"Life in the sea has followed different lines from life on land. Evolution has followed a different course. In the great deeps of the ocean, life utterly alien to ours has been discovered--luminous creatures which burst when exposed to the lighter pressure of the air--and in those tremendous depths forms of life completely inhuman have been developed, life forms that the uninitiated mind may think impossible. In Japan, an island country, we have known of these sea-dwellers for generations. Your English writer, Arthur Machen, has told a deep truth in his statement that man, afraid of these strange beings, has attributed to them beautiful or pleasantly grotesque forms which in reality they do not possess. Thus we have the nereids and oceanids--but nevertheless man could not fully disguise the true foulness of these creatures. Therefore there are legends of the Gorgons, of Scylla and the harpies--and, significantly, of the mermaids and their soullessness. No doubt you know the mermaid tale--how they long to steal the soul of a man, and draw it out by means of their kiss." Dean was at the window now, his back to the Japanese. As Yamada paused he said tonelessly, "Go on." "I have reason to believe," Yamada went on very quietly, "that Morella Godolfo, the woman from Alhambra, was not fully--human. She left no issue. These things never have children--they cannot." "What do you mean?" Dean had turned and was facing the Japanese, his face a ghastly white, the shadows beneath his eyes hideously livid. He repeated harshly, "What do you mean? You can't frighten me with your tales--if that's what you're trying to do. You--my uncle wants me out of this house, for some reason of his own. You're taking this means of getting me out--aren't you? Eh?" "You must leave this house," Yamada said. "Your uncle is coming, but he may not be in time. Listen to me: these creatures--the sea-dwellers--envy man. Sunlight, and warm fires, and the fields of earth--things which the sea-dwellers cannot normally possess. These things--and _love_. You remember what I said about mind-transference--the possession of a brain by an alien intelligence. That is the only way these things can attain that which they desire, and know the love of man or woman. Sometimes--not very often--one of these creatures succeeds in possessing itself of a human body. They watch always. When there is a wreck, they go there, like vultures to a feast. They can swim phenomenally fast. When a man is drowning, the defenses of his mind are down, and sometimes the sea-dwellers can thus acquire a human body. There have been tales of men saved from wrecks who ever after were oddly changed.