was gone....

Silently, through the silence and beauty of the dawn, we made our way
back to the house.

* * * * *

As we passed through the laboratory, Mercer glanced out at the empty
pool.

"Man came up from the sea," he said slowly, "and some men went back to
it. They were forced back to the teeming source from whence they came,
for lack of food. You saw that, Taylor--saw her forebears become
amphibians, like the now extinct Dipneusta and Ganoideii, or the still
existing Neoceratodus, Polypterus and Amia. Then their lungs became, in
effect, gills, and they lost their power of breathing atmospheric air,
and could use only air dissolved in water.

"A whole people there beneath the waves that land-man never dreamed
of--except, perhaps, the sailors of olden days, with their tales of
mermaids, which we are accustomed to laugh at in our wisdom!"

"But why were no bodies ever washed ashore?" I asked. "I would think--"

"You saw why," interrupted Mercer grimly. "The ocean teems with hungry
life. Death is the signal for a feast. It was little more than a miracle
that her body came ashore, a miracle due perhaps to the storm which sent
the hungry monsters to the greater depths. And even had a body come
ashore it would have been buried as that of some unknown, unfortunate
human. The differences between these people and ourselves would not be
noticeable to a casual observer.

"No, Taylor, we have been party to what was close to a miracle. And we
are the only witnesses to it, you and Carson and myself. And"--he sighed
deeply--"it is over."

I did not reply. I was thinking of the girl's odd gesture, at parting,
and I wondered if it were indeed a finished chapter.

Vandals of the Stars

_By A. T. Locke_

A livid flame flares across Space--and over Manhattan hovers
Teuxical, vassal of Malfero, Lord of the Universe, who comes
with ten thousand warriors to ravage and subjugate one more
planet for his master.

[Illustration: _Many planes and Zeppelins were circling around the
mysterious visitant._]

It came suddenly, without warning, and it brought consternation to the
people of the world.

A filament of flame darted down the dark skies one moonless night and
those who saw it believed, at first, that it was a meteor. Instead of
streaking away into oblivion, however, it became larger and larger,
until it seemed as though some vagrant, blazing star was about to plu