Against Odds

MP3 Audio CD. Against Odds

CHAPTER I.

'CHICARGO GITS MY MONEY.'


'Eureka!'

It was I, Carl Masters, of the secret service, so called, who uttered
this exclamation, although not a person of the exclamatory school; and
small wonder, for I was standing beneath the dome of the
Administration Building, and I had but that hour arrived at the
World's Fair.

I was not there as a sight-seer, not on pleasure bent, and even those
first moments of arrival, I knew well, were not to be wasted.

I had come hither straight from the Terminal Station, seeking this
stately keystone to the great Fair, not to steep my senses and fill my
eyes with beauty in myriad forms, but to seek out the great man whose
masterful hand was to create for me the passport which was to be my
'open sesame' to all within this fair White City's walls; but when I
stood beneath that lofty double dome and looked about me, I forgot all
but the beauty all around, and gazed upon the noble rotunda through
the western entrance, where 'Earth,' majestic but untamed, a
masterpiece of giant statuary, guards one massive pillar; and the same
'Earth,' yet not the same, conquered yet conquering, adds her beauty
to the strength of the column opposite--to the east, where Neptune
sports, classic as of old, around about the octagonal interior with
its splendid arches, its frescoes and gilding, its medallions and
plates of bronze, wherein gleamed, golden and fair, the names of the
world's greatest countries at its gilded panels, supported by winged
figures, and bearing engraven upon each shining surface the record of
some great event. Its medallions and graceful groups, allegorical or
symbolic, all mounting high, and higher, until illuminated by the
opal-like circle of light at the summit, Dodge's great picture crowns