originally published Weird Tales, April-May 1931
Six dorks are arguing arcane, obscure, and probably ludicrously wrong anthropological/archaeological theory. They are John Conrad, Clemants, Professor Kirowan, Taverel, Ketrick and the narrator John O'Donnel. They're all good anglo-saxons (no xenophobia here!) except Ketrick, who looks almost Asian and has a lisp - O'Donnell thinks he's icky.
To make a point, Conrad produces a flint mallet he found on an archaeolgical dig. No, Conrad doesn't intend to make a point that way, but nonetheless Ketrick ends up clouting O'Donnel in the head and knocking him out.
O'Donnel awakes to find himself in an earlier incarnation, Aryara, an "Aryan" tribesmen in ancient Britain. It seems he was part of a hunting party, left on watch, but the dumb fuck fell asleep and his five buddies were slaughtered by the reptilian "little people". He manages to trace the murderous little shits back to their village and kills a bunch of them before being overwhelmed.
O'Donnel comes to but, recognizing Ketrick as a sub-human descendant of the Little People, he attacks him. They pull him off, figuring he's just addled (getting clobbered with a flint mallet might do that to a fella), but O'Donnel silently resolves to himself that he'll just have to bump Ketrick off later.
Nothing racial going on here! In any case this is pretty minor stuff with some spookery, some action, and a fairly dull intro. It's more like the seed of a plot that could have been expanded into something more compelling.
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