I'm drunk from a feeling of complete freedom. I know for the first time that I have never been really alive.

He raised his eyes to the stars above—steel-blue stars in the clear air. I know too, that these are the Himalaya mountains—that this is the roof of the world.

He turned and looked into the cave. A man stood nearby. He wore a white gown, yet his form was not hidden; a magnificent six-foot body supported a head of majestic proportions. The man's face was a magnet and Lee would never know whether or not he was handsome. He would remember that the mouth was firm, the nose straight, the eyes dark and arresting. They were not golden, yet the light that came from them, illuminating the face that would forever leave an impression of shining gold.

The man with the golden eyes.

Lee said, "I am a stranger. How did I get here? Why have I come?"

The man moved forward and stood looking out across the mountains. But he appeared to be seeing much further—into infinity itself. He said nothing.

"Please. Why am I here?"

The man paid no attention. He finished regarding whatever had interested him and turned back into the cave.

"Please."

At this word, the man stopped and turned. He looked at Lee for a long moment. Then he said, "Be very careful. A fall from this height would be fatal." With that he moved back into the cave, and....

Lee Hayden was lying in a sweat-soaked bed.

But his awakening was different from any he had ever known. Later, trying to analyze this, he concluded he had awakened from not having been asleep; awakened as it were, from an awakened state. When he tried to rationalize this contradiction he could not do so. Neither could he change it.

But he sprang from the bed with a wordless cry and was on his knees clawing for the whiskey bottle. There was more than a double shot left. He gulped it down. He dropped the bottle and sobbed. Then all strength went out of him and he collapsed into sleep there on the whiskey-soaked carpet....

Daphne led Lee to a table and asked, "What would you like to drink?"

"Nothing. Do you have a little time?"

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