Since earliest childhood I have been strangely fascinated by the mystery surrounding the  history of the last days of twentieth century Europe. My interest is keenest, perhaps, not so  much in relation to known facts as to speculation upon the unknowable of the two centuries  that have rolled by since human intercourse between the Western and Eastern Hemispheres  ceased--the mystery of Europe’s state following the termination of the Great War--provided,  of course, that the war had been terminated.