Angel Island

"They're better than goddesses on pedestals," Pete said. "They're

creatures neither of flesh nor of marble - they're ideals. They're made

of stars, sunlight, moonshine. I believe in treating them like beings of

a higher world."

"I disagree with all of you," Frank said ponderously, "I don't believe

in treating them as if they were pets or dolls, or goddesses on

pedestals or ideals. I believe in treating them like human beings, the

other half of the race. I don't see that they are any better or any

worse than we - they're about the same. Soon after we captured them, you

remember, we entered into an agreement that no one of us would ever let

his wife's wings grow without the consent of all the others. One minute

after I had given my word, I was sorry for it. But you kept your word to

me in the agreement that I forced on you before the capture; and, so, I

shall always keep mine to you. But I regret it more and more as time

goes on. You see I'm so constituted that I can't see anything but

abstract justice. And according to abstract justice we have no right to

hold these women bound to the earth. If the air is their natural

habitat, it is criminal for us to keep them out of it. They're our

equals in every sense - I mean in that they supplement us, as we

supplement them. They've got what we haven't got and we've got what they

haven't got. They can't walk, but they can fly. We can't fly, but we can

walk. It is as though they compelled us, creatures of the earth, to live

in the air all the time. Oh, it's wrong. You'll see it some day."

"I never listened to such sophistry in my life," said Ralph in disgust.

You'll be telling us next," he added sarcastically, that we hadn't any

right to capture them."

"We hadn't," Frank replied promptly. "On reflection, I consider that the

second greatest crime of my existence. But that's done and can't be

wiped out. They own this island just as much as we do. They'd been

coming to it for months before we saw it. They ought to have every kind

of right and freedom and privilege on it that we, have."

"I'd like to hear," Addington said in the high, thin tone of his peevish

disgust, "the evidence that justifies you in saying that. What have they

ever done on this island to put them on an equality with us? Aren't they

our inferiors from every point of view, especially physically?"