Chapter 6 Chapter 6 The First Letter

After saying good-bye to Mr. Ward, I returned to my house on Long Street.I had plenty of time, neither to be disturbed by my wife nor my children, to devote myself to this marvel. I had only one old servant in my house, who had been with my mother for some years. Two months ago, I was granted a vacation.Barring unforeseen events, barring any obligatory business, I shall have two more weeks' rest, interrupted, as I have told you, by a four-day expedition to the Kyoho of Airi. But now, is it necessary for me to suspend my vacation again to try my best to unravel the mystery of the strange sequence of events in Milwaukee and along the New England waters?I am willing to do anything to reveal the reasons for these two mysterious events.But how is it possible to find clues about that strange car or that strange ship?

After lunch, sitting in an easy chair, lighting my pipe, I open the paper, what am I supposed to read, I'm interested in politics, especially the never-ending rivalry between Democrats and Republicans, but definitely can't be said to have any interest in me. Attraction, I don't like watching social news, nor do I care about sports news.As you will probably expect, my first thought when I opened the paper was to see if there was any news about Mount Airy in North Carolina, but that was extremely unlikely, since Mr. Smith promised to call me and tell me once But something happened, and I'm sure the Mayor of Morganton is as eager to know and pay attention to the news as I am. There is no new report on this in the newspaper. Put the newspaper down, and I can't help but fall into deep thought. .

The thought that came back and forth in my mind was Mr. Ward's: that maybe the strange car and the strange boat that people are interested in are actually the same thing, and it's very likely, at least, that both things were made by the same man.And, no doubt, both have the same engine, capable of producing incredible speeds twice as fast as hitherto traveled on land and sea. "Same inventor!" I repeated. Obviously, this hypothesis is well-founded.The fact that the two monsters did not appear at the same time provides a strong argument for this idea.I muttered to myself, "After the miracle at Mount Airy, and the miracles at Milwaukee and Boston after that, is this one as intractable as the other one?"

Suddenly, I noticed that this latest incident had something in common with another: Both endangered the safety of the general public.Indeed, the difference is that residents of the Blue Ridge region are at risk from possible volcanic eruptions and earthquakes from Mount Airy.And now, on the highways of the United States, along the coastlines or ports of the United States, every resident is terrified at any time by the sudden appearance and crazy speed of this strange car and strange boat. I found that, as might be expected, the newspapers not only hinted at, but emphasized the danger of these events.The timid man is now in a constant state of terror.My old servant, who had always been gullible and suspicious because of his credulity, was now even more restless.After dinner on the same day, she finished packing and stopped in front of me; with a water bottle in one hand and a napkin in the other, she asked anxiously, "Any news, sir?"

"No," I replied, knowing exactly what she wanted to care about. "The strange car didn't show up again?" "No." "That strange ship didn't show up either?" "Yes. Not a word of it in the most informed papers." "But—you police don't know anything?" "We also know nothing." "What is the use of the police, sir, I venture to ask?" This is exactly the problem that I have had to face up to more than once. "You see, maybe something will happen," continued the old butler, looking very disappointed. "One morning, out of nowhere, that horrible driver showed up, rushed into our street, and killed us all!"

"Exactly! When he appears, we shall have a chance of catching him." "Sir, you can't catch him." "Why is it impossible?" "He is the devil, you can't catch the devil!" I think the devil is useful in many ways, and if he doesn't exist, we should imagine him as the devil, so that people know how to explain the unknowable.It was he who ignited the fire at Mount Ellie, and it was he who broke the record in the Wisconsin auto race.It was he who galloped along the coasts of Connecticut and Massachusetts.Let us suppose, however, that it was necessary to convict skeptics to invent this monster, and there is no doubt that we still face a most puzzling problem.Are these two monsters gone forever?They flashed like meteors and streaked across the sky like a star.A hundred years from now, this extraordinary event will become a legend, and will be the subject of chatter for the next century.

For several days, newspapers in the United States and even Europe continued to discuss these events, and editorials continued.Rumors ensued.People who wrote novels flocked to the scene of the accident.The public in Europe and the United States are very interested in this.In some parts of Europe there is even such jealousy that the United States should have the honor of being the scene of such things; Other countries are unrivaled; America must have an unrivaled advantage. On the tenth of June, a New York newspaper published a carefully crafted article on the subject of the incident, comparing the fastest ship known to be the fastest with the fastest ship that might be used in a new type of ship. In comparison, the article claims that once the United States controls this secret, it will only take three days to sail from the United States to Europe, while it will take five full days to sail from Europe to the United States.

If our policemen, with their own wisdom, have uncovered the secrets of the Airi Kyoho through investigation, these emerging problems must now be the focus of attention of all national secret agents and intelligence agencies in the world. Every time I meet Mr. Ward he speaks to me on this subject.The conversation always began when he summoned me to talk about my empty-handed mission in North Carolina; but I always replied that he should not forget that the success of climbing Mount Airy depended only on money. "Never mind, Strucker, boy," he said, "there's bound to be a chance for our brilliant police officer to be crowned again. Don't let the freaking car and the freaking boat happen now. If you can get ahead of the rest of the world's detectives What a proud thing it will be for our police department to find out the truth! What an honor it will be for you!"

"Mr. Ward, it must be. If you put me in charge of this—" "Sterak, it's still hard to decide for a while, let's wait." This was the case for the time being, until the morning of June 15th, when my old servant brought me a registered letter from the courier, which had to be signed by me.I looked at the address and didn't know whose handwriting it was.It was postmarked two days ago by the Morganton post office. Morganton!Finally the wait came.No doubt Mr. Smith will tell me something. "Not bad!" I exclaimed, to my servant.She didn't answer. "Must be Mr. Smith's letter. I don't know anyone in Morganton, and if it's from him, there must be something important to tell!"

"Morganton?" said the old woman. "Is that the place where the devil set fire to the hill?" "It's absolutely true." "Well, sir, I hope you don't really want to go back there again?" "Why do you say that?" "Because you're going to be burned in the fire on Mount Airy. I don't want you to be burned alive like that, sir," "Be merry, and we'll see if there's any other good news." The envelope was stamped with red wax seal, and stamped with a kind of letter with three stars around it.The envelope paper is thick and of excellent texture.I tore open the envelope and took out the letter.There is only one piece of letter paper, which is folded into four, with words written on only one quarter of it.My eyes first swept to the signature.

Don't have any signatures?Only capital letters at the end of the last line! "It's not from the Mayor of Morganton," I said. "Who wrote it?" asked the old servant.She was born with the inquiring curiosity of women and old servants. Looking again at the three capital letters in the signature, I said, "I don't know who these letters refer to, neither from Morganton nor from anyone I know anywhere else." Both the pen and the angle of writing are very fluent, and there are twenty lines in total.Below is an exact copy of this letter that I have kept for some reason.To my surprise, the place where the letter was sent was the mysterious Mount Aili. Mount Airy, Blue Ridge Mountains North Carolina June 13th To Mr. Strucker Chief of Police 34 Long Street, Washington DC "gentlemen" Your Excellency was ordered to conduct an in-depth investigation of the giant peak of Airi. Your Excellency, accompanied by the Mayor of Morganton and two guides, Arrived on the twenty-eighth. You climbed to the bottom of the peak wall, circled the bottom of the mountain, and found that the mountain was too The height is too steep to climb. You searched for a mountain cleft, but found nothing. Be sure to understand: no one has entered the giant peak of Airi, if anyone enters, Never try to get out. Don't take any more chances because the second try won't fail like the first Ultimately, however, there will be far more serious consequences for you. Heed this warning, or catastrophe is upon us. M·O·W·