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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* +</pre> + +<p>The Lost Continent was originally published under +the title Beyond Thirty</p> + +<hr /> + +<h1>THE LOST CONTINENT</h1> + +<h2>Edgar Rice Burroughs</h2> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>1</h2> + + +<p>Since earliest childhood I have been strangely fascinated by +the mystery surrounding the history of the last days of +twentieth century Europe. My interest is keenest, perhaps, +not so much in relation to known facts as to speculation +upon the unknowable of the two centuries that have rolled by +since human intercourse between the Western and Eastern +Hemispheres ceased—the mystery of Europe's state following +the termination of the Great War—provided, of course, that +the war had been terminated.</p> + +<p>From out of the meagerness of our censored histories we +learned that for fifteen years after the cessation of +diplomatic relations between the United States of North +America and the belligerent nations of the Old World, news +of more or less doubtful authenticity filtered, from time to +time, into the Western Hemisphere from the Eastern.</p> + +<p>Then came the fruition of that historic propaganda which is +best described by its own slogan: "The East for the East—the West for the West," and all further intercourse was +stopped by statute.</p> + +<p>Even prior to this, transoceanic commerce had practically +ceased, owing to the perils and hazards of the mine-strewn +waters of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Just when +submarine activities ended we do not know but the last +vessel of this type sighted by a Pan-American merchantman +was the huge Q 138, which discharged twenty-nine torpedoes +at a Brazilian tank steamer off the Bermudas in the fall of +1972. A heavy sea and the excellent seamanship of the +master of the Brazilian permitted the Pan-American to escape +and report this last of a long series of outrages upon our +commerce. God alone knows how many hundreds of our ancient +ships fell prey to the roving steel sharks of blood-frenzied +Europe. Countless were the vessels and men that passed over +our eastern and western horizons never to return; but +whether they met their fates before the belching tubes of +submarines or among the aimlessly drifting mine fields, no +man lived to tell.</p> + +<p>And then came the great Pan-American Federation which linked +the Western Hemisphere from pole to pole under a single +flag, which joined the navies of the New World into the +mightiest fighting force that ever sailed the seven seas—the greatest argument for peace the world had ever known.</p> + +<p>Since that day peace had reigned from the western shores of +the Azores to the western shores of the Hawaiian Islands, +nor has any man of either hemisphere dared cross 30dW. or +175dW. From 30d to 175d is ours—from 30d to 175d is +peace, prosperity and happiness.</p> + +<p>Beyond was the great unknown. Even the geographies of my +boyhood showed nothing beyond. We were taught of nothing +beyond. Speculation was discouraged. For two hundred years +the Eastern Hemisphere had been wiped from the maps and +histories of Pan-America. Its mention in fiction, even, was +forbidden.</p> + +<p>Our ships of peace patrol thirty and one hundred seventy- +five. What ships from beyond they have warned only the +secret archives of government show; but, a naval officer +myself, I have gathered from the traditions of the service +that it has been fully two hundred years since smoke or sail +has been sighted east of 30d or west of 175d. The fate of +the relinquished provinces which lay beyond the dead lines +we could only speculate upon. That they were taken by the +military power, which rose so suddenly in China after the +fall of the republic, and which wrested Manchuria and Korea +from Russia and Japan, and also absorbed the Philippines, is +quite within the range of possibility.</p> + +<p>It was the commander of a Chinese man-of-war who received a +copy of the edict of 1972 from the hand of my illustrious +ancestor, Admiral Turck, on one hundred seventy-five, two +hundred and six years ago, and from the yellowed pages of +the admiral's diary I learned that the fate of the +Philippines was even then presaged by these Chinese naval +officers.</p> + +<p>Yes, for over two hundred years no man crossed 30d to 175d +and lived to tell his story—not until chance drew me across +and back again, and public opinion, revolting at last +against the drastic regulations of our long-dead forbears, +demanded that my story be given to the world, and that the +narrow interdict which commanded peace, prosperity, and +happiness to halt at 30d and 175d be removed forever.</p> + +<p>I am glad that it was given to me to be an instrument in the +hands of Providence for the uplifting of benighted Europe, +and the amelioration of the suffering, degradation, and +abysmal ignorance in which I found her.</p> + +<p>I shall not live to see the complete regeneration of the +savage hordes of the Eastern Hemisphere—that is a work +which will require many generations, perhaps ages, so +complete has been their reversion to savagery; but I know +that the work has been started, and I am proud of the share +in it which my generous countrymen have placed in my hands.</p> + +<p>The government already possesses a complete official report +of my adventures beyond thirty. In the narrative I purpose +telling my story in a less formal, and I hope, a more +entertaining, style; though, being only a naval officer and +without claim to the slightest literary ability, I shall +most certainly fall far short of the possibilities which are +inherent in my subject. That I have passed through the most +wondrous adventures that have befallen a civilized man +during the past two centuries encourages me in the belief +that, however ill the telling, the facts themselves will +command your interest to the final page.</p> + +<p>Beyond thirty! Romance, adventure, strange peoples, +fearsome beasts—all the excitement and scurry of the lives +of the twentieth century ancients that have been denied us +in these dull days of peace and prosaic prosperity—all, all +lay beyond thirty, the invisible barrier between the stupid, +commercial present and the carefree, barbarous past.</p> + +<p>What boy has not sighed for the good old days of wars, +revolutions, and riots; how I used to pore over the +chronicles of those old days, those dear old days, when +workmen went armed to their labors; when they fell upon one +another with gun and bomb and dagger, and the streets ran +red with blood! Ah, but those were the times when life was +worth the living; when a man who went out by night knew not +at which dark corner a "footpad" might leap upon and slay +him; when wild beasts roamed the forest and the jungles, and +there were savage men, and countries yet unexplored.</p> + +<p>Now, in all the Western Hemisphere dwells no man who may not +find a school house within walking distance of his home, or +at least within flying distance.</p> + +<p>The wildest beast that roams our waste places lairs in the +frozen north or the frozen south within a government +reserve, where the curious may view him and feed him bread +crusts from the hand with perfect impunity.</p> + +<p>But beyond thirty! And I have gone there, and come back; +and now you may go there, for no longer is it high treason, +punishable by disgrace or death, to cross 30d or 175d.</p> + +<p>My name is Jefferson Turck. I am a lieutenant in the navy—in the great Pan-American navy, the only navy which now +exists in all the world.</p> + +<p>I was born in Arizona, in the United States of North +America, in the year of our Lord 2116. Therefore, I am +twenty-one years old.</p> + +<p>In early boyhood I tired of the teeming cities and +overcrowded rural districts of Arizona. Every generation of +Turcks for over two centuries has been represented in the +navy. The navy called to me, as did the free, wide, +unpeopled spaces of the mighty oceans. And so I joined the +navy, coming up from the ranks, as we all must, learning our +craft as we advance. My promotion was rapid, for my family +seems to inherit naval lore. We are born officers, and I +reserve to myself no special credit for an early advancement +in the service.</p> + +<p>At twenty I found myself a lieutenant in command of the +aero-submarine Coldwater, of the SS-96 class. The Coldwater +was one of the first of the air and underwater craft which +have been so greatly improved since its launching, and was +possessed of innumerable weaknesses which, fortunately, have +been eliminated in more recent vessels of similar type.</p> + +<p>Even when I took command, she was fit only for the junk +pile; but the world-old parsimony of government retained her +in active service, and sent two hundred men to sea in her, +with myself, a mere boy, in command of her, to patrol thirty +from Iceland to the Azores.</p> + +<p>Much of my service had been spent aboard the great +merchantmen-of-war. These are the utility naval vessels +that have transformed the navies of old, which burdened the +peoples with taxes for their support, into the present day +fleets of self-supporting ships that find ample time for +target practice and gun drill while they bear freight and +the mails from the continents to the far-scattered island of +Pan-America.</p> + +<p>This change in service was most welcome to me, especially as +it brought with it coveted responsibilities of sole command, +and I was prone to overlook the deficiencies of the +Coldwater in the natural pride I felt in my first ship.</p> + +<p>The Coldwater was fully equipped for two months' patrolling—the ordinary length of assignment to this service—and a +month had already passed, its monotony entirely unrelieved +by sight of another craft, when the first of our misfortunes +befell.</p> + +<p>We had been riding out a storm at an altitude of about three +thousand feet. All night we had hovered above the tossing +billows of the moonlight clouds. The detonation of the +thunder and the glare of lightning through an occasional +rift in the vaporous wall proclaimed the continued fury of +the tempest upon the surface of the sea; but we, far above +it all, rode in comparative ease upon the upper gale. With +the coming of dawn the clouds beneath us became a glorious +sea of gold and silver, soft and beautiful; but they could +not deceive us as to the blackness and the terrors of the +storm-lashed ocean which they hid.</p> + +<p>I was at breakfast when my chief engineer entered and +saluted. His face was grave, and I thought he was even a +trifle paler than usual.</p> + +<p>"Well?" I asked.</p> + +<p>He drew the back of his forefinger nervously across his brow +in a gesture that was habitual with him in moments of mental +stress.</p> + +<p>"The gravitation-screen generators, sir," he said. "Number +one went to the bad about an hour and a half ago. We have +been working upon it steadily since; but I have to report, +sir, that it is beyond repair."</p> + +<p>"Number two will keep us supplied," I answered. "In the +meantime we will send a wireless for relief."</p> + +<p>"But that is the trouble, sir," he went on. "Number two has +stopped. I knew it would come, sir. I made a report on +these generators three years ago. I advised then that they +both be scrapped. Their principle is entirely wrong. +They're done for." And, with a grim smile, "I shall at +least have the satisfaction of knowing my report was +accurate."</p> + +<p>"Have we sufficient reserve screen to permit us to make +land, or, at least, meet our relief halfway?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"No, sir," he replied gravely; "we are sinking now."</p> + +<p>"Have you anything further to report?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"No, sir," he said.</p> + +<p>"Very good," I replied; and, as I dismissed him, I rang for +my wireless operator. When he appeared, I gave him a +message to the secretary of the navy, to whom all vessels in +service on thirty and one hundred seventy-five report +direct. I explained our predicament, and stated that with +what screening force remained I should continue in the air, +making as rapid headway toward St. Johns as possible, and +that when we were forced to take to the water I should +continue in the same direction.</p> + +<p>The accident occurred directly over 30d and about 52d N. +The surface wind was blowing a tempest from the west. To +attempt to ride out such a storm upon the surface seemed +suicidal, for the Coldwater was not designed for surface +navigation except under fair weather conditions. Submerged, +or in the air, she was tractable enough in any sort of +weather when under control; but without her screen +generators she was almost helpless, since she could not fly, +and, if submerged, could not rise to the surface.</p> + +<p>All these defects have been remedied in later models; but +the knowledge did not help us any that day aboard the slowly +settling Coldwater, with an angry sea roaring beneath, a +tempest raging out of the west, and 30d only a few knots +astern.</p> + +<p>To cross thirty or one hundred seventy-five has been, as you +know, the direst calamity that could befall a naval +commander. Court-martial and degradation follow swiftly, +unless as is often the case, the unfortunate man takes his +own life before this unjust and heartless regulation can +hold him up to public scorn.</p> + +<p>There has been in the past no excuse, no circumstance, that +could palliate the offense.</p> + +<p>"He was in command, and he took his ship across thirty!" +That was sufficient. It might not have been in any way his +fault, as, in the case of the Coldwater, it could not +possibly have been justly charged to my account that the +gravitation-screen generators were worthless; but well I +knew that should chance have it that we were blown across +thirty today—as we might easily be before the terrific west +wind that we could hear howling below us, the responsibility +would fall upon my shoulders.</p> + +<p>In a way, the regulation was a good one, for it certainly +accomplished that for which it was intended. We all fought +shy of 30d on the east and 175d on the west, and, though we +had to skirt them pretty close, nothing but an act of God +ever drew one of us across. You all are familiar with the +naval tradition that a good officer could sense proximity to +either line, and for my part, I am firmly convinced of the +truth of this as I am that the compass finds the north +without recourse to tedious processes of reasoning.</p> + +<p>Old Admiral Sanchez was wont to maintain that he could smell +thirty, and the men of the first ship in which I sailed +claimed that Coburn, the navigating officer, knew by name +every wave along thirty from 60dN. to 60dS. However, I'd +hate to vouch for this.</p> + +<p>Well, to get back to my narrative; we kept on dropping +slowly toward the surface the while we bucked the west wind, +clawing away from thirty as fast as we could. I was on the +bridge, and as we dropped from the brilliant sunlight into +the dense vapor of clouds and on down through them to the +wild, dark storm strata beneath, it seemed that my spirits +dropped with the falling ship, and the buoyancy of hope ran +low in sympathy.</p> + +<p>The waves were running to tremendous heights, and the +Coldwater was not designed to meet such waves head on. Her +elements were the blue ether, far above the raging storm, or +the greater depths of ocean, which no storm could ruffle.</p> + +<p>As I stood speculating upon our chances once we settled into +the frightful Maelstrom beneath us and at the same time +mentally computing the hours which must elapse before aid +could reach us, the wireless operator clambered up the +ladder to the bridge, and, disheveled and breathless, stood +before me at salute. It needed but a glance at him to +assure me that something was amiss.</p> + +<p>"What now?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"The wireless, sir!" he cried. "My God, sir, I cannot +send."</p> + +<p>"But the emergency outfit?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I have tried everything, sir. I have exhausted every +resource. We cannot send," and he drew himself up and +saluted again.</p> + +<p>I dismissed him with a few kind words, for I knew that it +was through no fault of his that the mechanism was +antiquated and worthless, in common with the balance of the +Coldwater's equipment. There was no finer operator in Pan- +America than he.</p> + +<p>The failure of the wireless did not appear as momentous to +me as to him, which is not unnatural, since it is but human +to feel that when our own little cog slips, the entire +universe must necessarily be put out of gear. I knew that +if this storm were destined to blow us across thirty, or +send us to the bottom of the ocean, no help could reach us +in time to prevent it. I had ordered the message sent +solely because regulations required it, and not with any +particular hope that we could benefit by it in our present +extremity.</p> + +<p>I had little time to dwell upon the coincidence of the +simultaneous failure of the wireless and the buoyancy +generators, since very shortly after the Coldwater had +dropped so low over the waters that all my attention was +necessarily centered upon the delicate business of settling +upon the waves without breaking my ship's back. With our +buoyancy generators in commission it would have been a +simple thing to enter the water, since then it would have +been but a trifling matter of a forty-five degree dive into +the base of a huge wave. We should have cut into the water +like a hot knife through butter, and have been totally +submerged with scarce a jar—I have done it a thousand +times—but I did not dare submerge the Coldwater for fear +that it would remain submerged to the end of time—a +condition far from conducive to the longevity of commander +or crew.</p> + +<p>Most of my officers were older men than I. John Alvarez, my +first officer, is twenty years my senior. He stood at my +side on the bridge as the ship glided closer and closer to +those stupendous waves. He watched my every move, but he +was by far too fine an officer and gentleman to embarrass me +by either comment or suggestion.</p> + +<p>When I saw that we soon would touch, I ordered the ship +brought around broadside to the wind, and there we hovered a +moment until a huge wave reached up and seized us upon its +crest, and then I gave the order that suddenly reversed the +screening force, and let us into the ocean. Down into the +trough we went, wallowing like the carcass of a dead whale, +and then began the fight, with rudder and propellers, to +force the Coldwater back into the teeth of the gale and +drive her on and on, farther and farther from relentless +thirty.</p> + +<p>I think that we should have succeeded, even though the ship +was wracked from stem to stern by the terrific buffetings +she received, and though she were half submerged the greater +part of the time, had no further accident befallen us.</p> + +<p>We were making headway, though slowly, and it began to look +as though we were going to pull through. Alvarez never left +my side, though I all but ordered him below for much-needed +rest. My second officer, Porfirio Johnson, was also often +on the bridge. He was a good officer, but a man for whom I +had conceived a rather unreasoning aversion almost at the +first moment of meeting him, an aversion which was not +lessened by the knowledge which I subsequently gained that +he looked upon my rapid promotion with jealousy. He was ten +years my senior both in years and service, and I rather +think he could never forget the fact that he had been an +officer when I was a green apprentice.</p> + +<p>As it became more and more apparent that the Coldwater, +under my seamanship, was weathering the tempest and giving +promise of pulling through safely, I could have sworn that I +perceived a shade of annoyance and disappointment growing +upon his dark countenance. He left the bridge finally and +went below. I do not know that he is directly responsible +for what followed so shortly after; but I have always had my +suspicions, and Alvarez is even more prone to place the +blame upon him than I.</p> + +<p>It was about six bells of the forenoon watch that Johnson +returned to the bridge after an absence of some thirty +minutes. He seemed nervous and ill at ease—a fact which +made little impression on me at the time, but which both +Alvarez and I recalled subsequently.</p> + +<p>Not three minutes after his reappearance at my side the +Coldwater suddenly commenced to lose headway. I seized the +telephone at my elbow, pressing upon the button which would +call the chief engineer to the instrument in the bowels of +the ship, only to find him already at the receiver +attempting to reach me.</p> + +<p>"Numbers one, two, and five engines have broken down, sir," +he called. "Shall we force the remaining three?"</p> + +<p>"We can do nothing else," I bellowed into the transmitter.</p> + +<p>"They won't stand the gaff, sir," he returned.</p> + +<p>"Can you suggest a better plan?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"No, sir," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Then give them the gaff, lieutenant," I shouted back, and +hung up the receiver.</p> + +<p>For twenty minutes the Coldwater bucked the great seas with +her three engines. I doubt if she advanced a foot; but it +was enough to keep her nose in the wind, and, at least, we +were not drifting toward thirty.</p> + +<p>Johnson and Alvarez were at my side when, without warning, +the bow swung swiftly around and the ship fell into the +trough of the sea.</p> + +<p>"The other three have gone," I said, and I happened to be +looking at Johnson as I spoke. Was it the shadow of a +satisfied smile that crossed his thin lips? I do not know; +but at least he did not weep.</p> + +<p>"You always have been curious, sir, about the great unknown +beyond thirty," he said. "You are in a good way to have +your curiosity satisfied." And then I could not mistake the +slight sneer that curved his upper lip. There must have +been a trace of disrespect in his tone or manner which +escaped me, for Alvarez turned upon him like a flash.</p> + +<p>"When Lieutenant Turck crosses thirty," he said, "we shall +all cross with him, and God help the officer or the man who +reproaches him!"</p> + +<p>"I shall not be a party to high treason," snapped Johnson. +"The regulations are explicit, and if the Coldwater crosses +thirty it devolves upon you to place Lieutenant Turck under +arrest and immediately exert every endeavor to bring the +ship back into Pan-American waters."</p> + +<p>"I shall not know," replied Alvarez, "that the Coldwater +passes thirty; nor shall any other man aboard know it," and, +with his words, he drew a revolver from his pocket, and +before either I or Johnson could prevent it had put a bullet +into every instrument upon the bridge, ruining them beyond +repair.</p> + +<p>And then he saluted me, and strode from the bridge, a martyr +to loyalty and friendship, for, though no man might know +that Lieutenant Jefferson Turck had taken his ship across +thirty, every man aboard would know that the first officer +had committed a crime that was punishable by both +degradation and death. Johnson turned and eyed me narrowly.</p> + +<p>"Shall I place him under arrest?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"You shall not," I replied. "Nor shall anyone else."</p> + +<p>"You become a party to his crime!" he cried angrily.</p> + +<p>"You may go below, Mr. Johnson," I said, "and attend to the +work of unpacking the extra instruments and having them +properly set upon the bridge."</p> + +<p>He saluted, and left me, and for some time I stood, gazing +out upon the angry waters, my mind filled with unhappy +reflections upon the unjust fate that had overtaken me, and +the sorrow and disgrace that I had unwittingly brought down +upon my house.</p> + +<p>I rejoiced that I should leave neither wife nor child to +bear the burden of my shame throughout their lives.</p> + +<p>As I thought upon my misfortune, I considered more clearly +than ever before the unrighteousness of the regulation which +was to prove my doom, and in the natural revolt against its +injustice my anger rose, and there mounted within me a +feeling which I imagine must have paralleled that spirit +that once was prevalent among the ancients called anarchy.</p> + +<p>For the first time in my life I found my sentiments arraying +themselves against custom, tradition, and even government. +The wave of rebellion swept over me in an instant, beginning +with an heretical doubt as to the sanctity of the +established order of things—that fetish which has ruled +Pan-Americans for two centuries, and which is based upon a +blind faith in the infallibility of the prescience of the +long-dead framers of the articles of Pan-American +federation—and ending in an adamantine determination to +defend my honor and my life to the last ditch against the +blind and senseless regulation which assumed the synonymity +of misfortune and treason.</p> + +<p>I would replace the destroyed instruments upon the bridge; +every officer and man should know when we crossed thirty. +But then I should assert the spirit which dominated me, I +should resist arrest, and insist upon bringing my ship back +across the dead line, remaining at my post until we had +reached New York. Then I should make a full report, and +with it a demand upon public opinion that the dead lines be +wiped forever from the seas.</p> + +<p>I knew that I was right. I knew that no more loyal officer +wore the uniform of the navy. I knew that I was a good +officer and sailor, and I didn't propose submitting to +degradation and discharge because a lot of old, preglacial +fossils had declared over two hundred years before that no +man should cross thirty.</p> + +<p>Even while these thoughts were passing through my mind I was +busy with the details of my duties. I had seen to it that a +sea anchor was rigged, and even now the men had completed +their task, and the Coldwater was swinging around rapidly, +her nose pointing once more into the wind, and the frightful +rolling consequent upon her wallowing in the trough was +happily diminishing.</p> + +<p>It was then that Johnson came hurrying to the bridge. One +of his eyes was swollen and already darkening, and his lip +was cut and bleeding. Without even the formality of a +salute, he burst upon me, white with fury.</p> + +<p>"Lieutenant Alvarez attacked me!" he cried. "I demand that +he be placed under arrest. I found him in the act of +destroying the reserve instruments, and when I would have +interfered to protect them he fell upon me and beat me. I +demand that you arrest him!"</p> + +<p>"You forget yourself, Mr. Johnson," I said. "You are not in +command of the ship. I deplore the action of Lieutenant +Alvarez, but I cannot expunge from my mind the loyalty and +self-sacrificing friendship which has prompted him to his +acts. Were I you, sir, I should profit by the example he +has set. Further, Mr. Johnson, I intend retaining command +of the ship, even though she crosses thirty, and I shall +demand implicit obedience from every officer and man aboard +until I am properly relieved from duty by a superior officer +in the port of New York."</p> + +<p>"You mean to say that you will cross thirty without +submitting to arrest?" he almost shouted.</p> + +<p>"I do, sir," I replied. "And now you may go below, and, +when again you find it necessary to address me, you will +please be so good as to bear in mind the fact that I am your +commanding officer, and as such entitled to a salute."</p> + +<p>He flushed, hesitated a moment, and then, saluting, turned +upon his heel and left the bridge. Shortly after, Alvarez +appeared. He was pale, and seemed to have aged ten years in +the few brief minutes since I last had seen him. Saluting, +he told me very simply what he had done, and asked that I +place him under arrest.</p> + +<p>I put my hand on his shoulder, and I guess that my voice +trembled a trifle as, while reproving him for his act, I +made it plain to him that my gratitude was no less potent a +force than his loyalty to me. Then it was that I outlined +to him my purpose to defy the regulation that had raised the +dead lines, and to take my ship back to New York myself.</p> + +<p>I did not ask him to share the responsibility with me. I +merely stated that I should refuse to submit to arrest, and +that I should demand of him and every other officer and man +implicit obedience to my every command until we docked at +home.</p> + +<p>His face brightened at my words, and he assured me that I +would find him as ready to acknowledge my command upon the +wrong side of thirty as upon the right, an assurance which I +hastened to tell him I did not need.</p> + +<p>The storm continued to rage for three days, and as far as +the wind scarce varied a point during all that time, I knew +that we must be far beyond thirty, drifting rapidly east by +south. All this time it had been impossible to work upon +the damaged engines or the gravity-screen generators; but we +had a full set of instruments upon the bridge, for Alvarez, +after discovering my intentions, had fetched the reserve +instruments from his own cabin, where he had hidden them. +Those which Johnson had seen him destroy had been a third +set which only Alvarez had known was aboard the Coldwater.</p> + +<p>We waited impatiently for the sun, that we might determine +our exact location, and upon the fourth day our vigil was +rewarded a few minutes before noon.</p> + +<p>Every officer and man aboard was tense with nervous +excitement as we awaited the result of the reading. The +crew had known almost as soon as I that we were doomed to +cross thirty, and I am inclined to believe that every man +jack of them was tickled to death, for the spirits of +adventure and romance still live in the hearts of men of the +twenty-second century, even though there be little for them +to feed upon between thirty and one hundred seventy-five.</p> + +<p>The men carried none of the burdens of responsibility. They +might cross thirty with impunity, and doubtless they would +return to be heroes at home; but how different the home- +coming of their commanding officer!</p> + +<p>The wind had dropped to a steady blow, still from west by +north, and the sea had gone down correspondingly. The crew, +with the exception of those whose duties kept them below, +were ranged on deck below the bridge. When our position was +definitely fixed I personally announced it to the eager, +waiting men.</p> + +<p>"Men," I said, stepping forward to the handrail and looking +down into their upturned, bronzed faces, "you are anxiously +awaiting information as to the ship's position. It has been +determined at latitude fifty degrees seven minutes north, +longitude twenty degrees sixteen minutes west."</p> + +<p>I paused and a buzz of animated comment ran through the +massed men beneath me. "Beyond thirty. But there will be +no change in commanding officers, in routine or in +discipline, until after we have docked again in New York."</p> + +<p>As I ceased speaking and stepped back from the rail there +was a roar of applause from the deck such as I never before +had heard aboard a ship of peace. It recalled to my mind +tales that I had read of the good old days when naval +vessels were built to fight, when ships of peace had been +man-of-war, and guns had flashed in other than futile target +practice, and decks had run red with blood.</p> + +<p>With the subsistence of the sea, we were able to go to work +upon the damaged engines to some effect, and I also set men +to examining the gravitation-screen generators with a view +to putting them in working order should it prove not beyond +our resources.</p> + +<p>For two weeks we labored at the engines, which indisputably +showed evidence of having been tampered with. I appointed a +board to investigate and report upon the disaster. But it +accomplished nothing other than to convince me that there +were several officers upon it who were in full sympathy with +Johnson, for, though no charges had been preferred against +him, the board went out of its way specifically to exonerate +him in its findings.</p> + +<p>All this time we were drifting almost due east. The work +upon the engines had progressed to such an extent that +within a few hours we might expect to be able to proceed +under our own power westward in the direction of Pan- +American waters.</p> + +<p>To relieve the monotony I had taken to fishing, and early +that morning I had departed from the Coldwater in one of the +boats on such an excursion. A gentle west wind was blowing. +The sea shimmered in the sunlight. A cloudless sky canopied +the west for our sport, as I had made it a point never +voluntarily to make an inch toward the east that I could +avoid. At least, they should not be able to charge me with +a willful violation of the dead lines regulation.</p> + +<p>I had with me only the boat's ordinary complement of men—three in all, and more than enough to handle any small power +boat. I had not asked any of my officers to accompany me, +as I wished to be alone, and very glad am I now that I had +not. My only regret is that, in view of what befell us, it +had been necessary to bring the three brave fellows who +manned the boat.</p> + +<p>Our fishing, which proved excellent, carried us so far to +the west that we no longer could see the Coldwater. The day +wore on, until at last, about mid-afternoon, I gave the +order to return to the ship.</p> + +<p>We had proceeded but a short distance toward the east when +one of the men gave an exclamation of excitement, at the +same time pointing eastward. We all looked on in the +direction he had indicated, and there, a short distance +above the horizon, we saw the outlines of the Coldwater +silhouetted against the sky.</p> + +<p>"They've repaired the engines and the generators both," +exclaimed one of the men.</p> + +<p>It seemed impossible, but yet it had evidently been done. +Only that morning, Lieutenant Johnson had told me that he +feared that it would be impossible to repair the generators. +I had put him in charge of this work, since he always had +been accounted one of the best gravitation-screen men in +the navy. He had invented several of the improvements that +are incorporated in the later models of these generators, +and I am convinced that he knows more concerning both the +theory and the practice of screening gravitation than any +living Pan-American.</p> + +<p>At the sight of the Coldwater once more under control, the +three men burst into a glad cheer. But, for some reason +which I could not then account, I was strangely overcome by +a premonition of personal misfortune. It was not that I now +anticipated an early return to Pan-America and a board of +inquiry, for I had rather looked forward to the fight that +must follow my return. No, there was something else, +something indefinable and vague that cast a strange gloom +upon me as I saw my ship rising farther above the water and +making straight in our direction.</p> + +<p>I was not long in ascertaining a possible explanation of my +depression, for, though we were plainly visible from the +bridge of the aero-submarine and to the hundreds of men who +swarmed her deck, the ship passed directly above us, not +five hundred feet from the water, and sped directly +westward.</p> + +<p>We all shouted, and I fired my pistol to attract their +attention, though I knew full well that all who cared to had +observed us, but the ship moved steadily away, growing +smaller and smaller to our view until at last she passed +completely out of sight.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>2</h2> + + +<p>What could it mean? I had left Alvarez in command. He was +my most loyal subordinate. It was absolutely beyond the +pale of possibility that Alvarez should desert me. No, +there was some other explanation. Something occurred to +place my second officer, Porfirio Johnson, in command. I +was sure of it but why speculate? The futility of +conjecture was only too palpable. The Coldwater had +abandoned us in midocean. Doubtless none of us would +survive to know why.</p> + +<p>The young man at the wheel of the power boat had turned her +nose about as it became evident that the ship intended +passing over us, and now he still held her in futile pursuit +of the Coldwater.</p> + +<p>"Bring her about, Snider," I directed, "and hold her due +east. We can't catch the Coldwater, and we can't cross the +Atlantic in this. Our only hope lies in making the nearest +land, which, unless I am mistaken, is the Scilly Islands, +off the southwest coast of England. Ever heard of England, +Snider?"</p> + +<p>"There's a part of the United States of North America that +used to be known to the ancients as New England," he +replied. "Is that where you mean, sir?"</p> + +<p>"No, Snider," I replied. "The England I refer to was an +island off the continent of Europe. It was the seat of a +very powerful kingdom that flourished over two hundred years +ago. A part of the United States of North America and all +of the Federated States of Canada once belonged to this +ancient England."</p> + +<p>"Europe," breathed one of the men, his voice tense with +excitement. "My grandfather used to tell me stories of the +world beyond thirty. He had been a great student, and he +had read much from forbidden books."</p> + +<p>"In which I resemble your grandfather," I said, "for I, too, +have read more even than naval officers are supposed to +read, and, as you men know, we are permitted a greater +latitude in the study of geography and history than men of +other professions.</p> + +<p>"Among the books and papers of Admiral Porter Turck, who +lived two hundred years ago, and from whom I am descended, +many volumes still exist, and are in my possession, which +deal with the history and geography of ancient Europe. +Usually I bring several of these books with me upon a +cruise, and this time, among others, I have maps of Europe +and her surrounding waters. I was studying them as we came +away from the Coldwater this morning, and luckily I have +them with me."</p> + +<p>"You are going to try to make Europe, sir?" asked Taylor, +the young man who had last spoken.</p> + +<p>"It is the nearest land," I replied. "I have always wanted +to explore the forgotten lands of the Eastern Hemisphere. +Here's our chance. To remain at sea is to perish. None of +us ever will see home again. Let us make the best of it, +and enjoy while we do live that which is forbidden the +balance of our race—the adventure and the mystery which lie +beyond thirty."</p> + +<p>Taylor and Delcarte seized the spirit of my mood but Snider, +I think, was a trifle sceptical.</p> + +<p>"It is treason, sir," I replied, "but there is no law which +compels us to visit punishment upon ourselves. Could we +return to Pan-America, I should be the first to insist that +we face it. But we know that's not possible. Even if this +craft would carry us so far, we haven't enough water or food +for more than three days.</p> + +<p>"We are doomed, Snider, to die far from home and without +ever again looking upon the face of another fellow +countryman than those who sit here now in this boat. Isn't +that punishment sufficient for even the most exacting +judge?"</p> + +<p>Even Snider had to admit that it was.</p> + +<p>"Very well, then, let us live while we live, and enjoy to +the fullest whatever of adventure or pleasure each new day +brings, since any day may be our last, and we shall be dead +for a considerable while."</p> + +<p>I could see that Snider was still fearful, but Taylor and +Delcarte responded with a hearty, "Aye, aye, sir!"</p> + +<p>They were of different mold. Both were sons of naval +officers. They represented the aristocracy of birth, and +they dared to think for themselves.</p> + +<p>Snider was in the minority, and so we continued toward the +east. Beyond thirty, and separated from my ship, my +authority ceased. I held leadership, if I was to hold it at +all, by virtue of personal qualifications only, but I did +not doubt my ability to remain the director of our destinies +in so far as they were amenable to human agencies. I have +always led. While my brain and brawn remain unimpaired I +shall continue always to lead. Following is an art which +Turcks do not easily learn.</p> + +<p>It was not until the third day that we raised land, dead +ahead, which I took, from my map, to be the isles of Scilly. +But such a gale was blowing that I did not dare attempt to +land, and so we passed to the north of them, skirted Land's +End, and entered the English Channel.</p> + +<p>I think that up to that moment I had never experienced such +a thrill as passed through me when I realized that I was +navigating these historic waters. The lifelong dreams that +I never had dared hope to see fulfilled were at last a +reality—but under what forlorn circumstances!</p> + +<p>Never could I return to my native land. To the end of my +days I must remain in exile. Yet even these thoughts failed +to dampen my ardor.</p> + +<p>My eyes scanned the waters. To the north I could see the +rockbound coast of Cornwall. Mine were the first American +eyes to rest upon it for more than two hundred years. In +vain, I searched for some sign of ancient commerce that, if +history is to be believed, must have dotted the bosom of the +Channel with white sails and blackened the heavens with the +smoke of countless funnels, but as far as eye could reach +the tossing waters of the Channel were empty and deserted.</p> + +<p>Toward midnight the wind and sea abated, so that shortly +after dawn I determined to make inshore in an attempt to +effect a landing, for we were sadly in need of fresh water +and food.</p> + +<p>According to my observations, we were just off Ram Head, and +it was my intention to enter Plymouth Bay and visit +Plymouth. From my map it appeared that this city lay back +from the coast a short distance, and there was another city +given as Devonport, which appeared to lie at the mouth of +the river Tamar.</p> + +<p>However, I knew that it would make little difference which +city we entered, as the English people were famed of old for +their hospitality toward visiting mariners. As we +approached the mouth of the bay I looked for the fishing +craft which I expected to see emerging thus early in the day +for their labors. But even after we rounded Ram Head and +were well within the waters of the bay I saw no vessel. +Neither was there buoy nor light nor any other mark to show +larger ships the channel, and I wondered much at this.</p> + +<p>The coast was densely overgrown, nor was any building or +sign of man apparent from the water. Up the bay and into +the River Tamar we motored through a solitude as unbroken as +that which rested upon the waters of the Channel. For all +we could see, there was no indication that man had ever set +his foot upon this silent coast.</p> + +<p>I was nonplused, and then, for the first time, there crept +over me an intuition of the truth.</p> + +<p>Here was no sign of war. As far as this portion of the +Devon coast was concerned, that seemed to have been over for +many years, but neither were there any people. Yet I could +not find it within myself to believe that I should find no +inhabitants in England. Reasoning thus, I discovered that +it was improbable that a state of war still existed, and +that the people all had been drawn from this portion of +England to some other, where they might better defend +themselves against an invader.</p> + +<p>But what of their ancient coast defenses? What was there +here in Plymouth Bay to prevent an enemy landing in force +and marching where they wished? Nothing. I could not +believe that any enlightened military nation, such as the +ancient English are reputed to have been, would have +voluntarily so deserted an exposed coast and an excellent +harbor to the mercies of an enemy.</p> + +<p>I found myself becoming more and more deeply involved in +quandary. The puzzle which confronted me I could not +unravel. We had landed, and I now stood upon the spot +where, according to my map, a large city should rear its +spires and chimneys. There was nothing but rough, broken +ground covered densely with weeds and brambles, and tall, +rank, grass.</p> + +<p>Had a city ever stood there, no sign of it remained. The +roughness and unevenness of the ground suggested something +of a great mass of debris hidden by the accumulation of +centuries of undergrowth.</p> + +<p>I drew the short cutlass with which both officers and men of +the navy are, as you know, armed out of courtesy to the +traditions and memories of the past, and with its point dug +into the loam about the roots of the vegetation growing at +my feet.</p> + +<p>The blade entered the soil for a matter of seven inches, +when it struck upon something stonelike. Digging about the +obstacle, I presently loosened it, and when I had withdrawn +it from its sepulcher I found the thing to be an ancient +brick of clay, baked in an oven.</p> + +<p>Delcarte we had left in charge of the boat; but Snider and +Taylor were with me, and following my example, each engaged +in the fascinating sport of prospecting for antiques. Each +of us uncovered a great number of these bricks, until we +commenced to weary of the monotony of it, when Snider +suddenly gave an exclamation of excitement, and, as I turned +to look, he held up a human skull for my inspection.</p> + +<p>I took it from him and examined it. Directly in the center +of the forehead was a small round hole. The gentleman had +evidently come to his end defending his country from an +invader.</p> + +<p>Snider again held aloft another trophy of the search—a +metal spike and some tarnished and corroded metal ornaments. +They had lain close beside the skull.</p> + +<p>With the point of his cutlass Snider scraped the dirt and +verdigris from the face of the larger ornament.</p> + +<p>"An inscription," he said, and handed the thing to me.</p> + +<p>They were the spike and ornaments of an ancient German +helmet. Before long we had uncovered many other indications +that a great battle had been fought upon the ground where we +stood. But I was then, and still am, at loss to account for +the presence of German soldiers upon the English coast so +far from London, which history suggests would have been the +natural goal of an invader.</p> + +<p>I can only account for it by assuming that either England +was temporarily conquered by the Teutons, or that an +invasion of so vast proportions was undertaken that German +troops were hurled upon the England coast in huge numbers +and that landings were necessarily effected at many places +simultaneously. Subsequent discoveries tend to strengthen +this view.</p> + +<p>We dug about for a short time with our cutlasses until I +became convinced that a city had stood upon the spot at some +time in the past, and that beneath our feet, crumbled and +dead, lay ancient Devonport.</p> + +<p>I could not repress a sigh at the thought of the havoc war +had wrought in this part of England, at least. Farther +east, nearer London, we should find things very different. +There would be the civilization that two centuries must have +wrought upon our English cousins as they had upon us. There +would be mighty cities, cultivated fields, happy people. +There we would be welcomed as long-lost brothers. There +would we find a great nation anxious to learn of the world +beyond their side of thirty, as I had been anxious to learn +of that which lay beyond our side of the dead line.</p> + +<p>I turned back toward the boat.</p> + +<p>"Come, men!" I said. "We will go up the river and fill our +casks with fresh water, search for food and fuel, and then +tomorrow be in readiness to push on toward the east. I am +going to London."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>3</h2> + + +<p>The report of a gun blasted the silence of a dead Devonport +with startling abruptness.</p> + +<p>It came from the direction of the launch, and in an instant +we three were running for the boat as fast as our legs would +carry us. As we came in sight of it we saw Delcarte a +hundred yards inland from the launch, leaning over something +which lay upon the ground. As we called to him he waved his +cap, and stooping, lifted a small deer for our inspection.</p> + +<p>I was about to congratulate him on his trophy when we were +startled by a horrid, half-human, half-bestial scream a +little ahead and to the right of us. It seemed to come from +a clump of rank and tangled bush not far from where Delcarte +stood. It was a horrid, fearsome sound, the like of which +never had fallen upon my ears before.</p> + +<p>We looked in the direction from which it came. The smile +had died from Delcarte's lips. Even at the distance we were +from him I saw his face go suddenly white, and he quickly +threw his rifle to his shoulder. At the same moment the +thing that had given tongue to the cry moved from the +concealing brushwood far enough for us, too, to see it.</p> + +<p>Both Taylor and Snider gave little gasps of astonishment and +dismay.</p> + +<p>"What is it, sir?" asked the latter.</p> + +<p>The creature stood about the height of a tall man's waist, +and was long and gaunt and sinuous, with a tawny coat +striped with black, and with white throat and belly. In +conformation it was similar to a cat—a huge cat, +exaggerated colossal cat, with fiendish eyes and the most +devilish cast of countenance, as it wrinkled its bristling +snout and bared its great yellow fangs.</p> + +<p>It was pacing, or rather, slinking, straight for Delcarte, +who had now leveled his rifle upon it.</p> + +<p>"What is it, sir?" mumbled Snider again, and then a half- +forgotten picture from an old natural history sprang to my +mind, and I recognized in the frightful beast the Felis +tigris of ancient Asia, specimens of which had, in former +centuries, been exhibited in the Western Hemisphere.</p> + +<p>Snider and Taylor were armed with rifles and revolvers, +while I carried only a revolver. Seizing Snider's rifle +from his trembling hands, I called to Taylor to follow me, +and together we ran forward, shouting, to attract the +beast's attention from Delcarte until we should all be quite +close enough to attack with the greatest assurance of +success.</p> + +<p>I cried to Delcarte not to fire until we reached his side, +for I was fearful lest our small caliber, steel-jacketed +bullets should, far from killing the beast, tend merely to +enrage it still further. But he misunderstood me, thinking +that I had ordered him to fire.</p> + +<p>With the report of his rifle the tiger stopped short in +apparent surprise, then turned and bit savagely at its +shoulder for an instant, after which it wheeled again toward +Delcarte, issuing the most terrific roars and screams, and +launched itself, with incredible speed, toward the brave +fellow, who now stood his ground pumping bullets from his +automatic rifle as rapidly as the weapon would fire.</p> + +<p>Taylor and I also opened up on the creature, and as it was +broadside to us it offered a splendid target, though for all +the impression we appeared to make upon the great cat we +might as well have been launching soap bubbles at it.</p> + +<p>Straight as a torpedo it rushed for Delcarte, and, as Taylor +and I stumbled on through the tall grass toward our +unfortunate comrade, we saw the tiger rear upon him and +crush him to the earth.</p> + +<p>Not a backward step had the noble Delcarte taken. Two +hundred years of peace had not sapped the red blood from his +courageous line. He went down beneath that avalanche of +bestial savagery still working his gun and with his face +toward his antagonist. Even in the instant that I thought +him dead I could not help but feel a thrill of pride that he +was one of my men, one of my class, a Pan-American gentleman +of birth. And that he had demonstrated one of the principal +contentions of the army-and-navy adherents—that military +training was necessary for the salvation of personal courage +in the Pan-American race which for generations had had to +face no dangers more grave than those incident to ordinary +life in a highly civilized community, safeguarded by every +means at the disposal of a perfectly organized and all- +powerful government utilizing the best that advanced science +could suggest.</p> + +<p>As we ran toward Delcarte, both Taylor and I were struck by +the fact that the beast upon him appeared not to be mauling +him, but lay quiet and motionless upon its prey, and when we +were quite close, and the muzzles of our guns were at the +animal's head, I saw the explanation of this sudden +cessation of hostilities—Felis tigris was dead.</p> + +<p>One of our bullets, or one of the last that Delcarte fired, +had penetrated the heart, and the beast had died even as it +sprawled forward crushing Delcarte to the ground.</p> + +<p>A moment later, with our assistance, the man had scrambled +from beneath the carcass of his would-be slayer, without a +scratch to indicate how close to death he had been.</p> + +<p>Delcarte's buoyance was entirely unruffled. He came from +under the tiger with a broad grin on his handsome face, nor +could I perceive that a muscle trembled or that his voice +showed the least indication of nervousness or excitement.</p> + +<p>With the termination of the adventure, we began to speculate +upon the explanation of the presence of this savage brute at +large so great a distance from its native habitat. My +readings had taught me that it was practically unknown +outside of Asia, and that, so late as the twentieth century, +at least, there had been no savage beasts outside captivity +in England.</p> + +<p>As we talked, Snider joined us, and I returned his rifle to +him. Taylor and Delcarte picked up the slain deer, and we +all started down toward the launch, walking slowly. +Delcarte wanted to fetch the tiger's skin, but I had to deny +him permission, since we had no means to properly cure it.</p> + +<p>Upon the beach, we skinned the deer and cut away as much +meat as we thought we could dispose of, and as we were again +embarking to continue up the river for fresh water and fuel, +we were startled by a series of screams from the bushes a +short distance away.</p> + +<p>"Another Felis tigris," said Taylor.</p> + +<p>"Or a dozen of them," supplemented Delcarte, and, even as he +spoke, there leaped into sight, one after another, eight of +the beasts, full grown—magnificent specimens.</p> + +<p>At the sight of us, they came charging down like infuriated +demons. I saw that three rifles would be no match for them, +and so I gave the word to put out from shore, hoping that +the "tiger," as the ancients called him, could not swim.</p> + +<p>Sure enough, they all halted at the beach, pacing back and +forth, uttering fiendish cries, and glaring at us in the +most malevolent manner.</p> + +<p>As we motored away, we presently heard the calls of similar +animals far inland. They seemed to be answering the cries +of their fellows at the water's edge, and from the wide +distribution and great volume of the sound we came to the +conclusion that enormous numbers of these beasts must roam +the adjacent country.</p> + +<p>"They have eaten up the inhabitants," murmured Snider, +shuddering.</p> + +<p>"I imagine you are right," I agreed, "for their extreme +boldness and fearlessness in the presence of man would +suggest either that man is entirely unknown to them, or that +they are extremely familiar with him as their natural and +most easily procured prey."</p> + +<p>"But where did they come from?" asked Delcarte. "Could they +have traveled here from Asia?"</p> + +<p>I shook my head. The thing was a puzzle to me. I knew that +it was practically beyond reason to imagine that tigers had +crossed the mountain ranges and rivers and all the great +continent of Europe to travel this far from their native +lairs, and entirely impossible that they should have crossed +the English Channel at all. Yet here they were, and in +great numbers.</p> + +<p>We continued up the Tamar several miles, filled our casks, +and then landed to cook some of our deer steak, and have the +first square meal that had fallen to our lot since the +Coldwater deserted us. But scarce had we built our fire and +prepared the meat for cooking than Snider, whose eyes had +been constantly roving about the landscape from the moment +that we left the launch, touched me on the arm and pointed +to a clump of bushes which grew a couple of hundred yards +away.</p> + +<p>Half concealed behind their screening foliage I saw the +yellow and black of a big tiger, and, as I looked, the beast +stalked majestically toward us. A moment later, he was +followed by another and another, and it is needless to state +that we beat a hasty retreat to the launch.</p> + +<p>The country was apparently infested by these huge Carnivora, +for after three other attempts to land and cook our food we +were forced to abandon the idea entirely, as each time we +were driven off by hunting tigers.</p> + +<p>It was also equally impossible to obtain the necessary +ingredients for our chemical fuel, and, as we had very +little left aboard, we determined to step our folding mast +and proceed under sail, hoarding our fuel supply for use in +emergencies.</p> + +<p>I may say that it was with no regret that we bid adieu to +Tigerland, as we rechristened the ancient Devon, and, +beating out into the Channel, turned the launch's nose +southeast, to round Bolt Head and continue up the coast +toward the Strait of Dover and the North Sea.</p> + +<p>I was determined to reach London as soon as possible, that +we might obtain fresh clothing, meet with cultured people, +and learn from the lips of Englishmen the secrets of the two +centuries since the East had been divorced from the West.</p> + +<p>Our first stopping place was the Isle of Wight. We entered +the Solent about ten o'clock one morning, and I must confess +that my heart sank as we came close to shore. No lighthouse +was visible, though one was plainly indicated upon my map. +Upon neither shore was sign of human habitation. We skirted +the northern shore of the island in fruitless search for +man, and then at last landed upon an eastern point, where +Newport should have stood, but where only weeds and great +trees and tangled wild wood rioted, and not a single manmade +thing was visible to the eye.</p> + +<p>Before landing, I had the men substitute soft bullets for +the steel-jacketed projectiles with which their belts and +magazines were filled. Thus equipped, we felt upon more +even terms with the tigers, but there was no sign of the +tigers, and I decided that they must be confined to the +mainland.</p> + +<p>After eating, we set out in search of fuel, leaving Taylor +to guard the launch. For some reason I could not trust +Snider alone. I knew that he looked with disapproval upon +my plan to visit England, and I did not know but what at his +first opportunity, he might desert us, taking the launch +with him, and attempt to return to Pan-America.</p> + +<p>That he would be fool enough to venture it, I did not doubt.</p> + +<p>We had gone inland for a mile or more, and were passing +through a park-like wood, when we came suddenly upon the +first human beings we had seen since we sighted the English +coast.</p> + +<p>There were a score of men in the party. Hairy, half-naked +men they were, resting in the shade of a great tree. At the +first sight of us they sprang to their feet with wild yells, +seizing long spears that had lain beside them as they +rested.</p> + +<p>For a matter of fifty yards they ran from us as rapidly as +they could, and then they turned and surveyed us for a +moment. Evidently emboldened by the scarcity of our +numbers, they commenced to advance upon us, brandishing +their spears and shouting horribly.</p> + +<p>They were short and muscular of build, with long hair and +beards tangled and matted with filth. Their heads, however, +were shapely, and their eyes, though fierce and warlike, +were intelligent.</p> + +<p>Appreciation of these physical attributes came later, of +course, when I had better opportunity to study the men at +close range and under circumstances less fraught with danger +and excitement. At the moment I saw, and with unmixed +wonder, only a score of wild savages charging down upon us, +where I had expected to find a community of civilized and +enlightened people.</p> + +<p>Each of us was armed with rifle, revolver, and cutlass, but +as we stood shoulder to shoulder facing the wild men I was +loath to give the command to fire upon them, inflicting +death or suffering upon strangers with whom we had no +quarrel, and so I attempted to restrain them for the moment +that we might parley with them.</p> + +<p>To this end I raised my left hand above my head with the +palm toward them as the most natural gesture indicative of +peaceful intentions which occurred to me. At the same time +I called aloud to them that we were friends, though, from +their appearance, there was nothing to indicate that they +might understand Pan-American, or ancient English, which are +of course practically identical.</p> + +<p>At my gesture and words they ceased their shouting and came +to a halt a few paces from us. Then, in deep tones, one who +was in advance of the others and whom I took to be the chief +or leader of the party replied in a tongue which while +intelligible to us, was so distorted from the English +language from which it evidently had sprung, that it was +with difficulty that we interpreted it.</p> + +<p>"Who are you," he asked, "and from what country?"</p> + +<p>I told him that we were from Pan-America, but he only shook +his head and asked where that was. He had never heard of +it, or of the Atlantic Ocean which I told him separated his +country from mine.</p> + +<p>"It has been two hundred years," I told him, "since a Pan- +American visited England."</p> + +<p>"England?" he asked. "What is England?"</p> + +<p>"Why this is a part of England!" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"This is Grubitten," he assured me. "I know nothing about +England, and I have lived here all my life."</p> + +<p>It was not until long after that the derivation of Grubitten +occurred to me. Unquestionably it is a corruption of Great +Britain, a name formerly given to the large island +comprising England, Scotland and Wales. Subsequently we +heard it pronounced Grabrittin and Grubritten.</p> + +<p>I then asked the fellow if he could direct us to Ryde or +Newport; but again he shook his head, and said that he never +had heard of such countries. And when I asked him if there +were any cities in this country he did not know what I +meant, never having heard the word cities.</p> + +<p>I explained my meaning as best I could by stating that by +city I referred to a place where many people lived together +in houses.</p> + +<p>"Oh," he exclaimed, "you mean a camp! Yes, there are two +great camps here, East Camp and West Camp. We are from East +Camp."</p> + +<p>The use of the word camp to describe a collection of +habitations naturally suggested war to me, and my next +question was as to whether the war was over, and who had +been victorious.</p> + +<p>"No," he replied to this question. "The war is not yet +over. But it soon will be, and it will end, as it always +does, with the Westenders running away. We, the Eastenders, +are always victorious."</p> + +<p>"No," I said, seeing that he referred to the petty tribal +wars of his little island, "I mean the Great War, the war +with Germany. Is it ended—and who was victorious?"</p> + +<p>He shook his head impatiently.</p> + +<p>"I never heard," he said, "of any of these strange countries +of which you speak."</p> + +<p>It seemed incredible, and yet it was true. These people +living at the very seat of the Great War knew nothing of it, +though but two centuries had passed since, to our knowledge, +it had been running in the height of its titanic +frightfulness all about them, and to us upon the far side of +the Atlantic still was a subject of keen interest.</p> + +<p>Here was a lifelong inhabitant of the Isle of Wight who +never had heard of either Germany or England! I turned to +him quite suddenly with a new question.</p> + +<p>"What people live upon the mainland?" I asked, and pointed +in the direction of the Hants coast.</p> + +<p>"No one lives there," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Long ago, it is said, my people dwelt across the waters +upon that other land; but the wild beasts devoured them in +such numbers that finally they were driven here, paddling +across upon logs and driftwood, nor has any dared return +since, because of the frightful creatures which dwell in +that horrid country."</p> + +<p>"Do no other peoples ever come to your country in ships?" I +asked.</p> + +<p>He never heard the word ship before, and did not know its +meaning. But he assured me that until we came he had +thought that there were no other peoples in the world other +than the Grubittens, who consist of the Eastenders and the +Westenders of the ancient Isle of Wight.</p> + +<p>Assured that we were inclined to friendliness, our new +acquaintances led us to their village, or, as they call it, +camp. There we found a thousand people, perhaps, dwelling +in rude shelters, and living upon the fruits of the chase +and such sea food as is obtainable close to shore, for they +had no boats, nor any knowledge of such things.</p> + +<p>Their weapons were most primitive, consisting of rude spears +tipped with pieces of metal pounded roughly into shape. +They had no literature, no religion, and recognized no law +other than the law of might. They produced fire by striking +a bit of flint and steel together, but for the most part +they ate their food raw. Marriage is unknown among them, +and while they have the word, mother, they did not know what +I meant by "father." The males fight for the favor of the +females. They practice infanticide, and kill the aged and +physically unfit.</p> + +<p>The family consists of the mother and the children, the men +dwelling sometimes in one hut and sometimes in another. +Owing to their bloody duels, they are always numerically +inferior to the women, so there is shelter for them all.</p> + +<p>We spent several hours in the village, where we were objects +of the greatest curiosity. The inhabitants examined our +clothing and all our belongings, and asked innumerable +questions concerning the strange country from which we had +come and the manner of our coming.</p> + +<p>I questioned many of them concerning past historical events, +but they knew nothing beyond the narrow limits of their +island and the savage, primitive life they led there. +London they had never heard of, and they assured me that I +would find no human beings upon the mainland.</p> + +<p>Much saddened by what I had seen, I took my departure from +them, and the three of us made our way back to the launch, +accompanied by about five hundred men, women, girls, and +boys.</p> + +<p>As we sailed away, after procuring the necessary ingredients +of our chemical fuel, the Grubittens lined the shore in +silent wonder at the strange sight of our dainty craft +dancing over the sparkling waters, and watched us until we +were lost to their sight.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>4</h2> + + +<p>It was during the morning of July 6, 2137, that we entered +the mouth of the Thames—to the best of my knowledge the +first Western keel to cut those historic waters for two +hundred and twenty-one years!</p> + +<p>But where were the tugs and the lighters and the barges, the +lightships and the buoys, and all those countless attributes +which went to make up the myriad life of the ancient Thames?</p> + +<p>Gone! All gone! Only silence and desolation reigned where +once the commerce of the world had centered.</p> + +<p>I could not help but compare this once great water-way with +the waters about our New York, or Rio, or San Diego, or +Valparaiso. They had become what they are today during the +two centuries of the profound peace which we of the navy +have been prone to deplore. And what, during this same +period, had shorn the waters of the Thames of their pristine +grandeur?</p> + +<p>Militarist that I am, I could find but a single word of +explanation—war!</p> + +<p>I bowed my head and turned my eyes downward from the lonely +and depressing sight, and in a silence which none of us +seemed willing to break, we proceeded up the deserted river.</p> + +<p>We had reached a point which, from my map, I imagined must +have been about the former site of Erith, when I discovered +a small band of antelope a short distance inland. As we +were now entirely out of meat once more, and as I had given +up all expectations of finding a city upon the site of +ancient London, I determined to land and bag a couple of the +animals.</p> + +<p>Assured that they would be timid and easily frightened, I +decided to stalk them alone, telling the men to wait at the +boat until I called to them to come and carry the carcasses +back to the shore.</p> + +<p>Crawling carefully through the vegetation, making use of +such trees and bushes as afforded shelter, I came at last +almost within easy range of my quarry, when the antlered +head of the buck went suddenly into the air, and then, as +though in accordance with a prearranged signal, the whole +band moved slowly off, farther inland.</p> + +<p>As their pace was leisurely, I determined to follow them +until I came again within range, as I was sure that they +would stop and feed in a short time.</p> + +<p>They must have led me a mile or more at least before they +again halted and commenced to browse upon the rank, +luxuriant grasses. All the time that I had followed them I +had kept both eyes and ears alert for sign or sound that +would indicate the presence of Felis tigris; but so far not +the slightest indication of the beast had been apparent.</p> + +<p>As I crept closer to the antelope, sure this time of a good +shot at a large buck, I suddenly saw something that caused +me to forget all about my prey in wonderment.</p> + +<p>It was the figure of an immense grey-black creature, rearing +its colossal shoulders twelve or fourteen feet above the +ground. Never in my life had I seen such a beast, nor did I +at first recognize it, so different in appearance is the +live reality from the stuffed, unnatural specimens preserved +to us in our museums.</p> + +<p>But presently I guessed the identity of the mighty creature +as Elephas africanus, or, as the ancients commonly described +it, African elephant.</p> + +<p>The antelope, although in plain view of the huge beast, paid +not the slightest attention to it, and I was so wrapped up +in watching the mighty pachyderm that I quite forgot to +shoot at the buck and presently, and in quite a startling +manner, it became impossible to do so.</p> + +<p>The elephant was browsing upon the young and tender shoots +of some low bushes, waving his great ears and switching his +short tail. The antelope, scarce twenty paces from him, +continued their feeding, when suddenly, from close beside +the latter, there came a most terrifying roar, and I saw a +great, tawny body shoot, from the concealing verdure beyond +the antelope, full upon the back of a small buck.</p> + +<p>Instantly the scene changed from one of quiet and peace to +indescribable chaos. The startled and terrified buck +uttered cries of agony. His fellows broke and leaped off in +all directions. The elephant raised his trunk, and, +trumpeting loudly, lumbered off through the wood, crushing +down small trees and trampling bushes in his mad flight.</p> + +<p>Growling horribly, a huge lion stood across the body of his +prey—such a creature as no Pan-American of the twenty- +second century had ever beheld until my eyes rested upon +this lordly specimen of "the king of beasts." But what a +different creature was this fierce-eyed demon, palpitating +with life and vigor, glossy of coat, alert, growling, +magnificent, from the dingy, moth-eaten replicas beneath +their glass cases in the stuffy halls of our public museums.</p> + +<p>I had never hoped or expected to see a living lion, tiger, +or elephant—using the common terms that were familiar to +the ancients, since they seem to me less unwieldy than those +now in general use among us—and so it was with sentiments +not unmixed with awe that I stood gazing at this regal beast +as, above the carcass of his kill, he roared out his +challenge to the world.</p> + +<p>So enthralled was I by the spectacle that I quite forgot +myself, and the better to view him, the great lion, I had +risen to my feet and stood, not fifty paces from him, in +full view.</p> + +<p>For a moment he did not see me, his attention being directed +toward the retreating elephant, and I had ample time to +feast my eyes upon his splendid proportions, his great head, +and his thick black mane.</p> + +<p>Ah, what thoughts passed through my mind in those brief +moments as I stood there in rapt fascination! I had come to +find a wondrous civilization, and instead I found a wild- +beast monarch of the realm where English kings had ruled. A +lion reigned, undisturbed, within a few miles of the seat of +one of the greatest governments the world has ever known, +his domain a howling wilderness, where yesterday fell the +shadows of the largest city in the world.</p> + +<p>It was appalling; but my reflections upon this depressing +subject were doomed to sudden extinction. The lion had +discovered me.</p> + +<p>For an instant he stood silent and motionless as one of the +mangy effigies at home, but only for an instant. Then, with +a most ferocious roar, and without the slightest hesitancy +or warning, he charged upon me.</p> + +<p>He forsook the prey already dead beneath him for the +pleasures of the delectable tidbit, man. From the +remorselessness with which the great Carnivora of modern +England hunted man, I am constrained to believe that, +whatever their appetites in times past, they have cultivated +a gruesome taste for human flesh.</p> + +<p>As I threw my rifle to my shoulder, I thanked God, the +ancient God of my ancestors, that I had replaced the hard- +jacketed bullets in my weapon with soft-nosed projectiles, +for though this was my first experience with Felis leo, I +knew the moment that I faced that charge that even my +wonderfully perfected firearm would be as futile as a +peashooter unless I chanced to place my first bullet in a +vital spot.</p> + +<p>Unless you had seen it you could not believe credible the +speed of a charging lion. Apparently the animal is not +built for speed, nor can he maintain it for long. But for a +matter of forty or fifty yards there is, I believe, no +animal on earth that can overtake him.</p> + +<p>Like a bolt he bore down upon me, but, fortunately for me, I +did not lose my head. I guessed that no bullet would kill +him instantly. I doubted that I could pierce his skull. +There was hope, though, in finding his heart through his +exposed chest, or, better yet, of breaking his shoulder or +foreleg, and bringing him up long enough to pump more +bullets into him and finish him.</p> + +<p>I covered his left shoulder and pulled the trigger as he was +almost upon me. It stopped him. With a terrific howl of +pain and rage, the brute rolled over and over upon the +ground almost to my feet. As he came I pumped two more +bullets into him, and as he struggled to rise, clawing +viciously at me, I put a bullet in his spine.</p> + +<p>That finished him, and I am free to admit that I was mighty +glad of it. There was a great tree close behind me, and, +stepping within its shade, I leaned against it, wiping the +perspiration from my face, for the day was hot, and the +exertion and excitement left me exhausted.</p> + +<p>I stood there, resting, for a moment, preparatory to turning +and retracing my steps to the launch, when, without warning, +something whizzed through space straight toward me. There +was a dull thud of impact as it struck the tree, and as I +dodged to one side and turned to look at the thing I saw a +heavy spear imbedded in the wood not three inches from where +my head had been.</p> + +<p>The thing had come from a little to one side of me, and, +without waiting to investigate at the instant, I leaped +behind the tree, and, circling it, peered around the other +side to get a sight of my would-be murderer.</p> + +<p>This time I was pitted against men—the spear told me that +all too plainly—but so long as they didn't take me unawares +or from behind I had little fear of them.</p> + +<p>Cautiously I edged about the far side of the trees until I +could obtain a view of the spot from which the spear must +have come, and when I did I saw the head of a man just +emerging from behind a bush.</p> + +<p>The fellow was quite similar in type to those I had seen +upon the Isle of Wight. He was hairy and unkempt, and as he +finally stepped into view I saw that he was garbed in the +same primitive fashion.</p> + +<p>He stood for a moment gazing about in search of me, and then +he advanced. As he did so a number of others, precisely +like him, stepped from the concealing verdure of nearby +bushes and followed in his wake. Keeping the trees between +them and me, I ran back a short distance until I found a +clump of underbrush that would effectually conceal me, for I +wished to discover the strength of the party and its +armament before attempting to parley with it.</p> + +<p>The useless destruction of any of these poor creatures was +the farthest idea from my mind. I should have liked to have +spoken with them, but I did not care to risk having to use +my high-powered rifle upon them other than in the last +extremity.</p> + +<p>Once in my new place of concealment, I watched them as they +approached the tree. There were about thirty men in the +party and one woman—a girl whose hands seemed to be bound +behind her and who was being pulled along by two of the men.</p> + +<p>They came forward warily, peering cautiously into every bush +and halting often. At the body of the lion, they paused, +and I could see from their gesticulations and the higher +pitch of their voices that they were much excited over my +kill.</p> + +<p>But presently they resumed their search for me, and as they +advanced I became suddenly aware of the unnecessary +brutality with which the girl's guards were treating her. +She stumbled once, not far from my place of concealment, and +after the balance of the party had passed me. As she did so +one of the men at her side jerked her roughly to her feet +and struck her across the mouth with his fist.</p> + +<p>Instantly my blood boiled, and forgetting every +consideration of caution, I leaped from my concealment, and, +springing to the man's side, felled him with a blow.</p> + +<p>So unexpected had been my act that it found him and his +fellow unprepared; but instantly the latter drew the knife +that protruded from his belt and lunged viciously at me, at +the same time giving voice to a wild cry of alarm.</p> + +<p>The girl shrank back at sight of me, her eyes wide in +astonishment, and then my antagonist was upon me. I parried +his first blow with my forearm, at the same time delivering +a powerful blow to his jaw that sent him reeling back; but +he was at me again in an instant, though in the brief +interim I had time to draw my revolver.</p> + +<p>I saw his companion crawling slowly to his feet, and the +others of the party racing down upon me. There was no time +to argue now, other than with the weapons we wore, and so, +as the fellow lunged at me again with the wicked-looking +knife, I covered his heart and pulled the trigger.</p> + +<p>Without a sound, he slipped to the earth, and then I turned +the weapon upon the other guard, who was now about to attack +me. He, too, collapsed, and I was alone with the astonished +girl.</p> + +<p>The balance of the party was some twenty paces from us, but +coming rapidly. I seized her arm and drew her after me +behind a nearby tree, for I had seen that with both their +comrades down the others were preparing to launch their +spears.</p> + +<p>With the girl safe behind the tree, I stepped out in sight +of the advancing foe, shouting to them that I was no enemy, +and that they should halt and listen to me. But for answer +they only yelled in derision and launched a couple of spears +at me, both of which missed.</p> + +<p>I saw then that I must fight, yet still I hated to slay +them, and it was only as a final resort that I dropped two +of them with my rifle, bringing the others to a temporary +halt. Again, I appealed to them to desist. But they only +mistook my solicitude for them for fear, and, with shouts of +rage and derision, leaped forward once again to overwhelm +me.</p> + +<p>It was now quite evident that I must punish them severely, +or—myself—die and relinquish the girl once more to her +captors. Neither of these things had I the slightest notion +of doing, and so I again stepped from behind the tree, and, +with all the care and deliberation of target practice, I +commenced picking off the foremost of my assailants.</p> + +<p>One by one the wild men dropped, yet on came the others, +fierce and vengeful, until, only a few remaining, these +seemed to realize the futility of combating my modern weapon +with their primitive spears, and, still howling wrathfully, +withdrew toward the west.</p> + +<p>Now, for the first time, I had an opportunity to turn my +attention toward the girl, who had stood, silent and +motionless, behind me as I pumped death into my enemies and +hers from my automatic rifle.</p> + +<p>She was of medium height, well formed, and with fine, clear- +cut features. Her forehead was high, and her eyes both +intelligent and beautiful. Exposure to the sun had browned +a smooth and velvety skin to a shade which seemed to enhance +rather than mar an altogether lovely picture of youthful +femininity.</p> + +<p>A trace of apprehension marked her expression—I cannot call +it fear since I have learned to know her—and astonishment +was still apparent in her eyes. She stood quite erect, her +hands still bound behind her, and met my gaze with level, +proud return.</p> + +<p>"What language do you speak?" I asked. "Do you understand +mine?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she replied. "It is similar to my own. I am +Grabritin. What are you?"</p> + +<p>"I am a Pan-American," I answered. She shook her head. +"What is that?"</p> + +<p>I pointed toward the west. "Far away, across the ocean."</p> + +<p>Her expression altered a trifle. A slight frown contracted +her brow. The expression of apprehension deepened.</p> + +<p>"Take off your cap," she said, and when, to humor her +strange request, I did as she bid, she appeared relieved. +Then she edged to one side and leaned over seemingly to peer +behind me. I turned quickly to see what she discovered, but +finding nothing, wheeled about to see that her expression +was once more altered.</p> + +<p>"You are not from there?" and she pointed toward the east. +It was a half question. "You are not from across the water +there?"</p> + +<p>"No," I assured her. "I am from Pan-America, far away to +the west. Have you ever heard of Pan-America?"</p> + +<p>She shook her head in negation. "I do not care where you +are from," she explained, "if you are not from there, and I +am sure you are not, for the men from there have horns and +tails."</p> + +<p>It was with difficulty that I restrained a smile.</p> + +<p>"Who are the men from there?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"They are bad men," she replied. "Some of my people do not +believe that there are such creatures. But we have a +legend—a very old, old legend, that once the men from there +came across to Grabritin. They came upon the water, and +under the water, and even in the air. They came in great +numbers, so that they rolled across the land like a great +gray fog. They brought with them thunder and lightning and +smoke that killed, and they fell upon us and slew our people +by the thousands and the hundreds of thousands. But at last +we drove them back to the water's edge, back into the sea, +where many were drowned. Some escaped, and these our people +followed—men, women, and even children, we followed them +back. That is all. The legend says our people never +returned. Maybe they were all killed. Maybe they are still +there. But this, also, is in the legend, that as we drove +the men back across the water they swore that they would +return, and that when they left our shores they would leave +no human being alive behind them. I was afraid that you +were from there."</p> + +<p>"By what name were these men called?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"We call them only the 'men from there,'" she replied, +pointing toward the east. "I have never heard that they had +another name."</p> + +<p>In the light of what I knew of ancient history, it was not +difficult for me to guess the nationality of those she +described simply as "the men from over there." But what +utter and appalling devastation the Great War must have +wrought to have erased not only every sign of civilization +from the face of this great land, but even the name of the +enemy from the knowledge and language of the people.</p> + +<p>I could only account for it on the hypothesis that the +country had been entirely depopulated except for a few +scattered and forgotten children, who, in some marvelous +manner, had been preserved by Providence to re-populate the +land. These children had, doubtless, been too young to +retain in their memories to transmit to their children any +but the vaguest suggestion of the cataclysm which had +overwhelmed their parents.</p> + +<p>Professor Cortoran, since my return to Pan-America, has +suggested another theory which is not entirely without claim +to serious consideration. He points out that it is quite +beyond the pale of human instinct to desert little children +as my theory suggests the ancient English must have done. +He is more inclined to believe that the expulsion of the foe +from England was synchronous with widespread victories by +the allies upon the continent, and that the people of +England merely emigrated from their ruined cities and their +devastated, blood-drenched fields to the mainland, in the +hope of finding, in the domain of the conquered enemy, +cities and farms which would replace those they had lost.</p> + +<p>The learned professor assumes that while a long-continued +war had strengthened rather than weakened the instinct of +paternal devotion, it had also dulled other humanitarian +instincts, and raised to the first magnitude the law of the +survival of the fittest, with the result that when the +exodus took place the strong, the intelligent, and the +cunning, together with their offspring, crossed the waters +of the Channel or the North Sea to the continent, leaving in +unhappy England only the helpless inmates of asylums for the +feebleminded and insane.</p> + +<p>My objections to this, that the present inhabitants of +England are mentally fit, and could therefore not have +descended from an ancestry of undiluted lunacy he brushes +aside with the assertion that insanity is not necessarily +hereditary; and that even though it was, in many cases a +return to natural conditions from the state of high +civilization, which is thought to have induced mental +disease in the ancient world, would, after several +generations, have thoroughly expunged every trace of the +affliction from the brains and nerves of the descendants of +the original maniacs.</p> + +<p>Personally, I do not place much stock in Professor +Cortoran's theory, though I admit that I am prejudiced. +Naturally one does not care to believe that the object of +his greatest affection is descended from a gibbering idiot +and a raving maniac.</p> + +<p>But I am forgetting the continuity of my narrative—a +continuity which I desire to maintain, though I fear that I +shall often be led astray, so numerous and varied are the +bypaths of speculation which lead from the present day story +of the Grabritins into the mysterious past of their +forbears.</p> + +<p>As I stood talking with the girl I presently recollected +that she still was bound, and with a word of apology, I drew +my knife and cut the rawhide thongs which confined her +wrists at her back.</p> + +<p>She thanked me, and with such a sweet smile that I should +have been amply repaid by it for a much more arduous +service.</p> + +<p>"And now," I said, "let me accompany you to your home and +see you safely again under the protection of your friends."</p> + +<p>"No," she said, with a hint of alarm in her voice; "you must +not come with me—Buckingham will kill you."</p> + +<p>Buckingham. The name was famous in ancient English history. +Its survival, with many other illustrious names, is one of +the strongest arguments in refutal of Professor Cortoran's +theory; yet it opens no new doors to the past, and, on the +whole, rather adds to than dissipates the mystery.</p> + +<p>"And who is Buckingham," I asked, "and why should he wish to +kill me?"</p> + +<p>"He would think that you had stolen me," she replied, "and +as he wishes me for himself, he will kill any other whom he +thinks desires me. He killed Wettin a few days ago. My +mother told me once that Wettin was my father. He was king. +Now Buckingham is king."</p> + +<p>Here, evidently, were a people slightly superior to those of +the Isle of Wight. These must have at least the rudiments +of civilized government since they recognized one among them +as ruler, with the title, king. Also, they retained the +word father. The girl's pronunciation, while far from +identical with ours, was much closer than the tortured +dialect of the Eastenders of the Isle of Wight. The longer +I talked with her the more hopeful I became of finding here, +among her people, some records, or traditions, which might +assist in clearing up the historic enigma of the past two +centuries. I asked her if we were far from the city of +London, but she did not know what I meant. When I tried to +explain, describing mighty buildings of stone and brick, +broad avenues, parks, palaces, and countless people, she but +shook her head sadly.</p> + +<p>"There is no such place near by," she said. "Only the Camp +of the Lions has places of stone where the beasts lair, but +there are no people in the Camp of the Lions. Who would +dare go there!" And she shuddered.</p> + +<p>"The Camp of the Lions," I repeated. "And where is that, +and what?"</p> + +<p>"It is there," she said, pointing up the river toward the +west. "I have seen it from a great distance, but I have +never been there. We are much afraid of the lions, for this +is their country, and they are angry that man has come to +live here.</p> + +<p>"Far away there," and she pointed toward the south-west, "is +the land of tigers, which is even worse than this, the land +of the lions, for the tigers are more numerous than the +lions and hungrier for human flesh. There were tigers here +long ago, but both the lions and the men set upon them and +drove them off."</p> + +<p>"Where did these savage beasts come from?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she replied, "they have been here always. It is their +country."</p> + +<p>"Do they not kill and eat your people?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Often, when we meet them by accident, and we are too few to +slay them, or when one goes too close to their camp. But +seldom do they hunt us, for they find what food they need +among the deer and wild cattle, and, too, we make them +gifts, for are we not intruders in their country? Really we +live upon good terms with them, though I should not care to +meet one were there not many spears in my party."</p> + +<p>"I should like to visit this Camp of the Lions," I said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, you must not!" cried the girl. "That would be +terrible. They would eat you." For a moment, then, she +seemed lost in thought, but presently she turned upon me +with: "You must go now, for any minute Buckingham may come +in search of me. Long since should they have learned that I +am gone from the camp—they watch over me very closely—and +they will set out after me. Go! I shall wait here until +they come in search of me."</p> + +<p>"No," I told her. "I'll not leave you alone in a land +infested by lions and other wild beasts. If you won't let +me go as far as your camp with you, then I'll wait here +until they come in search of you."</p> + +<p>"Please go!" she begged. "You have saved me, and I would +save you, but nothing will save you if Buckingham gets his +hands on you. He is a bad man. He wishes to have me for +his woman so that he may be king. He would kill anyone who +befriended me, for fear that I might become another's."</p> + +<p>"Didn't you say that Buckingham is already the king?" I +asked.</p> + +<p>"He is. He took my mother for his woman after he had killed +Wettin. But my mother will die soon—she is very old—and +then the man to whom I belong will become king."</p> + +<p>Finally, after much questioning, I got the thing through my +head. It appears that the line of descent is through the +women. A man is merely head of his wife's family—that is +all. If she chances to be the oldest female member of the +"royal" house, he is king. Very naively the girl explained +that there was seldom any doubt as to whom a child's mother +was.</p> + +<p>This accounted for the girl's importance in the community +and for Buckingham's anxiety to claim her, though she told +me that she did not wish to become his woman, for he was a +bad man and would make a bad king. But he was powerful, and +there was no other man who dared dispute his wishes.</p> + +<p>"Why not come with me," I suggested, "if you do not wish to +become Buckingham's?"</p> + +<p>"Where would you take me?" she asked.</p> + +<p>Where, indeed! I had not thought of that. But before I +could reply to her question she shook her head and said, +"No, I cannot leave my people. I must stay and do my best, +even if Buckingham gets me, but you must go at once. Do not +wait until it is too late. The lions have had no offering +for a long time, and Buckingham would seize upon the first +stranger as a gift to them."</p> + +<p>I did not perfectly understand what she meant, and was about +to ask her when a heavy body leaped upon me from behind, and +great arms encircled my neck. I struggled to free myself +and turn upon my antagonist, but in another instant I was +overwhelmed by a half dozen powerful, half-naked men, while +a score of others surrounded me, a couple of whom seized the +girl.</p> + +<p>I fought as best I could for my liberty and for hers, but +the weight of numbers was too great, though I had the +satisfaction at least of giving them a good fight.</p> + +<p>When they had overpowered me, and I stood, my hands bound +behind me, at the girl's side, she gazed commiseratingly at +me.</p> + +<p>"It is too bad that you did not do as I bid you," she said, +"for now it has happened just as I feared—Buckingham has +you."</p> + +<p>"Which is Buckingham?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I am Buckingham," growled a burly, unwashed brute, +swaggering truculently before me. "And who are you who +would have stolen my woman?"</p> + +<p>The girl spoke up then and tried to explain that I had not +stolen her; but on the contrary I had saved her from the men +from the "Elephant Country" who were carrying her away.</p> + +<p>Buckingham only sneered at her explanation, and a moment +later gave the command that started us all off toward the +west. We marched for a matter of an hour or so, coming at +last to a collection of rude huts, fashioned from branches +of trees covered with skins and grasses and sometimes +plastered with mud. All about the camp they had erected a +wall of saplings pointed at the tops and fire hardened.</p> + +<p>This palisade was a protection against both man and beasts, +and within it dwelt upward of two thousand persons, the +shelters being built very close together, and sometimes +partially underground, like deep trenches, with the poles +and hides above merely as protection from the sun and rain.</p> + +<p>The older part of the camp consisted almost wholly of +trenches, as though this had been the original form of +dwellings which was slowly giving way to the drier and +airier surface domiciles. In these trench habitations I saw +a survival of the military trenches which formed so famous a +part of the operation of the warring nations during the +twentieth century.</p> + +<p>The women wore a single light deerskin about their hips, for +it was summer, and quite warm. The men, too, were clothed +in a single garment, usually the pelt of some beast of prey. +The hair of both men and women was confined by a rawhide +thong passing about the forehead and tied behind. In this +leathern band were stuck feathers, flowers, or the tails of +small mammals. All wore necklaces of the teeth or claws of +wild beasts, and there were numerous metal wristlets and +anklets among them.</p> + +<p>They wore, in fact, every indication of a most primitive +people—a race which had not yet risen to the heights of +agriculture or even the possession of domestic animals. +They were hunters—the lowest plane in the evolution of the +human race of which science takes cognizance.</p> + +<p>And yet as I looked at their well shaped heads, their +handsome features, and their intelligent eyes, it was +difficult to believe that I was not among my own. It was +only when I took into consideration their mode of living, +their scant apparel, the lack of every least luxury among +them, that I was forced to admit that they were, in truth, +but ignorant savages.</p> + +<p>Buckingham had relieved me of my weapons, though he had not +the slightest idea of their purpose or uses, and when we +reached the camp he exhibited both me and my arms with every +indication of pride in this great capture.</p> + +<p>The inhabitants flocked around me, examining my clothing, +and exclaiming in wonderment at each new discovery of +button, buckle, pocket, and flap. It seemed incredible that +such a thing could be, almost within a stone's throw of the +spot where but a brief two centuries before had stood the +greatest city of the world.</p> + +<p>They bound me to a small tree that grew in the middle of one +of their crooked streets, but the girl they released as soon +as we had entered the enclosure. The people greeted her +with every mark of respect as she hastened to a large hut +near the center of the camp.</p> + +<p>Presently she returned with a fine looking, white-haired +woman, who proved to be her mother. The older woman carried +herself with a regal dignity that seemed quite remarkable in +a place of such primitive squalor.</p> + +<p>The people fell aside as she approached, making a wide way +for her and her daughter. When they had come near and +stopped before me the older woman addressed me.</p> + +<p>"My daughter has told me," she said, "of the manner in which +you rescued her from the men of the elephant country. If +Wettin lived you would be well treated, but Buckingham has +taken me now, and is king. You can hope for nothing from +such a beast as Buckingham."</p> + +<p>The fact that Buckingham stood within a pace of us and was +an interested listener appeared not to temper her +expressions in the slightest.</p> + +<p>"Buckingham is a pig," she continued. "He is a coward. He +came upon Wettin from behind and ran his spear through him. +He will not be king for long. Some one will make a face at +him, and he will run away and jump into the river."</p> + +<p>The people began to titter and clap their hands. Buckingham +became red in the face. It was evident that he was far from +popular.</p> + +<p>"If he dared," went on the old lady, "he would kill me now, +but he does not dare. He is too great a coward. If I could +help you I should gladly do so. But I am only queen—the +vehicle that has helped carry down, unsullied, the royal +blood from the days when Grabritin was a mighty country."</p> + +<p>The old queen's words had a noticeable effect upon the mob +of curious savages which surrounded me. The moment they +discovered that the old queen was friendly to me and that I +had rescued her daughter they commenced to accord me a more +friendly interest, and I heard many words spoken in my +behalf, and demands were made that I not be harmed.</p> + +<p>But now Buckingham interfered. He had no intention of being +robbed of his prey. Blustering and storming, he ordered the +people back to their huts, at the same time directing two of +his warriors to confine me in a dugout in one of the +trenches close to his own shelter.</p> + +<p>Here they threw me upon the ground, binding my ankles +together and trussing them up to my wrists behind. There +they left me, lying upon my stomach—a most uncomfortable +and strained position, to which was added the pain where the +cords cut into my flesh.</p> + +<p>Just a few days ago my mind had been filled with the +anticipation of the friendly welcome I should find among the +cultured Englishmen of London. Today I should be sitting in +the place of honor at the banquet board of one of London's +most exclusive clubs, feted and lionized.</p> + +<p>The actuality! Here I lay, bound hand and foot, doubtless +almost upon the very site of a part of ancient London, yet +all about me was a primeval wilderness, and I was a captive +of half-naked wild men.</p> + +<p>I wondered what had become of Delcarte and Taylor and +Snider. Would they search for me? They could never find +me, I feared, yet if they did, what could they accomplish +against this horde of savage warriors?</p> + +<p>Would that I could warn them. I thought of the girl—doubtless she could get word to them, but how was I to +communicate with her? Would she come to see me before I was +killed? It seemed incredible that she should not make some +slight attempt to befriend me; yet, as I recalled, she had +made no effort to speak with me after we had reached the +village. She had hastened to her mother the moment she had +been liberated. Though she had returned with the old queen, +she had not spoken to me, even then. I began to have my +doubts.</p> + +<p>Finally, I came to the conclusion that I was absolutely +friendless except for the old queen. For some unaccountable +reason my rage against the girl for her ingratitude rose to +colossal proportions.</p> + +<p>For a long time I waited for some one to come to my prison +whom I might ask to bear word to the queen, but I seemed to +have been forgotten. The strained position in which I lay +became unbearable. I wriggled and twisted until I managed +to turn myself partially upon my side, where I lay half +facing the entrance to the dugout.</p> + +<p>Presently my attention was attracted by the shadow of +something moving in the trench without, and a moment later +the figure of a child appeared, creeping upon all fours, as, +wide-eyed, and prompted by childish curiosity, a little girl +crawled to the entrance of my hut and peered cautiously and +fearfully in.</p> + +<p>I did not speak at first for fear of frightening the little +one away. But when I was satisfied that her eyes had become +sufficiently accustomed to the subdued light of the +interior, I smiled.</p> + +<p>Instantly the expression of fear faded from her eyes to be +replaced with an answering smile.</p> + +<p>"Who are you, little girl?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"My name is Mary," she replied. "I am Victory's sister."</p> + +<p>"And who is Victory?"</p> + +<p>"You do not know who Victory is?" she asked, in +astonishment.</p> + +<p>I shook my head in negation.</p> + +<p>"You saved her from the elephant country people, and yet you +say you do not know her!" she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, so she is Victory, and you are her sister! I have not +heard her name before. That is why I did not know whom you +meant," I explained. Here was just the messenger for me. +Fate was becoming more kind.</p> + +<p>"Will you do something for me, Mary?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"If I can."</p> + +<p>"Go to your mother, the queen, and ask her to come to me," I +said. "I have a favor to ask."</p> + +<p>She said that she would, and with a parting smile she left +me.</p> + +<p>For what seemed many hours I awaited her return, chafing +with impatience. The afternoon wore on and night came, and +yet no one came near me. My captors brought me neither food +nor water. I was suffering considerable pain where the +rawhide thongs cut into my swollen flesh. I thought that +they had either forgotten me, or that it was their intention +to leave me here to die of starvation.</p> + +<p>Once I heard a great uproar in the village. Men were +shouting—women were screaming and moaning. After a time +this subsided, and again there was a long interval of +silence.</p> + +<p>Half the night must have been spent when I heard a sound in +the trench near the hut. It resembled muffled sobs. +Presently a figure appeared, silhouetted against the lesser +darkness beyond the doorway. It crept inside the hut.</p> + +<p>"Are you here?" whispered a childlike voice.</p> + +<p>It was Mary! She had returned. The thongs no longer hurt +me. The pangs of hunger and thirst disappeared. I realized +that it had been loneliness from which I suffered most.</p> + +<p>"Mary!" I exclaimed. "You are a good girl. You have come +back, after all. I had commenced to think that you would +not. Did you give my message to the queen? Will she come? +Where is she?"</p> + +<p>The child's sobs increased, and she flung herself upon the +dirt floor of the hut, apparently overcome by grief.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" I asked. "Why do you cry?"</p> + +<p>"The queen, my mother, will not come to you," she said, +between sobs. "She is dead. Buckingham has killed her. +Now he will take Victory, for Victory is queen. He kept us +fastened up in our shelter, for fear that Victory would +escape him, but I dug a hole beneath the back wall and got +out. I came to you, because you saved Victory once before, +and I thought that you might save her again, and me, also. +Tell me that you will."</p> + +<p>"I am bound and helpless, Mary," I replied. "Otherwise I +would do what I could to save you and your sister."</p> + +<p>"I will set you free!" cried the girl, creeping up to my +side. "I will set you free, and then you may come and slay +Buckingham."</p> + +<p>"Gladly!" I assented.</p> + +<p>"We must hurry," she went on, as she fumbled with the hard +knots in the stiffened rawhide, "for Buckingham will be +after you soon. He must make an offering to the lions at +dawn before he can take Victory. The taking of a queen +requires a human offering!"</p> + +<p>"And I am to be the offering?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she said, tugging at a knot. "Buckingham has been +wanting a sacrifice ever since he killed Wettin, that he +might slay my mother and take Victory."</p> + +<p>The thought was horrible, not solely because of the hideous +fate to which I was condemned, but from the contemplation it +engendered of the sad decadence of a once enlightened race. +To these depths of ignorance, brutality, and superstition +had the vaunted civilization of twentieth century England +been plunged, and by what? War! I felt the structure of +our time-honored militaristic arguments crumbling about me.</p> + +<p>Mary labored with the thongs that confined me. They proved +refractory—defying her tender, childish fingers. She +assured me, however, that she would release me, if "they" +did not come too soon.</p> + +<p>But, alas, they came. We heard them coming down the trench, +and I bade Mary hide in a corner, lest she be discovered and +punished. There was naught else she could do, and so she +crawled away into the Stygian blackness behind me.</p> + +<p>Presently two warriors entered. The leader exhibited a +unique method of discovering my whereabouts in the darkness. +He advanced slowly, kicking out viciously before him. +Finally he kicked me in the face. Then he knew where I was.</p> + +<p>A moment later I had been jerked roughly to my feet. One of +the fellows stopped and severed the bonds that held my +ankles. I could scarcely stand alone. The two pulled and +hauled me through the low doorway and along the trench. A +party of forty or fifty warriors were awaiting us at the +brink of the excavation some hundred yards from the hut.</p> + +<p>Hands were lowered to us, and we were dragged to the +surface. Then commenced a long march. We stumbled through +the underbrush wet with dew, our way lighted by a score of +torchbearers who surrounded us. But the torches were not to +light the way—that was but incidental. They were carried +to keep off the huge Carnivora that moaned and coughed and +roared about us.</p> + +<p>The noises were hideous. The whole country seemed alive +with lions. Yellow-green eyes blazed wickedly at us from +out the surrounding darkness. My escort carried long, heavy +spears. These they kept ever pointed toward the beast of +prey, and I learned from snatches of the conversation I +overheard that occasionally there might be a lion who would +brave even the terrors of fire to leap in upon human prey. +It was for such that the spears were always couched.</p> + +<p>But nothing of the sort occurred during this hideous death +march, and with the first pale heralding of dawn we reached +our goal—an open place in the midst of a tangled wildwood. +Here rose in crumbling grandeur the first evidences I had +seen of the ancient civilization which once had graced fair +Albion—a single, time-worn arch of masonry.</p> + +<p>"The entrance to the Camp of the Lions!" murmured one of the +party in a voice husky with awe.</p> + +<p>Here the party knelt, while Buckingham recited a weird, +prayer-like chant. It was rather long, and I recall only a +portion of it, which ran, if my memory serves me, somewhat +as follows:</p> + +<p class="center">Lord of Grabritin, we<br /> +Fall on our knees to thee,<br /> +This gift to bring.<br /> +Greatest of kings are thou!<br /> +To thee we humbly bow!<br /> +Peace to our camp allow.<br /> +God save thee, king!</p> + + +<p>Then the party rose, and dragging me to the crumbling arch, +made me fast to a huge, corroded, copper ring which was +dangling from an eyebolt imbedded in the masonry.</p> + +<p>None of them, not even Buckingham, seemed to feel any +personal animosity toward me. They were naturally rough and +brutal, as primitive men are supposed to have been since the +dawn of humanity, but they did not go out of their way to +maltreat me.</p> + +<p>With the coming of dawn the number of lions about us seemed +to have greatly diminished—at least they made less noise—and as Buckingham and his party disappeared into the woods, +leaving me alone to my terrible fate, I could hear the +grumblings and growlings of the beasts diminishing with the +sound of the chant, which the party still continued. It +appeared that the lions had failed to note that I had been +left for their breakfast, and had followed off after their +worshippers instead.</p> + +<p>But I knew the reprieve would be but for a short time, and +though I had no wish to die, I must confess that I rather +wished the ordeal over and the peace of oblivion upon me.</p> + +<p>The voices of the men and the lions receded in the distance, +until finally quiet reigned about me, broken only by the +sweet voices of birds and the sighing of the summer wind in +the trees.</p> + +<p>It seemed impossible to believe that in this peaceful +woodland setting the frightful thing was to occur which must +come with the passing of the next lion who chanced within +sight or smell of the crumbling arch.</p> + +<p>I strove to tear myself loose from my bonds, but succeeded +only in tightening them about my arms. Then I remained +passive for a long time, letting the scenes of my lifetime +pass in review before my mind's eye.</p> + +<p>I tried to imagine the astonishment, incredulity, and horror +with which my family and friends would be overwhelmed if, +for an instant, space could be annihilated and they could +see me at the gates of London.</p> + +<p>The gates of London! Where was the multitude hurrying to +the marts of trade after a night of pleasure or rest? Where +was the clang of tramcar gongs, the screech of motor horns, +the vast murmur of a dense throng?</p> + +<p>Where were they? And as I asked the question a lone, gaunt +lion strode from the tangled jungle upon the far side of the +clearing. Majestically and noiselessly upon his padded feet +the king of beasts moved slowly toward the gates of London +and toward me.</p> + +<p>Was I afraid? I fear that I was almost afraid. I know that +I thought that fear was coming to me, and so I straightened +up and squared my shoulders and looked the lion straight in +the eyes—and waited.</p> + +<p>It is not a nice way to die—alone, with one's hands fast +bound, beneath the fangs and talons of a beast of prey. No, +it is not a nice way to die, not a pretty way.</p> + +<p>The lion was halfway across the clearing when I heard a +slight sound behind me. The great cat stopped in his +tracks. He lashed his tail against his sides now, instead +of simply twitching its tip, and his low moan became a +thunderous roar.</p> + +<p>As I craned my neck to catch a glimpse of the thing that had +aroused the fury of the beast before me, it sprang through +the arched gateway and was at my side—with parted lips and +heaving bosom and disheveled hair—a bronzed and lovely +vision to eyes that had never harbored hope of rescue.</p> + +<p>It was Victory, and in her arms she clutched my rifle and +revolver. A long knife was in the doeskin belt that +supported the doeskin skirt tightly about her lithe limbs. +She dropped my weapons at my feet, and, snatching the knife +from its resting place, severed the bonds that held me. I +was free, and the lion was preparing to charge.</p> + +<p>"Run!" I cried to the girl, as I bent and seized my rifle. +But she only stood there at my side, her bared blade ready +in her hand.</p> + +<p>The lion was bounding toward us now in prodigious leaps. I +raised the rifle and fired. It was a lucky shot, for I had +no time to aim carefully, and when the beast crumpled and +rolled, lifeless, to the ground, I went upon my knees and +gave thanks to the God of my ancestors.</p> + +<p>And, still upon my knees, I turned, and taking the girl's +hand in mine, I kissed it. She smiled at that, and laid her +other hand upon my head.</p> + +<p>"You have strange customs in your country," she said.</p> + +<p>I could not but smile at that when I thought how strange it +would seem to my countrymen could they but see me kneeling +there on the site of London, kissing the hand of England's +queen.</p> + +<p>"And now," I said, as I rose, "you must return to the safety +of your camp. I will go with you until you are near enough +to continue alone in safety. Then I shall try to return to +my comrades."</p> + +<p>"I will not return to the camp," she replied.</p> + +<p>"But what shall you do?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I do not know. Only I shall never go back while Buckingham +lives. I should rather die than go back to him. Mary came +to me, after they had taken you from the camp, and told me. +I found your strange weapons and followed with them. It +took me a little longer, for often I had to hide in the +trees that the lions might not get me, but I came in time, +and now you are free to go back to your friends."</p> + +<p>"And leave you here?" I exclaimed.</p> + +<p>She nodded, but I could see through all her brave front that +she was frightened at the thought. I could not leave her, +of course, but what in the world I was to do, cumbered with +the care of a young woman, and a queen at that, I was at a +loss to know. I pointed out that phase of it to her, but +she only shrugged her shapely shoulders and pointed to her +knife.</p> + +<p>It was evident that she felt entirely competent to protect +herself.</p> + +<p>As we stood there we heard the sound of voices. They were +coming from the forest through which we had passed when we +had come from camp.</p> + +<p>"They are searching for me," said the girl. "Where shall we +hide?"</p> + +<p>I didn't relish hiding. But when I thought of the +innumerable dangers which surrounded us and the +comparatively small amount of ammunition that I had with me, +I hesitated to provoke a battle with Buckingham and his +warriors when, by flight, I could avoid them and preserve my +cartridges against emergencies which could not be escaped.</p> + +<p>"Would they follow us there?" I asked, pointing through the +archway into the Camp of the Lions.</p> + +<p>"Never," she replied, "for, in the first place, they would +know that we would not dare go there, and in the second they +themselves would not dare."</p> + +<p>"Then we shall take refuge in the Camp of the Lions," I +said.</p> + +<p>She shuddered and drew closer to me.</p> + +<p>"You dare?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Why not?" I returned. "We shall be safe from Buckingham, +and you have seen, for the second time in two days, that +lions are harmless before my weapons. Then, too, I can find +my friends easiest in this direction, for the River Thames +runs through this place you call the Camp of the Lions, and +it is farther down the Thames that my friends are awaiting +me. Do you not dare come with me?"</p> + +<p>"I dare follow wherever you lead," she answered simply.</p> + +<p>And so I turned and passed beneath the great arch into the +city of London.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>5</h2> + + +<p>As we entered deeper into what had once been the city, the +evidences of man's past occupancy became more frequent. For +a mile from the arch there was only a riot of weeds and +undergrowth and trees covering small mounds and little +hillocks that, I was sure, were formed of the ruins of +stately buildings of the dead past.</p> + +<p>But presently we came upon a district where shattered walls +still raised their crumbling tops in sad silence above the +grass-grown sepulchers of their fallen fellows. Softened +and mellowed by ancient ivy stood these sentinels of sorrow, +their scarred faces still revealing the rents and gashes of +shrapnel and of bomb.</p> + +<p>Contrary to our expectations, we found little indication +that lions in any great numbers laired in this part of +ancient London. Well-worn pathways, molded by padded paws, +led through the cavernous windows or doorways of a few of +the ruins we passed, and once we saw the savage face of a +great, black-maned lion scowling down upon us from a +shattered stone balcony.</p> + +<p>We followed down the bank of the Thames after we came upon +it. I was anxious to look with my own eyes upon the famous +bridge, and I guessed, too, that the river would lead me +into the part of London where stood Westminster Abbey and +the Tower.</p> + +<p>Realizing that the section through which we had been passing +was doubtless outlying, and therefore not so built up with +large structures as the more centrally located part of the +old town, I felt sure that farther down the river I should +find the ruins larger. The bridge would be there in part, +at least, and so would remain the walls of many of the great +edifices of the past. There would be no such complete ruin +of large structures as I had seen among the smaller +buildings.</p> + +<p>But when I had come to that part of the city which I judged +to have contained the relics I sought I found havoc that had +been wrought there even greater than elsewhere.</p> + +<p>At one point upon the bosom of the Thames there rises a few +feet above the water a single, disintegrating mound of +masonry. Opposite it, upon either bank of the river, are +tumbled piles of ruins overgrown with vegetation.</p> + +<p>These, I am forced to believe, are all that remain of London +Bridge, for nowhere else along the river is there any other +slightest sign of pier or abutment.</p> + +<p>Rounding the base of a large pile of grass-covered debris, +we came suddenly upon the best preserved ruin we had yet +discovered. The entire lower story and part of the second +story of what must once have been a splendid public building +rose from a great knoll of shrubbery and trees, while ivy, +thick and luxuriant, clambered upward to the summit of the +broken walls.</p> + +<p>In many places the gray stone was still exposed, its +smoothly chiseled face pitted with the scars of battle. The +massive portal yawned, somber and sorrowful, before us, +giving a glimpse of marble halls within.</p> + +<p>The temptation to enter was too great. I wished to explore +the interior of this one remaining monument of civilization +now dead beyond recall. Through this same portal, within +these very marble halls, had Gray and Chamberlin and +Kitchener and Shaw, perhaps, come and gone with the other +great ones of the past.</p> + +<p>I took Victory's hand in mine.</p> + +<p>"Come!" I said. "I do not know the name by which this great +pile was known, nor the purposes it fulfilled. It may have +been the palace of your sires, Victory. From some great +throne within, your forebears may have directed the +destinies of half the world. Come!"</p> + +<p>I must confess to a feeling of awe as we entered the rotunda +of the great building. Pieces of massive furniture of +another day still stood where man had placed them centuries +ago. They were littered with dust and broken stone and +plaster, but, otherwise, so perfect was their preservation I +could hardly believe that two centuries had rolled by since +human eyes were last set upon them.</p> + +<p>Through one great room after another we wandered, hand in +hand, while Victory asked many questions and for the first +time I began to realize something of the magnificence and +power of the race from whose loins she had sprung.</p> + +<p>Splendid tapestries, now mildewed and rotting, hung upon the +walls. There were mural paintings, too, depicting great +historic events of the past. For the first time Victory saw +the likeness of a horse, and she was much affected by a huge +oil which depicted some ancient cavalry charge against a +battery of field guns.</p> + +<p>In other pictures there were steamships, battleships, +submarines, and quaint looking railway trains—all small and +antiquated in appearance to me, but wonderful to Victory. +She told me that she would like to remain for the rest of +her life where she could look at those pictures daily.</p> + +<p>From room to room we passed until presently we emerged into +a mighty chamber, dark and gloomy, for its high and narrow +windows were choked and clogged by ivy. Along one paneled +wall we groped, our eyes slowly becoming accustomed to the +darkness. A rank and pungent odor pervaded the atmosphere.</p> + +<p>We had made our way about half the distance across one end +of the great apartment when a low growl from the far end +brought us to a startled halt.</p> + +<p>Straining my eyes through the gloom, I made out a raised +dais at the extreme opposite end of the hall. Upon the dais +stood two great chairs, highbacked and with great arms.</p> + +<p>The throne of England! But what were those strange forms +about it?</p> + +<p>Victory gave my hand a quick, excited little squeeze.</p> + +<p>"The lions!" she whispered.</p> + +<p>Yes, lions indeed! Sprawled about the dais were a dozen +huge forms, while upon the seat of one of the thrones a +small cub lay curled in slumber.</p> + +<p>As we stood there for a moment, spellbound by the sight of +those fearsome creatures occupying the very thrones of the +sovereigns of England, the low growl was repeated, and a +great male rose slowly to his feet.</p> + +<p>His devilish eyes bored straight through the semi-darkness +toward us. He had discovered the interloper. What right +had man within this palace of the beasts? Again he opened +his giant jaws, and this time there rumbled forth a warning +roar.</p> + +<p>Instantly eight or ten of the other beasts leaped to their +feet. Already the great fellow who had spied us was +advancing slowly in our direction. I held my rifle ready, +but how futile it appeared in the face of this savage horde.</p> + +<p>The foremost beast broke into a slow trot, and at his heels +came the others. All were roaring now, and the din of their +great voices reverberating through the halls and corridors +of the palace formed the most frightful chorus of thunderous +savagery imaginable to the mind of man.</p> + +<p>And then the leader charged, and upon the hideous +pandemonium broke the sharp crack of my rifle, once, twice, +thrice. Three lions rolled, struggling and biting, to the +floor. Victory seized my arm, with a quick, "This way! +Here is a door," and a moment later we were in a tiny +antechamber at the foot of a narrow stone staircase.</p> + +<p>Up this we backed, Victory just behind me, as the first of +the remaining lions leaped from the throne room and sprang +for the stairs. Again I fired, but others of the ferocious +beasts leaped over their fallen fellows and pursued us.</p> + +<p>The stairs were very narrow—that was all that saved us—for +as I backed slowly upward, but a single lion could attack me +at a time, and the carcasses of those I slew impeded the +rushes of the others.</p> + +<p>At last we reached the top. There was a long corridor from +which opened many doorways. One, directly behind us, was +tight closed. If we could open it and pass into the chamber +behind we might find a respite from attack.</p> + +<p>The remaining lions were roaring horribly. I saw one +sneaking very slowly up the stairs toward us.</p> + +<p>"Try that door," I called to Victory. "See if it will +open."</p> + +<p>She ran up to it and pushed.</p> + +<p>"Turn the knob!" I cried, seeing that she did not know how +to open a door, but neither did she know what I meant by +knob.</p> + +<p>I put a bullet in the spine of the approaching lion and +leaped to Victory's side. The door resisted my first +efforts to swing it inward. Rusted hinges and swollen wood +held it tightly closed. But at last it gave, and just as +another lion mounted to the top of the stairway it swung in, +and I pushed Victory across the threshold.</p> + +<p>Then I turned to meet the renewed attack of the savage foe. +One lion fell in his tracks, another stumbled to my very +feet, and then I leaped within and slammed the portal to.</p> + +<p>A quick glance showed me that this was the only door to the +small apartment in which we had found sanctuary, and, with a +sigh of relief, I leaned for a moment against the panels of +the stout barrier that separated us from the ramping demons +without.</p> + +<p>Across the room, between two windows, stood a flat-topped +desk. A little pile of white and brown lay upon it close to +the opposite edge. After a moment of rest I crossed the +room to investigate. The white was the bleached human +bones—the skull, collar bones, arms, and a few of the upper +ribs of a man. The brown was the dust of a decayed military +cap and blouse. In a chair before the desk were other +bones, while more still strewed the floor beneath the desk +and about the chair. A man had died sitting there with his +face buried in his arms—two hundred years ago.</p> + +<p>Beneath the desk were a pair of spurred military boots, +green and rotten with decay. In them were the leg bones of +a man. Among the tiny bones of the hands was an ancient +fountain pen, as good, apparently, as the day it was made, +and a metal covered memoranda book, closed over the bones of +an index finger.</p> + +<p>It was a gruesome sight—a pitiful sight—this lone +inhabitant of mighty London.</p> + +<p>I picked up the metal covered memoranda book. Its pages +were rotten and stuck together. Only here and there was a +sentence or a part of a sentence legible. The first that I +could read was near the middle of the little volume:</p> + +<p>"His majesty left for Tunbridge Wells today, he . . . jesty +was stricken . . . terday. God give she does not die . . . +am military governor of Lon . . ."</p> + +<p>And farther on:</p> + +<p>"It is awful . . . hundred deaths today . . . worse than the +bombardm . . ."</p> + +<p>Nearer the end I picked out the following:</p> + +<p>"I promised his maj . . . e will find me here when he ret . +. . alone."</p> + +<p>The most legible passage was on the next page:</p> + +<p>"Thank God we drove them out. There is not a single . . . +man on British soil today; but at what awful cost. I tried +to persuade Sir Phillip to urge the people to remain. But +they are mad with fear of the Death, and rage at our +enemies. He tells me that the coast cities are packed . . . +waiting to be taken across. What will become of England, +with none left to rebuild her shattered cities!"</p> + +<p>And the last entry:</p> + +<p>". . . alone. Only the wild beasts . . . A lion is roaring +now beneath the palace windows. I think the people feared +the beasts even more than they did the Death. But they are +gone, all gone, and to what? How much better conditions +will they find on the continent? All gone—only I remain. I +promised his majesty, and when he returns he will find that +I was true to my trust, for I shall be awaiting him. God +save the King!"</p> + +<p>That was all. This brave and forever nameless officer died +nobly at his post—true to his country and his king. It was +the Death, no doubt, that took him.</p> + +<p>Some of the entries had been dated. From the few legible +letters and figures which remained I judge the end came some +time in August, 1937, but of that I am not at all certain.</p> + +<p>The diary has cleared up at least one mystery that had +puzzled me not a little, and now I am surprised that I had +not guessed its solution myself—the presence of African and +Asiatic beasts in England.</p> + +<p>Acclimated by years of confinement in the zoological +gardens, they were fitted to resume in England the wild +existence for which nature had intended them, and once free, +had evidently bred prolifically, in marked contrast to the +captive exotics of twentieth century Pan-America, which had +gradually become fewer until extinction occurred some time +during the twenty-first century.</p> + +<p>The palace, if such it was, lay not far from the banks of +the Thames. The room in which we were imprisoned overlooked +the river, and I determined to attempt to escape in this +direction.</p> + +<p>To descend through the palace was out of the question, but +outside we could discover no lions. The stems of the ivy +which clambered upward past the window of the room were as +large around as my arm. I knew that they would support our +weight, and as we could gain nothing by remaining longer in +the palace, I decided to descend by way of the ivy and +follow along down the river in the direction of the launch.</p> + +<p>Naturally I was much handicapped by the presence of the +girl. But I could not abandon her, though I had no idea +what I should do with her after rejoining my companions. +That she would prove a burden and an embarrassment I was +certain, but she had made it equally plain to me that she +would never return to her people to mate with Buckingham.</p> + +<p>I owed my life to her, and, all other considerations aside, +that was sufficient demand upon my gratitude and my honor to +necessitate my suffering every inconvenience in her service. +Too, she was queen of England. But, by far the most potent +argument in her favor, she was a woman in distress—and a +young and very beautiful one.</p> + +<p>And so, though I wished a thousand times that she was back +in her camp, I never let her guess it, but did all that lay +within my power to serve and protect her. I thank God now +that I did so.</p> + +<p>With the lions still padding back and forth beyond the +closed door, Victory and I crossed the room to one of the +windows. I had outlined my plan to her, and she had assured +me that she could descend the ivy without assistance. In +fact, she smiled a trifle at my question.</p> + +<p>Swinging myself outward, I began the descent, and had come +to within a few feet of the ground, being just opposite a +narrow window, when I was startled by a savage growl almost +in my ear, and then a great taloned paw darted from the +aperture to seize me, and I saw the snarling face of a lion +within the embrasure.</p> + +<p>Releasing my hold upon the ivy, I dropped the re-maining +distance to the ground, saved from laceration only because +the lion's paw struck the thick stem of ivy.</p> + +<p>The creature was making a frightful racket now, leaping back +and forth from the floor at the broad window ledge, tearing +at the masonry with his claws in vain attempts to reach me. +But the opening was too narrow, and the masonry too solid.</p> + +<p>Victory had commenced the descent, but I called to her to +stop just above the window, and, as the lion reappeared, +growling and snarling, I put a .33 bullet in his face, and +at the same moment Victory slipped quickly past him, +dropping into my upraised arms that were awaiting her.</p> + +<p>The roaring of the beasts that had discovered us, together +with the report of my rifle, had set the balance of the +fierce inmates of the palace into the most frightful uproar +I have ever heard.</p> + +<p>I feared that it would not be long before intelligence or +instinct would draw them from the interiors and set them +upon our trail, the river. Nor had we much more than +reached it when a lion bounded around the corner of the +edifice we had just quitted and stood looking about as +though in search of us.</p> + +<p>Following, came others, while Victory and I crouched in +hiding behind a clump of bushes close to the bank of the +river. The beasts sniffed about the ground for a while, but +they did not chance to go near the spot where we had stood +beneath the window that had given us escape.</p> + +<p>Presently a black-maned male raised his head, and, with +cocked ears and glaring eyes, gazed straight at the bush +behind which we lay. I could have sworn that he had +discovered us, and when he took a few short and stately +steps in our direction I raised my rifle and covered him. +But, after a long, tense moment he looked away, and turned +to glare in another direction.</p> + +<p>I breathed a sigh of relief, and so did Victory. I could +feel her body quiver as she lay pressed close to me, our +cheeks almost touching as we both peered through the same +small opening in the foliage.</p> + +<p>I turned to give her a reassuring smile as the lion +indicated that he had not seen us, and as I did so she, too, +turned her face toward mine, for the same purpose, +doubtless. Anyway, as our heads turned simultaneously, our +lips brushed together. A startled expression came into +Victory's eyes as she drew back in evident confusion.</p> + +<p>As for me, the strangest sensation that I have ever +experienced claimed me for an instant. A peculiar, tingling +thrill ran through my veins, and my head swam. I could not +account for it.</p> + +<p>Naturally, being a naval officer and consequently in the +best society of the federation, I have seen much of women. +With others, I have laughed at the assertions of the savants +that modern man is a cold and passionless creation in +comparison with the males of former ages—in a word, that +love, as the one grand passion, had ceased to exist.</p> + +<p>I do not know, now, but that they were more nearly right +than we have guessed, at least in so far as modern civilized +woman is concerned. I have kissed many women—young and +beautiful and middle aged and old, and many that I had no +business kissing—but never before had I experienced that +remarkable and altogether delightful thrill that followed +the accidental brushing of my lips against the lips of +Victory.</p> + +<p>The occurrence interested me, and I was tempted to +experiment further. But when I would have essayed it +another new and entirely unaccountable force restrained me. +For the first time in my life I felt embarrassment in the +presence of a woman.</p> + +<p>What further might have developed I cannot say, for at that +moment a perfect she-devil of a lioness, with keener eyes +than her lord and master, discovered us. She came trotting +toward our place of concealment, growling and baring her +yellow fangs.</p> + +<p>I waited for an instant, hoping that I might be mistaken, +and that she would turn off in some other direction. But +no—she increased her trot to a gallop, and then I fired at +her, but the bullet, though it struck her full in the +breast, didn't stop her.</p> + +<p>Screaming with pain and rage, the creature fairly flew +toward us. Behind her came other lions. Our case looked +hopeless. We were upon the brink of the river. There +seemed no avenue of escape, and I knew that even my modern +automatic rifle was inadequate in the face of so many of +these fierce beasts.</p> + +<p>To remain where we were would have been suicidal. We were +both standing now, Victory keeping her place bravely at my +side, when I reached the only decision open to me.</p> + +<p>Seizing the girl's hand, I turned, just as the lioness +crashed into the opposite side of the bushes, and, dragging +Victory after me, leaped over the edge of the bank into the +river.</p> + +<p>I did not know that lions are not fond of water, nor did I +know if Victory could swim, but death, immediate and +terrible, stared us in the face if we remained, and so I +took the chance.</p> + +<p>At this point the current ran close to the shore, so that we +were immediately in deep water, and, to my intense +satisfaction, Victory struck out with a strong, overhand +stroke and set all my fears on her account at rest.</p> + +<p>But my relief was short-lived. That lioness, as I have said +before, was a veritable devil. She stood for a moment +glaring at us, then like a shot she sprang into the river +and swam swiftly after us.</p> + +<p>Victory was a length ahead of me.</p> + +<p>"Swim for the other shore!" I called to her.</p> + +<p>I was much impeded by my rifle, having to swim with one hand +while I clung to my precious weapon with the other. The +girl had seen the lioness take to the water, and she had +also seen that I was swimming much more slowly than she, and +what did she do? She started to drop back to my side.</p> + +<p>"Go on!" I cried. "Make for the other shore, and then +follow down until you find my friends. Tell them that I +sent you, and with orders that they are to protect you. Go +on! Go on!"</p> + +<p>But she only waited until we were again swimming side by +side, and I saw that she had drawn her long knife, and was +holding it between her teeth.</p> + +<p>"Do as I tell you!" I said to her sharply, but she shook her +head.</p> + +<p>The lioness was overhauling us rapidly. She was swimming +silently, her chin just touching the water, but blood was +streaming from between her lips. It was evident that her +lungs were pierced.</p> + +<p>She was almost upon me. I saw that in a moment she would +take me under her forepaws, or seize me in those great jaws. +I felt that my time had come, but I meant to die fighting. +And so I turned, and, treading water, raised my rifle above +my head and awaited her.</p> + +<p>Victory, animated by a bravery no less ferocious than that +of the dumb beast assailing us, swam straight for me. It +all happened so swiftly that I cannot recall the details of +the kaleidoscopic action which ensued. I knew that I rose +high out of the water, and, with clubbed rifle, dealt the +animal a terrific blow upon the skull, that I saw Victory, +her long blade flashing in her hand, close, striking, upon +the beast, that a great paw fell upon her shoulder, and that +I was swept beneath the surface of the water like a straw +before the prow of a freighter.</p> + +<p>Still clinging to my rifle, I rose again, to see the lioness +struggling in her death throes but an arm's length from me. +Scarcely had I risen than the beast turned upon her side, +struggled frantically for an instant, and then sank.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>6</h2> + + +<p>Victory was nowhere in sight. Alone, I floated upon the +bosom of the Thames. In that brief instant I believe that I +suffered more mental anguish than I have crowded into all +the balance of my life before or since. A few hours before, +I had been wishing that I might be rid of her, and now that +she was gone I would have given my life to have her back +again.</p> + +<p>Wearily I turned to swim about the spot where she had +disappeared, hoping that she might rise once at least, and I +would be given the opportunity to save her, and, as I +turned, the water boiled before my face and her head shot up +before me. I was on the point of striking out to seize her, +when a happy smile illumined her features.</p> + +<p>"You are not dead!" she cried. "I have been searching the +bottom for you. I was sure that the blow she gave you must +have disabled you," and she glanced about for the lioness.</p> + +<p>"She has gone?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Dead," I replied.</p> + +<p>"The blow you struck her with the thing you call rifle +stunned her," she explained, "and then I swam in close +enough to get my knife into her heart."</p> + +<p>Ah, such a girl! I could not but wonder what one of our own +Pan-American women would have done under like circumstances. +But then, of course, they have not been trained by stern +necessity to cope with the emergencies and dangers of savage +primeval life.</p> + +<p>Along the bank we had just quitted, a score of lions paced +to and fro, growling menacingly. We could not return, and +we struck out for the opposite shore. I am a strong +swimmer, and had no doubt as to my ability to cross the +river, but I was not so sure about Victory, so I swam close +behind her, to be ready to give her assistance should she +need it.</p> + +<p>She did not, however, reaching the opposite bank as fresh, +apparently, as when she entered the water. Victory is a +wonder. Each day that we were together brought new proofs +of it. Nor was it her courage or vitality only which amazed +me. She had a head on those shapely shoulders of hers, and +dignity! My, but she could be regal when she chose!</p> + +<p>She told me that the lions were fewer upon this side of the +river, but that there were many wolves, running in great +packs later in the year. Now they were north somewhere, and +we should have little to fear from them, though we might +meet with a few.</p> + +<p>My first concern was to take my weapons apart and dry them, +which was rather difficult in the face of the fact that +every rag about me was drenched. But finally, thanks to the +sun and much rubbing, I succeeded, though I had no oil to +lubricate them.</p> + +<p>We ate some wild berries and roots that Victory found, and +then we set off again down the river, keeping an eye open +for game on one side and the launch on the other, for I +thought that Delcarte, who would be the natural leader +during my absence, might run up the Thames in search of me.</p> + +<p>The balance of that day we sought in vain for game or for +the launch, and when night came we lay down, our stomachs +empty, to sleep beneath the stars. We were entirely +unprotected from attack from wild beasts, and for this +reason I remained awake most of the night, on guard. But +nothing approached us, though I could hear the lions roaring +across the river, and once I thought I heard the howl of a +beast north of us—it might have been a wolf.</p> + +<p>Altogether, it was a most unpleasant night, and I determined +then that if we were forced to sleep out again that I should +provide some sort of shelter which would protect us from +attack while we slept.</p> + +<p>Toward morning I dozed, and the sun was well up when Victory +aroused me by gently shaking my shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Antelope!" she whispered in my ear, and, as I raised my +head, she pointed up-river. Crawling to my knees, I looked +in the direction she indicated, to see a buck standing upon +a little knoll some two hundred yards from us. There was +good cover between the animal and me, and so, though I might +have hit him at two hundred yards, I preferred to crawl +closer to him and make sure of the meat we both so craved.</p> + +<p>I had covered about fifty yards of the distance, and the +beast was still feeding peacefully, so I thought that I +would make even surer of a hit by going ahead another fifty +yards, when the animal suddenly raised his head and looked +away, up-river. His whole attitude proclaimed that he was +startled by something beyond him that I could not see.</p> + +<p>Realizing that he might break and run and that I should then +probably miss him entirely, I raised my rifle to my +shoulder. But even as I did so the animal leaped into the +air, and simultaneously there was a sound of a shot from +beyond the knoll.</p> + +<p>For an instant I was dumbfounded. Had the report come from +down-river, I should have instantly thought that one of my +own men had fired. But coming from up-river it puzzled me +considerably. Who could there be with firearms in primitive +England other than we of the Coldwater?</p> + +<p>Victory was directly behind me, and I motioned for her to +lie down, as I did, behind the bush from which I had been +upon the point of firing at the antelope. We could see that +the buck was quite dead, and from our hiding place we waited +to discover the identity of his slayer when the latter +should approach and claim his kill.</p> + +<p>We had not long to wait, and when I saw the head and +shoulders of a man appear above the crest of the knoll, I +sprang to my feet, with a heartfelt cry of joy, for it was +Delcarte.</p> + +<p>At the sound of my voice, Delcarte half raised his rifle in +readiness for the attack of an enemy, but a moment later he +recognized me, and was coming rapidly to meet us. Behind +him was Snider. They both were astounded to see me upon the +north bank of the river, and much more so at the sight of my +companion.</p> + +<p>Then I introduced them to Victory, and told them that she +was queen of England. They thought, at first, that I was +joking. But when I had recounted my adventures and they +realized that I was in earnest, they believed me.</p> + +<p>They told me that they had followed me inshore when I had +not returned from the hunt, that they had met the men of the +elephant country, and had had a short and one-sided battle +with the fellows. And that afterward they had returned to +the launch with a prisoner, from whom they had learned that +I had probably been captured by the men of the lion country.</p> + +<p>With the prisoner as a guide they had set off up-river in +search of me, but had been much delayed by motor trouble, +and had finally camped after dark a half mile above the spot +where Victory and I had spent the night. They must have +passed us in the dark, and why I did not hear the sound of +the propeller I do not know, unless it passed me at a time +when the lions were making an unusually earsplitting din +upon the opposite side.</p> + +<p>Taking the antelope with us, we all returned to the launch, +where we found Taylor as delighted to see me alive again as +Delcarte had been. I cannot say truthfully that Snider +evinced much enthusiasm at my rescue.</p> + +<p>Taylor had found the ingredients for chemical fuel, and the +distilling of them had, with the motor trouble, accounted +for their delay in setting out after me.</p> + +<p>The prisoner that Delcarte and Snider had taken was a +powerful young fellow from the elephant country. +Notwithstanding the fact that they had all assured him to +the contrary, he still could not believe that we would not +kill him.</p> + +<p>He assured us that his name was Thirty-six, and, as he could +not count above ten, I am sure that he had no conception of +the correct meaning of the word, and that it may have been +handed down to him either from the military number of an +ancestor who had served in the English ranks during the +Great War, or that originally it was the number of some +famous regiment with which a forbear fought.</p> + +<p>Now that we were reunited, we held a council to determine +what course we should pursue in the immediate future. +Snider was still for setting out to sea and returning to +Pan-America, but the better judgment of Delcarte and Taylor +ridiculed the suggestion—we should not have lived a +fortnight.</p> + +<p>To remain in England, constantly menaced by wild beasts and +men equally as wild, seemed about as bad. I suggested that +we cross the Channel and ascertain if we could not discover +a more enlightened and civilized people upon the continent. +I was sure that some trace of the ancient culture and +greatness of Europe must remain. Germany, probably, would +be much as it was during the twentieth century, for, in +common with most Pan-Americans, I was positive that Germany +had been victorious in the Great War.</p> + +<p>Snider demurred at the suggestion. He said that it was bad +enough to have come this far. He did not want to make it +worse by going to the continent. The outcome of it was that +I finally lost my patience, and told him that from then on +he would do what I thought best—that I proposed to assume +command of the party, and that they might all consider +themselves under my orders, as much so as though we were +still aboard the Coldwater and in Pan-American waters.</p> + +<p>Delcarte and Taylor immediately assured me that they had not +for an instant assumed anything different, and that they +were as ready to follow and obey me here as they would be +upon the other side of thirty.</p> + +<p>Snider said nothing, but he wore a sullen scowl. And I +wished then, as I had before, and as I did to a much greater +extent later, that fate had not decreed that he should have +chanced to be a member of the launch's party upon that +memorable day when last we quitted the Coldwater.</p> + +<p>Victory, who was given a voice in our councils, was all for +going to the continent, or anywhere else, in fact, where she +might see new sights and experience new adventures.</p> + +<p>"Afterward we can come back to Grabritin," she said, "and if +Buckingham is not dead and we can catch him away from his +men and kill him, then I can return to my people, and we can +all live in peace and happiness."</p> + +<p>She spoke of killing Buckingham with no greater concern than +one might evince in the contemplated destruction of a sheep; +yet she was neither cruel nor vindictive. In fact, Victory +is a very sweet and womanly woman. But human life is of +small account beyond thirty—a legacy from the bloody days +when thousands of men perished in the trenches between the +rising and the setting of a sun, when they laid them +lengthwise in these same trenches and sprinkled dirt over +them, when the Germans corded their corpses like wood and +set fire to them, when women and children and old men were +butchered, and great passenger ships were torpedoed without +warning.</p> + +<p>Thirty-six, finally assured that we did not intend slaying +him, was as keen to accompany us as was Victory.</p> + +<p>The crossing to the continent was uneventful, its monotony +being relieved, however, by the childish delight of Victory +and Thirty-six in the novel experience of riding safely upon +the bosom of the water, and of being so far from land.</p> + +<p>With the possible exception of Snider, the little party +appeared in the best of spirits, laughing and joking, or +interestedly discussing the possibilities which the future +held for us: what we should find upon the continent, and +whether the inhabitants would be civilized or barbarian +peoples.</p> + +<p>Victory asked me to explain the difference between the two, +and when I had tried to do so as clearly as possible, she +broke into a gay little laugh.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she cried, "then I am a barbarian!"</p> + +<p>I could not but laugh, too, as I admitted that she was, +indeed, a barbarian. She was not offended, taking the +matter as a huge joke. But some time thereafter she sat in +silence, apparently deep in thought. Finally she looked up +at me, her strong white teeth gleaming behind her smiling +lips.</p> + +<p>"Should you take that thing you call 'razor,'" she said, +"and cut the hair from the face of Thirty-six, and exchange +garments with him, you would be the barbarian and Thirty-six +the civilized man. There is no other difference between +you, except your weapons. Clothe you in a wolfskin, give +you a knife and a spear, and set you down in the woods of +Grabritin—of what service would your civilization be to +you?"</p> + +<p>Delcarte and Taylor smiled at her reply, but Thirty-six and +Snider laughed uproariously. I was not surprised at Thirty- +six, but I thought that Snider laughed louder than the +occasion warranted. As a matter of fact, Snider, it seemed +to me, was taking advantage of every opportunity, however +slight, to show insubordination, and I determined then that +at the first real breach of discipline I should take action +that would remind Snider, ever after, that I was still his +commanding officer.</p> + +<p>I could not help but notice that his eyes were much upon +Victory, and I did not like it, for I knew the type of man +he was. But as it would not be necessary ever to leave the +girl alone with him I felt no apprehension for her safety.</p> + +<p>After the incident of the discussion of barbarians I thought +that Victory's manner toward me changed perceptibly. She +held aloof from me, and when Snider took his turn at the +wheel, sat beside him, upon the pretext that she wished to +learn how to steer the launch. I wondered if she had +guessed the man's antipathy for me, and was seeking his +company solely for the purpose of piquing me.</p> + +<p>Snider was, too, taking full advantage of his opportunity. +Often he leaned toward the girl to whisper in her ear, and +he laughed much, which was unusual with Snider.</p> + +<p>Of course, it was nothing at all to me; yet, for some +unaccountable reason, the sight of the two of them sitting +there so close to one another and seeming to be enjoying +each other's society to such a degree irritated me +tremendously, and put me in such a bad humor that I took no +pleasure whatsoever in the last few hours of the crossing.</p> + +<p>We aimed to land near the site of ancient Ostend. But when +we neared the coast we discovered no indication of any human +habitations whatever, let alone a city. After we had +landed, we found the same howling wilderness about us that +we had discovered on the British Isle. There was no +slightest indication that civilized man had ever set a foot +upon that portion of the continent of Europe.</p> + +<p>Although I had feared as much, since our experience in +England, I could not but own to a feeling of marked +disappointment, and to the gravest fears of the future, +which induced a mental depression that was in no way +dissipated by the continued familiarity between Victory and +Snider.</p> + +<p>I was angry with myself that I permitted that matter to +affect me as it had. I did not wish to admit to myself that +I was angry with this uncultured little savage, that it made +the slightest difference to me what she did or what she did +not do, or that I could so lower myself as to feel personal +enmity towards a common sailor. And yet, to be honest, I +was doing both.</p> + +<p>Finding nothing to detain us about the spot where Ostend +once had stood, we set out up the coast in search of the +mouth of the River Rhine, which I purposed ascending in +search of civilized man. It was my intention to explore the +Rhine as far up as the launch would take us. If we found no +civilization there we would return to the North Sea, +continue up the coast to the Elbe, and follow that river and +the canals of Berlin. Here, at least, I was sure that we +should find what we sought—and, if not, then all Europe had +reverted to barbarism.</p> + +<p>The weather remained fine, and we made excellent progress, +but everywhere along the Rhine we met with the same +disappointment—no sign of civilized man, in fact, no sign +of man at all.</p> + +<p>I was not enjoying the exploration of modern Europe as I had +anticipated—I was unhappy. Victory seemed changed, too. I +had enjoyed her company at first, but since the trip across +the Channel I had held aloof from her.</p> + +<p>Her chin was in the air most of the time, and yet I rather +think that she regretted her friendliness with Snider, for I +noticed that she avoided him entirely. He, on the contrary, +emboldened by her former friendliness, sought every +opportunity to be near her. I should have liked nothing +better than a reasonably good excuse to punch his head; yet, +paradoxically, I was ashamed of myself for harboring him any +ill will. I realized that there was something the matter +with me, but I did not know what it was.</p> + +<p>Matters remained thus for several days, and we continued our +journey up the Rhine. At Cologne, I had hoped to find some +reassuring indications, but there was no Cologne. And as +there had been no other cities along the river up to that +point, the devastation was infinitely greater than time +alone could have wrought. Great guns, bombs, and mines must +have leveled every building that man had raised, and then +nature, unhindered, had covered the ghastly evidence of +human depravity with her beauteous mantle of verdure. +Splendid trees reared their stately tops where splendid +cathedrals once had reared their domes, and sweet wild +flowers blossomed in simple serenity in soil that once was +drenched with human blood.</p> + +<p>Nature had reclaimed what man had once stolen from her and +defiled. A herd of zebras grazed where once the German +kaiser may have reviewed his troops. An antelope rested +peacefully in a bed of daisies where, perhaps, two hundred +years ago a big gun belched its terror-laden messages of +death, of hate, of destruction against the works of man and +God alike.</p> + +<p>We were in need of fresh meat, yet I hesitated to shatter +the quiet and peaceful serenity of the view with the crack +of a rifle and the death of one of those beautiful creatures +before us. But it had to be done—we must eat. I left the +work to Delcarte, however, and in a moment we had two +antelope and the landscape to ourselves.</p> + +<p>After eating, we boarded the launch and continued up the +river. For two days we passed through a primeval +wilderness. In the afternoon of the second day we landed +upon the west bank of the river, and, leaving Snider and +Thirty-six to guard Victory and the launch, Delcarte, +Taylor, and I set out after game.</p> + +<p>We tramped away from the river for upwards of an hour before +discovering anything, and then only a small red deer, which +Taylor brought down with a neat shot of two hundred yards. +It was getting too late to proceed farther, so we rigged a +sling, and the two men carried the deer back toward the +launch while I walked a hundred yards ahead, in the hope of +bagging something further for our larder.</p> + +<p>We had covered about half the distance to the river, when I +suddenly came face to face with a man. He was as primitive +and uncouth in appearance as the Grabritins—a shaggy, +unkempt savage, clothed in a shirt of skin cured with the +head on, the latter surmounting his own head to form a +bonnet, and giving to him a most fearful and ferocious +aspect.</p> + +<p>The fellow was armed with a long spear and a club, the +latter dangling down his back from a leathern thong about +his neck. His feet were incased in hide sandals.</p> + +<p>At sight of me, he halted for an instant, then turned and +dove into the forest, and, though I called reassuringly to +him in English he did not return nor did I again see him.</p> + +<p>The sight of the wild man raised my hopes once more that +elsewhere we might find men in a higher state of +civilization—it was the society of civilized man that I +craved—and so, with a lighter heart, I continued on toward +the river and the launch.</p> + +<p>I was still some distance ahead of Delcarte and Taylor, when +I came in sight of the Rhine again. But I came to the +water's edge before I noticed that anything was amiss with +the party we had left there a few hours before.</p> + +<p>My first intimation of disaster was the absence of the +launch from its former moorings. And then, a moment later—I discovered the body of a man lying upon the bank. Running +toward it, I saw that it was Thirty-six, and as I stopped +and raised the Grabritin's head in my arms, I heard a faint +moan break from his lips. He was not dead, but that he was +badly injured was all too evident.</p> + +<p>Delcarte and Taylor came up a moment later, and the three of +us worked over the fellow, hoping to revive him that he +might tell us what had happened, and what had become of the +others. My first thought was prompted by the sight I had +recently had of the savage native. The little party had +evidently been surprised, and in the attack Thirty-six had +been wounded and the others taken prisoners. The thought +was almost like a physical blow in the face—it stunned me. +Victory in the hands of these abysmal brutes! It was +frightful. I almost shook poor Thirty-six in my efforts to +revive him.</p> + +<p>I explained my theory to the others, and then Delcarte +shattered it by a single movement of the hand. He drew +aside the lion's skin that covered half of the Grabritin's +breast, revealing a neat, round hole in Thirty-six's chest—a hole that could have been made by no other weapon than a +rifle.</p> + +<p>"Snider!" I exclaimed. Delcarte nodded. At about the same +time the eyelids of the wounded man fluttered, and raised. +He looked up at us, and very slowly the light of +consciousness returned to his eyes.</p> + +<p>"What happened, Thirty-six?" I asked him.</p> + +<p>He tried to reply, but the effort caused him to cough, +bringing about a hemorrhage of the lungs and again he fell +back exhausted. For several long minutes he lay as one +dead, then in an almost inaudible whisper he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Snider—" He paused, tried to speak again, raised a hand, +and pointed down-river. "They—went—back," and then he +shuddered convulsively and died.</p> + +<p>None of us voiced his belief. But I think they were all +alike: Victory and Snider had stolen the launch, and +deserted us.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>7</h2> + + +<p>We stood there, grouped about the body of the dead +Grabritin, looking futilely down the river to where it made +an abrupt curve to the west, a quarter of a mile below us, +and was lost to sight, as though we expected to see the +truant returning to us with our precious launch—the thing +that meant life or death to us in this unfriendly, savage +world.</p> + +<p>I felt, rather than saw, Taylor turn his eyes slowly toward +my profile, and, as mine swung to meet them, the expression +upon his face recalled me to my duty and responsibility as +an officer.</p> + +<p>The utter hopelessness that was reflected in his face must +have been the counterpart of what I myself felt, but in that +brief instant I determined to hide my own misgivings that I +might bolster up the courage of the others.</p> + +<p>"We are lost!" was written as plainly upon Taylor's face as +though his features were the printed words upon an open +book. He was thinking of the launch, and of the launch +alone. Was I? I tried to think that I was. But a greater +grief than the loss of the launch could have engendered in +me, filled my heart—a sullen, gnawing misery which I tried +to deny—which I refused to admit—but which persisted in +obsessing me until my heart rose and filled my throat, and I +could not speak when I would have uttered words of +reassurance to my companions.</p> + +<p>And then rage came to my relief—rage against the vile +traitor who had deserted three of his fellow countrymen in +so frightful a position. I tried to feel an equal rage +against the woman, but somehow I could not, and kept +searching for excuses for her—her youth, her inexperience, +her savagery.</p> + +<p>My rising anger swept away my temporary helplessness. I +smiled, and told Taylor not to look so glum.</p> + +<p>"We will follow them," I said, "and the chances are that we +shall overtake them. They will not travel as rapidly as +Snider probably hopes. He will be forced to halt for fuel +and for food, and the launch must follow the windings of the +river; we can take short cuts while they are traversing the +detour. I have my map—thank God! I always carry it upon my +person—and with that and the compass we will have an +advantage over them."</p> + +<p>My words seemed to cheer them both, and they were for +starting off at once in pursuit. There was no reason why we +should delay, and we set forth down the river. As we +tramped along, we discussed a question that was uppermost in +the mind of each—what we should do with Snider when we had +captured him, for with the action of pursuit had come the +optimistic conviction that we should succeed. As a matter +of fact, we had to succeed. The very thought of remaining +in this utter wilderness for the rest of our lives was +impossible.</p> + +<p>We arrived at nothing very definite in the matter of +Snider's punishment, since Taylor was for shooting him, +Delcarte insisting that he should be hanged, while I, +although fully conscious of the gravity of his offense, +could not bring myself to give the death penalty.</p> + +<p>I fell to wondering what charm Victory had found in such a +man as Snider, and why I insisted upon finding excuses for +her and trying to defend her indefensible act. She was +nothing to me. Aside from the natural gratitude I felt for +her since she had saved my life, I owed her nothing. She +was a half-naked little savage—I, a gentleman, and an +officer in the world's greatest navy. There could be no +close bonds of interest between us.</p> + +<p>This line of reflection I discovered to be as distressing as +the former, but, though I tried to turn my mind to other +things, it persisted in returning to the vision of an oval +face, sun-tanned; of smiling lips, revealing white and even +teeth; of brave eyes that harbored no shadow of guile; and +of a tumbling mass of wavy hair that crowned the loveliest +picture on which my eyes had ever rested.</p> + +<p>Every time this vision presented itself I felt myself turn +cold with rage and hate against Snider. I could forgive the +launch, but if he had wronged her he should die—he should +die at my own hands; in this I was determined.</p> + +<p>For two days we followed the river northward, cutting off +where we could, but confined for the most part to the game +trails that paralleled the stream. One afternoon, we cut +across a narrow neck of land that saved us many miles, where +the river wound to the west and back again.</p> + +<p>Here we decided to halt, for we had had a hard day of it, +and, if the truth were known, I think that we had all given +up hope of overtaking the launch other than by the merest +accident.</p> + +<p>We had shot a deer just before our halt, and, as Taylor and +Delcarte were preparing it, I walked down to the water to +fill our canteens. I had just finished, and was +straightening up, when something floating around a bend +above me caught my eye. For a moment I could not believe +the testimony of my own senses. It was a boat.</p> + +<p>I shouted to Delcarte and Taylor, who came running to my +side.</p> + +<p>"The launch!" cried Delcarte; and, indeed, it was the +launch, floating down-river from above us. Where had it +been? How had we passed it? And how were we to reach it +now, should Snider and the girl discover us?</p> + +<p>"It's drifting," said Taylor. "I see no one in it."</p> + +<p>I was stripping off my clothes, and Delcarte soon followed +my example. I told Taylor to remain on shore with the +clothing and rifles. He might also serve us better there, +since it would give him an opportunity to take a shot at +Snider should the man discover us and show himself.</p> + +<p>With powerful strokes we swam out in the path of the +oncoming launch. Being a stronger swimmer than Delcarte, I +soon was far in the lead, reaching the center of the channel +just as the launch bore down upon me. It was drifting +broadside on. I seized the gunwale and raised myself +quickly, so that my chin topped the side. I expected a blow +the moment that I came within the view of the occupants, but +no blow fell.</p> + +<p>Snider lay upon his back in the bottom of the boat alone. +Even before I had clambered in and stooped above him I knew +that he was dead. Without examining him further, I ran +forward to the control board and pressed the starting +button. To my relief, the mechanism responded—the launch +was uninjured. Coming about, I picked up Delcarte. He was +astounded at the sight that met his eyes, and immediately +fell to examining Snider's body for signs of life or an +explanation of the manner in which he met his death.</p> + +<p>The fellow had been dead for hours—he was cold and still. +But Delcarte's search was not without results, for above +Snider's heart was a wound, a slit about an inch in length—such a slit as a sharp knife would make, and in the dead +fingers of one hand was clutched a strand of long brown +hair—Victory's hair was brown.</p> + +<p>They say that dead men tell no tales, but Snider told the +story of his end as clearly as though the dead lips had +parted and poured forth the truth. The beast had attacked +the girl, and she had defended her honor.</p> + +<p>We buried Snider beside the Rhine, and no stone marks his +last resting place. Beasts do not require headstones.</p> + +<p>Then we set out in the launch, turning her nose upstream. +When I had told Delcarte and Taylor that I intended +searching for the girl, neither had demurred.</p> + +<p>"We had her wrong in our thoughts," said Delcarte, "and the +least that we can do in expiation is to find and rescue +her."</p> + +<p>We called her name aloud every few minutes as we motored up +the river, but, though we returned all the way to our former +camping place, we did not find her. I then decided to +retrace our journey, letting Taylor handle the launch, while +Delcarte and I, upon opposite sides of the river, searched +for some sign of the spot where Victory had landed.</p> + +<p>We found nothing until we had reached a point a few miles +above the spot where I had first seen the launch drifting +down toward us, and there I discovered the remnants of a +recent camp fire.</p> + +<p>That Victory carried flint and steel I was aware, and that +it was she who built the fire I was positive. But which way +had she gone since she stopped here?</p> + +<p>Would she go on down the river, that she might thus bring +herself nearer her own Grabritin, or would she have sought +to search for us upstream, where she had seen us last?</p> + +<p>I had hailed Taylor, and sent him across the river to take +in Delcarte, that the two might join me and discuss my +discovery and our future plans.</p> + +<p>While waiting for them, I stood looking out over the river, +my back toward the woods that stretched away to the east +behind me. Delcarte was just stepping into the launch upon +the opposite side of the stream, when, without the least +warning, I was violently seized by both arms and about the +waist—three or four men were upon me at once; my rifle was +snatched from my hands and my revolver from my belt.</p> + +<p>I struggled for an instant, but finding my efforts of no +avail, I ceased them, and turned my head to have a look at +my assailants. At the same time several others of them +walked around in front of me, and, to my astonishment, I +found myself looking upon uniformed soldiery, armed with +rifles, revolvers, and sabers, but with faces as black as +coal.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>8</h2> + + +<p>Delcarte and Taylor were now in mid-stream, coming toward +us, and I called to them to keep aloof until I knew whether +the intentions of my captors were friendly or otherwise. My +good men wanted to come on and annihilate the blacks. But +there were upward of a hundred of the latter, all well +armed, and so I commanded Delcarte to keep out of harm's +way, and stay where he was till I needed him.</p> + +<p>A young officer called and beckoned to them. But they +refused to come, and so he gave orders that resulted in my +hands being secured at my back, after which the company +marched away, straight toward the east.</p> + +<p>I noticed that the men wore spurs, which seemed strange to +me. But when, late in the afternoon, we arrived at their +encampment, I discovered that my captors were cavalrymen.</p> + +<p>In the center of a plain stood a log fort, with a block- +house at each of its four corners. As we approached, I saw +a herd of cavalry horses grazing under guard outside the +walls of the post. They were small, stocky horses, but the +telltale saddle galls proclaimed their calling. The flag +flying from a tall staff inside the palisade was one which I +had never before seen nor heard of.</p> + +<p>We marched directly into the compound, where the company was +dismissed, with the exception of a guard of four privates, +who escorted me in the wake of the young officer. The +latter led us across a small parade ground, where a battery +of light field guns was parked, and toward a log building, +in front of which rose the flagstaff.</p> + +<p>I was escorted within the building into the presence of an +old negro, a fine looking man, with a dignified and military +bearing. He was a colonel, I was to learn later, and to him +I owe the very humane treatment that was accorded me while I +remained his prisoner.</p> + +<p>He listened to the report of his junior, and then turned to +question me, but with no better results than the former had +accomplished. Then he summoned an orderly, and gave some +instructions. The soldier saluted, and left the room, +returning in about five minutes with a hairy old white man—just such a savage, primeval-looking fellow as I had +discovered in the woods the day that Snider had disappeared +with the launch.</p> + +<p>The colonel evidently expected to use the fellow as +interpreter, but when the savage addressed me it was in a +language as foreign to me as was that of the blacks. At +last the old officer gave it up, and, shaking his head, gave +instructions for my removal.</p> + +<p>From his office I was led to a guardhouse, in which I found +about fifty half-naked whites, clad in the skins of wild +beasts. I tried to converse with them, but not one of them +could understand Pan-American, nor could I make head or tail +of their jargon.</p> + +<p>For over a month I remained a prisoner there, working from +morning until night at odd jobs about the headquarters +building of the commanding officer. The other prisoners +worked harder than I did, and I owe my better treatment +solely to the kindliness and discrimination of the old +colonel.</p> + +<p>What had become of Victory, of Delcarte, of Taylor I could +not know; nor did it seem likely that I should ever learn. +I was most depressed. But I whiled away my time in +performing the duties given me to the best of my ability and +attempting to learn the language of my captors.</p> + +<p>Who they were or where they came from was a mystery to me. +That they were the outpost of some pow-erful black nation +seemed likely, yet where the seat of that nation lay I could +not guess.</p> + +<p>They looked upon the whites as their inferiors, and treated +us accordingly. They had a literature of their own, and +many of the men, even the common soldiers, were omnivorous +readers. Every two weeks a dust-covered trooper would trot +his jaded mount into the post and deliver a bulging sack of +mail at headquarters. The next day he would be away again +upon a fresh horse toward the south, carrying the soldiers' +letters to friends in the far off land of mystery from +whence they all had come.</p> + +<p>Troops, sometimes mounted and sometimes afoot, left the post +daily for what I assumed to be patrol duty. I judged the +little force of a thousand men were detailed here to +maintain the authority of a distant government in a +conquered country. Later, I learned that my surmise was +correct, and this was but one of a great chain of similar +posts that dotted the new frontier of the black nation into +whose hands I had fallen.</p> + +<p>Slowly I learned their tongue, so that I could understand +what was said before me, and make myself understood. I had +seen from the first that I was being treated as a slave—that all whites that fell into the hands of the blacks were +thus treated.</p> + +<p>Almost daily new prisoners were brought in, and about three +weeks after I was brought in to the post a troop of cavalry +came from the south to relieve one of the troops stationed +there. There was great jubilation in the encampment after +the arrival of the newcomers, old friendships were renewed +and new ones made. But the happiest men were those of the +troop that was to be relieved.</p> + +<p>The next morning they started away, and as they were forced +upon the parade ground we prisoners were marched from our +quarters and lined up before them. A couple of long chains +were brought, with rings in the links every few feet. At +first I could not guess the purpose of these chains. But I +was soon to learn.</p> + +<p>A couple of soldiers snapped the first ring around the neck +of a powerful white slave, and one by one the rest of us +were herded to our places, and the work of shackling us neck +to neck commenced.</p> + +<p>The colonel stood watching the procedure. Presently his +eyes fell upon me, and he spoke to a young officer at his +side. The latter stepped toward me and motioned me to +follow him. I did so, and was led back to the colonel.</p> + +<p>By this time I could understand a few words of their strange +language, and when the colonel asked me if I would prefer to +remain at the post as his body servant, I signified my +willingness as emphatically as possible, for I had seen +enough of the brutality of the common soldiers toward their +white slaves to have no desire to start out upon a march of +unknown length, chained by the neck, and driven on by the +great whips that a score of the soldiers carried to +accelerate the speed of their charges.</p> + +<p>About three hundred prisoners who had been housed in six +prisons at the post marched out of the gates that morning, +toward what fate and what future I could not guess. Neither +had the poor devils themselves more than the most vague +conception of what lay in store for them, except that they +were going elsewhere to continue in the slavery that they +had known since their capture by their black conquerors—a +slavery that was to continue until death released them.</p> + +<p>My position was altered at the post. From working about the +headquarters office, I was transferred to the colonel's +living quarters. I had greater freedom, and no longer slept +in one of the prisons, but had a little room to myself off +the kitchen of the colonel's log house.</p> + +<p>My master was always kind to me, and under him I rapidly +learned the language of my captors, and much concerning them +that had been a mystery to me before. His name was Abu +Belik. He was a colonel in the cavalry of Abyssinia, a +country of which I do not remember ever hearing, but which +Colonel Belik assured me is the oldest civilized country in +the world.</p> + +<p>Colonel Belik was born in Adis Abeba, the capital of the +empire, and until recently had been in command of the +emperor's palace guard. Jealousy and the ambition and +intrigue of another officer had lost him the favor of his +emperor, and he had been detailed to this frontier post as a +mark of his sovereign's displeasure.</p> + +<p>Some fifty years before, the young emperor, Menelek XIV, was +ambitious. He knew that a great world lay across the waters +far to the north of his capital. Once he had crossed the +desert and looked out upon the blue sea that was the +northern boundary of his dominions.</p> + +<p>There lay another world to conquer. Menelek busied himself +with the building of a great fleet, though his people were +not a maritime race. His army crossed into Europe. It met +with little resistance, and for fifty years his soldiers had +been pushing his boundaries farther and farther toward the +north.</p> + +<p>"The yellow men from the east and north are contesting our +rights here now," said the colonel, "but we shall win—we +shall conquer the world, carrying Christianity to all the +benighted heathen of Europe, and Asia as well."</p> + +<p>"You are a Christian people?" I asked.</p> + +<p>He looked at me in surprise, nodding his head affirmatively.</p> + +<p>"I am a Christian," I said. "My people are the most +powerful on earth."</p> + +<p>He smiled, and shook his head indulgently, as a father to a +child who sets up his childish judgment against that of his +elders.</p> + +<p>Then I set out to prove my point. I told him of our cities, +of our army, of our great navy. He came right back at me +asking for figures, and when he was done I had to admit that +only in our navy were we numerically superior.</p> + +<p>Menelek XIV is the undisputed ruler of all the continent of +Africa, of all of ancient Europe except the British Isles, +Scandinavia, and eastern Russia, and has large possessions +and prosperous colonies in what once were Arabia and Turkey +in Asia.</p> + +<p>He has a standing army of ten million men, and his people +possess slaves—white slaves—to the number of ten or +fifteen million.</p> + +<p>Colonel Belik was much surprised, however, upon his part to +learn of the great nation which lay across the ocean, and +when he found that I was a naval officer, he was inclined to +accord me even greater consideration than formerly. It was +difficult for him to believe my assertion that there were +but few blacks in my country, and that these occupied a +lower social plane than the whites.</p> + +<p>Just the reverse is true in Colonel Belik's land. He +considered whites inferior beings, creatures of a lower +order, and assuring me that even the few white freemen of +Abyssinia were never accorded anything approximating a +position of social equality with the blacks. They live in +the poorer districts of the cities, in little white +colonies, and a black who marries a white is socially +ostracized.</p> + +<p>The arms and ammunition of the Abyssinians are greatly +inferior to ours, yet they are tremendously effective +against the ill-armed barbarians of Europe. Their rifles +are of a type similar to the magazine rifles of twentieth +century Pan-America, but carrying only five cartridges in +the magazine, in addition to the one in the chamber. They +are of extraordinary length, even those of the cavalry, and +are of extreme accuracy.</p> + +<p>The Abyssinians themselves are a fine looking race of black +men—tall, muscular, with fine teeth, and regular features, +which incline distinctly toward Semitic mold—I refer to the +full-blooded natives of Abyssinia. They are the patricians—the aristocracy. The army is officered almost exclusively +by them. Among the soldiery a lower type of negro +predominates, with thicker lips and broader, flatter noses. +These men are recruited, so the colonel told me, from among +the conquered tribes of Africa. They are good soldiers—brave and loyal. They can read and write, and they are +endowed with a self-confidence and pride which, from my +readings of the words of ancient African explorers, must +have been wanting in their earliest progenitors. On the +whole, it is apparent that the black race has thrived far +better in the past two centuries under men of its own color +than it had under the domination of whites during all +previous history.</p> + +<p>I had been a prisoner at the little frontier post for over a +month, when orders came to Colonel Belik to hasten to the +eastern frontier with the major portion of his command, +leaving only one troop to garrison the fort. As his body +servant, I accompanied him mounted upon a fiery little +Abyssinian pony.</p> + +<p>We marched rapidly for ten days through the heart of the +ancient German empire, halting when night found us in +proximity to water. Often we passed small posts similar to +that at which the colonel's regiment had been quartered, +finding in each instance that only a single company or troop +remained for defence, the balance having been withdrawn +toward the northeast, in the same direction in which we were +moving.</p> + +<p>Naturally, the colonel had not confided to me the nature of +his orders. But the rapidity of our march and the fact that +all available troops were being hastened toward the +northeast assured me that a matter of vital importance to +the dominion of Menelek XIV in that part of Europe was +threatening or had already broken.</p> + +<p>I could not believe that a simple rising of the savage +tribes of whites would necessitate the mobilizing of such a +force as we presently met with converging from the south +into our trail. There were large bodies of cavalry and +infantry, endless streams of artillery wagons and guns, and +countless horse-drawn covered vehicles laden with camp +equipage, munitions, and provisions.</p> + +<p>Here, for the first time, I saw camels, great caravans of +them, bearing all sorts of heavy burdens, and miles upon +miles of elephants doing similar service. It was a scene of +wondrous and barbaric splendor, for the men and beasts from +the south were gaily caparisoned in rich colors, in marked +contrast to the gray uniformed forces of the frontier, with +which I had been familiar.</p> + +<p>The rumor reached us that Menelek himself was coming, and +the pitch of excitement to which this announcement raised +the troops was little short of miraculous—at least, to one +of my race and nationality whose rulers for centuries had +been but ordinary men, holding office at the will of the +people for a few brief years.</p> + +<p>As I witnessed it, I could not but speculate upon the moral +effect upon his troops of a sovereign's presence in the +midst of battle. All else being equal in war between the +troops of a republic and an empire, could not this +exhilarated mental state, amounting almost to hysteria on +the part of the imperial troops, weigh heavily against the +soldiers of a president? I wonder.</p> + +<p>But if the emperor chanced to be absent? What then? Again I +wonder.</p> + +<p>On the eleventh day we reached our destination—a walled +frontier city of about twenty thousand. We passed some +lakes, and crossed some old canals before entering the +gates. Within, beside the frame buildings, were many built +of ancient brick and well-cut stone. These, I was told, +were of material taken from the ruins of the ancient city +which, once, had stood upon the site of the present town.</p> + +<p>The name of the town, translated from the Abyssinian, is New +Gondar. It stands, I am convinced, upon the ruins of +ancient Berlin, the one time capital of the old German +empire, but except for the old building material used in the +new town there is no sign of the former city.</p> + +<p>The day after we arrived, the town was gaily decorated with +flags, streamers, gorgeous rugs, and banners, for the rumor +had proved true—the emperor was coming.</p> + +<p>Colonel Belik had accorded me the greatest liberty, +permitting me to go where I pleased, after my few duties had +been performed. As a result of his kindness, I spent much +time wandering about New Gondar, talking with the +inhabitants, and exploring the city of black men.</p> + +<p>As I had been given a semi-military uniform which bore +insignia indicating that I was an officer's body servant, +even the blacks treated me with a species of respect, though +I could see by their manner that I was really as the dirt +beneath their feet. They answered my questions civilly +enough, but they would not enter into conversation with me. +It was from other slaves that I learned the gossip of the +city.</p> + +<p>Troops were pouring in from the west and south, and pouring +out toward the east. I asked an old slave who was sweeping +the dirt into little piles in the gutters of the street +where the soldiers were going. He looked at me in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Why, to fight the yellow men, of course," he said. "They +have crossed the border, and are marching toward New +Gondar."</p> + +<p>"Who will win?" I asked.</p> + +<p>He shrugged his shoulders. "Who knows?" he said. "I hope +it will be the yellow men, but Menelek is powerful—it will +take many yellow men to defeat him."</p> + +<p>Crowds were gathering along the sidewalks to view the +emperor's entry into the city. I took my place among them, +although I hate crowds, and I am glad that I did, for I +witnessed such a spectacle of barbaric splendor as no other +Pan-American has ever looked upon.</p> + +<p>Down the broad main thoroughfare, which may once have been +the historic Unter den Linden, came a brilliant cortege. At +the head rode a regiment of red-coated hussars—enormous +men, black as night. There were troops of riflemen mounted +on camels. The emperor rode in a golden howdah upon the +back of a huge elephant so covered with rich hangings and +embellished with scintillating gems that scarce more than +the beast's eyes and feet were visible.</p> + +<p>Menelek was a rather gross-looking man, well past middle +age, but he carried himself with an air of dignity befitting +one descended in unbroken line from the Prophet—as was his +claim.</p> + +<p>His eyes were bright but crafty, and his features denoted +both sensuality and cruelness. In his youth he may have +been a rather fine looking black, but when I saw him his +appearance was revolting—to me, at least.</p> + +<p>Following the emperor came regiment after regiment from the +various branches of the service, among them batteries of +field guns mounted on elephants.</p> + +<p>In the center of the troops following the imperial elephant +marched a great caravan of slaves. The old street sweeper +at my elbow told me that these were the gifts brought in +from the far outlying districts by the commanding officers +of the frontier posts. The majority of them were women, +destined, I was told, for the harems of the emperor and his +favorites. It made my old companion clench his fists to see +those poor white women marching past to their horrid fates, +and, though I shared his sentiments, I was as powerless to +alter their destinies as he.</p> + +<p>For a week the troops kept pouring in and out of New Gondar—in, always, from the south and west, but always toward the +east. Each new contingent brought its gifts to the emperor. +From the south they brought rugs and ornaments and jewels; +from the west, slaves; for the commanding officers of the +western frontier posts had naught else to bring.</p> + +<p>From the number of women they brought, I judged that they +knew the weakness of their imperial master.</p> + +<p>And then soldiers commenced coming in from the east, but not +with the gay assurance of those who came from the south and +west—no, these others came in covered wagons, blood-soaked +and suffering. They came at first in little parties of +eight or ten, and then they came in fifties, in hundreds, +and one day a thousand maimed and dying men were carted into +New Gondar.</p> + +<p>It was then that Menelek XIV became uneasy. For fifty years +his armies had conquered wherever they had marched. At +first he had led them in person, lately his presence within +a hundred miles of the battle line had been sufficient for +large engagements—for minor ones only the knowledge that +they were fighting for the glory of their sovereign was +necessary to win victories.</p> + +<p>One morning, New Gondar was awakened by the booming of +cannon. It was the first intimation that the townspeople +had received that the enemy was forcing the imperial troops +back upon the city. Dust covered couriers galloped in from +the front. Fresh troops hastened from the city, and about +noon Menelek rode out surrounded by his staff.</p> + +<p>For three days thereafter we could hear the cannonading and +the spitting of the small arms, for the battle line was +scarce two leagues from New Gondar. The city was filled +with wounded. Just outside, soldiers were engaged in +throwing up earthworks. It was evident to the least +enlightened that Menelek expected further reverses.</p> + +<p>And then the imperial troops fell back upon these new +defenses, or, rather, they were forced back by the enemy. +Shells commenced to fall within the city. Menelek returned +and took up his headquarters in the stone building that was +called the palace. That night came a lull in the +hostilities—a truce had been arranged.</p> + +<p>Colonel Belik summoned me about seven o'clock to dress him +for a function at the palace. In the midst of death and +defeat the emperor was about to give a great banquet to his +officers. I was to accompany my master and wait upon him—I, Jefferson Turck, lieutenant in the Pan-American navy!</p> + +<p>In the privacy of the colonel's quarters I had become +accustomed to my menial duties, lightened as they were by +the natural kindliness of my master, but the thought of +appearing in public as a common slave revolted every fine +instinct within me. Yet there was nothing for it but to +obey.</p> + +<p>I cannot, even now, bring myself to a narration of the +humiliation which I experienced that night as I stood behind +my black master in silent servility, now pouring his wine, +now cutting up his meats for him, now fanning him with a +large, plumed fan of feathers.</p> + +<p>As fond as I had grown of him, I could have thrust a knife +into him, so keenly did I feel the affront that had been put +upon me. But at last the long banquet was concluded. The +tables were removed. The emperor ascended a dais at one end +of the room and seated himself upon a throne, and the +entertainment commenced. It was only what ancient history +might have led me to expect—musicians, dancing girls, +jugglers, and the like.</p> + +<p>Near midnight, the master of ceremonies announced that the +slave women who had been presented to the emperor since his +arrival in New Gondar would be exhibited, that the royal +host would select such as he wished, after which he would +present the balance of them to his guests. Ah, what royal +generosity!</p> + +<p>A small door at one side of the room opened, and the poor +creatures filed in and were ranged in a long line before the +throne. Their backs were toward me. I saw only an +occasional profile as now and then a bolder spirit among +them turned to survey the apartment and the gorgeous +assemblage of officers in their brilliant dress uniforms. +They were profiles of young girls, and pretty, but horror +was indelibly stamped upon them all. I shuddered as I +contemplated their sad fate, and turned my eyes away.</p> + +<p>I heard the master of ceremonies command them to prostrate +themselves before the emperor, and the sounds as they went +upon their knees before him, touching their foreheads to the +floor. Then came the official's voice again, in sharp and +peremptory command.</p> + +<p>"Down, slave!" he cried. "Make obeisance to your +sovereign!"</p> + +<p>I looked up, attracted by the tone of the man's voice, to +see a single, straight, slim figure standing erect in the +center of the line of prostrate girls, her arms folded +across her breast and little chin in the air. Her back was +toward me—I could not see her face, though I should like to +see the countenance of this savage young lioness, standing +there defiant among that herd of terrified sheep.</p> + +<p>"Down! Down!" shouted the master of ceremonies, taking a +step toward her and half drawing his sword.</p> + +<p>My blood boiled. To stand there, inactive, while a negro +struck down that brave girl of my own race! Instinctively I +took a forward step to place myself in the man's path. But +at the same instant Menelek raised his hand in a gesture +that halted the officer. The emperor seemed interested, but +in no way angered at the girl's attitude.</p> + +<p>"Let us inquire," he said in a smooth, pleasant voice, "why +this young woman refuses to do homage to her sovereign," and +he put the question himself directly to her.</p> + +<p>She answered him in Abyssinian, but brokenly and with an +accent that betrayed how recently she had acquired her +slight knowledge of the tongue.</p> + +<p>"I go on my knees to no one," she said. "I have no +sovereign. I myself am sovereign in my own country."</p> + +<p>Menelek, at her words, leaned back in his throne and laughed +uproariously. Following his example, which seemed always +the correct procedure, the assembled guests vied with one +another in an effort to laugh more noisily than the emperor.</p> + +<p>The girl but tilted her chin a bit higher in the air—even +her back proclaimed her utter contempt for her captors. +Finally Menelek restored quiet by the simple expedient of a +frown, whereupon each loyal guest exchanged his mirthful +mien for an emulative scowl.</p> + +<p>"And who," asked Menelek, "are you, and by what name is your +country called?"</p> + +<p>"I am Victory, Queen of Grabritin," replied the girl so +quickly and so unexpectedly that I gasped in astonishment.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>9</h2> + + +<p>Victory! She was here, a slave to these black conquerors. +Once more I started toward her, but better judgment held me +back—I could do nothing to help her other than by stealth. +Could I even accomplish aught by this means? I did not +know. It seemed beyond the pale of possibility, and yet I +should try.</p> + +<p>"And you will not bend the knee to me?" continued Menelek, +after she had spoken. Victory shook her head in a most +decided negation.</p> + +<p>"You shall be my first choice, then," said the emperor. "I +like your spirit, for the breaking of it will add to my +pleasure in you, and never fear but that it shall be broken—this very night. Take her to my apartments," and he +motioned to an officer at his side</p> + +<p>I was surprised to see Victory follow the man off in +apparent quiet submission. I tried to follow, that I might +be near her against some opportunity to speak with her or +assist in her escape. But, after I had followed them from +the throne room, through several other apartments, and down +a long corridor, I found my further progress barred by a +soldier who stood guard before a doorway through which the +officer conducted Victory.</p> + +<p>Almost immediately the officer reappeared and started back +in the direction of the throne room. I had been hiding in a +doorway after the guard had turned me back, having taken +refuge there while his back was turned, and, as the officer +approached me, I withdrew into the room beyond, which was in +darkness. There I remained for a long time, watching the +sentry before the door of the room in which Victory was a +prisoner, and awaiting some favorable circumstance which +would give me entry to her.</p> + +<p>I have not attempted to fully describe my sensations at the +moment I recognized Victory, because, I can assure you, they +were entirely indescribable. I should never have imagined +that the sight of any human being could affect me as had +this unexpected discovery of Victory in the same room in +which I was, while I had thought of her for weeks either as +dead, or at best hundreds of miles to the west, and as +irretrievably lost to me as though she were, in truth, dead.</p> + +<p>I was filled with a strange, mad impulse to be near her. It +was not enough merely to assist her, or protect her—I +desired to touch her—to take her in my arms. I was +astounded at myself. Another thing puzzled me—it was my +incomprehensible feeling of elation since I had again seen +her. With a fate worse than death staring her in the face, +and with the knowledge that I should probably die defending +her within the hour, I was still happier than I had been for +weeks—and all because I had seen again for a few brief +minutes the figure of a little heathen maiden. I couldn't +account for it, and it angered me; I had never before felt +any such sensations in the presence of a woman, and I had +made love to some very beautiful ones in my time.</p> + +<p>It seemed ages that I stood in the shadow of that doorway, +in the ill-lit corridor of the palace of Menelek XIV. A +sickly gas jet cast a sad pallor upon the black face of the +sentry. The fellow seemed rooted to the spot. Evidently he +would never leave, or turn his back again.</p> + +<p>I had been in hiding but a short time when I heard the sound +of distant cannon. The truce had ended, and the battle had +been resumed. Very shortly thereafter the earth shook to +the explosion of a shell within the city, and from time to +time thereafter other shells burst at no great distance from +the palace. The yellow men were bombarding New Gondar +again.</p> + +<p>Presently officers and slaves commenced to traverse the +corridor on matters pertaining to their duties, and then +came the emperor, scowling and wrathful. He was followed by +a few personal attendants, whom he dismissed at the doorway +to his apartments—the same doorway through which Victory +had been taken. I chafed to follow him, but the corridor +was filled with people. At last they betook themselves to +their own apartments, which lay upon either side of the +corridor.</p> + +<p>An officer and a slave entered the very room in which I hid, +forcing me to flatten myself to one side in the darkness +until they had passed. Then the slave made a light, and I +knew that I must find another hiding place.</p> + +<p>Stepping boldly into the corridor, I saw that it was now +empty save for the single sentry before the emperor's door. +He glanced up as I emerged from the room, the occupants of +which had not seen me. I walked straight toward the +soldier, my mind made up in an instant. I tried to simulate +an expression of cringing servility, and I must have +succeeded, for I entirely threw the man off his guard, so +that he permitted me to approach within reach of his rifle +before stopping me. Then it was too late—for him.</p> + +<p>Without a word or a warning, I snatched the piece from his +grasp, and, at the same time struck him a terrific blow +between the eyes with my clenched fist. He staggered back +in surprise, too dumbfounded even to cry out, and then I +clubbed his rifle and felled him with a single mighty blow.</p> + +<p>A moment later, I had burst into the room beyond. It was +empty!</p> + +<p>I gazed about, mad with disappointment. Two doors opened +from this to other rooms. I ran to the nearer and listened. +Yes, voices were coming from beyond and one was a woman's, +level and cold and filled with scorn. There was no terror +in it. It was Victory's.</p> + +<p>I turned the knob and pushed the door inward just in time to +see Menelek seize the girl and drag her toward the far end +of the apartment. At the same instant there was a deafening +roar just outside the palace—a shell had struck much nearer +than any of its predecessors. The noise of it drowned my +rapid rush across the room.</p> + +<p>But in her struggles, Victory turned Menelek about so that +he saw me. She was striking him in the face with her +clenched fist, and now he was choking her.</p> + +<p>At sight of me, he gave voice to a roar of anger.</p> + +<p>"What means this, slave?" he cried. "Out of here! Out of +here! Quick, before I kill you!"</p> + +<p>But for answer I rushed upon him, striking him with the butt +of the rifle. He staggered back, dropping Victory to the +floor, and then he cried aloud for the guard, and came at +me. Again and again I struck him; but his thick skull might +have been armor plate, for all the damage I did it.</p> + +<p>He tried to close with me, seizing the rifle, but I was +stronger than he, and, wrenching the weapon from his grasp, +tossed it aside and made for his throat with my bare hands. +I had not dared fire the weapon for fear that its report +would bring the larger guard stationed at the farther end of +the corridor.</p> + +<p>We struggled about the room, striking one another, knocking +over furniture, and rolling upon the floor. Menelek was a +powerful man, and he was fighting for his life. Continually +he kept calling for the guard, until I succeeded in getting +a grip upon his throat; but it was too late. His cries had +been heard, and suddenly the door burst open, and a score of +armed guardsmen rushed into the apartment.</p> + +<p>Victory seized the rifle from the floor and leaped between +me and them. I had the black emperor upon his back, and +both my hands were at his throat, choking the life from him.</p> + +<p>The rest happened in the fraction of a second. There was a +rending crash above us, then a deafening explosion within +the chamber. Smoke and powder fumes filled the room. Half +stunned, I rose from the lifeless body of my antagonist just +in time to see Victory stagger to her feet and turn toward +me. Slowly the smoke cleared to reveal the shattered +remnants of the guard. A shell had fallen through the +palace roof and exploded just in the rear of the detachment +of guardsmen who were coming to the rescue of their emperor. +Why neither Victory nor I were struck is a miracle. The +room was a wreck. A great, jagged hole was torn in the +ceiling, and the wall toward the corridor had been blown +entirely out.</p> + +<p>As I rose, Victory had risen, too, and started toward me. +But when she saw that I was uninjured she stopped, and stood +there in the center of the demolished apartment looking at +me. Her expression was inscrutable—I could not guess +whether she was glad to see me, or not.</p> + +<p>"Victory!" I cried. "Thank God that you are safe!" And I +approached her, a greater gladness in my heart than I had +felt since the moment that I knew the Coldwater must be +swept beyond thirty.</p> + +<p>There was no answering gladness in her eyes. Instead, she +stamped her little foot in anger.</p> + +<p>"Why did it have to be you who saved me!" she exclaimed. "I +hate you!"</p> + +<p>"Hate me?" I asked. "Why should you hate me, Victory? I do +not hate you. I—I—" What was I about to say? I was very +close to her as a great light broke over me. Why had I +never realized it before? The truth accounted for a great +many hitherto inexplicable moods that had claimed me from +time to time since first I had seen Victory.</p> + +<p>"Why should I hate you?" she repeated. "Because Snider told +me—he told me that you had promised me to him, but he did +not get me. I killed him, as I should like to kill you!"</p> + +<p>"Snider lied!" I cried. And then I seized her and held her +in my arms, and made her listen to me, though she struggled +and fought like a young lioness. "I love you, Victory. You +must know that I love you—that I have always loved you, and +that I never could have made so base a promise."</p> + +<p>She ceased her struggles, just a trifle, but still tried to +push me from her. "You called me a barbarian!" she said.</p> + +<p>Ah, so that was it! That still rankled. I crushed her to +me.</p> + +<p>"You could not love a barbarian," she went on, but she had +ceased to struggle.</p> + +<p>"But I do love a barbarian, Victory!" I cried, "the dearest +barbarian in the world."</p> + +<p>She raised her eyes to mine, and then her smooth, brown arms +encircled my neck and drew my lips down to hers.</p> + +<p>"I love you—I have loved you always!" she said, and then +she buried her face upon my shoulder and sobbed. "I have +been so unhappy," she said, "but I could not die while I +thought that you might live."</p> + +<p>As we stood there, momentarily forgetful of all else than +our new found happiness, the ferocity of the bombardment +increased until scarce thirty seconds elapsed between the +shells that rained about the palace.</p> + +<p>To remain long would be to invite certain death. We could +not escape the way that we had entered the apartment, for +not only was the corridor now choked with debris, but beyond +the corridor there were doubtless many members of the +emperor's household who would stop us.</p> + +<p>Upon the opposite side of the room was another door, and +toward this I led the way. It opened into a third apartment +with windows overlooking an inner court. From one of these +windows I surveyed the courtyard. Apparently it was empty, +and the rooms upon the opposite side were unlighted.</p> + +<p>Assisting Victory to the open, I followed, and together we +crossed the court, discovering upon the opposite side a +number of wide, wooden doors set in the wall of the palace, +with small windows between. As we stood close behind one of +the doors, listening, a horse within neighed.</p> + +<p>"The stables!" I whispered, and, a moment later, had pushed +back a door and entered. From the city about us we could +hear the din of great commotion, and quite close the sounds +of battle—the crack of thousands of rifles, the yells of +the soldiers, the hoarse commands of officers, and the blare +of bugles.</p> + +<p>The bombardment had ceased as suddenly as it had commenced. +I judged that the enemy was storming the city, for the +sounds we heard were the sounds of hand-to-hand combat.</p> + +<p>Within the stables I groped about until I had found saddles +and bridles for two horses. But afterward, in the darkness, +I could find but a single mount. The doors of the opposite +side, leading to the street, were open, and we could see +great multitudes of men, women, and children fleeing toward +the west. Soldiers, afoot and mounted, were joining the mad +exodus. Now and then a camel or an elephant would pass +bearing some officer or dignitary to safety. It was evident +that the city would fall at any moment—a fact which was +amply proclaimed by the terror-stricken haste of the fear- +mad mob.</p> + +<p>Horse, camel, and elephant trod helpless women and children +beneath their feet. A common soldier dragged a general from +his mount, and, leaping to the animal's back, fled down the +packed street toward the west. A woman seized a gun and +brained a court dignitary, whose horse had trampled her +child to death. Shrieks, curses, commands, supplications +filled the air. It was a frightful scene—one that will be +burned upon my memory forever.</p> + +<p>I had saddled and bridled the single horse which had +evidently been overlooked by the royal household in its +flight, and, standing a little back in the shadow of the +stable's interior, Victory and I watched the surging throng +without.</p> + +<p>To have entered it would have been to have courted greater +danger than we were already in. We decided to wait until +the stress of blacks thinned, and for more than an hour we +stood there while the sounds of battle raged upon the +eastern side of the city and the population flew toward the +west. More and more numerous became the uniformed soldiers +among the fleeing throng, until, toward the last, the street +was packed with them. It was no orderly retreat, but a +rout, complete and terrible.</p> + +<p>The fighting was steadily approaching us now, until the +crack of rifles sounded in the very street upon which we +were looking. And then came a handful of brave men—a +little rear guard backing slowly toward the west, working +their smoking rifles in feverish haste as they fired volley +after volley at the foe we could not see.</p> + +<p>But these were pressed back and back until the first line of +the enemy came opposite our shelter. They were men of +medium height, with olive complexions and almond eyes. In +them I recognized the descendants of the ancient Chinese +race.</p> + +<p>They were well uniformed and superbly armed, and they fought +bravely and under perfect discipline. So rapt was I in the +exciting events transpiring in the street that I did not +hear the approach of a body of men from behind. It was a +party of the conquerors who had entered the palace and were +searching it.</p> + +<p>They came upon us so unexpectedly that we were prisoners +before we realized what had happened. That night we were +held under a strong guard just outside the eastern wall of +the city, and the next morning were started upon a long +march toward the east.</p> + +<p>Our captors were not unkind to us, and treated the women +prisoners with respect. We marched for many days—so many +that I lost count of them—and at last we came to another +city—a Chinese city this time—which stands upon the site +of ancient Moscow.</p> + +<p>It is only a small frontier city, but it is well built and +well kept. Here a large military force is maintained, and +here also, is a terminus of the railroad that crosses modern +China to the Pacific.</p> + +<p>There was every evidence of a high civilization in all that +we saw within the city, which, in connection with the humane +treatment that had been accorded all prisoners upon the long +and tiresome march, encouraged me to hope that I might +appeal to some high officer here for the treatment which my +rank and birth merited.</p> + +<p>We could converse with our captors only through the medium +of interpreters who spoke both Chinese and Abyssinian. But +there were many of these, and shortly after we reached the +city I persuaded one of them to carry a verbal message to +the officer who had commanded the troops during the return +from New Gondar, asking that I might be given a hearing by +some high official.</p> + +<p>The reply to my request was a summons to appear before the +officer to whom I had addressed my appeal. A sergeant came +for me along with the interpreter, and I managed to obtain +his permission to let Victory accompany me—I had never left +her alone with the prisoners since we had been captured.</p> + +<p>To my delight I found that the officer into whose presence +we were conducted spoke Abyssinian fluently. He was +astounded when I told him that I was a Pan-American. Unlike +all others whom I had spoken with since my arrival in +Europe, he was well acquainted with ancient history—was +familiar with twentieth century conditions in Pan-America, +and after putting a half dozen questions to me was satisfied +that I spoke the truth.</p> + +<p>When I told him that Victory was Queen of England he showed +little surprise, telling me that in their recent +explorations in ancient Russia they had found many +descendants of the old nobility and royalty.</p> + +<p>He immediately set aside a comfortable house for us, +furnished us with servants and with money, and in other ways +showed us every attention and kindness.</p> + +<p>He told me that he would telegraph his emperor at once, and +the result was that we were presently commanded to repair to +Peking and present ourselves before the ruler.</p> + +<p>We made the journey in a comfortable railway carriage, +through a country which, as we traveled farther toward the +east, showed increasing evidence of prosperity and wealth.</p> + +<p>At the imperial court we were received with great kindness, +the emperor being most inquisitive about the state of modern +Pan-America. He told me that while he personally deplored +the existence of the strict regulations which had raised a +barrier between the east and the west, he had felt, as had +his predecessors, that recognition of the wishes of the +great Pan-American federation would be most conducive to the +continued peace of the world.</p> + +<p>His empire includes all of Asia, and the islands of the +Pacific as far east as 175dW. The empire of Japan no longer +exists, having been conquered and absorbed by China over a +hundred years ago. The Philippines are well administered, +and constitute one of the most progressive colonies of the +Chinese empire.</p> + +<p>The emperor told me that the building of this great empire +and the spreading of enlightenment among its diversified and +savage peoples had required all the best efforts of nearly +two hundred years. Upon his accession to the throne he had +found the labor well nigh perfected and had turned his +attention to the reclamation of Europe.</p> + +<p>His ambition is to wrest it from the hands of the blacks, +and then to attempt the work of elevating its fallen peoples +to the high estate from which the Great War precipitated +them.</p> + +<p>I asked him who was victorious in that war, and he shook his +head sadly as he replied:</p> + +<p>"Pan-America, perhaps, and China, with the blacks of +Abyssinia," he said. "Those who did not fight were the only +ones to reap any of the rewards that are supposed to belong +to victory. The combatants reaped naught but annihilation. +You have seen—better than any man you must realize that +there was no victory for any nation embroiled in that +frightful war."</p> + +<p>"When did it end?" I asked him.</p> + +<p>Again he shook his head. "It has not ended yet. There has +never been a formal peace declared in Europe. After a while +there were none left to make peace, and the rude tribes +which sprang from the survivors continued to fight among +themselves because they knew no better condition of society. +War razed the works of man—war and pestilence razed man. +God give that there shall never be such another war!"</p> + +<p>You all know how Porfirio Johnson returned to Pan-America +with John Alvarez in chains; how Alvarez's trial raised a +popular demonstration that the government could not ignore. +His eloquent appeal—not for himself, but for me—is +historic, as are its results. You know how a fleet was sent +across the Atlantic to search for me, how the restrictions +against crossing thirty to one hundred seventy-five were +removed forever, and how the officers were brought to +Peking, arriving upon the very day that Victory and I were +married at the imperial court.</p> + +<p>My return to Pan-America was very different from anything I +could possibly have imagined a year before. Instead of +being received as a traitor to my country, I was acclaimed a +hero. It was good to get back again, good to witness the +kindly treatment that was accorded my dear Victory, and when +I learned that Delcarte and Taylor had been found at the +mouth of the Rhine and were already back in Pan-America my +joy was unalloyed.</p> + +<p>And now we are going back, Victory and I, with the men and +the munitions and power to reclaim England for her queen. +Again I shall cross thirty, but under what altered +conditions!</p> + +<p>A new epoch for Europe is inaugurated, with enlightened +China on the east and enlightened Pan-America on the west—the two great peace powers whom God has preserved to +regenerate chastened and forgiven Europe. I have been +through much—I have suffered much, but I have won two great +laurel wreaths beyond thirty. One is the opportunity to +rescue Europe from barbarism, the other is a little +barbarian, and the greater of these is—Victory.</p> + + +<pre> +End of Project Gutenberg etext of The Lost Continent by +Edgar Rice Burroughs +</pre> + + + + + +</body> +</html> |