oward Pleasant Garden, a
few cinders and ashes drifted down from it. And finally one stormy
night pale flames, reflected from the clouds above the summit, cast
upon the district below a sinister, warning light.

In presence of these strange phenomena, it is not astonishing that
the people of the surrounding district became seriously disquieted.
And to the disquiet was joined an imperious need of knowing the true
condition of the mountain. The Carolina newspapers had flaring
headlines, "The Mystery of Great Eyrie!" They asked if it was not
dangerous to dwell in such a region. Their articles aroused curiosity
and fear--curiosity among those who being in no danger themselves
were interested in the disturbance merely as a strange phenomenon of
nature, fear in those who were likely to be the victims if a
catastrophe actually occurred. Those more immediately threatened were
the citizens of Morganton, and even more the good folk of Pleasant
Garden and the hamlets and farms yet closer to the mountain.

Assuredly it was regrettable that mountain climbers had not
previously attempted to ascend to the summit of the Great Eyrie. The
cliffs of rock which surrounded it had never been scaled. Perhaps
they might offer no path by which even the most daring climber could
penetrate to the interior. Yet, if a volcanic eruption menaced all
the western region of the Carolinas, then a complete examination of
the mountain was become absolutely necessary.

Now before the actual ascent of the crater, with its many serious
difficulties, was attempted, there was one way which offered an
opportunity of reconnoitering the interior, with out clambering up
the precipices. In the first days of September of that memorable
year, a well-known aeronaut named Wilker came to Morganton with his
balloon. By waiting for a breeze from the east, he could easily rise
in his balloon and drift over the Great Eyrie. There from a safe
height above he could search with a powerful glass into its deeps.
Thus he would know if the mouth of a volcano really opened amid the
mighty rocks. This was the principal question. If this were settled,
it would be known if the surrounding country must fear an eruption at
some period more or less distant.

The ascension was begun according to the programme suggested. The
wind was fair and steady; the sky clear; the morning clouds were
disappearing under the vigorous rays of the sun. If the interior of
the Great Eyrie was not filled