"On the contrary," said the doctor, "it is their peculiarity of eye that makes them dwell in caves."
"You are mistaking the cause for the effect, doctor."
"Not at all; it is you who are making that mistake."
"It's the old debate," said Melick. "As the poet has it:
"'Which was first, the egg or the hen?
Tell me, I pray, ye learned men!'"
"There are the eyeless fishes of the great cave of Kentucky," said Oxenden, "whose eyes have become extinct from living in the dark."
"No," cried the doctor; "the fish that have arisen in that lake have never needed eyes, and have never had them."
Oxenden laughed.
"Well," said he, "I'll discuss the question with you on different grounds altogether, and I will show clearly that these men, these bearded men, must belong to a stock that is nearly related to our own, or, at least, that they belong to a race of men with whom we are all very familiar."
"I should like very much to have you try it," said the doctor.