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"It was his intention to give me in marriage to one of his soulless monsters--to the

one he called Number Thirteen. Oh, it is terrible even to think of the hideousness

of it; but now they are all dead he cannot do it even though his poor mind, which

seems well again, should suffer a relapse."

"Why do you loathe them so?" asked Bulan. "Is it because they are hideous, or

because they are soulless?"

"Either fact were enough to make them repulsive," replied the girl, "but it is the

fact that they were without souls that made them totally impossible--one easily

overlooks physical deformity, but the moral depravity that must be inherent in a

creature without a soul must forever cut him off from intercourse with human

beings."

"And you think that regardless of their physical appearance the fact that they

were without souls would have been apparent?" asked Bulan.

I am sure of it," cried Virginia. "I would know the moment I set my eyes upon a

creature without a soul."

With all the sorrow that was his, Bulan could scarce repress a smile, for it was

quite evident either that it was impossible to perceive a soul, or else that he

possessed one.

Just how do you distinguish the possessor of a soul?" he asked.

The girl cast a quick glance up at him.

"You are making fun of me," she said.

"Not at all," he replied. "I am just curious as to how souls make themselves

apparent. I have seen men kill one another as beasts kill. I have seen one who

was cruel to those within his power, yet they were all men with souls. I have seen

eleven soulless monsters die to save the daughter of a man whom they believed

had wronged them terribly--a man with a soul. How then am I to know what

attributes denote the possession of the immortal spark? How am I to know

whether or not I possess a soul?"

Virginia smiled.

"You are courageous and honorable and chivalrous--those are enough to warrant

the belief that you have a soul, were it not apparent from your countenance that

you are of the higher type of mankind," she said.

I hope that you will never change your opinion of me, Virginia," said the man;

but he knew that there lay before her a severe shock, and before him a great

The Monster Men