King of the Mountains

While the German botanist, Hermann Schultz, was lodging with a Greek family in Athens, he learned of a notorious Greek bandit so powerful that the government could not destroy his band and so cruel that he had decapitated two young girls he had been holding for ransom. Hadgi-Stavros, the King of the Mountains, was greatly feared, but he was also greatly admired by many of his countrymen. John Harris, an American who was Hermann’s fellow lodger, snorted in disgust as the landlord recited with admiration all the exploits of the bandit. Harris was so indignant he was unaware that when he spoke Photini, a young Greek girl who came to the house in order to learn foreign languages from the lodgers, looked at him with love in her eyes.