October 8, 1873.
On the distant western shore of the Atlantic Ocean, along the southwestern bank of Lake Michigan, one of the Great Lakes, it was now deep in the night, yet the entire city remained awake in a rare sight.
Under the watchful eyes of Odyssey, president of Hechingen Bank's Chicago branch, its staff, and the citizens of Chicago's entire Western District.
Chicago, nicknamed the "Windy City," had at this moment become a sea of fire everywhere except the Western District. The blaze lit the sky bright as day; whole buildings collapsed in the flames from time to time, tongues of fire shot straight into the heavens, and thick smoke billowed.
Countless Chicago citizens flooded into the Western District from other areas. Weeping, howling, and looting rang out without end.
Hechingen Bank's Chicago branch had no choice but to strengthen security. Armed guards patrolled all around the bank.
Standing on the bank's third floor and gazing toward the city center, Odyssey saw that it had already been utterly swallowed by the flames, including Chicago's commercial center, where banks and other financial institutions from across the United States gathered.
Seeing fellow bankers struck by such disaster, Odyssey, president of Hechingen Bank's Chicago branch, could not help sighing. "Oh, God bless us! Fortunately, Chicago's property prices saved us."
Hechingen Bank's Chicago branch was rather unusual. It had been built in a comparatively backward part of Chicago, and its main building stood like a crane among chickens amid a cluster of shacks no higher than two stories, especially conspicuous. This allowed President Odyssey to leisurely watch the fires raging across Chicago.
Chicago lay on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, upon the Great Lakes Plain. It had originally been an Indian hunting ground, with a population of fewer than a thousand when