exist, somewhere, descendants of prehistoric men in whom the
third eye--placed in the back of the head for purposes of defensive
observation--had not become obsolete and reduced to the traces which we
know only as the pituitary body or pituitary gland.

Kemper and I were, of course, aware that in the insect world the ocelli
served the same purpose that the degenerate pituitary body once served in
the occiput of man.

As we three walked slowly back to the campfire, where our evening meal
was now ready, Evelyn Grey, who walked between us, told us what she
knew about the hunting of these three-eyed men by the Seminoles--how
intense was the hatred of the Indians for these people, how murderously
they behaved toward any one of them whom they could track down and catch.

"Tiger-tail told me," she went on, "that in all probability the strange
race was nearing extinction, but that all had not yet been exterminated
because now and then, when hunting along Black Bayou, traces of living
three-eyed men were still found by him and his people.

"No later than last week Tiger-tail himself had startled one of these
strange denizens of Black Bayou from a meal of fish; and had heard him
leap through the bushes and plunge into the water. It appears that
centuries of persecution have made these three-eyed men partly
amphibious--that is, capable of filling their lungs with air and
remaining under water almost as long as a turtle."

"That's impossible!" said Kemper bluntly.

"I thought so myself," she said with a smile, "until Tiger-tail told me
a little more about them. He says that they can breathe through the pores
of their skins; that their bodies are covered with a thick, silky hair,
and that when they dive they carry down with them enough air to form a
sort of skin over them, so that under water their bodies appear to be
silver-plated."

"Good Lord!" faltered Kemper. "That is a little too much!"

"Yet," said I, "that is exactly what air-breathing water beetles do. The
globules of air, clinging to the body-hairs, appear to silver-plate them;
and they can remain below indefinitely, breathing through spiracles.
Doubtless the skin pores of these men have taken on the character of
spiracles."

"You know," he said in a curious, flat voice, which sounded like
the tones of a partly stupified man, "this whole business is so
grotesque--apparently so wildly absurd--that it's having a sort of
nightmare effect on me." And, dropping his v