Excerpt from The Lost Horizon Ying amidst the crowded highways Of the Atlantic there still remain spaces aloof from cosmopolitan curiosity and seldom traversed by regular trading craft. From time to time the figure Of a liner may loom above the horizon for an interval, or the empty seascape may be quickened by the passage Of some squalid, toiling tramp. A lingering trace Of smoke along the sea-line, a grimy scar across the lifeless distance - the invader has vanished into forgottenness, and the desert sea returns to its sleep.