"You forget that _I_ have had no sign, and that the nightmare of a man so near to insanity that but a few hours ago he was determined upon suicide, will be a poor staff to lean on when we are perishing in the snows of Central Asia.

A mixed vision, this of yours, Leo, with its mountain peak shaped like a _crux-ansata_ and the rest.

Do you suggest that Ayesha is re-incarnated in Central Asia--as a female Grand Lama or something of that sort ?" "I never thought of it, but why not ?" asked Leo quietly.

"Do you remember a certain scene in the Caves of Kor yonder, when the living looked upon the dead, and dead and living were the same?
And do you remember what Ayesha swore, that she would come again--yes, to this world; and how could that be except by re-birth, or, what is the same thing, by the transmigration of the spirit ?" I did not answer this argument.

I was struggling with myself.
"No sign has come to me," I said, "and yet I have had a part in the play, humble enough, I admit, and I believe that I have still a part." "No," he said, "no sign has come to you.