t smiled with evident amusement. "You are a grotesque sight,
Unani Assu. Do you want to see Ana now?"

The fright and horror faded from the Indian's face, for now he glared
with hate into the mad, mocking eyes.

"You did it!" the Indian ground out. "You've made me into a thing from
which Ana will run screaming."

Through the quiet rage of the perfectly spoken English ran a thread of
sorrow. "Aimu, whom we considered too holy to name!"

Choking, he hobbled away to the door, which he unbolted. As he passed
out into the open, Sir Basil went over to the machine and began sighting
the projector which cast forth the ray of destruction.

"No!" cried Hale. "You've done enough murder for to-day."

The scientist paused. "I was trying to be merciful. And then, I wonder
if it is safe to let him go, hating me? Oh, well!" He shrugged his
narrow shoulders. "I seldom leave the laboratory, and certainly nothing
can harm me here." He touched the death-projector significantly.

Hale made a mental decision. "I must find out how the damned thing works
and put it out of commission."

* * * * *

With this determination uppermost in his mind, he assumed a more intense
interest in the strange laboratory. For the next two days, he assisted
Sir Basil so assiduously that he learned much about the operation of the
life-machine. And gradually he stopped being horrified as the
fascination of producing life in the laboratory grew upon him.

After he had assisted the scientist in building living organisms from
basic elements, he ceased to cringe when he remembered that perhaps it
was true that Ana was created in the mysterious life-machine.

Once the scientist declared, "She is untainted with inheritance. She is
the perfect mate that I called into life so that before I pass from the
flesh I may taste that one human emotion I've never experienced--love."

That very night Hale kept a secret tryst with Ana after the village
slept. Sweet, virginal Ana, who knew less of the world than a civilized
child of twelve--what a sensation she would create in New York with her
beauty, her culture, her natural fascination! With her in his arms and
an orange tropical moon hanging low in the hot, black sky, he ceased to
care that she had no ancestors, for now his one passionate desire was to
save her from Sir Basil and to hold her forever for himself.

He might have been content to go on like this for months, tampering with
c