Story of the Phantom Read Online Free PDF

This was where he had dropped the shining cup. Now he learned that it was a drinking cup made from a single diamond. It had been made for an emperor named Alexander whom some people called "the Great," his father told him. "Was he great?" Kit asked. "He conquered most of the world," father replied. "Most of the world! He was great!"
    exclaimed Kit. "That all depends on who is writing the story," father said. "He invaded other countries, like Persia, burned down their cities, killed their kings and warriors, made slaves of their women and children, and stole all their treasures. Does that sound great?" Kit shook his head. "Not to the Persians," he said. "Exactly, it depends on who is writing the story," agreed his father.
    "Now take this whip," he continued. It was an old leather whip with small metal stars on the ends of the thongs. "This belonged to a man called Attila the Hun. He lived long ago, and his name has come down to us as a bad, evil man, a barbarian, a destroyer. Do you know what Attila did? He invaded other countries, burned down their cities, killed their kings and warriors, made slaves of their women and children, and stole all their treasure. Who does he sound like?" "Like Alexander the Great!"
    shouted Kit.

    "Darius, the Persian, whom he conquered was no different," continued his father warming to the subject. "Alexander the Great, Darius the Persian, Attila the Hun, Caesar of Rome, Hannibal of Carthage, Napoleon of France: all gang lords leading their hordes of mobsters to loot and kill." So ended the history lesson for that day. In later years, when Kit studied history at a school, he realized that his father had unusual opinions about history, and practically everything else. But then, he was an unusual man.

    There were other rare things in the major treasure room, which was actually a small museum. A dead viper floated inside an ancient green flask. "The asp that bit Cleopatra," his father said, and told him the story of Egypt's famed queen. Two great swords hung on the wall encased in glass. He took them out carefully and let the boy feel them. They were too heavy for him to hold. "This one is Excalibur, the sword of King Arthur. And this, Durandal, the sword of Roland. In their day, they were thought to be magic swords, and perhaps they were." He told Kit the stirring tales of the heroes, England's 12

    Arthur and France's Roland. Near Durandal hung an ivory horn, also the horn of Roland, on which he blew his dying breath.

    There were other things: a golden laurel wreath that had rested on Caesar's head; a curly black lady's wig that had been worn by an actor playing the girl's role, Juliet, in the first production of the play Romeo and Juliet. He was to hear more of that wig another time. Inside another glass case was a musical instrument made of bone, the lyre of an ancient blind poet named Homer. And much more.
    "Does this all belong to us?" Kit asked in wonderment. His father shook his head. "These things have come to us through the centuries by various hands, for safekeeping. Because of wars, fires, floods, volcanic eruptions, thieves and vandals, many such treasures of old have been lost forever. We are the guardians of these things for all people."

    In another chamber, hanging behind sliding doors, were row upon row of clothes such as his father wore. "These were worn by my father; these by his father; these by his father, and so on and so forth." It did not seem strange to Kit that all these men of the olden times had worn skintight suits and hoods and masks like his father wore. Except for the pygmies, who wore loincloths as he did, Kit had never seen another man except his father, so he assumed that this was how all other men dressed.
    In another chamber, there were shelves with big heavy books on them. His father often spent time writing in one of these books when he returned from one of his mysterious missions. These books, his father explained, were the chronicles of the Phantom and