Page:Ayesha, the return of She (IA cu31924013476175).pdf/40

30 and we watched it idly. It changed its shape, the crest of it grew hollow like a crater. From this crater sprang a projecting cloud, a rough pillar with a knob or lump resting on its top. Suddenly the rays of the risen sun struck upon this mountain and the column and they turned white like snow. Then as though melted by those fiery arrows, the centre of the excrescence above the pillar thinned out and vanished, leaving an enormous loop of inky cloud.

Look, said Leo in a low, frightened voice, that is the shape of the mountain which I saw in my vision. There upon it is the black loop, and there through it shines the fire. It would seem that the sign is for both of us, Horace.

I looked and looked again till presently the vast loop vanished into the blue of heaven. Then I turned and said—

I will come with you to Central Asia, Leo.