easy to trace across the clean sheet of snow it ran up the slope of a hill behind the house now on the crest of this hill is an ancient monument of upright set there by some people known as the devil s ring � a sort of miniature in fact i had seen it several times and happened to have been present not long ago at a meeting of an society when its origin and purpose were discussed i remember that one learned but somewhat eccentric gentleman read a short paper upon a rude bust and head that are cut within the chamber of a tall flat or which stands alone in the centre of the ring he said that it was a representation of the egyptian goddess and that this place had once been sacred to some form of her worship or at any rate to that of a introduction nature goddess with like attributes a suggestion which the other learned gentlemen treated as absurd they that had never travelled into britain though or my part i do not see why the or even the who adopted her more or less should not we brought it here but i know nothing of such matters and will not discuss them i remembered also that mr was acquainted with this place for he had mentioned it to me on the previous day asking if the stones were still as ihey used to be when he was young he added also and the remark struck me that yonder was where he would wish to die when i answered that i feared he would take so long a walk again i noted that he smiled a little well this conversation gave me a clue and without troubling more about the i went on as fast as i could to the ring half a mile or so away presently i reached it and there � yes there � standing by tlie and clothed in his night things only stood mr in the snow the strangest figure i think that ever i beheld indeed never shall i forget that wild scene the circle of rough single stones pointing upwards to the star strewn sky intensely lonely and intensely solemn the tall above them in the centre its shadow thrown by the bright moon behind it lying long and black upon the dazzling sheet of snow and standing clear of this shadow so tliat i could distinguish his every motion and even the look upon his dying face the white draped figure of mr he appeared to be uttering some � in i for long before i reached him i could catch the tones of his full voice and see his waving outstretched arms in his right hand he held the which by his express wish i send to you with the drawings i could sec the flash of the jewels strung upon the wires and m � t stillness bear the of its i the further history of she who must be obeyed chapter i the double sign on twenty years have gone by since that r s vision � the most awful years perhaps which were ever endured by men � twenty years o� search and hardship ending in soul shaking wonder and amazement my death is very near to me and of this i am glad for i desire to pursue the quest in other as it has been promised to me that i shall do i desire to learn the beginning and the end of the spiritual drama of which it has been my strange lot to read some pages upon earth i have been very ill they carried me more dead than alive down those mountains whose lowest slopes i can see from my window for i write this on the northern of india indeed any other man had long since perished but destiny kept my breath in me perhaps that a record might remain ii bide here a month or two till i am strong enough te travel for i have a fancy to die in the place � here i was bom so while i have strength i will ha put the story down or at least those parts of it il most essential for much can or at any rate m omitted i shrink from attempting too long though my notes and memory would s material for volumes fl i will begin with the vision u after and i came back from africa ii desiring solitude which indeed we needed sorely cover from the fearful shock we had to give us time and opportunity to think we went old house upon the shores of that h longed to my family for many generations this unless somebody has taken it believing me to be still my property and i travel to die those whose eyes read the words i write if any s ever read may ask � what shock well i am and my companion n loved friend my son in the spirit whom i reared infancy was � nay is � we are those men who following an ancient clue to the of in central africa and ther covered her whom we sought the immortal she must be obeyed in she found her love that re the priest of whom thousand years before she had slain in her jealous thus on him the judgment of the angry in her also i found the divinity whom i doomed to worship from afar not with tlie flesh is all lost and gone from but what is cause its burden is with the will and soul a man throughout the countless of his the flesh dies or at least it changes and its passions but that other passion of the spirit � that longing for ness � is as itself what crime have i committed that this sore punish should be laid upon me yet in truth is it 