“I cannot tell you, Miss Maxon,” he said sadly, “how much I should hate to be the one to ignore your father’s commands, and enlighten you upon this and other subjects which lie nearer to your personal welfare than you can possibly guess; but I feel that after the horrors of this day duty demands that I must lay all before you—you cannot again be exposed to the horrors from which you were rescued only by a miracle.”
“I cannot imagine what you hint at, Dr. von Horn,” said Virginia, “but if to explain to me will necessitate betraying my father’s confidence I prefer that you remain silent.”
“You do not understand,” broke in the man, “you cannot guess the horrors that I have seen upon this island, or the worse horrors that are to come. Could you dream of what lies in store for you, you would seek death rather than face the future. I have been loyal to your father, Virginia, but were you not blind, or indifferent, you would long since have seen that your welfare means more to me than my loyalty to him—more to me than my life or my honor.
“You asked where the creature came from that attacked you today. I shall tell you. It is one of a dozen similarly hideous things that your father has created in his mad desire to solve the problem of life. He has solved it; but, God, at what a price in misshapen, soulless, hideous monsters!”
The girl looked up at him, horror stricken.
“Do you mean to say that my father in a mad attempt to usurp the functions of God created that awful thing?” she asked in a low, faint voice, “and that there are others like it upon the island?”
“In the campong next to yours there are a dozen others,” replied von Horn, “nor would it be easy to say which is the most hideous and repulsive. They are grotesque caricatures of humanity—without soul and almost without brain.”
“God!” murmured the girl, burying her face in her hands, “he has gone mad; he has gone mad.”
“I truly believe that he is mad,” said von Horn, “nor could you doubt it for a moment were I to tell you the worst.”
“The worst!” exclaimed the girl. “What could be worse than that which you already have divulged? Oh, how could you have permitted it?”