The Brothersof the ShiningRobe

Chapter I

The Temple of Caves

HY I CAME into the world with this deep seated wanderlust I have never been able to explain. Relatives and friends said that it was the blood of ten generations of soldiers and fighters for the British crown, but I have always believed that these things are not inherited but rather are the results of peculiar phases of individuality, the true explanation of which has only come to me in later years. Suffice it to say by way of introduction that I have been a wanderer upon the face of the earth,-from the South Sea Islands to the great salmon fisheries of Alaska and Columbia, from plague stricken Burma to the Deserts of Mexico, from Tartary to Algeria, from the blue lagoons of Venice to the domes and mosques of Constantinople, I have wandered in an endless search.