thing terrific
about that desolation. Nothing within a thousand miles of Long Island
corresponded to it.

"You'll be convinced pretty quickly, when you see my specimen,"
answered Tode. "I let him off here on the way to the pool. He's not
exactly presentable, and when I got the idea of picking up Lucille and
taking her back with me, I thought it best not to let her see him. He
didn't want to be let off. Was afraid I wouldn't pick him up again,
and I'll admit it was a matter of pretty careful reckoning. But this
is the place, almost to the yard.

"Yes, I've done some close reckoning, Dent, but the cleverest part of
the business was letting old Parrish think he'd got away from me. I
knew he'd telephone Lucille. You know, I always had the brains of the
outfit, Dent," he continued, with a smirk of self-satisfaction.

He looked out of the boat. "And here, if I'm not mistaken, comes my
specimen," he added.

* * * * *

Something was running across the steppes toward them. It came nearer,
took human form. It was human! A man--but such a man as Jim had never
seen before outside the covers of a book. And he recognised the race
immediately.

It was a Neanderthal man, one of the race that co-existed with the
highly developed Cro-Magnons some thirty thousand years ago. Man and
not ape, though the face was bestial, and there were huge ridges above
the eyebrows.

And if Jim had needed conviction, the sight of this gibbering
creature, now climbing into the boat and fawning upon Tode, convinced
him. For the Neanderthal man vanished from the scene long before the
beginning of recorded history.

For a few moments a deathly faintness overcame him ... his eyes
closed, he felt unconsciousness rushing in upon him like a black
cloud.

"It's all right, Dent--don't look so scared!" came Tode's mocking
voice.

Jim opened his eyes, shook off that cloud of darkness with an immense
effort. The boat was throbbing violently as the wheels gyrated, the
violet light had become a pillar as thick as a man, and shot straight
up to a height of fifty feet, before it rolled away. Lucille was lying
where she had been, her eyes still staring up unseeing at the stars.
Old Parrish was whining and whimpering as he crouched in his place.

And at Tode's feet crouched the Neanderthal man, repulsive, bestial,
even though hardly formidable, and filling the last vacant spot inside
the boat. He was gibbering and mouthing as he