"I think," I said cautiously, "that we face an evolution of highly intelligent beings from ancestral sources radically removed from those through which mankind ascended. These half-human, highly developed batrachians they call the _Akka_ prove that evolution in these caverned spaces has certainly pursued one different path than on earth. The Englishman, Wells, wrote an imaginative and very entertaining book concerning an invasion of earth by Martians, and he made his Martians enormously specialized cuttlefish. There was nothing inherently improbable in Wells' choice. Man is the ruling animal of earth today solely by reason of a series of accidents; under another series spiders or ants, or even elephants, could have become the dominant race. "I think," I said, even more cautiously, "that the race to which the Three belong never appeared on earth's surface; that their development took place here, unhindered through aeons. And if this be true, the structure of their brains, and therefore all their reactions, must be different from ours. Hence their knowledge and command of energies unfamiliar to us--and hence also the question whether they may not have an entirely different sense of values, of justice--and that is rather terrifying," I concluded. Larry shook his head. "That last sort of knocks your argument, Doc," he said. "They had sense of justice enough to help _me_ out--and certainly they know love--for I saw the way they looked at Lakla; and sorrow--for there was no mistaking that in their faces. "No," he went on. "I hold to my own idea. They're of the Old People. The little leprechaun knew his way here, an' I'll bet it was they who sent the word. An' if the O'Keefe banshee comes here--which save the mark!--I'll bet she'll drop in on the Silent Ones for a social visit before she an' her clan get busy. Well, it'll make her feel more at home, the good old body. No, Doc, no," he concluded, "I'm right; it all fits in too well to be wrong." I made a last despairing attempt. "Is there anything anywhere in Ireland that would indicate that the Tuatha De ever looked like the Three?" I asked--and again I had spoken most unfortunately. "Is there?" he shouted. "Is there? By the kilt of Cormack MacCormack, I'm glad ye reminded me. It was worryin' me a little meself. There was Daghda, who could put on the head of a great boar an' the body of a giant fish and cleave the waves an' tear to pieces the birlins of any who came against Erin; an' there was Rinn--" How many more of the metamorphoses of the Old People I might have heard, I do not know, for the curtains parted and in walked Rador. "You have rested well," he smiled, "I can see. The handmaiden bade me call you. You are to eat with her in her garden."