ook seats. Turgan stood beside Damis.

"For the enlightenment of our new-found brother, I will recite what has
happened and what we have done, although most of you know it and many of
you have done your part in bringing it about.

"Forty years ago, the Earth was prosperous, peopled with free men, and
happy. While we knew little of science and lived in mere huts, yet we
worshipped beauty and Him who ruled all and loved his children. It was
to such a world that the Jovians came.

"When the first space flyer with a load of these inhuman monsters
arrived on the earth, we foolishly took them for the angels whom we had
been taught to believe spent eternity in glorifying Him. We welcomed
them with our best and humbly obeyed when they spoke. This illusion was
fostered by the name the Jovians gave themselves, the 'Sons of God.'
Hortan, their leader and the father of our new brother, was a just and
kindly man and he ruled the earth wisely and well. We learned from them
and they learned from us. That was the golden age. And the Sons of God
saw that the Daughters of Man were fair, and they took of them wives,
such as they chose. And sons were born to them, the Nepthalim, the
mighty men of the Earth.

"In time other flyers came from the heavens above and brought more of
the Sons of God to rule over us. Then Hortan, the Viceroy, died, and
Damis, know you how he died? You were a babe at the time and you know
nothing. Your father and your mother, who was my distant kinswoman, died
under the knives of assassins. It was given out that they had gone to
Jupiter, yet there were some who knew the truth. You, the killers
sought, but one of the Earthmen whose heart bled for your dead mother,
spirited you away. When you had grown to boyhood, he announced your name
and lineage, although his life paid for his indiscretion. The same hand
which struck down your father and your mother struck at him and struck
not unavailingly. You, since all knew your name and lineage, he dared
not strike, lest those who love him not, would appeal to Tubain. Know
you the name of the monster, the traitor to his ruler and the murderer
of your parents?"

* * * * *

Damis' face had paled during the recital and when the old Kildare turned
to him, he silently shook his head.

"It was the monster who now rules over us as Viceroy and who profanes
the name of God by conferring it on his master and who would, if he
dared, ass