For a space of perhaps twenty seconds after John Aldous announced himself there was no visible sign of life on the part of either Quade or Culver Rann.

The latter sat stunned.

Not the movement of a finger broke the stonelike immobility of his attitude.

His eyes were like two dark coals gazing steadily as a serpent's over Quade's hunched shoulders and bowed head.

Quade seemed as if frozen on the point of speaking to Rann.