Pausing to register at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel (as recommended by Mrs Tilton) the investigators follow Patricia to her aunt's house on the least fashionable side of Malabar Hill. As a specialist in nervous complaints, Ludwig has no trouble getting permission from the family doctor to interview the patient.

Patricia, it transpires, has been suffering from nightmares: the same ones, several times a night. The dreams she describes are disturbingly similar in theme to the investigators'. Her ex-fiancée features in one of the dreams, and the investigators briefly consider the possibility of a link with Edwards' group; an idea that they abandon on learning that he was approved of by Patricia's father, a provincial bank manager and keen Rotarian. It was an incident with the ex-fiancée that weakened Patricia's nerves, but neither she nor her friend Francesca are willing to provide details.

The next day, the investigators meet their guide and translator (as recommended by Mrs Tilton), Siva Patel - a cheerful man in his twenties with excellent English and a good knowledge of the quirks of the India railway system. After booking their tickets to Benares, the investigators send him to make enquiries of his fellow-guides about the Anzalone Expedition while they do the same at the Italian Embassy. The Embassy is unhelpful; the duty clerk merely refers them to the official account in the Times of India, which has the expedition is heading for Tibet via Darjeeling. Siva has more luck. Their guide was a Parsee, who remembers that they were excited by some graffiti in the marketplace - he describes a Yellow Sign - and asked him what it meant. He did not know but had to tell them something, so he took them to a Parsee holy man at the Towers of Silence. European tourists like that kind of thing, in his experience. They spoke briefly with the holy man and left happy, although the holy man himself seemed troubled.

At the Towers of Silence, where vultures dispose of the Parsee dead, the investigators find many holy men, including the one who spoke to Malcolm Quarrie. He remembers that Quarrie bore the mark of a god. Not one of his gods, but the Outsider, the One in White. The Outsider is a very old god. Older than all the gods of India and Europe. Older than the Earth. He is sending his prophets among the people of the city. It was His sign that Quarrie saw. In the north they think he is a Buddha, and it is in the north that He will come - soon. He is walking towards us even now. He has not heard of a King in Yellow, but he knows that the Buddhists in the north wear yellow robes. Perhaps there is a connection? The investigators thank him and leave.

The next day, the investigators board a train for the four-day journey to Benares. The journey is uneventful, but they are all troubled by dreams. Enquiries during a brief stop at Jabalpur find to trace of the Anzalone Expedition, who would have changed trains there if they had really been heading for Darjeeling.

In Benares, they meet Joseph Jorkens in one of the three hotel bars suggested by Alex's contact in the Royal Geographical Society. He is a soft-spoken man of uncertain age, perpetually short of funds and with a great capacity for whisky. He is confident that he can get the investigators over the border into Nepal - he has friends in Nautanwa, on the Indian side, who can help. He will travel there separately and meet them at a place just off the bazaar.

The next morning, the investigators leave for Nautanwa. As it pulls out of Benares, their train is attacked by a mob who throw stones and attempt to climb on board. They are chanting a phrase that Siva translates as "the king steps down". The attack, which does not seem to be directed at the investigators, is easily repulsed; the few people who make it onto the train are promptly detained by the guards and (in one case) by the investigators. Once arrested, they seem confused. They remember being angry but do not remember why. None of them admit to taking part in a demonstration.

In the bazaar at Nautanwa, the investigators spot a masked figure in a white robe walking towards them through the crowd. Others see him too - there are screams as he walks right through people like a ghost. He comes face to face with Alex, takes one more step forward, and vanishes. Alex feels his robes brush across him and hears music. Briefly, he is in Carcosa again. Ducking down a side-street to avoid the growing crowd, they head for their rendezvous with Mr Jorkens.

Jorkens has found them native dress - thick woollen cloaks that can serve as tents - and a guide to take them into Nepal. Jigme Rinzing is a trader who will take them as far as Gora Pani at the edge of the Annapurna mountains and can help than find a guide from there. The investigators' gear takes ten of Jigme's fifteen porters and there is an extended bargaining session (conducted by Siva and Mr Jorkens) before he will agree to take it all. Siva is perturbed by what he has seen in the bazaar but says he will follow the investigators to wherever they are going. He is the guide. What would Mrs Tilton say if he abandons them?

Two days later, the investigators cross the border into Nepal with Jigme's party. There is no difficulty; the British border-guards are disinclined to pay attention to natives and the single Nepalese border-guard pays them no attention at all. The journey to Gora Pani takes eight days - a slow pace for Jigme and his porters and a gruelling one for the investigators, who are not particularly athletic. They are also finding it increasingly difficult to sleep. They dreams are more vivid and more frequent now, and sometimes visit when they close their eyes in the daytime, as well as in the night.

In Tansing they hear that a party of rich white nobles passed through last season; they were headed up the valley. In Pokhara, Jigme is able to locate the man who guided them. He says that he took a party of four up to a place called Drakmar, above the monastery of Te, which is near the village of Kag. The valley above Te is a bad place; the chortens (protective cairns) are fallen and black ghosts live in the cave. When they would not come back down with him, he left them; he thinks that the demons and ghosts will have taken them by now.

Leaving Tansing, they start to climb. The mountains are becoming visible on the horizon. Aubrey and Vincent begin to suffer from dizziness and a feeling of suffocating in their sleep; Ludwig diagnoses altitude sickness but can do little to help. In Gora Pani, they are able to rest and acclimatise. Jigme finds them a new guide to take them north; a Tibetan called Tsewan Pemba. There is a complication, however: Pemba has only six porters. The investigators must leave some of their gear. After some debate, they trade much of their tinned food for Pemba's services and leave their climbing gear and one of their two tents with Jigme to keep until they return. The hardest part of their journey is yet to come...