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Bulan saw that he would get into deep water if he attempted to explain too much,

and, as is ever the way, discovered that one deception had led him into another;

so he determined to forestall future embarrassing queries by concocting a story

immediately to explain his presence and his knowledge.

I lived upon the island near your father's camp," he said. "I knew you all--by

sight."

How long have you lived there?" asked the girl. "We thought the island

uninhabited."

"All my life," replied Bulan truthfully.

"It is strange," she mused. "I cannot understand it. But the monsters--how is it

that they followed you and obeyed your commands?"

Bulan touched the bull whip that hung at his side.

Von Horn taught them to obey this," he said.

He used that upon them?" cried the girl in horror.

It was the only way," said Bulan. "They were almost brainless--they could

understand nothing else, for they could not reason."

Virginia shuddered.

Where are they now--the balance of them?" she asked.

They are dead, poor things," he replied, sadly. "Poor, hideous, unloved, unloving

monsters--they gave up their lives for the daughter of the man who made them

the awful, repulsive creatures that they were."

What do you mean?" cried the girl.

I mean that all have been killed searching for you, and battling with your

enemies. They were soulless creatures, but they loved the mean lives they gave

up so bravely for you whose father was the author of their misery--you owe a

great deal to them, Virginia."

"Poor things," murmured the girl, "but yet they are better off, for without brains

or souls there could be no happiness in life for them. My father did them a

hideous wrong, but it was an unintentional wrong. His mind was crazed with

dwelling upon the wonderful discovery he had made, and if he wronged them he

contemplated a still more terrible wrong to be inflicted upon me, his daughter."

"I do not understand," said Bulan.

120

The Monster Men