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first meeting. I wonder if she will remember me. I wonder if she will be as glad to

see me again as I shall be to see her."

"Jack," said von Horn, sadly, "I am afraid there is a terrible and disappointing

awakening for you. It grieves me that it should be so, but it seems only fair to tell

you, what Professor Maxon either does not know or has forgotten, that his

daughter will not look with pleasure upon you when she learns your origin.

"You are not as other men. You are but the accident of a laboratory experiment.

You have no soul, and the soul is all that raises man above the beasts. Jack,

poor boy, you are not a human being--you are not even a beast. The world, and

Miss Maxon is of the world, will look upon you as a terrible creature to be

shunned--a horrible monstrosity far lower in the scale of creation than the lowest

order of brutes.

Look," and the man pointed through the window toward the group of hideous

things that wandered aimlessly about the court of mystery. "You are of the same

breed as those, you differ from them only in the symmetry of your face and

features, and the superior development of your brain. There is no place in the

world for them, nor for you.

"I am sorry that it is so. I am sorry that I should have to be the one to tell you;

but it is better that you know it now from a friend than that you meet the bitter

truth when you least expected it, and possibly from the lips of one like Miss

Maxon for whom you might have formed a hopeless affection."

As von Horn spoke the expression on the young man's face became more and

more hopeless, and when he had ceased he dropped his head into his open

palms, sitting quiet and motionless as a carven statue. No sob shook his great

frame, there was no outward indication of the terrible grief that racked him

inwardly--only in the pose was utter dejection and hopelessness.

The older man could not repress a cold smile--it had had more effect than he had

hoped.

"Don't take it too hard, my boy," he continued. "The world is wide. It would be

easy to find a thousand places where your antecedents would be neither known

nor questioned. You might be very happy elsewhere and there are a hundred

thousand girls as beautiful and sweet as Virginia Maxon--remember that you

have never seen another, so you can scarcely judge."

Why did he ever bring me into the world?" exclaimed the young man suddenly.

It was wicked--wicked--terribly cruel and wicked."

The Monster Men