sh equivalent--and they recognize the existence of an immortal and
unknowable life-principle, or soul. They believe that the First Cause
has decreed the survival of the fittest as the fundamental law, which
belief accounts for their perfect physiques...."

"Perfect physiques? Why, they're as weak as children," interrupted
Dorothy.

"Yes, but that is because of the smallness of the planet," returned
Seaton. "You see, a man of my size weighs only eighty-six pounds here,
on a spring balance, so he would need only the muscular development of a
boy of twelve or so. In a contest of strength, either of you girls could
easily handle two of the strongest men upon Osnome. In fact, the average
Osnomian could stand up on our Earth only with the greatest difficulty.
But that isn't the fault of the people; they are magnificently developed
for their surroundings. They have attained this condition by centuries
of weeding out the unfit. They have no hospitals for the feeble-minded
or feeble-bodied--abnormal persons are not allowed to live. The same
reasoning accounts for their perfect cleanliness, moral and physical.
Vice is practically unknown. They believe that clean living and clean
thinking are rewarded by the production of a better physical and mental
type...."

"Yes, especially as they correct wrong living by those terrible
punishments the Kofedix told us about," interrupted Margaret.

"That probably helps some. They also believe that the higher the type
is, the faster will evolution proceed, and the sooner will mankind reach
what they call the Ultimate Goal, and know all things. Believing as they
do that the fittest must survive, and thinking themselves, of course,
the superior type, it is ordained that Mardonale must be destroyed
utterly, root and branch. They believe that the slaves are so low in the
scale, millions of years behind in evolution, that they do not count.
Slaves are simply intelligent and docile animals, little more than
horses or oxen. Mardonalians and savages are unfit to survive and must
be exterminated.

"Their ministers are chosen from the very fittest. They are the
strongest, cleanest-living, and most vigorous men of this clean and
vigorous nation, and are usually high army officers as well as
ministers."

* * * * *

An attendant announced the coming of the Karfedix and his son, to pay
the call of state. After the ceremonious greetings had been exchanged,
all went into