CIGARS HAD BURNED LOW, AND WE WBEGINNING to sample the disillusionment that usually afflicts old school friends who have met again as men and found themselves with less in common than they had believed they had. Rutherford wrote novels; Wyland was one of the Embassy secnnades; he had just given us dinner at Tempelhof--not very cheer fully, I fancied, but with the equanimity which a diplomat must always keep on tap for such occasions.

high in the distant reaches of the Tibetan mountains where a group of worldly men and women have stumbled upon a land of mystery and matchless beauty, where life is lived in tranquil wonder, beyond the grasp of a doomed world. And a great secret is kept hidden.

"ONE OF THE NEATEST AND MOST EXCITING YARNS I HAVE EVER READ... the most artful kind of suspense... ingenuity I have rarely seen equaled"

   ——The New Yorker

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Epilogue