does not apply to the human race. There is no question that our
evolution is upward, that we have arisen from one-celled creatures
wallowing in the slime of primal seas. Our case is probably paralleled
by thousands of other intelligences on far-flung planets and island
universes. These instances, however, running at cross purposes to the
general evolutional trend of the entire cosmos, are mere flashes in the
eventual course of cosmic evolution, comparing no more to eternity than
a split second does to a million years.

"Taking these instances, then, as inconsequential, let us say that the
trend of cosmic evolution is downward rather than upward, from complex
units to simpler units rather than from simple units to more complex
ones.

"Let us say that life and intelligence have degenerated. How would you
say such a degeneration would take place? In just what way would it be
manifested? What sort of transition would life pass through in passing
from one stage to a lower one? Just what would be the nature of these
stages?"

The scientist's eyes glowed brightly as he bent forward in his chair.
The newspaperman said simply: "I have no idea."

"Man," cried the old man, "can't you see that it would be a matter of
dimensions? From the fourth dimension to the third, from the third to
the second, from the second to the first, from the first to a
questionable existence or plane which is beyond our understanding or
perhaps to oblivion and the end of life. Might not the fourth have
evolved from a fifth, the fifth from a sixth, the sixth from a seventh,
and so on to no one knows what multidimension?"

* * * * *

Dr. White paused to allow the other man to grasp the importance of his
statements. Woods failed lamentably to do so.

"But what has this to do with the Horror?" he asked.

"Have you absolutely no imagination?" shouted the old man.

"Why, I suppose I have, but I seem to fail to understand."

"We are facing an invasion of fourth-dimensional creatures," the old man
whispered, almost as if fearful to speak the words aloud. "We are being
attacked by life which is one dimension above us in evolution. We are
fighting, I tell you, a tribe of hellhounds out of the cosmos. They are
unthinkably above us in the matter of intelligence. There is a chasm of
knowledge between us so wide and so deep that it staggers the
imagination. They regard us as mere animals, perhaps not even that. So
far as the