



Produced by Barry Abrahamsen and the Online Distributed
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                         THE MOUNTAIN OF FEARS




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                          BY HENRY C. ROWLAND

                             --------------

                              To Windward

                             THIRD EDITION

“Crisp and strong, full of breeziness and virile humanity.”—Brooklyn
Eagle.

“A capital story told with a spirit and go that are irresistible. A
strong and dramatic novel. Shows literary genius.”—Newark Advertiser.

                             --------------

                             The Wanderers

                             THIRD EDITION

“A little breathless toward the end, the reader enjoys every moment
spent with Brian Kinard, the roving son of an Irish earl.”—Chicago
Record-Herald.

“Full of complications and surprises which hold the reader’s attention
to the end. An unusually good story of actual life at sea.”—Boston
Transcript.

                             --------------

                  Each with frontispiece in colors, by
                           Ch. Weber-Ditzler.

                           12mo. Cloth. $1.50

                             --------------

                         A. S. BARNES & COMPANY




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  [Illustration: “I see that you go in for heads a bit yourself,” said
Lynch.––Page 99]


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                              The Mountain
                                of Fears

                                   By

                            Henry C. Rowland

                Author of “The Wanderers”, “To Windward”
                           and “Sea Scamps”.

                              Illustrated

                    [Illustration: Publisher’s Logo]




                                New York

                           A. S. Barnes & Co.

                                  1905




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                          COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY
                           A. S. BARNES & CO.

                        Published October, 1905




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                                   TO
                             DOCTOR LEYDEN

                   WHOSE ILLUMINATING PERSONALITY
                   AND STRANGE EXPERIENCES I HAVE
                   VENTURED TO INTERPRET IN THE
                   HOPE THAT WHEN HE RETURNS FROM
                   HIS QUEST IN THE “FORBIDDEN LAND”
                   HE WILL PARDON MY PRESUMPTION.




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                                CONTENTS

                                -------


                     THE MOUNTAIN OF FEARS        1
                     OIL AND WATER               46
                     THE SHEARS OF ATROPOS       80
                     ROSENTHAL THE JEW          118
                     TWO SAVAGES                158
                     TWO GENTLEMEN              199
                     THE BAMBOULA               245
                     INTO THE DARK              270




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                         THE MOUNTAIN OF FEARS




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                         THE MOUNTAIN OF FEARS


“DOCTOR,” said my shipmate, Dr. Leyden, “have you ever made any especial
study of nervous diseases—_central_ nervous diseases—morbid conditions
resulting from a derangement of the central cells?”

I told him that I had done only such work in this branch as a general
practice would require, but that I had observed some few cases of
especial interest during a military surgical service in the East, and
proceeded to cite one or two instances of mental vagaries resulting from
gunshot wounds in the head.

Leyden leaned both elbows on the taffrail and listened restlessly. Our
little ship swashed through the short sling of the Spanish Main, the
Pole star gleaming ahead, the Southern Cross blazing astern, and all
about the white, flashing crests of the phosphorescent sea. Usually
Leyden was a good listener, but this night he seemed impatient, restive,
to such an extent that I finally paused, annoyed, for nothing is so
irritating as lack of attention to a solicited reply.

“Ach! but those cases are in the line of the ordinary!” he exclaimed.

“Pardon me,” I replied, “but the last case I have given was distinctly
_out_ of the ordinary.”

“I am awkward, Doctor,” said Leyden, apologetically. “I mean that the
relations of cause and effect follow the usual course—the histological
changes in the cell produced impaired function of the organ and these
primary changes were the result of trauma. But have you ever had
occasion to observe the reverse of this condition—the action of the
organ on the center—like a nightmare, where one has the liver poisoning
the central cells——”

I interrupted in my turn. Leyden was no doubt a skilled naturalist, a
close observer and a man of deep power of thought and analysis, but he
was not a physician, had never made a regular study of physiological
chemistry, and was, therefore, scarcely in a position to argue with a
person who had.

“Such cases are not infrequent,” I answered. “The ancient Greeks
understood that much, as we see from their terms. ‘Hypochondria’; under
the ribs—the liver probably poisoning the brain, if you like; then there
is the condition of hysteria often accompanying a movable kidney; the
action of certain drugs