hinking of the ceremonies and sacrifices this rough circle of
prehistoric monoliths might have witnessed, I looked up into my
companion's face with an unspoken question. But he read my thought and
shook his head.

"Our mystery has nothing to do with these dead symbols," he said, "but
with something perhaps even more ancient, and of another country
altogether."

"Egypt?" I said half under my breath, hopelessly puzzled, but recalling
his words in my bedroom.

He nodded. Mentally I still floundered, but he seemed intensely
preoccupied and it was no time for asking questions; so while his words
circled unintelligibly in my mind I looked round at the scene before me,
glad of the opportunity to recover breath and some measure of composure.
But hardly had I time to notice the twisted and contorted shapes of many
of the pine trees close at hand when Dr. Silence leaned over and touched
me on the shoulder. He pointed down the slope. And the look I saw in his
eyes keyed up every nerve in my body to its utmost pitch.

A thin, almost imperceptible column of blue smoke was rising among the
trees some twenty yards away at the foot of the mound. It curled up and
up, and disappeared from sight among the tangled branches overhead. It
was scarcely thicker than the smoke from a small brand of burning wood.

"Protect yourself! Imagine your shell strongly," whispered the doctor
sharply, "and follow me closely."

He rose at once and moved swiftly down the slope towards the smoke, and
I followed, afraid to remain alone. I heard the soft crunching of our
steps on the pine needles. Over his shoulder I watched the thin blue
spiral, without once taking my eyes off it. I hardly know how to
describe the peculiar sense of vague horror inspired in me by the sight
of that streak of smoke pencilling its way upwards among the dark trees.
And the sensation of increasing heat as we approached was phenomenal. It
was like walking towards a glowing yet invisible fire.

As we drew nearer his pace slackened. Then he stopped and pointed, and I
saw a small circle of burnt grass upon the ground. The tussocks were
blackened and smouldering, and from the centre rose this line of smoke,
pale, blue, steady. Then I noticed a movement of the atmosphere beside
us, as if the warm air were rising and the cooler air rushing in to take
its place: a little centre of wind in the stillness. Overhead the boughs
stirred and trembled where the smoke disappeared. Otherwise,