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214 but presently I heard Jack's voice ringing out clearly and confidently like the voice of a fearless and innocent child.

"Sir Leäfar," he said, "do the men who inhabit this valley belong to the evil race you speak of?"

"Yes," he replied, "they are some of the least powerful, though not the least evil among them."

"And what is their purpose here?"

"Their purpose in general is to set the inhabitants of your world against the will and purpose of the Infinite One, to teach them to call evil good and good evil. And they work out this purpose by a great variety of methods.

"They assume human forms, and they have dwellings in the most inaccessible parts of your worlds, near the summits of the loftiest mountain ranges, and in the polar regions, and in remote islands, and in deserts as here. When civilised men move into their neighbourhood they move away; and they destroy most of the marks of their occupation. Sometimes nothing remains; sometimes, it may be, a few huge rocks standing on end, or piled one upon another. Such remains, when you discover them, you account for by attributing their formation to races of men who have passed away.