"So!" said Lathendra Lepraylya. "What madness is this that I see? What blood-howl is this that I hear? No woman or man in Drome may be deprived of liberty or life without a fair trial; and yet you, yes, even you, O Brendaldoombro, are here striving to make a shambles of the very throne itself." She raised her hand and pointed toward us. "If these men are indeed--" "They are not men!" the old villain shouted. "They are demons who have taken the human shape, to attain here in Drome some fell purpose. Death, I say! Death to these masqueraded devils! Let death be swift and--" "Peace, I say!" exclaimed Lepraylya, stamping her sandaled foot. "And, if these men from the World Above are indeed but devils counterfeit, could we kill them, O Brendaldoombro? Since when can mere man kill a devil?" "When they are in the human shape, he can! Death! Death to these fiends who--" "One can kill their bodies only," interrupted the queen, "and it may be that he can not do even that much." "Their bodies only? What more," demanded Brendaldoombro, "can one do to any woman or man? Death! Death to these demons!" "Their spirits would be but loosed from the body, O Brendaldoombro, to move unseen in the air about us, and they could then--if, that is, they really are devils--the more easily achieve their nefarious designs." "They would be harmless then!" came the ready answer. "They are helpless save when they are in the human form." "Since when?" queried Lepraylya, her eyes widening in surprise. "Since when did the minions of the Evil One become helpless unless in human shape?" "You misapprehend, O Lathendra Lepraylya. These belong to a most peculiar order, to a most rare species of bad angel. And," cried Brendaldoombro, "they are the worst devils of all! Death to them before it is too late! Let us--" "Have justice," said Lepraylya, "as we hope for mercy and justice in that dread day when every human soul--even yours, O Brendaldoombro--must stand and be judged for the sins it has done in the flesh. No human being may be condemned in Drome without trial; and I believe that Lord Milton and Lord Bill are true men, O Brendaldoombro, and no demons. And you would slay them, murder them, these the first men from the World Above, as you would slay a _gogrugron_--if you did not fear it, O Brendaldoombro. Who knows what message they bring to us? Now they stand silent; but, when they will have learned our language, then we shall learn that which is now so dark and so mysterious." "Dark and mysterious indeed!" cried the high priest. "Signs and portents have been given us, warning us of what is to follow if we harbor these demons amongst us. And I tell you, O Lathendra Lepraylya, you and all Drome shall rue this day if you heed not the dread warnings of the wrath Divine. Darkness I see! Yes, I see, darkness! And earth-shocks! The roof of our world crashing down! Calamities that will overwhelm all Drome and--"