Memorabilia 



have occasionally thought he " drew 

 the long bow " in these stories, which 

 they also said were too good to be 

 true. King, however, rarely dis- 

 counted the drafts he drew on the 

 credulity of his audience, just because 

 of their unbelief, although, in one in- 

 stance, when I had intimated that his 

 story of the slopes of Mount Tyndall 

 might well seem pretty steep to an 

 unimaginative reader, he offered to 

 throw off five degrees for my flat ac- 

 ceptance, or, otherwise, to conduct 

 me personally to the not easily ac- 

 cessible scene of his extraordinary 

 adventure. 



With his keen and far-reaching per- 

 ceptive faculties and vivid imagina- 

 tion, King sometimes perceived things 

 which others might see without per- 

 ceiving or hear without understand- 

 ing ; and many things, the truth of 

 which has been questioned by the 

 skeptical, were nevertheless true to 

 410 



