"I shouldn't let that worry you, my boy. Sheng-ti's a dire prophet, but a poor one. He warned me three years ago that if I did not leave this temple I would 'vanish into yesteryear', never to return. Cheerful thought, wasn't it? But I'm still here. "Now, sit down, both of you, and stop worrying about nonexistent troubles. Have you forgotten we are on an island surrounded by a moat? Our watchmen guard every approach. If anyone comes near, we'll be given ample warning. Now, let me see--what were we talking about?" "The chamber Lake discovered." * * * * * "Oh, yes! Well, that's but one of the thousand mysteries of Angkor, Ramey. There are many more. I might point out some of the peculiarities of the sculpture itself. Oddly mingled with painstaking representations of ordinary men, are the figures of incredible, fabulous monsters. Dragons, great _nagas_, hypogrifins, monkeys garbed in human clothing, acting like men, apparently talking to each other and to humans. "You might reasonably say that these representations are figments of the creative imagination, a sort of 'artistic license,' so to speak. But here's the rub! Whenever _men_ are depicted, they are reproduced with elaborate fidelity. Not a single effort is made to aggrandize or conventionalize, as is the case in the artistry of other ancient races. The Minoan, for instance, or the Egyptian. The builders of Angkor seemed to pride themselves on faithful portrayal. "But _why_, then, did they detract from their accuracy by delineating the figures of nonexistent creatures? And the colors they used--why did they portray some human figures as white, others yellow, and still others _blue_? Unless--" Ian Aiken's voice throbbed with eagerness--"these were creatures and men they knew?" The older man's excitement communicated itself as an uneasy chill to Ramey. He said, "You mean--?" "I don't know what I mean, Winters--yet. I'm still studying, still trying to unite in coherent oneness the facts imperishably carven here for someone to discern. "All I know is that Angkor Vat is _old_--considerably older than baffled science has hitherto been willing to admit. By the eyes and the feet of the statuary we judge its period. Blank, staring eyes, unfocussing; feet carven by artists so unaware of perspective that they exposed the soles of a walking person. "I know, too, that the explanation is written here on these walls for him who can solve the Angkor script. We have not yet found the key. The letters seem to resemble the elder Siamese, which itself resembled Sanskrit. Perhaps we'll never unlock that lingual door. "But there is one universal language, Ramey Winters! The language of science, mathematics, astronomy! And here we have a whole city written in that language. The arrangement of Angkor is as truly symbolic, as truly based on the mystic science of numbers, as is the famed King's Chamber of Cheops' pyramid.[2] And there are certain astronomical carvings--"