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balance he found himself viewing his recent triumph with feelings of renewed

hope and anticipation.

The morbid fears superinduced by the shock following the sudden demise of the

first creature of his experiments had given place to a growing desire to further

prosecute his labors until enduring success had crowned his efforts with an

achievement which he might exhibit with pride to the scientific world.

His recent disastrous success had convinced him that neither Ithaca nor any

other abode of civilization was a safe place to continue his experiments, but it

was not until their cruising had brought them among the multitudinous islands

of the East Indies that the plan occurred to him that he finally adopted--a plan

the outcome of which could he then have foreseen would have sent him scurrying

to the safety of his own country with the daughter who was to bear the full brunt

of the horrors it entailed.

They were steaming up the China Sea when the idea first suggested itself, and as

he sat idly during the long, hot days the thought grew upon him, expanding into

a thousand wonderful possibilities, until it became crystalized into what was a

little short of an obsession.

The result was that at Manila, much to Virginia's surprise, he announced the

abandonment of the balance of their purposed voyage, taking immediate return

passage to Singapore. His daughter did not question him as to the cause of this

change in plans, for since those three days that her father had kept himself

locked in his workroom at home the girl had noticed a subtle change in her

parent--a marked disinclination to share with her his every confidence as had

been his custom since the death of her mother.

While it grieved her immeasurably she was both too proud and too hurt to sue for

a reestablishment of the old relations. On all other topics than his scientific work

their interests were as mutual as formerly, but by what seemed a manner of tacit

agreement this subject was taboo. And so it was that they came to Singapore

without the girl having the slightest conception of her father's plans.

Here they spent nearly a month, during which time Professor Maxon was daily

engaged in interviewing officials, English residents and a motley horde of Malays

and Chinamen.

Virginia met socially several of the men with whom her father was engaged but it

was only at the last moment that one of them let drop a hint of the purpose of the

month's activity. When Virginia was present the conversation seemed always

deftly guided from the subject of her father's immediate future, and she was not

long in discerning that it was in no sense through accident that this was true.

The Monster Men