The Breathing Method, Part 1 Summary

David Adley lives in New York City. He takes a cab to a club in New York, which he calls 249B, after the address. Stevens the butler, lets him in. David first heard about the club through his boss, George Waterhouse. George invites David seemingly out of the blue, yet David feels it was almost fate. David goes and finds it to be a mysterious club, with the legend "It is the tale, not he who tells it" engraved above the fireplace. He peruses the library and finds several strange books and authors he has never heard of before. Later on, someone throws a packet into the fire, and the fire flares different colors. A couple of the men tell stories, one a morbid tale about a man who drowned in a phone booth, and a funny...