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diff --git a/old/149.txt b/old/149.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3f1375b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/149.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4656 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Lost Continent, by Edgar Rice Burroughs + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + + +Title: The Lost Continent + +Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs + +Release Date: June 19, 2008 [EBook #149] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOST CONTINENT *** + + + + +Produced by Judith Boss. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + + + + The Lost Continent was originally published + under the title Beyond Thirty + + + + +THE LOST CONTINENT + + +by + +Edgar Rice Burroughs + + +JTABLE 3 9 1 + + + +1 + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Well?" I asked. + +He drew the back of his forefinger nervously across his brow in a +gesture that was habitual with him in moments of mental stress. + +"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." + +"Number two will keep us supplied," I answered. "In the meantime we +will send a wireless for relief." + +"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." + +"Have we sufficient reserve screen to permit us to make land, or, at +least, meet our relief halfway?" I asked. + +"No, sir," he replied gravely; "we are sinking now." + +"Have you anything further to report?" I asked. + +"No, sir," he said. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +There has been in the past no excuse, no circumstance, that could +palliate the offense. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"What now?" I asked. + +"The wireless, sir!" he cried. "My God, sir, I cannot send." + +"But the emergency outfit?" I asked. + +"I have tried everything, sir. I have exhausted every resource. We +cannot send," and he drew himself up and saluted again. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Numbers one, two, and five engines have broken down, sir," he called. +"Shall we force the remaining three?" + +"We can do nothing else," I bellowed into the transmitter. + +"They won't stand the gaff, sir," he returned. + +"Can you suggest a better plan?" I asked. + +"No, sir," he replied. + +"Then give them the gaff, lieutenant," I shouted back, and hung up the +receiver. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +"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. + +"When Lieutenant Turck crosses thirty," he said, "we shall all cross +with him, and God help the officer or the man who reproaches him!" + +"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." + +"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. + +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. + +"Shall I place him under arrest?" he asked. + +"You shall not," I replied. "Nor shall anyone else." + +"You become a party to his crime!" he cried angrily. + +"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." + +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. + +I rejoiced that I should leave neither wife nor child to bear the +burden of my shame throughout their lives. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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!" + +"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." + +"You mean to say that you will cross thirty without submitting to +arrest?" he almost shouted. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +"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." + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"They've repaired the engines and the generators both," exclaimed one +of the men. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +2 + + +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. + +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. + +"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?" + +"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?" + +"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." + +"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." + +"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. + +"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." + +"You are going to try to make Europe, sir?" asked Taylor, the young man +who had last spoken. + +"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." + +Taylor and Delcarte seized the spirit of my mood but Snider, I think, +was a trifle sceptical. + +"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. + +"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?" + +Even Snider had to admit that it was. + +"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." + +I could see that Snider was still fearful, but Taylor and Delcarte +responded with a hearty, "Aye, aye, sir!" + +They were of different mold. Both were sons of naval officers. They +represented the aristocracy of birth, and they dared to think for +themselves. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +I was nonplused, and then, for the first time, there crept over me an +intuition of the truth. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +With the point of his cutlass Snider scraped the dirt and verdigris +from the face of the larger ornament. + +"An inscription," he said, and handed the thing to me. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +I turned back toward the boat. + +"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." + + + +3 + + +The report of a gun blasted the silence of a dead Devonport with +startling abruptness. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Both Taylor and Snider gave little gasps of astonishment and dismay. + +"What is it, sir?" asked the latter. + +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. + +It was pacing, or rather, slinking, straight for Delcarte, who had now +leveled his rifle upon it. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Another Felis tigris," said Taylor. + +"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. + +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. + +Sure enough, they all halted at the beach, pacing back and forth, +uttering fiendish cries, and glaring at us in the most malevolent +manner. + +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. + +"They have eaten up the inhabitants," murmured Snider, shuddering. + +"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." + +"But where did they come from?" asked Delcarte. "Could they have +traveled here from Asia?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +That he would be fool enough to venture it, I did not doubt. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Who are you," he asked, "and from what country?" + +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. + +"It has been two hundred years," I told him, "since a Pan-American +visited England." + +"England?" he asked. "What is England?" + +"Why this is a part of England!" I exclaimed. + +"This is Grubitten," he assured me. "I know nothing about England, and +I have lived here all my life." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Oh," he exclaimed, "you mean a camp! Yes, there are two great camps +here, East Camp and West Camp. We are from East Camp." + +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. + +"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." + +"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?" + +He shook his head impatiently. + +"I never heard," he said, "of any of these strange countries of which +you speak." + +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. + +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. + +"What people live upon the mainland?" I asked, and pointed in the +direction of the Hants coast. + +"No one lives there," he replied. + +"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." + +"Do no other peoples ever come to your country in ships?" I asked. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +4 + + +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! + +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? + +Gone! All gone! Only silence and desolation reigned where once the +commerce of the world had centered. + +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? + +Militarist that I am, I could find but a single word of +explanation--war! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +But presently I guessed the identity of the mighty creature as Elephas +africanus, or, as the ancients commonly described it, African elephant. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +It was appalling; but my reflections upon this depressing subject were +doomed to sudden extinction. The lion had discovered me. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"What language do you speak?" I asked. "Do you understand mine?" + +"Yes," she replied. "It is similar to my own. I am Grabritin. What +are you?" + +"I am a Pan-American," I answered. She shook her head. "What is that?" + +I pointed toward the west. "Far away, across the ocean." + +Her expression altered a trifle. A slight frown contracted her brow. +The expression of apprehension deepened. + +"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. + +"You are not from there?" and she pointed toward the east. It was a +half question. "You are not from across the water there?" + +"No," I assured her. "I am from Pan-America, far away to the west. +Have you ever heard of Pan-America?" + +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." + +It was with difficulty that I restrained a smile. + +"Who are the men from there?" I asked. + +"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." + +"By what name were these men called?" I asked. + +"We call them only the 'men from there,'" she replied, pointing toward +the east. "I have never heard that they had another name." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +She thanked me, and with such a sweet smile that I should have been +amply repaid by it for a much more arduous service. + +"And now," I said, "let me accompany you to your home and see you +safely again under the protection of your friends." + +"No," she said, with a hint of alarm in her voice; "you must not come +with me--Buckingham will kill you." + +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. + +"And who is Buckingham," I asked, "and why should he wish to kill me?" + +"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." + +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. + +"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. + +"The Camp of the Lions," I repeated. "And where is that, and what?" + +"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. + +"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." + +"Where did these savage beasts come from?" I asked. + +"Oh," she replied, "they have been here always. It is their country." + +"Do they not kill and eat your people?" I asked. + +"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." + +"I should like to visit this Camp of the Lions," I said. + +"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." + +"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." + +"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." + +"Didn't you say that Buckingham is already the king?" I asked. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +"Why not come with me," I suggested, "if you do not wish to become +Buckingham's?" + +"Where would you take me?" she asked. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +When they had overpowered me, and I stood, my hands bound behind me, at +the girl's side, she gazed commiseratingly at me. + +"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." + +"Which is Buckingham?" I asked. + +"I am Buckingham," growled a burly, unwashed brute, swaggering +truculently before me. "And who are you who would have stolen my +woman?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +The fact that Buckingham stood within a pace of us and was an +interested listener appeared not to temper her expressions in the +slightest. + +"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." + +The people began to titter and clap their hands. Buckingham became red +in the face. It was evident that he was far from popular. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Instantly the expression of fear faded from her eyes to be replaced +with an answering smile. + +"Who are you, little girl?" I asked. + +"My name is Mary," she replied. "I am Victory's sister." + +"And who is Victory?" + +"You do not know who Victory is?" she asked, in astonishment. + +I shook my head in negation. + +"You saved her from the elephant country people, and yet you say you do +not know her!" she exclaimed. + +"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. + +"Will you do something for me, Mary?" I asked. + +"If I can." + +"Go to your mother, the queen, and ask her to come to me," I said. "I +have a favor to ask." + +She said that she would, and with a parting smile she left me. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Are you here?" whispered a childlike voice. + +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. + +"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?" + +The child's sobs increased, and she flung herself upon the dirt floor +of the hut, apparently overcome by grief. + +"What is it?" I asked. "Why do you cry?" + +"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." + +"I am bound and helpless, Mary," I replied. "Otherwise I would do what +I could to save you and your sister." + +"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." + +"Gladly!" I assented. + +"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!" + +"And I am to be the offering?" I asked. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"The entrance to the Camp of the Lions!" murmured one of the party in a +voice husky with awe. + +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: + + Lord of Grabritin, we + Fall on our knees to thee, + This gift to bring. + Greatest of kings are thou! + To thee we humbly bow! + Peace to our camp allow. + God save thee, king! + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +"You have strange customs in your country," she said. + +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. + +"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." + +"I will not return to the camp," she replied. + +"But what shall you do?" I asked. + +"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." + +"And leave you here?" I exclaimed. + +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. + +It was evident that she felt entirely competent to protect herself. + +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. + +"They are searching for me," said the girl. "Where shall we hide?" + +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. + +"Would they follow us there?" I asked, pointing through the archway +into the Camp of the Lions. + +"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." + +"Then we shall take refuge in the Camp of the Lions," I said. + +She shuddered and drew closer to me. + +"You dare?" she asked. + +"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?" + +"I dare follow wherever you lead," she answered simply. + +And so I turned and passed beneath the great arch into the city of +London. + + + +5 + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +I took Victory's hand in mine. + +"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!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The throne of England! But what were those strange forms about it? + +Victory gave my hand a quick, excited little squeeze. + +"The lions!" she whispered. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +The remaining lions were roaring horribly. I saw one sneaking very +slowly up the stairs toward us. + +"Try that door," I called to Victory. "See if it will open." + +She ran up to it and pushed. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +It was a gruesome sight--a pitiful sight--this lone inhabitant of +mighty London. + +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: + +"His majesty left for Tunbridge Wells today, he ... jesty was +stricken ... terday. God give she does not die ... am military +governor of Lon ..." + +And farther on: + +"It is awful ... hundred deaths today ... worse than the bombardm ..." + +Nearer the end I picked out the following: + +"I promised his maj ... e will find me here when he ret ... alone." + +The most legible passage was on the next page: + +"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!" + +And the last entry: + +"... 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!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Releasing my hold upon the ivy, I dropped the remaining distance to the +ground, saved from laceration only because the lion's paw struck the +thick stem of ivy. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Victory was a length ahead of me. + +"Swim for the other shore!" I called to her. + +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. + +"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!" + +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. + +"Do as I tell you!" I said to her sharply, but she shook her head. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +6 + + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +"She has gone?" she asked. + +"Dead," I replied. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Toward morning I dozed, and the sun was well up when Victory aroused me +by gently shaking my shoulder. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +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. + +Thirty-six, finally assured that we did not intend slaying him, was as +keen to accompany us as was Victory. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Oh," she cried, "then I am a barbarian!" + +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. + +"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?" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +"What happened, Thirty-six?" I asked him. + +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. + +"Snider--" He paused, tried to speak again, raised a hand, and pointed +down-river. "They--went--back," and then he shuddered convulsively and +died. + +None of us voiced his belief. But I think they were all alike: Victory +and Snider had stolen the launch, and deserted us. + + + +7 + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +My rising anger swept away my temporary helplessness. I smiled, and +told Taylor not to look so glum. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +I shouted to Delcarte and Taylor, who came running to my side. + +"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? + +"It's drifting," said Taylor. "I see no one in it." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +We buried Snider beside the Rhine, and no stone marks his last resting +place. Beasts do not require headstones. + +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. + +"We had her wrong in our thoughts," said Delcarte, "and the least that +we can do in expiation is to find and rescue her." + +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. + +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. + +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? + +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? + +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. + +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. + +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. + + + +8 + + +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. + +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. + +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. + +In the center of a plain stood a log fort, with a blockhouse 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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Who they were or where they came from was a mystery to me. That they +were the outpost of some powerful black nation seemed likely, yet where +the seat of that nation lay I could not guess. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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." + +"You are a Christian people?" I asked. + +He looked at me in surprise, nodding his head affirmatively. + +"I am a Christian," I said. "My people are the most powerful on earth." + +He smiled, and shook his head indulgently, as a father to a child who +sets up his childish judgment against that of his elders. + +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. + +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. + +He has a standing army of ten million men, and his people possess +slaves--white slaves--to the number of ten or fifteen million. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +But if the emperor chanced to be absent? What then? Again I wonder. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"Why, to fight the yellow men, of course," he said. "They have crossed +the border, and are marching toward New Gondar." + +"Who will win?" I asked. + +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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Following the emperor came regiment after regiment from the various +branches of the service, among them batteries of field guns mounted on +elephants. + +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. + +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. + +From the number of women they brought, I judged that they knew the +weakness of their imperial master. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +"Down, slave!" he cried. "Make obeisance to your sovereign!" + +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. + +"Down! Down!" shouted the master of ceremonies, taking a step toward +her and half drawing his sword. + +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. + +"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. + +She answered him in Abyssinian, but brokenly and with an accent that +betrayed how recently she had acquired her slight knowledge of the +tongue. + +"I go on my knees to no one," she said. "I have no sovereign. I +myself am sovereign in my own country." + +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. + +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. + +"And who," asked Menelek, "are you, and by what name is your country +called?" + +"I am Victory, Queen of Grabritin," replied the girl so quickly and so +unexpectedly that I gasped in astonishment. + + + +9 + + +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. + +"And you will not bend the knee to me?" continued Menelek, after she +had spoken. Victory shook her head in a most decided negation. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +A moment later, I had burst into the room beyond. It was empty! + +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. + +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. + +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. + +At sight of me, he gave voice to a roar of anger. + +"What means this, slave?" he cried. "Out of here! Out of here! Quick, +before I kill you!" + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +There was no answering gladness in her eyes. Instead, she stamped her +little foot in anger. + +"Why did it have to be you who saved me!" she exclaimed. "I hate you!" + +"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. + +"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!" + +"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." + +She ceased her struggles, just a trifle, but still tried to push me +from her. "You called me a barbarian!" she said. + +Ah, so that was it! That still rankled. I crushed her to me. + +"You could not love a barbarian," she went on, but she had ceased to +struggle. + +"But I do love a barbarian, Victory!" I cried, "the dearest barbarian +in the world." + +She raised her eyes to mine, and then her smooth, brown arms encircled +my neck and drew my lips down to hers. + +"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." + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +"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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +I asked him who was victorious in that war, and he shook his head sadly +as he replied: + +"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." + +"When did it end?" I asked him. + +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!" + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Lost Continent, by Edgar Rice Burroughs + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOST CONTINENT *** + +***** This file should be named 149.txt or 149.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/149/ + +Produced by Judith Boss. HTML version by Al Haines. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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