also had a bath and a daintily-furnished boudoir; but these, too, were
empty.

Then, as we opened the door across the hall, a strange odour saluted
us--an odour suggestive somehow of the East--which, in the first
moment, caught the breath from the throat, and in the second seemed to
muffle and retard the beating of the heart.

A flash of Godfrey's torch showed that we were in a little entry,
closed at the farther end by a heavy drapery. Godfrey strode forward
and swept the drapery aside. The rush of perfume was over-powering,
and through the opening came a soft glow of light.

It was a moment before I got my breath; then a mist seemed to fall
from before my eyes and a strange sense of exaltation and well-being
stole through me. I saw Godfrey standing motionless, transfixed, with
one hand holding back the drapery, and his torch hanging unused in the
other, and I crept forward and peered over his shoulder at the
strangest scene I have ever gazed upon.

Just in front of us, poised in the air some three feet from the floor,
hung a sphere of crystal, glowing with a soft radiance which seemed to
wax and wane, to quiver almost to darkness and then to burn more
clearly. It was like a dreamer's pulse, fluttering, pausing, leaping,
in accord with his vision. And as I gazed at the sphere, I fancied I
could see within it strange, elusive shapes, which changed and merged
and faded from moment to moment, and yet grew always clearer and more
suggestive. I bent forward, straining my eyes to see them better, to
fathom their meaning ...