world are understood there--which is a fact, Mirlees, incredible as it may seem--and as he could not speak the language of the valley, communication with him was conducted mostly by signs. After a time the stranger wanted to go back by the way he had come, but he was made to understand that he must remain. He persisted, however; left his house one night after dark and struck out for the mountains southward. His body was discovered on the foothills next day.' 'How did he die?' 'Helene says that was never known. According to her view, no action had been decreed by the Shadows, but one of them took the law into his own hands and--_acted_.' 'Then--then it _can_ be done?' 'I solemnly believe, Mirlees--though I would never expect any man who had not been here to believe it--that to prevent my father escaping from this valley and betraying its secret to the world, he was murdered, by some tremendous concentration of will power acting over a distance. It may even be, by the way, that the Tibetan Sbrang Chikya was similarly made away with, though I have gathered no information about him. The killing of my father gave rise, apparently, to considerable dissatisfaction, and the Nine decided to make amends--as if amends could be made for a cold-blooded murder!--by burying the stranger in state. Who the murderer was, too, I cannot find out from Helene. But I have my own suspicion.' 'Who?' 'Kalliboas.' If this was so it would explain much. Admitting the amazing manner of the murder as a fact, if Kalliboas had indeed committed it he might well wish to hide the crime from the son of the murdered man, particularly as his action had been repudiated by the dread Nine. He might even have prevailed upon the rest to sanction shrouding the body in that opaque plaster case, taking advantage of the dangerous state of the hillside as a pretext for delaying our visit to the tomb until the work was complete. 'Well,' I said at last, 'we've thrown down the gauntlet to Kalliboas now. What do you propose to do?'