The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1917-10-13

IigiOus man.
"And then" continued Masterman,
what does the record tell US! Inc
moving creatures that have life were
made, and the great sea monsters, LIE
yiathan and his kind, and the fowls
of the air. And afterward the earth
monsters, and creeping things. Ana
man not till the last Now don't tel
me, lieutenant, that the man VINO
wrote the story of the creation WASH
an up-tO-date scientist
"WeIl, sir, at last the day came when
the waters had cooled, the clouds
opened, and the sun streamed through.
By that time the ocean wasn't SO
pleasant place to live in as formerly,
especially as the climatic zones were
appearing. No doubt there was rush
to the equator on the part OF the sur
face monsters But the ocean beds
were still warm from the hot rocks,
and the heat down there was good Tor
several thousand, or hundred thou
sand years yet.
so some of the sea creatures re-
manned in the depths, and others pre-
ferred to bask on the rocks in the sun
light. Then their gills began to be
replaced by lungs, or else they had
giIls as well as lungs, or an interme-
date apparatus"
Common today, captain. Certain
lizards develop either lungs or gills,
according to the medium in which
they live"
"Well, sir, as I understand it, the
first organisms that came out on land
were armor plated, like the crabs and
spiny fossil fishes. Their bones were
on the outside, to protect them against
being eaten. But after a while the
progressive ones turned themselves in
side out. Those that didn't, remained
like the turtles and degenerated. The
rest found that it was easier to escape
| their enemies by using their bones as
props and developing speed.
"NOW, lieutenant, suppose men had
developed that way in the depths of
the sea. Suppose you had race OF
men who had discovered, not neceS-
sari1y turning themselves inside out,
like US, although they might have done
so, but other means to avoid being
eaten-say invisibility."
Donald. Man has developed from an
extinct ape, an ancestor of his cOuS-
ms, the four anthrOpOids, supposedly
chimpanZeelike creature with the
structure of d gibbOn, from which he
obtained his erect posture. Your sea
creatures would have had to go
through the lemur-ape forms"
But let US suppose a man who de-
velOped off the line" persisted Mas
terman- "a manlike organism with
| webbed feet-something like a man
| believe there is anything in that
story?"
II hardly think So captain"
"How about the old legends of the
Cyclopses?"
'A myth, Masterman. Besides, the
| CyclOps kept cattle and lived upon
land"
But they ate men, lieutenant. How
ever, let us cali our men of the sea
| imaginary. Grant that there might
be such creatures, though. You'll adj
NIT that, with life so hard under the
| ocean, they'd have developed more
cunning along certain lines than the
human race. And they wouldn't know
much about pity or love. or anything
except how to find their food"
'T'll grant that" answered Donald,
''if we accept the hypothesis that such
creatures exist"
| "GoOdI Put a pin there, my lad.
Now, as we were saying, after thou
sands of years the heat at the bottom
of the sea would disappear by its diff
fusion through the oceans every
where. The depths would grow too
cold for them. It's bitter cold in the
water at 81 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit
Wouldn't the time come when they
too, would feel the impulse to migrate
into the sun?''
mo, Masterman. Their breathing
81 know what you're going TO say
lieutenant. You're going to tell me
that, even if they could breathe air
they couldn't live when the pressure
of those miles of ocean was removed
But suppose nature has been busy
preparing for the change during thou
sands of years, while she has beer
modifying their gills into lungs, as
she worked on the brontosaurs. That's
how nature wOrkS-Quietly, softly, Sc
cretly, till she's ready to launch hel
thunderbolt.
Suppose a second human swarm
mans poor cousins, is getting ready
to oyerrun the earth, and put dowr
man from his throne. Suppose tht
puny swarms of mOnkey-men, white
yellow and black, that crawl upon thG
face of the globe and imagine them
selves its owners, are going to be OBJ
liberated, not from Mars or Venus, Blu
out OF the earth'S own vitalSi"
Captain MaSterman sat bolt uprigh
as he spoke; he looked like some ole
prophet spelling out the doom Of man
The intense earnestneSS in his word:
shook Paget's increduIity for a mo
ment, and left him sick with horror.
Suppose that civilization, every
thing which has gone to make up TIT
life we knOw-family love. books
monuments, parliaments, ships-alI o
it is TO be at the mercy of this mer
CHESS horde, and that we are goin;
to fight harder than we have Tough
since the days when we held our owl
~, 81