"_Sanfel ... Sanfel ... have you returned, Sanfel? Answer!_" It was a woman's voice ... the voice of a woman used to wielding power, quiet, somehow proud as the voice of Lucifer or Lilith might have been, and it spoke in a tongue that scarcely half a dozen living men could understand.... A whole great race had spoken it once; only the shamans remembered now, and the shamans who knew it were few. Dantan's godfather had been one. And Dantan remembered the slurring syllables of the rituals he had learned, well enough to know what the proud, bodiless voice was saying. The nape of his neck prickled. Here was something he could not understand, and he did not like it. Like an animal scenting danger he shrank into himself, not crouching, but withdrawing, so that a smaller man seemed to stand there, ready and waiting for the next move. Only his eyes were not motionless. They raked the room for the unseen speaker--for some weapon to use when the time came for weapons. His glance came back to the dark screen above the machine. And the voice said again, in the tongue of ancient Klanvahr: "I am not used to waiting, Sanfel! If you hear me, speak. And speak quickly, for the time of peril comes close now. My Enemy is strong--" Dantan said, "Can you hear me?" His eyes did not move from the screen. Out of that blackness the girl's voice came, after a pause. It was imperious, and a little wary. "You are not Sanfel. Where is he? Who are you, Martian?" * * * * * Dantan let himself relax a little. There would be a parley, at any rate. But after that-- Words in the familiar, remembered old language came hesitantly to his lips. "I am no Martian. I am of Earth blood, and I do not know this Sanfel." "Then how did you get into Sanfel's place?" The voice was haughty now. "What are you doing there? Sanfel built his laboratory in a secret place." "It was hidden well enough," Dantan told her grimly. "Maybe for a thousand years, or even ten thousand, for all I know. The door has been buried under a stream--" "There is no water there. Sanfel's home is on a mountain, and his laboratory is built underground." The voice rang like a bell. "I think you lie. I think you are an enemy--When I heard the signal summoning me, I came swiftly, wondering why Sanfel had delayed so long. I must find him, stranger. I must! If you are no enemy, bring me Sanfel!" This time there was something almost like panic in the voice. "If I could, I would," Dantan said. "But there's no one here except me." He hesitated, wondering if the woman behind the voice could be--mad? Speaking from some mysterious place beyond the screen, in a language dead a thousand years, calling upon a man who must be long-dead too, if one could judge by the length of time this hidden room had lain buried.