a man named Vadi--or
that was the name he gave me whom I knew to be a high-caste
Brahmin of good family. He had been with me for some time, and I
thought I could trust him. Therefore, once clear of British
territory, I took him into my confidence respecting the real
object of my journey.
"This was not primarily to scale a peak of the Himalayas, nor
even to visit Khatmandu, but to endeavour to obtain a glimpse of
the Temple of Fire!
"That has excited your curiosity, gentlemen. I don't suppose any
one here has ever heard of the Temple of Fire.
"By some it is regarded as a sort of native legend but it is more
than a legend. It is a fact. For seven years I have known it to
be a fact, but my tongue has been tied. Listen. Even down in
Bombay, the coming of the next great Master is awaited by certain
of the natives; and for more than ten years now it has been
whispered from end to end of India that he was about to proclaim
himself, that disciples moved secretly among the people of every
province, and that the unknown teacher in person awaited his hour
in a secret temple up near the Tibetan frontier.
"A golden key opens many doors, gentlemen, and at the time of
which I am speaking I had obtained more information respecting
this secret religion or cult than any other member of the white
races had ever collected, or so I thought at the time. I had
definite evidence to show that the existence of this man, or
demi-god--for by some he was said to possess superhuman
powers--was no myth, but an actual fact.
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