Chapter One

It looked like one more forgettable Saturday garage sale like so many others that day. Lots of clothes with stretched-out necks or worn spots in the knees, the usual supply of pots and pans past their prime, maybe a videotape or two. That's what Joe surmised as he slowed and pulled up to the curb. Was it even worth getting out of the car to look closer?

Deciding that he had room in his trunk for a bit more inventory, Joe, who started his eBay business by selling his used VHS tapes, ambled over to the tables and began to scan them for anything of interest. He spied mostly boring merchandise of little or no value to a seasoned seller who can spot a good-old song-and-dance film ten yards away.

Wandering through the mishmash of wobbly card tables and boards propped up on sawhorses, some things caught Joe's eye. He had no idea what they were, but they looked old; that alone merited a closer investigation. The box contained old cards of some sort or other.

Joe hadn't ever seen anything like these before: turn-of-the-century scenes on finely pressed paperboard. Most of them were dated in the 1890s and were made by a company called Underwood & Underwood. They had images from all over the world: pyramids in Egypt, old warships, the Vatican, and the Philippine Islands. Each card had two of what appeared to be identical images on it, kind of like seeing double. Now that was odd!

Even though antiques weren't exactly Joe's interest, he had enough gut instinct to suspect when he'd stumbled across something that might be worth obtaining. There wa