Frank Calvert, a courteous and engaging host of Thymbra Farm to the north of Constantinople, lately arranged a dinner graced by such notables as Osman Hamdi Bey and General Patrice de MacMahon. Brother to Frederick Calvert, he took a lively part in the talk of the local excavations of an ancient Greek site, showing a keen concern for the affairs of the dig. Over dinner he presented Rufus Dimitrious, a trusted guide of the coast, whilst quietly passing over Rufus's hand in the business of smuggling; and he paid the man fifty gold in private for his services in arranging those runs and in marking out likely coves along the shore.
Amid these civilities Frank Calvert was caught up in a harrowing affair at a farmhouse near Constantinople, hard by the dig. With Heinrich he was held fast within a ward of light, before a great square door graven with the likeness of Aphrodite and fitted with serpent-shaped pulls whose eyes were set with jewels. When at last he could move again he was aghast, reeling, and overcome at the last with sickness; yet, shaken as he was, he burned to open the strange door, insisting it gave upon ancient Troy and urging the others to try it once more.
Panic took him when a serpent bore Heinrich away, and he cried out for aid; having no Turkish, he could make little of what passed about him. After the ordeal he followed Heinrich back to the farmhouse, doubtful and loath to press further into the site without a proper plan. So the man showed himself somewhat impulsive, hungry for discovery and for treasure, and plainly rattled by the terrors he had just come through.