"When you say 'so far as the knowledge of man is concerned.'"
"Why is that?"
"You will understand in due time. Please proceed."
Vaguely the newspaperman wondered whether he was interviewing the scientist or the scientist interviewing him.
"They were first reported," Woods said, "early this spring. At that time they wiped out a small village in the province of Quebec. All the inhabitants, except a few fugitives, were found dead, killed mysteriously and half eaten, as if by wild beasts. The fugitives were demented, babbling of black shapes that swept down out of the dark forest upon the little town in the small hours of the morning.
"The next that was heard of them was about a week later, when they struck in an isolated rural district in Poland, killing and feeding on the population of several farms. In the next week more villages were wiped out, in practically every country on the face of the Earth. From the hinterlands came tales of murder done at midnight, of men and women horribly mangled, of livestock slaughtered, of buildings crushed as if by some titanic force.
"At first they worked only at night and then, seeming to become bolder and more numerous, attacked in broad daylight."
The newspaperman paused.
"Is that what you want?" he asked.