The valley of eyes unseen

My name is Ronald Mirlees, or Ran Mirlees as I have usually signed myself under those contributions to the learned press of the East by which I have chiefly picked up a living,...

'Well, Mr. Ronald Mirlees,' he repeated, 'we had a close call to-night. But for the extremely sandy way you joined in on my side it would have been closer. Come, let me thank yo...

The match I had struck to light my cigarette remained burning in my fingers till it scorched them. I was waiting for Philipson to amplify that last disclosure, but he appeared t...

It was such a far-fetched observation to make that I thought the boy must be more elevated than he looked, but if he was, he could at least keep himself in hand. Finding me sile...

For the better part of a minute my tongue simply refused duty. I could no more than stand and gape, while the blood buzzed in my ears and the dim-lit doorway of Philipson's room...

When Poyning came in to breakfast, much renovated, we sat down to one of the jolliest meals I ever remember. Philipson steered clear of the subject of our forthcoming journey ye...

We began our land journey in high spirits. Whatever perils nature might be holding up her sleeve, our human enemies were left far behind; and it wasn't till now that I realised...

'Put it to yourselves as rational men,' he said. 'The Tibetan Sbrang Chikya, who died on this spot, had strayed from his caravan, and he must have strayed a long way, since we a...

I stared at the great wheeling, swooping forms till I thought my eyes would have dropped out of my head. We moved on, but I was still gazing when the low gable of a building cam...

Kalliboas led us back to our quarters profoundly impressed, but a good deal more mystified by the double rite we had witnessed. It seemed to have left him, too, in a frame of mi...

I rose to my feet and swayed like a drunken man, a furious throbbing in my temples and buzzing in my ears. For an instant I fancied we were the victims of an illusion; yet the m...

Strangely enough, from that day onwards our circumstances seemed to improve all round. If we had seen ourselves encircled in mystery, and detected vague menaces in what we had h...

'So,' he hissed, his long arm thrown out towards us, 'it is thus you requite our hospitality, men of the outer world! Thus do you flout the will of our rulers, thinking that by...

As I have already written, I offer no explanation of the incident with which my last chapter closes, but whatever it was, it caused me to do something I had certainly never done...