living, breathing replicas of exceedingly ancient Persians.

"Why, they might have been the wall carvings on the
tomb of Khosroes come to life. I mention Darius because
he fits in with the most plausible hypothesis. When
Alexander the Great smashed his empire he did it rather
thoroughly. There wasn't much sympathy for the vanquished
in those days. And it's entirely conceivable that a
city or two in Alexander's way might have gathered up a
fleeting regiment or so for protection and have decided
not to wait for him, but to hunt for cover.

"Naturally, they would have gone into the almost inaccessible
heart of the high ranges. There is nothing impossible
in the theory that they found shelter at last up
here. As long as history runs this has been a well-nigh
unknown land. Penetrating some mountain-guarded, easily
defended valley they might have decided to settle down
for a time, have rebuilt a city, raised a government; laying
low, in a sentence, waiting for the storm to blow over.

"Why did they stay? Well, they might have found the
new life more pleasant than the old. And they might have
been locked in their valley by some accident--landslides,
rockfalls sealing up the entrance. There are a dozen
reasonable possibilities."

"But those who hunted you weren't locked in," objected
Drake.