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Rh tell me one thing more: if this doom comes upon them while they are in human form, what happens then?"

"They pass back at once into their own world and are dealt with as I have told you there."

"Yes, I see it now. Two of the men here appeared to be missing the other morning, and when Davelli missed them I saw his face change with terror and malignity. I said to my friend here, 'Depend upon it the loss of these men has got something to do with his damnation.' Did I not say so, Bob?"

I nodded assent.

"It is true," said Leäfar.

"Then surely," said I, "they must be dying out rapidly."

"Dying out, certainly, but not as rapidly as you might suppose."

"Have they," said I, "the power to reproduce their kind?"

"No," said he; "the dwellers in the ether 'neither marry nor are given in marriage.' But they recruit their failing ranks from amongst men and from races analogous to man in other worlds like yours; they win them over to their side here and then claim them when they pass over there. Sometimes they steal them away