Servius had always been a faithful servant of the goddess Diana. As a gladiator he had given her thanks for his victories, as a Centurion he had prayed to her on the eve of every battle. When at last the tide of war turned against him he fled to her sanctuary on the shore of Lake Nemi. Here he killed the Priest in order to become the Priest and ever after he lived in fear of being killed himself by the next aspirant for the office. When the fatal battle was fought the dying Servius had a vision of Diana, who made him a strange promise. He would die, yet he would not die. He would live, yet he would not live. When he found himself he would be lost, and when he was lost he would be found.

Servius closed his eyes by the shores of Lake Nemi and opened them again in a strange, frightening world where chariots ran without horses and where men flew inside iron birds. His first problem was to survive. His second problem was to find his way home!

In an age that takes wireless for granted, and is beginning to tire of television, it seems incredible that parts of the globe are still unexplored.

Powerful modern steamers connect landmass with landmass, island with peninsula, and archipelago with isthmus. Screaming jets roar through the upper atmosphere, at speeds in excess of a thousand miles an hour.

Yet the mysteries remain. The ancient planet is reluctant to divulge her timeless secrets to the probing, insolent minds of mortal man.

On a remote island, amid weird reef-ridden seas, the Flame Goddess lives on... immortal... undisturbed... alone, save for her primitive worshippers.

And then the white man came...