quite easily. They were talking about Ruth. To be explicit,
they were discussing her with exceeding frankness--"

"Martin!" she cried wrathfully.

"Well, all right," he went on, half repentantly. "As a
matter of fact, I had seen the pair steal up. My rifle
was under my hand. So I lay there quietly, listening.

"You can realize, Walter, that when I caught sight of
those two, looking as though they had materialized from
Darius's ghostly hordes, my scientific curiosity was
aroused--prodigiously. So in my interest I passed over the
matter of their speech; not alone because I thought Ruth
asleep but also because I took into consideration that the
mode of polite expression changes with the centuries--
and these gentlemen clearly belonged at least twenty centuries
back--the real truth is I was consumed with curiosity.

"They had got to a point where they were detailing with
what pleasure a certain mysterious person whom they
seemed to regard with much fear and respect would contemplate
her. I was wondering how long my desire to
observe--for to the anthropologist they were most fascinating
--could hold my hand back from my rifle when Ruth awakened.

"She jumped up like a little fury. Fired a pistol point
blank at them. Their amazement was--well--ludicrous. I
know it seems incredible, but they seemed to know nothing
of firearms--they certainly acted as though they didn't.