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way to the river--it was but a short march through the jungle from where we

landed to the spot at which you took me away from that fearful Malay."

The girl's words cast a cloud over Bulan's hopes. The future looked less roseate

with the knowledge that she would be unhappy in the life that he had been

mapping for them. He was silent--thinking. In his breast a riot of conflicting

emotions were waging the first great battle which was to point the trend of the

man's character--would the selfish and the base prevail, or would the noble?

With the thought of losing her his desire for her companionship became almost a

mania. To return her to her father and von Horn would be to lose her--of that

there could be no doubt, for they would not leave her long in ignorance of his

origin. Then, in addition to being deprived of her forever, he must suffer the

galling mortification of her scorn.

It was a great deal to ask of a fledgling morality that was yet scarcely cognizant of

its untried wings; but even as the man wavered between right and wrong there

crept into his mind the one great and burning question of his life--had he a soul?

And he knew that upon his decision of the fate of Virginia Maxon rested to some

extent the true answer to that question, for, unconsciously, he had worked out

his own crude soul hypothesis which imparted to this invisible entity the power to

direct his actions only for good. Therefore he reasoned that wickedness

presupposed a small and worthless soul, or the entire lack of one.

That she would hate a soulless creature he accepted as a foregone conclusion.

He desired her respect, and that fact helped him to his final decision, but the

thing that decided him was born of the truly chivalrous nature he possessed--he

wanted Virginia Maxon to be happy; it mattered not at what cost to him.

The girl had been watching him closely as he stood silently thinking after her last

words. She did not know the struggle that the calm face hid; yet she felt that the

dragging moments were big with the question of her fate.

Well?" she said at length.

We must eat first," he replied in a matter-of-fact tone, and not at all as though

he was about to renounce his life's happiness, "and then we shall set out in

search of your father. I shall take you to him, Virginia, if man can find him."

"I knew that you could," she said, simply, "but how my father and I ever can

repay you I do not know--do you?"

123

The Monster Men