The Washington times., 1912-04-21


flesh. instantly seized the man
the horde which lay within his view.
Though he had been expecting to see
something disgusting, something gro
tesque and horrible. his mind was
ness of these creatures, now seen by
the ever-strengthening light of day.
And slowly, as he stared, the knowl-
edge dawned on him that there was a
monstrous problem to face, far greater
and more urgent than he had foreseen;
here were factors not yet understood;
here, the product OF forces till then not
even dreamed Of 5y his scientifc ana miad'
small race" thought he. Small and
possibly misshapen, the descendants.
maybe, of few survivors of the cata-
And again. fascinated by the ghastly
spectacle, he laid his eye to the chink
A tehuous fog still drifted slowly
among the forest trees, yelling the deep
er recess. Yet, near at hand, within
the limited segment of vision which the
engineer commanded, everything could
be made out with reasonable distinct
ness.
Some of the things (for SO he mentally
named them, knowing no better term)
were squatting. lying or moving about,
quite close at hand. The fire by the
was evident that the revel had ceased
and that the horde was settling down
to rest-glutted, no doubt, with the raw
and bleeding flesh Of the conquered foe.
volver muzzle through the crack in the
wall and shot down many Of them. For
an instant the temptation lay strong
upon him to get rid of at least a dozen
or a score; but prudence restrained his
hand.
mo use!" he told himself. Nothing
to be gained by that. But once I get
MAJ 1I,a nk hnNr
And again, striving to observe them
with the. cool and calculating eye Of
science. he studied the shifting. con-
fused picture sa out there before re- MIN; io.u,s
which, above all else, struck him as
ghastly and unnatural was the color of
the things.
Il thought SO last night, but daylight
eorrects the impression. Not red, either,
or copper-colored. What color. then?
For heavens sake, what?"
He could hardly name 1t. Through the
fog 1t struck him as a dull slate-gray,
almost a blue. He recalled that once
he had seen a child's modelling clay.
shade, which certainly had no designa-
ton in the chromatic scale. Some of the
things were darker, some a triffe light
but thes ali Of tSs ssme eSar
acteristic tint. And the skin. moreover,
looked dull and sickly. rather mottled
and wholly repuisive. very like that Of
Ike sed% that 'Vf Dogs hide, too, it was
sparsely overgrown with whitish brtstles.
Here or there, on the bodies of some Of
the larger things, bulbous warts had
formed. somewhat like those on a toad 8
back; and on these warts the bristles
clustered thickly. Stern saw the hair,
on the neck of one of these creatures
crawl and rise like a jackals, as a
neighbor jostled him; and from the
things throat issued clicking grunt
Of purely animal resentment.
Merciful heavens! What are they?"
wondered Stern. again. utterly baffled
be2' a' '' '"''
Another in the group close by. at
tracted his attention. 1t was lying on
It's side, asleep maybe, Its back directly
toward the engineer. Stern clearly sa W
the narrow shoulders and the thin long
arms. covered With that white bristling
hair.
One sprawlins, spatulate, clawlike
hand lay On the forest moss. The twist
ed little apelike legs, disproportionate-
iy short, were curled up; the feet. pre-
hensible and with q well-marked thumb
on each. twicthed little now and then.
The head, enormously too big for the
body, to which It was Joined by a thin
neck, seemed to be scantily covered
with fine, curling down of dirty yel-
lowish drab color
What target" thought the engi-
neer "At this distance, with my .3S,
! could drill 1t without half tryingv
All at once, another of the group sat
up. showed away a burned-out torch,
and yawned with noisy, doglike whine.
Stern got a quick yet definite glimpse
of the sharp canine teeth; he saw that
the things fieshless lips and retreatlng
chin were caked with dried blood. The
tongue he saw was long and 1.-THE and
apparently rasped.
Then the creature stood up, balancing
on its absurd handy legs. a spear in
Its hand-a fiint-pointed spear of crude
At full sight of the face. Stern shrank
for a moment.
1--WE known savages, as SUCH"
thought he. II understand them. l
know animals. They're animals, that's 8
ALL But this creature-merciful heaven"
And at the realization that 1t was
neither beast nor man, the engineers >
blood chilled within his veins.
Yet he forced himself still to look
and to observe, unseen. There was
practically no forehead at all. The nose
was but formless lump of cartilage,
the ears large and pendulous and hairy.
Under heavy brow-ridges, the dull, lack
luster eyes blinked stupidity, bloodshot
and cruel. AS the mouth closed, Stern
noted how the under incisorS closed up
over the upper lip showing gleam Of
dull yellowish ivory; a SLAYER dripped
from the doglike corner of the mouth.
Stern shivered, and drew back.
He realized now that he was In the
presence OF an unknown Seml-human
type different in all probability from
any that had ever yet existed. 1t was
less their bestiality that disgusted him,
than their utter, hopeless. age-long de-
generation from the manSstandard.
What race had they descended from 2
He could not tell. He thought he could
detect trace of the Mongol in the
region of the eye, in the cheek-bones,
and the general contour of what, by
courtesy, might be called the face.
There were Indications, also, of the ne
groid type, still stronger. But the
color-whence could that have come? p?
And the general characteristics, were
not these distinctly simian?
Again ne looked And now one of the
pot -bellied little horrors, shambling and
bulbous-kneed, was scratching its
warty, blue hide with its black claws
as It traiied along through the forest.
II looked up, grinning and jabbertng;
Stern saw the teeth that should have
been molars. With repulsion he noted
that they were not hat-crowned, but
sharp, like a dogs. Through the blue
lips they clearly showed.
Nothing herbivorous here" thought
the scientist IAN fiesh-food of-whC
knows what sortr'
Quickly his mind ran over the out
lines of the problem. He knew at once
that these things were lower than any
IZ4 ~.