Early one morning in the autumn of 1916, any one who had chanced to be standing on this _tell_ would have noticed, far in the eastern sky, a moving speck. It might have been a gigantic bird, but that, as it approached, its flight was swifter, more direct, more noisy. As it came nearer, it swept round in an immense circle, then descended in a spiral course, skimmed the surface of the _tell_, and finally alighted on a clear and level stretch of ground on the western side. Through all its ages of solitude the _tell_ had never known so strange a visitant. The shades of ancient priests and soothsayers might be imagined to shrink away from this intruder upon their haunts. What had remotest antiquity to do with this symbol of modernity, the last word in scientific invention in a world of scientific marvels? Some such thoughts as these seemed to grip one of the two young men who disengaged themselves from the aeroplane. "So this is your _tell_!" cried the elder of the two, in the loud tones that bespeak a cheerful soul. He looked with an air of mockery at the rugged contours of the mound. "Hush, Ellingford!" said the other, in a stage whisper. "We are trespassers--on a spot where Assyrians worshipped when Rome was still a village." "Well, _they_ can't hear us. What's more to the point, the Arabs can, if they're about; so hurry up." "Hopelessly matter-of-fact; everlastingly practical! Here are we, in the very nursery and cradle of mankind; yet you can't spare half a thought for the past! You live altogether in the present----" "Look here, Burnet," said the other, cutting him short; "if you don't stop gassing we shall neither of us live in the future. Before you can say Jack Robinson--or Beelzebub, if you prefer it--we may have a swarm of Arabs round us with Mauser rifles and explosive bullets. I'm responsible for this machine. So buck up. You can commune with the spirits of the past when I am gone." Captain Ellingford spoke good-humouredly, but with an undertone of seriousness. Roger Burnet laughed. "Righto," he said. "I'll not keep you." He glanced keenly around, as if looking for some landmark; then, having found what he sought, set off with quick step towards a group of ruins near the centre of the _tell_, about a hundred and fifty yards from where the aeroplane had landed. Captain Ellingford, first looking in all directions to assure himself that no one was near, followed his companion, ever and anon throwing a glance backward: he was loth to leave his machine.