[Footnote 2: Many devotees of the "science" of numerology are firmly convinced that the Great Pyramid of Cheops was too geometrically designed as to present to him who could decipher its structural allegory a comprehensive prophecy of the world's future for more than 5,000 years.--Ed.] * * * * * "But, look, Doc--" That was Red Barrett cudgelling his brow--"if this here place was discovered about 1860, the scientists ought to been able to figure it out by now. Ain't they no histories at all, no ideas how it come?" Dr. Aiken's smile was scornful. "Too many," he answered, "and too poor! For want of a better explanation, experts have decided that a race known as the 'Khmers' inhabited Angkor. They have even presumed to establish the period of occupancy: from about the 5th Century B.C. to the 14th Century of our Christian reckoning. Some of the more daring savants have attempted to trace the 'lineage' of Khmerian royalty. "Gentlemen, believe me--these explanations are rank nonsense! Based on no valid records, facts, or suppositions! The learned M. Groslier, attempting to explain why Angkor Vat should lie deserted and forgotten for five hundred years in a jungle grave, presents the theory that the Khmers waged a war with the neighboring Thais, were defeated and forcibly driven from their national stronghold. "Stupid poppycock! The weak Acadians of Nova Scotia were expelled from their homeland by armed force--yet within two generations seventy percent of them had drifted back--to tiny farms and wretched hamlets. But we are asked to believe that a great race meekly left its capital and never attempted to return! "Yet--suppose that were true? A faint possibility, but let us grant it. Then why did not the conquerors move into occupy what must have been the most magnificent city on the face of the earth. Remember, at the height of its glory, Angkor Thom must have been prouder than Augustus' Rome ... more alive with swaggering splendor than Hannibal's Carthage ... gay and rich as the Golden Chersonese of fable!" Ramey nodded. "Sounds whacky," he agreed. "Any more theories?" "One even more implausible. That a plague destroyed the entire population of Angkor." Ramey shook his head. "Well, that _could_ have been, sir. Before the advance of medicine, plagues used to ravage whole countries periodically. The Black Death is supposed to have killed more than twenty-five million persons in Europe in the Renaissance period. The bubonic killed ten thousand a day in Constantinople during the Interregnum. Even today the Orient is swept by raging plagues--" * * * * * "I realize that, my boy. But tell me--you've heard of the Great Plague of London? What did the city look like?" "It was a charnel-house. Death-carts ... dead bodies in the streets ... graveyards filled to overflowing...." "Exactly! Now, listen here! In all of Angkor Thom, there are no human remains to be found!