o almost the human normal, adapting themselves to earthly
speech and habits, and in some strange manner intensifying even further
their mental powers.

Or, to put it the other way around. These Tibetans, through the
injection of this unearthly blood, deteriorated slightly physically,
lost the "soul" parts of their nature entirely, and developed abnormally
efficient intellects.

However, through the centuries that followed, as the Hans spread over
the face of the earth, this unearthly strain in them not only became
more dilute, but lost its potency; and in the end, the poison of it
submerged the power of it, and earth's mankind came again into
possession of its inheritance.

How all this may be, I do not know. It is merely a hypothesis over which
the learned men of today quarrel.

* * * * *

But I do know that there was something inhuman about these Hans. And I
had many months of intimate contact with them, and with their Emperor in
America. I can vouch for the fact that even in his most friendly and
human moments, there was an inhumanity, or perhaps "unhumanity" about
him that aroused in me that urge to kill.

But whether or not there was in these people blood from outside this
planet, the fact remains that they have been exterminated, that a truly
human civilization reigns once more--and that I am now a very tired old
man, waiting with no regrets for the call which will take me to another
existence.

There, it is my hope and my conviction that my courageous mate of those
bloody days waits for me with loving arms.

THE END

Transcriber's Note:

In this text the two prefixes _ultro-_ and _ultrono-_ have been
applied inconsistently to much of the future technology. These
discrepancies remain as printed.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Airlords of Han, by Philip Francis Nowlan

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