"Good God," breathed Aldous, so low that his voice did not rise above a
whisper. "Joanne--Ladygray--you are not speaking of Daniel Gray--Sir Daniel
Gray, the Egyptologist, the antiquarian who uncovered the secrets of an
ancient and wonderful civilization in the heart of darkest Africa?"

"Yes."

"And you--are his daughter?"

She bowed her head.

Like one in a dream John Aldous rose from his chair and went to her. He
seized her hands and drew her up so that they stood face to face. Again
that strange and beautiful calmness filled her eyes.

"Our trails have strangely crossed, Lady Joanne," he said. "They have been
crossing--for years. While Sir Daniel was at Murja, on the eve of his great
discovery, I was at St. Louis on the Senegal coast. I slept in that little
Cape Verde hotel, in the low whitewashed room overlooking the sea. The
proprietor told me that Sir Daniel had occupied it before me, and I found a
broken fountain pen in the drawer of that sickly black teakwood desk, with
the carved serpent's head. And I was at Gampola at another time, headed for
the interior of Ceylon, when I learned that I was travelling again one of
Sir Daniel's trails. And you were with him!"

"Always," said Joanne.

For a few tense moments they had looked steadily into each other's eyes.
Swiftly, strangely, the world was bridging itself for them. Their minds
swept back swiftly as the fire in a thunder-sky. They were no longer