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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 551 ***
+The Land that Time Forgot
+
+By Edgar Rice Burroughs
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+ Chapter 1
+ Chapter 2
+ Chapter 3
+ Chapter 4
+ Chapter 5
+ Chapter 6
+ Chapter 7
+ Chapter 8
+ Chapter 9
+ Chapter 10
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 1
+
+
+It must have been a little after three o’clock in the afternoon that it
+happened—the afternoon of June 3rd, 1916. It seems incredible that all that I
+have passed through—all those weird and terrifying experiences—should have been
+encompassed within so short a span as three brief months. Rather might I have
+experienced a cosmic cycle, with all its changes and evolutions for that which
+I have seen with my own eyes in this brief interval of time—things that no
+other mortal eye had seen before, glimpses of a world past, a world dead, a
+world so long dead that even in the lowest Cambrian stratum no trace of it
+remains. Fused with the melting inner crust, it has passed forever beyond the
+ken of man other than in that lost pocket of the earth whither fate has borne
+me and where my doom is sealed. I am here and here must remain.
+
+After reading this far, my interest, which already had been stimulated by the
+finding of the manuscript, was approaching the boiling-point. I had come to
+Greenland for the summer, on the advice of my physician, and was slowly being
+bored to extinction, as I had thoughtlessly neglected to bring sufficient
+reading-matter. Being an indifferent fisherman, my enthusiasm for this form of
+sport soon waned; yet in the absence of other forms of recreation I was now
+risking my life in an entirely inadequate boat off Cape Farewell at the
+southernmost extremity of Greenland.
+
+Greenland! As a descriptive appellation, it is a sorry joke—but my story has
+nothing to do with Greenland, nothing to do with me; so I shall get through
+with the one and the other as rapidly as possible.
+
+The inadequate boat finally arrived at a precarious landing, the natives,
+waist-deep in the surf, assisting. I was carried ashore, and while the evening
+meal was being prepared, I wandered to and fro along the rocky, shattered
+shore. Bits of surf-harried beach clove the worn granite, or whatever the rocks
+of Cape Farewell may be composed of, and as I followed the ebbing tide down one
+of these soft stretches, I saw the thing. Were one to bump into a Bengal tiger
+in the ravine behind the Bimini Baths, one could be no more surprised than was
+I to see a perfectly good quart thermos bottle turning and twisting in the surf
+of Cape Farewell at the southern extremity of Greenland. I rescued it, but I
+was soaked above the knees doing it; and then I sat down in the sand and opened
+it, and in the long twilight read the manuscript, neatly written and tightly
+folded, which was its contents.
+
+You have read the opening paragraph, and if you are an imaginative idiot like
+myself, you will want to read the rest of it; so I shall give it to you here,
+omitting quotation marks—which are difficult of remembrance. In two minutes you
+will forget me.
+
+My home is in Santa Monica. I am, or was, junior member of my father’s firm. We
+are ship-builders. Of recent years we have specialized on submarines, which we
+have built for Germany, England, France and the United States. I know a sub as
+a mother knows her baby’s face, and have commanded a score of them on their
+trial runs. Yet my inclinations were all toward aviation. I graduated under
+Curtiss, and after a long siege with my father obtained his permission to try
+for the Lafayette Escadrille. As a stepping-stone I obtained an appointment in
+the American ambulance service and was on my way to France when three shrill
+whistles altered, in as many seconds, my entire scheme of life.
+
+I was sitting on deck with some of the fellows who were going into the American
+ambulance service with me, my Airedale, Crown Prince Nobbler, asleep at my
+feet, when the first blast of the whistle shattered the peace and security of
+the ship. Ever since entering the U-boat zone we had been on the lookout for
+periscopes, and children that we were, bemoaning the unkind fate that was to
+see us safely into France on the morrow without a glimpse of the dread
+marauders. We were young; we craved thrills, and God knows we got them that
+day; yet by comparison with that through which I have since passed they were as
+tame as a Punch-and-Judy show.
+
+I shall never forget the ashy faces of the passengers as they stampeded for
+their life-belts, though there was no panic. Nobs rose with a low growl. I
+rose, also, and over the ship’s side, I saw not two hundred yards distant the
+periscope of a submarine, while racing toward the liner the wake of a torpedo
+was distinctly visible. We were aboard an American ship—which, of course, was
+not armed. We were entirely defenseless; yet without warning, we were being
+torpedoed.
+
+I stood rigid, spellbound, watching the white wake of the torpedo. It struck us
+on the starboard side almost amidships. The vessel rocked as though the sea
+beneath it had been uptorn by a mighty volcano. We were thrown to the decks,
+bruised and stunned, and then above the ship, carrying with it fragments of
+steel and wood and dismembered human bodies, rose a column of water hundreds of
+feet into the air.
+
+The silence which followed the detonation of the exploding torpedo was almost
+equally horrifying. It lasted for perhaps two seconds, to be followed by the
+screams and moans of the wounded, the cursing of the men and the hoarse
+commands of the ship’s officers. They were splendid—they and their crew. Never
+before had I been so proud of my nationality as I was that moment. In all the
+chaos which followed the torpedoing of the liner no officer or member of the
+crew lost his head or showed in the slightest any degree of panic or fear.
+
+While we were attempting to lower boats, the submarine emerged and trained guns
+on us. The officer in command ordered us to lower our flag, but this the
+captain of the liner refused to do. The ship was listing frightfully to
+starboard, rendering the port boats useless, while half the starboard boats had
+been demolished by the explosion. Even while the passengers were crowding the
+starboard rail and scrambling into the few boats left to us, the submarine
+commenced shelling the ship. I saw one shell burst in a group of women and
+children, and then I turned my head and covered my eyes.
+
+When I looked again to horror was added chagrin, for with the emerging of the
+U-boat I had recognized her as a product of our own shipyard. I knew her to a
+rivet. I had superintended her construction. I had sat in that very
+conning-tower and directed the efforts of the sweating crew below when first
+her prow clove the sunny summer waters of the Pacific; and now this creature of
+my brain and hand had turned _Frankenstein_, bent upon pursuing me to my
+death.
+
+A second shell exploded upon the deck. One of the lifeboats, frightfully
+overcrowded, swung at a dangerous angle from its davits. A fragment of the
+shell shattered the bow tackle, and I saw the women and children and the men
+vomited into the sea beneath, while the boat dangled stern up for a moment from
+its single davit, and at last with increasing momentum dived into the midst of
+the struggling victims screaming upon the face of the waters.
+
+Now I saw men spring to the rail and leap into the ocean. The deck was tilting
+to an impossible angle. Nobs braced himself with all four feet to keep from
+slipping into the scuppers and looked up into my face with a questioning whine.
+I stooped and stroked his head.
+
+“Come on, boy!” I cried, and running to the side of the ship, dived
+headforemost over the rail. When I came up, the first thing I saw was Nobs
+swimming about in a bewildered sort of way a few yards from me. At sight of me
+his ears went flat, and his lips parted in a characteristic grin.
+
+The submarine was withdrawing toward the north, but all the time it was
+shelling the open boats, three of them, loaded to the gunwales with survivors.
+Fortunately the small boats presented a rather poor target, which, combined
+with the bad marksmanship of the Germans preserved their occupants from harm;
+and after a few minutes a blotch of smoke appeared upon the eastern horizon and
+the U-boat submerged and disappeared.
+
+All the time the lifeboats had been pulling away from the danger of the sinking
+liner, and now, though I yelled at the top of my lungs, they either did not
+hear my appeals for help or else did not dare return to succor me. Nobs and I
+had gained some little distance from the ship when it rolled completely over
+and sank. We were caught in the suction only enough to be drawn backward a few
+yards, neither of us being carried beneath the surface. I glanced hurriedly
+about for something to which to cling. My eyes were directed toward the point
+at which the liner had disappeared when there came from the depths of the ocean
+the muffled reverberation of an explosion, and almost simultaneously a geyser
+of water in which were shattered lifeboats, human bodies, steam, coal, oil, and
+the flotsam of a liner’s deck leaped high above the surface of the sea—a watery
+column momentarily marking the grave of another ship in this greatest cemetery
+of the seas.
+
+When the turbulent waters had somewhat subsided and the sea had ceased to spew
+up wreckage, I ventured to swim back in search of something substantial enough
+to support my weight and that of Nobs as well. I had gotten well over the area
+of the wreck when not a half-dozen yards ahead of me a lifeboat shot bow
+foremost out of the ocean almost its entire length to flop down upon its keel
+with a mighty splash. It must have been carried far below, held to its mother
+ship by a single rope which finally parted to the enormous strain put upon it.
+In no other way can I account for its having leaped so far out of the water—a
+beneficent circumstance to which I doubtless owe my life, and that of another
+far dearer to me than my own. I say beneficent circumstance even in the face of
+the fact that a fate far more hideous confronts us than that which we escaped
+that day; for because of that circumstance I have met her whom otherwise I
+never should have known; I have met and loved her. At least I have had that
+great happiness in life; nor can Caspak, with all her horrors, expunge that
+which has been.
+
+So for the thousandth time I thank the strange fate which sent that lifeboat
+hurtling upward from the green pit of destruction to which it had been
+dragged—sent it far up above the surface, emptying its water as it rose above
+the waves, and dropping it upon the surface of the sea, buoyant and safe.
+
+It did not take me long to clamber over its side and drag Nobs in to
+comparative safety, and then I glanced around upon the scene of death and
+desolation which surrounded us. The sea was littered with wreckage among which
+floated the pitiful forms of women and children, buoyed up by their useless
+lifebelts. Some were torn and mangled; others lay rolling quietly to the motion
+of the sea, their countenances composed and peaceful; others were set in
+hideous lines of agony or horror. Close to the boat’s side floated the figure
+of a girl. Her face was turned upward, held above the surface by her life-belt,
+and was framed in a floating mass of dark and waving hair. She was very
+beautiful. I had never looked upon such perfect features, such a divine molding
+which was at the same time human—intensely human. It was a face filled with
+character and strength and femininity—the face of one who was created to love
+and to be loved. The cheeks were flushed to the hue of life and health and
+vitality, and yet she lay there upon the bosom of the sea, dead. I felt
+something rise in my throat as I looked down upon that radiant vision, and I
+swore that I should live to avenge her murder.
+
+And then I let my eyes drop once more to the face upon the water, and what I
+saw nearly tumbled me backward into the sea, for the eyes in the dead face had
+opened; the lips had parted; and one hand was raised toward me in a mute appeal
+for succor. She lived! She was not dead! I leaned over the boat’s side and drew
+her quickly in to the comparative safety which God had given me. I removed her
+life-belt and my soggy coat and made a pillow for her head. I chafed her hands
+and arms and feet. I worked over her for an hour, and at last I was rewarded by
+a deep sigh, and again those great eyes opened and looked into mine.
+
+At that I was all embarrassment. I have never been a ladies’ man; at
+Leland-Stanford I was the butt of the class because of my hopeless imbecility
+in the presence of a pretty girl; but the men liked me, nevertheless. I was
+rubbing one of her hands when she opened her eyes, and I dropped it as though
+it were a red-hot rivet. Those eyes took me in slowly from head to foot; then
+they wandered slowly around the horizon marked by the rising and falling
+gunwales of the lifeboat. They looked at Nobs and softened, and then came back
+to me filled with questioning.
+
+“I—I—” I stammered, moving away and stumbling over the next thwart. The vision
+smiled wanly.
+
+“Aye-aye, sir!” she replied faintly, and again her lips drooped, and her long
+lashes swept the firm, fair texture of her skin.
+
+“I hope that you are feeling better,” I finally managed to say.
+
+“Do you know,” she said after a moment of silence, “I have been awake for a
+long time! But I did not dare open my eyes. I thought I must be dead, and I was
+afraid to look, for fear that I should see nothing but blackness about me. I am
+afraid to die! Tell me what happened after the ship went down. I remember all
+that happened before—oh, but I wish that I might forget it!” A sob broke her
+voice. “The beasts!” she went on after a moment. “And to think that I was to
+have married one of them—a lieutenant in the German navy.”
+
+Presently she resumed as though she had not ceased speaking. “I went down and
+down and down. I thought I should never cease to sink. I felt no particular
+distress until I suddenly started upward at ever-increasing velocity; then my
+lungs seemed about to burst, and I must have lost consciousness, for I remember
+nothing more until I opened my eyes after listening to a torrent of invective
+against Germany and Germans. Tell me, please, all that happened after the ship
+sank.”
+
+I told her, then, as well as I could, all that I had seen—the submarine
+shelling the open boats and all the rest of it. She thought it marvelous that
+we should have been spared in so providential a manner, and I had a pretty
+speech upon my tongue’s end, but lacked the nerve to deliver it. Nobs had come
+over and nosed his muzzle into her lap, and she stroked his ugly face, and at
+last she leaned over and put her cheek against his forehead. I have always
+admired Nobs; but this was the first time that it had ever occurred to me that
+I might wish to be Nobs. I wondered how he would take it, for he is as unused
+to women as I. But he took to it as a duck takes to water. What I lack of being
+a ladies’ man, Nobs certainly makes up for as a ladies’ dog. The old scalawag
+just closed his eyes and put on one of the softest
+“sugar-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth” expressions you ever saw and stood there
+taking it and asking for more. It made me jealous.
+
+“You seem fond of dogs,” I said.
+
+“I am fond of this dog,” she replied.
+
+Whether she meant anything personal in that reply I did not know; but I took it
+as personal and it made me feel mighty good.
+
+As we drifted about upon that vast expanse of loneliness it is not strange that
+we should quickly become well acquainted. Constantly we scanned the horizon for
+signs of smoke, venturing guesses as to our chances of rescue; but darkness
+settled, and the black night enveloped us without ever the sight of a speck
+upon the waters.
+
+We were thirsty, hungry, uncomfortable, and cold. Our wet garments had dried
+but little and I knew that the girl must be in grave danger from the exposure
+to a night of cold and wet upon the water in an open boat, without sufficient
+clothing and no food. I had managed to bail all the water out of the boat with
+cupped hands, ending by mopping the balance up with my handkerchief—a slow and
+back-breaking procedure; thus I had made a comparatively dry place for the girl
+to lie down low in the bottom of the boat, where the sides would protect her
+from the night wind, and when at last she did so, almost overcome as she was by
+weakness and fatigue, I threw my wet coat over her further to thwart the chill.
+But it was of no avail; as I sat watching her, the moonlight marking out the
+graceful curves of her slender young body, I saw her shiver.
+
+“Isn’t there something I can do?” I asked. “You can’t lie there chilled through
+all night. Can’t you suggest something?”
+
+She shook her head. “We must grin and bear it,” she replied after a moment.
+
+Nobbler came and lay down on the thwart beside me, his back against my leg, and
+I sat staring in dumb misery at the girl, knowing in my heart of hearts that
+she might die before morning came, for what with the shock and exposure, she
+had already gone through enough to kill almost any woman. And as I gazed down
+at her, so small and delicate and helpless, there was born slowly within my
+breast a new emotion. It had never been there before; now it will never cease
+to be there. It made me almost frantic in my desire to find some way to keep
+warm the cooling lifeblood in her veins. I was cold myself, though I had almost
+forgotten it until Nobbler moved and I felt a new sensation of cold along my
+leg against which he had lain, and suddenly realized that in that one spot I
+had been warm. Like a great light came the understanding of a means to warm the
+girl. Immediately I knelt beside her to put my scheme into practice when
+suddenly I was overwhelmed with embarrassment. Would she permit it, even if I
+could muster the courage to suggest it? Then I saw her frame convulse,
+shudderingly, her muscles reacting to her rapidly lowering temperature, and
+casting prudery to the winds, I threw myself down beside her and took her in my
+arms, pressing her body close to mine.
+
+She drew away suddenly, voicing a little cry of fright, and tried to push me
+from her.
+
+“Forgive me,” I managed to stammer. “It is the only way. You will die of
+exposure if you are not warmed, and Nobs and I are the only means we can
+command for furnishing warmth.” And I held her tightly while I called Nobs and
+bade him lie down at her back. The girl didn’t struggle any more when she
+learned my purpose; but she gave two or three little gasps, and then began to
+cry softly, burying her face on my arm, and thus she fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 2
+
+
+Toward morning, I must have dozed, though it seemed to me at the time that I
+had lain awake for days, instead of hours. When I finally opened my eyes, it
+was daylight, and the girl’s hair was in my face, and she was breathing
+normally. I thanked God for that. She had turned her head during the night so
+that as I opened my eyes I saw her face not an inch from mine, my lips almost
+touching hers.
+
+It was Nobs who finally awoke her. He got up, stretched, turned around a few
+times and lay down again, and the girl opened her eyes and looked into mine.
+Hers went very wide at first, and then slowly comprehension came to her, and
+she smiled.
+
+“You have been very good to me,” she said, as I helped her to rise, though if
+the truth were known I was more in need of assistance than she; the circulation
+all along my left side seeming to be paralyzed entirely. “You have been very
+good to me.” And that was the only mention she ever made of it; yet I know that
+she was thankful and that only reserve prevented her from referring to what, to
+say the least, was an embarrassing situation, however unavoidable.
+
+Shortly after daylight we saw smoke apparently coming straight toward us, and
+after a time we made out the squat lines of a tug—one of those fearless
+exponents of England’s supremacy of the sea that tows sailing ships into French
+and English ports. I stood up on a thwart and waved my soggy coat above my
+head. Nobs stood upon another and barked. The girl sat at my feet straining her
+eyes toward the deck of the oncoming boat. “They see us,” she said at last.
+“There is a man answering your signal.” She was right. A lump came into my
+throat—for her sake rather than for mine. She was saved, and none too soon. She
+could not have lived through another night upon the Channel; she might not have
+lived through the coming day.
+
+The tug came close beside us, and a man on deck threw us a rope. Willing hands
+dragged us to the deck, Nobs scrambling nimbly aboard without assistance. The
+rough men were gentle as mothers with the girl. Plying us both with questions
+they hustled her to the captain’s cabin and me to the boiler-room. They told
+the girl to take off her wet clothes and throw them outside the door that they
+might be dried, and then to slip into the captain’s bunk and get warm. They
+didn’t have to tell me to strip after I once got into the warmth of the
+boiler-room. In a jiffy, my clothes hung about where they might dry most
+quickly, and I myself was absorbing, through every pore, the welcome heat of
+the stifling compartment. They brought us hot soup and coffee, and then those
+who were not on duty sat around and helped me damn the Kaiser and his brood.
+
+As soon as our clothes were dry, they bade us don them, as the chances were
+always more than fair in those waters that we should run into trouble with the
+enemy, as I was only too well aware. What with the warmth and the feeling of
+safety for the girl, and the knowledge that a little rest and food would
+quickly overcome the effects of her experiences of the past dismal hours, I was
+feeling more content than I had experienced since those three whistle-blasts
+had shattered the peace of my world the previous afternoon.
+
+But peace upon the Channel has been but a transitory thing since August, 1914.
+It proved itself such that morning, for I had scarce gotten into my dry clothes
+and taken the girl’s apparel to the captain’s cabin when an order was shouted
+down into the engine-room for full speed ahead, and an instant later I heard
+the dull boom of a gun. In a moment I was up on deck to see an enemy submarine
+about two hundred yards off our port bow. She had signaled us to stop, and our
+skipper had ignored the order; but now she had her gun trained on us, and the
+second shot grazed the cabin, warning the belligerent tug-captain that it was
+time to obey. Once again an order went down to the engine-room, and the tug
+reduced speed. The U-boat ceased firing and ordered the tug to come about and
+approach. Our momentum had carried us a little beyond the enemy craft, but we
+were turning now on the arc of a circle that would bring us alongside her. As I
+stood watching the maneuver and wondering what was to become of us, I felt
+something touch my elbow and turned to see the girl standing at my side. She
+looked up into my face with a rueful expression. “They seem bent on our
+destruction,” she said, “and it looks like the same boat that sunk us
+yesterday.”
+
+“It is,” I replied. “I know her well. I helped design her and took her out on
+her first run.”
+
+The girl drew back from me with a little exclamation of surprise and
+disappointment. “I thought you were an American,” she said. “I had no idea you
+were a—a—”
+
+“Nor am I,” I replied. “Americans have been building submarines for all nations
+for many years. I wish, though, that we had gone bankrupt, my father and I,
+before ever we turned out that _Frankenstein_ of a thing.”
+
+We were approaching the U-boat at half speed now, and I could almost
+distinguish the features of the men upon her deck. A sailor stepped to my side
+and slipped something hard and cold into my hand. I did not have to look at it
+to know that it was a heavy pistol. “Tyke ’er an’ use ’er,” was all he said.
+
+Our bow was pointed straight toward the U-boat now as I heard word passed to
+the engine for full speed ahead. I instantly grasped the brazen effrontery of
+the plucky English skipper—he was going to ram five hundreds tons of U-boat in
+the face of her trained gun. I could scarce repress a cheer. At first the
+boches didn’t seem to grasp his intention. Evidently they thought they were
+witnessing an exhibition of poor seamanship, and they yelled their warnings to
+the tug to reduce speed and throw the helm hard to port.
+
+We were within fifty feet of them when they awakened to the intentional menace
+of our maneuver. Their gun crew was off its guard; but they sprang to their
+piece now and sent a futile shell above our heads. Nobs leaped about and barked
+furiously. “Let ’em have it!” commanded the tug-captain, and instantly
+revolvers and rifles poured bullets upon the deck of the submersible. Two of
+the gun-crew went down; the other trained their piece at the water-line of the
+oncoming tug. The balance of those on deck replied to our small-arms fire,
+directing their efforts toward the man at our wheel.
+
+I hastily pushed the girl down the companionway leading to the engine-room, and
+then I raised my pistol and fired my first shot at a boche. What happened in
+the next few seconds happened so quickly that details are rather blurred in my
+memory. I saw the helmsman lunge forward upon the wheel, pulling the helm
+around so that the tug sheered off quickly from her course, and I recall
+realizing that all our efforts were to be in vain, because of all the men
+aboard, Fate had decreed that this one should fall first to an enemy bullet. I
+saw the depleted gun-crew on the submarine fire their piece and I felt the
+shock of impact and heard the loud explosion as the shell struck and exploded
+in our bows.
+
+I saw and realized these things even as I was leaping into the pilot-house and
+grasping the wheel, standing astride the dead body of the helmsman. With all my
+strength I threw the helm to starboard; but it was too late to effect the
+purpose of our skipper. The best I did was to scrape alongside the sub. I heard
+someone shriek an order into the engine-room; the boat shuddered and trembled
+to the sudden reversing of the engines, and our speed quickly lessened. Then I
+saw what that madman of a skipper planned since his first scheme had gone
+wrong.
+
+With a loud-yelled command, he leaped to the slippery deck of the submersible,
+and at his heels came his hardy crew. I sprang from the pilot-house and
+followed, not to be left out in the cold when it came to strafing the boches.
+From the engine room companionway came the engineer and stockers, and together
+we leaped after the balance of the crew and into the hand-to-hand fight that
+was covering the wet deck with red blood. Beside me came Nobs, silent now, and
+grim. Germans were emerging from the open hatch to take part in the battle on
+deck. At first the pistols cracked amidst the cursing of the men and the loud
+commands of the commander and his junior; but presently we were too
+indiscriminately mixed to make it safe to use our firearms, and the battle
+resolved itself into a hand-to-hand struggle for possession of the deck.
+
+The sole aim of each of us was to hurl one of the opposing force into the sea.
+I shall never forget the hideous expression upon the face of the great Prussian
+with whom chance confronted me. He lowered his head and rushed at me, bellowing
+like a bull. With a quick side-step and ducking low beneath his outstretched
+arms, I eluded him; and as he turned to come back at me, I landed a blow upon
+his chin which sent him spinning toward the edge of the deck. I saw his wild
+endeavors to regain his equilibrium; I saw him reel drunkenly for an instant
+upon the brink of eternity and then, with a loud scream, slip into the sea. At
+the same instant a pair of giant arms encircled me from behind and lifted me
+entirely off my feet. Kick and squirm as I would, I could neither turn toward
+my antagonist nor free myself from his maniacal grasp. Relentlessly he was
+rushing me toward the side of the vessel and death. There was none to stay him,
+for each of my companions was more than occupied by from one to three of the
+enemy. For an instant I was fearful for myself, and then I saw that which
+filled me with a far greater terror for another.
+
+My boche was bearing me toward the side of the submarine against which the tug
+was still pounding. That I should be ground to death between the two was lost
+upon me as I saw the girl standing alone upon the tug’s deck, as I saw the
+stern high in air and the bow rapidly settling for the final dive, as I saw
+death from which I could not save her clutching at the skirts of the woman I
+now knew all too well that I loved.
+
+I had perhaps the fraction of a second longer to live when I heard an angry
+growl behind us mingle with a cry of pain and rage from the giant who carried
+me. Instantly he went backward to the deck, and as he did so he threw his arms
+outwards to save himself, freeing me. I fell heavily upon him, but was upon my
+feet in the instant. As I arose, I cast a single glance at my opponent. Never
+again would he menace me or another, for Nob’s great jaws had closed upon his
+throat. Then I sprang toward the edge of the deck closest to the girl upon the
+sinking tug.
+
+“Jump!” I cried. “Jump!” And I held out my arms to her. Instantly as though
+with implicit confidence in my ability to save her, she leaped over the side of
+the tug onto the sloping, slippery side of the U-boat. I reached far over to
+seize her hand. At the same instant the tug pointed its stern straight toward
+the sky and plunged out of sight. My hand missed the girl’s by a fraction of an
+inch, and I saw her slip into the sea; but scarce had she touched the water
+when I was in after her.
+
+The sinking tug drew us far below the surface; but I had seized her the moment
+I struck the water, and so we went down together, and together we came up—a few
+yards from the U-boat. The first thing I heard was Nobs barking furiously;
+evidently he had missed me and was searching. A single glance at the vessel’s
+deck assured me that the battle was over and that we had been victorious, for I
+saw our survivors holding a handful of the enemy at pistol points while one by
+one the rest of the crew was coming out of the craft’s interior and lining up
+on deck with the other prisoners.
+
+As I swam toward the submarine with the girl, Nobs’ persistent barking
+attracted the attention of some of the tug’s crew, so that as soon as we
+reached the side there were hands to help us aboard. I asked the girl if she
+was hurt, but she assured me that she was none the worse for this second
+wetting; nor did she seem to suffer any from shock. I was to learn for myself
+that this slender and seemingly delicate creature possessed the heart and
+courage of a warrior.
+
+As we joined our own party, I found the tug’s mate checking up our survivors.
+There were ten of us left, not including the girl. Our brave skipper was
+missing, as were eight others. There had been nineteen of us in the attacking
+party and we had accounted in one way and another during the battle for sixteen
+Germans and had taken nine prisoners, including the commander. His lieutenant
+had been killed.
+
+“Not a bad day’s work,” said Bradley, the mate, when he had completed his roll.
+“Only losing the skipper,” he added, “was the worst. He was a fine man, a fine
+man.”
+
+Olson—who in spite of his name was Irish, and in spite of his not being Scotch
+had been the tug’s engineer—was standing with Bradley and me. “Yis,” he agreed,
+“it’s a day’s wor-rk we’re after doin’, but what are we goin’ to be doin’ wid
+it now we got it?”
+
+“We’ll run her into the nearest English port,” said Bradley, “and then we’ll
+all go ashore and get our V. C.’s,” he concluded, laughing.
+
+“How you goin’ to run her?” queried Olson. “You can’t trust these Dutchmen.”
+
+Bradley scratched his head. “I guess you’re right,” he admitted. “And I don’t
+know the first thing about a sub.”
+
+“I do,” I assured him. “I know more about this particular sub than the officer
+who commanded her.”
+
+Both men looked at me in astonishment, and then I had to explain all over again
+as I had explained to the girl. Bradley and Olson were delighted. Immediately I
+was put in command, and the first thing I did was to go below with Olson and
+inspect the craft thoroughly for hidden boches and damaged machinery. There
+were no Germans below, and everything was intact and in ship-shape working
+order. I then ordered all hands below except one man who was to act as lookout.
+Questioning the Germans, I found that all except the commander were willing to
+resume their posts and aid in bringing the vessel into an English port. I
+believe that they were relieved at the prospect of being detained at a
+comfortable English prison-camp for the duration of the war after the perils
+and privations through which they had passed. The officer, however, assured me
+that he would never be a party to the capture of his vessel.
+
+There was, therefore, nothing to do but put the man in irons. As we were
+preparing to put this decision into force, the girl descended from the deck. It
+was the first time that she or the German officer had seen each other’s faces
+since we had boarded the U-boat. I was assisting the girl down the ladder and
+still retained a hold upon her arm—possibly after such support was no longer
+necessary—when she turned and looked squarely into the face of the German. Each
+voiced a sudden exclamation of surprise and dismay.
+
+“Lys!” he cried, and took a step toward her.
+
+The girl’s eyes went wide, and slowly filled with a great horror, as she shrank
+back. Then her slender figure stiffened to the erectness of a soldier, and with
+chin in air and without a word she turned her back upon the officer.
+
+“Take him away,” I directed the two men who guarded him, “and put him in
+irons.”
+
+When he had gone, the girl raised her eyes to mine. “He is the German of whom I
+spoke,” she said. “He is Baron von Schoenvorts.”
+
+I merely inclined my head. She had loved him! I wondered if in her heart of
+hearts she did not love him yet. Immediately I became insanely jealous. I hated
+Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts with such utter intensity that the emotion
+thrilled me with a species of exaltation.
+
+But I didn’t have much chance to enjoy my hatred then, for almost immediately
+the lookout poked his face over the hatchway and bawled down that there was
+smoke on the horizon, dead ahead. Immediately I went on deck to investigate,
+and Bradley came with me.
+
+“If she’s friendly,” he said, “we’ll speak her. If she’s not, we’ll sink
+her—eh, captain?”
+
+“Yes, lieutenant,” I replied, and it was his turn to smile.
+
+We hoisted the Union Jack and remained on deck, asking Bradley to go below and
+assign to each member of the crew his duty, placing one Englishman with a
+pistol beside each German.
+
+“Half speed ahead,” I commanded.
+
+More rapidly now we closed the distance between ourselves and the stranger,
+until I could plainly see the red ensign of the British merchant marine. My
+heart swelled with pride at the thought that presently admiring British tars
+would be congratulating us upon our notable capture; and just about then the
+merchant steamer must have sighted us, for she veered suddenly toward the
+north, and a moment later dense volumes of smoke issued from her funnels. Then,
+steering a zigzag course, she fled from us as though we had been the bubonic
+plague. I altered the course of the submarine and set off in chase; but the
+steamer was faster than we, and soon left us hopelessly astern.
+
+With a rueful smile, I directed that our original course be resumed, and once
+again we set off toward merry England. That was three months ago, and we
+haven’t arrived yet; nor is there any likelihood that we ever shall.
+
+The steamer we had just sighted must have wirelessed a warning, for it wasn’t
+half an hour before we saw more smoke on the horizon, and this time the vessel
+flew the white ensign of the Royal Navy and carried guns. She didn’t veer to
+the north or anywhere else, but bore down on us rapidly. I was just preparing
+to signal her, when a flame flashed from her bows, and an instant later the
+water in front of us was thrown high by the explosion of a shell.
+
+Bradley had come on deck and was standing beside me. “About one more of those,
+and she’ll have our range,” he said. “She doesn’t seem to take much stock in
+our Union Jack.”
+
+A second shell passed over us, and then I gave the command to change our
+direction, at the same time directing Bradley to go below and give the order to
+submerge. I passed Nobs down to him, and following, saw to the closing and
+fastening of the hatch.
+
+It seemed to me that the diving-tanks never had filled so slowly. We heard a
+loud explosion apparently directly above us; the craft trembled to the shock
+which threw us all to the deck. I expected momentarily to feel the deluge of
+inrushing water, but none came. Instead we continued to submerge until the
+manometer registered forty feet and then I knew that we were safe. Safe! I
+almost smiled. I had relieved Olson, who had remained in the tower at my
+direction, having been a member of one of the early British submarine crews,
+and therefore having some knowledge of the business. Bradley was at my side. He
+looked at me quizzically.
+
+“What the devil are we to do?” he asked. “The merchantman will flee us; the
+war-vessel will destroy us; neither will believe our colors or give us a chance
+to explain. We will meet even a worse reception if we go nosing around a
+British port—mines, nets and all of it. We can’t do it.”
+
+“Let’s try it again when this fellow has lost the scent,” I urged. “There must
+come a ship that will believe us.”
+
+And try it again we did, only to be almost rammed by a huge freighter. Later we
+were fired upon by a destroyer, and two merchantmen turned and fled at our
+approach. For two days we cruised up and down the Channel trying to tell some
+one, who would listen, that we were friends; but no one would listen. After our
+encounter with the first warship I had given instructions that a wireless
+message be sent out explaining our predicament; but to my chagrin I discovered
+that both sending and receiving instruments had disappeared.
+
+“There is only one place you can go,” von Schoenvorts sent word to me, “and
+that is Kiel. You can’t land anywhere else in these waters. If you wish, I will
+take you there, and I can promise that you will be treated well.”
+
+“There is another place we can go,” I sent back my reply, “and we will before
+we’ll go to Germany. That place is hell.”
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 3
+
+
+Those were anxious days, during which I had but little opportunity to associate
+with Lys. I had given her the commander’s room, Bradley and I taking that of
+the deck-officer, while Olson and two of our best men occupied the room
+ordinarily allotted to petty officers. I made Nobs’ bed down in Lys’ room, for
+I knew she would feel less alone.
+
+Nothing of much moment occurred for a while after we left British waters behind
+us. We ran steadily along upon the surface, making good time. The first two
+boats we sighted made off as fast as they could go; and the third, a huge
+freighter, fired on us, forcing us to submerge. It was after this that our
+troubles commenced. One of the Diesel engines broke down in the morning, and
+while we were working on it, the forward port diving-tank commenced to fill. I
+was on deck at the time and noted the gradual list. Guessing at once what was
+happening, I leaped for the hatch and slamming it closed above my head, dropped
+to the centrale. By this time the craft was going down by the head with a most
+unpleasant list to port, and I didn’t wait to transmit orders to some one else
+but ran as fast as I could for the valve that let the sea into the forward port
+diving-tank. It was wide open. To close it and to have the pump started that
+would empty it were the work of but a minute; but we had had a close call.
+
+I knew that the valve had never opened itself. Some one had opened it—some one
+who was willing to die himself if he might at the same time encompass the death
+of all of us.
+
+After that I kept a guard pacing the length of the narrow craft. We worked upon
+the engine all that day and night and half the following day. Most of the time
+we drifted idly upon the surface, but toward noon we sighted smoke due west,
+and having found that only enemies inhabited the world for us, I ordered that
+the other engine be started so that we could move out of the path of the
+oncoming steamer. The moment the engine started to turn, however, there was a
+grinding sound of tortured steel, and when it had been stopped, we found that
+some one had placed a cold-chisel in one of the gears.
+
+It was another two days before we were ready to limp along, half repaired. The
+night before the repairs were completed, the sentry came to my room and awoke
+me. He was rather an intelligent fellow of the English middle class, in whom I
+had much confidence.
+
+“Well, Wilson,” I asked. “What’s the matter now?”
+
+He raised his finger to his lips and came closer to me. “I think I’ve found out
+who’s doin’ the mischief,” he whispered, and nodded his head toward the girl’s
+room. “I seen her sneakin’ from the crew’s room just now,” he went on. “She’d
+been in gassin’ wit’ the boche commander. Benson seen her in there las’ night,
+too, but he never said nothin’ till I goes on watch tonight. Benson’s sorter
+slow in the head, an’ he never puts two an’ two together till some one else has
+made four out of it.”
+
+If the man had come in and struck me suddenly in the face, I could have been no
+more surprised.
+
+“Say nothing of this to anyone,” I ordered. “Keep your eyes and ears open and
+report every suspicious thing you see or hear.”
+
+The man saluted and left me; but for an hour or more I tossed, restless, upon
+my hard bunk in an agony of jealousy and fear. Finally I fell into a troubled
+sleep. It was daylight when I awoke. We were steaming along slowly upon the
+surface, my orders having been to proceed at half speed until we could take an
+observation and determine our position. The sky had been overcast all the
+previous day and all night; but as I stepped into the centrale that morning I
+was delighted to see that the sun was again shining. The spirits of the men
+seemed improved; everything seemed propitious. I forgot at once the cruel
+misgivings of the past night as I set to work to take my observations.
+
+What a blow awaited me! The sextant and chronometer had both been broken beyond
+repair, and they had been broken just this very night. They had been broken
+upon the night that Lys had been seen talking with von Schoenvorts. I think
+that it was this last thought which hurt me the worst. I could look the other
+disaster in the face with equanimity; but the bald fact that Lys might be a
+traitor appalled me.
+
+I called Bradley and Olson on deck and told them what had happened, but for the
+life of me I couldn’t bring myself to repeat what Wilson had reported to me the
+previous night. In fact, as I had given the matter thought, it seemed
+incredible that the girl could have passed through my room, in which Bradley
+and I slept, and then carried on a conversation in the crew’s room, in which
+Von Schoenvorts was kept, without having been seen by more than a single man.
+
+Bradley shook his head. “I can’t make it out,” he said. “One of those boches
+must be pretty clever to come it over us all like this; but they haven’t harmed
+us as much as they think; there are still the extra instruments.”
+
+It was my turn now to shake a doleful head. “There are no extra instruments,” I
+told them. “They too have disappeared as did the wireless apparatus.”
+
+Both men looked at me in amazement. “We still have the compass and the sun,”
+said Olson. “They may be after getting the compass some night; but they’s too
+many of us around in the daytime fer ’em to get the sun.”
+
+It was then that one of the men stuck his head up through the hatchway and
+seeing me, asked permission to come on deck and get a breath of fresh air. I
+recognized him as Benson, the man who, Wilson had said, reported having seen
+Lys with von Schoenvorts two nights before. I motioned him on deck and then
+called him to one side, asking if he had seen anything out of the way or
+unusual during his trick on watch the night before. The fellow scratched his
+head a moment and said, “No,” and then as though it was an afterthought, he
+told me that he had seen the girl in the crew’s room about midnight talking
+with the German commander, but as there hadn’t seemed to him to be any harm in
+that, he hadn’t said anything about it. Telling him never to fail to report to
+me anything in the slightest out of the ordinary routine of the ship, I
+dismissed him.
+
+Several of the other men now asked permission to come on deck, and soon all but
+those actually engaged in some necessary duty were standing around smoking and
+talking, all in the best of spirits. I took advantage of the absence of the men
+upon the deck to go below for my breakfast, which the cook was already
+preparing upon the electric stove. Lys, followed by Nobs, appeared as I entered
+the centrale. She met me with a pleasant “Good morning!” which I am afraid I
+replied to in a tone that was rather constrained and surly.
+
+“Will you breakfast with me?” I suddenly asked the girl, determined to commence
+a probe of my own along the lines which duty demanded.
+
+She nodded a sweet acceptance of my invitation, and together we sat down at the
+little table of the officers’ mess.
+
+“You slept well last night?” I asked.
+
+“All night,” she replied. “I am a splendid sleeper.”
+
+Her manner was so straightforward and honest that I could not bring myself to
+believe in her duplicity; yet—Thinking to surprise her into a betrayal of her
+guilt, I blurted out: “The chronometer and sextant were both destroyed last
+night; there is a traitor among us.” But she never turned a hair by way of
+evidencing guilty knowledge of the catastrophe.
+
+“Who could it have been?” she cried. “The Germans would be crazy to do it, for
+their lives are as much at stake as ours.”
+
+“Men are often glad to die for an ideal—an ideal of patriotism, perhaps,” I
+replied; “and a willingness to martyr themselves includes a willingness to
+sacrifice others, even those who love them. Women are much the same, except
+that they will go even further than most men—they will sacrifice everything,
+even honor, for love.”
+
+I watched her face carefully as I spoke, and I thought that I detected a very
+faint flush mounting her cheek. Seeing an opening and an advantage, I sought to
+follow it up.
+
+“Take von Schoenvorts, for instance,” I continued: “he would doubtless be glad
+to die and take us all with him, could he prevent in no other way the falling
+of his vessel into enemy hands. He would sacrifice anyone, even you; and if you
+still love him, you might be his ready tool. Do you understand me?”
+
+She looked at me in wide-eyed consternation for a moment, and then she went
+very white and rose from her seat. “I do,” she replied, and turning her back
+upon me, she walked quickly toward her room. I started to follow, for even
+believing what I did, I was sorry that I had hurt her. I reached the door to
+the crew’s room just behind her and in time to see von Schoenvorts lean forward
+and whisper something to her as she passed; but she must have guessed that she
+might be watched, for she passed on.
+
+That afternoon it clouded over; the wind mounted to a gale, and the sea rose
+until the craft was wallowing and rolling frightfully. Nearly everyone aboard
+was sick; the air became foul and oppressive. For twenty-four hours I did not
+leave my post in the conning tower, as both Olson and Bradley were sick.
+Finally I found that I must get a little rest, and so I looked about for some
+one to relieve me. Benson volunteered. He had not been sick, and assured me
+that he was a former R.N. man and had been detailed for submarine duty for over
+two years. I was glad that it was he, for I had considerable confidence in his
+loyalty, and so it was with a feeling of security that I went below and lay
+down.
+
+I slept twelve hours straight, and when I awoke and discovered what I had done,
+I lost no time in getting to the conning tower. There sat Benson as wide awake
+as could be, and the compass showed that we were heading straight into the
+west. The storm was still raging; nor did it abate its fury until the fourth
+day. We were all pretty well done up and looked forward to the time when we
+could go on deck and fill our lungs with fresh air. During the whole four days
+I had not seen the girl, as she evidently kept closely to her room; and during
+this time no untoward incident had occurred aboard the boat—a fact which seemed
+to strengthen the web of circumstantial evidence about her.
+
+For six more days after the storm lessened we still had fairly rough weather;
+nor did the sun once show himself during all that time. For the season—it was
+now the middle of June—the storm was unusual; but being from southern
+California, I was accustomed to unusual weather. In fact, I have discovered
+that the world over, unusual weather prevails at all times of the year.
+
+We kept steadily to our westward course, and as the _U_-33 was one of the
+fastest submersibles we had ever turned out, I knew that we must be pretty
+close to the North American coast. What puzzled me most was the fact that for
+six days we had not sighted a single ship. It seemed remarkable that we could
+cross the Atlantic almost to the coast of the American continent without
+glimpsing smoke or sail, and at last I came to the conclusion that we were way
+off our course, but whether to the north or to the south of it I could not
+determine.
+
+On the seventh day the sea lay comparatively calm at early dawn. There was a
+slight haze upon the ocean which had cut off our view of the stars; but
+conditions all pointed toward a clear morrow, and I was on deck anxiously
+awaiting the rising of the sun. My eyes were glued upon the impenetrable mist
+astern, for there in the east I should see the first glow of the rising sun
+that would assure me we were still upon the right course. Gradually the heavens
+lightened; but astern I could see no intenser glow that would indicate the
+rising sun behind the mist. Bradley was standing at my side. Presently he
+touched my arm.
+
+“Look, captain,” he said, and pointed south.
+
+I looked and gasped, for there directly to port I saw outlined through the haze
+the red top of the rising sun. Hurrying to the tower, I looked at the compass.
+It showed that we were holding steadily upon our westward course. Either the
+sun was rising in the south, or the compass had been tampered with. The
+conclusion was obvious.
+
+I went back to Bradley and told him what I had discovered. “And,” I concluded,
+“we can’t make another five hundred knots without oil; our provisions are
+running low and so is our water. God only knows how far south we have run.”
+
+“There is nothing to do,” he replied, “other than to alter our course once more
+toward the west; we must raise land soon or we shall all be lost.”
+
+I told him to do so; and then I set to work improvising a crude sextant with
+which we finally took our bearings in a rough and most unsatisfactory manner;
+for when the work was done, we did not know how far from the truth the result
+might be. It showed us to be about 20° north and 30° west—nearly
+twenty-five hundred miles off our course. In short, if our reading was anywhere
+near correct, we must have been traveling due south for six days. Bradley now
+relieved Benson, for we had arranged our shifts so that the latter and Olson
+now divided the nights, while Bradley and I alternated with one another during
+the days.
+
+I questioned both Olson and Benson closely in the matter of the compass; but
+each stoutly maintained that no one had tampered with it during his tour of
+duty. Benson gave me a knowing smile, as much as to say: “Well, you and I know
+who did this.” Yet I could not believe that it was the girl.
+
+We kept to our westerly course for several hours when the lookout’s cry
+announced a sail. I ordered the _U_-33’s course altered, and we bore down
+upon the stranger, for I had come to a decision which was the result of
+necessity. We could not lie there in the middle of the Atlantic and starve to
+death if there was any way out of it. The sailing ship saw us while we were
+still a long way off, as was evidenced by her efforts to escape. There was
+scarcely any wind, however, and her case was hopeless; so when we drew near and
+signaled her to stop, she came into the wind and lay there with her sails
+flapping idly. We moved in quite close to her. She was the _Balmen_ of
+Halmstad, Sweden, with a general cargo from Brazil for Spain.
+
+I explained our circumstances to her skipper and asked for food, water and oil;
+but when he found that we were not German, he became very angry and abusive and
+started to draw away from us; but I was in no mood for any such business.
+Turning toward Bradley, who was in the conning-tower, I snapped out:
+“Gun-service on deck! To the diving stations!” We had no opportunity for drill;
+but every man had been posted as to his duties, and the German members of the
+crew understood that it was obedience or death for them, as each was
+accompanied by a man with a pistol. Most of them, though, were only too glad to
+obey me.
+
+Bradley passed the order down into the ship and a moment later the gun-crew
+clambered up the narrow ladder and at my direction trained their piece upon the
+slow-moving Swede. “Fire a shot across her bow,” I instructed the gun-captain.
+
+Accept it from me, it didn’t take that Swede long to see the error of his way
+and get the red and white pennant signifying “I understand” to the masthead.
+Once again the sails flapped idly, and then I ordered him to lower a boat and
+come after me. With Olson and a couple of the Englishmen I boarded the ship,
+and from her cargo selected what we needed—oil, provisions and water. I gave
+the master of the _Balmen_ a receipt for what we took, together with an
+affidavit signed by Bradley, Olson, and myself, stating briefly how we had come
+into possession of the _U_-33 and the urgency of our need for what we
+took. We addressed both to any British agent with the request that the owners
+of the _Balmen_ be reimbursed; but whether or not they were, I do not
+know.[1]
+
+[1] Late in July, 1916, an item in the shipping news mentioned a Swedish
+sailing vessel, _Balmen_, Rio de Janeiro to Barcelona, sunk by a German
+raider sometime in June. A single survivor in an open boat was picked up off
+the Cape Verde Islands, in a dying condition. He expired without giving any
+details.
+
+
+With water, food, and oil aboard, we felt that we had obtained a new lease of
+life. Now, too, we knew definitely where we were, and I determined to make for
+Georgetown, British Guiana—but I was destined to again suffer bitter
+disappointment.
+
+Six of us of the loyal crew had come on deck either to serve the gun or board
+the Swede during our set-to with her; and now, one by one, we descended the
+ladder into the centrale. I was the last to come, and when I reached the
+bottom, I found myself looking into the muzzle of a pistol in the hands of
+Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts—I saw all my men lined up at one side with the
+remaining eight Germans standing guard over them.
+
+I couldn’t imagine how it had happened; but it had. Later I learned that they
+had first overpowered Benson, who was asleep in his bunk, and taken his pistol
+from him, and then had found it an easy matter to disarm the cook and the
+remaining two Englishmen below. After that it had been comparatively simple to
+stand at the foot of the ladder and arrest each individual as he descended.
+
+The first thing von Schoenvorts did was to send for me and announce that as a
+pirate I was to be shot early the next morning. Then he explained that the
+_U_-33 would cruise in these waters for a time, sinking neutral and enemy
+shipping indiscriminately, and looking for one of the German raiders that was
+supposed to be in these parts.
+
+He didn’t shoot me the next morning as he had promised, and it has never been
+clear to me why he postponed the execution of my sentence. Instead he kept me
+ironed just as he had been; then he kicked Bradley out of my room and took it
+all to himself.
+
+We cruised for a long time, sinking many vessels, all but one by gunfire, but
+we did not come across a German raider. I was surprised to note that von
+Schoenvorts often permitted Benson to take command; but I reconciled this by
+the fact that Benson appeared to know more of the duties of a submarine
+commander than did any of the stupid Germans.
+
+Once or twice Lys passed me; but for the most part she kept to her room. The
+first time she hesitated as though she wished to speak to me; but I did not
+raise my head, and finally she passed on. Then one day came the word that we
+were about to round the Horn and that von Schoenvorts had taken it into his
+fool head to cruise up along the Pacific coast of North America and prey upon
+all sorts and conditions of merchantmen.
+
+“I’ll put the fear of God and the Kaiser into them,” he said.
+
+The very first day we entered the South Pacific we had an adventure. It turned
+out to be quite the most exciting adventure I had ever encountered. It fell
+about this way. About eight bells of the forenoon watch I heard a hail from the
+deck, and presently the footsteps of the entire ship’s company, from the amount
+of noise I heard at the ladder. Some one yelled back to those who had not yet
+reached the level of the deck: “It’s the raider, the German raider
+_Geier!_”
+
+I saw that we had reached the end of our rope. Below all was quiet—not a man
+remained. A door opened at the end of the narrow hull, and presently Nobs came
+trotting up to me. He licked my face and rolled over on his back, reaching for
+me with his big, awkward paws. Then other footsteps sounded, approaching me. I
+knew whose they were, and I looked straight down at the flooring. The girl was
+coming almost at a run—she was at my side immediately. “Here!” she cried.
+“Quick!” And she slipped something into my hand. It was a key—the key to my
+irons. At my side she also laid a pistol, and then she went on into the
+centrale. As she passed me, I saw that she carried another pistol for herself.
+It did not take me long to liberate myself, and then I was at her side. “How
+can I thank you?” I started; but she shut me up with a word.
+
+“Do not thank me,” she said coldly. “I do not care to hear your thanks or any
+other expression from you. Do not stand there looking at me. I have given you a
+chance to do something—now do it!” The last was a peremptory command that made
+me jump.
+
+Glancing up, I saw that the tower was empty, and I lost no time in clambering
+up, looking about me. About a hundred yards off lay a small, swift
+cruiser-raider, and above her floated the German man-of-war’s flag. A boat had
+just been lowered, and I could see it moving toward us filled with officers and
+men. The cruiser lay dead ahead. “My,” I thought, “what a wonderful targ—” I
+stopped even thinking, so surprised and shocked was I by the boldness of my
+imagery. The girl was just below me. I looked down on her wistfully. Could I
+trust her? Why had she released me at this moment? I must! I must! There was no
+other way. I dropped back below. “Ask Olson to step down here, please,” I
+requested; “and don’t let anyone see you ask him.”
+
+She looked at me with a puzzled expression on her face for the barest fraction
+of a second, and then she turned and went up the ladder. A moment later Olson
+returned, and the girl followed him. “Quick!” I whispered to the big Irishman,
+and made for the bow compartment where the torpedo-tubes are built into the
+boat; here, too, were the torpedoes. The girl accompanied us, and when she saw
+the thing I had in mind, she stepped forward and lent a hand to the swinging of
+the great cylinder of death and destruction into the mouth of its tube. With
+oil and main strength we shoved the torpedo home and shut the tube; then I ran
+back to the conning-tower, praying in my heart of hearts that the _U_-33
+had not swung her bow away from the prey. No, thank God!
+
+Never could aim have been truer. I signaled back to Olson: “Let ’er go!” The
+_U_-33 trembled from stem to stern as the torpedo shot from its tube. I
+saw the white wake leap from her bow straight toward the enemy cruiser. A
+chorus of hoarse yells arose from the deck of our own craft: I saw the officers
+stand suddenly erect in the boat that was approaching us, and I heard loud
+cries and curses from the raider. Then I turned my attention to my own
+business. Most of the men on the submarine’s deck were standing in paralyzed
+fascination, staring at the torpedo. Bradley happened to be looking toward the
+conning-tower and saw me. I sprang on deck and ran toward him. “Quick!” I
+whispered. “While they are stunned, we must overcome them.”
+
+A German was standing near Bradley—just in front of him. The Englishman struck
+the fellow a frantic blow upon the neck and at the same time snatched his
+pistol from its holster. Von Schoenvorts had recovered from his first surprise
+quickly and had turned toward the main hatch to investigate. I covered him with
+my revolver, and at the same instant the torpedo struck the raider, the
+terrific explosion drowning the German’s command to his men.
+
+Bradley was now running from one to another of our men, and though some of the
+Germans saw and heard him, they seemed too stunned for action.
+
+Olson was below, so that there were only nine of us against eight Germans, for
+the man Bradley had struck still lay upon the deck. Only two of us were armed;
+but the heart seemed to have gone out of the boches, and they put up but
+half-hearted resistance. Von Schoenvorts was the worst—he was fairly frenzied
+with rage and chagrin, and he came charging for me like a mad bull, and as he
+came he discharged his pistol. If he’d stopped long enough to take aim, he
+might have gotten me; but his pace made him wild, so that not a shot touched
+me, and then we clinched and went to the deck. This left two pistols, which two
+of my own men were quick to appropriate. The Baron was no match for me in a
+hand-to-hand encounter, and I soon had him pinned to the deck and the life
+almost choked out of him.
+
+A half-hour later things had quieted down, and all was much the same as before
+the prisoners had revolted—only we kept a much closer watch on von Schoenvorts.
+The _Geier_ had sunk while we were still battling upon our deck, and
+afterward we had drawn away toward the north, leaving the survivors to the
+attention of the single boat which had been making its way toward us when Olson
+launched the torpedo. I suppose the poor devils never reached land, and if they
+did, they most probably perished on that cold and unhospitable shore; but I
+couldn’t permit them aboard the _U_-33. We had all the Germans we could
+take care of.
+
+That evening the girl asked permission to go on deck. She said that she felt
+the effects of long confinement below, and I readily granted her request. I
+could not understand her, and I craved an opportunity to talk with her again in
+an effort to fathom her and her intentions, and so I made it a point to follow
+her up the ladder. It was a clear, cold, beautiful night. The sea was calm
+except for the white water at our bows and the two long radiating swells
+running far off into the distance upon either hand astern, forming a great V
+which our propellers filled with choppy waves. Benson was in the tower, we were
+bound for San Diego and all looked well.
+
+Lys stood with a heavy blanket wrapped around her slender figure, and as I
+approached her, she half turned toward me to see who it was. When she
+recognized me, she immediately turned away.
+
+“I want to thank you,” I said, “for your bravery and loyalty—you were
+magnificent. I am sorry that you had reason before to think that I doubted
+you.”
+
+“You did doubt me,” she replied in a level voice. “You practically accused me
+of aiding Baron von Schoenvorts. I can never forgive you.”
+
+There was a great deal of finality in both her words and tone.
+
+“I could not believe it,” I said; “and yet two of my men reported having seen
+you in conversation with von Schoenvorts late at night upon two separate
+occasions—after each of which some great damage was found done us in the
+morning. I didn’t want to doubt you; but I carried all the responsibility of
+the lives of these men, of the safety of the ship, of your life and mine. I had
+to watch you, and I had to put you on your guard against a repetition of your
+madness.”
+
+She was looking at me now with those great eyes of hers, very wide and round.
+
+“Who told you that I spoke with Baron von Schoenvorts at night, or any other
+time?” she asked.
+
+“I cannot tell you, Lys,” I replied, “but it came to me from two different
+sources.”
+
+“Then two men have lied,” she asserted without heat. “I have not spoken to
+Baron von Schoenvorts other than in your presence when first we came aboard the
+_U_-33. And please, when you address me, remember that to others than my
+intimates I am Miss La Rue.”
+
+Did you ever get slapped in the face when you least expected it? No? Well, then
+you do not know how I felt at that moment. I could feel the hot, red flush
+surging up my neck, across my cheeks, over my ears, clear to my scalp. And it
+made me love her all the more; it made me swear inwardly a thousand solemn
+oaths that I would win her.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 4
+
+
+For several days things went along in about the same course. I took our
+position every morning with my crude sextant; but the results were always most
+unsatisfactory. They always showed a considerable westing when I knew that we
+had been sailing due north. I blamed my crude instrument, and kept on. Then one
+afternoon the girl came to me.
+
+“Pardon me,” she said, “but were I you, I should watch this man
+Benson—especially when he is in charge.” I asked her what she meant, thinking I
+could see the influence of von Schoenvorts raising a suspicion against one of
+my most trusted men.
+
+“If you will note the boat’s course a half-hour after Benson goes on duty,” she
+said, “you will know what I mean, and you will understand why he prefers a
+night watch. Possibly, too, you will understand some other things that have
+taken place aboard.”
+
+Then she went back to her room, thus ending the conversation. I waited until
+half an hour after Benson had gone on duty, and then I went on deck, passing
+through the conning-tower where Benson sat, and looking at the compass. It
+showed that our course was north by west—that is, one point west of north,
+which was, for our assumed position, about right. I was greatly relieved to
+find that nothing was wrong, for the girl’s words had caused me considerable
+apprehension. I was about to return to my room when a thought occurred to me
+that again caused me to change my mind—and, incidentally, came near proving my
+death-warrant.
+
+When I had left the conning-tower little more than a half-hour since, the sea
+had been breaking over the port bow, and it seemed to me quite improbable that
+in so short a time an equally heavy sea could be deluging us from the opposite
+side of the ship—winds may change quickly, but not a long, heavy sea. There was
+only one other solution—since I left the tower, our course had been altered
+some eight points. Turning quickly, I climbed out upon the conning-tower. A
+single glance at the heavens confirmed my suspicions; the constellations which
+should have been dead ahead were directly starboard. We were sailing due west.
+
+Just for an instant longer I stood there to check up my calculations—I wanted
+to be quite sure before I accused Benson of perfidy, and about the only thing I
+came near making quite sure of was death. I cannot see even now how I escaped
+it. I was standing on the edge of the conning-tower, when a heavy palm suddenly
+struck me between the shoulders and hurled me forward into space. The drop to
+the triangular deck forward of the conning-tower might easily have broken a leg
+for me, or I might have slipped off onto the deck and rolled overboard; but
+fate was upon my side, as I was only slightly bruised. As I came to my feet, I
+heard the conning-tower cover slam. There is a ladder which leads from the deck
+to the top of the tower. Up this I scrambled, as fast as I could go; but Benson
+had the cover tight before I reached it.
+
+I stood there a moment in dumb consternation. What did the fellow intend? What
+was going on below? If Benson was a traitor, how could I know that there were
+not other traitors among us? I cursed myself for my folly in going out upon the
+deck, and then this thought suggested another—a hideous one: who was it that
+had really been responsible for my being here?
+
+Thinking to attract attention from inside the craft, I again ran down the
+ladder and onto the small deck only to find that the steel covers of the
+conning-tower windows were shut, and then I leaned with my back against the
+tower and cursed myself for a gullible idiot.
+
+I glanced at the bow. The sea seemed to be getting heavier, for every wave now
+washed completely over the lower deck. I watched them for a moment, and then a
+sudden chill pervaded my entire being. It was not the chill of wet clothing, or
+the dashing spray which drenched my face; no, it was the chill of the hand of
+death upon my heart. In an instant I had turned the last corner of life’s
+highway and was looking God Almighty in the face—the _U_-33 was being
+slowly submerged!
+
+It would be difficult, even impossible, to set down in writing my sensations at
+that moment. All I can particularly recall is that I laughed, though neither
+from a spirit of bravado nor from hysteria. And I wanted to smoke. Lord! how I
+did want to smoke; but that was out of the question.
+
+I watched the water rise until the little deck I stood on was awash, and then I
+clambered once more to the top of the conning-tower. From the very slow
+submergence of the boat I knew that Benson was doing the entire trick
+alone—that he was merely permitting the diving-tanks to fill and that the
+diving-rudders were not in use. The throbbing of the engines ceased, and in its
+stead came the steady vibration of the electric motors. The water was halfway
+up the conning-tower! I had perhaps five minutes longer on the deck. I tried to
+decide what I should do after I was washed away. Should I swim until exhaustion
+claimed me, or should I give up and end the agony at the first plunge?
+
+From below came two muffled reports. They sounded not unlike shots. Was Benson
+meeting with resistance? Personally it could mean little to me, for even though
+my men might overcome the enemy, none would know of my predicament until long
+after it was too late to succor me. The top of the conning-tower was now awash.
+I clung to the wireless mast, while the great waves surged sometimes completely
+over me.
+
+I knew the end was near and, almost involuntarily, I did that which I had not
+done since childhood—I prayed. After that I felt better.
+
+I clung and waited, but the water rose no higher.
+
+Instead it receded. Now the top of the conning-tower received only the crests
+of the higher waves; now the little triangular deck below became visible! What
+had occurred within? Did Benson believe me already gone, and was he emerging
+because of that belief, or had he and his forces been vanquished? The suspense
+was more wearing than that which I had endured while waiting for dissolution.
+Presently the main deck came into view, and then the conning-tower opened
+behind me, and I turned to look into the anxious face of Bradley. An expression
+of relief overspread his features.
+
+“Thank God, man!” was all he said as he reached forth and dragged me into the
+tower. I was cold and numb and rather all in. Another few minutes would have
+done for me, I am sure, but the warmth of the interior helped to revive me,
+aided and abetted by some brandy which Bradley poured down my throat, from
+which it nearly removed the membrane. That brandy would have revived a corpse.
+
+When I got down into the centrale, I saw the Germans lined up on one side with
+a couple of my men with pistols standing over them. Von Schoenvorts was among
+them. On the floor lay Benson, moaning, and beyond him stood the girl, a
+revolver in one hand. I looked about, bewildered.
+
+“What has happened down here?” I asked. “Tell me!”
+
+Bradley replied. “You see the result, sir,” he said. “It might have been a very
+different result but for Miss La Rue. We were all asleep. Benson had relieved
+the guard early in the evening; there was no one to watch him—no one but Miss
+La Rue. She felt the submergence of the boat and came out of her room to
+investigate. She was just in time to see Benson at the diving rudders. When he
+saw her, he raised his pistol and fired point-blank at her, but he missed and
+she fired—and didn’t miss. The two shots awakened everyone, and as our men were
+armed, the result was inevitable as you see it; but it would have been very
+different had it not been for Miss La Rue. It was she who closed the
+diving-tank sea-cocks and roused Olson and me, and had the pumps started to
+empty them.”
+
+And there I had been thinking that through her machinations I had been lured to
+the deck and to my death! I could have gone on my knees to her and begged her
+forgiveness—or at least I could have, had I not been Anglo-Saxon. As it was, I
+could only remove my soggy cap and bow and mumble my appreciation. She made no
+reply—only turned and walked very rapidly toward her room. Could I have heard
+aright? Was it really a sob that came floating back to me through the narrow
+aisle of the _U_-33?
+
+Benson died that night. He remained defiant almost to the last; but just before
+he went out, he motioned to me, and I leaned over to catch the faintly
+whispered words.
+
+“I did it alone,” he said. “I did it because I hate you—I hate all your kind. I
+was kicked out of your shipyard at Santa Monica. I was locked out of
+California. I am an I. W. W. I became a German agent—not because I love them,
+for I hate them too—but because I wanted to injure Americans, whom I hated
+more. I threw the wireless apparatus overboard. I destroyed the chronometer and
+the sextant. I devised a scheme for varying the compass to suit my wishes. I
+told Wilson that I had seen the girl talking with von Schoenvorts, and I made
+the poor egg think he had seen her doing the same thing. I am sorry—sorry that
+my plans failed. I hate you.”
+
+He didn’t die for a half-hour after that; nor did he speak again—aloud; but
+just a few seconds before he went to meet his Maker, his lips moved in a faint
+whisper; and as I leaned closer to catch his words, what do you suppose I
+heard? “Now—I—lay me—down—to—sleep” That was all; Benson was dead. We threw his
+body overboard.
+
+The wind of that night brought on some pretty rough weather with a lot of black
+clouds which persisted for several days. We didn’t know what course we had been
+holding, and there was no way of finding out, as we could no longer trust the
+compass, not knowing what Benson had done to it. The long and the short of it
+was that we cruised about aimlessly until the sun came out again. I’ll never
+forget that day or its surprises. We reckoned, or rather guessed, that we were
+somewhere off the coast of Peru. The wind, which had been blowing fitfully from
+the east, suddenly veered around into the south, and presently we felt a sudden
+chill.
+
+“Peru!” snorted Olson. “When were yez after smellin’ iceber-rgs off Peru?”
+
+Icebergs! “Icebergs, nothin’!” exclaimed one of the Englishmen. “Why, man, they
+don’t come north of fourteen here in these waters.”
+
+“Then,” replied Olson, “ye’re sout’ of fourteen, me b’y.”
+
+We thought he was crazy; but he wasn’t, for that afternoon we sighted a great
+berg south of us, and we’d been running north, we thought, for days. I can tell
+you we were a discouraged lot; but we got a faint thrill of hope early the next
+morning when the lookout bawled down the open hatch: “Land! Land northwest by
+west!”
+
+I think we were all sick for the sight of land. I know that I was; but my
+interest was quickly dissipated by the sudden illness of three of the Germans.
+Almost simultaneously they commenced vomiting. They couldn’t suggest any
+explanation for it. I asked them what they had eaten, and found they had eaten
+nothing other than the food cooked for all of us. “Have you drunk anything?” I
+asked, for I knew that there was liquor aboard, and medicines in the same
+locker.
+
+“Only water,” moaned one of them. “We all drank water together this morning. We
+opened a new tank. Maybe it was the water.”
+
+I started an investigation which revealed a terrifying condition—some one,
+probably Benson, had poisoned all the running water on the ship. It would have
+been worse, though, had land not been in sight. The sight of land filled us
+with renewed hope.
+
+Our course had been altered, and we were rapidly approaching what appeared to
+be a precipitous headland. Cliffs, seemingly rising perpendicularly out of the
+sea, faded away into the mist upon either hand as we approached. The land
+before us might have been a continent, so mighty appeared the shoreline; yet we
+knew that we must be thousands of miles from the nearest western land-mass—New
+Zealand or Australia.
+
+We took our bearings with our crude and inaccurate instruments; we searched the
+chart; we cudgeled our brains; and at last it was Bradley who suggested a
+solution. He was in the tower and watching the compass, to which he called my
+attention. The needle was pointing straight toward the land. Bradley swung the
+helm hard to starboard. I could feel the _U_-33 respond, and yet the arrow
+still clung straight and sure toward the distant cliffs.
+
+“What do you make of it?” I asked him.
+
+“Did you ever hear of Caproni?” he asked.
+
+“An early Italian navigator?” I returned.
+
+“Yes; he followed Cook about 1721. He is scarcely mentioned even by
+contemporaneous historians—probably because he got into political difficulties
+on his return to Italy. It was the fashion to scoff at his claims, but I recall
+reading one of his works—his only one, I believe—in which he described a new
+continent in the south seas, a continent made up of ‘some strange metal’ which
+attracted the compass; a rockbound, inhospitable coast, without beach or
+harbor, which extended for hundreds of miles. He could make no landing; nor in
+the several days he cruised about it did he see sign of life. He called it
+Caprona and sailed away. I believe, sir, that we are looking upon the coast of
+Caprona, uncharted and forgotten for two hundred years.”
+
+“If you are right, it might account for much of the deviation of the compass
+during the past two days,” I suggested. “Caprona has been luring us upon her
+deadly rocks. Well, we’ll accept her challenge. We’ll land upon Caprona. Along
+that long front there must be a vulnerable spot. We will find it, Bradley, for
+we must find it. We must find water on Caprona, or we must die.”
+
+And so we approached the coast upon which no living eyes had ever rested.
+Straight from the ocean’s depths rose towering cliffs, shot with brown and
+blues and greens—withered moss and lichen and the verdigris of copper, and
+everywhere the rusty ocher of iron pyrites. The cliff-tops, though ragged, were
+of such uniform height as to suggest the boundaries of a great plateau, and now
+and again we caught glimpses of verdure topping the rocky escarpment, as though
+bush or jungle-land had pushed outward from a lush vegetation farther inland to
+signal to an unseeing world that Caprona lived and joyed in life beyond her
+austere and repellent coast.
+
+But metaphor, however poetic, never slaked a dry throat. To enjoy Caprona’s
+romantic suggestions we must have water, and so we came in close, always
+sounding, and skirted the shore. As close in as we dared cruise, we found
+fathomless depths, and always the same undented coastline of bald cliffs. As
+darkness threatened, we drew away and lay well off the coast all night. We had
+not as yet really commenced to suffer for lack of water; but I knew that it
+would not be long before we did, and so at the first streak of dawn I moved in
+again and once more took up the hopeless survey of the forbidding coast.
+
+Toward noon we discovered a beach, the first we had seen. It was a narrow strip
+of sand at the base of a part of the cliff that seemed lower than any we had
+before scanned. At its foot, half buried in the sand, lay great boulders, mute
+evidence that in a bygone age some mighty natural force had crumpled Caprona’s
+barrier at this point. It was Bradley who first called our attention to a
+strange object lying among the boulders above the surf.
+
+“Looks like a man,” he said, and passed his glasses to me.
+
+I looked long and carefully and could have sworn that the thing I saw was the
+sprawled figure of a human being. Miss La Rue was on deck with us. I turned and
+asked her to go below. Without a word she did as I bade. Then I stripped, and
+as I did so, Nobs looked questioningly at me. He had been wont at home to enter
+the surf with me, and evidently he had not forgotten it.
+
+“What are you going to do, sir?” asked Olson.
+
+“I’m going to see what that thing is on shore,” I replied. “If it’s a man, it
+may mean that Caprona is inhabited, or it may merely mean that some poor devils
+were shipwrecked here. I ought to be able to tell from the clothing which is
+more near the truth.
+
+“How about sharks?” queried Olson. “Sure, you ought to carry a knoife.”
+
+“Here you are, sir,” cried one of the men.
+
+It was a long slim blade he offered—one that I could carry between my teeth—and
+so I accepted it gladly.
+
+“Keep close in,” I directed Bradley, and then I dived over the side and struck
+out for the narrow beach. There was another splash directly behind me, and
+turning my head, I saw faithful old Nobs swimming valiantly in my wake.
+
+The surf was not heavy, and there was no undertow, so we made shore easily,
+effecting an equally easy landing. The beach was composed largely of small
+stones worn smooth by the action of water. There was little sand, though from
+the deck of the _U_-33 the beach had appeared to be all sand, and I saw no
+evidences of mollusca or crustacea such as are common to all beaches I have
+previously seen. I attribute this to the fact of the smallness of the beach,
+the enormous depth of surrounding water and the great distance at which Caprona
+lies from her nearest neighbor.
+
+As Nobs and I approached the recumbent figure farther up the beach, I was
+appraised by my nose that whether man or not, the thing had once been organic
+and alive, but that for some time it had been dead. Nobs halted, sniffed and
+growled. A little later he sat down upon his haunches, raised his muzzle to the
+heavens and bayed forth a most dismal howl. I shied a small stone at him and
+bade him shut up—his uncanny noise made me nervous. When I had come quite close
+to the thing, I still could not say whether it had been man or beast. The
+carcass was badly swollen and partly decomposed. There was no sign of clothing
+upon or about it. A fine, brownish hair covered the chest and abdomen, and the
+face, the palms of the hands, the feet, the shoulders and back were practically
+hairless. The creature must have been about the height of a fair sized man; its
+features were similar to those of a man; yet had it been a man?
+
+I could not say, for it resembled an ape no more than it did a man. Its large
+toes protruded laterally as do those of the semiarboreal peoples of Borneo, the
+Philippines and other remote regions where low types still persist. The
+countenance might have been that of a cross between _Pithecanthropus_, the
+Java ape-man, and a daughter of the Piltdown race of prehistoric Sussex. A
+wooden cudgel lay beside the corpse.
+
+Now this fact set me thinking. There was no wood of any description in sight.
+There was nothing about the beach to suggest a wrecked mariner. There was
+absolutely nothing about the body to suggest that it might possibly in life
+have known a maritime experience. It was the body of a low type of man or a
+high type of beast. In neither instance would it have been of a seafaring race.
+Therefore I deduced that it was native to Caprona—that it lived inland, and
+that it had fallen or been hurled from the cliffs above. Such being the case,
+Caprona was inhabitable, if not inhabited, by man; but how to reach the
+inhabitable interior! That was the question. A closer view of the cliffs than
+had been afforded me from the deck of the _U_-33 only confirmed my
+conviction that no mortal man could scale those perpendicular heights; there
+was not a finger-hold, not a toe-hold, upon them. I turned away baffled.
+
+Nobs and I met with no sharks upon our return journey to the submarine. My
+report filled everyone with theories and speculations, and with renewed hope
+and determination. They all reasoned along the same lines that I had
+reasoned—the conclusions were obvious, but not the water. We were now thirstier
+than ever.
+
+The balance of that day we spent in continuing a minute and fruitless
+exploration of the monotonous coast. There was not another break in the
+frowning cliffs—not even another minute patch of pebbly beach. As the sun fell,
+so did our spirits. I had tried to make advances to the girl again; but she
+would have none of me, and so I was not only thirsty but otherwise sad and
+downhearted. I was glad when the new day broke the hideous spell of a sleepless
+night.
+
+The morning’s search brought us no shred of hope. Caprona was impregnable—that
+was the decision of all; yet we kept on. It must have been about two bells of
+the afternoon watch that Bradley called my attention to the branch of a tree,
+with leaves upon it, floating on the sea. “It may have been carried down to the
+ocean by a river,” he suggested.
+
+“Yes,” I replied, “it may have; it may have tumbled or been thrown off the top
+of one of these cliffs.”
+
+Bradley’s face fell. “I thought of that, too,” he replied, “but I wanted to
+believe the other.”
+
+“Right you are!” I cried. “We must believe the other until we prove it false.
+We can’t afford to give up heart now, when we need heart most. The branch was
+carried down by a river, and we are going to find that river.” I smote my open
+palm with a clenched fist, to emphasize a determination unsupported by hope.
+“There!” I cried suddenly. “See that, Bradley?” And I pointed at a spot closer
+to shore. “See that, man!” Some flowers and grasses and another leafy branch
+floated toward us. We both scanned the water and the coastline. Bradley
+evidently discovered something, or at least thought that he had. He called down
+for a bucket and a rope, and when they were passed up to him, he lowered the
+former into the sea and drew it in filled with water. Of this he took a taste,
+and straightening up, looked into my eyes with an expression of elation—as much
+as to say “I told you so!”
+
+“This water is warm,” he announced, “and fresh!”
+
+I grabbed the bucket and tasted its contents. The water was very warm, and it
+was fresh, but there was a most unpleasant taste to it.
+
+“Did you ever taste water from a stagnant pool full of tadpoles?” Bradley
+asked.
+
+“That’s it,” I exclaimed, “—that’s just the taste exactly, though I haven’t
+experienced it since boyhood; but how can water from a flowing stream, taste
+thus, and what the dickens makes it so warm? It must be at least 70 or 80
+Fahrenheit, possibly higher.”
+
+“Yes,” agreed Bradley, “I should say higher; but where does it come from?”
+
+“That is easily discovered now that we have found it,” I answered. “It can’t
+come from the ocean; so it must come from the land. All that we have to do is
+follow it, and sooner or later we shall come upon its source.”
+
+We were already rather close in; but I ordered the _U_-33’s prow turned
+inshore and we crept slowly along, constantly dipping up the water and tasting
+it to assure ourselves that we didn’t get outside the fresh-water current.
+There was a very light off-shore wind and scarcely any breakers, so that the
+approach to the shore was continued without finding bottom; yet though we were
+already quite close, we saw no indication of any indention in the coast from
+which even a tiny brooklet might issue, and certainly no mouth of a large river
+such as this must necessarily be to freshen the ocean even two hundred yards
+from shore. The tide was running out, and this, together with the strong flow
+of the freshwater current, would have prevented our going against the cliffs
+even had we not been under power; as it was we had to buck the combined forces
+in order to hold our position at all. We came up to within twenty-five feet of
+the sheer wall, which loomed high above us. There was no break in its
+forbidding face. As we watched the face of the waters and searched the cliff’s
+high face, Olson suggested that the fresh water might come from a submarine
+geyser. This, he said, would account for its heat; but even as he spoke a bush,
+covered thickly with leaves and flowers, bubbled to the surface and floated off
+astern.
+
+“Flowering shrubs don’t thrive in the subterranean caverns from which geysers
+spring,” suggested Bradley.
+
+Olson shook his head. “It beats me,” he said.
+
+“I’ve got it!” I exclaimed suddenly. “Look there!” And I pointed at the base of
+the cliff ahead of us, which the receding tide was gradually exposing to our
+view. They all looked, and all saw what I had seen—the top of a dark opening in
+the rock, through which water was pouring out into the sea. “It’s the
+subterranean channel of an inland river,” I cried. “It flows through a land
+covered with vegetation—and therefore a land upon which the sun shines. No
+subterranean caverns produce any order of plant life even remotely resembling
+what we have seen disgorged by this river. Beyond those cliffs lie fertile
+lands and fresh water—perhaps, game!”
+
+“Yis, sir,” said Olson, “behoind the cliffs! Ye spoke a true word,
+sir—behoind!”
+
+Bradley laughed—a rather sorry laugh, though. “You might as well call our
+attention to the fact, sir,” he said, “that science has indicated that there is
+fresh water and vegetation on Mars.”
+
+“Not at all,” I rejoined. “A U-boat isn’t constructed to navigate space, but it
+is designed to travel below the surface of the water.”
+
+“You’d be after sailin’ into that blank pocket?” asked Olson.
+
+“I would, Olson,” I replied. “We haven’t one chance for life in a hundred
+thousand if we don’t find food and water upon Caprona. This water coming out of
+the cliff is not salt; but neither is it fit to drink, though each of us has
+drunk. It is fair to assume that inland the river is fed by pure streams, that
+there are fruits and herbs and game. Shall we lie out here and die of thirst
+and starvation with a land of plenty possibly only a few hundred yards away? We
+have the means for navigating a subterranean river. Are we too cowardly to
+utilize this means?”
+
+“Be afther goin’ to it,” said Olson.
+
+“I’m willing to see it through,” agreed Bradley.
+
+“Then under the bottom, wi’ the best o’ luck an’ give ’em hell!” cried a young
+fellow who had been in the trenches.
+
+“To the diving-stations!” I commanded, and in less than a minute the deck was
+deserted, the conning-tower covers had slammed to and the _U_-33 was
+submerging—possibly for the last time. I know that I had this feeling, and I
+think that most of the others did.
+
+As we went down, I sat in the tower with the searchlight projecting its
+seemingly feeble rays ahead. We submerged very slowly and without headway more
+than sufficient to keep her nose in the right direction, and as we went down, I
+saw outlined ahead of us the black opening in the great cliff. It was an
+opening that would have admitted a half-dozen U-boats at one and the same time,
+roughly cylindrical in contour—and dark as the pit of perdition.
+
+As I gave the command which sent the _U_-33 slowly ahead, I could not but
+feel a certain uncanny presentiment of evil. Where were we going? What lay at
+the end of this great sewer? Had we bidden farewell forever to the sunlight and
+life, or were there before us dangers even greater than those which we now
+faced? I tried to keep my mind from vain imagining by calling everything which
+I observed to the eager ears below. I was the eyes of the whole company, and I
+did my best not to fail them. We had advanced a hundred yards, perhaps, when
+our first danger confronted us. Just ahead was a sharp right-angle turn in the
+tunnel. I could see the river’s flotsam hurtling against the rocky wall upon
+the left as it was driven on by the mighty current, and I feared for the safety
+of the _U_-33 in making so sharp a turn under such adverse conditions; but
+there was nothing for it but to try. I didn’t warn my fellows of the danger—it
+could have but caused them useless apprehension, for if we were to be smashed
+against the rocky wall, no power on earth could avert the quick end that would
+come to us. I gave the command full speed ahead and went charging toward the
+menace. I was forced to approach the dangerous left-hand wall in order to make
+the turn, and I depended upon the power of the motors to carry us through the
+surging waters in safety. Well, we made it; but it was a narrow squeak. As we
+swung around, the full force of the current caught us and drove the stern
+against the rocks; there was a thud which sent a tremor through the whole
+craft, and then a moment of nasty grinding as the steel hull scraped the rock
+wall. I expected momentarily the inrush of waters that would seal our doom; but
+presently from below came the welcome word that all was well.
+
+In another fifty yards there was a second turn, this time toward the left! but
+it was more of a gentle curve, and we took it without trouble. After that it
+was plain sailing, though as far as I could know, there might be most anything
+ahead of us, and my nerves strained to the snapping-point every instant. After
+the second turn the channel ran comparatively straight for between one hundred
+and fifty and two hundred yards. The waters grew suddenly lighter, and my
+spirits rose accordingly. I shouted down to those below that I saw daylight
+ahead, and a great shout of thanksgiving reverberated through the ship. A
+moment later we emerged into sunlit water, and immediately I raised the
+periscope and looked about me upon the strangest landscape I had ever seen.
+
+We were in the middle of a broad and now sluggish river the banks of which were
+lined by giant, arboraceous ferns, raising their mighty fronds fifty, one
+hundred, two hundred feet into the quiet air. Close by us something rose to the
+surface of the river and dashed at the periscope. I had a vision of wide,
+distended jaws, and then all was blotted out. A shiver ran down into the tower
+as the thing closed upon the periscope. A moment later it was gone, and I could
+see again. Above the trees there soared into my vision a huge thing on batlike
+wings—a creature large as a large whale, but fashioned more after the order of
+a lizard. Then again something charged the periscope and blotted out the
+mirror. I will confess that I was almost gasping for breath as I gave the
+commands to emerge. Into what sort of strange land had fate guided us?
+
+The instant the deck was awash, I opened the conning-tower hatch and stepped
+out. In another minute the deck-hatch lifted, and those who were not on duty
+below streamed up the ladder, Olson bringing Nobs under one arm. For several
+minutes no one spoke; I think they must each have been as overcome by awe as
+was I. All about us was a flora and fauna as strange and wonderful to us as
+might have been those upon a distant planet had we suddenly been miraculously
+transported through ether to an unknown world. Even the grass upon the nearer
+bank was unearthly—lush and high it grew, and each blade bore upon its tip a
+brilliant flower—violet or yellow or carmine or blue—making as gorgeous a sward
+as human imagination might conceive. But the life! It teemed. The tall,
+fernlike trees were alive with monkeys, snakes, and lizards. Huge insects
+hummed and buzzed hither and thither. Mighty forms could be seen moving upon
+the ground in the thick forest, while the bosom of the river wriggled with
+living things, and above flapped the wings of gigantic creatures such as we are
+taught have been extinct throughout countless ages.
+
+“Look!” cried Olson. “Would you look at the giraffe comin’ up out o’ the bottom
+of the say?” We looked in the direction he pointed and saw a long, glossy neck
+surmounted by a small head rising above the surface of the river. Presently the
+back of the creature was exposed, brown and glossy as the water dripped from
+it. It turned its eyes upon us, opened its lizard-like mouth, emitted a shrill
+hiss and came for us. The thing must have been sixteen or eighteen feet in
+length and closely resembled pictures I had seen of restored plesiosaurs of the
+lower Jurassic. It charged us as savagely as a mad bull, and one would have
+thought it intended to destroy and devour the mighty U-boat, as I verily
+believe it did intend.
+
+We were moving slowly up the river as the creature bore down upon us with
+distended jaws. The long neck was far outstretched, and the four flippers with
+which it swam were working with powerful strokes, carrying it forward at a
+rapid pace. When it reached the craft’s side, the jaws closed upon one of the
+stanchions of the deck rail and tore it from its socket as though it had been a
+toothpick stuck in putty. At this exhibition of titanic strength I think we all
+simultaneously stepped backward, and Bradley drew his revolver and fired. The
+bullet struck the thing in the neck, just above its body; but instead of
+disabling it, merely increased its rage. Its hissing rose to a shrill scream as
+it raised half its body out of water onto the sloping sides of the hull of the
+_U_-33 and endeavored to scramble upon the deck to devour us. A dozen
+shots rang out as we who were armed drew our pistols and fired at the thing;
+but though struck several times, it showed no signs of succumbing and only
+floundered farther aboard the submarine.
+
+I had noticed that the girl had come on deck and was standing not far behind
+me, and when I saw the danger to which we were all exposed, I turned and forced
+her toward the hatch. We had not spoken for some days, and we did not speak
+now; but she gave me a disdainful look, which was quite as eloquent as words,
+and broke loose from my grasp. I saw I could do nothing with her unless I
+exerted force, and so I turned with my back toward her that I might be in a
+position to shield her from the strange reptile should it really succeed in
+reaching the deck; and as I did so I saw the thing raise one flipper over the
+rail, dart its head forward and with the quickness of lightning seize upon one
+of the boches. I ran forward, discharging my pistol into the creature’s body in
+an effort to force it to relinquish its prey; but I might as profitably have
+shot at the sun.
+
+Shrieking and screaming, the German was dragged from the deck, and the moment
+the reptile was clear of the boat, it dived beneath the surface of the water
+with its terrified prey. I think we were all more or less shaken by the
+frightfulness of the tragedy—until Olson remarked that the balance of power now
+rested where it belonged. Following the death of Benson we had been nine and
+nine—nine Germans and nine “Allies,” as we called ourselves, now there were but
+eight Germans. We never counted the girl on either side, I suppose because she
+was a girl, though we knew well enough now that she was ours.
+
+And so Olson’s remark helped to clear the atmosphere for the Allies at least,
+and then our attention was once more directed toward the river, for around us
+there had sprung up a perfect bedlam of screams and hisses and a seething
+caldron of hideous reptiles, devoid of fear and filled only with hunger and
+with rage. They clambered, squirmed and wriggled to the deck, forcing us
+steadily backward, though we emptied our pistols into them. There were all
+sorts and conditions of horrible things—huge, hideous, grotesque, monstrous—a
+veritable Mesozoic nightmare. I saw that the girl was gotten below as quickly
+as possible, and she took Nobs with her—poor Nobs had nearly barked his head
+off; and I think, too, that for the first time since his littlest puppyhood he
+had known fear; nor can I blame him. After the girl I sent Bradley and most of
+the Allies and then the Germans who were on deck—von Schoenvorts being still in
+irons below.
+
+The creatures were approaching perilously close before I dropped through the
+hatchway and slammed down the cover. Then I went into the tower and ordered
+full speed ahead, hoping to distance the fearsome things; but it was useless.
+Not only could any of them easily outdistance the _U_-33, but the further
+upstream we progressed the greater the number of our besiegers, until fearful
+of navigating a strange river at high speed, I gave orders to reduce and moved
+slowly and majestically through the plunging, hissing mass. I was mighty glad
+that our entrance into the interior of Caprona had been inside a submarine
+rather than in any other form of vessel. I could readily understand how it
+might have been that Caprona had been invaded in the past by venturesome
+navigators without word of it ever reaching the outside world, for I can assure
+you that only by submarine could man pass up that great sluggish river, alive.
+
+We proceeded up the river for some forty miles before darkness overtook us. I
+was afraid to submerge and lie on the bottom overnight for fear that the mud
+might be deep enough to hold us, and as we could not hold with the anchor, I
+ran in close to shore, and in a brief interim of attack from the reptiles we
+made fast to a large tree. We also dipped up some of the river water and found
+it, though quite warm, a little sweeter than before. We had food enough, and
+with the water we were all quite refreshed; but we missed fresh meat. It had
+been weeks, now, since we had tasted it, and the sight of the reptiles gave me
+an idea—that a steak or two from one of them might not be bad eating. So I went
+on deck with a rifle, twenty of which were aboard the _U_-33. At sight of
+me a huge thing charged and climbed to the deck. I retreated to the top of the
+conning-tower, and when it had raised its mighty bulk to the level of the
+little deck on which I stood, I let it have a bullet right between the eyes.
+
+The thing stopped then and looked at me a moment as much as to say: “Why this
+thing has a stinger! I must be careful.” And then it reached out its long neck
+and opened its mighty jaws and grabbed for me; but I wasn’t there. I had
+tumbled backward into the tower, and I mighty near killed myself doing it. When
+I glanced up, that little head on the end of its long neck was coming straight
+down on top of me, and once more I tumbled into greater safety, sprawling upon
+the floor of the centrale.
+
+Olson was looking up, and seeing what was poking about in the tower, ran for an
+ax; nor did he hesitate a moment when he returned with one, but sprang up the
+ladder and commenced chopping away at that hideous face. The thing didn’t have
+sufficient brainpan to entertain more than a single idea at once. Though
+chopped and hacked, and with a bullethole between its eyes, it still persisted
+madly in its attempt to get inside the tower and devour Olson, though its body
+was many times the diameter of the hatch; nor did it cease its efforts until
+after Olson had succeeded in decapitating it. Then the two men went on deck
+through the main hatch, and while one kept watch, the other cut a hind quarter
+off _Plesiosaurus Olsoni_, as Bradley dubbed the thing. Meantime Olson cut
+off the long neck, saying that it would make fine soup. By the time we had
+cleared away the blood and refuse in the tower, the cook had juicy steaks and a
+steaming broth upon the electric stove, and the aroma arising from P. Olsoni
+filled us all with a hitherto unfelt admiration for him and all his kind.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 5
+
+
+The steaks we had that night, and they were fine; and the following morning we
+tasted the broth. It seemed odd to be eating a creature that should, by all the
+laws of paleontology, have been extinct for several million years. It gave one
+a feeling of newness that was almost embarrassing, although it didn’t seem to
+embarrass our appetites. Olson ate until I thought he would burst.
+
+The girl ate with us that night at the little officers’ mess just back of the
+torpedo compartment. The narrow table was unfolded; the four stools were set
+out; and for the first time in days we sat down to eat, and for the first time
+in weeks we had something to eat other than the monotony of the short rations
+of an impoverished U-boat. Nobs sat between the girl and me and was fed with
+morsels of the Plesiosaurus steak, at the risk of forever contaminating his
+manners. He looked at me sheepishly all the time, for he knew that no well-bred
+dog should eat at table; but the poor fellow was so wasted from improper food
+that I couldn’t enjoy my own meal had he been denied an immediate share in it;
+and anyway Lys wanted to feed him. So there you are.
+
+Lys was coldly polite to me and sweetly gracious to Bradley and Olson. She
+wasn’t of the gushing type, I knew; so I didn’t expect much from her and was
+duly grateful for the few morsels of attention she threw upon the floor to me.
+We had a pleasant meal, with only one unfortunate occurrence—when Olson
+suggested that possibly the creature we were eating was the same one that ate
+the German. It was some time before we could persuade the girl to continue her
+meal, but at last Bradley prevailed upon her, pointing out that we had come
+upstream nearly forty miles since the boche had been seized, and that during
+that time we had seen literally thousands of these denizens of the river,
+indicating that the chances were very remote that this was the same Plesiosaur.
+“And anyway,” he concluded, “it was only a scheme of Mr. Olson’s to get all the
+steaks for himself.”
+
+We discussed the future and ventured opinions as to what lay before us; but we
+could only theorize at best, for none of us knew. If the whole land was
+infested by these and similar horrid monsters, life would be impossible upon
+it, and we decided that we would only search long enough to find and take
+aboard fresh water and such meat and fruits as might be safely procurable and
+then retrace our way beneath the cliffs to the open sea.
+
+And so at last we turned into our narrow bunks, hopeful, happy and at peace
+with ourselves, our lives and our God, to awaken the following morning
+refreshed and still optimistic. We had an easy time getting away—as we learned
+later, because the saurians do not commence to feed until late in the morning.
+From noon to midnight their curve of activity is at its height, while from dawn
+to about nine o’clock it is lowest. As a matter of fact, we didn’t see one of
+them all the time we were getting under way, though I had the cannon raised to
+the deck and manned against an assault. I hoped, but I was none too sure, that
+shells might discourage them. The trees were full of monkeys of all sizes and
+shades, and once we thought we saw a manlike creature watching us from the
+depth of the forest.
+
+Shortly after we resumed our course upstream, we saw the mouth of another and
+smaller river emptying into the main channel from the south—that is, upon our
+right; and almost immediately after we came upon a large island five or six
+miles in length; and at fifty miles there was a still larger river than the
+last coming in from the northwest, the course of the main stream having now
+changed to northeast by southwest. The water was quite free from reptiles, and
+the vegetation upon the banks of the river had altered to more open and
+parklike forest, with eucalyptus and acacia mingled with a scattering of tree
+ferns, as though two distinct periods of geologic time had overlapped and
+merged. The grass, too, was less flowering, though there were still gorgeous
+patches mottling the greensward; and lastly, the fauna was less multitudinous.
+
+Six or seven miles farther, and the river widened considerably; before us
+opened an expanse of water to the farther horizon, and then we sailed out upon
+an inland sea so large that only a shore-line upon our side was visible to us.
+The waters all about us were alive with life. There were still a few reptiles;
+but there were fish by the thousands, by the millions.
+
+The water of the inland sea was very warm, almost hot, and the atmosphere was
+hot and heavy above it. It seemed strange that beyond the buttressed walls of
+Caprona icebergs floated and the south wind was biting, for only a gentle
+breeze moved across the face of these living waters, and that was damp and
+warm. Gradually, we commenced to divest ourselves of our clothing, retaining
+only sufficient for modesty; but the sun was not hot. It was more the heat of a
+steam-room than of an oven.
+
+We coasted up the shore of the lake in a north-westerly direction, sounding all
+the time. We found the lake deep and the bottom rocky and steeply shelving
+toward the center, and once when I moved straight out from shore to take other
+soundings we could find no bottom whatsoever. In open spaces along the shore we
+caught occasional glimpses of the distant cliffs, and here they appeared only a
+trifle less precipitous than those which bound Caprona on the seaward side. My
+theory is that in a far distant era Caprona was a mighty mountain—perhaps the
+world’s mightiest mountain—and that in some titanic eruption volcanic action
+blew off the entire crest, blew thousands of feet of the mountain upward and
+outward and onto the surrounding continent, leaving a great crater; and then,
+possibly, the continent sank as ancient continents have been known to do,
+leaving only the summit of Caprona above the sea. The encircling walls, the
+central lake, the hot springs which feed the lake, all point to such a
+conclusion, and the fauna and the flora bear indisputable evidence that Caprona
+was once part of some great land-mass.
+
+As we cruised up along the coast, the landscape continued a more or less open
+forest, with here and there a small plain where we saw animals grazing. With my
+glass I could make out a species of large red deer, some antelope and what
+appeared to be a species of horse; and once I saw the shaggy form of what might
+have been a monstrous bison. Here was game a plenty! There seemed little danger
+of starving upon Caprona. The game, however, seemed wary; for the instant the
+animals discovered us, they threw up their heads and tails and went cavorting
+off, those farther inland following the example of the others until all were
+lost in the mazes of the distant forest. Only the great, shaggy ox stood his
+ground. With lowered head he watched us until we had passed, and then continued
+feeding.
+
+About twenty miles up the coast from the mouth of the river we encountered low
+cliffs of sandstone, broken and tortured evidence of the great upheaval which
+had torn Caprona asunder in the past, intermingling upon a common level the
+rock formations of widely separated eras, fusing some and leaving others
+untouched.
+
+We ran along beside them for a matter of ten miles, arriving off a broad cleft
+which led into what appeared to be another lake. As we were in search of pure
+water, we did not wish to overlook any portion of the coast, and so after
+sounding and finding that we had ample depth, I ran the _U_-33 between
+head-lands into as pretty a landlocked harbor as sailormen could care to see,
+with good water right up to within a few yards of the shore. As we cruised
+slowly along, two of the boches again saw what they believed to be a man, or
+manlike creature, watching us from a fringe of trees a hundred yards inland,
+and shortly after we discovered the mouth of a small stream emptying into the
+bay. It was the first stream we had found since leaving the river, and I at
+once made preparations to test its water. To land, it would be necessary to run
+the _U_-33 close in to the shore, at least as close as we could, for even
+these waters were infested, though, not so thickly, by savage reptiles. I
+ordered sufficient water let into the diving-tanks to lower us about a foot,
+and then I ran the bow slowly toward the shore, confident that should we run
+aground, we still had sufficient lifting force to free us when the water should
+be pumped out of the tanks; but the bow nosed its way gently into the reeds and
+touched the shore with the keel still clear.
+
+My men were all armed now with both rifles and pistols, each having plenty of
+ammunition. I ordered one of the Germans ashore with a line, and sent two of my
+own men to guard him, for from what little we had seen of Caprona, or Caspak as
+we learned later to call the interior, we realized that any instant some new
+and terrible danger might confront us. The line was made fast to a small tree,
+and at the same time I had the stern anchor dropped.
+
+As soon as the boche and his guard were aboard again, I called all hands on
+deck, including von Schoenvorts, and there I explained to them that the time
+had come for us to enter into some sort of an agreement among ourselves that
+would relieve us of the annoyance and embarrassment of being divided into two
+antagonistic parts—prisoners and captors. I told them that it was obvious our
+very existence depended upon our unity of action, that we were to all intent
+and purpose entering a new world as far from the seat and causes of our own
+world-war as if millions of miles of space and eons of time separated us from
+our past lives and habitations.
+
+“There is no reason why we should carry our racial and political hatreds into
+Caprona,” I insisted. “The Germans among us might kill all the English, or the
+English might kill the last German, without affecting in the slightest degree
+either the outcome of even the smallest skirmish upon the western front or the
+opinion of a single individual in any belligerent or neutral country. I
+therefore put the issue squarely to you all; shall we bury our animosities and
+work together with and for one another while we remain upon Caprona, or must we
+continue thus divided and but half armed, possibly until death has claimed the
+last of us? And let me tell you, if you have not already realized it, the
+chances are a thousand to one that not one of us ever will see the outside
+world again. We are safe now in the matter of food and water; we could
+provision the _U_-33 for a long cruise; but we are practically out of
+fuel, and without fuel we cannot hope to reach the ocean, as only a submarine
+can pass through the barrier cliffs. What is your answer?” I turned toward von
+Schoenvorts.
+
+He eyed me in that disagreeable way of his and demanded to know, in case they
+accepted my suggestion, what their status would be in event of our finding a
+way to escape with the _U_-33. I replied that I felt that if we had all
+worked loyally together we should leave Caprona upon a common footing, and to
+that end I suggested that should the remote possibility of our escape in the
+submarine develop into reality, we should then immediately make for the nearest
+neutral port and give ourselves into the hands of the authorities, when we
+should all probably be interned for the duration of the war. To my surprise he
+agreed that this was fair and told me that they would accept my conditions and
+that I could depend upon their loyalty to the common cause.
+
+I thanked him and then addressed each one of his men individually, and each
+gave me his word that he would abide by all that I had outlined. It was further
+understood that we were to act as a military organization under military rules
+and discipline—I as commander, with Bradley as my first lieutenant and Olson as
+my second, in command of the Englishmen; while von Schoenvorts was to act as an
+additional second lieutenant and have charge of his own men. The four of us
+were to constitute a military court under which men might be tried and
+sentenced to punishment for infraction of military rules and discipline, even
+to the passing of the death-sentence.
+
+I then had arms and ammunition issued to the Germans, and leaving Bradley and
+five men to guard the _U_-33, the balance of us went ashore. The first
+thing we did was to taste the water of the little stream—which, to our delight,
+we found sweet, pure and cold. This stream was entirely free from dangerous
+reptiles, because, as I later discovered, they became immediately dormant when
+subjected to a much lower temperature than 70 degrees Fahrenheit. They dislike
+cold water and keep as far away from it as possible. There were countless
+brook-trout here, and deep holes that invited us to bathe, and along the bank
+of the stream were trees bearing a close resemblance to ash and beech and oak,
+their characteristics evidently induced by the lower temperature of the air
+above the cold water and by the fact that their roots were watered by the water
+from the stream rather than from the warm springs which we afterward found in
+such abundance elsewhere.
+
+Our first concern was to fill the water tanks of the _U_-33 with fresh
+water, and that having been accomplished, we set out to hunt for game and
+explore inland for a short distance. Olson, von Schoenvorts, two Englishmen and
+two Germans accompanied me, leaving ten to guard the ship and the girl. I had
+intended leaving Nobs behind, but he got away and joined me and was so happy
+over it that I hadn’t the heart to send him back. We followed the stream upward
+through a beautiful country for about five miles, and then came upon its source
+in a little boulder-strewn clearing. From among the rocks bubbled fully twenty
+ice-cold springs. North of the clearing rose sandstone cliffs to a height of
+some fifty to seventy-five feet, with tall trees growing at their base and
+almost concealing them from our view. To the west the country was flat and
+sparsely wooded, and here it was that we saw our first game—a large red deer.
+It was grazing away from us and had not seen us when one of my men called my
+attention to it. Motioning for silence and having the rest of the party lie
+down, I crept toward the quarry, accompanied only by Whitely. We got within a
+hundred yards of the deer when he suddenly raised his antlered head and pricked
+up his great ears. We both fired at once and had the satisfaction of seeing the
+buck drop; then we ran forward to finish him with our knives. The deer lay in a
+small open space close to a clump of acacias, and we had advanced to within
+several yards of our kill when we both halted suddenly and simultaneously.
+Whitely looked at me, and I looked at Whitely, and then we both looked back in
+the direction of the deer.
+
+“Blime!” he said. “Wot is hit, sir?”
+
+“It looks to me, Whitely, like an error,” I said; “some assistant god who had
+been creating elephants must have been temporarily transferred to the
+lizard-department.”
+
+“Hi wouldn’t s’y that, sir,” said Whitely; “it sounds blasphemous.”
+
+“It is no more blasphemous than that thing which is swiping our meat,” I
+replied, for whatever the thing was, it had leaped upon our deer and was
+devouring it in great mouthfuls which it swallowed without mastication. The
+creature appeared to be a great lizard at least ten feet high, with a huge,
+powerful tail as long as its torso, mighty hind legs and short forelegs. When
+it had advanced from the wood, it hopped much after the fashion of a kangaroo,
+using its hind feet and tail to propel it, and when it stood erect, it sat upon
+its tail. Its head was long and thick, with a blunt muzzle, and the opening of
+the jaws ran back to a point behind the eyes, and the jaws were armed with long
+sharp teeth. The scaly body was covered with black and yellow spots about a
+foot in diameter and irregular in contour. These spots were outlined in red
+with edgings about an inch wide. The underside of the chest, body and tail were
+a greenish white.
+
+“Wot s’y we pot the bloomin’ bird, sir?” suggested Whitely.
+
+I told him to wait until I gave the word; then we would fire simultaneously, he
+at the heart and I at the spine.
+
+“Hat the ’eart, sir—yes, sir,” he replied, and raised his piece to his
+shoulder.
+
+Our shots rang out together. The thing raised its head and looked about until
+its eyes rested upon us; then it gave vent to a most appalling hiss that rose
+to the crescendo of a terrific shriek and came for us.
+
+“Beat it, Whitely!” I cried as I turned to run.
+
+We were about a quarter of a mile from the rest of our party, and in full sight
+of them as they lay in the tall grass watching us. That they saw all that had
+happened was evidenced by the fact that they now rose and ran toward us, and at
+their head leaped Nobs. The creature in our rear was gaining on us rapidly when
+Nobs flew past me like a meteor and rushed straight for the frightful reptile.
+I tried to recall him, but he would pay no attention to me, and as I couldn’t
+see him sacrificed, I, too, stopped and faced the monster. The creature
+appeared to be more impressed with Nobs than by us and our firearms, for it
+stopped as the Airedale dashed at it growling, and struck at him viciously with
+its powerful jaws.
+
+Nobs, though, was lightning by comparison with the slow thinking beast and
+dodged his opponent’s thrust with ease. Then he raced to the rear of the
+tremendous thing and seized it by the tail. There Nobs made the error of his
+life. Within that mottled organ were the muscles of a Titan, the force of a
+dozen mighty catapults, and the owner of the tail was fully aware of the
+possibilities which it contained. With a single flip of the tip it sent poor
+Nobs sailing through the air a hundred feet above the ground, straight back
+into the clump of acacias from which the beast had leaped upon our kill—and
+then the grotesque thing sank lifeless to the ground.
+
+Olson and von Schoenvorts came up a minute later with their men; then we all
+cautiously approached the still form upon the ground. The creature was quite
+dead, and an examination resulted in disclosing the fact that Whitely’s bullet
+had pierced its heart, and mine had severed the spinal cord.
+
+“But why didn’t it die instantly?” I exclaimed.
+
+“Because,” said von Schoenvorts in his disagreeable way, “the beast is so
+large, and its nervous organization of so low a caliber, that it took all this
+time for the intelligence of death to reach and be impressed upon the minute
+brain. The thing was dead when your bullets struck it; but it did not know it
+for several seconds—possibly a minute. If I am not mistaken, it is an
+Allosaurus of the Upper Jurassic, remains of which have been found in Central
+Wyoming, in the suburbs of New York.”
+
+An Irishman by the name of Brady grinned. I afterward learned that he had
+served three years on the traffic-squad of the Chicago police force.
+
+I had been calling Nobs in the meantime and was about to set out in search of
+him, fearing, to tell the truth, to do so lest I find him mangled and dead
+among the trees of the acacia grove, when he suddenly emerged from among the
+boles, his ears flattened, his tail between his legs and his body screwed into
+a suppliant S. He was unharmed except for minor bruises; but he was the most
+chastened dog I have ever seen.
+
+We gathered up what was left of the red deer after skinning and cleaning it,
+and set out upon our return journey toward the U-boat. On the way Olson, von
+Schoenvorts and I discussed the needs of our immediate future, and we were
+unanimous in placing foremost the necessity of a permanent camp on shore. The
+interior of a U-boat is about as impossible and uncomfortable an abiding-place
+as one can well imagine, and in this warm climate, and in warm water, it was
+almost unendurable. So we decided to construct a palisaded camp.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 6
+
+
+As we strolled slowly back toward the boat, planning and discussing this, we
+were suddenly startled by a loud and unmistakable detonation.
+
+“A shell from the _U_-33!” exclaimed von Schoenvorts.
+
+“What can be after signifyin’?” queried Olson.
+
+“They are in trouble,” I answered for all, “and it’s up to us to get back to
+them. Drop that carcass,” I directed the men carrying the meat, “and follow
+me!” I set off at a rapid run in the direction of the harbor.
+
+We ran for the better part of a mile without hearing anything more from the
+direction of the harbor, and then I reduced the speed to a walk, for the
+exercise was telling on us who had been cooped up for so long in the confined
+interior of the _U_-33. Puffing and panting, we plodded on until within
+about a mile of the harbor we came upon a sight that brought us all up
+standing. We had been passing through a little heavier timber than was usual to
+this part of the country, when we suddenly emerged into an open space in the
+center of which was such a band as might have caused the most courageous to
+pause. It consisted of upward of five hundred individuals representing several
+species closely allied to man. There were anthropoid apes and gorillas—these I
+had no difficulty in recognizing; but there were other forms which I had never
+before seen, and I was hard put to it to say whether they were ape or man. Some
+of them resembled the corpse we had found upon the narrow beach against
+Caprona’s sea-wall, while others were of a still lower type, more nearly
+resembling the apes, and yet others were uncannily manlike, standing there
+erect, being less hairy and possessing better shaped heads.
+
+There was one among the lot, evidently the leader of them, who bore a close
+resemblance to the so-called Neanderthal man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints. There
+was the same short, stocky trunk upon which rested an enormous head habitually
+bent forward into the same curvature as the back, the arms shorter than the
+legs, and the lower leg considerably shorter than that of modern man, the knees
+bent forward and never straightened. This creature and one or two others who
+appeared to be of a lower order than he, yet higher than that of the apes,
+carried heavy clubs; the others were armed only with giant muscles and fighting
+fangs—nature’s weapons. All were males, and all were entirely naked; nor was
+there upon even the highest among them a sign of ornamentation.
+
+At sight of us they turned with bared fangs and low growls to confront us. I
+did not wish to fire among them unless it became absolutely necessary, and so I
+started to lead my party around them; but the instant that the Neanderthal man
+guessed my intention, he evidently attributed it to cowardice upon our part,
+and with a wild cry he leaped toward us, waving his cudgel above his head. The
+others followed him, and in a minute we should have been overwhelmed. I gave
+the order to fire, and at the first volley six of them went down, including the
+Neanderthal man. The others hesitated a moment and then broke for the trees,
+some running nimbly among the branches, while others lost themselves to us
+between the boles. Both von Schoenvorts and I noticed that at least two of the
+higher, manlike types took to the trees quite as nimbly as the apes, while
+others that more nearly approached man in carriage and appearance sought safety
+upon the ground with the gorillas.
+
+An examination disclosed that five of our erstwhile opponents were dead and the
+sixth, the Neanderthal man, was but slightly wounded, a bullet having glanced
+from his thick skull, stunning him. We decided to take him with us to camp, and
+by means of belts we managed to secure his hands behind his back and place a
+leash around his neck before he regained consciousness. We then retraced our
+steps for our meat being convinced by our own experience that those aboard the
+_U_-33 had been able to frighten off this party with a single shell—but
+when we came to where we had left the deer it had disappeared.
+
+On the return journey Whitely and I preceded the rest of the party by about a
+hundred yards in the hope of getting another shot at something edible, for we
+were all greatly disgusted and disappointed by the loss of our venison. Whitely
+and I advanced very cautiously, and not having the whole party with us, we
+fared better than on the journey out, bagging two large antelope not a
+half-mile from the harbor; so with our game and our prisoner we made a cheerful
+return to the boat, where we found that all were safe. On the shore a little
+north of where we lay there were the corpses of twenty of the wild creatures
+who had attacked Bradley and his party in our absence, and the rest of whom we
+had met and scattered a few minutes later.
+
+We felt that we had taught these wild ape-men a lesson and that because of it
+we would be safer in the future—at least safer from them; but we decided not to
+abate our carefulness one whit, feeling that this new world was filled with
+terrors still unknown to us; nor were we wrong.
+
+The following morning we commenced work upon our camp, Bradley, Olson, von
+Schoenvorts, Miss La Rue, and I having sat up half the night discussing the
+matter and drawing plans. We set the men at work felling trees, selecting for
+the purpose jarrah, a hard, weather-resisting timber which grew in profusion
+near by. Half the men labored while the other half stood guard, alternating
+each hour with an hour off at noon. Olson directed this work. Bradley, von
+Schoenvorts and I, with Miss La Rue’s help, staked out the various buildings
+and the outer wall. When the day was done, we had quite an array of logs nicely
+notched and ready for our building operations on the morrow, and we were all
+tired, for after the buildings had been staked out we all fell in and helped
+with the logging—all but von Schoenvorts. He, being a Prussian and a gentleman,
+couldn’t stoop to such menial labor in the presence of his men, and I didn’t
+see fit to ask it of him, as the work was purely voluntary upon our part. He
+spent the afternoon shaping a swagger-stick from the branch of jarrah and
+talking with Miss La Rue, who had sufficiently unbent toward him to notice his
+existence.
+
+We saw nothing of the wild men of the previous day, and only once were we
+menaced by any of the strange denizens of Caprona, when some frightful
+nightmare of the sky swooped down upon us, only to be driven off by a fusillade
+of bullets. The thing appeared to be some variety of pterodactyl, and what with
+its enormous size and ferocious aspect was most awe-inspiring. There was
+another incident, too, which to me at least was far more unpleasant than the
+sudden onslaught of the prehistoric reptile. Two of the men, both Germans, were
+stripping a felled tree of its branches. Von Schoenvorts had completed his
+swagger-stick, and he and I were passing close to where the two worked.
+
+One of them threw to his rear a small branch that he had just chopped off, and
+as misfortune would have it, it struck von Schoenvorts across the face. It
+couldn’t have hurt him, for it didn’t leave a mark; but he flew into a terrific
+rage, shouting: “Attention!” in a loud voice. The sailor immediately
+straightened up, faced his officer, clicked his heels together and saluted.
+“Pig!” roared the Baron, and struck the fellow across the face, breaking his
+nose. I grabbed von Schoenvorts’ arm and jerked him away before he could strike
+again, if such had been his intention, and then he raised his little stick to
+strike me; but before it descended the muzzle of my pistol was against his
+belly and he must have seen in my eyes that nothing would suit me better than
+an excuse to pull the trigger. Like all his kind and all other bullies, von
+Schoenvorts was a coward at heart, and so he dropped his hand to his side and
+started to turn away; but I pulled him back, and there before his men I told
+him that such a thing must never again occur—that no man was to be struck or
+otherwise punished other than in due process of the laws that we had made and
+the court that we had established. All the time the sailor stood rigidly at
+attention, nor could I tell from his expression whether he most resented the
+blow his officer had struck him or my interference in the gospel of the
+Kaiser-breed. Nor did he move until I said to him: “Plesser, you may return to
+your quarters and dress your wound.” Then he saluted and marched stiffly off
+toward the _U_-33.
+
+Just before dusk we moved out into the bay a hundred yards from shore and
+dropped anchor, for I felt that we should be safer there than elsewhere. I also
+detailed men to stand watch during the night and appointed Olson officer of the
+watch for the entire night, telling him to bring his blankets on deck and get
+what rest he could. At dinner we tasted our first roast Caprona antelope, and
+we had a mess of greens that the cook had found growing along the stream. All
+during the meal von Schoenvorts was silent and surly.
+
+After dinner we all went on deck and watched the unfamiliar scenes of a
+Capronian night—that is, all but von Schoenvorts. There was less to see than to
+hear. From the great inland lake behind us came the hissing and the screaming
+of countless saurians. Above us we heard the flap of giant wings, while from
+the shore rose the multitudinous voices of a tropical jungle—of a warm, damp
+atmosphere such as must have enveloped the entire earth during the Palezeoic
+and Mesozoic eras. But here were intermingled the voices of later eras—the
+scream of the panther, the roar of the lion, the baying of wolves and a
+thunderous growling which we could attribute to nothing earthly but which one
+day we were to connect with the most fearsome of ancient creatures.
+
+One by one the others went to their rooms, until the girl and I were left alone
+together, for I had permitted the watch to go below for a few minutes, knowing
+that I would be on deck. Miss La Rue was very quiet, though she replied
+graciously enough to whatever I had to say that required reply. I asked her if
+she did not feel well.
+
+“Yes,” she said, “but I am depressed by the awfulness of it all. I feel of so
+little consequence—so small and helpless in the face of all these myriad
+manifestations of life stripped to the bone of its savagery and brutality. I
+realize as never before how cheap and valueless a thing is life. Life seems a
+joke, a cruel, grim joke. You are a laughable incident or a terrifying one as
+you happen to be less powerful or more powerful than some other form of life
+which crosses your path; but as a rule you are of no moment whatsoever to
+anything but yourself. You are a comic little figure, hopping from the cradle
+to the grave. Yes, that is our trouble—we take ourselves too seriously; but
+Caprona should be a sure cure for that.” She paused and laughed.
+
+“You have evolved a beautiful philosophy,” I said. “It fills such a longing in
+the human breast. It is full, it is satisfying, it is ennobling. What wondrous
+strides toward perfection the human race might have made if the first man had
+evolved it and it had persisted until now as the creed of humanity.”
+
+“I don’t like irony,” she said; “it indicates a small soul.”
+
+“What other sort of soul, then, would you expect from ‘a comic little figure
+hopping from the cradle to the grave’?” I inquired. “And what difference does
+it make, anyway, what you like and what you don’t like? You are here for but an
+instant, and you mustn’t take yourself too seriously.”
+
+She looked up at me with a smile. “I imagine that I am frightened and blue,”
+she said, “and I know that I am very, very homesick and lonely.” There was
+almost a sob in her voice as she concluded. It was the first time that she had
+spoken thus to me. Involuntarily, I laid my hand upon hers where it rested on
+the rail.
+
+“I know how difficult your position is,” I said; “but don’t feel that you are
+alone. There is—is one here who—who would do anything in the world for you,” I
+ended lamely. She did not withdraw her hand, and she looked up into my face
+with tears on her cheeks and I read in her eyes the thanks her lips could not
+voice. Then she looked away across the weird moonlit landscape and sighed.
+Evidently her new-found philosophy had tumbled about her ears, for she was
+seemingly taking herself seriously. I wanted to take her in my arms and tell
+her how I loved her, and had taken her hand from the rail and started to draw
+her toward me when Olson came blundering up on deck with his bedding.
+
+The following morning we started building operations in earnest, and things
+progressed finely. The Neanderthal man was something of a care, for we had to
+keep him in irons all the time, and he was mighty savage when approached; but
+after a time he became more docile, and then we tried to discover if he had a
+language. Lys spent a great deal of time talking to him and trying to draw him
+out; but for a long while she was unsuccessful. It took us three weeks to build
+all the houses, which we constructed close by a cold spring some two miles from
+the harbor.
+
+We changed our plans a trifle when it came to building the palisade, for we
+found a rotted cliff near by where we could get all the flat building-stone we
+needed, and so we constructed a stone wall entirely around the buildings. It
+was in the form of a square, with bastions and towers at each corner which
+would permit an enfilading fire along any side of the fort, and was about one
+hundred and thirty-five feet square on the outside, with walls three feet thick
+at the bottom and about a foot and a half wide at the top, and fifteen feet
+high. It took a long time to build that wall, and we all turned in and helped
+except von Schoenvorts, who, by the way, had not spoken to me except in the
+line of official business since our encounter—a condition of armed neutrality
+which suited me to a T. We have just finished it, the last touches being put on
+today. I quit about a week ago and commenced working on this chronicle for our
+strange adventures, which will account for any minor errors in chronology which
+may have crept in; there was so much material that I may have made some
+mistakes, but I think they are but minor and few.
+
+I see in reading over the last few pages that I neglected to state that Lys
+finally discovered that the Neanderthal man possessed a language. She has
+learned to speak it, and so have I, to some extent. It was he—his name he says
+is Am, or Ahm—who told us that this country is called Caspak. When we asked him
+how far it extended, he waved both arms about his head in an all-including
+gesture which took in, apparently, the entire universe. He is more tractable
+now, and we are going to release him, for he has assured us that he will not
+permit his fellows to harm us. He calls us Galus and says that in a short time
+he will be a Galu. It is not quite clear to us what he means. He says that
+there are many Galus north of us, and that as soon as he becomes one he will go
+and live with them.
+
+Ahm went out to hunt with us yesterday and was much impressed by the ease with
+which our rifles brought down antelopes and deer. We have been living upon the
+fat of the land, Ahm having shown us the edible fruits, tubers and herbs, and
+twice a week we go out after fresh meat. A certain proportion of this we dry
+and store away, for we do not know what may come. Our drying process is really
+smoking. We have also dried a large quantity of two varieties of cereal which
+grow wild a few miles south of us. One of these is a giant Indian maize—a lofty
+perennial often fifty and sixty feet in height, with ears the size of a man’s
+body and kernels as large as your fist. We have had to construct a second store
+house for the great quantity of this that we have gathered.
+
+_September_ 3, 1916: Three months ago today the torpedo from the
+_U_-33 started me from the peaceful deck of the American liner upon the
+strange voyage which has ended here in Caspak. We have settled down to an
+acceptance of our fate, for all are convinced that none of us will ever see the
+outer world again. Ahm’s repeated assertions that there are human beings like
+ourselves in Caspak have roused the men to a keen desire for exploration. I
+sent out one party last week under Bradley. Ahm, who is now free to go and come
+as he wishes, accompanied them. They marched about twenty-five miles due west,
+encountering many terrible beasts and reptiles and not a few manlike creatures
+whom Ahm sent away. Here is Bradley’s report of the expedition:
+
+Marched fifteen miles the first day, camping on the bank of a large stream
+which runs southward. Game was plentiful and we saw several varieties which we
+had not before encountered in Caspak. Just before making camp we were charged
+by an enormous woolly rhinoceros, which Plesser dropped with a perfect shot. We
+had rhinoceros-steaks for supper. Ahm called the thing “Atis.” It was almost a
+continuous battle from the time we left the fort until we arrived at camp. The
+mind of man can scarce conceive the plethora of carnivorous life in this lost
+world; and their prey, of course, is even more abundant.
+
+The second day we marched about ten miles to the foot of the cliffs. Passed
+through dense forests close to the base of the cliffs. Saw manlike creatures
+and a low order of ape in one band, and some of the men swore that there was a
+white man among them. They were inclined to attack us at first; but a volley
+from our rifles caused them to change their minds. We scaled the cliffs as far
+as we could; but near the top they are absolutely perpendicular without any
+sufficient cleft or protuberance to give hand or foot-hold. All were
+disappointed, for we hungered for a view of the ocean and the outside world. We
+even had a hope that we might see and attract the attention of a passing ship.
+Our exploration has determined one thing which will probably be of little value
+to us and never heard of beyond Caprona’s walls—this crater was once entirely
+filled with water. Indisputable evidence of this is on the face of the cliffs.
+
+Our return journey occupied two days and was as filled with adventure as usual.
+We are all becoming accustomed to adventure. It is beginning to pall on us. We
+suffered no casualties and there was no illness.
+
+I had to smile as I read Bradley’s report. In those four days he had doubtless
+passed through more adventures than an African big-game hunter experiences in a
+lifetime, and yet he covered it all in a few lines. Yes, we are becoming
+accustomed to adventure. Not a day passes that one or more of us does not face
+death at least once. Ahm taught us a few things that have proved profitable and
+saved us much ammunition, which it is useless to expend except for food or in
+the last recourse of self-preservation. Now when we are attacked by large
+flying reptiles we run beneath spreading trees; when land carnivora threaten
+us, we climb into trees, and we have learned not to fire at any of the
+dinosaurs unless we can keep out of their reach for at least two minutes after
+hitting them in the brain or spine, or five minutes after puncturing their
+hearts—it takes them so long to die. To hit them elsewhere is worse than
+useless, for they do not seem to notice it, and we had discovered that such
+shots do not kill or even disable them.
+
+_September_ 7, 1916: Much has happened since I last wrote. Bradley is away
+again on another exploration expedition to the cliffs. He expects to be gone
+several weeks and to follow along their base in search of a point where they
+may be scaled. He took Sinclair, Brady, James, and Tippet with him. Ahm has
+disappeared. He has been gone about three days; but the most startling thing I
+have on record is that von Schoenvorts and Olson while out hunting the other
+day discovered oil about fifteen miles north of us beyond the sandstone cliffs.
+Olson says there is a geyser of oil there, and von Schoenvorts is making
+preparations to refine it. If he succeeds, we shall have the means for leaving
+Caspak and returning to our own world. I can scarce believe the truth of it. We
+are all elated to the seventh heaven of bliss. Pray God we shall not be
+disappointed.
+
+I have tried on several occasions to broach the subject of my love to Lys; but
+she will not listen.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 7
+
+
+October 8, 1916: This is the last entry I shall make upon my manuscript. When
+this is done, I shall be through. Though I may pray that it reaches the haunts
+of civilized man, my better judgment tells me that it will never be perused by
+other eyes than mine, and that even though it should, it would be too late to
+avail me. I am alone upon the summit of the great cliff overlooking the broad
+Pacific. A chill south wind bites at my marrow, while far below me I can see
+the tropic foliage of Caspak on the one hand and huge icebergs from the near
+Antarctic upon the other. Presently I shall stuff my folded manuscript into the
+thermos bottle I have carried with me for the purpose since I left the
+fort—Fort Dinosaur we named it—and hurl it far outward over the cliff-top into
+the Pacific. What current washes the shore of Caprona I know not; whither my
+bottle will be borne I cannot even guess; but I have done all that mortal man
+may do to notify the world of my whereabouts and the dangers that threaten
+those of us who remain alive in Caspak—if there be any other than myself.
+
+About the 8th of September I accompanied Olson and von Schoenvorts to the
+oil-geyser. Lys came with us, and we took a number of things which von
+Schoenvorts wanted for the purpose of erecting a crude refinery. We went up the
+coast some ten or twelve miles in the _U_-33, tying up to shore near the
+mouth of a small stream which emptied great volumes of crude oil into the sea—I
+find it difficult to call this great lake by any other name. Then we
+disembarked and went inland about five miles, where we came upon a small lake
+entirely filled with oil, from the center of which a geyser of oil spouted.
+
+On the edge of the lake we helped von Schoenvorts build his primitive refinery.
+We worked with him for two days until he got things fairly well started, and
+then we returned to Fort Dinosaur, as I feared that Bradley might return and be
+worried by our absence. The _U_-33 merely landed those of us that were to
+return to the fort and then retraced its course toward the oil-well. Olson,
+Whitely, Wilson, Miss La Rue, and myself disembarked, while von Schoenvorts and
+his German crew returned to refine the oil. The next day Plesser and two other
+Germans came down overland for ammunition. Plesser said they had been attacked
+by wild men and had exhausted a great deal of ammunition. He also asked
+permission to get some dried meat and maize, saying that they were so busy with
+the work of refining that they had no time to hunt. I let him have everything
+he asked for, and never once did a suspicion of their intentions enter my mind.
+They returned to the oil-well the same day, while we continued with the
+multitudinous duties of camp life.
+
+For three days nothing of moment occurred. Bradley did not return; nor did we
+have any word from von Schoenvorts. In the evening Lys and I went up into one
+of the bastion towers and listened to the grim and terrible nightlife of the
+frightful ages of the past. Once a saber-tooth screamed almost beneath us, and
+the girl shrank close against me. As I felt her body against mine, all the pent
+love of these three long months shattered the bonds of timidity and conviction,
+and I swept her up into my arms and covered her face and lips with kisses. She
+did not struggle to free herself; but instead her dear arms crept up about my
+neck and drew my own face even closer to hers.
+
+“You love me, Lys?” I cried.
+
+I felt her head nod an affirmative against my breast. “Tell me, Lys,” I begged,
+“tell me in words how much you love me.”
+
+Low and sweet and tender came the answer: “I love you beyond all conception.”
+
+My heart filled with rapture then, and it fills now as it has each of the
+countless times I have recalled those dear words, as it shall fill always until
+death has claimed me. I may never see her again; she may not know how I love
+her—she may question, she may doubt; but always true and steady, and warm with
+the fires of love my heart beats for the girl who said that night: “I love you
+beyond all conception.”
+
+For a long time we sat there upon the little bench constructed for the sentry
+that we had not as yet thought it necessary to post in more than one of the
+four towers. We learned to know one another better in those two brief hours
+than we had in all the months that had intervened since we had been thrown
+together. She told me that she had loved me from the first, and that she never
+had loved von Schoenvorts, their engagement having been arranged by her aunt
+for social reasons.
+
+That was the happiest evening of my life; nor ever do I expect to experience
+its like; but at last, as is the way of happiness, it terminated. We descended
+to the compound, and I walked with Lys to the door of her quarters. There again
+she kissed me and bade me good night, and then she went in and closed the door.
+
+I went to my own room, and there I sat by the light of one of the crude candles
+we had made from the tallow of the beasts we had killed, and lived over the
+events of the evening. At last I turned in and fell asleep, dreaming happy
+dreams and planning for the future, for even in savage Caspak I was bound to
+make my girl safe and happy. It was daylight when I awoke. Wilson, who was
+acting as cook, was up and astir at his duties in the cook-house. The others
+slept; but I arose and followed by Nobs went down to the stream for a plunge.
+As was our custom, I went armed with both rifle and revolver; but I stripped
+and had my swim without further disturbance than the approach of a large hyena,
+a number of which occupied caves in the sand-stone cliffs north of the camp.
+These brutes are enormous and exceedingly ferocious. I imagine they correspond
+with the cave-hyena of prehistoric times. This fellow charged Nobs, whose
+Capronian experiences had taught him that discretion is the better part of
+valor—with the result that he dived head foremost into the stream beside me
+after giving vent to a series of ferocious growls which had no more effect upon
+_Hyaena spelaeus_ than might a sweet smile upon an enraged tusker.
+Afterward I shot the beast, and Nobs had a feast while I dressed, for he had
+become quite a raw-meat eater during our numerous hunting expeditions, upon
+which we always gave him a portion of the kill.
+
+Whitely and Olson were up and dressed when we returned, and we all sat down to
+a good breakfast. I could not but wonder at Lys’ absence from the table, for
+she had always been one of the earliest risers in camp; so about nine o’clock,
+becoming apprehensive lest she might be indisposed, I went to the door of her
+room and knocked. I received no response, though I finally pounded with all my
+strength; then I turned the knob and entered, only to find that she was not
+there. Her bed had been occupied, and her clothing lay where she had placed it
+the previous night upon retiring; but Lys was gone. To say that I was
+distracted with terror would be to put it mildly. Though I knew she could not
+be in camp, I searched every square inch of the compound and all the buildings,
+yet without avail.
+
+It was Whitely who discovered the first clue—a huge human-like footprint in the
+soft earth beside the spring, and indications of a struggle in the mud.
+
+Then I found a tiny handkerchief close to the outer wall. Lys had been stolen!
+It was all too plain. Some hideous member of the ape-man tribe had entered the
+fort and carried her off. While I stood stunned and horrified at the frightful
+evidence before me, there came from the direction of the great lake an
+increasing sound that rose to the volume of a shriek. We all looked up as the
+noise approached apparently just above us, and a moment later there followed a
+terrific explosion which hurled us to the ground. When we clambered to our
+feet, we saw a large section of the west wall torn and shattered. It was Olson
+who first recovered from his daze sufficiently to guess the explanation of the
+phenomenon.
+
+“A shell!” he cried. “And there ain’t no shells in Caspak besides what’s on the
+_U_-33. The dirty boches are shellin’ the fort. Come on!” And he grasped
+his rifle and started on a run toward the lake. It was over two miles, but we
+did not pause until the harbor was in view, and still we could not see the lake
+because of the sandstone cliffs which intervened. We ran as fast as we could
+around the lower end of the harbor, scrambled up the cliffs and at last stood
+upon their summit in full view of the lake. Far away down the coast, toward the
+river through which we had come to reach the lake, we saw upon the surface the
+outline of the _U_-33, black smoke vomiting from her funnel.
+
+Von Schoenvorts had succeeded in refining the oil! The cur had broken his every
+pledge and was leaving us there to our fates. He had even shelled the fort as a
+parting compliment; nor could anything have been more truly Prussian than this
+leave-taking of the Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts.
+
+Olson, Whitely, Wilson, and I stood for a moment looking at one another. It
+seemed incredible that man could be so perfidious—that we had really seen with
+our own eyes the thing that we had seen; but when we returned to the fort, the
+shattered wall gave us ample evidence that there was no mistake.
+
+Then we began to speculate as to whether it had been an ape-man or a Prussian
+that had abducted Lys. From what we knew of von Schoenvorts, we would not have
+been surprised at anything from him; but the footprints by the spring seemed
+indisputable evidence that one of Caprona’s undeveloped men had borne off the
+girl I loved.
+
+As soon as I had assured myself that such was the case, I made my preparations
+to follow and rescue her. Olson, Whitely, and Wilson each wished to accompany
+me; but I told them that they were needed here, since with Bradley’s party
+still absent and the Germans gone it was necessary that we conserve our force
+as far as might be possible.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 8
+
+
+It was a sad leave-taking as in silence I shook hands with each of the three
+remaining men. Even poor Nobs appeared dejected as we quit the compound and set
+out upon the well-marked spoor of the abductor. Not once did I turn my eyes
+backward toward Fort Dinosaur. I have not looked upon it since—nor in all
+likelihood shall I ever look upon it again. The trail led northwest until it
+reached the western end of the sandstone cliffs to the north of the fort; there
+it ran into a well-defined path which wound northward into a country we had not
+as yet explored. It was a beautiful, gently rolling country, broken by
+occasional outcroppings of sandstone and by patches of dense forest relieved by
+open, park-like stretches and broad meadows whereon grazed countless
+herbivorous animals—red deer, aurochs, and infinite variety of antelope and at
+least three distinct species of horse, the latter ranging in size from a
+creature about as large as Nobs to a magnificent animal fourteen to sixteen
+hands high. These creatures fed together in perfect amity; nor did they show
+any great indications of terror when Nobs and I approached. They moved out of
+our way and kept their eyes upon us until we had passed; then they resumed
+their feeding.
+
+The path led straight across the clearing into another forest, lying upon the
+verge of which I saw a bit of white. It appeared to stand out in marked
+contrast and incongruity to all its surroundings, and when I stopped to examine
+it, I found that it was a small strip of muslin—part of the hem of a garment.
+At once I was all excitement, for I knew that it was a sign left by Lys that
+she had been carried this way; it was a tiny bit torn from the hem of the
+undergarment that she wore in lieu of the night-robes she had lost with the
+sinking of the liner. Crushing the bit of fabric to my lips, I pressed on even
+more rapidly than before, because I now knew that I was upon the right trail
+and that up to this point at least, Lys still had lived.
+
+I made over twenty miles that day, for I was now hardened to fatigue and
+accustomed to long hikes, having spent considerable time hunting and exploring
+in the immediate vicinity of camp. A dozen times that day was my life
+threatened by fearsome creatures of the earth or sky, though I could not but
+note that the farther north I traveled, the fewer were the great dinosaurs,
+though they still persisted in lesser numbers. On the other hand the quantity
+of ruminants and the variety and frequency of carnivorous animals increased.
+Each square mile of Caspak harbored its terrors.
+
+At intervals along the way I found bits of muslin, and often they reassured me
+when otherwise I should have been doubtful of the trail to take where two
+crossed or where there were forks, as occurred at several points. And so, as
+night was drawing on, I came to the southern end of a line of cliffs loftier
+than any I had seen before, and as I approached them, there was wafted to my
+nostrils the pungent aroma of woodsmoke. What could it mean? There could, to my
+mind, be but a single solution: man abided close by, a higher order of man than
+we had as yet seen, other than Ahm, the Neanderthal man. I wondered again as I
+had so many times that day if it had not been Ahm who stole Lys.
+
+Cautiously I approached the flank of the cliffs, where they terminated in an
+abrupt escarpment as though some all powerful hand had broken off a great
+section of rock and set it upon the surface of the earth. It was now quite
+dark, and as I crept around the edge of the cliff, I saw at a little distance a
+great fire around which were many figures—apparently human figures. Cautioning
+Nobs to silence, and he had learned many lessons in the value of obedience
+since we had entered Caspak, I slunk forward, taking advantage of whatever
+cover I could find, until from behind a bush I could distinctly see the
+creatures assembled by the fire. They were human and yet not human. I should
+say that they were a little higher in the scale of evolution than Ahm, possibly
+occupying a place of evolution between that of the Neanderthal man and what is
+known as the Grimaldi race. Their features were distinctly negroid, though
+their skins were white. A considerable portion of both torso and limbs were
+covered with short hair, and their physical proportions were in many aspects
+apelike, though not so much so as were Ahm’s. They carried themselves in a more
+erect position, although their arms were considerably longer than those of the
+Neanderthal man. As I watched them, I saw that they possessed a language, that
+they had knowledge of fire and that they carried besides the wooden club of
+Ahm, a thing which resembled a crude stone hatchet. Evidently they were very
+low in the scale of humanity, but they were a step upward from those I had
+previously seen in Caspak.
+
+But what interested me most was the slender figure of a dainty girl, clad only
+in a thin bit of muslin which scarce covered her knees—a bit of muslin torn and
+ragged about the lower hem. It was Lys, and she was alive and so far as I could
+see, unharmed. A huge brute with thick lips and prognathous jaw stood at her
+shoulder. He was talking loudly and gesticulating wildly. I was close enough to
+hear his words, which were similar to the language of Ahm, though much fuller,
+for there were many words I could not understand. However I caught the gist of
+what he was saying—which in effect was that he had found and captured this
+Galu, that she was his and that he defied anyone to question his right of
+possession. It appeared to me, as I afterward learned was the fact, that I was
+witnessing the most primitive of marriage ceremonies. The assembled members of
+the tribe looked on and listened in a sort of dull and perfunctory apathy, for
+the speaker was by far the mightiest of the clan.
+
+There seemed no one to dispute his claims when he said, or rather shouted, in
+stentorian tones: “I am Tsa. This is my she. Who wishes her more than Tsa?”
+
+“I do,” I said in the language of Ahm, and I stepped out into the firelight
+before them. Lys gave a little cry of joy and started toward me, but Tsa
+grasped her arm and dragged her back.
+
+“Who are you?” shrieked Tsa. “I kill! I kill! I kill!”
+
+“The she is mine,” I replied, “and I have come to claim her. I kill if you do
+not let her come to me.” And I raised my pistol to a level with his heart. Of
+course the creature had no conception of the purpose of the strange little
+implement which I was poking toward him. With a sound that was half human and
+half the growl of a wild beast, he sprang toward me. I aimed at his heart and
+fired, and as he sprawled headlong to the ground, the others of his tribe,
+overcome by fright at the report of the pistol, scattered toward the
+cliffs—while Lys, with outstretched arms, ran toward me.
+
+As I crushed her to me, there rose from the black night behind us and then to
+our right and to our left a series of frightful screams and shrieks,
+bellowings, roars and growls. It was the night-life of this jungle world coming
+into its own—the huge, carnivorous nocturnal beasts which make the nights of
+Caspak hideous. A shuddering sob ran through Lys’ figure. “O God,” she cried,
+“give me the strength to endure, for his sake!” I saw that she was upon the
+verge of a breakdown, after all that she must have passed through of fear and
+horror that day, and I tried to quiet and reassure her as best I might; but
+even to me the future looked most unpromising, for what chance of life had we
+against the frightful hunters of the night who even now were prowling closer to
+us?
+
+Now I turned to see what had become of the tribe, and in the fitful glare of
+the fire I perceived that the face of the cliff was pitted with large holes
+into which the man-things were clambering. “Come,” I said to Lys, “we must
+follow them. We cannot last a half-hour out here. We must find a cave.” Already
+we could see the blazing green eyes of the hungry carnivora. I seized a brand
+from the fire and hurled it out into the night, and there came back an
+answering chorus of savage and rageful protest; but the eyes vanished for a
+short time. Selecting a burning branch for each of us, we advanced toward the
+cliffs, where we were met by angry threats.
+
+“They will kill us,” said Lys. “We may as well keep on in search of another
+refuge.”
+
+“They will not kill us so surely as will those others out there,” I replied. “I
+am going to seek shelter in one of these caves; nor will the man-things
+prevent.” And I kept on in the direction of the cliff’s base. A huge creature
+stood upon a ledge and brandished his stone hatchet. “Come and I will kill you
+and take the she,” he boasted.
+
+“You saw how Tsa fared when he would have kept my she,” I replied in his own
+tongue. “Thus will you fare and all your fellows if you do not permit us to
+come in peace among you out of the dangers of the night.”
+
+“Go north,” he screamed. “Go north among the Galus, and we will not harm you.
+Some day will we be Galus; but now we are not. You do not belong among us. Go
+away or we will kill you. The she may remain if she is afraid, and we will keep
+her; but the he must depart.”
+
+“The he won’t depart,” I replied, and approached still nearer. Rough and narrow
+ledges formed by nature gave access to the upper caves. A man might scale them
+if unhampered and unhindered, but to clamber upward in the face of a
+belligerent tribe of half-men and with a girl to assist was beyond my
+capability.
+
+“I do not fear you,” screamed the creature. “You were close to Tsa; but I am
+far above you. You cannot harm me as you harmed Tsa. Go away!”
+
+I placed a foot upon the lowest ledge and clambered upward, reaching down and
+pulling Lys to my side. Already I felt safer. Soon we would be out of danger of
+the beasts again closing in upon us. The man above us raised his stone hatchet
+above his head and leaped lightly down to meet us. His position above me gave
+him a great advantage, or at least so he probably thought, for he came with
+every show of confidence. I hated to do it, but there seemed no other way, and
+so I shot him down as I had shot down Tsa.
+
+“You see,” I cried to his fellows, “that I can kill you wherever you may be. A
+long way off I can kill you as well as I can kill you near by. Let us come
+among you in peace. I will not harm you if you do not harm us. We will take a
+cave high up. Speak!”
+
+“Come, then,” said one. “If you will not harm us, you may come. Take Tsa’s
+hole, which lies above you.”
+
+The creature showed us the mouth of a black cave, but he kept at a distance
+while he did it, and Lys followed me as I crawled in to explore. I had matches
+with me, and in the light of one I found a small cavern with a flat roof and
+floor which followed the cleavage of the strata. Pieces of the roof had fallen
+at some long-distant date, as was evidenced by the depth of the filth and
+rubble in which they were embedded. Even a superficial examination revealed the
+fact that nothing had ever been attempted that might have improved the
+livability of the cavern; nor, should I judge, had it ever been cleaned out.
+With considerable difficulty I loosened some of the larger pieces of broken
+rock which littered the floor and placed them as a barrier before the doorway.
+It was too dark to do more than this. I then gave Lys a piece of dried meat,
+and sitting inside the entrance, we dined as must have some of our ancient
+forbears at the dawning of the age of man, while far below the open diapason of
+the savage night rose weird and horrifying to our ears. In the light of the
+great fire still burning we could see huge, skulking forms, and in the blacker
+background countless flaming eyes.
+
+Lys shuddered, and I put my arm around her and drew her to me; and thus we sat
+throughout the hot night. She told me of her abduction and of the fright she
+had undergone, and together we thanked God that she had come through unharmed,
+because the great brute had dared not pause along the danger-infested way. She
+said that they had but just reached the cliffs when I arrived, for on several
+occasions her captor had been forced to take to the trees with her to escape
+the clutches of some hungry cave-lion or saber-toothed tiger, and that twice
+they had been obliged to remain for considerable periods before the beasts had
+retired.
+
+Nobs, by dint of much scrambling and one or two narrow escapes from death, had
+managed to follow us up the cliff and was now curled between me and the
+doorway, having devoured a piece of the dried meat, which he seemed to relish
+immensely. He was the first to fall asleep; but I imagine we must have followed
+suit soon, for we were both tired. I had laid aside my ammunition-belt and
+rifle, though both were close beside me; but my pistol I kept in my lap beneath
+my hand. However, we were not disturbed during the night, and when I awoke, the
+sun was shining on the tree-tops in the distance. Lys’ head had drooped to my
+breast, and my arm was still about her.
+
+Shortly afterward Lys awoke, and for a moment she could not seem to comprehend
+her situation. She looked at me and then turned and glanced at my arm about
+her, and then she seemed quite suddenly to realize the scantiness of her
+apparel and drew away, covering her face with her palms and blushing furiously.
+I drew her back toward me and kissed her, and then she threw her arms about my
+neck and wept softly in mute surrender to the inevitable.
+
+It was an hour later before the tribe began to stir about. We watched them from
+our “apartment,” as Lys called it. Neither men nor women wore any sort of
+clothing or ornaments, and they all seemed to be about of an age; nor were
+there any babies or children among them. This was, to us, the strangest and
+most inexplicable of facts, but it recalled to us that though we had seen many
+of the lesser developed wild people of Caspak, we had never yet seen a child or
+an old man or woman.
+
+After a while they became less suspicious of us and then quite friendly in
+their brutish way. They picked at the fabric of our clothing, which seemed to
+interest them, and examined my rifle and pistol and the ammunition in the belt
+around my waist. I showed them the thermos-bottle, and when I poured a little
+water from it, they were delighted, thinking that it was a spring which I
+carried about with me—a never-failing source of water supply.
+
+One thing we both noticed among their other characteristics: they never laughed
+nor smiled; and then we remembered that Ahm had never done so, either. I asked
+them if they knew Ahm; but they said they did not.
+
+One of them said: “Back there we may have known him.” And he jerked his head to
+the south.
+
+“You came from back there?” I asked. He looked at me in surprise.
+
+“We all come from there,” he said. “After a while we go there.” And this time
+he jerked his head toward the north. “Be Galus,” he concluded.
+
+Many times now had we heard this reference to becoming Galus. Ahm had spoken of
+it many times. Lys and I decided that it was a sort of original religious
+conviction, as much a part of them as their instinct for self-preservation—a
+primal acceptance of a hereafter and a holier state. It was a brilliant theory,
+but it was all wrong. I know it now, and how far we were from guessing the
+wonderful, the miraculous, the gigantic truth which even yet I may only guess
+at—the thing that sets Caspak apart from all the rest of the world far more
+definitely than her isolated geographical position or her impregnable barrier
+of giant cliffs. If I could live to return to civilization, I should have meat
+for the clergy and the layman to chew upon for years—and for the evolutionists,
+too.
+
+After breakfast the men set out to hunt, while the women went to a large pool
+of warm water covered with a green scum and filled with billions of tadpoles.
+They waded in to where the water was about a foot deep and lay down in the mud.
+They remained there from one to two hours and then returned to the cliff. While
+we were with them, we saw this same thing repeated every morning; but though we
+asked them why they did it we could get no reply which was intelligible to us.
+All they vouchsafed in way of explanation was the single word Ata. They tried
+to get Lys to go in with them and could not understand why she refused. After
+the first day I went hunting with the men, leaving my pistol and Nobs with Lys,
+but she never had to use them, for no reptile or beast ever approached the pool
+while the women were there—nor, so far as we know, at other times. There was no
+spoor of wild beast in the soft mud along the banks, and the water certainly
+didn’t look fit to drink.
+
+This tribe lived largely upon the smaller animals which they bowled over with
+their stone hatchets after making a wide circle about their quarry and driving
+it so that it had to pass close to one of their number. The little horses and
+the smaller antelope they secured in sufficient numbers to support life, and
+they also ate numerous varieties of fruits and vegetables. They never brought
+in more than sufficient food for their immediate needs; but why bother? The
+food problem of Caspak is not one to cause worry to her inhabitants.
+
+The fourth day Lys told me that she thought she felt equal to attempting the
+return journey on the morrow, and so I set out for the hunt in high spirits,
+for I was anxious to return to the fort and learn if Bradley and his party had
+returned and what had been the result of his expedition. I also wanted to
+relieve their minds as to Lys and myself, as I knew that they must have already
+given us up for dead. It was a cloudy day, though warm, as it always is in
+Caspak. It seemed odd to realize that just a few miles away winter lay upon the
+storm-tossed ocean, and that snow might be falling all about Caprona; but no
+snow could ever penetrate the damp, hot atmosphere of the great crater.
+
+We had to go quite a bit farther than usual before we could surround a little
+bunch of antelope, and as I was helping drive them, I saw a fine red deer a
+couple of hundred yards behind me. He must have been asleep in the long grass,
+for I saw him rise and look about him in a bewildered way, and then I raised my
+gun and let him have it. He dropped, and I ran forward to finish him with the
+long thin knife, which one of the men had given me; but just as I reached him,
+he staggered to his feet and ran on for another two hundred yards—when I
+dropped him again. Once more was this repeated before I was able to reach him
+and cut his throat; then I looked around for my companions, as I wanted them to
+come and carry the meat home; but I could see nothing of them. I called a few
+times and waited, but there was no response and no one came. At last I became
+disgusted, and cutting off all the meat that I could conveniently carry, I set
+off in the direction of the cliffs. I must have gone about a mile before the
+truth dawned upon me—I was lost, hopelessly lost.
+
+The entire sky was still completely blotted out by dense clouds; nor was there
+any landmark visible by which I might have taken my bearings. I went on in the
+direction I thought was south but which I now imagine must have been about due
+north, without detecting a single familiar object. In a dense wood I suddenly
+stumbled upon a thing which at first filled me with hope and later with the
+most utter despair and dejection. It was a little mound of new-turned earth
+sprinkled with flowers long since withered, and at one end was a flat slab of
+sandstone stuck in the ground. It was a grave, and it meant for me that I had
+at last stumbled into a country inhabited by human beings. I would find them;
+they would direct me to the cliffs; perhaps they would accompany me and take us
+back with them to their abodes—to the abodes of men and women like ourselves.
+My hopes and my imagination ran riot in the few yards I had to cover to reach
+that lonely grave and stoop that I might read the rude characters scratched
+upon the simple headstone. This is what I read:
+
+HERE LIES JOHN TIPPET
+
+ENGLISHMAN
+
+KILLED BY TYRANNOSAURUS
+
+10 SEPT., A.D. 1916
+
+R. I. P.
+
+
+Tippet! It seemed incredible. Tippet lying here in this gloomy wood! Tippet
+dead! He had been a good man, but the personal loss was not what affected me.
+It was the fact that this silent grave gave evidence that Bradley had come this
+far upon his expedition and that he too probably was lost, for it was not our
+intention that he should be long gone. If I had stumbled upon the grave of one
+of the party, was it not within reason to believe that the bones of the others
+lay scattered somewhere near?
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 9
+
+
+As I stood looking down upon that sad and lonely mound, wrapped in the most
+dismal of reflections and premonitions, I was suddenly seized from behind and
+thrown to earth. As I fell, a warm body fell on top of me, and hands grasped my
+arms and legs. When I could look up, I saw a number of giant figures pinioning
+me down, while others stood about surveying me. Here again was a new type of
+man—a higher type than the primitive tribe I had just quitted. They were a
+taller people, too, with better-shaped skulls and more intelligent faces. There
+were less of the ape characteristics about their features, and less of the
+negroid, too. They carried weapons, stone-shod spears, stone knives, and
+hatchets—and they wore ornaments and breech-cloths—the former of feathers worn
+in their hair and the latter made of a single snake-skin cured with the head
+on, the head depending to their knees.
+
+Of course I did not take in all these details upon the instant of my capture,
+for I was busy with other matters. Three of the warriors were sitting upon me,
+trying to hold me down by main strength and awkwardness, and they were having
+their hands full in the doing, I can tell you. I don’t like to appear
+conceited, but I may as well admit that I am proud of my strength and the
+science that I have acquired and developed in the directing of it—that and my
+horsemanship I always have been proud of. And now, that day, all the long hours
+that I had put into careful study, practice and training brought me in two or
+three minutes a full return upon my investment. Californians, as a rule, are
+familiar with ju-jutsu, and I especially had made a study of it for several
+years, both at school and in the gym of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, while
+recently I had had, in my employ, a Jap who was a wonder at the art.
+
+It took me just about thirty seconds to break the elbow of one of my
+assailants, trip another and send him stumbling backward among his fellows, and
+throw the third completely over my head in such a way that when he fell his
+neck was broken. In the instant that the others of the party stood in mute and
+inactive surprise, I unslung my rifle—which, carelessly, I had been carrying
+across my back; and when they charged, as I felt they would, I put a bullet in
+the forehead of one of them. This stopped them all temporarily—not the death of
+their fellow, but the report of the rifle, the first they had ever heard.
+Before they were ready to attack me again, one of them spoke in a commanding
+tone to his fellows, and in a language similar but still more comprehensive
+than that of the tribe to the south, as theirs was more complete than Ahm’s. He
+commanded them to stand back and then he advanced and addressed me.
+
+He asked me who I was, from whence I came and what my intentions were. I
+replied that I was a stranger in Caspak, that I was lost and that my only
+desire was to find my way back to my companions. He asked where they were and I
+told him toward the south somewhere, using the Caspakian phrase which,
+literally translated, means “toward the beginning.” His surprise showed upon
+his face before he voiced it in words. “There are no Galus there,” he said.
+
+“I tell you,” I said angrily, “that I am from another country, far from Caspak,
+far beyond the high cliffs. I do not know who the Galus may be; I have never
+seen them. This is the farthest north I have been. Look at me—look at my
+clothing and my weapons. Have you ever seen a Galu or any other creature in
+Caspak who possessed such things?”
+
+He had to admit that he had not, and also that he was much interested in me, my
+rifle and the way I had handled his three warriors. Finally he became half
+convinced that I was telling him the truth and offered to aid me if I would
+show him how I had thrown the man over my head and also make him a present of
+the “bang-spear,” as he called it. I refused to give him my rifle, but promised
+to show him the trick he wished to learn if he would guide me in the right
+direction. He told me that he would do so tomorrow, that it was too late today
+and that I might come to their village and spend the night with them. I was
+loath to lose so much time; but the fellow was obdurate, and so I accompanied
+them. The two dead men they left where they had fallen, nor gave them a second
+glance—thus cheap is life upon Caspak.
+
+These people also were cave-dwellers, but their caves showed the result of a
+higher intelligence that brought them a step nearer to civilized man than the
+tribe next “toward the beginning.” The interiors of their caverns were cleared
+of rubbish, though still far from clean, and they had pallets of dried grasses
+covered with the skins of leopard, lynx, and bear, while before the entrances
+were barriers of stone and small, rudely circular stone ovens. The walls of the
+cavern to which I was conducted were covered with drawings scratched upon the
+sandstone. There were the outlines of the giant red-deer, of mammoths, of
+tigers and other beasts. Here, as in the last tribe, there were no children or
+any old people. The men of this tribe had two names, or rather names of two
+syllables, and their language contained words of two syllables; whereas in the
+tribe of Tsa the words were all of a single syllable, with the exception of a
+very few like Atis and Galus. The chief’s name was To-jo, and his household
+consisted of seven females and himself. These women were much more comely, or
+rather less hideous than those of Tsa’s people; one of them, even, was almost
+pretty, being less hairy and having a rather nice skin, with high coloring.
+
+They were all much interested in me and examined my clothing and equipment
+carefully, handling and feeling and smelling of each article. I learned from
+them that their people were known as Band-lu, or spear-men; Tsa’s race was
+called Sto-lu—hatchet-men. Below these in the scale of evolution came the
+Bo-lu, or club-men, and then the Alus, who had no weapons and no language. In
+that word I recognized what to me seemed the most remarkable discovery I had
+made upon Caprona, for unless it were mere coincidence, I had come upon a word
+that had been handed down from the beginning of spoken language upon earth,
+been handed down for millions of years, perhaps, with little change. It was the
+sole remaining thread of the ancient woof of a dawning culture which had been
+woven when Caprona was a fiery mount upon a great land-mass teeming with life.
+It linked the unfathomable then to the eternal now. And yet it may have been
+pure coincidence; my better judgment tells me that it is coincidence that in
+Caspak the term for speechless man is Alus, and in the outer world of our own
+day it is Alalus.
+
+The comely woman of whom I spoke was called So-ta, and she took such a lively
+interest in me that To-jo finally objected to her attentions, emphasizing his
+displeasure by knocking her down and kicking her into a corner of the cavern. I
+leaped between them while he was still kicking her, and obtaining a quick hold
+upon him, dragged him screaming with pain from the cave. Then I made him
+promise not to hurt the she again, upon pain of worse punishment. So-ta gave me
+a grateful look; but To-jo and the balance of his women were sullen and
+ominous.
+
+Later in the evening So-ta confided to me that she was soon to leave the tribe.
+
+“So-ta soon to be Kro-lu,” she confided in a low whisper. I asked her what a
+Kro-lu might be, and she tried to explain, but I do not yet know if I
+understood her. From her gestures I deduced that the Kro-lus were a people who
+were armed with bows and arrows, had vessels in which to cook their food and
+huts of some sort in which they lived, and were accompanied by animals. It was
+all very fragmentary and vague, but the idea seemed to be that the Kro-lus were
+a more advanced people than the Band-lus. I pondered a long time upon all that
+I had heard, before sleep came to me. I tried to find some connection between
+these various races that would explain the universal hope which each of them
+harbored that some day they would become Galus. So-ta had given me a
+suggestion; but the resulting idea was so weird that I could scarce even
+entertain it; yet it coincided with Ahm’s expressed hope, with the various
+steps in evolution I had noted in the several tribes I had encountered and with
+the range of type represented in each tribe. For example, among the Band-lu
+were such types as So-ta, who seemed to me to be the highest in the scale of
+evolution, and To-jo, who was just a shade nearer the ape, while there were
+others who had flatter noses, more prognathous faces and hairier bodies. The
+question puzzled me. Possibly in the outer world the answer to it is locked in
+the bosom of the Sphinx. Who knows? I do not.
+
+Thinking the thoughts of a lunatic or a dope-fiend, I fell asleep; and when I
+awoke, my hands and feet were securely tied and my weapons had been taken from
+me. How they did it without awakening me I cannot tell you. It was humiliating,
+but it was true. To-jo stood above me. The early light of morning was dimly
+filtering into the cave.
+
+“Tell me,” he demanded, “how to throw a man over my head and break his neck,
+for I am going to kill you, and I wish to know this thing before you die.”
+
+Of all the ingenuous declarations I have ever heard, this one copped the
+proverbial bun. It struck me as so funny that, even in the face of death, I
+laughed. Death, I may remark here, had, however, lost much of his terror for
+me. I had become a disciple of Lys’ fleeting philosophy of the valuelessness of
+human life. I realized that she was quite right—that we were but comic figures
+hopping from the cradle to the grave, of interest to practically no other
+created thing than ourselves and our few intimates.
+
+Behind To-jo stood So-ta. She raised one hand with the palm toward me—the
+Caspakian equivalent of a negative shake of the head.
+
+“Let me think about it,” I parried, and To-jo said that he would wait until
+night. He would give me a day to think it over; then he left, and the women
+left—the men for the hunt, and the women, as I later learned from So-ta, for
+the warm pool where they immersed their bodies as did the shes of the Sto-lu.
+“Ata,” explained So-ta, when I questioned her as to the purpose of this
+matutinal rite; but that was later.
+
+I must have lain there bound and uncomfortable for two or three hours when at
+last So-ta entered the cave. She carried a sharp knife—mine, in fact, and with
+it she cut my bonds.
+
+“Come!” she said. “So-ta will go with you back to the Galus. It is time that
+So-ta left the Band-lu. Together we will go to the Kro-lu, and after that the
+Galus. To-jo will kill you tonight. He will kill So-ta if he knows that So-ta
+aided you. We will go together.”
+
+“I will go with you to the Kro-lu,” I replied, “but then I must return to my
+own people ‘toward the beginning.’”
+
+“You cannot go back,” she said. “It is forbidden. They would kill you. Thus far
+have you come—there is no returning.”
+
+“But I must return,” I insisted. “My people are there. I must return and lead
+them in this direction.”
+
+She insisted, and I insisted; but at last we compromised. I was to escort her
+as far as the country of the Kro-lu and then I was to go back after my own
+people and lead them north into a land where the dangers were fewer and the
+people less murderous. She brought me all my belongings that had been filched
+from me—rifle, ammunition, knife, and thermos bottle, and then hand in hand we
+descended the cliff and set off toward the north.
+
+For three days we continued upon our way, until we arrived outside a village of
+thatched huts just at dusk. So-ta said that she would enter alone; I must not
+be seen if I did not intend to remain, as it was forbidden that one should
+return and live after having advanced this far. So she left me. She was a dear
+girl and a stanch and true comrade—more like a man than a woman. In her simple
+barbaric way she was both refined and chaste. She had been the wife of To-jo.
+Among the Kro-lu she would find another mate after the manner of the strange
+Caspakian world; but she told me very frankly that whenever I returned, she
+would leave her mate and come to me, as she preferred me above all others. I
+was becoming a ladies’ man after a lifetime of bashfulness!
+
+At the outskirts of the village I left her without even seeing the sort of
+people who inhabited it, and set off through the growing darkness toward the
+south. On the third day I made a detour westward to avoid the country of the
+Band-lu, as I did not care to be detained by a meeting with To-jo. On the sixth
+day I came to the cliffs of the Sto-lu, and my heart beat fast as I approached
+them, for here was Lys. Soon I would hold her tight in my arms again; soon her
+warm lips would merge with mine. I felt sure that she was still safe among the
+hatchet people, and I was already picturing the joy and the love-light in her
+eyes when she should see me once more as I emerged from the last clump of trees
+and almost ran toward the cliffs.
+
+It was late in the morning. The women must have returned from the pool; yet as
+I drew near, I saw no sign of life whatever. “They have remained longer,” I
+thought; but when I was quite close to the base of the cliffs, I saw that which
+dashed my hopes and my happiness to earth. Strewn along the ground were a score
+of mute and horrible suggestions of what had taken place during my
+absence—bones picked clean of flesh, the bones of manlike creatures, the bones
+of many of the tribe of Sto-lu; nor in any cave was there sign of life.
+
+Closely I examined the ghastly remains fearful each instant that I should find
+the dainty skull that would shatter my happiness for life; but though I
+searched diligently, picking up every one of the twenty-odd skulls, I found
+none that was the skull of a creature but slightly removed from the ape. Hope,
+then, still lived. For another three days I searched north and south, east and
+west for the hatchetmen of Caspak; but never a trace of them did I find. It was
+raining most of the time now, and the weather was as near cold as it ever seems
+to get on Caprona.
+
+At last I gave up the search and set off toward Fort Dinosaur. For a week—a
+week filled with the terrors and dangers of a primeval world—I pushed on in the
+direction I thought was south. The sun never shone; the rain scarcely ever
+ceased falling. The beasts I met with were fewer in number but infinitely more
+terrible in temper; yet I lived on until there came to me the realization that
+I was hopelessly lost, that a year of sunshine would not again give me my
+bearings; and while I was cast down by this terrifying knowledge, the knowledge
+that I never again could find Lys, I stumbled upon another grave—the grave of
+William James, with its little crude headstone and its scrawled characters
+recording that he had died upon the 13th of September—killed by a saber-tooth
+tiger.
+
+I think that I almost gave up then. Never in my life have I felt more hopeless
+or helpless or alone. I was lost. I could not find my friends. I did not even
+know that they still lived; in fact, I could not bring myself to believe that
+they did. I was sure that Lys was dead. I wanted myself to die, and yet I clung
+to life—useless and hopeless and harrowing a thing as it had become. I clung to
+life because some ancient, reptilian forbear had clung to life and transmitted
+to me through the ages the most powerful motive that guided his minute
+brain—the motive of self-preservation.
+
+At last I came to the great barrier-cliffs; and after three days of mad
+effort—of maniacal effort—I scaled them. I built crude ladders; I wedged sticks
+in narrow fissures; I chopped toe-holds and finger-holds with my long knife;
+but at last I scaled them. Near the summit I came upon a huge cavern. It is the
+abode of some mighty winged creature of the Triassic—or rather it was. Now it
+is mine. I slew the thing and took its abode. I reached the summit and looked
+out upon the broad gray terrible Pacific of the far-southern winter. It was
+cold up there. It is cold here today; yet here I sit watching, watching,
+watching for the thing I know will never come—for a sail.
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 10
+
+
+Once a day I descend to the base of the cliff and hunt, and fill my stomach
+with water from a clear cold spring. I have three gourds which I fill with
+water and take back to my cave against the long nights. I have fashioned a
+spear and a bow and arrow, that I may conserve my ammunition, which is running
+low. My clothes are worn to shreds. Tomorrow I shall discard them for
+leopard-skins which I have tanned and sewn into a garment strong and warm. It
+is cold up here. I have a fire burning and I sit bent over it while I write;
+but I am safe here. No other living creature ventures to the chill summit of
+the barrier cliffs. I am safe, and I am alone with my sorrows and my remembered
+joys—but without hope. It is said that hope springs eternal in the human
+breast; but there is none in mine.
+
+I am about done. Presently I shall fold these pages and push them into my
+thermos bottle. I shall cork it and screw the cap tight, and then I shall hurl
+it as far out into the sea as my strength will permit. The wind is off-shore;
+the tide is running out; perhaps it will be carried into one of those numerous
+ocean-currents which sweep perpetually from pole to pole and from continent to
+continent, to be deposited at last upon some inhabited shore. If fate is kind
+and this does happen, then, _for God’s sake, come and get me!_
+
+It was a week ago that I wrote the preceding paragraph, which I thought would
+end the written record of my life upon Caprona. I had paused to put a new point
+on my quill and stir the crude ink (which I made by crushing a black variety of
+berry and mixing it with water) before attaching my signature, when faintly
+from the valley far below came an unmistakable sound which brought me to my
+feet, trembling with excitement, to peer eagerly downward from my dizzy ledge.
+How full of meaning that sound was to me you may guess when I tell you that it
+was the report of a firearm! For a moment my gaze traversed the landscape
+beneath until it was caught and held by four figures near the base of the
+cliff—a human figure held at bay by three hyaenodons, those ferocious and
+blood-thirsty wild dogs of the Eocene. A fourth beast lay dead or dying near
+by.
+
+I couldn’t be sure, looking down from above as I was; but yet I trembled like a
+leaf in the intuitive belief that it was Lys, and my judgment served to confirm
+my wild desire, for whoever it was carried only a pistol, and thus had Lys been
+armed. The first wave of sudden joy which surged through me was short-lived in
+the face of the swift-following conviction that the one who fought below was
+already doomed. Luck and only luck it must have been which had permitted that
+first shot to lay low one of the savage creatures, for even such a heavy weapon
+as my pistol is entirely inadequate against even the lesser carnivora of
+Caspak. In a moment the three would charge! A futile shot would but tend more
+greatly to enrage the one it chanced to hit; and then the three would drag down
+the little human figure and tear it to pieces.
+
+And maybe it was Lys! My heart stood still at the thought, but mind and muscle
+responded to the quick decision I was forced to make. There was but a single
+hope—a single chance—and I took it. I raised my rifle to my shoulder and took
+careful aim. It was a long shot, a dangerous shot, for unless one is accustomed
+to it, shooting from a considerable altitude is most deceptive work. There is,
+though, something about marksmanship which is quite beyond all scientific laws.
+
+Upon no other theory can I explain my marksmanship of that moment. Three times
+my rifle spoke—three quick, short syllables of death. I did not take conscious
+aim; and yet at each report a beast crumpled in its tracks!
+
+From my ledge to the base of the cliff is a matter of several thousand feet of
+dangerous climbing; yet I venture to say that the first ape from whose loins my
+line has descended never could have equaled the speed with which I literally
+dropped down the face of that rugged escarpment. The last two hundred feet is
+over a steep incline of loose rubble to the valley bottom, and I had just
+reached the top of this when there arose to my ears an agonized cry—“Bowen!
+Bowen! Quick, my love, quick!”
+
+I had been too much occupied with the dangers of the descent to glance down
+toward the valley; but that cry which told me that it was indeed Lys, and that
+she was again in danger, brought my eyes quickly upon her in time to see a
+hairy, burly brute seize her and start off at a run toward the near-by wood.
+From rock to rock, chamoislike, I leaped downward toward the valley, in pursuit
+of Lys and her hideous abductor.
+
+He was heavier than I by many pounds, and so weighted by the burden he carried
+that I easily overtook him; and at last he turned, snarling, to face me. It was
+Kho of the tribe of Tsa, the hatchet-men. He recognized me, and with a low
+growl he threw Lys aside and came for me. “The she is mine,” he cried. “I kill!
+I kill!”
+
+I had had to discard my rifle before I commenced the rapid descent of the
+cliff, so that now I was armed only with a hunting knife, and this I whipped
+from its scabbard as Kho leaped toward me. He was a mighty beast, mightily
+muscled, and the urge that has made males fight since the dawn of life on earth
+filled him with the blood-lust and the thirst to slay; but not one whit less
+did it fill me with the same primal passions. Two abysmal beasts sprang at each
+other’s throats that day beneath the shadow of earth’s oldest cliffs—the man of
+now and the man-thing of the earliest, forgotten then, imbued by the same
+deathless passion that has come down unchanged through all the epochs, periods
+and eras of time from the beginning, and which shall continue to the
+incalculable end—woman, the imperishable Alpha and Omega of life.
+
+Kho closed and sought my jugular with his teeth. He seemed to forget the
+hatchet dangling by its aurochs-hide thong at his hip, as I forgot, for the
+moment, the dagger in my hand. And I doubt not but that Kho would easily have
+bested me in an encounter of that sort had not Lys’ voice awakened within my
+momentarily reverted brain the skill and cunning of reasoning man.
+
+“Bowen!” she cried. “Your knife! Your knife!”
+
+It was enough. It recalled me from the forgotten eon to which my brain had
+flown and left me once again a modern man battling with a clumsy, unskilled
+brute. No longer did my jaws snap at the hairy throat before me; but instead my
+knife sought and found a space between two ribs over the savage heart. Kho
+voiced a single horrid scream, stiffened spasmodically and sank to the earth.
+And Lys threw herself into my arms. All the fears and sorrows of the past were
+wiped away, and once again I was the happiest of men.
+
+With some misgivings I shortly afterward cast my eyes upward toward the
+precarious ledge which ran before my cave, for it seemed to me quite beyond all
+reason to expect a dainty modern belle to essay the perils of that frightful
+climb. I asked her if she thought she could brave the ascent, and she laughed
+gayly in my face.
+
+“Watch!” she cried, and ran eagerly toward the base of the cliff. Like a
+squirrel she clambered swiftly aloft, so that I was forced to exert myself to
+keep pace with her. At first she frightened me; but presently I was aware that
+she was quite as safe here as was I. When we finally came to my ledge and I
+again held her in my arms, she recalled to my mind that for several weeks she
+had been living the life of a cave-girl with the tribe of hatchet-men. They had
+been driven from their former caves by another tribe which had slain many and
+carried off quite half the females, and the new cliffs to which they had flown
+had proven far higher and more precipitous, so that she had become, through
+necessity, a most practiced climber.
+
+She told me of Kho’s desire for her, since all his females had been stolen and
+of how her life had been a constant nightmare of terror as she sought by night
+and by day to elude the great brute. For a time Nobs had been all the
+protection she required; but one day he disappeared—nor has she seen him since.
+She believes that he was deliberately made away with; and so do I, for we both
+are sure that he never would have deserted her. With her means of protection
+gone, Lys was now at the mercy of the hatchet-man; nor was it many hours before
+he had caught her at the base of the cliff and seized her; but as he bore her
+triumphantly aloft toward his cave, she had managed to break loose and escape
+him.
+
+“For three days he has pursued me,” she said, “through this horrible world. How
+I have passed through in safety I cannot guess, nor how I have always managed
+to outdistance him; yet I have done it, until just as you discovered me. Fate
+was kind to us, Bowen.”
+
+I nodded my head in assent and crushed her to me. And then we talked and
+planned as I cooked antelope-steaks over my fire, and we came to the conclusion
+that there was no hope of rescue, that she and I were doomed to live and die
+upon Caprona. Well, it might be worse! I would rather live here always with Lys
+than to live elsewhere without her; and she, dear girl, says the same of me;
+but I am afraid of this life for her. It is a hard, fierce, dangerous life, and
+I shall pray always that we shall be rescued from it—for her sake.
+
+That night the clouds broke, and the moon shone down upon our little ledge; and
+there, hand in hand, we turned our faces toward heaven and plighted our troth
+beneath the eyes of God. No human agency could have married us more sacredly
+than we are wed. We are man and wife, and we are content. If God wills it, we
+shall live out our lives here. If He wills otherwise, then this manuscript
+which I shall now consign to the inscrutable forces of the sea shall fall into
+friendly hands. However, we are each without hope. And so we say good-bye in
+this, our last message to the world beyond the barrier cliffs.
+
+(_Signed_) BOWEN J. TYLER, JR.
+           LYS LA R. TYLER.
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 551 ***
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+<title>The Land That Time Forgot | Project Gutenberg</title>
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 551 ***</div>
+
+<h1>The Land that Time Forgot</h1>
+
+<h2 class="no-break">By Edgar Rice Burroughs</h2>
+
+<hr />
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table summary="" style="">
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap01">Chapter 1</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap02">Chapter 2</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap03">Chapter 3</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap04">Chapter 4</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap05">Chapter 5</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap06">Chapter 6</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap07">Chapter 7</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap08">Chapter 8</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap09">Chapter 9</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+<tr>
+<td> <a href="#chap10">Chapter 10</a></td>
+</tr>
+
+</table>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap01"></a>Chapter 1</h2>
+
+<p>
+It must have been a little after three o’clock in the afternoon that it
+happened—the afternoon of June 3rd, 1916. It seems incredible that all that I
+have passed through—all those weird and terrifying experiences—should have been
+encompassed within so short a span as three brief months. Rather might I have
+experienced a cosmic cycle, with all its changes and evolutions for that which
+I have seen with my own eyes in this brief interval of time—things that no
+other mortal eye had seen before, glimpses of a world past, a world dead, a
+world so long dead that even in the lowest Cambrian stratum no trace of it
+remains. Fused with the melting inner crust, it has passed forever beyond the
+ken of man other than in that lost pocket of the earth whither fate has borne
+me and where my doom is sealed. I am here and here must remain.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+After reading this far, my interest, which already had been stimulated by the
+finding of the manuscript, was approaching the boiling-point. I had come to
+Greenland for the summer, on the advice of my physician, and was slowly being
+bored to extinction, as I had thoughtlessly neglected to bring sufficient
+reading-matter. Being an indifferent fisherman, my enthusiasm for this form of
+sport soon waned; yet in the absence of other forms of recreation I was now
+risking my life in an entirely inadequate boat off Cape Farewell at the
+southernmost extremity of Greenland.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Greenland! As a descriptive appellation, it is a sorry joke—but my story has
+nothing to do with Greenland, nothing to do with me; so I shall get through
+with the one and the other as rapidly as possible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The inadequate boat finally arrived at a precarious landing, the natives,
+waist-deep in the surf, assisting. I was carried ashore, and while the evening
+meal was being prepared, I wandered to and fro along the rocky, shattered
+shore. Bits of surf-harried beach clove the worn granite, or whatever the rocks
+of Cape Farewell may be composed of, and as I followed the ebbing tide down one
+of these soft stretches, I saw the thing. Were one to bump into a Bengal tiger
+in the ravine behind the Bimini Baths, one could be no more surprised than was
+I to see a perfectly good quart thermos bottle turning and twisting in the surf
+of Cape Farewell at the southern extremity of Greenland. I rescued it, but I
+was soaked above the knees doing it; and then I sat down in the sand and opened
+it, and in the long twilight read the manuscript, neatly written and tightly
+folded, which was its contents.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+You have read the opening paragraph, and if you are an imaginative idiot like
+myself, you will want to read the rest of it; so I shall give it to you here,
+omitting quotation marks—which are difficult of remembrance. In two minutes you
+will forget me.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+My home is in Santa Monica. I am, or was, junior member of my father’s firm. We
+are ship-builders. Of recent years we have specialized on submarines, which we
+have built for Germany, England, France and the United States. I know a sub as
+a mother knows her baby’s face, and have commanded a score of them on their
+trial runs. Yet my inclinations were all toward aviation. I graduated under
+Curtiss, and after a long siege with my father obtained his permission to try
+for the Lafayette Escadrille. As a stepping-stone I obtained an appointment in
+the American ambulance service and was on my way to France when three shrill
+whistles altered, in as many seconds, my entire scheme of life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I was sitting on deck with some of the fellows who were going into the American
+ambulance service with me, my Airedale, Crown Prince Nobbler, asleep at my
+feet, when the first blast of the whistle shattered the peace and security of
+the ship. Ever since entering the U-boat zone we had been on the lookout for
+periscopes, and children that we were, bemoaning the unkind fate that was to
+see us safely into France on the morrow without a glimpse of the dread
+marauders. We were young; we craved thrills, and God knows we got them that
+day; yet by comparison with that through which I have since passed they were as
+tame as a Punch-and-Judy show.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I shall never forget the ashy faces of the passengers as they stampeded for
+their life-belts, though there was no panic. Nobs rose with a low growl. I
+rose, also, and over the ship’s side, I saw not two hundred yards distant the
+periscope of a submarine, while racing toward the liner the wake of a torpedo
+was distinctly visible. We were aboard an American ship—which, of course, was
+not armed. We were entirely defenseless; yet without warning, we were being
+torpedoed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I stood rigid, spellbound, watching the white wake of the torpedo. It struck us
+on the starboard side almost amidships. The vessel rocked as though the sea
+beneath it had been uptorn by a mighty volcano. We were thrown to the decks,
+bruised and stunned, and then above the ship, carrying with it fragments of
+steel and wood and dismembered human bodies, rose a column of water hundreds of
+feet into the air.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The silence which followed the detonation of the exploding torpedo was almost
+equally horrifying. It lasted for perhaps two seconds, to be followed by the
+screams and moans of the wounded, the cursing of the men and the hoarse
+commands of the ship’s officers. They were splendid—they and their crew. Never
+before had I been so proud of my nationality as I was that moment. In all the
+chaos which followed the torpedoing of the liner no officer or member of the
+crew lost his head or showed in the slightest any degree of panic or fear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+While we were attempting to lower boats, the submarine emerged and trained guns
+on us. The officer in command ordered us to lower our flag, but this the
+captain of the liner refused to do. The ship was listing frightfully to
+starboard, rendering the port boats useless, while half the starboard boats had
+been demolished by the explosion. Even while the passengers were crowding the
+starboard rail and scrambling into the few boats left to us, the submarine
+commenced shelling the ship. I saw one shell burst in a group of women and
+children, and then I turned my head and covered my eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I looked again to horror was added chagrin, for with the emerging of the
+U-boat I had recognized her as a product of our own shipyard. I knew her to a
+rivet. I had superintended her construction. I had sat in that very
+conning-tower and directed the efforts of the sweating crew below when first
+her prow clove the sunny summer waters of the Pacific; and now this creature of
+my brain and hand had turned <i>Frankenstein</i>, bent upon pursuing me to my
+death.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A second shell exploded upon the deck. One of the lifeboats, frightfully
+overcrowded, swung at a dangerous angle from its davits. A fragment of the
+shell shattered the bow tackle, and I saw the women and children and the men
+vomited into the sea beneath, while the boat dangled stern up for a moment from
+its single davit, and at last with increasing momentum dived into the midst of
+the struggling victims screaming upon the face of the waters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I saw men spring to the rail and leap into the ocean. The deck was tilting
+to an impossible angle. Nobs braced himself with all four feet to keep from
+slipping into the scuppers and looked up into my face with a questioning whine.
+I stooped and stroked his head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Come on, boy!” I cried, and running to the side of the ship, dived
+headforemost over the rail. When I came up, the first thing I saw was Nobs
+swimming about in a bewildered sort of way a few yards from me. At sight of me
+his ears went flat, and his lips parted in a characteristic grin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The submarine was withdrawing toward the north, but all the time it was
+shelling the open boats, three of them, loaded to the gunwales with survivors.
+Fortunately the small boats presented a rather poor target, which, combined
+with the bad marksmanship of the Germans preserved their occupants from harm;
+and after a few minutes a blotch of smoke appeared upon the eastern horizon and
+the U-boat submerged and disappeared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All the time the lifeboats had been pulling away from the danger of the sinking
+liner, and now, though I yelled at the top of my lungs, they either did not
+hear my appeals for help or else did not dare return to succor me. Nobs and I
+had gained some little distance from the ship when it rolled completely over
+and sank. We were caught in the suction only enough to be drawn backward a few
+yards, neither of us being carried beneath the surface. I glanced hurriedly
+about for something to which to cling. My eyes were directed toward the point
+at which the liner had disappeared when there came from the depths of the ocean
+the muffled reverberation of an explosion, and almost simultaneously a geyser
+of water in which were shattered lifeboats, human bodies, steam, coal, oil, and
+the flotsam of a liner’s deck leaped high above the surface of the sea—a watery
+column momentarily marking the grave of another ship in this greatest cemetery
+of the seas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When the turbulent waters had somewhat subsided and the sea had ceased to spew
+up wreckage, I ventured to swim back in search of something substantial enough
+to support my weight and that of Nobs as well. I had gotten well over the area
+of the wreck when not a half-dozen yards ahead of me a lifeboat shot bow
+foremost out of the ocean almost its entire length to flop down upon its keel
+with a mighty splash. It must have been carried far below, held to its mother
+ship by a single rope which finally parted to the enormous strain put upon it.
+In no other way can I account for its having leaped so far out of the water—a
+beneficent circumstance to which I doubtless owe my life, and that of another
+far dearer to me than my own. I say beneficent circumstance even in the face of
+the fact that a fate far more hideous confronts us than that which we escaped
+that day; for because of that circumstance I have met her whom otherwise I
+never should have known; I have met and loved her. At least I have had that
+great happiness in life; nor can Caspak, with all her horrors, expunge that
+which has been.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So for the thousandth time I thank the strange fate which sent that lifeboat
+hurtling upward from the green pit of destruction to which it had been
+dragged—sent it far up above the surface, emptying its water as it rose above
+the waves, and dropping it upon the surface of the sea, buoyant and safe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It did not take me long to clamber over its side and drag Nobs in to
+comparative safety, and then I glanced around upon the scene of death and
+desolation which surrounded us. The sea was littered with wreckage among which
+floated the pitiful forms of women and children, buoyed up by their useless
+lifebelts. Some were torn and mangled; others lay rolling quietly to the motion
+of the sea, their countenances composed and peaceful; others were set in
+hideous lines of agony or horror. Close to the boat’s side floated the figure
+of a girl. Her face was turned upward, held above the surface by her life-belt,
+and was framed in a floating mass of dark and waving hair. She was very
+beautiful. I had never looked upon such perfect features, such a divine molding
+which was at the same time human—intensely human. It was a face filled with
+character and strength and femininity—the face of one who was created to love
+and to be loved. The cheeks were flushed to the hue of life and health and
+vitality, and yet she lay there upon the bosom of the sea, dead. I felt
+something rise in my throat as I looked down upon that radiant vision, and I
+swore that I should live to avenge her murder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And then I let my eyes drop once more to the face upon the water, and what I
+saw nearly tumbled me backward into the sea, for the eyes in the dead face had
+opened; the lips had parted; and one hand was raised toward me in a mute appeal
+for succor. She lived! She was not dead! I leaned over the boat’s side and drew
+her quickly in to the comparative safety which God had given me. I removed her
+life-belt and my soggy coat and made a pillow for her head. I chafed her hands
+and arms and feet. I worked over her for an hour, and at last I was rewarded by
+a deep sigh, and again those great eyes opened and looked into mine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At that I was all embarrassment. I have never been a ladies’ man; at
+Leland-Stanford I was the butt of the class because of my hopeless imbecility
+in the presence of a pretty girl; but the men liked me, nevertheless. I was
+rubbing one of her hands when she opened her eyes, and I dropped it as though
+it were a red-hot rivet. Those eyes took me in slowly from head to foot; then
+they wandered slowly around the horizon marked by the rising and falling
+gunwales of the lifeboat. They looked at Nobs and softened, and then came back
+to me filled with questioning.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I—I—” I stammered, moving away and stumbling over the next thwart. The vision
+smiled wanly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Aye-aye, sir!” she replied faintly, and again her lips drooped, and her long
+lashes swept the firm, fair texture of her skin.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I hope that you are feeling better,” I finally managed to say.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Do you know,” she said after a moment of silence, “I have been awake for a
+long time! But I did not dare open my eyes. I thought I must be dead, and I was
+afraid to look, for fear that I should see nothing but blackness about me. I am
+afraid to die! Tell me what happened after the ship went down. I remember all
+that happened before—oh, but I wish that I might forget it!” A sob broke her
+voice. “The beasts!” she went on after a moment. “And to think that I was to
+have married one of them—a lieutenant in the German navy.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Presently she resumed as though she had not ceased speaking. “I went down and
+down and down. I thought I should never cease to sink. I felt no particular
+distress until I suddenly started upward at ever-increasing velocity; then my
+lungs seemed about to burst, and I must have lost consciousness, for I remember
+nothing more until I opened my eyes after listening to a torrent of invective
+against Germany and Germans. Tell me, please, all that happened after the ship
+sank.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I told her, then, as well as I could, all that I had seen—the submarine
+shelling the open boats and all the rest of it. She thought it marvelous that
+we should have been spared in so providential a manner, and I had a pretty
+speech upon my tongue’s end, but lacked the nerve to deliver it. Nobs had come
+over and nosed his muzzle into her lap, and she stroked his ugly face, and at
+last she leaned over and put her cheek against his forehead. I have always
+admired Nobs; but this was the first time that it had ever occurred to me that
+I might wish to be Nobs. I wondered how he would take it, for he is as unused
+to women as I. But he took to it as a duck takes to water. What I lack of being
+a ladies’ man, Nobs certainly makes up for as a ladies’ dog. The old scalawag
+just closed his eyes and put on one of the softest
+“sugar-wouldn’t-melt-in-my-mouth” expressions you ever saw and stood there
+taking it and asking for more. It made me jealous.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You seem fond of dogs,” I said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I am fond of this dog,” she replied.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whether she meant anything personal in that reply I did not know; but I took it
+as personal and it made me feel mighty good.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we drifted about upon that vast expanse of loneliness it is not strange that
+we should quickly become well acquainted. Constantly we scanned the horizon for
+signs of smoke, venturing guesses as to our chances of rescue; but darkness
+settled, and the black night enveloped us without ever the sight of a speck
+upon the waters.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We were thirsty, hungry, uncomfortable, and cold. Our wet garments had dried
+but little and I knew that the girl must be in grave danger from the exposure
+to a night of cold and wet upon the water in an open boat, without sufficient
+clothing and no food. I had managed to bail all the water out of the boat with
+cupped hands, ending by mopping the balance up with my handkerchief—a slow and
+back-breaking procedure; thus I had made a comparatively dry place for the girl
+to lie down low in the bottom of the boat, where the sides would protect her
+from the night wind, and when at last she did so, almost overcome as she was by
+weakness and fatigue, I threw my wet coat over her further to thwart the chill.
+But it was of no avail; as I sat watching her, the moonlight marking out the
+graceful curves of her slender young body, I saw her shiver.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Isn’t there something I can do?” I asked. “You can’t lie there chilled through
+all night. Can’t you suggest something?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She shook her head. “We must grin and bear it,” she replied after a moment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nobbler came and lay down on the thwart beside me, his back against my leg, and
+I sat staring in dumb misery at the girl, knowing in my heart of hearts that
+she might die before morning came, for what with the shock and exposure, she
+had already gone through enough to kill almost any woman. And as I gazed down
+at her, so small and delicate and helpless, there was born slowly within my
+breast a new emotion. It had never been there before; now it will never cease
+to be there. It made me almost frantic in my desire to find some way to keep
+warm the cooling lifeblood in her veins. I was cold myself, though I had almost
+forgotten it until Nobbler moved and I felt a new sensation of cold along my
+leg against which he had lain, and suddenly realized that in that one spot I
+had been warm. Like a great light came the understanding of a means to warm the
+girl. Immediately I knelt beside her to put my scheme into practice when
+suddenly I was overwhelmed with embarrassment. Would she permit it, even if I
+could muster the courage to suggest it? Then I saw her frame convulse,
+shudderingly, her muscles reacting to her rapidly lowering temperature, and
+casting prudery to the winds, I threw myself down beside her and took her in my
+arms, pressing her body close to mine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She drew away suddenly, voicing a little cry of fright, and tried to push me
+from her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Forgive me,” I managed to stammer. “It is the only way. You will die of
+exposure if you are not warmed, and Nobs and I are the only means we can
+command for furnishing warmth.” And I held her tightly while I called Nobs and
+bade him lie down at her back. The girl didn’t struggle any more when she
+learned my purpose; but she gave two or three little gasps, and then began to
+cry softly, burying her face on my arm, and thus she fell asleep.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap02"></a>Chapter 2</h2>
+
+<p>
+Toward morning, I must have dozed, though it seemed to me at the time that I
+had lain awake for days, instead of hours. When I finally opened my eyes, it
+was daylight, and the girl’s hair was in my face, and she was breathing
+normally. I thanked God for that. She had turned her head during the night so
+that as I opened my eyes I saw her face not an inch from mine, my lips almost
+touching hers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was Nobs who finally awoke her. He got up, stretched, turned around a few
+times and lay down again, and the girl opened her eyes and looked into mine.
+Hers went very wide at first, and then slowly comprehension came to her, and
+she smiled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You have been very good to me,” she said, as I helped her to rise, though if
+the truth were known I was more in need of assistance than she; the circulation
+all along my left side seeming to be paralyzed entirely. “You have been very
+good to me.” And that was the only mention she ever made of it; yet I know that
+she was thankful and that only reserve prevented her from referring to what, to
+say the least, was an embarrassing situation, however unavoidable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shortly after daylight we saw smoke apparently coming straight toward us, and
+after a time we made out the squat lines of a tug—one of those fearless
+exponents of England’s supremacy of the sea that tows sailing ships into French
+and English ports. I stood up on a thwart and waved my soggy coat above my
+head. Nobs stood upon another and barked. The girl sat at my feet straining her
+eyes toward the deck of the oncoming boat. “They see us,” she said at last.
+“There is a man answering your signal.” She was right. A lump came into my
+throat—for her sake rather than for mine. She was saved, and none too soon. She
+could not have lived through another night upon the Channel; she might not have
+lived through the coming day.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The tug came close beside us, and a man on deck threw us a rope. Willing hands
+dragged us to the deck, Nobs scrambling nimbly aboard without assistance. The
+rough men were gentle as mothers with the girl. Plying us both with questions
+they hustled her to the captain’s cabin and me to the boiler-room. They told
+the girl to take off her wet clothes and throw them outside the door that they
+might be dried, and then to slip into the captain’s bunk and get warm. They
+didn’t have to tell me to strip after I once got into the warmth of the
+boiler-room. In a jiffy, my clothes hung about where they might dry most
+quickly, and I myself was absorbing, through every pore, the welcome heat of
+the stifling compartment. They brought us hot soup and coffee, and then those
+who were not on duty sat around and helped me damn the Kaiser and his brood.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As soon as our clothes were dry, they bade us don them, as the chances were
+always more than fair in those waters that we should run into trouble with the
+enemy, as I was only too well aware. What with the warmth and the feeling of
+safety for the girl, and the knowledge that a little rest and food would
+quickly overcome the effects of her experiences of the past dismal hours, I was
+feeling more content than I had experienced since those three whistle-blasts
+had shattered the peace of my world the previous afternoon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But peace upon the Channel has been but a transitory thing since August, 1914.
+It proved itself such that morning, for I had scarce gotten into my dry clothes
+and taken the girl’s apparel to the captain’s cabin when an order was shouted
+down into the engine-room for full speed ahead, and an instant later I heard
+the dull boom of a gun. In a moment I was up on deck to see an enemy submarine
+about two hundred yards off our port bow. She had signaled us to stop, and our
+skipper had ignored the order; but now she had her gun trained on us, and the
+second shot grazed the cabin, warning the belligerent tug-captain that it was
+time to obey. Once again an order went down to the engine-room, and the tug
+reduced speed. The U-boat ceased firing and ordered the tug to come about and
+approach. Our momentum had carried us a little beyond the enemy craft, but we
+were turning now on the arc of a circle that would bring us alongside her. As I
+stood watching the maneuver and wondering what was to become of us, I felt
+something touch my elbow and turned to see the girl standing at my side. She
+looked up into my face with a rueful expression. “They seem bent on our
+destruction,” she said, “and it looks like the same boat that sunk us
+yesterday.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is,” I replied. “I know her well. I helped design her and took her out on
+her first run.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The girl drew back from me with a little exclamation of surprise and
+disappointment. “I thought you were an American,” she said. “I had no idea you
+were a—a—”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Nor am I,” I replied. “Americans have been building submarines for all nations
+for many years. I wish, though, that we had gone bankrupt, my father and I,
+before ever we turned out that <i>Frankenstein</i> of a thing.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We were approaching the U-boat at half speed now, and I could almost
+distinguish the features of the men upon her deck. A sailor stepped to my side
+and slipped something hard and cold into my hand. I did not have to look at it
+to know that it was a heavy pistol. “Tyke ’er an’ use ’er,” was all he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our bow was pointed straight toward the U-boat now as I heard word passed to
+the engine for full speed ahead. I instantly grasped the brazen effrontery of
+the plucky English skipper—he was going to ram five hundreds tons of U-boat in
+the face of her trained gun. I could scarce repress a cheer. At first the
+boches didn’t seem to grasp his intention. Evidently they thought they were
+witnessing an exhibition of poor seamanship, and they yelled their warnings to
+the tug to reduce speed and throw the helm hard to port.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We were within fifty feet of them when they awakened to the intentional menace
+of our maneuver. Their gun crew was off its guard; but they sprang to their
+piece now and sent a futile shell above our heads. Nobs leaped about and barked
+furiously. “Let ’em have it!” commanded the tug-captain, and instantly
+revolvers and rifles poured bullets upon the deck of the submersible. Two of
+the gun-crew went down; the other trained their piece at the water-line of the
+oncoming tug. The balance of those on deck replied to our small-arms fire,
+directing their efforts toward the man at our wheel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I hastily pushed the girl down the companionway leading to the engine-room, and
+then I raised my pistol and fired my first shot at a boche. What happened in
+the next few seconds happened so quickly that details are rather blurred in my
+memory. I saw the helmsman lunge forward upon the wheel, pulling the helm
+around so that the tug sheered off quickly from her course, and I recall
+realizing that all our efforts were to be in vain, because of all the men
+aboard, Fate had decreed that this one should fall first to an enemy bullet. I
+saw the depleted gun-crew on the submarine fire their piece and I felt the
+shock of impact and heard the loud explosion as the shell struck and exploded
+in our bows.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I saw and realized these things even as I was leaping into the pilot-house and
+grasping the wheel, standing astride the dead body of the helmsman. With all my
+strength I threw the helm to starboard; but it was too late to effect the
+purpose of our skipper. The best I did was to scrape alongside the sub. I heard
+someone shriek an order into the engine-room; the boat shuddered and trembled
+to the sudden reversing of the engines, and our speed quickly lessened. Then I
+saw what that madman of a skipper planned since his first scheme had gone
+wrong.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a loud-yelled command, he leaped to the slippery deck of the submersible,
+and at his heels came his hardy crew. I sprang from the pilot-house and
+followed, not to be left out in the cold when it came to strafing the boches.
+From the engine room companionway came the engineer and stockers, and together
+we leaped after the balance of the crew and into the hand-to-hand fight that
+was covering the wet deck with red blood. Beside me came Nobs, silent now, and
+grim. Germans were emerging from the open hatch to take part in the battle on
+deck. At first the pistols cracked amidst the cursing of the men and the loud
+commands of the commander and his junior; but presently we were too
+indiscriminately mixed to make it safe to use our firearms, and the battle
+resolved itself into a hand-to-hand struggle for possession of the deck.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sole aim of each of us was to hurl one of the opposing force into the sea.
+I shall never forget the hideous expression upon the face of the great Prussian
+with whom chance confronted me. He lowered his head and rushed at me, bellowing
+like a bull. With a quick side-step and ducking low beneath his outstretched
+arms, I eluded him; and as he turned to come back at me, I landed a blow upon
+his chin which sent him spinning toward the edge of the deck. I saw his wild
+endeavors to regain his equilibrium; I saw him reel drunkenly for an instant
+upon the brink of eternity and then, with a loud scream, slip into the sea. At
+the same instant a pair of giant arms encircled me from behind and lifted me
+entirely off my feet. Kick and squirm as I would, I could neither turn toward
+my antagonist nor free myself from his maniacal grasp. Relentlessly he was
+rushing me toward the side of the vessel and death. There was none to stay him,
+for each of my companions was more than occupied by from one to three of the
+enemy. For an instant I was fearful for myself, and then I saw that which
+filled me with a far greater terror for another.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My boche was bearing me toward the side of the submarine against which the tug
+was still pounding. That I should be ground to death between the two was lost
+upon me as I saw the girl standing alone upon the tug’s deck, as I saw the
+stern high in air and the bow rapidly settling for the final dive, as I saw
+death from which I could not save her clutching at the skirts of the woman I
+now knew all too well that I loved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had perhaps the fraction of a second longer to live when I heard an angry
+growl behind us mingle with a cry of pain and rage from the giant who carried
+me. Instantly he went backward to the deck, and as he did so he threw his arms
+outwards to save himself, freeing me. I fell heavily upon him, but was upon my
+feet in the instant. As I arose, I cast a single glance at my opponent. Never
+again would he menace me or another, for Nob’s great jaws had closed upon his
+throat. Then I sprang toward the edge of the deck closest to the girl upon the
+sinking tug.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Jump!” I cried. “Jump!” And I held out my arms to her. Instantly as though
+with implicit confidence in my ability to save her, she leaped over the side of
+the tug onto the sloping, slippery side of the U-boat. I reached far over to
+seize her hand. At the same instant the tug pointed its stern straight toward
+the sky and plunged out of sight. My hand missed the girl’s by a fraction of an
+inch, and I saw her slip into the sea; but scarce had she touched the water
+when I was in after her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The sinking tug drew us far below the surface; but I had seized her the moment
+I struck the water, and so we went down together, and together we came up—a few
+yards from the U-boat. The first thing I heard was Nobs barking furiously;
+evidently he had missed me and was searching. A single glance at the vessel’s
+deck assured me that the battle was over and that we had been victorious, for I
+saw our survivors holding a handful of the enemy at pistol points while one by
+one the rest of the crew was coming out of the craft’s interior and lining up
+on deck with the other prisoners.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I swam toward the submarine with the girl, Nobs’ persistent barking
+attracted the attention of some of the tug’s crew, so that as soon as we
+reached the side there were hands to help us aboard. I asked the girl if she
+was hurt, but she assured me that she was none the worse for this second
+wetting; nor did she seem to suffer any from shock. I was to learn for myself
+that this slender and seemingly delicate creature possessed the heart and
+courage of a warrior.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we joined our own party, I found the tug’s mate checking up our survivors.
+There were ten of us left, not including the girl. Our brave skipper was
+missing, as were eight others. There had been nineteen of us in the attacking
+party and we had accounted in one way and another during the battle for sixteen
+Germans and had taken nine prisoners, including the commander. His lieutenant
+had been killed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Not a bad day’s work,” said Bradley, the mate, when he had completed his roll.
+“Only losing the skipper,” he added, “was the worst. He was a fine man, a fine
+man.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Olson—who in spite of his name was Irish, and in spite of his not being Scotch
+had been the tug’s engineer—was standing with Bradley and me. “Yis,” he agreed,
+“it’s a day’s wor-rk we’re after doin’, but what are we goin’ to be doin’ wid
+it now we got it?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“We’ll run her into the nearest English port,” said Bradley, “and then we’ll
+all go ashore and get our V. C.’s,” he concluded, laughing.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How you goin’ to run her?” queried Olson. “You can’t trust these Dutchmen.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bradley scratched his head. “I guess you’re right,” he admitted. “And I don’t
+know the first thing about a sub.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I do,” I assured him. “I know more about this particular sub than the officer
+who commanded her.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Both men looked at me in astonishment, and then I had to explain all over again
+as I had explained to the girl. Bradley and Olson were delighted. Immediately I
+was put in command, and the first thing I did was to go below with Olson and
+inspect the craft thoroughly for hidden boches and damaged machinery. There
+were no Germans below, and everything was intact and in ship-shape working
+order. I then ordered all hands below except one man who was to act as lookout.
+Questioning the Germans, I found that all except the commander were willing to
+resume their posts and aid in bringing the vessel into an English port. I
+believe that they were relieved at the prospect of being detained at a
+comfortable English prison-camp for the duration of the war after the perils
+and privations through which they had passed. The officer, however, assured me
+that he would never be a party to the capture of his vessel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was, therefore, nothing to do but put the man in irons. As we were
+preparing to put this decision into force, the girl descended from the deck. It
+was the first time that she or the German officer had seen each other’s faces
+since we had boarded the U-boat. I was assisting the girl down the ladder and
+still retained a hold upon her arm—possibly after such support was no longer
+necessary—when she turned and looked squarely into the face of the German. Each
+voiced a sudden exclamation of surprise and dismay.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Lys!” he cried, and took a step toward her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The girl’s eyes went wide, and slowly filled with a great horror, as she shrank
+back. Then her slender figure stiffened to the erectness of a soldier, and with
+chin in air and without a word she turned her back upon the officer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Take him away,” I directed the two men who guarded him, “and put him in
+irons.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When he had gone, the girl raised her eyes to mine. “He is the German of whom I
+spoke,” she said. “He is Baron von Schoenvorts.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I merely inclined my head. She had loved him! I wondered if in her heart of
+hearts she did not love him yet. Immediately I became insanely jealous. I hated
+Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts with such utter intensity that the emotion
+thrilled me with a species of exaltation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But I didn’t have much chance to enjoy my hatred then, for almost immediately
+the lookout poked his face over the hatchway and bawled down that there was
+smoke on the horizon, dead ahead. Immediately I went on deck to investigate,
+and Bradley came with me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If she’s friendly,” he said, “we’ll speak her. If she’s not, we’ll sink
+her—eh, captain?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Yes, lieutenant,” I replied, and it was his turn to smile.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We hoisted the Union Jack and remained on deck, asking Bradley to go below and
+assign to each member of the crew his duty, placing one Englishman with a
+pistol beside each German.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Half speed ahead,” I commanded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+More rapidly now we closed the distance between ourselves and the stranger,
+until I could plainly see the red ensign of the British merchant marine. My
+heart swelled with pride at the thought that presently admiring British tars
+would be congratulating us upon our notable capture; and just about then the
+merchant steamer must have sighted us, for she veered suddenly toward the
+north, and a moment later dense volumes of smoke issued from her funnels. Then,
+steering a zigzag course, she fled from us as though we had been the bubonic
+plague. I altered the course of the submarine and set off in chase; but the
+steamer was faster than we, and soon left us hopelessly astern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With a rueful smile, I directed that our original course be resumed, and once
+again we set off toward merry England. That was three months ago, and we
+haven’t arrived yet; nor is there any likelihood that we ever shall.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The steamer we had just sighted must have wirelessed a warning, for it wasn’t
+half an hour before we saw more smoke on the horizon, and this time the vessel
+flew the white ensign of the Royal Navy and carried guns. She didn’t veer to
+the north or anywhere else, but bore down on us rapidly. I was just preparing
+to signal her, when a flame flashed from her bows, and an instant later the
+water in front of us was thrown high by the explosion of a shell.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bradley had come on deck and was standing beside me. “About one more of those,
+and she’ll have our range,” he said. “She doesn’t seem to take much stock in
+our Union Jack.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A second shell passed over us, and then I gave the command to change our
+direction, at the same time directing Bradley to go below and give the order to
+submerge. I passed Nobs down to him, and following, saw to the closing and
+fastening of the hatch.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It seemed to me that the diving-tanks never had filled so slowly. We heard a
+loud explosion apparently directly above us; the craft trembled to the shock
+which threw us all to the deck. I expected momentarily to feel the deluge of
+inrushing water, but none came. Instead we continued to submerge until the
+manometer registered forty feet and then I knew that we were safe. Safe! I
+almost smiled. I had relieved Olson, who had remained in the tower at my
+direction, having been a member of one of the early British submarine crews,
+and therefore having some knowledge of the business. Bradley was at my side. He
+looked at me quizzically.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What the devil are we to do?” he asked. “The merchantman will flee us; the
+war-vessel will destroy us; neither will believe our colors or give us a chance
+to explain. We will meet even a worse reception if we go nosing around a
+British port—mines, nets and all of it. We can’t do it.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Let’s try it again when this fellow has lost the scent,” I urged. “There must
+come a ship that will believe us.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And try it again we did, only to be almost rammed by a huge freighter. Later we
+were fired upon by a destroyer, and two merchantmen turned and fled at our
+approach. For two days we cruised up and down the Channel trying to tell some
+one, who would listen, that we were friends; but no one would listen. After our
+encounter with the first warship I had given instructions that a wireless
+message be sent out explaining our predicament; but to my chagrin I discovered
+that both sending and receiving instruments had disappeared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“There is only one place you can go,” von Schoenvorts sent word to me, “and
+that is Kiel. You can’t land anywhere else in these waters. If you wish, I will
+take you there, and I can promise that you will be treated well.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“There is another place we can go,” I sent back my reply, “and we will before
+we’ll go to Germany. That place is hell.”
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap03"></a>Chapter 3</h2>
+
+<p>
+Those were anxious days, during which I had but little opportunity to associate
+with Lys. I had given her the commander’s room, Bradley and I taking that of
+the deck-officer, while Olson and two of our best men occupied the room
+ordinarily allotted to petty officers. I made Nobs’ bed down in Lys’ room, for
+I knew she would feel less alone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nothing of much moment occurred for a while after we left British waters behind
+us. We ran steadily along upon the surface, making good time. The first two
+boats we sighted made off as fast as they could go; and the third, a huge
+freighter, fired on us, forcing us to submerge. It was after this that our
+troubles commenced. One of the Diesel engines broke down in the morning, and
+while we were working on it, the forward port diving-tank commenced to fill. I
+was on deck at the time and noted the gradual list. Guessing at once what was
+happening, I leaped for the hatch and slamming it closed above my head, dropped
+to the centrale. By this time the craft was going down by the head with a most
+unpleasant list to port, and I didn’t wait to transmit orders to some one else
+but ran as fast as I could for the valve that let the sea into the forward port
+diving-tank. It was wide open. To close it and to have the pump started that
+would empty it were the work of but a minute; but we had had a close call.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I knew that the valve had never opened itself. Some one had opened it—some one
+who was willing to die himself if he might at the same time encompass the death
+of all of us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After that I kept a guard pacing the length of the narrow craft. We worked upon
+the engine all that day and night and half the following day. Most of the time
+we drifted idly upon the surface, but toward noon we sighted smoke due west,
+and having found that only enemies inhabited the world for us, I ordered that
+the other engine be started so that we could move out of the path of the
+oncoming steamer. The moment the engine started to turn, however, there was a
+grinding sound of tortured steel, and when it had been stopped, we found that
+some one had placed a cold-chisel in one of the gears.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was another two days before we were ready to limp along, half repaired. The
+night before the repairs were completed, the sentry came to my room and awoke
+me. He was rather an intelligent fellow of the English middle class, in whom I
+had much confidence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Well, Wilson,” I asked. “What’s the matter now?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He raised his finger to his lips and came closer to me. “I think I’ve found out
+who’s doin’ the mischief,” he whispered, and nodded his head toward the girl’s
+room. “I seen her sneakin’ from the crew’s room just now,” he went on. “She’d
+been in gassin’ wit’ the boche commander. Benson seen her in there las’ night,
+too, but he never said nothin’ till I goes on watch tonight. Benson’s sorter
+slow in the head, an’ he never puts two an’ two together till some one else has
+made four out of it.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If the man had come in and struck me suddenly in the face, I could have been no
+more surprised.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Say nothing of this to anyone,” I ordered. “Keep your eyes and ears open and
+report every suspicious thing you see or hear.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The man saluted and left me; but for an hour or more I tossed, restless, upon
+my hard bunk in an agony of jealousy and fear. Finally I fell into a troubled
+sleep. It was daylight when I awoke. We were steaming along slowly upon the
+surface, my orders having been to proceed at half speed until we could take an
+observation and determine our position. The sky had been overcast all the
+previous day and all night; but as I stepped into the centrale that morning I
+was delighted to see that the sun was again shining. The spirits of the men
+seemed improved; everything seemed propitious. I forgot at once the cruel
+misgivings of the past night as I set to work to take my observations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What a blow awaited me! The sextant and chronometer had both been broken beyond
+repair, and they had been broken just this very night. They had been broken
+upon the night that Lys had been seen talking with von Schoenvorts. I think
+that it was this last thought which hurt me the worst. I could look the other
+disaster in the face with equanimity; but the bald fact that Lys might be a
+traitor appalled me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I called Bradley and Olson on deck and told them what had happened, but for the
+life of me I couldn’t bring myself to repeat what Wilson had reported to me the
+previous night. In fact, as I had given the matter thought, it seemed
+incredible that the girl could have passed through my room, in which Bradley
+and I slept, and then carried on a conversation in the crew’s room, in which
+Von Schoenvorts was kept, without having been seen by more than a single man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bradley shook his head. “I can’t make it out,” he said. “One of those boches
+must be pretty clever to come it over us all like this; but they haven’t harmed
+us as much as they think; there are still the extra instruments.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was my turn now to shake a doleful head. “There are no extra instruments,” I
+told them. “They too have disappeared as did the wireless apparatus.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Both men looked at me in amazement. “We still have the compass and the sun,”
+said Olson. “They may be after getting the compass some night; but they’s too
+many of us around in the daytime fer ’em to get the sun.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was then that one of the men stuck his head up through the hatchway and
+seeing me, asked permission to come on deck and get a breath of fresh air. I
+recognized him as Benson, the man who, Wilson had said, reported having seen
+Lys with von Schoenvorts two nights before. I motioned him on deck and then
+called him to one side, asking if he had seen anything out of the way or
+unusual during his trick on watch the night before. The fellow scratched his
+head a moment and said, “No,” and then as though it was an afterthought, he
+told me that he had seen the girl in the crew’s room about midnight talking
+with the German commander, but as there hadn’t seemed to him to be any harm in
+that, he hadn’t said anything about it. Telling him never to fail to report to
+me anything in the slightest out of the ordinary routine of the ship, I
+dismissed him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Several of the other men now asked permission to come on deck, and soon all but
+those actually engaged in some necessary duty were standing around smoking and
+talking, all in the best of spirits. I took advantage of the absence of the men
+upon the deck to go below for my breakfast, which the cook was already
+preparing upon the electric stove. Lys, followed by Nobs, appeared as I entered
+the centrale. She met me with a pleasant “Good morning!” which I am afraid I
+replied to in a tone that was rather constrained and surly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Will you breakfast with me?” I suddenly asked the girl, determined to commence
+a probe of my own along the lines which duty demanded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She nodded a sweet acceptance of my invitation, and together we sat down at the
+little table of the officers’ mess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You slept well last night?” I asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“All night,” she replied. “I am a splendid sleeper.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Her manner was so straightforward and honest that I could not bring myself to
+believe in her duplicity; yet—Thinking to surprise her into a betrayal of her
+guilt, I blurted out: “The chronometer and sextant were both destroyed last
+night; there is a traitor among us.” But she never turned a hair by way of
+evidencing guilty knowledge of the catastrophe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Who could it have been?” she cried. “The Germans would be crazy to do it, for
+their lives are as much at stake as ours.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Men are often glad to die for an ideal—an ideal of patriotism, perhaps,” I
+replied; “and a willingness to martyr themselves includes a willingness to
+sacrifice others, even those who love them. Women are much the same, except
+that they will go even further than most men—they will sacrifice everything,
+even honor, for love.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I watched her face carefully as I spoke, and I thought that I detected a very
+faint flush mounting her cheek. Seeing an opening and an advantage, I sought to
+follow it up.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Take von Schoenvorts, for instance,” I continued: “he would doubtless be glad
+to die and take us all with him, could he prevent in no other way the falling
+of his vessel into enemy hands. He would sacrifice anyone, even you; and if you
+still love him, you might be his ready tool. Do you understand me?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked at me in wide-eyed consternation for a moment, and then she went
+very white and rose from her seat. “I do,” she replied, and turning her back
+upon me, she walked quickly toward her room. I started to follow, for even
+believing what I did, I was sorry that I had hurt her. I reached the door to
+the crew’s room just behind her and in time to see von Schoenvorts lean forward
+and whisper something to her as she passed; but she must have guessed that she
+might be watched, for she passed on.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That afternoon it clouded over; the wind mounted to a gale, and the sea rose
+until the craft was wallowing and rolling frightfully. Nearly everyone aboard
+was sick; the air became foul and oppressive. For twenty-four hours I did not
+leave my post in the conning tower, as both Olson and Bradley were sick.
+Finally I found that I must get a little rest, and so I looked about for some
+one to relieve me. Benson volunteered. He had not been sick, and assured me
+that he was a former R.N. man and had been detailed for submarine duty for over
+two years. I was glad that it was he, for I had considerable confidence in his
+loyalty, and so it was with a feeling of security that I went below and lay
+down.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I slept twelve hours straight, and when I awoke and discovered what I had done,
+I lost no time in getting to the conning tower. There sat Benson as wide awake
+as could be, and the compass showed that we were heading straight into the
+west. The storm was still raging; nor did it abate its fury until the fourth
+day. We were all pretty well done up and looked forward to the time when we
+could go on deck and fill our lungs with fresh air. During the whole four days
+I had not seen the girl, as she evidently kept closely to her room; and during
+this time no untoward incident had occurred aboard the boat—a fact which seemed
+to strengthen the web of circumstantial evidence about her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For six more days after the storm lessened we still had fairly rough weather;
+nor did the sun once show himself during all that time. For the season—it was
+now the middle of June—the storm was unusual; but being from southern
+California, I was accustomed to unusual weather. In fact, I have discovered
+that the world over, unusual weather prevails at all times of the year.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We kept steadily to our westward course, and as the <i>U</i>-33 was one of the
+fastest submersibles we had ever turned out, I knew that we must be pretty
+close to the North American coast. What puzzled me most was the fact that for
+six days we had not sighted a single ship. It seemed remarkable that we could
+cross the Atlantic almost to the coast of the American continent without
+glimpsing smoke or sail, and at last I came to the conclusion that we were way
+off our course, but whether to the north or to the south of it I could not
+determine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the seventh day the sea lay comparatively calm at early dawn. There was a
+slight haze upon the ocean which had cut off our view of the stars; but
+conditions all pointed toward a clear morrow, and I was on deck anxiously
+awaiting the rising of the sun. My eyes were glued upon the impenetrable mist
+astern, for there in the east I should see the first glow of the rising sun
+that would assure me we were still upon the right course. Gradually the heavens
+lightened; but astern I could see no intenser glow that would indicate the
+rising sun behind the mist. Bradley was standing at my side. Presently he
+touched my arm.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Look, captain,” he said, and pointed south.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I looked and gasped, for there directly to port I saw outlined through the haze
+the red top of the rising sun. Hurrying to the tower, I looked at the compass.
+It showed that we were holding steadily upon our westward course. Either the
+sun was rising in the south, or the compass had been tampered with. The
+conclusion was obvious.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I went back to Bradley and told him what I had discovered. “And,” I concluded,
+“we can’t make another five hundred knots without oil; our provisions are
+running low and so is our water. God only knows how far south we have run.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“There is nothing to do,” he replied, “other than to alter our course once more
+toward the west; we must raise land soon or we shall all be lost.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I told him to do so; and then I set to work improvising a crude sextant with
+which we finally took our bearings in a rough and most unsatisfactory manner;
+for when the work was done, we did not know how far from the truth the result
+might be. It showed us to be about 20&deg; north and 30&deg; west—nearly
+twenty-five hundred miles off our course. In short, if our reading was anywhere
+near correct, we must have been traveling due south for six days. Bradley now
+relieved Benson, for we had arranged our shifts so that the latter and Olson
+now divided the nights, while Bradley and I alternated with one another during
+the days.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I questioned both Olson and Benson closely in the matter of the compass; but
+each stoutly maintained that no one had tampered with it during his tour of
+duty. Benson gave me a knowing smile, as much as to say: “Well, you and I know
+who did this.” Yet I could not believe that it was the girl.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We kept to our westerly course for several hours when the lookout’s cry
+announced a sail. I ordered the <i>U</i>-33’s course altered, and we bore down
+upon the stranger, for I had come to a decision which was the result of
+necessity. We could not lie there in the middle of the Atlantic and starve to
+death if there was any way out of it. The sailing ship saw us while we were
+still a long way off, as was evidenced by her efforts to escape. There was
+scarcely any wind, however, and her case was hopeless; so when we drew near and
+signaled her to stop, she came into the wind and lay there with her sails
+flapping idly. We moved in quite close to her. She was the <i>Balmen</i> of
+Halmstad, Sweden, with a general cargo from Brazil for Spain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I explained our circumstances to her skipper and asked for food, water and oil;
+but when he found that we were not German, he became very angry and abusive and
+started to draw away from us; but I was in no mood for any such business.
+Turning toward Bradley, who was in the conning-tower, I snapped out:
+“Gun-service on deck! To the diving stations!” We had no opportunity for drill;
+but every man had been posted as to his duties, and the German members of the
+crew understood that it was obedience or death for them, as each was
+accompanied by a man with a pistol. Most of them, though, were only too glad to
+obey me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bradley passed the order down into the ship and a moment later the gun-crew
+clambered up the narrow ladder and at my direction trained their piece upon the
+slow-moving Swede. “Fire a shot across her bow,” I instructed the gun-captain.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Accept it from me, it didn’t take that Swede long to see the error of his way
+and get the red and white pennant signifying “I understand” to the masthead.
+Once again the sails flapped idly, and then I ordered him to lower a boat and
+come after me. With Olson and a couple of the Englishmen I boarded the ship,
+and from her cargo selected what we needed—oil, provisions and water. I gave
+the master of the <i>Balmen</i> a receipt for what we took, together with an
+affidavit signed by Bradley, Olson, and myself, stating briefly how we had come
+into possession of the <i>U</i>-33 and the urgency of our need for what we
+took. We addressed both to any British agent with the request that the owners
+of the <i>Balmen</i> be reimbursed; but whether or not they were, I do not
+know.[1]
+</p>
+
+<p class="footnote">
+[1] Late in July, 1916, an item in the shipping news mentioned a Swedish
+sailing vessel, <i>Balmen</i>, Rio de Janeiro to Barcelona, sunk by a German
+raider sometime in June. A single survivor in an open boat was picked up off
+the Cape Verde Islands, in a dying condition. He expired without giving any
+details.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With water, food, and oil aboard, we felt that we had obtained a new lease of
+life. Now, too, we knew definitely where we were, and I determined to make for
+Georgetown, British Guiana—but I was destined to again suffer bitter
+disappointment.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Six of us of the loyal crew had come on deck either to serve the gun or board
+the Swede during our set-to with her; and now, one by one, we descended the
+ladder into the centrale. I was the last to come, and when I reached the
+bottom, I found myself looking into the muzzle of a pistol in the hands of
+Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts—I saw all my men lined up at one side with the
+remaining eight Germans standing guard over them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I couldn’t imagine how it had happened; but it had. Later I learned that they
+had first overpowered Benson, who was asleep in his bunk, and taken his pistol
+from him, and then had found it an easy matter to disarm the cook and the
+remaining two Englishmen below. After that it had been comparatively simple to
+stand at the foot of the ladder and arrest each individual as he descended.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The first thing von Schoenvorts did was to send for me and announce that as a
+pirate I was to be shot early the next morning. Then he explained that the
+<i>U</i>-33 would cruise in these waters for a time, sinking neutral and enemy
+shipping indiscriminately, and looking for one of the German raiders that was
+supposed to be in these parts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He didn’t shoot me the next morning as he had promised, and it has never been
+clear to me why he postponed the execution of my sentence. Instead he kept me
+ironed just as he had been; then he kicked Bradley out of my room and took it
+all to himself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We cruised for a long time, sinking many vessels, all but one by gunfire, but
+we did not come across a German raider. I was surprised to note that von
+Schoenvorts often permitted Benson to take command; but I reconciled this by
+the fact that Benson appeared to know more of the duties of a submarine
+commander than did any of the stupid Germans.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Once or twice Lys passed me; but for the most part she kept to her room. The
+first time she hesitated as though she wished to speak to me; but I did not
+raise my head, and finally she passed on. Then one day came the word that we
+were about to round the Horn and that von Schoenvorts had taken it into his
+fool head to cruise up along the Pacific coast of North America and prey upon
+all sorts and conditions of merchantmen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I’ll put the fear of God and the Kaiser into them,” he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The very first day we entered the South Pacific we had an adventure. It turned
+out to be quite the most exciting adventure I had ever encountered. It fell
+about this way. About eight bells of the forenoon watch I heard a hail from the
+deck, and presently the footsteps of the entire ship’s company, from the amount
+of noise I heard at the ladder. Some one yelled back to those who had not yet
+reached the level of the deck: “It’s the raider, the German raider
+<i>Geier!</i>”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I saw that we had reached the end of our rope. Below all was quiet—not a man
+remained. A door opened at the end of the narrow hull, and presently Nobs came
+trotting up to me. He licked my face and rolled over on his back, reaching for
+me with his big, awkward paws. Then other footsteps sounded, approaching me. I
+knew whose they were, and I looked straight down at the flooring. The girl was
+coming almost at a run—she was at my side immediately. “Here!” she cried.
+“Quick!” And she slipped something into my hand. It was a key—the key to my
+irons. At my side she also laid a pistol, and then she went on into the
+centrale. As she passed me, I saw that she carried another pistol for herself.
+It did not take me long to liberate myself, and then I was at her side. “How
+can I thank you?” I started; but she shut me up with a word.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Do not thank me,” she said coldly. “I do not care to hear your thanks or any
+other expression from you. Do not stand there looking at me. I have given you a
+chance to do something—now do it!” The last was a peremptory command that made
+me jump.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Glancing up, I saw that the tower was empty, and I lost no time in clambering
+up, looking about me. About a hundred yards off lay a small, swift
+cruiser-raider, and above her floated the German man-of-war’s flag. A boat had
+just been lowered, and I could see it moving toward us filled with officers and
+men. The cruiser lay dead ahead. “My,” I thought, “what a wonderful targ—” I
+stopped even thinking, so surprised and shocked was I by the boldness of my
+imagery. The girl was just below me. I looked down on her wistfully. Could I
+trust her? Why had she released me at this moment? I must! I must! There was no
+other way. I dropped back below. “Ask Olson to step down here, please,” I
+requested; “and don’t let anyone see you ask him.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked at me with a puzzled expression on her face for the barest fraction
+of a second, and then she turned and went up the ladder. A moment later Olson
+returned, and the girl followed him. “Quick!” I whispered to the big Irishman,
+and made for the bow compartment where the torpedo-tubes are built into the
+boat; here, too, were the torpedoes. The girl accompanied us, and when she saw
+the thing I had in mind, she stepped forward and lent a hand to the swinging of
+the great cylinder of death and destruction into the mouth of its tube. With
+oil and main strength we shoved the torpedo home and shut the tube; then I ran
+back to the conning-tower, praying in my heart of hearts that the <i>U</i>-33
+had not swung her bow away from the prey. No, thank God!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Never could aim have been truer. I signaled back to Olson: “Let ’er go!” The
+<i>U</i>-33 trembled from stem to stern as the torpedo shot from its tube. I
+saw the white wake leap from her bow straight toward the enemy cruiser. A
+chorus of hoarse yells arose from the deck of our own craft: I saw the officers
+stand suddenly erect in the boat that was approaching us, and I heard loud
+cries and curses from the raider. Then I turned my attention to my own
+business. Most of the men on the submarine’s deck were standing in paralyzed
+fascination, staring at the torpedo. Bradley happened to be looking toward the
+conning-tower and saw me. I sprang on deck and ran toward him. “Quick!” I
+whispered. “While they are stunned, we must overcome them.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A German was standing near Bradley—just in front of him. The Englishman struck
+the fellow a frantic blow upon the neck and at the same time snatched his
+pistol from its holster. Von Schoenvorts had recovered from his first surprise
+quickly and had turned toward the main hatch to investigate. I covered him with
+my revolver, and at the same instant the torpedo struck the raider, the
+terrific explosion drowning the German’s command to his men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bradley was now running from one to another of our men, and though some of the
+Germans saw and heard him, they seemed too stunned for action.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Olson was below, so that there were only nine of us against eight Germans, for
+the man Bradley had struck still lay upon the deck. Only two of us were armed;
+but the heart seemed to have gone out of the boches, and they put up but
+half-hearted resistance. Von Schoenvorts was the worst—he was fairly frenzied
+with rage and chagrin, and he came charging for me like a mad bull, and as he
+came he discharged his pistol. If he’d stopped long enough to take aim, he
+might have gotten me; but his pace made him wild, so that not a shot touched
+me, and then we clinched and went to the deck. This left two pistols, which two
+of my own men were quick to appropriate. The Baron was no match for me in a
+hand-to-hand encounter, and I soon had him pinned to the deck and the life
+almost choked out of him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A half-hour later things had quieted down, and all was much the same as before
+the prisoners had revolted—only we kept a much closer watch on von Schoenvorts.
+The <i>Geier</i> had sunk while we were still battling upon our deck, and
+afterward we had drawn away toward the north, leaving the survivors to the
+attention of the single boat which had been making its way toward us when Olson
+launched the torpedo. I suppose the poor devils never reached land, and if they
+did, they most probably perished on that cold and unhospitable shore; but I
+couldn’t permit them aboard the <i>U</i>-33. We had all the Germans we could
+take care of.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That evening the girl asked permission to go on deck. She said that she felt
+the effects of long confinement below, and I readily granted her request. I
+could not understand her, and I craved an opportunity to talk with her again in
+an effort to fathom her and her intentions, and so I made it a point to follow
+her up the ladder. It was a clear, cold, beautiful night. The sea was calm
+except for the white water at our bows and the two long radiating swells
+running far off into the distance upon either hand astern, forming a great V
+which our propellers filled with choppy waves. Benson was in the tower, we were
+bound for San Diego and all looked well.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lys stood with a heavy blanket wrapped around her slender figure, and as I
+approached her, she half turned toward me to see who it was. When she
+recognized me, she immediately turned away.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I want to thank you,” I said, “for your bravery and loyalty—you were
+magnificent. I am sorry that you had reason before to think that I doubted
+you.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You did doubt me,” she replied in a level voice. “You practically accused me
+of aiding Baron von Schoenvorts. I can never forgive you.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was a great deal of finality in both her words and tone.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I could not believe it,” I said; “and yet two of my men reported having seen
+you in conversation with von Schoenvorts late at night upon two separate
+occasions—after each of which some great damage was found done us in the
+morning. I didn’t want to doubt you; but I carried all the responsibility of
+the lives of these men, of the safety of the ship, of your life and mine. I had
+to watch you, and I had to put you on your guard against a repetition of your
+madness.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She was looking at me now with those great eyes of hers, very wide and round.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Who told you that I spoke with Baron von Schoenvorts at night, or any other
+time?” she asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I cannot tell you, Lys,” I replied, “but it came to me from two different
+sources.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Then two men have lied,” she asserted without heat. “I have not spoken to
+Baron von Schoenvorts other than in your presence when first we came aboard the
+<i>U</i>-33. And please, when you address me, remember that to others than my
+intimates I am Miss La Rue.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Did you ever get slapped in the face when you least expected it? No? Well, then
+you do not know how I felt at that moment. I could feel the hot, red flush
+surging up my neck, across my cheeks, over my ears, clear to my scalp. And it
+made me love her all the more; it made me swear inwardly a thousand solemn
+oaths that I would win her.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap04"></a>Chapter 4</h2>
+
+<p>
+For several days things went along in about the same course. I took our
+position every morning with my crude sextant; but the results were always most
+unsatisfactory. They always showed a considerable westing when I knew that we
+had been sailing due north. I blamed my crude instrument, and kept on. Then one
+afternoon the girl came to me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Pardon me,” she said, “but were I you, I should watch this man
+Benson—especially when he is in charge.” I asked her what she meant, thinking I
+could see the influence of von Schoenvorts raising a suspicion against one of
+my most trusted men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If you will note the boat’s course a half-hour after Benson goes on duty,” she
+said, “you will know what I mean, and you will understand why he prefers a
+night watch. Possibly, too, you will understand some other things that have
+taken place aboard.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then she went back to her room, thus ending the conversation. I waited until
+half an hour after Benson had gone on duty, and then I went on deck, passing
+through the conning-tower where Benson sat, and looking at the compass. It
+showed that our course was north by west—that is, one point west of north,
+which was, for our assumed position, about right. I was greatly relieved to
+find that nothing was wrong, for the girl’s words had caused me considerable
+apprehension. I was about to return to my room when a thought occurred to me
+that again caused me to change my mind—and, incidentally, came near proving my
+death-warrant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I had left the conning-tower little more than a half-hour since, the sea
+had been breaking over the port bow, and it seemed to me quite improbable that
+in so short a time an equally heavy sea could be deluging us from the opposite
+side of the ship—winds may change quickly, but not a long, heavy sea. There was
+only one other solution—since I left the tower, our course had been altered
+some eight points. Turning quickly, I climbed out upon the conning-tower. A
+single glance at the heavens confirmed my suspicions; the constellations which
+should have been dead ahead were directly starboard. We were sailing due west.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just for an instant longer I stood there to check up my calculations—I wanted
+to be quite sure before I accused Benson of perfidy, and about the only thing I
+came near making quite sure of was death. I cannot see even now how I escaped
+it. I was standing on the edge of the conning-tower, when a heavy palm suddenly
+struck me between the shoulders and hurled me forward into space. The drop to
+the triangular deck forward of the conning-tower might easily have broken a leg
+for me, or I might have slipped off onto the deck and rolled overboard; but
+fate was upon my side, as I was only slightly bruised. As I came to my feet, I
+heard the conning-tower cover slam. There is a ladder which leads from the deck
+to the top of the tower. Up this I scrambled, as fast as I could go; but Benson
+had the cover tight before I reached it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I stood there a moment in dumb consternation. What did the fellow intend? What
+was going on below? If Benson was a traitor, how could I know that there were
+not other traitors among us? I cursed myself for my folly in going out upon the
+deck, and then this thought suggested another—a hideous one: who was it that
+had really been responsible for my being here?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thinking to attract attention from inside the craft, I again ran down the
+ladder and onto the small deck only to find that the steel covers of the
+conning-tower windows were shut, and then I leaned with my back against the
+tower and cursed myself for a gullible idiot.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I glanced at the bow. The sea seemed to be getting heavier, for every wave now
+washed completely over the lower deck. I watched them for a moment, and then a
+sudden chill pervaded my entire being. It was not the chill of wet clothing, or
+the dashing spray which drenched my face; no, it was the chill of the hand of
+death upon my heart. In an instant I had turned the last corner of life’s
+highway and was looking God Almighty in the face—the <i>U</i>-33 was being
+slowly submerged!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It would be difficult, even impossible, to set down in writing my sensations at
+that moment. All I can particularly recall is that I laughed, though neither
+from a spirit of bravado nor from hysteria. And I wanted to smoke. Lord! how I
+did want to smoke; but that was out of the question.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I watched the water rise until the little deck I stood on was awash, and then I
+clambered once more to the top of the conning-tower. From the very slow
+submergence of the boat I knew that Benson was doing the entire trick
+alone—that he was merely permitting the diving-tanks to fill and that the
+diving-rudders were not in use. The throbbing of the engines ceased, and in its
+stead came the steady vibration of the electric motors. The water was halfway
+up the conning-tower! I had perhaps five minutes longer on the deck. I tried to
+decide what I should do after I was washed away. Should I swim until exhaustion
+claimed me, or should I give up and end the agony at the first plunge?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From below came two muffled reports. They sounded not unlike shots. Was Benson
+meeting with resistance? Personally it could mean little to me, for even though
+my men might overcome the enemy, none would know of my predicament until long
+after it was too late to succor me. The top of the conning-tower was now awash.
+I clung to the wireless mast, while the great waves surged sometimes completely
+over me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I knew the end was near and, almost involuntarily, I did that which I had not
+done since childhood—I prayed. After that I felt better.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I clung and waited, but the water rose no higher.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Instead it receded. Now the top of the conning-tower received only the crests
+of the higher waves; now the little triangular deck below became visible! What
+had occurred within? Did Benson believe me already gone, and was he emerging
+because of that belief, or had he and his forces been vanquished? The suspense
+was more wearing than that which I had endured while waiting for dissolution.
+Presently the main deck came into view, and then the conning-tower opened
+behind me, and I turned to look into the anxious face of Bradley. An expression
+of relief overspread his features.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Thank God, man!” was all he said as he reached forth and dragged me into the
+tower. I was cold and numb and rather all in. Another few minutes would have
+done for me, I am sure, but the warmth of the interior helped to revive me,
+aided and abetted by some brandy which Bradley poured down my throat, from
+which it nearly removed the membrane. That brandy would have revived a corpse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+When I got down into the centrale, I saw the Germans lined up on one side with
+a couple of my men with pistols standing over them. Von Schoenvorts was among
+them. On the floor lay Benson, moaning, and beyond him stood the girl, a
+revolver in one hand. I looked about, bewildered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What has happened down here?” I asked. “Tell me!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bradley replied. “You see the result, sir,” he said. “It might have been a very
+different result but for Miss La Rue. We were all asleep. Benson had relieved
+the guard early in the evening; there was no one to watch him—no one but Miss
+La Rue. She felt the submergence of the boat and came out of her room to
+investigate. She was just in time to see Benson at the diving rudders. When he
+saw her, he raised his pistol and fired point-blank at her, but he missed and
+she fired—and didn’t miss. The two shots awakened everyone, and as our men were
+armed, the result was inevitable as you see it; but it would have been very
+different had it not been for Miss La Rue. It was she who closed the
+diving-tank sea-cocks and roused Olson and me, and had the pumps started to
+empty them.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And there I had been thinking that through her machinations I had been lured to
+the deck and to my death! I could have gone on my knees to her and begged her
+forgiveness—or at least I could have, had I not been Anglo-Saxon. As it was, I
+could only remove my soggy cap and bow and mumble my appreciation. She made no
+reply—only turned and walked very rapidly toward her room. Could I have heard
+aright? Was it really a sob that came floating back to me through the narrow
+aisle of the <i>U</i>-33?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Benson died that night. He remained defiant almost to the last; but just before
+he went out, he motioned to me, and I leaned over to catch the faintly
+whispered words.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I did it alone,” he said. “I did it because I hate you—I hate all your kind. I
+was kicked out of your shipyard at Santa Monica. I was locked out of
+California. I am an I. W. W. I became a German agent—not because I love them,
+for I hate them too—but because I wanted to injure Americans, whom I hated
+more. I threw the wireless apparatus overboard. I destroyed the chronometer and
+the sextant. I devised a scheme for varying the compass to suit my wishes. I
+told Wilson that I had seen the girl talking with von Schoenvorts, and I made
+the poor egg think he had seen her doing the same thing. I am sorry—sorry that
+my plans failed. I hate you.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He didn’t die for a half-hour after that; nor did he speak again—aloud; but
+just a few seconds before he went to meet his Maker, his lips moved in a faint
+whisper; and as I leaned closer to catch his words, what do you suppose I
+heard? “Now—I—lay me—down—to—sleep” That was all; Benson was dead. We threw his
+body overboard.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The wind of that night brought on some pretty rough weather with a lot of black
+clouds which persisted for several days. We didn’t know what course we had been
+holding, and there was no way of finding out, as we could no longer trust the
+compass, not knowing what Benson had done to it. The long and the short of it
+was that we cruised about aimlessly until the sun came out again. I’ll never
+forget that day or its surprises. We reckoned, or rather guessed, that we were
+somewhere off the coast of Peru. The wind, which had been blowing fitfully from
+the east, suddenly veered around into the south, and presently we felt a sudden
+chill.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Peru!” snorted Olson. “When were yez after smellin’ iceber-rgs off Peru?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Icebergs! “Icebergs, nothin’!” exclaimed one of the Englishmen. “Why, man, they
+don’t come north of fourteen here in these waters.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Then,” replied Olson, “ye’re sout’ of fourteen, me b’y.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We thought he was crazy; but he wasn’t, for that afternoon we sighted a great
+berg south of us, and we’d been running north, we thought, for days. I can tell
+you we were a discouraged lot; but we got a faint thrill of hope early the next
+morning when the lookout bawled down the open hatch: “Land! Land northwest by
+west!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I think we were all sick for the sight of land. I know that I was; but my
+interest was quickly dissipated by the sudden illness of three of the Germans.
+Almost simultaneously they commenced vomiting. They couldn’t suggest any
+explanation for it. I asked them what they had eaten, and found they had eaten
+nothing other than the food cooked for all of us. “Have you drunk anything?” I
+asked, for I knew that there was liquor aboard, and medicines in the same
+locker.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Only water,” moaned one of them. “We all drank water together this morning. We
+opened a new tank. Maybe it was the water.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I started an investigation which revealed a terrifying condition—some one,
+probably Benson, had poisoned all the running water on the ship. It would have
+been worse, though, had land not been in sight. The sight of land filled us
+with renewed hope.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our course had been altered, and we were rapidly approaching what appeared to
+be a precipitous headland. Cliffs, seemingly rising perpendicularly out of the
+sea, faded away into the mist upon either hand as we approached. The land
+before us might have been a continent, so mighty appeared the shoreline; yet we
+knew that we must be thousands of miles from the nearest western land-mass—New
+Zealand or Australia.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We took our bearings with our crude and inaccurate instruments; we searched the
+chart; we cudgeled our brains; and at last it was Bradley who suggested a
+solution. He was in the tower and watching the compass, to which he called my
+attention. The needle was pointing straight toward the land. Bradley swung the
+helm hard to starboard. I could feel the <i>U</i>-33 respond, and yet the arrow
+still clung straight and sure toward the distant cliffs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What do you make of it?” I asked him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Did you ever hear of Caproni?” he asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“An early Italian navigator?” I returned.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Yes; he followed Cook about 1721. He is scarcely mentioned even by
+contemporaneous historians—probably because he got into political difficulties
+on his return to Italy. It was the fashion to scoff at his claims, but I recall
+reading one of his works—his only one, I believe—in which he described a new
+continent in the south seas, a continent made up of ‘some strange metal’ which
+attracted the compass; a rockbound, inhospitable coast, without beach or
+harbor, which extended for hundreds of miles. He could make no landing; nor in
+the several days he cruised about it did he see sign of life. He called it
+Caprona and sailed away. I believe, sir, that we are looking upon the coast of
+Caprona, uncharted and forgotten for two hundred years.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“If you are right, it might account for much of the deviation of the compass
+during the past two days,” I suggested. “Caprona has been luring us upon her
+deadly rocks. Well, we’ll accept her challenge. We’ll land upon Caprona. Along
+that long front there must be a vulnerable spot. We will find it, Bradley, for
+we must find it. We must find water on Caprona, or we must die.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so we approached the coast upon which no living eyes had ever rested.
+Straight from the ocean’s depths rose towering cliffs, shot with brown and
+blues and greens—withered moss and lichen and the verdigris of copper, and
+everywhere the rusty ocher of iron pyrites. The cliff-tops, though ragged, were
+of such uniform height as to suggest the boundaries of a great plateau, and now
+and again we caught glimpses of verdure topping the rocky escarpment, as though
+bush or jungle-land had pushed outward from a lush vegetation farther inland to
+signal to an unseeing world that Caprona lived and joyed in life beyond her
+austere and repellent coast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But metaphor, however poetic, never slaked a dry throat. To enjoy Caprona’s
+romantic suggestions we must have water, and so we came in close, always
+sounding, and skirted the shore. As close in as we dared cruise, we found
+fathomless depths, and always the same undented coastline of bald cliffs. As
+darkness threatened, we drew away and lay well off the coast all night. We had
+not as yet really commenced to suffer for lack of water; but I knew that it
+would not be long before we did, and so at the first streak of dawn I moved in
+again and once more took up the hopeless survey of the forbidding coast.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Toward noon we discovered a beach, the first we had seen. It was a narrow strip
+of sand at the base of a part of the cliff that seemed lower than any we had
+before scanned. At its foot, half buried in the sand, lay great boulders, mute
+evidence that in a bygone age some mighty natural force had crumpled Caprona’s
+barrier at this point. It was Bradley who first called our attention to a
+strange object lying among the boulders above the surf.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Looks like a man,” he said, and passed his glasses to me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I looked long and carefully and could have sworn that the thing I saw was the
+sprawled figure of a human being. Miss La Rue was on deck with us. I turned and
+asked her to go below. Without a word she did as I bade. Then I stripped, and
+as I did so, Nobs looked questioningly at me. He had been wont at home to enter
+the surf with me, and evidently he had not forgotten it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What are you going to do, sir?” asked Olson.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I’m going to see what that thing is on shore,” I replied. “If it’s a man, it
+may mean that Caprona is inhabited, or it may merely mean that some poor devils
+were shipwrecked here. I ought to be able to tell from the clothing which is
+more near the truth.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“How about sharks?” queried Olson. “Sure, you ought to carry a knoife.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Here you are, sir,” cried one of the men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a long slim blade he offered—one that I could carry between my teeth—and
+so I accepted it gladly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Keep close in,” I directed Bradley, and then I dived over the side and struck
+out for the narrow beach. There was another splash directly behind me, and
+turning my head, I saw faithful old Nobs swimming valiantly in my wake.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The surf was not heavy, and there was no undertow, so we made shore easily,
+effecting an equally easy landing. The beach was composed largely of small
+stones worn smooth by the action of water. There was little sand, though from
+the deck of the <i>U</i>-33 the beach had appeared to be all sand, and I saw no
+evidences of mollusca or crustacea such as are common to all beaches I have
+previously seen. I attribute this to the fact of the smallness of the beach,
+the enormous depth of surrounding water and the great distance at which Caprona
+lies from her nearest neighbor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As Nobs and I approached the recumbent figure farther up the beach, I was
+appraised by my nose that whether man or not, the thing had once been organic
+and alive, but that for some time it had been dead. Nobs halted, sniffed and
+growled. A little later he sat down upon his haunches, raised his muzzle to the
+heavens and bayed forth a most dismal howl. I shied a small stone at him and
+bade him shut up—his uncanny noise made me nervous. When I had come quite close
+to the thing, I still could not say whether it had been man or beast. The
+carcass was badly swollen and partly decomposed. There was no sign of clothing
+upon or about it. A fine, brownish hair covered the chest and abdomen, and the
+face, the palms of the hands, the feet, the shoulders and back were practically
+hairless. The creature must have been about the height of a fair sized man; its
+features were similar to those of a man; yet had it been a man?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I could not say, for it resembled an ape no more than it did a man. Its large
+toes protruded laterally as do those of the semiarboreal peoples of Borneo, the
+Philippines and other remote regions where low types still persist. The
+countenance might have been that of a cross between <i>Pithecanthropus</i>, the
+Java ape-man, and a daughter of the Piltdown race of prehistoric Sussex. A
+wooden cudgel lay beside the corpse.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now this fact set me thinking. There was no wood of any description in sight.
+There was nothing about the beach to suggest a wrecked mariner. There was
+absolutely nothing about the body to suggest that it might possibly in life
+have known a maritime experience. It was the body of a low type of man or a
+high type of beast. In neither instance would it have been of a seafaring race.
+Therefore I deduced that it was native to Caprona—that it lived inland, and
+that it had fallen or been hurled from the cliffs above. Such being the case,
+Caprona was inhabitable, if not inhabited, by man; but how to reach the
+inhabitable interior! That was the question. A closer view of the cliffs than
+had been afforded me from the deck of the <i>U</i>-33 only confirmed my
+conviction that no mortal man could scale those perpendicular heights; there
+was not a finger-hold, not a toe-hold, upon them. I turned away baffled.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nobs and I met with no sharks upon our return journey to the submarine. My
+report filled everyone with theories and speculations, and with renewed hope
+and determination. They all reasoned along the same lines that I had
+reasoned—the conclusions were obvious, but not the water. We were now thirstier
+than ever.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The balance of that day we spent in continuing a minute and fruitless
+exploration of the monotonous coast. There was not another break in the
+frowning cliffs—not even another minute patch of pebbly beach. As the sun fell,
+so did our spirits. I had tried to make advances to the girl again; but she
+would have none of me, and so I was not only thirsty but otherwise sad and
+downhearted. I was glad when the new day broke the hideous spell of a sleepless
+night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The morning’s search brought us no shred of hope. Caprona was impregnable—that
+was the decision of all; yet we kept on. It must have been about two bells of
+the afternoon watch that Bradley called my attention to the branch of a tree,
+with leaves upon it, floating on the sea. “It may have been carried down to the
+ocean by a river,” he suggested.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Yes,” I replied, “it may have; it may have tumbled or been thrown off the top
+of one of these cliffs.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bradley’s face fell. “I thought of that, too,” he replied, “but I wanted to
+believe the other.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Right you are!” I cried. “We must believe the other until we prove it false.
+We can’t afford to give up heart now, when we need heart most. The branch was
+carried down by a river, and we are going to find that river.” I smote my open
+palm with a clenched fist, to emphasize a determination unsupported by hope.
+“There!” I cried suddenly. “See that, Bradley?” And I pointed at a spot closer
+to shore. “See that, man!” Some flowers and grasses and another leafy branch
+floated toward us. We both scanned the water and the coastline. Bradley
+evidently discovered something, or at least thought that he had. He called down
+for a bucket and a rope, and when they were passed up to him, he lowered the
+former into the sea and drew it in filled with water. Of this he took a taste,
+and straightening up, looked into my eyes with an expression of elation—as much
+as to say “I told you so!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“This water is warm,” he announced, “and fresh!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I grabbed the bucket and tasted its contents. The water was very warm, and it
+was fresh, but there was a most unpleasant taste to it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Did you ever taste water from a stagnant pool full of tadpoles?” Bradley
+asked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“That’s it,” I exclaimed, “—that’s just the taste exactly, though I haven’t
+experienced it since boyhood; but how can water from a flowing stream, taste
+thus, and what the dickens makes it so warm? It must be at least 70 or 80
+Fahrenheit, possibly higher.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Yes,” agreed Bradley, “I should say higher; but where does it come from?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“That is easily discovered now that we have found it,” I answered. “It can’t
+come from the ocean; so it must come from the land. All that we have to do is
+follow it, and sooner or later we shall come upon its source.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We were already rather close in; but I ordered the <i>U</i>-33’s prow turned
+inshore and we crept slowly along, constantly dipping up the water and tasting
+it to assure ourselves that we didn’t get outside the fresh-water current.
+There was a very light off-shore wind and scarcely any breakers, so that the
+approach to the shore was continued without finding bottom; yet though we were
+already quite close, we saw no indication of any indention in the coast from
+which even a tiny brooklet might issue, and certainly no mouth of a large river
+such as this must necessarily be to freshen the ocean even two hundred yards
+from shore. The tide was running out, and this, together with the strong flow
+of the freshwater current, would have prevented our going against the cliffs
+even had we not been under power; as it was we had to buck the combined forces
+in order to hold our position at all. We came up to within twenty-five feet of
+the sheer wall, which loomed high above us. There was no break in its
+forbidding face. As we watched the face of the waters and searched the cliff’s
+high face, Olson suggested that the fresh water might come from a submarine
+geyser. This, he said, would account for its heat; but even as he spoke a bush,
+covered thickly with leaves and flowers, bubbled to the surface and floated off
+astern.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Flowering shrubs don’t thrive in the subterranean caverns from which geysers
+spring,” suggested Bradley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Olson shook his head. “It beats me,” he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I’ve got it!” I exclaimed suddenly. “Look there!” And I pointed at the base of
+the cliff ahead of us, which the receding tide was gradually exposing to our
+view. They all looked, and all saw what I had seen—the top of a dark opening in
+the rock, through which water was pouring out into the sea. “It’s the
+subterranean channel of an inland river,” I cried. “It flows through a land
+covered with vegetation—and therefore a land upon which the sun shines. No
+subterranean caverns produce any order of plant life even remotely resembling
+what we have seen disgorged by this river. Beyond those cliffs lie fertile
+lands and fresh water—perhaps, game!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Yis, sir,” said Olson, “behoind the cliffs! Ye spoke a true word,
+sir—behoind!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Bradley laughed—a rather sorry laugh, though. “You might as well call our
+attention to the fact, sir,” he said, “that science has indicated that there is
+fresh water and vegetation on Mars.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Not at all,” I rejoined. “A U-boat isn’t constructed to navigate space, but it
+is designed to travel below the surface of the water.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You’d be after sailin’ into that blank pocket?” asked Olson.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I would, Olson,” I replied. “We haven’t one chance for life in a hundred
+thousand if we don’t find food and water upon Caprona. This water coming out of
+the cliff is not salt; but neither is it fit to drink, though each of us has
+drunk. It is fair to assume that inland the river is fed by pure streams, that
+there are fruits and herbs and game. Shall we lie out here and die of thirst
+and starvation with a land of plenty possibly only a few hundred yards away? We
+have the means for navigating a subterranean river. Are we too cowardly to
+utilize this means?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Be afther goin’ to it,” said Olson.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I’m willing to see it through,” agreed Bradley.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Then under the bottom, wi’ the best o’ luck an’ give ’em hell!” cried a young
+fellow who had been in the trenches.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“To the diving-stations!” I commanded, and in less than a minute the deck was
+deserted, the conning-tower covers had slammed to and the <i>U</i>-33 was
+submerging—possibly for the last time. I know that I had this feeling, and I
+think that most of the others did.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we went down, I sat in the tower with the searchlight projecting its
+seemingly feeble rays ahead. We submerged very slowly and without headway more
+than sufficient to keep her nose in the right direction, and as we went down, I
+saw outlined ahead of us the black opening in the great cliff. It was an
+opening that would have admitted a half-dozen U-boats at one and the same time,
+roughly cylindrical in contour—and dark as the pit of perdition.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I gave the command which sent the <i>U</i>-33 slowly ahead, I could not but
+feel a certain uncanny presentiment of evil. Where were we going? What lay at
+the end of this great sewer? Had we bidden farewell forever to the sunlight and
+life, or were there before us dangers even greater than those which we now
+faced? I tried to keep my mind from vain imagining by calling everything which
+I observed to the eager ears below. I was the eyes of the whole company, and I
+did my best not to fail them. We had advanced a hundred yards, perhaps, when
+our first danger confronted us. Just ahead was a sharp right-angle turn in the
+tunnel. I could see the river’s flotsam hurtling against the rocky wall upon
+the left as it was driven on by the mighty current, and I feared for the safety
+of the <i>U</i>-33 in making so sharp a turn under such adverse conditions; but
+there was nothing for it but to try. I didn’t warn my fellows of the danger—it
+could have but caused them useless apprehension, for if we were to be smashed
+against the rocky wall, no power on earth could avert the quick end that would
+come to us. I gave the command full speed ahead and went charging toward the
+menace. I was forced to approach the dangerous left-hand wall in order to make
+the turn, and I depended upon the power of the motors to carry us through the
+surging waters in safety. Well, we made it; but it was a narrow squeak. As we
+swung around, the full force of the current caught us and drove the stern
+against the rocks; there was a thud which sent a tremor through the whole
+craft, and then a moment of nasty grinding as the steel hull scraped the rock
+wall. I expected momentarily the inrush of waters that would seal our doom; but
+presently from below came the welcome word that all was well.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In another fifty yards there was a second turn, this time toward the left! but
+it was more of a gentle curve, and we took it without trouble. After that it
+was plain sailing, though as far as I could know, there might be most anything
+ahead of us, and my nerves strained to the snapping-point every instant. After
+the second turn the channel ran comparatively straight for between one hundred
+and fifty and two hundred yards. The waters grew suddenly lighter, and my
+spirits rose accordingly. I shouted down to those below that I saw daylight
+ahead, and a great shout of thanksgiving reverberated through the ship. A
+moment later we emerged into sunlit water, and immediately I raised the
+periscope and looked about me upon the strangest landscape I had ever seen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We were in the middle of a broad and now sluggish river the banks of which were
+lined by giant, arboraceous ferns, raising their mighty fronds fifty, one
+hundred, two hundred feet into the quiet air. Close by us something rose to the
+surface of the river and dashed at the periscope. I had a vision of wide,
+distended jaws, and then all was blotted out. A shiver ran down into the tower
+as the thing closed upon the periscope. A moment later it was gone, and I could
+see again. Above the trees there soared into my vision a huge thing on batlike
+wings—a creature large as a large whale, but fashioned more after the order of
+a lizard. Then again something charged the periscope and blotted out the
+mirror. I will confess that I was almost gasping for breath as I gave the
+commands to emerge. Into what sort of strange land had fate guided us?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The instant the deck was awash, I opened the conning-tower hatch and stepped
+out. In another minute the deck-hatch lifted, and those who were not on duty
+below streamed up the ladder, Olson bringing Nobs under one arm. For several
+minutes no one spoke; I think they must each have been as overcome by awe as
+was I. All about us was a flora and fauna as strange and wonderful to us as
+might have been those upon a distant planet had we suddenly been miraculously
+transported through ether to an unknown world. Even the grass upon the nearer
+bank was unearthly—lush and high it grew, and each blade bore upon its tip a
+brilliant flower—violet or yellow or carmine or blue—making as gorgeous a sward
+as human imagination might conceive. But the life! It teemed. The tall,
+fernlike trees were alive with monkeys, snakes, and lizards. Huge insects
+hummed and buzzed hither and thither. Mighty forms could be seen moving upon
+the ground in the thick forest, while the bosom of the river wriggled with
+living things, and above flapped the wings of gigantic creatures such as we are
+taught have been extinct throughout countless ages.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Look!” cried Olson. “Would you look at the giraffe comin’ up out o’ the bottom
+of the say?” We looked in the direction he pointed and saw a long, glossy neck
+surmounted by a small head rising above the surface of the river. Presently the
+back of the creature was exposed, brown and glossy as the water dripped from
+it. It turned its eyes upon us, opened its lizard-like mouth, emitted a shrill
+hiss and came for us. The thing must have been sixteen or eighteen feet in
+length and closely resembled pictures I had seen of restored plesiosaurs of the
+lower Jurassic. It charged us as savagely as a mad bull, and one would have
+thought it intended to destroy and devour the mighty U-boat, as I verily
+believe it did intend.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We were moving slowly up the river as the creature bore down upon us with
+distended jaws. The long neck was far outstretched, and the four flippers with
+which it swam were working with powerful strokes, carrying it forward at a
+rapid pace. When it reached the craft’s side, the jaws closed upon one of the
+stanchions of the deck rail and tore it from its socket as though it had been a
+toothpick stuck in putty. At this exhibition of titanic strength I think we all
+simultaneously stepped backward, and Bradley drew his revolver and fired. The
+bullet struck the thing in the neck, just above its body; but instead of
+disabling it, merely increased its rage. Its hissing rose to a shrill scream as
+it raised half its body out of water onto the sloping sides of the hull of the
+<i>U</i>-33 and endeavored to scramble upon the deck to devour us. A dozen
+shots rang out as we who were armed drew our pistols and fired at the thing;
+but though struck several times, it showed no signs of succumbing and only
+floundered farther aboard the submarine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had noticed that the girl had come on deck and was standing not far behind
+me, and when I saw the danger to which we were all exposed, I turned and forced
+her toward the hatch. We had not spoken for some days, and we did not speak
+now; but she gave me a disdainful look, which was quite as eloquent as words,
+and broke loose from my grasp. I saw I could do nothing with her unless I
+exerted force, and so I turned with my back toward her that I might be in a
+position to shield her from the strange reptile should it really succeed in
+reaching the deck; and as I did so I saw the thing raise one flipper over the
+rail, dart its head forward and with the quickness of lightning seize upon one
+of the boches. I ran forward, discharging my pistol into the creature’s body in
+an effort to force it to relinquish its prey; but I might as profitably have
+shot at the sun.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shrieking and screaming, the German was dragged from the deck, and the moment
+the reptile was clear of the boat, it dived beneath the surface of the water
+with its terrified prey. I think we were all more or less shaken by the
+frightfulness of the tragedy—until Olson remarked that the balance of power now
+rested where it belonged. Following the death of Benson we had been nine and
+nine—nine Germans and nine “Allies,” as we called ourselves, now there were but
+eight Germans. We never counted the girl on either side, I suppose because she
+was a girl, though we knew well enough now that she was ours.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so Olson’s remark helped to clear the atmosphere for the Allies at least,
+and then our attention was once more directed toward the river, for around us
+there had sprung up a perfect bedlam of screams and hisses and a seething
+caldron of hideous reptiles, devoid of fear and filled only with hunger and
+with rage. They clambered, squirmed and wriggled to the deck, forcing us
+steadily backward, though we emptied our pistols into them. There were all
+sorts and conditions of horrible things—huge, hideous, grotesque, monstrous—a
+veritable Mesozoic nightmare. I saw that the girl was gotten below as quickly
+as possible, and she took Nobs with her—poor Nobs had nearly barked his head
+off; and I think, too, that for the first time since his littlest puppyhood he
+had known fear; nor can I blame him. After the girl I sent Bradley and most of
+the Allies and then the Germans who were on deck—von Schoenvorts being still in
+irons below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The creatures were approaching perilously close before I dropped through the
+hatchway and slammed down the cover. Then I went into the tower and ordered
+full speed ahead, hoping to distance the fearsome things; but it was useless.
+Not only could any of them easily outdistance the <i>U</i>-33, but the further
+upstream we progressed the greater the number of our besiegers, until fearful
+of navigating a strange river at high speed, I gave orders to reduce and moved
+slowly and majestically through the plunging, hissing mass. I was mighty glad
+that our entrance into the interior of Caprona had been inside a submarine
+rather than in any other form of vessel. I could readily understand how it
+might have been that Caprona had been invaded in the past by venturesome
+navigators without word of it ever reaching the outside world, for I can assure
+you that only by submarine could man pass up that great sluggish river, alive.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We proceeded up the river for some forty miles before darkness overtook us. I
+was afraid to submerge and lie on the bottom overnight for fear that the mud
+might be deep enough to hold us, and as we could not hold with the anchor, I
+ran in close to shore, and in a brief interim of attack from the reptiles we
+made fast to a large tree. We also dipped up some of the river water and found
+it, though quite warm, a little sweeter than before. We had food enough, and
+with the water we were all quite refreshed; but we missed fresh meat. It had
+been weeks, now, since we had tasted it, and the sight of the reptiles gave me
+an idea—that a steak or two from one of them might not be bad eating. So I went
+on deck with a rifle, twenty of which were aboard the <i>U</i>-33. At sight of
+me a huge thing charged and climbed to the deck. I retreated to the top of the
+conning-tower, and when it had raised its mighty bulk to the level of the
+little deck on which I stood, I let it have a bullet right between the eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The thing stopped then and looked at me a moment as much as to say: “Why this
+thing has a stinger! I must be careful.” And then it reached out its long neck
+and opened its mighty jaws and grabbed for me; but I wasn’t there. I had
+tumbled backward into the tower, and I mighty near killed myself doing it. When
+I glanced up, that little head on the end of its long neck was coming straight
+down on top of me, and once more I tumbled into greater safety, sprawling upon
+the floor of the centrale.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Olson was looking up, and seeing what was poking about in the tower, ran for an
+ax; nor did he hesitate a moment when he returned with one, but sprang up the
+ladder and commenced chopping away at that hideous face. The thing didn’t have
+sufficient brainpan to entertain more than a single idea at once. Though
+chopped and hacked, and with a bullethole between its eyes, it still persisted
+madly in its attempt to get inside the tower and devour Olson, though its body
+was many times the diameter of the hatch; nor did it cease its efforts until
+after Olson had succeeded in decapitating it. Then the two men went on deck
+through the main hatch, and while one kept watch, the other cut a hind quarter
+off <i>Plesiosaurus Olsoni</i>, as Bradley dubbed the thing. Meantime Olson cut
+off the long neck, saying that it would make fine soup. By the time we had
+cleared away the blood and refuse in the tower, the cook had juicy steaks and a
+steaming broth upon the electric stove, and the aroma arising from P. Olsoni
+filled us all with a hitherto unfelt admiration for him and all his kind.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap05"></a>Chapter 5</h2>
+
+<p>
+The steaks we had that night, and they were fine; and the following morning we
+tasted the broth. It seemed odd to be eating a creature that should, by all the
+laws of paleontology, have been extinct for several million years. It gave one
+a feeling of newness that was almost embarrassing, although it didn’t seem to
+embarrass our appetites. Olson ate until I thought he would burst.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The girl ate with us that night at the little officers’ mess just back of the
+torpedo compartment. The narrow table was unfolded; the four stools were set
+out; and for the first time in days we sat down to eat, and for the first time
+in weeks we had something to eat other than the monotony of the short rations
+of an impoverished U-boat. Nobs sat between the girl and me and was fed with
+morsels of the Plesiosaurus steak, at the risk of forever contaminating his
+manners. He looked at me sheepishly all the time, for he knew that no well-bred
+dog should eat at table; but the poor fellow was so wasted from improper food
+that I couldn’t enjoy my own meal had he been denied an immediate share in it;
+and anyway Lys wanted to feed him. So there you are.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lys was coldly polite to me and sweetly gracious to Bradley and Olson. She
+wasn’t of the gushing type, I knew; so I didn’t expect much from her and was
+duly grateful for the few morsels of attention she threw upon the floor to me.
+We had a pleasant meal, with only one unfortunate occurrence—when Olson
+suggested that possibly the creature we were eating was the same one that ate
+the German. It was some time before we could persuade the girl to continue her
+meal, but at last Bradley prevailed upon her, pointing out that we had come
+upstream nearly forty miles since the boche had been seized, and that during
+that time we had seen literally thousands of these denizens of the river,
+indicating that the chances were very remote that this was the same Plesiosaur.
+“And anyway,” he concluded, “it was only a scheme of Mr. Olson’s to get all the
+steaks for himself.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We discussed the future and ventured opinions as to what lay before us; but we
+could only theorize at best, for none of us knew. If the whole land was
+infested by these and similar horrid monsters, life would be impossible upon
+it, and we decided that we would only search long enough to find and take
+aboard fresh water and such meat and fruits as might be safely procurable and
+then retrace our way beneath the cliffs to the open sea.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And so at last we turned into our narrow bunks, hopeful, happy and at peace
+with ourselves, our lives and our God, to awaken the following morning
+refreshed and still optimistic. We had an easy time getting away—as we learned
+later, because the saurians do not commence to feed until late in the morning.
+From noon to midnight their curve of activity is at its height, while from dawn
+to about nine o’clock it is lowest. As a matter of fact, we didn’t see one of
+them all the time we were getting under way, though I had the cannon raised to
+the deck and manned against an assault. I hoped, but I was none too sure, that
+shells might discourage them. The trees were full of monkeys of all sizes and
+shades, and once we thought we saw a manlike creature watching us from the
+depth of the forest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shortly after we resumed our course upstream, we saw the mouth of another and
+smaller river emptying into the main channel from the south—that is, upon our
+right; and almost immediately after we came upon a large island five or six
+miles in length; and at fifty miles there was a still larger river than the
+last coming in from the northwest, the course of the main stream having now
+changed to northeast by southwest. The water was quite free from reptiles, and
+the vegetation upon the banks of the river had altered to more open and
+parklike forest, with eucalyptus and acacia mingled with a scattering of tree
+ferns, as though two distinct periods of geologic time had overlapped and
+merged. The grass, too, was less flowering, though there were still gorgeous
+patches mottling the greensward; and lastly, the fauna was less multitudinous.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Six or seven miles farther, and the river widened considerably; before us
+opened an expanse of water to the farther horizon, and then we sailed out upon
+an inland sea so large that only a shore-line upon our side was visible to us.
+The waters all about us were alive with life. There were still a few reptiles;
+but there were fish by the thousands, by the millions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The water of the inland sea was very warm, almost hot, and the atmosphere was
+hot and heavy above it. It seemed strange that beyond the buttressed walls of
+Caprona icebergs floated and the south wind was biting, for only a gentle
+breeze moved across the face of these living waters, and that was damp and
+warm. Gradually, we commenced to divest ourselves of our clothing, retaining
+only sufficient for modesty; but the sun was not hot. It was more the heat of a
+steam-room than of an oven.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We coasted up the shore of the lake in a north-westerly direction, sounding all
+the time. We found the lake deep and the bottom rocky and steeply shelving
+toward the center, and once when I moved straight out from shore to take other
+soundings we could find no bottom whatsoever. In open spaces along the shore we
+caught occasional glimpses of the distant cliffs, and here they appeared only a
+trifle less precipitous than those which bound Caprona on the seaward side. My
+theory is that in a far distant era Caprona was a mighty mountain—perhaps the
+world’s mightiest mountain—and that in some titanic eruption volcanic action
+blew off the entire crest, blew thousands of feet of the mountain upward and
+outward and onto the surrounding continent, leaving a great crater; and then,
+possibly, the continent sank as ancient continents have been known to do,
+leaving only the summit of Caprona above the sea. The encircling walls, the
+central lake, the hot springs which feed the lake, all point to such a
+conclusion, and the fauna and the flora bear indisputable evidence that Caprona
+was once part of some great land-mass.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As we cruised up along the coast, the landscape continued a more or less open
+forest, with here and there a small plain where we saw animals grazing. With my
+glass I could make out a species of large red deer, some antelope and what
+appeared to be a species of horse; and once I saw the shaggy form of what might
+have been a monstrous bison. Here was game a plenty! There seemed little danger
+of starving upon Caprona. The game, however, seemed wary; for the instant the
+animals discovered us, they threw up their heads and tails and went cavorting
+off, those farther inland following the example of the others until all were
+lost in the mazes of the distant forest. Only the great, shaggy ox stood his
+ground. With lowered head he watched us until we had passed, and then continued
+feeding.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About twenty miles up the coast from the mouth of the river we encountered low
+cliffs of sandstone, broken and tortured evidence of the great upheaval which
+had torn Caprona asunder in the past, intermingling upon a common level the
+rock formations of widely separated eras, fusing some and leaving others
+untouched.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We ran along beside them for a matter of ten miles, arriving off a broad cleft
+which led into what appeared to be another lake. As we were in search of pure
+water, we did not wish to overlook any portion of the coast, and so after
+sounding and finding that we had ample depth, I ran the <i>U</i>-33 between
+head-lands into as pretty a landlocked harbor as sailormen could care to see,
+with good water right up to within a few yards of the shore. As we cruised
+slowly along, two of the boches again saw what they believed to be a man, or
+manlike creature, watching us from a fringe of trees a hundred yards inland,
+and shortly after we discovered the mouth of a small stream emptying into the
+bay. It was the first stream we had found since leaving the river, and I at
+once made preparations to test its water. To land, it would be necessary to run
+the <i>U</i>-33 close in to the shore, at least as close as we could, for even
+these waters were infested, though, not so thickly, by savage reptiles. I
+ordered sufficient water let into the diving-tanks to lower us about a foot,
+and then I ran the bow slowly toward the shore, confident that should we run
+aground, we still had sufficient lifting force to free us when the water should
+be pumped out of the tanks; but the bow nosed its way gently into the reeds and
+touched the shore with the keel still clear.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My men were all armed now with both rifles and pistols, each having plenty of
+ammunition. I ordered one of the Germans ashore with a line, and sent two of my
+own men to guard him, for from what little we had seen of Caprona, or Caspak as
+we learned later to call the interior, we realized that any instant some new
+and terrible danger might confront us. The line was made fast to a small tree,
+and at the same time I had the stern anchor dropped.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As soon as the boche and his guard were aboard again, I called all hands on
+deck, including von Schoenvorts, and there I explained to them that the time
+had come for us to enter into some sort of an agreement among ourselves that
+would relieve us of the annoyance and embarrassment of being divided into two
+antagonistic parts—prisoners and captors. I told them that it was obvious our
+very existence depended upon our unity of action, that we were to all intent
+and purpose entering a new world as far from the seat and causes of our own
+world-war as if millions of miles of space and eons of time separated us from
+our past lives and habitations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“There is no reason why we should carry our racial and political hatreds into
+Caprona,” I insisted. “The Germans among us might kill all the English, or the
+English might kill the last German, without affecting in the slightest degree
+either the outcome of even the smallest skirmish upon the western front or the
+opinion of a single individual in any belligerent or neutral country. I
+therefore put the issue squarely to you all; shall we bury our animosities and
+work together with and for one another while we remain upon Caprona, or must we
+continue thus divided and but half armed, possibly until death has claimed the
+last of us? And let me tell you, if you have not already realized it, the
+chances are a thousand to one that not one of us ever will see the outside
+world again. We are safe now in the matter of food and water; we could
+provision the <i>U</i>-33 for a long cruise; but we are practically out of
+fuel, and without fuel we cannot hope to reach the ocean, as only a submarine
+can pass through the barrier cliffs. What is your answer?” I turned toward von
+Schoenvorts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He eyed me in that disagreeable way of his and demanded to know, in case they
+accepted my suggestion, what their status would be in event of our finding a
+way to escape with the <i>U</i>-33. I replied that I felt that if we had all
+worked loyally together we should leave Caprona upon a common footing, and to
+that end I suggested that should the remote possibility of our escape in the
+submarine develop into reality, we should then immediately make for the nearest
+neutral port and give ourselves into the hands of the authorities, when we
+should all probably be interned for the duration of the war. To my surprise he
+agreed that this was fair and told me that they would accept my conditions and
+that I could depend upon their loyalty to the common cause.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I thanked him and then addressed each one of his men individually, and each
+gave me his word that he would abide by all that I had outlined. It was further
+understood that we were to act as a military organization under military rules
+and discipline—I as commander, with Bradley as my first lieutenant and Olson as
+my second, in command of the Englishmen; while von Schoenvorts was to act as an
+additional second lieutenant and have charge of his own men. The four of us
+were to constitute a military court under which men might be tried and
+sentenced to punishment for infraction of military rules and discipline, even
+to the passing of the death-sentence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I then had arms and ammunition issued to the Germans, and leaving Bradley and
+five men to guard the <i>U</i>-33, the balance of us went ashore. The first
+thing we did was to taste the water of the little stream—which, to our delight,
+we found sweet, pure and cold. This stream was entirely free from dangerous
+reptiles, because, as I later discovered, they became immediately dormant when
+subjected to a much lower temperature than 70 degrees Fahrenheit. They dislike
+cold water and keep as far away from it as possible. There were countless
+brook-trout here, and deep holes that invited us to bathe, and along the bank
+of the stream were trees bearing a close resemblance to ash and beech and oak,
+their characteristics evidently induced by the lower temperature of the air
+above the cold water and by the fact that their roots were watered by the water
+from the stream rather than from the warm springs which we afterward found in
+such abundance elsewhere.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our first concern was to fill the water tanks of the <i>U</i>-33 with fresh
+water, and that having been accomplished, we set out to hunt for game and
+explore inland for a short distance. Olson, von Schoenvorts, two Englishmen and
+two Germans accompanied me, leaving ten to guard the ship and the girl. I had
+intended leaving Nobs behind, but he got away and joined me and was so happy
+over it that I hadn’t the heart to send him back. We followed the stream upward
+through a beautiful country for about five miles, and then came upon its source
+in a little boulder-strewn clearing. From among the rocks bubbled fully twenty
+ice-cold springs. North of the clearing rose sandstone cliffs to a height of
+some fifty to seventy-five feet, with tall trees growing at their base and
+almost concealing them from our view. To the west the country was flat and
+sparsely wooded, and here it was that we saw our first game—a large red deer.
+It was grazing away from us and had not seen us when one of my men called my
+attention to it. Motioning for silence and having the rest of the party lie
+down, I crept toward the quarry, accompanied only by Whitely. We got within a
+hundred yards of the deer when he suddenly raised his antlered head and pricked
+up his great ears. We both fired at once and had the satisfaction of seeing the
+buck drop; then we ran forward to finish him with our knives. The deer lay in a
+small open space close to a clump of acacias, and we had advanced to within
+several yards of our kill when we both halted suddenly and simultaneously.
+Whitely looked at me, and I looked at Whitely, and then we both looked back in
+the direction of the deer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Blime!” he said. “Wot is hit, sir?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It looks to me, Whitely, like an error,” I said; “some assistant god who had
+been creating elephants must have been temporarily transferred to the
+lizard-department.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Hi wouldn’t s’y that, sir,” said Whitely; “it sounds blasphemous.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“It is no more blasphemous than that thing which is swiping our meat,” I
+replied, for whatever the thing was, it had leaped upon our deer and was
+devouring it in great mouthfuls which it swallowed without mastication. The
+creature appeared to be a great lizard at least ten feet high, with a huge,
+powerful tail as long as its torso, mighty hind legs and short forelegs. When
+it had advanced from the wood, it hopped much after the fashion of a kangaroo,
+using its hind feet and tail to propel it, and when it stood erect, it sat upon
+its tail. Its head was long and thick, with a blunt muzzle, and the opening of
+the jaws ran back to a point behind the eyes, and the jaws were armed with long
+sharp teeth. The scaly body was covered with black and yellow spots about a
+foot in diameter and irregular in contour. These spots were outlined in red
+with edgings about an inch wide. The underside of the chest, body and tail were
+a greenish white.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Wot s’y we pot the bloomin’ bird, sir?” suggested Whitely.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I told him to wait until I gave the word; then we would fire simultaneously, he
+at the heart and I at the spine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Hat the ’eart, sir—yes, sir,” he replied, and raised his piece to his
+shoulder.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our shots rang out together. The thing raised its head and looked about until
+its eyes rested upon us; then it gave vent to a most appalling hiss that rose
+to the crescendo of a terrific shriek and came for us.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Beat it, Whitely!” I cried as I turned to run.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We were about a quarter of a mile from the rest of our party, and in full sight
+of them as they lay in the tall grass watching us. That they saw all that had
+happened was evidenced by the fact that they now rose and ran toward us, and at
+their head leaped Nobs. The creature in our rear was gaining on us rapidly when
+Nobs flew past me like a meteor and rushed straight for the frightful reptile.
+I tried to recall him, but he would pay no attention to me, and as I couldn’t
+see him sacrificed, I, too, stopped and faced the monster. The creature
+appeared to be more impressed with Nobs than by us and our firearms, for it
+stopped as the Airedale dashed at it growling, and struck at him viciously with
+its powerful jaws.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nobs, though, was lightning by comparison with the slow thinking beast and
+dodged his opponent’s thrust with ease. Then he raced to the rear of the
+tremendous thing and seized it by the tail. There Nobs made the error of his
+life. Within that mottled organ were the muscles of a Titan, the force of a
+dozen mighty catapults, and the owner of the tail was fully aware of the
+possibilities which it contained. With a single flip of the tip it sent poor
+Nobs sailing through the air a hundred feet above the ground, straight back
+into the clump of acacias from which the beast had leaped upon our kill—and
+then the grotesque thing sank lifeless to the ground.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Olson and von Schoenvorts came up a minute later with their men; then we all
+cautiously approached the still form upon the ground. The creature was quite
+dead, and an examination resulted in disclosing the fact that Whitely’s bullet
+had pierced its heart, and mine had severed the spinal cord.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“But why didn’t it die instantly?” I exclaimed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Because,” said von Schoenvorts in his disagreeable way, “the beast is so
+large, and its nervous organization of so low a caliber, that it took all this
+time for the intelligence of death to reach and be impressed upon the minute
+brain. The thing was dead when your bullets struck it; but it did not know it
+for several seconds—possibly a minute. If I am not mistaken, it is an
+Allosaurus of the Upper Jurassic, remains of which have been found in Central
+Wyoming, in the suburbs of New York.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An Irishman by the name of Brady grinned. I afterward learned that he had
+served three years on the traffic-squad of the Chicago police force.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had been calling Nobs in the meantime and was about to set out in search of
+him, fearing, to tell the truth, to do so lest I find him mangled and dead
+among the trees of the acacia grove, when he suddenly emerged from among the
+boles, his ears flattened, his tail between his legs and his body screwed into
+a suppliant S. He was unharmed except for minor bruises; but he was the most
+chastened dog I have ever seen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We gathered up what was left of the red deer after skinning and cleaning it,
+and set out upon our return journey toward the U-boat. On the way Olson, von
+Schoenvorts and I discussed the needs of our immediate future, and we were
+unanimous in placing foremost the necessity of a permanent camp on shore. The
+interior of a U-boat is about as impossible and uncomfortable an abiding-place
+as one can well imagine, and in this warm climate, and in warm water, it was
+almost unendurable. So we decided to construct a palisaded camp.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap06"></a>Chapter 6</h2>
+
+<p>
+As we strolled slowly back toward the boat, planning and discussing this, we
+were suddenly startled by a loud and unmistakable detonation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“A shell from the <i>U</i>-33!” exclaimed von Schoenvorts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What can be after signifyin’?” queried Olson.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“They are in trouble,” I answered for all, “and it’s up to us to get back to
+them. Drop that carcass,” I directed the men carrying the meat, “and follow
+me!” I set off at a rapid run in the direction of the harbor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We ran for the better part of a mile without hearing anything more from the
+direction of the harbor, and then I reduced the speed to a walk, for the
+exercise was telling on us who had been cooped up for so long in the confined
+interior of the <i>U</i>-33. Puffing and panting, we plodded on until within
+about a mile of the harbor we came upon a sight that brought us all up
+standing. We had been passing through a little heavier timber than was usual to
+this part of the country, when we suddenly emerged into an open space in the
+center of which was such a band as might have caused the most courageous to
+pause. It consisted of upward of five hundred individuals representing several
+species closely allied to man. There were anthropoid apes and gorillas—these I
+had no difficulty in recognizing; but there were other forms which I had never
+before seen, and I was hard put to it to say whether they were ape or man. Some
+of them resembled the corpse we had found upon the narrow beach against
+Caprona’s sea-wall, while others were of a still lower type, more nearly
+resembling the apes, and yet others were uncannily manlike, standing there
+erect, being less hairy and possessing better shaped heads.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There was one among the lot, evidently the leader of them, who bore a close
+resemblance to the so-called Neanderthal man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints. There
+was the same short, stocky trunk upon which rested an enormous head habitually
+bent forward into the same curvature as the back, the arms shorter than the
+legs, and the lower leg considerably shorter than that of modern man, the knees
+bent forward and never straightened. This creature and one or two others who
+appeared to be of a lower order than he, yet higher than that of the apes,
+carried heavy clubs; the others were armed only with giant muscles and fighting
+fangs—nature’s weapons. All were males, and all were entirely naked; nor was
+there upon even the highest among them a sign of ornamentation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At sight of us they turned with bared fangs and low growls to confront us. I
+did not wish to fire among them unless it became absolutely necessary, and so I
+started to lead my party around them; but the instant that the Neanderthal man
+guessed my intention, he evidently attributed it to cowardice upon our part,
+and with a wild cry he leaped toward us, waving his cudgel above his head. The
+others followed him, and in a minute we should have been overwhelmed. I gave
+the order to fire, and at the first volley six of them went down, including the
+Neanderthal man. The others hesitated a moment and then broke for the trees,
+some running nimbly among the branches, while others lost themselves to us
+between the boles. Both von Schoenvorts and I noticed that at least two of the
+higher, manlike types took to the trees quite as nimbly as the apes, while
+others that more nearly approached man in carriage and appearance sought safety
+upon the ground with the gorillas.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+An examination disclosed that five of our erstwhile opponents were dead and the
+sixth, the Neanderthal man, was but slightly wounded, a bullet having glanced
+from his thick skull, stunning him. We decided to take him with us to camp, and
+by means of belts we managed to secure his hands behind his back and place a
+leash around his neck before he regained consciousness. We then retraced our
+steps for our meat being convinced by our own experience that those aboard the
+<i>U</i>-33 had been able to frighten off this party with a single shell—but
+when we came to where we had left the deer it had disappeared.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the return journey Whitely and I preceded the rest of the party by about a
+hundred yards in the hope of getting another shot at something edible, for we
+were all greatly disgusted and disappointed by the loss of our venison. Whitely
+and I advanced very cautiously, and not having the whole party with us, we
+fared better than on the journey out, bagging two large antelope not a
+half-mile from the harbor; so with our game and our prisoner we made a cheerful
+return to the boat, where we found that all were safe. On the shore a little
+north of where we lay there were the corpses of twenty of the wild creatures
+who had attacked Bradley and his party in our absence, and the rest of whom we
+had met and scattered a few minutes later.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We felt that we had taught these wild ape-men a lesson and that because of it
+we would be safer in the future—at least safer from them; but we decided not to
+abate our carefulness one whit, feeling that this new world was filled with
+terrors still unknown to us; nor were we wrong.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The following morning we commenced work upon our camp, Bradley, Olson, von
+Schoenvorts, Miss La Rue, and I having sat up half the night discussing the
+matter and drawing plans. We set the men at work felling trees, selecting for
+the purpose jarrah, a hard, weather-resisting timber which grew in profusion
+near by. Half the men labored while the other half stood guard, alternating
+each hour with an hour off at noon. Olson directed this work. Bradley, von
+Schoenvorts and I, with Miss La Rue’s help, staked out the various buildings
+and the outer wall. When the day was done, we had quite an array of logs nicely
+notched and ready for our building operations on the morrow, and we were all
+tired, for after the buildings had been staked out we all fell in and helped
+with the logging—all but von Schoenvorts. He, being a Prussian and a gentleman,
+couldn’t stoop to such menial labor in the presence of his men, and I didn’t
+see fit to ask it of him, as the work was purely voluntary upon our part. He
+spent the afternoon shaping a swagger-stick from the branch of jarrah and
+talking with Miss La Rue, who had sufficiently unbent toward him to notice his
+existence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We saw nothing of the wild men of the previous day, and only once were we
+menaced by any of the strange denizens of Caprona, when some frightful
+nightmare of the sky swooped down upon us, only to be driven off by a fusillade
+of bullets. The thing appeared to be some variety of pterodactyl, and what with
+its enormous size and ferocious aspect was most awe-inspiring. There was
+another incident, too, which to me at least was far more unpleasant than the
+sudden onslaught of the prehistoric reptile. Two of the men, both Germans, were
+stripping a felled tree of its branches. Von Schoenvorts had completed his
+swagger-stick, and he and I were passing close to where the two worked.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of them threw to his rear a small branch that he had just chopped off, and
+as misfortune would have it, it struck von Schoenvorts across the face. It
+couldn’t have hurt him, for it didn’t leave a mark; but he flew into a terrific
+rage, shouting: “Attention!” in a loud voice. The sailor immediately
+straightened up, faced his officer, clicked his heels together and saluted.
+“Pig!” roared the Baron, and struck the fellow across the face, breaking his
+nose. I grabbed von Schoenvorts’ arm and jerked him away before he could strike
+again, if such had been his intention, and then he raised his little stick to
+strike me; but before it descended the muzzle of my pistol was against his
+belly and he must have seen in my eyes that nothing would suit me better than
+an excuse to pull the trigger. Like all his kind and all other bullies, von
+Schoenvorts was a coward at heart, and so he dropped his hand to his side and
+started to turn away; but I pulled him back, and there before his men I told
+him that such a thing must never again occur—that no man was to be struck or
+otherwise punished other than in due process of the laws that we had made and
+the court that we had established. All the time the sailor stood rigidly at
+attention, nor could I tell from his expression whether he most resented the
+blow his officer had struck him or my interference in the gospel of the
+Kaiser-breed. Nor did he move until I said to him: “Plesser, you may return to
+your quarters and dress your wound.” Then he saluted and marched stiffly off
+toward the <i>U</i>-33.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Just before dusk we moved out into the bay a hundred yards from shore and
+dropped anchor, for I felt that we should be safer there than elsewhere. I also
+detailed men to stand watch during the night and appointed Olson officer of the
+watch for the entire night, telling him to bring his blankets on deck and get
+what rest he could. At dinner we tasted our first roast Caprona antelope, and
+we had a mess of greens that the cook had found growing along the stream. All
+during the meal von Schoenvorts was silent and surly.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After dinner we all went on deck and watched the unfamiliar scenes of a
+Capronian night—that is, all but von Schoenvorts. There was less to see than to
+hear. From the great inland lake behind us came the hissing and the screaming
+of countless saurians. Above us we heard the flap of giant wings, while from
+the shore rose the multitudinous voices of a tropical jungle—of a warm, damp
+atmosphere such as must have enveloped the entire earth during the Palezeoic
+and Mesozoic eras. But here were intermingled the voices of later eras—the
+scream of the panther, the roar of the lion, the baying of wolves and a
+thunderous growling which we could attribute to nothing earthly but which one
+day we were to connect with the most fearsome of ancient creatures.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One by one the others went to their rooms, until the girl and I were left alone
+together, for I had permitted the watch to go below for a few minutes, knowing
+that I would be on deck. Miss La Rue was very quiet, though she replied
+graciously enough to whatever I had to say that required reply. I asked her if
+she did not feel well.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Yes,” she said, “but I am depressed by the awfulness of it all. I feel of so
+little consequence—so small and helpless in the face of all these myriad
+manifestations of life stripped to the bone of its savagery and brutality. I
+realize as never before how cheap and valueless a thing is life. Life seems a
+joke, a cruel, grim joke. You are a laughable incident or a terrifying one as
+you happen to be less powerful or more powerful than some other form of life
+which crosses your path; but as a rule you are of no moment whatsoever to
+anything but yourself. You are a comic little figure, hopping from the cradle
+to the grave. Yes, that is our trouble—we take ourselves too seriously; but
+Caprona should be a sure cure for that.” She paused and laughed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You have evolved a beautiful philosophy,” I said. “It fills such a longing in
+the human breast. It is full, it is satisfying, it is ennobling. What wondrous
+strides toward perfection the human race might have made if the first man had
+evolved it and it had persisted until now as the creed of humanity.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I don’t like irony,” she said; “it indicates a small soul.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“What other sort of soul, then, would you expect from ‘a comic little figure
+hopping from the cradle to the grave’?” I inquired. “And what difference does
+it make, anyway, what you like and what you don’t like? You are here for but an
+instant, and you mustn’t take yourself too seriously.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She looked up at me with a smile. “I imagine that I am frightened and blue,”
+she said, “and I know that I am very, very homesick and lonely.” There was
+almost a sob in her voice as she concluded. It was the first time that she had
+spoken thus to me. Involuntarily, I laid my hand upon hers where it rested on
+the rail.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I know how difficult your position is,” I said; “but don’t feel that you are
+alone. There is—is one here who—who would do anything in the world for you,” I
+ended lamely. She did not withdraw her hand, and she looked up into my face
+with tears on her cheeks and I read in her eyes the thanks her lips could not
+voice. Then she looked away across the weird moonlit landscape and sighed.
+Evidently her new-found philosophy had tumbled about her ears, for she was
+seemingly taking herself seriously. I wanted to take her in my arms and tell
+her how I loved her, and had taken her hand from the rail and started to draw
+her toward me when Olson came blundering up on deck with his bedding.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The following morning we started building operations in earnest, and things
+progressed finely. The Neanderthal man was something of a care, for we had to
+keep him in irons all the time, and he was mighty savage when approached; but
+after a time he became more docile, and then we tried to discover if he had a
+language. Lys spent a great deal of time talking to him and trying to draw him
+out; but for a long while she was unsuccessful. It took us three weeks to build
+all the houses, which we constructed close by a cold spring some two miles from
+the harbor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We changed our plans a trifle when it came to building the palisade, for we
+found a rotted cliff near by where we could get all the flat building-stone we
+needed, and so we constructed a stone wall entirely around the buildings. It
+was in the form of a square, with bastions and towers at each corner which
+would permit an enfilading fire along any side of the fort, and was about one
+hundred and thirty-five feet square on the outside, with walls three feet thick
+at the bottom and about a foot and a half wide at the top, and fifteen feet
+high. It took a long time to build that wall, and we all turned in and helped
+except von Schoenvorts, who, by the way, had not spoken to me except in the
+line of official business since our encounter—a condition of armed neutrality
+which suited me to a T. We have just finished it, the last touches being put on
+today. I quit about a week ago and commenced working on this chronicle for our
+strange adventures, which will account for any minor errors in chronology which
+may have crept in; there was so much material that I may have made some
+mistakes, but I think they are but minor and few.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I see in reading over the last few pages that I neglected to state that Lys
+finally discovered that the Neanderthal man possessed a language. She has
+learned to speak it, and so have I, to some extent. It was he—his name he says
+is Am, or Ahm—who told us that this country is called Caspak. When we asked him
+how far it extended, he waved both arms about his head in an all-including
+gesture which took in, apparently, the entire universe. He is more tractable
+now, and we are going to release him, for he has assured us that he will not
+permit his fellows to harm us. He calls us Galus and says that in a short time
+he will be a Galu. It is not quite clear to us what he means. He says that
+there are many Galus north of us, and that as soon as he becomes one he will go
+and live with them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Ahm went out to hunt with us yesterday and was much impressed by the ease with
+which our rifles brought down antelopes and deer. We have been living upon the
+fat of the land, Ahm having shown us the edible fruits, tubers and herbs, and
+twice a week we go out after fresh meat. A certain proportion of this we dry
+and store away, for we do not know what may come. Our drying process is really
+smoking. We have also dried a large quantity of two varieties of cereal which
+grow wild a few miles south of us. One of these is a giant Indian maize—a lofty
+perennial often fifty and sixty feet in height, with ears the size of a man’s
+body and kernels as large as your fist. We have had to construct a second store
+house for the great quantity of this that we have gathered.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>September</i> 3, 1916: Three months ago today the torpedo from the
+<i>U</i>-33 started me from the peaceful deck of the American liner upon the
+strange voyage which has ended here in Caspak. We have settled down to an
+acceptance of our fate, for all are convinced that none of us will ever see the
+outer world again. Ahm’s repeated assertions that there are human beings like
+ourselves in Caspak have roused the men to a keen desire for exploration. I
+sent out one party last week under Bradley. Ahm, who is now free to go and come
+as he wishes, accompanied them. They marched about twenty-five miles due west,
+encountering many terrible beasts and reptiles and not a few manlike creatures
+whom Ahm sent away. Here is Bradley’s report of the expedition:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Marched fifteen miles the first day, camping on the bank of a large stream
+which runs southward. Game was plentiful and we saw several varieties which we
+had not before encountered in Caspak. Just before making camp we were charged
+by an enormous woolly rhinoceros, which Plesser dropped with a perfect shot. We
+had rhinoceros-steaks for supper. Ahm called the thing “Atis.” It was almost a
+continuous battle from the time we left the fort until we arrived at camp. The
+mind of man can scarce conceive the plethora of carnivorous life in this lost
+world; and their prey, of course, is even more abundant.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The second day we marched about ten miles to the foot of the cliffs. Passed
+through dense forests close to the base of the cliffs. Saw manlike creatures
+and a low order of ape in one band, and some of the men swore that there was a
+white man among them. They were inclined to attack us at first; but a volley
+from our rifles caused them to change their minds. We scaled the cliffs as far
+as we could; but near the top they are absolutely perpendicular without any
+sufficient cleft or protuberance to give hand or foot-hold. All were
+disappointed, for we hungered for a view of the ocean and the outside world. We
+even had a hope that we might see and attract the attention of a passing ship.
+Our exploration has determined one thing which will probably be of little value
+to us and never heard of beyond Caprona’s walls—this crater was once entirely
+filled with water. Indisputable evidence of this is on the face of the cliffs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Our return journey occupied two days and was as filled with adventure as usual.
+We are all becoming accustomed to adventure. It is beginning to pall on us. We
+suffered no casualties and there was no illness.
+</p>
+
+<p class="p2">
+I had to smile as I read Bradley’s report. In those four days he had doubtless
+passed through more adventures than an African big-game hunter experiences in a
+lifetime, and yet he covered it all in a few lines. Yes, we are becoming
+accustomed to adventure. Not a day passes that one or more of us does not face
+death at least once. Ahm taught us a few things that have proved profitable and
+saved us much ammunition, which it is useless to expend except for food or in
+the last recourse of self-preservation. Now when we are attacked by large
+flying reptiles we run beneath spreading trees; when land carnivora threaten
+us, we climb into trees, and we have learned not to fire at any of the
+dinosaurs unless we can keep out of their reach for at least two minutes after
+hitting them in the brain or spine, or five minutes after puncturing their
+hearts—it takes them so long to die. To hit them elsewhere is worse than
+useless, for they do not seem to notice it, and we had discovered that such
+shots do not kill or even disable them.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<i>September</i> 7, 1916: Much has happened since I last wrote. Bradley is away
+again on another exploration expedition to the cliffs. He expects to be gone
+several weeks and to follow along their base in search of a point where they
+may be scaled. He took Sinclair, Brady, James, and Tippet with him. Ahm has
+disappeared. He has been gone about three days; but the most startling thing I
+have on record is that von Schoenvorts and Olson while out hunting the other
+day discovered oil about fifteen miles north of us beyond the sandstone cliffs.
+Olson says there is a geyser of oil there, and von Schoenvorts is making
+preparations to refine it. If he succeeds, we shall have the means for leaving
+Caspak and returning to our own world. I can scarce believe the truth of it. We
+are all elated to the seventh heaven of bliss. Pray God we shall not be
+disappointed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I have tried on several occasions to broach the subject of my love to Lys; but
+she will not listen.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap07"></a>Chapter 7</h2>
+
+<p>
+October 8, 1916: This is the last entry I shall make upon my manuscript. When
+this is done, I shall be through. Though I may pray that it reaches the haunts
+of civilized man, my better judgment tells me that it will never be perused by
+other eyes than mine, and that even though it should, it would be too late to
+avail me. I am alone upon the summit of the great cliff overlooking the broad
+Pacific. A chill south wind bites at my marrow, while far below me I can see
+the tropic foliage of Caspak on the one hand and huge icebergs from the near
+Antarctic upon the other. Presently I shall stuff my folded manuscript into the
+thermos bottle I have carried with me for the purpose since I left the
+fort—Fort Dinosaur we named it—and hurl it far outward over the cliff-top into
+the Pacific. What current washes the shore of Caprona I know not; whither my
+bottle will be borne I cannot even guess; but I have done all that mortal man
+may do to notify the world of my whereabouts and the dangers that threaten
+those of us who remain alive in Caspak—if there be any other than myself.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+About the 8th of September I accompanied Olson and von Schoenvorts to the
+oil-geyser. Lys came with us, and we took a number of things which von
+Schoenvorts wanted for the purpose of erecting a crude refinery. We went up the
+coast some ten or twelve miles in the <i>U</i>-33, tying up to shore near the
+mouth of a small stream which emptied great volumes of crude oil into the sea—I
+find it difficult to call this great lake by any other name. Then we
+disembarked and went inland about five miles, where we came upon a small lake
+entirely filled with oil, from the center of which a geyser of oil spouted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+On the edge of the lake we helped von Schoenvorts build his primitive refinery.
+We worked with him for two days until he got things fairly well started, and
+then we returned to Fort Dinosaur, as I feared that Bradley might return and be
+worried by our absence. The <i>U</i>-33 merely landed those of us that were to
+return to the fort and then retraced its course toward the oil-well. Olson,
+Whitely, Wilson, Miss La Rue, and myself disembarked, while von Schoenvorts and
+his German crew returned to refine the oil. The next day Plesser and two other
+Germans came down overland for ammunition. Plesser said they had been attacked
+by wild men and had exhausted a great deal of ammunition. He also asked
+permission to get some dried meat and maize, saying that they were so busy with
+the work of refining that they had no time to hunt. I let him have everything
+he asked for, and never once did a suspicion of their intentions enter my mind.
+They returned to the oil-well the same day, while we continued with the
+multitudinous duties of camp life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For three days nothing of moment occurred. Bradley did not return; nor did we
+have any word from von Schoenvorts. In the evening Lys and I went up into one
+of the bastion towers and listened to the grim and terrible nightlife of the
+frightful ages of the past. Once a saber-tooth screamed almost beneath us, and
+the girl shrank close against me. As I felt her body against mine, all the pent
+love of these three long months shattered the bonds of timidity and conviction,
+and I swept her up into my arms and covered her face and lips with kisses. She
+did not struggle to free herself; but instead her dear arms crept up about my
+neck and drew my own face even closer to hers.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You love me, Lys?” I cried.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I felt her head nod an affirmative against my breast. “Tell me, Lys,” I begged,
+“tell me in words how much you love me.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Low and sweet and tender came the answer: “I love you beyond all conception.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+My heart filled with rapture then, and it fills now as it has each of the
+countless times I have recalled those dear words, as it shall fill always until
+death has claimed me. I may never see her again; she may not know how I love
+her—she may question, she may doubt; but always true and steady, and warm with
+the fires of love my heart beats for the girl who said that night: “I love you
+beyond all conception.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For a long time we sat there upon the little bench constructed for the sentry
+that we had not as yet thought it necessary to post in more than one of the
+four towers. We learned to know one another better in those two brief hours
+than we had in all the months that had intervened since we had been thrown
+together. She told me that she had loved me from the first, and that she never
+had loved von Schoenvorts, their engagement having been arranged by her aunt
+for social reasons.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That was the happiest evening of my life; nor ever do I expect to experience
+its like; but at last, as is the way of happiness, it terminated. We descended
+to the compound, and I walked with Lys to the door of her quarters. There again
+she kissed me and bade me good night, and then she went in and closed the door.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I went to my own room, and there I sat by the light of one of the crude candles
+we had made from the tallow of the beasts we had killed, and lived over the
+events of the evening. At last I turned in and fell asleep, dreaming happy
+dreams and planning for the future, for even in savage Caspak I was bound to
+make my girl safe and happy. It was daylight when I awoke. Wilson, who was
+acting as cook, was up and astir at his duties in the cook-house. The others
+slept; but I arose and followed by Nobs went down to the stream for a plunge.
+As was our custom, I went armed with both rifle and revolver; but I stripped
+and had my swim without further disturbance than the approach of a large hyena,
+a number of which occupied caves in the sand-stone cliffs north of the camp.
+These brutes are enormous and exceedingly ferocious. I imagine they correspond
+with the cave-hyena of prehistoric times. This fellow charged Nobs, whose
+Capronian experiences had taught him that discretion is the better part of
+valor—with the result that he dived head foremost into the stream beside me
+after giving vent to a series of ferocious growls which had no more effect upon
+<i>Hyaena spelaeus</i> than might a sweet smile upon an enraged tusker.
+Afterward I shot the beast, and Nobs had a feast while I dressed, for he had
+become quite a raw-meat eater during our numerous hunting expeditions, upon
+which we always gave him a portion of the kill.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whitely and Olson were up and dressed when we returned, and we all sat down to
+a good breakfast. I could not but wonder at Lys’ absence from the table, for
+she had always been one of the earliest risers in camp; so about nine o’clock,
+becoming apprehensive lest she might be indisposed, I went to the door of her
+room and knocked. I received no response, though I finally pounded with all my
+strength; then I turned the knob and entered, only to find that she was not
+there. Her bed had been occupied, and her clothing lay where she had placed it
+the previous night upon retiring; but Lys was gone. To say that I was
+distracted with terror would be to put it mildly. Though I knew she could not
+be in camp, I searched every square inch of the compound and all the buildings,
+yet without avail.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was Whitely who discovered the first clue—a huge human-like footprint in the
+soft earth beside the spring, and indications of a struggle in the mud.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then I found a tiny handkerchief close to the outer wall. Lys had been stolen!
+It was all too plain. Some hideous member of the ape-man tribe had entered the
+fort and carried her off. While I stood stunned and horrified at the frightful
+evidence before me, there came from the direction of the great lake an
+increasing sound that rose to the volume of a shriek. We all looked up as the
+noise approached apparently just above us, and a moment later there followed a
+terrific explosion which hurled us to the ground. When we clambered to our
+feet, we saw a large section of the west wall torn and shattered. It was Olson
+who first recovered from his daze sufficiently to guess the explanation of the
+phenomenon.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“A shell!” he cried. “And there ain’t no shells in Caspak besides what’s on the
+<i>U</i>-33. The dirty boches are shellin’ the fort. Come on!” And he grasped
+his rifle and started on a run toward the lake. It was over two miles, but we
+did not pause until the harbor was in view, and still we could not see the lake
+because of the sandstone cliffs which intervened. We ran as fast as we could
+around the lower end of the harbor, scrambled up the cliffs and at last stood
+upon their summit in full view of the lake. Far away down the coast, toward the
+river through which we had come to reach the lake, we saw upon the surface the
+outline of the <i>U</i>-33, black smoke vomiting from her funnel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Von Schoenvorts had succeeded in refining the oil! The cur had broken his every
+pledge and was leaving us there to our fates. He had even shelled the fort as a
+parting compliment; nor could anything have been more truly Prussian than this
+leave-taking of the Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Olson, Whitely, Wilson, and I stood for a moment looking at one another. It
+seemed incredible that man could be so perfidious—that we had really seen with
+our own eyes the thing that we had seen; but when we returned to the fort, the
+shattered wall gave us ample evidence that there was no mistake.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Then we began to speculate as to whether it had been an ape-man or a Prussian
+that had abducted Lys. From what we knew of von Schoenvorts, we would not have
+been surprised at anything from him; but the footprints by the spring seemed
+indisputable evidence that one of Caprona’s undeveloped men had borne off the
+girl I loved.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As soon as I had assured myself that such was the case, I made my preparations
+to follow and rescue her. Olson, Whitely, and Wilson each wished to accompany
+me; but I told them that they were needed here, since with Bradley’s party
+still absent and the Germans gone it was necessary that we conserve our force
+as far as might be possible.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap08"></a>Chapter 8</h2>
+
+<p>
+It was a sad leave-taking as in silence I shook hands with each of the three
+remaining men. Even poor Nobs appeared dejected as we quit the compound and set
+out upon the well-marked spoor of the abductor. Not once did I turn my eyes
+backward toward Fort Dinosaur. I have not looked upon it since—nor in all
+likelihood shall I ever look upon it again. The trail led northwest until it
+reached the western end of the sandstone cliffs to the north of the fort; there
+it ran into a well-defined path which wound northward into a country we had not
+as yet explored. It was a beautiful, gently rolling country, broken by
+occasional outcroppings of sandstone and by patches of dense forest relieved by
+open, park-like stretches and broad meadows whereon grazed countless
+herbivorous animals—red deer, aurochs, and infinite variety of antelope and at
+least three distinct species of horse, the latter ranging in size from a
+creature about as large as Nobs to a magnificent animal fourteen to sixteen
+hands high. These creatures fed together in perfect amity; nor did they show
+any great indications of terror when Nobs and I approached. They moved out of
+our way and kept their eyes upon us until we had passed; then they resumed
+their feeding.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The path led straight across the clearing into another forest, lying upon the
+verge of which I saw a bit of white. It appeared to stand out in marked
+contrast and incongruity to all its surroundings, and when I stopped to examine
+it, I found that it was a small strip of muslin—part of the hem of a garment.
+At once I was all excitement, for I knew that it was a sign left by Lys that
+she had been carried this way; it was a tiny bit torn from the hem of the
+undergarment that she wore in lieu of the night-robes she had lost with the
+sinking of the liner. Crushing the bit of fabric to my lips, I pressed on even
+more rapidly than before, because I now knew that I was upon the right trail
+and that up to this point at least, Lys still had lived.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I made over twenty miles that day, for I was now hardened to fatigue and
+accustomed to long hikes, having spent considerable time hunting and exploring
+in the immediate vicinity of camp. A dozen times that day was my life
+threatened by fearsome creatures of the earth or sky, though I could not but
+note that the farther north I traveled, the fewer were the great dinosaurs,
+though they still persisted in lesser numbers. On the other hand the quantity
+of ruminants and the variety and frequency of carnivorous animals increased.
+Each square mile of Caspak harbored its terrors.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At intervals along the way I found bits of muslin, and often they reassured me
+when otherwise I should have been doubtful of the trail to take where two
+crossed or where there were forks, as occurred at several points. And so, as
+night was drawing on, I came to the southern end of a line of cliffs loftier
+than any I had seen before, and as I approached them, there was wafted to my
+nostrils the pungent aroma of woodsmoke. What could it mean? There could, to my
+mind, be but a single solution: man abided close by, a higher order of man than
+we had as yet seen, other than Ahm, the Neanderthal man. I wondered again as I
+had so many times that day if it had not been Ahm who stole Lys.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Cautiously I approached the flank of the cliffs, where they terminated in an
+abrupt escarpment as though some all powerful hand had broken off a great
+section of rock and set it upon the surface of the earth. It was now quite
+dark, and as I crept around the edge of the cliff, I saw at a little distance a
+great fire around which were many figures—apparently human figures. Cautioning
+Nobs to silence, and he had learned many lessons in the value of obedience
+since we had entered Caspak, I slunk forward, taking advantage of whatever
+cover I could find, until from behind a bush I could distinctly see the
+creatures assembled by the fire. They were human and yet not human. I should
+say that they were a little higher in the scale of evolution than Ahm, possibly
+occupying a place of evolution between that of the Neanderthal man and what is
+known as the Grimaldi race. Their features were distinctly negroid, though
+their skins were white. A considerable portion of both torso and limbs were
+covered with short hair, and their physical proportions were in many aspects
+apelike, though not so much so as were Ahm’s. They carried themselves in a more
+erect position, although their arms were considerably longer than those of the
+Neanderthal man. As I watched them, I saw that they possessed a language, that
+they had knowledge of fire and that they carried besides the wooden club of
+Ahm, a thing which resembled a crude stone hatchet. Evidently they were very
+low in the scale of humanity, but they were a step upward from those I had
+previously seen in Caspak.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But what interested me most was the slender figure of a dainty girl, clad only
+in a thin bit of muslin which scarce covered her knees—a bit of muslin torn and
+ragged about the lower hem. It was Lys, and she was alive and so far as I could
+see, unharmed. A huge brute with thick lips and prognathous jaw stood at her
+shoulder. He was talking loudly and gesticulating wildly. I was close enough to
+hear his words, which were similar to the language of Ahm, though much fuller,
+for there were many words I could not understand. However I caught the gist of
+what he was saying—which in effect was that he had found and captured this
+Galu, that she was his and that he defied anyone to question his right of
+possession. It appeared to me, as I afterward learned was the fact, that I was
+witnessing the most primitive of marriage ceremonies. The assembled members of
+the tribe looked on and listened in a sort of dull and perfunctory apathy, for
+the speaker was by far the mightiest of the clan.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There seemed no one to dispute his claims when he said, or rather shouted, in
+stentorian tones: “I am Tsa. This is my she. Who wishes her more than Tsa?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I do,” I said in the language of Ahm, and I stepped out into the firelight
+before them. Lys gave a little cry of joy and started toward me, but Tsa
+grasped her arm and dragged her back.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Who are you?” shrieked Tsa. “I kill! I kill! I kill!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The she is mine,” I replied, “and I have come to claim her. I kill if you do
+not let her come to me.” And I raised my pistol to a level with his heart. Of
+course the creature had no conception of the purpose of the strange little
+implement which I was poking toward him. With a sound that was half human and
+half the growl of a wild beast, he sprang toward me. I aimed at his heart and
+fired, and as he sprawled headlong to the ground, the others of his tribe,
+overcome by fright at the report of the pistol, scattered toward the
+cliffs—while Lys, with outstretched arms, ran toward me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As I crushed her to me, there rose from the black night behind us and then to
+our right and to our left a series of frightful screams and shrieks,
+bellowings, roars and growls. It was the night-life of this jungle world coming
+into its own—the huge, carnivorous nocturnal beasts which make the nights of
+Caspak hideous. A shuddering sob ran through Lys’ figure. “O God,” she cried,
+“give me the strength to endure, for his sake!” I saw that she was upon the
+verge of a breakdown, after all that she must have passed through of fear and
+horror that day, and I tried to quiet and reassure her as best I might; but
+even to me the future looked most unpromising, for what chance of life had we
+against the frightful hunters of the night who even now were prowling closer to
+us?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Now I turned to see what had become of the tribe, and in the fitful glare of
+the fire I perceived that the face of the cliff was pitted with large holes
+into which the man-things were clambering. “Come,” I said to Lys, “we must
+follow them. We cannot last a half-hour out here. We must find a cave.” Already
+we could see the blazing green eyes of the hungry carnivora. I seized a brand
+from the fire and hurled it out into the night, and there came back an
+answering chorus of savage and rageful protest; but the eyes vanished for a
+short time. Selecting a burning branch for each of us, we advanced toward the
+cliffs, where we were met by angry threats.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“They will kill us,” said Lys. “We may as well keep on in search of another
+refuge.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“They will not kill us so surely as will those others out there,” I replied. “I
+am going to seek shelter in one of these caves; nor will the man-things
+prevent.” And I kept on in the direction of the cliff’s base. A huge creature
+stood upon a ledge and brandished his stone hatchet. “Come and I will kill you
+and take the she,” he boasted.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You saw how Tsa fared when he would have kept my she,” I replied in his own
+tongue. “Thus will you fare and all your fellows if you do not permit us to
+come in peace among you out of the dangers of the night.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Go north,” he screamed. “Go north among the Galus, and we will not harm you.
+Some day will we be Galus; but now we are not. You do not belong among us. Go
+away or we will kill you. The she may remain if she is afraid, and we will keep
+her; but the he must depart.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“The he won’t depart,” I replied, and approached still nearer. Rough and narrow
+ledges formed by nature gave access to the upper caves. A man might scale them
+if unhampered and unhindered, but to clamber upward in the face of a
+belligerent tribe of half-men and with a girl to assist was beyond my
+capability.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I do not fear you,” screamed the creature. “You were close to Tsa; but I am
+far above you. You cannot harm me as you harmed Tsa. Go away!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I placed a foot upon the lowest ledge and clambered upward, reaching down and
+pulling Lys to my side. Already I felt safer. Soon we would be out of danger of
+the beasts again closing in upon us. The man above us raised his stone hatchet
+above his head and leaped lightly down to meet us. His position above me gave
+him a great advantage, or at least so he probably thought, for he came with
+every show of confidence. I hated to do it, but there seemed no other way, and
+so I shot him down as I had shot down Tsa.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You see,” I cried to his fellows, “that I can kill you wherever you may be. A
+long way off I can kill you as well as I can kill you near by. Let us come
+among you in peace. I will not harm you if you do not harm us. We will take a
+cave high up. Speak!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Come, then,” said one. “If you will not harm us, you may come. Take Tsa’s
+hole, which lies above you.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The creature showed us the mouth of a black cave, but he kept at a distance
+while he did it, and Lys followed me as I crawled in to explore. I had matches
+with me, and in the light of one I found a small cavern with a flat roof and
+floor which followed the cleavage of the strata. Pieces of the roof had fallen
+at some long-distant date, as was evidenced by the depth of the filth and
+rubble in which they were embedded. Even a superficial examination revealed the
+fact that nothing had ever been attempted that might have improved the
+livability of the cavern; nor, should I judge, had it ever been cleaned out.
+With considerable difficulty I loosened some of the larger pieces of broken
+rock which littered the floor and placed them as a barrier before the doorway.
+It was too dark to do more than this. I then gave Lys a piece of dried meat,
+and sitting inside the entrance, we dined as must have some of our ancient
+forbears at the dawning of the age of man, while far below the open diapason of
+the savage night rose weird and horrifying to our ears. In the light of the
+great fire still burning we could see huge, skulking forms, and in the blacker
+background countless flaming eyes.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Lys shuddered, and I put my arm around her and drew her to me; and thus we sat
+throughout the hot night. She told me of her abduction and of the fright she
+had undergone, and together we thanked God that she had come through unharmed,
+because the great brute had dared not pause along the danger-infested way. She
+said that they had but just reached the cliffs when I arrived, for on several
+occasions her captor had been forced to take to the trees with her to escape
+the clutches of some hungry cave-lion or saber-toothed tiger, and that twice
+they had been obliged to remain for considerable periods before the beasts had
+retired.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nobs, by dint of much scrambling and one or two narrow escapes from death, had
+managed to follow us up the cliff and was now curled between me and the
+doorway, having devoured a piece of the dried meat, which he seemed to relish
+immensely. He was the first to fall asleep; but I imagine we must have followed
+suit soon, for we were both tired. I had laid aside my ammunition-belt and
+rifle, though both were close beside me; but my pistol I kept in my lap beneath
+my hand. However, we were not disturbed during the night, and when I awoke, the
+sun was shining on the tree-tops in the distance. Lys’ head had drooped to my
+breast, and my arm was still about her.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Shortly afterward Lys awoke, and for a moment she could not seem to comprehend
+her situation. She looked at me and then turned and glanced at my arm about
+her, and then she seemed quite suddenly to realize the scantiness of her
+apparel and drew away, covering her face with her palms and blushing furiously.
+I drew her back toward me and kissed her, and then she threw her arms about my
+neck and wept softly in mute surrender to the inevitable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was an hour later before the tribe began to stir about. We watched them from
+our “apartment,” as Lys called it. Neither men nor women wore any sort of
+clothing or ornaments, and they all seemed to be about of an age; nor were
+there any babies or children among them. This was, to us, the strangest and
+most inexplicable of facts, but it recalled to us that though we had seen many
+of the lesser developed wild people of Caspak, we had never yet seen a child or
+an old man or woman.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After a while they became less suspicious of us and then quite friendly in
+their brutish way. They picked at the fabric of our clothing, which seemed to
+interest them, and examined my rifle and pistol and the ammunition in the belt
+around my waist. I showed them the thermos-bottle, and when I poured a little
+water from it, they were delighted, thinking that it was a spring which I
+carried about with me—a never-failing source of water supply.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One thing we both noticed among their other characteristics: they never laughed
+nor smiled; and then we remembered that Ahm had never done so, either. I asked
+them if they knew Ahm; but they said they did not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One of them said: “Back there we may have known him.” And he jerked his head to
+the south.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You came from back there?” I asked. He looked at me in surprise.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“We all come from there,” he said. “After a while we go there.” And this time
+he jerked his head toward the north. “Be Galus,” he concluded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Many times now had we heard this reference to becoming Galus. Ahm had spoken of
+it many times. Lys and I decided that it was a sort of original religious
+conviction, as much a part of them as their instinct for self-preservation—a
+primal acceptance of a hereafter and a holier state. It was a brilliant theory,
+but it was all wrong. I know it now, and how far we were from guessing the
+wonderful, the miraculous, the gigantic truth which even yet I may only guess
+at—the thing that sets Caspak apart from all the rest of the world far more
+definitely than her isolated geographical position or her impregnable barrier
+of giant cliffs. If I could live to return to civilization, I should have meat
+for the clergy and the layman to chew upon for years—and for the evolutionists,
+too.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+After breakfast the men set out to hunt, while the women went to a large pool
+of warm water covered with a green scum and filled with billions of tadpoles.
+They waded in to where the water was about a foot deep and lay down in the mud.
+They remained there from one to two hours and then returned to the cliff. While
+we were with them, we saw this same thing repeated every morning; but though we
+asked them why they did it we could get no reply which was intelligible to us.
+All they vouchsafed in way of explanation was the single word Ata. They tried
+to get Lys to go in with them and could not understand why she refused. After
+the first day I went hunting with the men, leaving my pistol and Nobs with Lys,
+but she never had to use them, for no reptile or beast ever approached the pool
+while the women were there—nor, so far as we know, at other times. There was no
+spoor of wild beast in the soft mud along the banks, and the water certainly
+didn’t look fit to drink.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This tribe lived largely upon the smaller animals which they bowled over with
+their stone hatchets after making a wide circle about their quarry and driving
+it so that it had to pass close to one of their number. The little horses and
+the smaller antelope they secured in sufficient numbers to support life, and
+they also ate numerous varieties of fruits and vegetables. They never brought
+in more than sufficient food for their immediate needs; but why bother? The
+food problem of Caspak is not one to cause worry to her inhabitants.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fourth day Lys told me that she thought she felt equal to attempting the
+return journey on the morrow, and so I set out for the hunt in high spirits,
+for I was anxious to return to the fort and learn if Bradley and his party had
+returned and what had been the result of his expedition. I also wanted to
+relieve their minds as to Lys and myself, as I knew that they must have already
+given us up for dead. It was a cloudy day, though warm, as it always is in
+Caspak. It seemed odd to realize that just a few miles away winter lay upon the
+storm-tossed ocean, and that snow might be falling all about Caprona; but no
+snow could ever penetrate the damp, hot atmosphere of the great crater.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+We had to go quite a bit farther than usual before we could surround a little
+bunch of antelope, and as I was helping drive them, I saw a fine red deer a
+couple of hundred yards behind me. He must have been asleep in the long grass,
+for I saw him rise and look about him in a bewildered way, and then I raised my
+gun and let him have it. He dropped, and I ran forward to finish him with the
+long thin knife, which one of the men had given me; but just as I reached him,
+he staggered to his feet and ran on for another two hundred yards—when I
+dropped him again. Once more was this repeated before I was able to reach him
+and cut his throat; then I looked around for my companions, as I wanted them to
+come and carry the meat home; but I could see nothing of them. I called a few
+times and waited, but there was no response and no one came. At last I became
+disgusted, and cutting off all the meat that I could conveniently carry, I set
+off in the direction of the cliffs. I must have gone about a mile before the
+truth dawned upon me—I was lost, hopelessly lost.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The entire sky was still completely blotted out by dense clouds; nor was there
+any landmark visible by which I might have taken my bearings. I went on in the
+direction I thought was south but which I now imagine must have been about due
+north, without detecting a single familiar object. In a dense wood I suddenly
+stumbled upon a thing which at first filled me with hope and later with the
+most utter despair and dejection. It was a little mound of new-turned earth
+sprinkled with flowers long since withered, and at one end was a flat slab of
+sandstone stuck in the ground. It was a grave, and it meant for me that I had
+at last stumbled into a country inhabited by human beings. I would find them;
+they would direct me to the cliffs; perhaps they would accompany me and take us
+back with them to their abodes—to the abodes of men and women like ourselves.
+My hopes and my imagination ran riot in the few yards I had to cover to reach
+that lonely grave and stoop that I might read the rude characters scratched
+upon the simple headstone. This is what I read:
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+HERE LIES JOHN TIPPET<br/>
+ENGLISHMAN<br/>
+KILLED BY TYRANNOSAURUS<br/>
+10 SEPT., A.D. 1916<br/>
+R. I. P.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Tippet! It seemed incredible. Tippet lying here in this gloomy wood! Tippet
+dead! He had been a good man, but the personal loss was not what affected me.
+It was the fact that this silent grave gave evidence that Bradley had come this
+far upon his expedition and that he too probably was lost, for it was not our
+intention that he should be long gone. If I had stumbled upon the grave of one
+of the party, was it not within reason to believe that the bones of the others
+lay scattered somewhere near?
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap09"></a>Chapter 9</h2>
+
+<p>
+As I stood looking down upon that sad and lonely mound, wrapped in the most
+dismal of reflections and premonitions, I was suddenly seized from behind and
+thrown to earth. As I fell, a warm body fell on top of me, and hands grasped my
+arms and legs. When I could look up, I saw a number of giant figures pinioning
+me down, while others stood about surveying me. Here again was a new type of
+man—a higher type than the primitive tribe I had just quitted. They were a
+taller people, too, with better-shaped skulls and more intelligent faces. There
+were less of the ape characteristics about their features, and less of the
+negroid, too. They carried weapons, stone-shod spears, stone knives, and
+hatchets—and they wore ornaments and breech-cloths—the former of feathers worn
+in their hair and the latter made of a single snake-skin cured with the head
+on, the head depending to their knees.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of course I did not take in all these details upon the instant of my capture,
+for I was busy with other matters. Three of the warriors were sitting upon me,
+trying to hold me down by main strength and awkwardness, and they were having
+their hands full in the doing, I can tell you. I don’t like to appear
+conceited, but I may as well admit that I am proud of my strength and the
+science that I have acquired and developed in the directing of it—that and my
+horsemanship I always have been proud of. And now, that day, all the long hours
+that I had put into careful study, practice and training brought me in two or
+three minutes a full return upon my investment. Californians, as a rule, are
+familiar with ju-jutsu, and I especially had made a study of it for several
+years, both at school and in the gym of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, while
+recently I had had, in my employ, a Jap who was a wonder at the art.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It took me just about thirty seconds to break the elbow of one of my
+assailants, trip another and send him stumbling backward among his fellows, and
+throw the third completely over my head in such a way that when he fell his
+neck was broken. In the instant that the others of the party stood in mute and
+inactive surprise, I unslung my rifle—which, carelessly, I had been carrying
+across my back; and when they charged, as I felt they would, I put a bullet in
+the forehead of one of them. This stopped them all temporarily—not the death of
+their fellow, but the report of the rifle, the first they had ever heard.
+Before they were ready to attack me again, one of them spoke in a commanding
+tone to his fellows, and in a language similar but still more comprehensive
+than that of the tribe to the south, as theirs was more complete than Ahm’s. He
+commanded them to stand back and then he advanced and addressed me.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He asked me who I was, from whence I came and what my intentions were. I
+replied that I was a stranger in Caspak, that I was lost and that my only
+desire was to find my way back to my companions. He asked where they were and I
+told him toward the south somewhere, using the Caspakian phrase which,
+literally translated, means “toward the beginning.” His surprise showed upon
+his face before he voiced it in words. “There are no Galus there,” he said.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I tell you,” I said angrily, “that I am from another country, far from Caspak,
+far beyond the high cliffs. I do not know who the Galus may be; I have never
+seen them. This is the farthest north I have been. Look at me—look at my
+clothing and my weapons. Have you ever seen a Galu or any other creature in
+Caspak who possessed such things?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He had to admit that he had not, and also that he was much interested in me, my
+rifle and the way I had handled his three warriors. Finally he became half
+convinced that I was telling him the truth and offered to aid me if I would
+show him how I had thrown the man over my head and also make him a present of
+the “bang-spear,” as he called it. I refused to give him my rifle, but promised
+to show him the trick he wished to learn if he would guide me in the right
+direction. He told me that he would do so tomorrow, that it was too late today
+and that I might come to their village and spend the night with them. I was
+loath to lose so much time; but the fellow was obdurate, and so I accompanied
+them. The two dead men they left where they had fallen, nor gave them a second
+glance—thus cheap is life upon Caspak.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+These people also were cave-dwellers, but their caves showed the result of a
+higher intelligence that brought them a step nearer to civilized man than the
+tribe next “toward the beginning.” The interiors of their caverns were cleared
+of rubbish, though still far from clean, and they had pallets of dried grasses
+covered with the skins of leopard, lynx, and bear, while before the entrances
+were barriers of stone and small, rudely circular stone ovens. The walls of the
+cavern to which I was conducted were covered with drawings scratched upon the
+sandstone. There were the outlines of the giant red-deer, of mammoths, of
+tigers and other beasts. Here, as in the last tribe, there were no children or
+any old people. The men of this tribe had two names, or rather names of two
+syllables, and their language contained words of two syllables; whereas in the
+tribe of Tsa the words were all of a single syllable, with the exception of a
+very few like Atis and Galus. The chief’s name was To-jo, and his household
+consisted of seven females and himself. These women were much more comely, or
+rather less hideous than those of Tsa’s people; one of them, even, was almost
+pretty, being less hairy and having a rather nice skin, with high coloring.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+They were all much interested in me and examined my clothing and equipment
+carefully, handling and feeling and smelling of each article. I learned from
+them that their people were known as Band-lu, or spear-men; Tsa’s race was
+called Sto-lu—hatchet-men. Below these in the scale of evolution came the
+Bo-lu, or club-men, and then the Alus, who had no weapons and no language. In
+that word I recognized what to me seemed the most remarkable discovery I had
+made upon Caprona, for unless it were mere coincidence, I had come upon a word
+that had been handed down from the beginning of spoken language upon earth,
+been handed down for millions of years, perhaps, with little change. It was the
+sole remaining thread of the ancient woof of a dawning culture which had been
+woven when Caprona was a fiery mount upon a great land-mass teeming with life.
+It linked the unfathomable then to the eternal now. And yet it may have been
+pure coincidence; my better judgment tells me that it is coincidence that in
+Caspak the term for speechless man is Alus, and in the outer world of our own
+day it is Alalus.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The comely woman of whom I spoke was called So-ta, and she took such a lively
+interest in me that To-jo finally objected to her attentions, emphasizing his
+displeasure by knocking her down and kicking her into a corner of the cavern. I
+leaped between them while he was still kicking her, and obtaining a quick hold
+upon him, dragged him screaming with pain from the cave. Then I made him
+promise not to hurt the she again, upon pain of worse punishment. So-ta gave me
+a grateful look; but To-jo and the balance of his women were sullen and
+ominous.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Later in the evening So-ta confided to me that she was soon to leave the tribe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“So-ta soon to be Kro-lu,” she confided in a low whisper. I asked her what a
+Kro-lu might be, and she tried to explain, but I do not yet know if I
+understood her. From her gestures I deduced that the Kro-lus were a people who
+were armed with bows and arrows, had vessels in which to cook their food and
+huts of some sort in which they lived, and were accompanied by animals. It was
+all very fragmentary and vague, but the idea seemed to be that the Kro-lus were
+a more advanced people than the Band-lus. I pondered a long time upon all that
+I had heard, before sleep came to me. I tried to find some connection between
+these various races that would explain the universal hope which each of them
+harbored that some day they would become Galus. So-ta had given me a
+suggestion; but the resulting idea was so weird that I could scarce even
+entertain it; yet it coincided with Ahm’s expressed hope, with the various
+steps in evolution I had noted in the several tribes I had encountered and with
+the range of type represented in each tribe. For example, among the Band-lu
+were such types as So-ta, who seemed to me to be the highest in the scale of
+evolution, and To-jo, who was just a shade nearer the ape, while there were
+others who had flatter noses, more prognathous faces and hairier bodies. The
+question puzzled me. Possibly in the outer world the answer to it is locked in
+the bosom of the Sphinx. Who knows? I do not.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Thinking the thoughts of a lunatic or a dope-fiend, I fell asleep; and when I
+awoke, my hands and feet were securely tied and my weapons had been taken from
+me. How they did it without awakening me I cannot tell you. It was humiliating,
+but it was true. To-jo stood above me. The early light of morning was dimly
+filtering into the cave.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Tell me,” he demanded, “how to throw a man over my head and break his neck,
+for I am going to kill you, and I wish to know this thing before you die.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Of all the ingenuous declarations I have ever heard, this one copped the
+proverbial bun. It struck me as so funny that, even in the face of death, I
+laughed. Death, I may remark here, had, however, lost much of his terror for
+me. I had become a disciple of Lys’ fleeting philosophy of the valuelessness of
+human life. I realized that she was quite right—that we were but comic figures
+hopping from the cradle to the grave, of interest to practically no other
+created thing than ourselves and our few intimates.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Behind To-jo stood So-ta. She raised one hand with the palm toward me—the
+Caspakian equivalent of a negative shake of the head.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Let me think about it,” I parried, and To-jo said that he would wait until
+night. He would give me a day to think it over; then he left, and the women
+left—the men for the hunt, and the women, as I later learned from So-ta, for
+the warm pool where they immersed their bodies as did the shes of the Sto-lu.
+“Ata,” explained So-ta, when I questioned her as to the purpose of this
+matutinal rite; but that was later.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I must have lain there bound and uncomfortable for two or three hours when at
+last So-ta entered the cave. She carried a sharp knife—mine, in fact, and with
+it she cut my bonds.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Come!” she said. “So-ta will go with you back to the Galus. It is time that
+So-ta left the Band-lu. Together we will go to the Kro-lu, and after that the
+Galus. To-jo will kill you tonight. He will kill So-ta if he knows that So-ta
+aided you. We will go together.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“I will go with you to the Kro-lu,” I replied, “but then I must return to my
+own people ‘toward the beginning.’”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“You cannot go back,” she said. “It is forbidden. They would kill you. Thus far
+have you come—there is no returning.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“But I must return,” I insisted. “My people are there. I must return and lead
+them in this direction.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She insisted, and I insisted; but at last we compromised. I was to escort her
+as far as the country of the Kro-lu and then I was to go back after my own
+people and lead them north into a land where the dangers were fewer and the
+people less murderous. She brought me all my belongings that had been filched
+from me—rifle, ammunition, knife, and thermos bottle, and then hand in hand we
+descended the cliff and set off toward the north.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+For three days we continued upon our way, until we arrived outside a village of
+thatched huts just at dusk. So-ta said that she would enter alone; I must not
+be seen if I did not intend to remain, as it was forbidden that one should
+return and live after having advanced this far. So she left me. She was a dear
+girl and a stanch and true comrade—more like a man than a woman. In her simple
+barbaric way she was both refined and chaste. She had been the wife of To-jo.
+Among the Kro-lu she would find another mate after the manner of the strange
+Caspakian world; but she told me very frankly that whenever I returned, she
+would leave her mate and come to me, as she preferred me above all others. I
+was becoming a ladies’ man after a lifetime of bashfulness!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At the outskirts of the village I left her without even seeing the sort of
+people who inhabited it, and set off through the growing darkness toward the
+south. On the third day I made a detour westward to avoid the country of the
+Band-lu, as I did not care to be detained by a meeting with To-jo. On the sixth
+day I came to the cliffs of the Sto-lu, and my heart beat fast as I approached
+them, for here was Lys. Soon I would hold her tight in my arms again; soon her
+warm lips would merge with mine. I felt sure that she was still safe among the
+hatchet people, and I was already picturing the joy and the love-light in her
+eyes when she should see me once more as I emerged from the last clump of trees
+and almost ran toward the cliffs.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was late in the morning. The women must have returned from the pool; yet as
+I drew near, I saw no sign of life whatever. “They have remained longer,” I
+thought; but when I was quite close to the base of the cliffs, I saw that which
+dashed my hopes and my happiness to earth. Strewn along the ground were a score
+of mute and horrible suggestions of what had taken place during my
+absence—bones picked clean of flesh, the bones of manlike creatures, the bones
+of many of the tribe of Sto-lu; nor in any cave was there sign of life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Closely I examined the ghastly remains fearful each instant that I should find
+the dainty skull that would shatter my happiness for life; but though I
+searched diligently, picking up every one of the twenty-odd skulls, I found
+none that was the skull of a creature but slightly removed from the ape. Hope,
+then, still lived. For another three days I searched north and south, east and
+west for the hatchetmen of Caspak; but never a trace of them did I find. It was
+raining most of the time now, and the weather was as near cold as it ever seems
+to get on Caprona.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last I gave up the search and set off toward Fort Dinosaur. For a week—a
+week filled with the terrors and dangers of a primeval world—I pushed on in the
+direction I thought was south. The sun never shone; the rain scarcely ever
+ceased falling. The beasts I met with were fewer in number but infinitely more
+terrible in temper; yet I lived on until there came to me the realization that
+I was hopelessly lost, that a year of sunshine would not again give me my
+bearings; and while I was cast down by this terrifying knowledge, the knowledge
+that I never again could find Lys, I stumbled upon another grave—the grave of
+William James, with its little crude headstone and its scrawled characters
+recording that he had died upon the 13th of September—killed by a saber-tooth
+tiger.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I think that I almost gave up then. Never in my life have I felt more hopeless
+or helpless or alone. I was lost. I could not find my friends. I did not even
+know that they still lived; in fact, I could not bring myself to believe that
+they did. I was sure that Lys was dead. I wanted myself to die, and yet I clung
+to life—useless and hopeless and harrowing a thing as it had become. I clung to
+life because some ancient, reptilian forbear had clung to life and transmitted
+to me through the ages the most powerful motive that guided his minute
+brain—the motive of self-preservation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+At last I came to the great barrier-cliffs; and after three days of mad
+effort—of maniacal effort—I scaled them. I built crude ladders; I wedged sticks
+in narrow fissures; I chopped toe-holds and finger-holds with my long knife;
+but at last I scaled them. Near the summit I came upon a huge cavern. It is the
+abode of some mighty winged creature of the Triassic—or rather it was. Now it
+is mine. I slew the thing and took its abode. I reached the summit and looked
+out upon the broad gray terrible Pacific of the far-southern winter. It was
+cold up there. It is cold here today; yet here I sit watching, watching,
+watching for the thing I know will never come—for a sail.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div class="chapter">
+
+<h2><a name="chap10"></a>Chapter 10</h2>
+
+<p>
+Once a day I descend to the base of the cliff and hunt, and fill my stomach
+with water from a clear cold spring. I have three gourds which I fill with
+water and take back to my cave against the long nights. I have fashioned a
+spear and a bow and arrow, that I may conserve my ammunition, which is running
+low. My clothes are worn to shreds. Tomorrow I shall discard them for
+leopard-skins which I have tanned and sewn into a garment strong and warm. It
+is cold up here. I have a fire burning and I sit bent over it while I write;
+but I am safe here. No other living creature ventures to the chill summit of
+the barrier cliffs. I am safe, and I am alone with my sorrows and my remembered
+joys—but without hope. It is said that hope springs eternal in the human
+breast; but there is none in mine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I am about done. Presently I shall fold these pages and push them into my
+thermos bottle. I shall cork it and screw the cap tight, and then I shall hurl
+it as far out into the sea as my strength will permit. The wind is off-shore;
+the tide is running out; perhaps it will be carried into one of those numerous
+ocean-currents which sweep perpetually from pole to pole and from continent to
+continent, to be deposited at last upon some inhabited shore. If fate is kind
+and this does happen, then, <i>for God’s sake, come and get me!</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was a week ago that I wrote the preceding paragraph, which I thought would
+end the written record of my life upon Caprona. I had paused to put a new point
+on my quill and stir the crude ink (which I made by crushing a black variety of
+berry and mixing it with water) before attaching my signature, when faintly
+from the valley far below came an unmistakable sound which brought me to my
+feet, trembling with excitement, to peer eagerly downward from my dizzy ledge.
+How full of meaning that sound was to me you may guess when I tell you that it
+was the report of a firearm! For a moment my gaze traversed the landscape
+beneath until it was caught and held by four figures near the base of the
+cliff—a human figure held at bay by three hyaenodons, those ferocious and
+blood-thirsty wild dogs of the Eocene. A fourth beast lay dead or dying near
+by.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I couldn’t be sure, looking down from above as I was; but yet I trembled like a
+leaf in the intuitive belief that it was Lys, and my judgment served to confirm
+my wild desire, for whoever it was carried only a pistol, and thus had Lys been
+armed. The first wave of sudden joy which surged through me was short-lived in
+the face of the swift-following conviction that the one who fought below was
+already doomed. Luck and only luck it must have been which had permitted that
+first shot to lay low one of the savage creatures, for even such a heavy weapon
+as my pistol is entirely inadequate against even the lesser carnivora of
+Caspak. In a moment the three would charge! A futile shot would but tend more
+greatly to enrage the one it chanced to hit; and then the three would drag down
+the little human figure and tear it to pieces.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+And maybe it was Lys! My heart stood still at the thought, but mind and muscle
+responded to the quick decision I was forced to make. There was but a single
+hope—a single chance—and I took it. I raised my rifle to my shoulder and took
+careful aim. It was a long shot, a dangerous shot, for unless one is accustomed
+to it, shooting from a considerable altitude is most deceptive work. There is,
+though, something about marksmanship which is quite beyond all scientific laws.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Upon no other theory can I explain my marksmanship of that moment. Three times
+my rifle spoke—three quick, short syllables of death. I did not take conscious
+aim; and yet at each report a beast crumpled in its tracks!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+From my ledge to the base of the cliff is a matter of several thousand feet of
+dangerous climbing; yet I venture to say that the first ape from whose loins my
+line has descended never could have equaled the speed with which I literally
+dropped down the face of that rugged escarpment. The last two hundred feet is
+over a steep incline of loose rubble to the valley bottom, and I had just
+reached the top of this when there arose to my ears an agonized cry—“Bowen!
+Bowen! Quick, my love, quick!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had been too much occupied with the dangers of the descent to glance down
+toward the valley; but that cry which told me that it was indeed Lys, and that
+she was again in danger, brought my eyes quickly upon her in time to see a
+hairy, burly brute seize her and start off at a run toward the near-by wood.
+From rock to rock, chamoislike, I leaped downward toward the valley, in pursuit
+of Lys and her hideous abductor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+He was heavier than I by many pounds, and so weighted by the burden he carried
+that I easily overtook him; and at last he turned, snarling, to face me. It was
+Kho of the tribe of Tsa, the hatchet-men. He recognized me, and with a low
+growl he threw Lys aside and came for me. “The she is mine,” he cried. “I kill!
+I kill!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I had had to discard my rifle before I commenced the rapid descent of the
+cliff, so that now I was armed only with a hunting knife, and this I whipped
+from its scabbard as Kho leaped toward me. He was a mighty beast, mightily
+muscled, and the urge that has made males fight since the dawn of life on earth
+filled him with the blood-lust and the thirst to slay; but not one whit less
+did it fill me with the same primal passions. Two abysmal beasts sprang at each
+other’s throats that day beneath the shadow of earth’s oldest cliffs—the man of
+now and the man-thing of the earliest, forgotten then, imbued by the same
+deathless passion that has come down unchanged through all the epochs, periods
+and eras of time from the beginning, and which shall continue to the
+incalculable end—woman, the imperishable Alpha and Omega of life.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Kho closed and sought my jugular with his teeth. He seemed to forget the
+hatchet dangling by its aurochs-hide thong at his hip, as I forgot, for the
+moment, the dagger in my hand. And I doubt not but that Kho would easily have
+bested me in an encounter of that sort had not Lys’ voice awakened within my
+momentarily reverted brain the skill and cunning of reasoning man.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Bowen!” she cried. “Your knife! Your knife!”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was enough. It recalled me from the forgotten eon to which my brain had
+flown and left me once again a modern man battling with a clumsy, unskilled
+brute. No longer did my jaws snap at the hairy throat before me; but instead my
+knife sought and found a space between two ribs over the savage heart. Kho
+voiced a single horrid scream, stiffened spasmodically and sank to the earth.
+And Lys threw herself into my arms. All the fears and sorrows of the past were
+wiped away, and once again I was the happiest of men.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With some misgivings I shortly afterward cast my eyes upward toward the
+precarious ledge which ran before my cave, for it seemed to me quite beyond all
+reason to expect a dainty modern belle to essay the perils of that frightful
+climb. I asked her if she thought she could brave the ascent, and she laughed
+gayly in my face.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Watch!” she cried, and ran eagerly toward the base of the cliff. Like a
+squirrel she clambered swiftly aloft, so that I was forced to exert myself to
+keep pace with her. At first she frightened me; but presently I was aware that
+she was quite as safe here as was I. When we finally came to my ledge and I
+again held her in my arms, she recalled to my mind that for several weeks she
+had been living the life of a cave-girl with the tribe of hatchet-men. They had
+been driven from their former caves by another tribe which had slain many and
+carried off quite half the females, and the new cliffs to which they had flown
+had proven far higher and more precipitous, so that she had become, through
+necessity, a most practiced climber.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+She told me of Kho’s desire for her, since all his females had been stolen and
+of how her life had been a constant nightmare of terror as she sought by night
+and by day to elude the great brute. For a time Nobs had been all the
+protection she required; but one day he disappeared—nor has she seen him since.
+She believes that he was deliberately made away with; and so do I, for we both
+are sure that he never would have deserted her. With her means of protection
+gone, Lys was now at the mercy of the hatchet-man; nor was it many hours before
+he had caught her at the base of the cliff and seized her; but as he bore her
+triumphantly aloft toward his cave, she had managed to break loose and escape
+him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“For three days he has pursued me,” she said, “through this horrible world. How
+I have passed through in safety I cannot guess, nor how I have always managed
+to outdistance him; yet I have done it, until just as you discovered me. Fate
+was kind to us, Bowen.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+I nodded my head in assent and crushed her to me. And then we talked and
+planned as I cooked antelope-steaks over my fire, and we came to the conclusion
+that there was no hope of rescue, that she and I were doomed to live and die
+upon Caprona. Well, it might be worse! I would rather live here always with Lys
+than to live elsewhere without her; and she, dear girl, says the same of me;
+but I am afraid of this life for her. It is a hard, fierce, dangerous life, and
+I shall pray always that we shall be rescued from it—for her sake.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That night the clouds broke, and the moon shone down upon our little ledge; and
+there, hand in hand, we turned our faces toward heaven and plighted our troth
+beneath the eyes of God. No human agency could have married us more sacredly
+than we are wed. We are man and wife, and we are content. If God wills it, we
+shall live out our lives here. If He wills otherwise, then this manuscript
+which I shall now consign to the inscrutable forces of the sea shall fall into
+friendly hands. However, we are each without hope. And so we say good-bye in
+this, our last message to the world beyond the barrier cliffs.
+</p>
+
+<p class="right">
+(<i>Signed</i>) B<small>OWEN</small> J. T<small>YLER</small>, J<small>R</small>.<br/>
+L<small>YS</small> L<small>A</small> R. T<small>YLER</small>.
+</p>
+
+</div><!--end chapter-->
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 551 ***</div>
+</body>
+
+</html>
+
+
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+****The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Land that Time Forgot****
+#13 in our series by Edgar Rice Burroughs
+This is the first of the Lost Continent series including:
+1.  The Land That Time Forgot
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+The Land That Time Forgot
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+by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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+June, 1996  [Etext #551]
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+
+
+
+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Land that Time Forgot
+
+by Edgar Rice Burroughs
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 1
+
+
+It must have been a little after three o'clock in the afternoon
+that it happened--the afternoon of June 3rd, 1916.  It seems
+incredible that all that I have passed through--all those weird
+and terrifying experiences--should have been encompassed within
+so short a span as three brief months.  Rather might I have
+experienced a cosmic cycle, with all its changes and evolutions
+for that which I have seen with my own eyes in this brief
+interval of time--things that no other mortal eye had seen
+before, glimpses of a world past, a world dead, a world so
+long dead that even in the lowest Cambrian stratum no trace of
+it remains.  Fused with the melting inner crust, it has passed
+forever beyond the ken of man other than in that lost pocket of
+the earth whither fate has borne me and where my doom is sealed.
+I am here and here must remain.
+
+
+After reading this far, my interest, which already had been
+stimulated by the finding of the manuscript, was approaching
+the boiling-point.  I had come to Greenland for the summer, on the
+advice of my physician, and was slowly being bored to extinction,
+as I had thoughtlessly neglected to bring sufficient reading-matter.
+Being an indifferent fisherman, my enthusiasm for this form of
+sport soon waned; yet in the absence of other forms of recreation
+I was now risking my life in an entirely inadequate boat off Cape
+Farewell at the southernmost extremity of Greenland.
+
+Greenland!  As a descriptive appellation, it is a sorry joke--but my
+story has nothing to do with Greenland, nothing to do with me; so I
+shall get through with the one and the other as rapidly as possible.
+
+The inadequate boat finally arrived at a precarious landing, the
+natives, waist-deep in the surf, assisting.  I was carried ashore,
+and while the evening meal was being prepared, I wandered to and
+fro along the rocky, shattered shore.  Bits of surf-harried
+beach clove the worn granite, or whatever the rocks of Cape
+Farewell may be composed of, and as I followed the ebbing tide
+down one of these soft stretches, I saw the thing.  Were one
+to bump into a Bengal tiger in the ravine behind the Bimini
+Baths, one could be no more surprised than was I to see a
+perfectly good quart thermos bottle turning and twisting in the
+surf of Cape Farewell at the southern extremity of Greenland.
+I rescued it, but I was soaked above the knees doing it; and then
+I sat down in the sand and opened it, and in the long twilight
+read the manuscript, neatly written and tightly folded, which was
+its contents.
+
+You have read the opening paragraph, and if you are an imaginative
+idiot like myself, you will want to read the rest of it; so I shall
+give it to you here, omitting quotation marks--which are difficult
+of remembrance.  In two minutes you will forget me.
+
+
+My home is in Santa Monica.  I am, or was, junior member of my
+father's firm.  We are ship-builders.  Of recent years we have
+specialized on submarines, which we have built for Germany,
+England, France and the United States.  I know a sub as a mother
+knows her baby's face, and have commanded a score of them on
+their trial runs.  Yet my inclinations were all toward aviation.
+I graduated under Curtiss, and after a long siege with my father
+obtained his permission to try for the Lafayette Escadrille.  As a
+stepping-stone I obtained an appointment in the American ambulance
+service and was on my way to France when three shrill whistles
+altered, in as many seconds, my entire scheme of life.
+
+I was sitting on deck with some of the fellows who were going
+into the American ambulance service with me, my Airedale, Crown
+Prince Nobbler, asleep at my feet, when the first blast of the
+whistle shattered the peace and security of the ship.  Ever since
+entering the U-boat zone we had been on the lookout for periscopes,
+and children that we were, bemoaning the unkind fate that was to
+see us safely into France on the morrow without a glimpse of the
+dread marauders.  We were young; we craved thrills, and God knows
+we got them that day; yet by comparison with that through which I
+have since passed they were as tame as a Punch-and-Judy show.
+
+I shall never forget the ashy faces of the passengers as they
+stampeded for their life-belts, though there was no panic.
+Nobs rose with a low growl.  I rose, also, and over the ship's
+side, I saw not two hundred yards distant the periscope of a
+submarine, while racing toward the liner the wake of a torpedo
+was distinctly visible.  We were aboard an American ship--which,
+of course, was not armed.  We were entirely defenseless; yet
+without warning, we were being torpedoed.
+
+I stood rigid, spellbound, watching the white wake of the torpedo.
+It struck us on the starboard side almost amidships.  The vessel
+rocked as though the sea beneath it had been uptorn by a mighty volcano.
+We were thrown to the decks, bruised and stunned, and then above
+the ship, carrying with it fragments of steel and wood and
+dismembered human bodies, rose a column of water hundreds of feet
+into the air.
+
+The silence which followed the detonation of the exploding torpedo
+was almost equally horrifying.  It lasted for perhaps two seconds,
+to be followed by the screams and moans of the wounded, the cursing
+of the men and the hoarse commands of the ship's officers.  They were
+splendid--they and their crew.  Never before had I been so proud of
+my nationality as I was that moment.  In all the chaos which followed
+the torpedoing of the liner no officer or member of the crew lost his
+head or showed in the slightest any degree of panic or fear.
+
+While we were attempting to lower boats, the submarine emerged
+and trained guns on us.  The officer in command ordered us to
+lower our flag, but this the captain of the liner refused to do.
+The ship was listing frightfully to starboard, rendering the port
+boats useless, while half the starboard boats had been demolished
+by the explosion.  Even while the passengers were crowding the
+starboard rail and scrambling into the few boats left to us, the
+submarine commenced shelling the ship.  I saw one shell burst in
+a group of women and children, and then I turned my head and
+covered my eyes.
+
+When I looked again to horror was added chagrin, for with the
+emerging of the U-boat I had recognized her as a product of
+our own shipyard.  I knew her to a rivet.  I had superintended
+her construction.  I had sat in that very conning-tower and
+directed the efforts of the sweating crew below when first her
+prow clove the sunny summer waters of the Pacific; and now this
+creature of my brain and hand had turned Frankenstein, bent upon
+pursuing me to my death.
+
+A second shell exploded upon the deck.  One of the lifeboats,
+frightfully overcrowded, swung at a dangerous angle from its davits.
+A fragment of the shell shattered the bow tackle, and I saw the
+women and children and the men vomited into the sea beneath,
+while the boat dangled stern up for a moment from its single
+davit, and at last with increasing momentum dived into the midst
+of the struggling victims screaming upon the face of the waters.
+
+Now I saw men spring to the rail and leap into the ocean.  The deck
+was tilting to an impossible angle.  Nobs braced himself with all
+four feet to keep from slipping into the scuppers and looked up
+into my face with a questioning whine.  I stooped and stroked
+his head.
+
+"Come on, boy!" I cried, and running to the side of the ship,
+dived headforemost over the rail.  When I came up, the first
+thing I saw was Nobs swimming about in a bewildered sort of way
+a few yards from me.  At sight of me his ears went flat, and his
+lips parted in a characteristic grin.
+
+The submarine was withdrawing toward the north, but all the time
+it was shelling the open boats, three of them, loaded to the
+gunwales with survivors.  Fortunately the small boats presented
+a rather poor target, which, combined with the bad marksmanship
+of the Germans preserved their occupants from harm; and after a
+few minutes a blotch of smoke appeared upon the eastern horizon
+and the U-boat submerged and disappeared.
+
+All the time the lifeboats has been pulling away from the danger
+of the sinking liner, and now, though I yelled at the top of my
+lungs, they either did not hear my appeals for help or else did
+not dare return to succor me.  Nobs and I had gained some little
+distance from the ship when it rolled completely over and sank.
+We were caught in the suction only enough to be drawn backward
+a few yards, neither of us being carried beneath the surface.
+I glanced hurriedly about for something to which to cling.
+My eyes were directed toward the point at which the liner had
+disappeared when there came from the depths of the ocean the
+muffled reverberation of an explosion, and almost simultaneously
+a geyser of water in which were shattered lifeboats, human bodies,
+steam, coal, oil, and the flotsam of a liner's deck leaped high
+above the surface of the sea--a watery column momentarily marking
+the grave of another ship in this greatest cemetery of the seas.
+
+When the turbulent waters had somewhat subsided and the sea had
+ceased to spew up wreckage, I ventured to swim back in search of
+something substantial enough to support my weight and that of
+Nobs as well.  I had gotten well over the area of the wreck when
+not a half-dozen yards ahead of me a lifeboat shot bow foremost
+out of the ocean almost its entire length to flop down upon its
+keel with a mighty splash.  It must have been carried far below,
+held to its mother ship by a single rope which finally parted to
+the enormous strain put upon it.  In no other way can I account
+for its having leaped so far out of the water--a beneficent
+circumstance to which I doubtless owe my life, and that of
+another far dearer to me than my own.  I say beneficent
+circumstance even in the face of the fact that a fate far more
+hideous confronts us than that which we escaped that day; for
+because of that circumstance I have met her whom otherwise I
+never should have known; I have met and loved her.  At least I
+have had that great happiness in life; nor can Caspak, with all
+her horrors, expunge that which has been.
+
+So for the thousandth time I thank the strange fate which sent
+that lifeboat hurtling upward from the green pit of destruction
+to which it had been dragged--sent it far up above the surface,
+emptying its water as it rose above the waves, and dropping it
+upon the surface of the sea, buoyant and safe.
+
+It did not take me long to clamber over its side and drag Nobs in
+to comparative safety, and then I glanced around upon the scene
+of death and desolation which surrounded us.  The sea was
+littered with wreckage among which floated the pitiful forms
+of women and children, buoyed up by their useless lifebelts.
+Some were torn and mangled; others lay rolling quietly to the
+motion of the sea, their countenances composed and peaceful;
+others were set in hideous lines of agony or horror.  Close to
+the boat's side floated the figure of a girl.  Her face was
+turned upward, held above the surface by her life-belt, and was
+framed in a floating mass of dark and waving hair.  She was
+very beautiful.  I had never looked upon such perfect features,
+such a divine molding which was at the same time human--
+intensely human.  It was a face filled with character and
+strength and femininity--the face of one who was created to
+love and to be loved.  The cheeks were flushed to the hue of
+life and health and vitality, and yet she lay there upon the
+bosom of the sea, dead.  I felt something rise in my throat as
+I looked down upon that radiant vision, and I swore that I
+should live to avenge her murder.
+
+And then I let my eyes drop once more to the face upon the water,
+and what I saw nearly tumbled me backward into the sea, for the
+eyes in the dead face had opened; the lips had parted; and one
+hand was raised toward me in a mute appeal for succor.  She lived!
+She was not dead! I leaned over the boat's side and drew her quickly
+in to the comparative safety which God had given me.  I removed her
+life-belt and my soggy coat and made a pillow for her head.  I chafed
+her hands and arms and feet.  I worked over her for an hour, and
+at last I was rewarded by a deep sigh, and again those great eyes
+opened and looked into mine.
+
+At that I was all embarrassment.  I have never been a ladies' man;
+at Leland-Stanford I was the butt of the class because of my
+hopeless imbecility in the presence of a pretty girl; but the men
+liked me, nevertheless.  I was rubbing one of her hands when she
+opened her eyes, and I dropped it as though it were a red-hot rivet.
+Those eyes took me in slowly from head to foot; then they wandered
+slowly around the horizon marked by the rising and falling gunwales
+of the lifeboat.  They looked at Nobs and softened, and then came
+back to me filled with questioning.
+
+"I--I--" I stammered, moving away and stumbling over the next thwart.
+The vision smiled wanly.
+
+"Aye-aye, sir!" she replied faintly, and again her lips drooped,
+and her long lashes swept the firm, fair texture of her skin.
+
+"I hope that you are feeling better," I finally managed to say.
+
+"Do you know," she said after a moment of silence, "I have
+been awake for a long time!  But I did not dare open my eyes.
+I thought I must be dead, and I was afraid to look, for fear
+that I should see nothing but blackness about me.  I am afraid
+to die!  Tell me what happened after the ship went down.
+I remember all that happened before--oh, but I wish that I
+might forget it!"  A sob broke her voice.  "The beasts!" she
+went on after a moment.  "And to think that I was to have
+married one of them--a lieutenant in the German navy."
+
+Presently she resumed as though she had not ceased speaking.
+"I went down and down and down.  I thought I should never cease
+to sink.  I felt no particular distress until I suddenly started
+upward at ever-increasing velocity; then my lungs seemed about to
+burst, and I must have lost consciousness, for I remember nothing
+more until I opened my eyes after listening to a torrent of
+invective against Germany and Germans.  Tell me, please, all that
+happened after the ship sank."
+
+I told her, then, as well as I could, all that I had seen--the
+submarine shelling the open boats and all the rest of it.
+She thought it marvelous that we should have been spared in so
+providential a manner, and I had a pretty speech upon my tongue's
+end, but lacked the nerve to deliver it.  Nobs had come over and
+nosed his muzzle into her lap, and she stroked his ugly face, and
+at last she leaned over and put her cheek against his forehead.
+I have always admired Nobs; but this was the first time that it
+had ever occurred to me that I might wish to be Nobs.  I wondered
+how he would take it, for he is as unused to women as I.  But he
+took to it as a duck takes to water.  What I lack of being a
+ladies' man, Nobs certainly makes up for as a ladies' dog.
+The old scalawag just closed his eyes and put on one of the
+softest "sugar-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth" expressions you ever
+saw and stood there taking it and asking for more.  It made
+me jealous.
+
+"You seem fond of dogs," I said.
+
+"I am fond of this dog," she replied.
+
+Whether she meant anything personal in that reply I did not know;
+but I took it as personal and it made me feel mighty good.
+
+As we drifted about upon that vast expanse of loneliness it is
+not strange that we should quickly become well acquainted.
+Constantly we scanned the horizon for signs of smoke, venturing
+guesses as to our chances of rescue; but darkness settled, and
+the black night enveloped us without ever the sight of a speck
+upon the waters.
+
+We were thirsty, hungry, uncomfortable, and cold.  Our wet
+garments had dried but little and I knew that the girl must be
+in grave danger from the exposure to a night of cold and wet
+upon the water in an open boat, without sufficient clothing and
+no food.  I had managed to bail all the water out of the boat
+with cupped hands, ending by mopping the balance up with my
+handkerchief--a slow and back-breaking procedure; thus I had
+made a comparatively dry place for the girl to lie down low in
+the bottom of the boat, where the sides would protect her from
+the night wind, and when at last she did so, almost overcome as
+she was by weakness and fatigue, I threw my wet coat over her
+further to thwart the chill.  But it was of no avail; as I sat
+watching her, the moonlight marking out the graceful curves of
+her slender young body, I saw her shiver.
+
+"Isn't there something I can do?" I asked.  "You can't lie there
+chilled through all night.  Can't you suggest something?"
+
+She shook her head.  "We must grin and bear it," she replied
+after a moment.
+
+Nobbler came and lay down on the thwart beside me, his back
+against my leg, and I sat staring in dumb misery at the girl,
+knowing in my heart of hearts that she might die before morning
+came, for what with the shock and exposure, she had already gone
+through enough to kill almost any woman. And as I gazed down at
+her, so small and delicate and helpless, there was born slowly
+within my breast a new emotion.  It had never been there before;
+now it will never cease to be there.  It made me almost frantic
+in my desire to find some way to keep warm and cooling lifeblood
+in her veins.  I was cold myself, though I had almost forgotten
+it until Nobbler moved and I felt a new sensation of cold along
+my leg against which he had lain, and suddenly realized that in
+that one spot I had been warm.  Like a great light came the
+understanding of a means to warm the girl.  Immediately I knelt
+beside her to put my scheme into practice when suddenly I was
+overwhelmed with embarrassment.  Would she permit it, even if I
+could muster the courage to suggest it?  Then I saw her frame
+convulse, shudderingly, her muscles reacting to her rapidly
+lowering temperature, and casting prudery to the winds, I
+threw myself down beside her and took her in my arms, pressing
+her body close to mine.
+
+She drew away suddenly, voicing a little cry of fright, and tried
+to push me from her.
+
+"Forgive me," I managed to stammer.  "It is the only way.
+You will die of exposure if you are not warmed, and Nobs and
+I are the only means we can command for furnishing warmth."
+And I held her tightly while I called Nobs and bade him lie
+down at her back.  The girl didn't struggle any more when she
+learned my purpose; but she gave two or three little gasps,
+and then began to cry softly, burying her face on my arm, and
+thus she fell asleep.
+
+
+
+Chapter 2
+
+
+Toward morning,  I must have dozed, though it seemed to me at the
+time that I had lain awake for days, instead of hours.  When I
+finally opened my eyes, it was daylight, and the girl's hair
+was in my face, and she was breathing normally.  I thanked God
+for that.  She had turned her head during the night so that as I
+opened my eyes I saw her face not an inch from mine, my lips
+almost touching hers.
+
+It was Nobs who finally awoke her.  He got up, stretched, turned
+around a few times and lay down again, and the girl opened her
+eyes and looked into mine.  Hers went very wide at first, and
+then slowly comprehension came to her, and she smiled.
+
+"You have been very good to me," she said, as I helped her to
+rise, though if the truth were known I was more in need of
+assistance than she; the circulation all along my left side
+seeming to be paralyzed entirely.  "You have been very good
+to me." And that was the only mention she ever made of it; yet
+I know that she was thankful and that only reserve prevented her
+from referring to what, to say the least, was an embarrassing
+situation, however unavoidable.
+
+Shortly after daylight we saw smoke apparently coming straight
+toward us, and after a time we made out the squat lines of a
+tug--one of those fearless exponents of England's supremacy of
+the sea that tows sailing ships into French and English ports.
+I stood up on a thwart and waved my soggy coat above my head.
+Nobs stood upon another and barked.  The girl sat at my feet
+straining her eyes toward the deck of the oncoming boat.
+"They see us," she said at last.  "There is a man answering
+your signal." She was right.  A lump came into my throat--for
+her sake rather than for mine.  She was saved, and none too soon.
+She could not have lived through another night upon the Channel;
+she might not have lived through the coming day.
+
+The tug came close beside us, and a man on deck threw us a rope.
+Willing hands dragged us to the deck, Nobs scrambling nimbly
+aboard without assistance.  The rough men were gentle as mothers
+with the girl.  Plying us both with questions they hustled her to
+the captain's cabin and me to the boiler-room.  They told the
+girl to take off her wet clothes and throw them outside the door
+that they might be dried, and then to slip into the captain's
+bunk and get warm.  They didn't have to tell me to strip after I
+once got into the warmth of the boiler-room.  In a jiffy, my
+clothes hung about where they might dry most quickly, and I
+myself was absorbing, through every pore, the welcome heat of the
+stifling compartment.  They brought us hot soup and coffee, and
+then those who were not on duty sat around and helped me damn the
+Kaiser and his brood.
+
+As soon as our clothes were dry, they bade us don them, as the
+chances were always more than fair in those waters that we should
+run into trouble with the enemy, as I was only too well aware.
+What with the warmth and the feeling of safety for the girl, and
+the knowledge that a little rest and food would quickly overcome
+the effects of her experiences of the past dismal hours, I was
+feeling more content than I had experienced since those three
+whistle-blasts had shattered the peace of my world the
+previous afternoon.
+
+But peace upon the Channel has been but a transitory thing since
+August, 1914.  It proved itself such that morning, for I had
+scarce gotten into my dry clothes and taken the girl's apparel
+to the captain's cabin when an order was shouted down into the
+engine-room for full speed ahead, and an instant later I heard
+the dull boom of a gun.  In a moment I was up on deck to see an
+enemy submarine about two hundred yards off our port bow.  She had
+signaled us to stop, and our skipper had ignored the order; but
+now she had her gun trained on us, and the second shot grazed
+the cabin, warning the belligerent tug-captain that it was time
+to obey.  Once again an order went down to the engine-room, and
+the tug reduced speed.  The U-boat ceased firing and ordered the
+tug to come about and approach.  Our momentum had carried us a
+little beyond the enemy craft, but we were turning now on the
+arc of a circle that would bring us alongside her.  As I stood
+watching the maneuver and wondering what was to become of us, I
+felt something touch my elbow and turned to see the girl standing
+at my side.  She looked up into my face with a rueful expression.
+"They seem bent on our destruction," she said, "and it looks like
+the same boat that sunk us yesterday."
+
+"It is," I replied.  "I know her well.  I helped design her and
+took her out on her first run."
+
+The girl drew back from me with a little exclamation of surprise
+and disappointment.  "I thought you were an American," she said.
+"I had no idea you were a--a--"
+
+"Nor am I," I replied.  "Americans have been building submarines
+for all nations for many years.  I wish, though, that we had gone
+bankrupt, my father and I, before ever we turned out that
+Frankenstein of a thing."
+
+We were approaching the U-boat at half speed now, and I could
+almost distinguish the features of the men upon her deck.
+A sailor stepped to my side and slipped something hard and cold
+into my hand.  I did not have to look at it to know that it was
+a heavy pistol.  "Tyke 'er an' use 'er," was all he said.
+
+Our bow was pointed straight toward the U-boat now as I heard
+word passed to the engine for full speed ahead.  I instantly
+grasped the brazen effrontery of the plucky English skipper--he
+was going to ram five hundreds tons of U-boat in the face of her
+trained gun.  I could scarce repress a cheer.  At first the
+boches didn't seem to grasp his intention.  Evidently they
+thought they were witnessing an exhibition of poor seamanship,
+and they yelled their warnings to the tug to reduce speed and
+throw the helm hard to port.
+
+We were within fifty feet of them when they awakened to the
+intentional menace of our maneuver.  Their gun crew was off its
+guard; but they sprang to their piece now and sent a futile shell
+above our heads.  Nobs leaped about and barked furiously.  "Let 'em
+have it!" commanded the tug-captain, and instantly revolvers and
+rifles poured bullets upon the deck of the submersible.  Two of
+the gun-crew went down; the other trained their piece at the
+water-line of the oncoming tug.  The balance of those on deck
+replied to our small-arms fire, directing their efforts toward
+the man at our wheel.
+
+I hastily pushed the girl down the companionway leading to the
+engine-room, and then I raised my pistol and fired my first shot
+at a boche.  What happened in the next few seconds happened so
+quickly that details are rather blurred in my memory.  I saw the
+helmsman lunge forward upon the wheel, pulling the helm around so
+that the tug sheered off quickly from her course, and I recall
+realizing that all our efforts were to be in vain, because of all
+the men aboard, Fate had decreed that this one should fall first
+to an enemy bullet.  I saw the depleted gun-crew on the submarine
+fire their piece and I felt the shock of impact and heard the
+loud explosion as the shell struck and exploded in our bows.
+
+I saw and realized these things even as I was leaping into the
+pilot-house and grasping the wheel, standing astride the dead
+body of the helmsman.  With all my strength I threw the helm
+to starboard; but it was too late to effect the purpose of
+our skipper.  The best I did was to scrape alongside the sub.
+I heard someone shriek an order into the engine-room; the boat
+shuddered and trembled to the sudden reversing of the engines,
+and our speed quickly lessened.  Then I saw what that madman of
+a skipper planned since his first scheme had gone wrong.
+
+With a loud-yelled command, he leaped to the slippery deck of the
+submersible, and at his heels came his hardy crew.  I sprang from
+the pilot-house and followed, not to be left out in the cold when
+it came to strafing the boches.  From the engine room companionway
+came the engineer and stockers, and together we leaped after the
+balance of the crew and into the hand-to-hand fight that was
+covering the wet deck with red blood.  Beside me came Nobs, silent
+now, and grim.  Germans were emerging from the open hatch to take
+part in the battle on deck.  At first the pistols cracked amidst
+the cursing of the men and the loud commands of the commander and
+his junior; but presently we were too indiscriminately mixed to
+make it safe to use our firearms, and the battle resolved itself
+into a hand-to-hand struggle for possession of the deck.
+
+The sole aim of each of us was to hurl one of the opposing force
+into the sea.  I shall never forget the hideous expression upon
+the face of the great Prussian with whom chance confronted me.
+He lowered his head and rushed at me, bellowing like a bull.
+With a quick side-step and ducking low beneath his outstretched
+arms, I eluded him; and as he turned to come back at me, I landed
+a blow upon his chin which sent him spinning toward the edge of
+the deck.  I saw his wild endeavors to regain his equilibrium;
+I saw him reel drunkenly for an instant upon the brink of eternity
+and then, with a loud scream, slip into the sea.  At the same
+instant a pair of giant arms encircled me from behind and lifted
+me entirely off my feet.  Kick and squirm as I would, I could
+neither turn toward my antagonist nor free myself from his
+maniacal grasp.  Relentlessly he was rushing me toward the side
+of the vessel and death.  There was none to stay him, for each
+of my companions was more than occupied by from one to three of
+the enemy.  For an instant I was fearful for myself, and then I
+saw that which filled me with a far greater terror for another.
+
+My boche was bearing me toward the side of the submarine against
+which the tug was still pounding.  That I should be ground to
+death between the two was lost upon me as I saw the girl standing
+alone upon the tug's deck, as I saw the stern high in air and the
+bow rapidly settling for the final dive, as I saw death from
+which I could not save her clutching at the skirts of the woman
+I now knew all too well that I loved.
+
+I had perhaps the fraction of a second longer to live when I
+heard an angry growl behind us mingle with a cry of pain and rage
+from the giant who carried me.  Instantly he went backward to the
+deck, and as he did so he threw his arms outwards to save himself,
+freeing me.  I fell heavily upon him, but was upon my feet in
+the instant.  As I arose, I cast a single glance at my opponent.
+Never again would he menace me or another, for Nob's great jaws
+had closed upon his throat.  Then I sprang toward the edge of the
+deck closest to the girl upon the sinking tug.
+
+"Jump!" I cried.  "Jump!"  And I held out my arms to her.
+Instantly as though with implicit confidence in my ability to
+save her, she leaped over the side of the tug onto the sloping,
+slippery side of the U-boat.  I reached far over to seize
+her hand.  At the same instant the tug pointed its stern
+straight toward the sky and plunged out of sight.  My hand
+missed the girl's by a fraction of an inch, and I saw her slip
+into the sea; but scarce had she touched the water when I was
+in after her.
+
+The sinking tug drew us far below the surface; but I had seized
+her the moment I struck the water, and so we went down together,
+and together we came up--a few yards from the U-boat.  The first
+thing I heard was Nobs barking furiously; evidently he had missed
+me and was searching.  A single glance at the vessel's deck
+assured me that the battle was over and that we had been
+victorious, for I saw our survivors holding a handful of the
+enemy at pistol points while one by one the rest of the crew was
+coming out of the craft's interior and lining up on deck with the
+other prisoners.
+
+As I swam toward the submarine with the girl, Nobs' persistent
+barking attracted the attention of some of the tug's crew, so
+that as soon as we reached the side there were hands to help
+us aboard.  I asked the girl if she was hurt, but she assured
+me that she was none the worse for this second wetting; nor did
+she seem to suffer any from shock.  I was to learn for myself
+that this slender and seemingly delicate creature possessed
+the heart and courage of a warrior.
+
+As we joined our own party, I found the tug's mate checking up
+our survivors.  There were ten of us left, not including the girl.
+Our brave skipper was missing, as were eight others.  There had
+been nineteen of us in the attacking party and we had accounted
+in one way and another during the battle for sixteen Germans and
+had taken nine prisoners, including the commander.  His lieutenant
+had been killed.
+
+"Not a bad day's work," said Bradley, the mate, when he had
+completed his roll.  "Only losing the skipper," he added, "was
+the worst.  He was a fine man, a fine man."
+
+Olson--who in spite of his name was Irish, and in spite of his
+not being Scotch had been the tug's engineer--was standing with
+Bradley and me.  "Yis," he agreed, "it's a day's wor-rk we're after
+doin', but what are we goin' to be doin' wid it now we got it?"
+
+"We'll run her into the nearest English port," said Bradley,
+"and then we'll all go ashore and get our V. C.'s," he
+concluded, laughing.
+
+"How you goin' to run her?" queried Olson.  "You can't trust
+these Dutchmen."
+
+Bradley scratched his head.  "I guess you're right," he admitted.
+"And I don't know the first thing about a sub."
+
+"I do," I assured him.  "I know more about this particular sub
+than the officer who commanded her."
+
+Both men looked at me in astonishment, and then I had to explain
+all over again as I had explained to the girl.  Bradley and Olson
+were delighted.  Immediately I was put in command, and the first
+thing I did was to go below with Olson and inspect the craft
+thoroughly for hidden boches and damaged machinery.  There were
+no Germans below, and everything was intact and in ship-shape
+working order.  I then ordered all hands below except one man who
+was to act as lookout.  Questioning the Germans, I found that all
+except the commander were willing to resume their posts and aid
+in bringing the vessel into an English port.  I believe that they
+were relieved at the prospect of being detained at a comfortable
+English prison-camp for the duration of the war after the perils
+and privations through which they had passed.  The officer,
+however, assured me that he would never be a party to the capture
+of his vessel.
+
+There was, therefore, nothing to do but put the man in irons.
+As we were preparing to put this decision into force, the girl
+descended from the deck.  It was the first time that she or the
+German officer had seen each other's faces since we had boarded
+the U-boat.  I was assisting the girl down the ladder and still
+retained a hold upon her arm--possibly after such support was no
+longer necessary--when she turned and looked squarely into the
+face of the German.  Each voiced a sudden exclamation of surprise
+and dismay.
+
+"Lys!" he cried, and took a step toward her.
+
+The girl's eyes went wide, and slowly filled with a great horror,
+as she shrank back.  Then her slender figure stiffened to the
+erectness of a soldier, and with chin in air and without a word
+she turned her back upon the officer.
+
+"Take him away," I directed the two men who guarded him, "and put
+him in irons."
+
+When he had gone, the girl raised her eyes to mine.  "He is the
+German of whom I spoke," she said.  "He is Baron von Schoenvorts."
+
+I merely inclined my head.  She had loved him!  I wondered if in
+her heart of hearts she did not love him yet.  Immediately I
+became insanely jealous.  I hated Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts
+with such utter intensity that the emotion thrilled me with a
+species of exaltation.
+
+But I didn't have much chance to enjoy my hatred then, for
+almost immediately the lookout poked his face over the hatchway
+and bawled down that there was smoke on the horizon, dead ahead.
+Immediately I went on deck to investigate, and Bradley came with me.
+
+"If she's friendly," he said, "we'll speak her.  If she's not,
+we'll sink her--eh, captain?"
+
+"Yes, lieutenant," I replied, and it was his turn to smile.
+
+We hoisted the Union Jack and remained on deck, asking Bradley
+to go below and assign to each member of the crew his duty,
+placing one Englishman with a pistol beside each German.
+
+"Half speed ahead," I commanded.
+
+More rapidly now we closed the distance between ourselves and the
+stranger, until I could plainly see the red ensign of the British
+merchant marine.  My heart swelled with pride at the thought that
+presently admiring British tars would be congratulating us upon
+our notable capture; and just about then the merchant steamer
+must have sighted us, for she veered suddenly toward the north,
+and a moment later dense volumes of smoke issued from her funnels.
+Then, steering a zigzag course, she fled from us as though we had
+been the bubonic plague.  I altered the course of the submarine
+and set off in chase; but the steamer was faster than we, and soon
+left us hopelessly astern.
+
+With a rueful smile, I directed that our original course be
+resumed, and once again we set off toward merry England.
+That was three months ago, and we haven't arrived yet; nor
+is there any likelihood that we ever shall.
+The steamer we had just sighted must have wirelessed a warning,
+for it wasn't half an hour before we saw more smoke on the
+horizon, and this time the vessel flew the white ensign of the
+Royal Navy and carried guns.  She didn't veer to the north or
+anywhere else, but bore down on us rapidly.  I was just preparing
+to signal her, when a flame flashed from her bows, and an instant
+later the water in front of us was thrown high by the explosion
+of a shell.
+
+Bradley had come on deck and was standing beside me.  "About one
+more of those, and she'll have our range," he said.  "She doesn't
+seem to take much stock in our Union Jack."
+
+A second shell passed over us, and then I gave the command to
+change our direction, at the same time directing Bradley to go
+below and give the order to submerge.  I passed Nobs down to him,
+and following, saw to the closing and fastening of the hatch.
+
+It seemed to me that the diving-tanks never had filled so slowly.
+We heard a loud explosion apparently directly above us; the craft
+trembled to the shock which threw us all to the deck.  I expected
+momentarily to feel the deluge of inrushing water, but none came.
+Instead we continued to submerge until the manometer registered forty
+feet and then I knew that we were safe.  Safe!  I almost smiled.
+I had relieved Olson, who had remained in the tower at my direction,
+having been a member of one of the early British submarine crews,
+and therefore having some knowledge of the business.  Bradley was
+at my side.  He looked at me quizzically.
+
+"What the devil are we to do?" he asked.  "The merchantman will
+flee us; the war-vessel will destroy us; neither will believe our
+colors or give us a chance to explain.  We will meet even a worse
+reception if we go nosing around a British port--mines, nets and
+all of it.  We can't do it."
+
+"Let's try it again when this fellow has lost the scent,"
+I urged.  "There must come a ship that will believe us."
+
+And try it again we did, only to be almost rammed by a huge freighter.
+Later we were fired upon by a destroyer, and two merchantmen
+turned and fled at our approach.  For two days we cruised up
+and down the Channel trying to tell some one, who would listen,
+that we were friends; but no one would listen.  After our
+encounter with the first warship I had given instructions
+that a wireless message be sent out explaining our predicament;
+but to my chagrin I discovered that both sending and receiving
+instruments had disappeared.
+
+"There is only one place you can go," von Schoenvorts sent word
+to me, "and that is Kiel.  You can't land anywhere else in
+these waters.  If you wish, I will take you there, and I can
+promise that you will be treated well."
+
+"There is another place we can go," I sent back my reply, "and we
+will before we'll go to Germany.  That place is hell."
+
+
+
+Chapter 3
+
+
+Those were anxious days, during which I had but little opportunity
+to associate with Lys.  I had given her the commander's room,
+Bradley and I taking that of the deck-officer, while Olson and
+two of our best men occupied the room ordinarily allotted to
+petty officers.  I made Nobs' bed down in Lys' room, for I knew
+she would feel less alone.
+
+Nothing of much moment occurred for a while after we left British
+waters behind us.  We ran steadily along upon the surface, making
+good time.  The first two boats we sighted made off as fast as they
+could go; and the third, a huge freighter, fired on us, forcing us
+to submerge.  It was after this that our troubles commenced.
+One of the Diesel engines broke down in the morning, and while
+we were working on it, the forward port diving-tank commenced
+to fill.  I was on deck at the time and noted the gradual list.
+Guessing at once what was happening, I leaped for the hatch and
+slamming it closed above my head, dropped to the centrale.  By this
+time the craft was going down by the head with a most unpleasant
+list to port, and I didn't wait to transmit orders to some one
+else but ran as fast as I could for the valve that let the sea
+into the forward port diving-tank.  It was wide open.  To close
+it and to have the pump started that would empty it were the work
+of but a minute; but we had had a close call.
+
+I knew that the valve had never opened itself.  Some one had
+opened it--some one who was willing to die himself if he might at
+the same time encompass the death of all of us.
+
+After that I kept a guard pacing the length of the narrow craft.
+We worked upon the engine all that day and night and half the
+following day.  Most of the time we drifted idly upon the
+surface, but toward noon we sighted smoke due west, and having
+found that only enemies inhabited the world for us, I ordered
+that the other engine be started so that we could move out of the
+path of the oncoming steamer.  The moment the engine started to
+turn, however, there was a grinding sound of tortured steel, and
+when it had been stopped, we found that some one had placed a
+cold-chisel in one of the gears.
+
+It was another two days before we were ready to limp along,
+half repaired.  The night before the repairs were completed,
+the sentry came to my room and awoke me.  He was rather an
+intelligent fellow of the English middle class, in whom I had
+much confidence.
+
+"Well, Wilson," I asked.  "What's the matter now?"
+
+He raised his finger to his lips and came closer to me.  "I think
+I've found out who's doin' the mischief," he whispered, and
+nodded his head toward the girl's room.  "I seen her sneakin'
+from the crew's room just now," he went on.  "She'd been in
+gassin' wit' the boche commander.  Benson seen her in there las'
+night, too, but he never said nothin' till I goes on watch tonight.
+Benson's sorter slow in the head, an' he never puts two an' two
+together till some one else has made four out of it."
+
+If the man had come in and struck me suddenly in the face, I
+could have been no more surprised.
+
+"Say nothing of this to anyone," I ordered.  "Keep your eyes and
+ears open and report every suspicious thing you see or hear."
+
+The man saluted and left me; but for an hour or more I tossed,
+restless, upon my hard bunk in an agony of jealousy and fear.
+Finally I fell into a troubled sleep.  It was daylight when I awoke.
+We were steaming along slowly upon the surface, my orders having
+been to proceed at half speed until we could take an observation
+and determine our position.  The sky had been overcast all the
+previous day and all night; but as I stepped into the centrale
+that morning I was delighted to see that the sun was again shining.
+The spirits of the men seemed improved; everything seemed propitious.
+I forgot at once the cruel misgivings of the past night as I set
+to work to take my observations.
+
+What a blow awaited me!  The sextant and chronometer had both
+been broken beyond repair,  and they had been broken just this
+very night.  They had been broken upon the night that Lys had been
+seen talking with von Schoenvorts.  I think that it was this last
+thought which hurt me the worst.  I could look the other disaster
+in the face with equanimity; but the bald fact that Lys might be
+a traitor appalled me.
+
+I called Bradley and Olson on deck and told them what had
+happened, but for the life of me I couldn't bring myself to
+repeat what Wilson had reported to me the previous night.
+In fact, as I had given the matter thought, it seemed incredible
+that the girl could have passed through my room, in which Bradley
+and I slept, and then carried on a conversation in the crew's
+room, in which Von Schoenvorts was kept, without having been seen
+by more than a single man.
+
+Bradley shook his head.  "I can't make it out," he said.  "One of
+those boches must be pretty clever to come it over us all like
+this; but they haven't harmed us as much as they think; there are
+still the extra instruments."
+
+It was my turn now to shake a doleful head.  "There are no extra
+instruments," I told them.  "They too have disappeared as did the
+wireless apparatus."
+
+Both men looked at me in amazement.  "We still have the compass
+and the sun," said Olson.  "They may be after getting the compass
+some night; but they's too many of us around in the daytime fer
+'em to get the sun."
+
+It was then that one of the men stuck his head up through the
+hatchway and seeing me, asked permission to come on deck and get
+a breath of fresh air.  I recognized him as Benson, the man who,
+Wilson had said, reported having seen Lys with von Schoenvorts two
+nights before.  I motioned him on deck and then called him to one
+side, asking if he had seen anything out of the way or unusual
+during his trick on watch the night before.  The fellow scratched
+his head a moment and said, "No," and then as though it was an
+afterthought, he told me that he had seen the girl in the crew's
+room about midnight talking with the German commander, but as
+there hadn't seemed to him to be any harm in that, he hadn't said
+anything about it.  Telling him never to fail to report to me
+anything in the slightest out of the ordinary routine of the ship,
+I dismissed him.
+
+Several of the other men now asked permission to come on deck, and
+soon all but those actually engaged in some necessary duty were
+standing around smoking and talking, all in the best of spirits.
+I took advantage of the absence of the men upon the deck to go
+below for my breakfast, which the cook was already preparing
+upon the electric stove.  Lys, followed by Nobs, appeared as I
+entered the centrale.  She met me with a pleasant "Good morning!"
+which I am afraid I replied to in a tone that was rather constrained
+and surly.
+
+"Will you breakfast with me?" I suddenly asked the girl,
+determined to commence a probe of my own along the lines which
+duty demanded.
+
+She nodded a sweet acceptance of my invitation, and together we
+sat down at the little table of the officers' mess.
+"You slept well last night?" I asked.
+
+"All night," she replied.  "I am a splendid sleeper."
+
+Her manner was so straightforward and honest that I could not
+bring myself to believe in her duplicity; yet--Thinking to
+surprise her into a betrayal of her guilt, I blurted out:  "The
+chronometer and sextant were both destroyed last night; there is
+a traitor among us."  But she never turned a hair by way of
+evidencing guilty knowledge of the catastrophe.
+
+"Who could it have been?" she cried.  "The Germans would be crazy
+to do it, for their lives are as much at stake as ours."
+
+"Men are often glad to die for an ideal--an ideal of patriotism,
+perhaps," I replied; "and a willingness to martyr themselves
+includes a willingness to sacrifice others, even those who
+love them.  Women are much the same, except that they will go
+even further than most men--they will sacrifice everything, even
+honor, for love."
+
+I watched her face carefully as I spoke, and I thought that I
+detected a very faint flush mounting her cheek.  Seeing an
+opening and an advantage, I sought to follow it up.
+
+"Take von Schoenvorts, for instance," I continued: "he would
+doubtless be glad to die and take us all with him, could he
+prevent in no other way the falling of his vessel into enemy hands.
+He would sacrifice anyone, even you; and if you still love him,
+you might be his ready tool.  Do you understand me?"
+
+She looked at me in wide-eyed consternation for a moment, and
+then she went very white and rose from her seat.  "I do," she
+replied, and turning her back upon me, she walked quickly toward
+her room.  I started to follow, for even believing what I did, I
+was sorry that I had hurt her.  I reached the door to the crew's
+room just behind her and in time to see von Schoenvorts lean
+forward and whisper something to her as she passed; but she must
+have guessed that she might be watched, for she passed on.
+
+That afternoon it clouded over; the wind mounted to a gale, and
+the sea rose until the craft was wallowing and rolling frightfully.
+Nearly everyone aboard was sick; the air became foul and oppressive.
+For twenty-four hours I did not leave my post in the conning tower,
+as both Olson and Bradley were sick.  Finally I found that I must
+get a little rest, and so I looked about for some one to relieve me.
+Benson volunteered.  He had not been sick, and assured me that he
+was a former R.N. man and had been detailed for submarine duty
+for over two years.  I was glad that it was he, for I had
+considerable confidence in his loyalty, and so it was with a
+feeling of security that I went below and lay down.
+
+I slept twelve hours straight, and when I awoke and discovered
+what I had done, I lost no time in getting to the conning tower.
+There sat Benson as wide awake as could be, and the compass
+showed that we were heading straight into the west.  The storm
+was still raging; nor did it abate its fury until the fourth day.
+We were all pretty well done up and looked forward to the time
+when we could go on deck and fill our lungs with fresh air.
+During the whole four days I had not seen the girl, as she
+evidently kept closely to her room; and during this time no
+untoward incident had occurred aboard the boat--a fact which
+seemed to strengthen the web of circumstantial evidence about her.
+
+For six more days after the storm lessened we still had fairly
+rough weather; nor did the sun once show himself during all
+that time.  For the season--it was now the middle of June--the
+storm was unusual; but being from southern California, I was
+accustomed to unusual weather.  In fact, I have discovered that
+the world over, unusual weather prevails at all times of the year.
+
+We kept steadily to our westward course, and as the U-33 was one
+of the fastest submersibles we had ever turned out, I knew that we
+must be pretty close to the North American coast.  What puzzled
+me most was the fact that for six days we had not sighted a
+single ship.  It seemed remarkable that we could cross the
+Atlantic almost to the coast of the American continent without
+glimpsing smoke or sail, and at last I came to the conclusion
+that we were way off our course, but whether to the north or to
+the south of it I could not determine.
+
+On the seventh day the sea lay comparatively calm at early dawn.
+There was a slight haze upon the ocean which had cut off our view
+of the stars; but conditions all pointed toward a clear morrow, and
+I was on deck anxiously awaiting the rising of the sun.  My eyes
+were glued upon the impenetrable mist astern, for there in the east
+I should see the first glow of the rising sun that would assure me
+we were still upon the right course.  Gradually the heavens
+lightened; but astern I could see no intenser glow that would
+indicate the rising sun behind the mist.  Bradley was standing
+at my side.  Presently he touched my arm.
+
+"Look, captain," he said, and pointed south.
+
+I looked and gasped, for there directly to port I saw outlined
+through the haze the red top of the rising sun.  Hurrying to the
+tower, I looked at the compass.  It showed that we were holding
+steadily upon our westward course.  Either the sun was rising in
+the south, or the compass had been tampered with.  The conclusion
+was obvious.
+
+I went back to Bradley and told him what I had discovered.
+"And," I concluded, "we can't make another five hundred knots
+without oil; our provisions are running low and so is our water.
+God only knows how far south we have run."
+
+"There is nothing to do," he replied, "other than to alter our
+course once more toward the west; we must raise land soon or we
+shall all be lost."
+
+I told him to do so; and then I set to work improvising a crude
+sextant with which we finally took our bearings in a rough and
+most unsatisfactory manner; for when the work was done, we did
+not know how far from the truth the result might be.  It showed
+us to be about 20' north and 30' west--nearly twenty-five
+hundred miles off our course.  In short, if our reading was
+anywhere near correct, we must have been traveling due south for
+six days.  Bradley now relieved Benson, for we had arranged our
+shifts so that the latter and Olson now divided the nights,
+while Bradley and I alternated with one another during the days.
+
+I questioned both Olson and Benson closely in the matter of the
+compass; but each stoutly maintained that no one had tampered
+with it during his tour of duty.  Benson gave me a knowing smile,
+as much as to say:  "Well, you and I know who did this."  Yet I
+could not believe that it was the girl.
+
+We kept to our westerly course for several hours when the
+lookout's cry announced a sail.  I ordered the U-33's course
+altered, and we bore down upon the stranger, for I had come to
+a decision which was the result of necessity.  We could not lie
+there in the middle of the Atlantic and starve to death if there
+was any way out of it.  The sailing ship saw us while we were
+still a long way off, as was evidenced by her efforts to escape.
+There was scarcely any wind, however, and her case was hopeless;
+so when we drew near and signaled her to stop, she came into the
+wind and lay there with her sails flapping idly.  We moved in
+quite close to her.  She was the Balmen of Halmstad, Sweden, with
+a general cargo from Brazil for Spain.
+
+I explained our circumstances to her skipper and asked for food,
+water and oil; but when he found that we were not German, he
+became very angry and abusive and started to draw away from us;
+but I was in no mood for any such business.  Turning toward
+Bradley, who was in the conning-tower, I snapped out:
+"Gun-service on deck!  To the diving stations!"  We had no
+opportunity for drill; but every man had been posted as to
+his duties, and the German members of the crew understood that
+it was obedience or death for them, as each was accompanied by
+a man with a pistol.  Most of them, though, were only too glad
+to obey me.
+
+Bradley passed the order down into the ship and a moment later
+the gun-crew clambered up the narrow ladder and at my direction
+trained their piece upon the slow-moving Swede.  "Fire a shot
+across her bow," I instructed the gun-captain.
+
+Accept it from me, it didn't take that Swede long to see the
+error of his way and get the red and white pennant signifying
+"I understand" to the masthead.  Once again the sails flapped
+idly, and then I ordered him to lower a boat and come after me.
+With Olson and a couple of the Englishmen I boarded the ship,
+and from her cargo selected what we needed--oil, provisions
+and water.  I gave the master of the Balmen a receipt for what
+we took, together with an affidavit signed by Bradley, Olson, and
+myself, stating briefly how we had come into possession of the
+U-33 and the urgency of our need for what we took.  We addressed
+both to any British agent with the request that the owners of the
+Balmen be reimbursed; but whether or not they were, I do not know. [1]
+
+
+[1]  Late in July, 1916, an item in the shipping news mentioned a
+Swedish sailing vessel, Balmen, Rio de Janiero to Barcelona, sunk
+by a German raider sometime in June.  A single survivor in an open
+boat was picked up off the Cape Verde Islands, in a dying condition.
+He expired without giving any details.
+
+
+With water, food, and oil aboard, we felt that we had obtained
+a new lease of life.  Now, too, we knew definitely where we were,
+and I determined to make for Georgetown, British Guiana--but I
+was destined to again suffer bitter disappointment.
+
+Six of us of the loyal crew had come on deck either to serve the
+gun or board the Swede during our set-to with her; and now, one
+by one, we descended the ladder into the centrale.  I was the
+last to come, and when I reached the bottom, I found myself
+looking into the muzzle of a pistol in the hands of Baron
+Friedrich von Schoenvorts--I saw all my men lined up at one
+side with the remaining eight Germans standing guard over them.
+
+
+I couldn't imagine how it had happened; but it had.  Later I
+learned that they had first overpowered Benson, who was asleep
+in his bunk, and taken his pistol from him, and then had found
+it an easy matter to disarm the cook and the remaining two
+Englishmen below.  After that it had been comparatively simple
+to stand at the foot of the ladder and arrest each individual as
+he descended.
+
+The first thing von Schoenvorts did was to send for me and
+announce that as a pirate I was to be shot early the next morning.
+Then he explained that the U-33 would cruise in these waters for
+a time, sinking neutral and enemy shipping indiscriminately, and
+looking for one of the German raiders that was supposed to be in
+these parts.
+
+He didn't shoot me the next morning as he had promised, and it
+has never been clear to me why he postponed the execution of
+my sentence.  Instead he kept me ironed just as he had been;
+then he kicked Bradley out of my room and took it all to himself.
+
+We cruised for a long time, sinking many vessels, all but one by
+gunfire, but we did not come across a German raider.  I was
+surprised to note that von Schoenvorts often permitted Benson to
+take command; but I reconciled this by the fact that Benson
+appeared to know more of the duties of a submarine commander than
+did any of the Stupid Germans.
+
+Once or twice Lys passed me; but for the most part she kept to
+her room.  The first time she hesitated as though she wished to
+speak to me; but I did not raise my head, and finally she passed on.
+Then one day came the word that we were about to round the Horn and
+that von Schoenvorts had taken it into his fool head to cruise up
+along the Pacific coast of North America and prey upon all sorts
+and conditions of merchantmen.
+
+"I'll put the fear of God and the Kaiser into them," he said.
+
+The very first day we entered the South Pacific we had an adventure.
+It turned out to be quite the most exciting adventure I had
+ever encountered.  It fell about this way.  About eight bells of
+the forenoon watch I heard a hail from the deck, and presently
+the footsteps of the entire ship's company, from the amount of
+noise I heard at the ladder.  Some one yelled back to those who
+had not yet reached the level of the deck:  "It's the raider,
+the German raider Geier!"
+
+I saw that we had reached the end of our rope.  Below all was
+quiet--not a man remained.  A door opened at the end of the
+narrow hull, and presently Nobs came trotting up to me.  He licked
+my face and rolled over on his back, reaching for me with his big,
+awkward paws.  Then other footsteps sounded, approaching me.
+I knew whose they were, and I looked straight down at the flooring.
+The girl was coming almost at a run--she was at my side immediately.
+"Here!" she cried.  "Quick!" And she slipped something into my hand.
+It was a key--the key to my irons.  At my side she also laid a
+pistol, and then she went on into the centrale.  As she passed me,
+I saw that she carried another pistol for herself.  It did not
+take me long to liberate myself, and then I was at her side.
+"How can I thank you?" I started; but she shut me up with a word.
+
+"Do not thank me," she said coldly.  "I do not care to hear your
+thanks or any other expression from you.  Do not stand there
+looking at me.  I have given you a chance to do something--now
+do it!" The last was a peremptory command that made me jump.
+
+Glancing up, I saw that the tower was empty, and I lost no time
+in clambering up, looking about me.  About a hundred yards off
+lay a small, swift cruiser-raider, and above her floated the
+German man-of-war's flag.  A boat had just been lowered, and I
+could see it moving toward us filled with officers and men.
+The cruiser lay dead ahead.  "My," I thought, "what a wonderful targ--"
+I stopped even thinking, so surprised and shocked was I by the
+boldness of my imagery.  The girl was just below me.  I looked
+down on her wistfully.  Could I trust her?  Why had she released
+me at this moment?  I must!  I must!  There was no other way.
+I dropped back below.  "Ask Olson to step down here, please,"
+I requested; "and don't let anyone see you ask him."
+
+She looked at me with a puzzled expression on her face for the
+barest fraction of a second, and then she turned and went up
+the ladder.  A moment later Olson returned, and the girl
+followed him.  "Quick!" I whispered to the big Irishman, and
+made for the bow compartment where the torpedo-tubes are built
+into the boat; here, too, were the torpedoes.  The girl
+accompanied us, and when she saw the thing I had in mind,
+she stepped forward and lent a hand to the swinging of the
+great cylinder of death and destruction into the mouth of
+its tube.  With oil and main strength we shoved the torpedo
+home and shut the tube; then I ran back to the conning-tower,
+praying in my heart of hearts that the U-33 had not swung her
+bow away from the prey.  No, thank God!
+
+Never could aim have been truer.  I signaled back to Olson:
+"Let 'er go!"  The U-33 trembled from stem to stern as the torpedo
+shot from its tube.  I saw the white wake leap from her bow straight
+toward the enemy cruiser.  A chorus of hoarse yells arose from the
+deck of our own craft:  I saw the officers stand suddenly erect in
+the boat that was approaching us, and I heard loud cries and
+curses from the raider.  Then I turned my attention to my
+own business.  Most of the men on the submarine's deck were
+standing in paralyzed fascination, staring at the torpedo.
+Bradley happened to be looking toward the conning-tower and
+saw me.  I sprang on deck and ran toward him.  "Quick!" I whispered.
+"While they are stunned, we must overcome them."
+
+A German was standing near Bradley--just in front of him.
+The Englishman struck the fellow a frantic blow upon the neck
+and at the same time snatched his pistol from its holster.
+Von Schoenvorts had recovered from his first surprise quickly
+and had turned toward the main hatch to investigate.  I covered
+him with my revolver, and at the same instant the torpedo struck
+the raider, the terrific explosion drowning the German's command
+to his men.
+
+Bradley was now running from one to another of our men, and
+though some of the Germans saw and heard him, they seemed too
+stunned for action.
+
+Olson was below, so that there were only nine of us against eight
+Germans, for the man Bradley had struck still lay upon the deck.
+Only two of us were armed; but the heart seemed to have gone out
+of the boches, and they put up but half-hearted resistance.
+Von Schoenvorts was the worst--he was fairly frenzied with rage
+and chagrin, and he came charging for me like a mad bull, and as
+he came he discharged his pistol.  If he'd stopped long enough to
+take aim, he might have gotten me; but his pace made him wild,
+so that not a shot touched me, and then we clinched and went to
+the deck.  This left two pistols, which two of my own men were
+quick to appropriate.  The Baron was no match for me in a
+hand-to-hand encounter, and I soon had him pinned to the deck
+and the life almost choked out of him.
+
+A half-hour later things had quieted down, and all was much the
+same as before the prisoners had revolted--only we kept a much
+closer watch on von Schoenvorts.  The Geier had sunk while we
+were still battling upon our deck, and afterward we had drawn
+away toward the north, leaving the survivors to the attention of
+the single boat which had been making its way toward us when
+Olson launched the torpedo.  I suppose the poor devils never
+reached land, and if they did, they most probably perished on
+that cold and unhospitable shore; but I couldn't permit them
+aboard the U-33.  We had all the Germans we could take care of.
+
+That evening the girl asked permission to go on deck.  She said
+that she felt the effects of long confinement below, and I
+readily granted her request.  I could not understand her, and I
+craved an opportunity to talk with her again in an effort to
+fathom her and her intentions, and so I made it a point to
+follow her up the ladder.  It was a clear, cold, beautiful night.
+The sea was calm except for the white water at our bows and the
+two long radiating swells running far off into the distance upon
+either hand astern, forming a great V which our propellers filled
+with choppy waves.  Benson was in the tower, we were bound for
+San Diego and all looked well.
+
+Lys stood with a heavy blanket wrapped around her slender figure,
+and as I approached her, she half turned toward me to see who it was.
+When she recognized me, she immediately turned away.
+
+"I want to thank you," I said, "for your bravery and loyalty--you
+were magnificent.  I am sorry that you had reason before to think
+that I doubted you."
+
+"You did doubt me," she replied in a level voice.  "You practically
+accused me of aiding Baron von Schoenvorts.  I can never forgive you."
+
+There was a great deal of finality in both her words and tone.
+
+"I could not believe it," I said; "and yet two of my men reported
+having seen you in conversation with von Schoenvorts late at
+night upon two separate occasions--after each of which some great
+damage was found done us in the morning.  I didn't want to doubt
+you; but I carried all the responsibility of the lives of these
+men, of the safety of the ship, of your life and mine.  I had to
+watch you, and I had to put you on your guard against a repetition
+of your madness."
+
+She was looking at me now with those great eyes of hers, very
+wide and round.
+
+"Who told you that I spoke with Baron von Schoenvorts at night,
+or any other time?" she asked.
+
+"I cannot tell you, Lys," I replied, "but it came to me from two
+different sources."
+
+"Then two men have lied," she asserted without heat.  "I have not
+spoken to Baron von Schoenvorts other than in your presence when
+first we came aboard the U-33.  And please, when you address me,
+remember that to others than my intimates I am Miss La Rue."
+
+Did you ever get slapped in the face when you least expected it?
+No?  Well, then you do not know how I felt at that moment.
+I could feel the hot, red flush surging up my neck, across my
+cheeks, over my ears, clear to my scalp.  And it made me love her
+all the more; it made me swear inwardly a thousand solemn oaths
+that I would win her.
+
+
+
+Chapter 4
+
+For several days things went along in about the same course.
+I took our position every morning with my crude sextant; but the
+results were always most unsatisfactory.  They always showed a
+considerable westing when I knew that we had been sailing due north.
+I blamed my crude instrument, and kept on.  Then one afternoon the
+girl came to me.
+
+"Pardon me," she said, "but were I you, I should watch this man
+Benson--especially when he is in charge."  I asked her what she
+meant, thinking I could see the influence of von Schoenvorts
+raising a suspicion against one of my most trusted men.
+
+"If you will note the boat's course a half-hour after Benson goes
+on duty," she said, "you will know what I mean, and you will
+understand why he prefers a night watch.  Possibly, too, you will
+understand some other things that have taken place aboard."
+
+Then she went back to her room, thus ending the conversation.
+I waited until half an hour after Benson had gone on duty, and then
+I went on deck, passing through the conning-tower where Benson sat,
+and looking at the compass.  It showed that our course was
+north by west--that is, one point west of north, which was, for
+our assumed position, about right.  I was greatly relieved to
+find that nothing was wrong, for the girl's words had caused me
+considerable apprehension.  I was about to return to my room when
+a thought occurred to me that again caused me to change my
+mind--and, incidentally, came near proving my death-warrant.
+
+When I had left the conning-tower little more than a half-hour
+since, the sea had been breaking over the port bow, and it seemed
+to me quite improbable that in so short a time an equally heavy
+sea could be deluging us from the opposite side of the ship--winds
+may change quickly, but not a long, heavy sea.  There was only
+one other solution--since I left the tower, our course had been
+altered some eight points.  Turning quickly, I climbed out upon
+the conning-tower.  A single glance at the heavens confirmed my
+suspicions; the constellations which should have been dead ahead
+were directly starboard.  We were sailing due west.
+
+Just for an instant longer I stood there to check up my
+calculations--I wanted to be quite sure before I accused Benson
+of perfidy, and about the only thing I came near making quite
+sure of was death.  I cannot see even now how I escaped it.
+I was standing on the edge of the conning-tower, when a heavy
+palm suddenly struck me between the shoulders and hurled me
+forward into space.  The drop to the triangular deck forward of
+the conning-tower might easily have broken a leg for me, or I
+might have slipped off onto the deck and rolled overboard; but
+fate was upon my side, as I was only slightly bruised.  As I
+came to my feet, I heard the conning-tower cover slam.  There is
+a ladder which leads from the deck to the top of the tower.
+Up this I scrambled, as fast as I could go; but Benson had
+the cover tight before I reached it.
+
+I stood there a moment in dumb consternation.  What did the
+fellow intend?  What was going on below?  If Benson was a traitor,
+how could I know that there were not other traitors among us?
+I cursed myself for my folly in going out upon the deck, and then
+this thought suggested another--a hideous one: who was it that
+had really been responsible for my being here?
+
+Thinking to attract attention from inside the craft, I again ran
+down the ladder and onto the small deck only to find that the
+steel covers of the conning-tower windows were shut, and then I
+leaned with my back against the tower and cursed myself for a
+gullible idiot.
+
+I glanced at the bow.  The sea seemed to be getting heavier, for
+every wave now washed completely over the lower deck.  I watched
+them for a moment, and then a sudden chill pervaded my entire being.
+It was not the chill of wet clothing, or the dashing spray which
+drenched my face; no, it was the chill of the hand of death upon
+my heart.  In an instant I had turned the last corner of life's
+highway and was looking God Almighty in the face--the U-33 was
+being slowly submerged!
+
+It would be difficult, even impossible, to set down in writing
+my sensations at that moment.  All I can particularly recall
+is that I laughed, though neither from a spirit of bravado nor
+from hysteria.  And I wanted to smoke.  Lord! how I did want to
+smoke; but that was out of the question.
+
+I watched the water rise until the little deck I stood on was awash,
+and then I clambered once more to the top of the conning-tower.
+From the very slow submergence of the boat I knew that Benson was
+doing the entire trick alone--that he was merely permitting the
+diving-tanks to fill and that the diving-rudders were not in use.
+The throbbing of the engines ceased, and in its stead came the
+steady vibration of the electric motors.  The water was halfway
+up the conning-tower!  I had perhaps five minutes longer on the deck.
+I tried to decide what I should do after I was washed away.  Should I
+swim until exhaustion claimed me, or should I give up and end the
+agony at the first plunge?
+
+From below came two muffled reports.  They sounded not unlike shots.
+Was Benson meeting with resistance?  Personally it could mean little
+to me, for even though my men might overcome the enemy, none would
+know of my predicament until long after it was too late to succor me.
+The top of the conning-tower was now awash.  I clung to the wireless
+mast, while the great waves surged sometimes completely over me.
+
+I knew the end was near and, almost involuntarily, I did that
+which I had not done since childhood--I prayed.  After that I
+felt better.
+
+I clung and waited, but the water rose no higher.
+
+Instead it receded.  Now the top of the conning-tower received
+only the crests of the higher waves; now the little triangular
+deck below became visible!  What had occurred within?  Did Benson
+believe me already gone, and was he emerging because of that
+belief, or had he and his forces been vanquished?  The suspense
+was more wearing than that which I had endured while waiting
+for dissolution.  Presently the main deck came into view, and
+then the conning-tower opened behind me, and I turned to look
+into the anxious face of Bradley.  An expression of relief
+overspread his features.
+
+"Thank God, man!" was all he said as he reached forth and dragged
+me into the tower.  I was cold and numb and rather all in.
+Another few minutes would have done for me, I am sure, but the
+warmth of the interior helped to revive me, aided and abetted by
+some brandy which Bradley poured down my throat, from which it
+nearly removed the membrane.  That brandy would have revived a corpse.
+
+When I got down into the centrale, I saw the Germans lined up on
+one side with a couple of my men with pistols standing over them.
+Von Schoenvorts was among them.  On the floor lay Benson,
+moaning, and beyond him stood the girl, a revolver in one hand.
+I looked about, bewildered.
+
+"What has happened down here?" I asked.  "Tell me!"
+
+Bradley replied.  "You see the result, sir," he said.  "It might
+have been a very different result but for Miss La Rue.  We were
+all asleep.  Benson had relieved the guard early in the evening;
+there was no one to watch him--no one but Miss La Rue.  She felt
+the submergence of the boat and came out of her room to investigate.
+She was just in time to see Benson at the diving rudders.  When he
+saw her, he raised his pistol and fired point-blank at her, but he
+missed and she fired--and didn't miss.  The two shots awakened
+everyone, and as our men were armed, the result was inevitable as
+you see it; but it would have been very different had it not been
+for Miss La Rue.  It was she who closed the diving-tank sea-cocks
+and roused Olson and me, and had the pumps started to empty them."
+
+And there I had been thinking that through her machinations I had
+been lured to the deck and to my death!  I could have gone on my
+knees to her and begged her forgiveness--or at least I could
+have, had I not been Anglo-Saxon.  As it was, I could only remove
+my soggy cap and bow and mumble my appreciation.  She made no
+reply--only turned and walked very rapidly toward her room.
+Could I have heard aright?  Was it really a sob that came floating
+back to me through the narrow aisle of the U-33?
+
+Benson died that night.  He remained defiant almost to the last;
+but just before he went out, he motioned to me, and I leaned over
+to catch the faintly whispered words.
+
+"I did it alone," he said.  "I did it because I hate you--I hate
+all your kind.  I was kicked out of your shipyard at Santa Monica.
+I was locked out of California.  I am an I. W. W. I became a German
+agent--not because I love them, for I hate them too--but because
+I wanted to injure Americans, whom I hated more.  I threw the
+wireless apparatus overboard.  I destroyed the chronometer and
+the sextant.  I devised a scheme for varying the compass to suit
+my wishes.  I told Wilson that I had seen the girl talking with
+von Schoenvorts, and I made the poor egg think he had seen her
+doing the same thing.  I am sorry--sorry that my plans failed.
+I hate you."
+
+He didn't die for a half-hour after that; nor did he speak
+again--aloud; but just a few seconds before he went to meet his
+Maker, his lips moved in a faint whisper; and as I leaned closer
+to catch his words, what do you suppose I heard?  "Now--I--lay
+me--down--to--sleep"  That was all; Benson was dead.  We threw his
+body overboard.
+
+The wind of that night brought on some pretty rough weather with
+a lot of black clouds which persisted for several days.  We didn't
+know what course we had been holding, and there was no way of
+finding out, as we could no longer trust the compass, not knowing
+what Benson had done to it.  The long and the short of it was that
+we cruised about aimlessly until the sun came out again.  I'll never
+forget that day or its surprises.  We reckoned, or rather guessed,
+that we were somewhere off the coast of Peru.  The wind, which had
+been blowing fitfully from the east, suddenly veered around into
+the south, and presently we felt a sudden chill.
+
+"Peru!" snorted Olson.  "When were yez after smellin' iceber-rgs
+off Peru?"
+
+Icebergs!  "Icebergs, nothin'!" exclaimed one of the Englishmen.
+"Why, man, they don't come north of fourteen here in these waters."
+
+"Then," replied Olson, "ye're sout' of fourteen, me b'y."
+
+We thought he was crazy; but he wasn't, for that afternoon we
+sighted a great berg south of us, and we'd been running north, we
+thought, for days.  I can tell you we were a discouraged lot; but we
+got a faint thrill of hope early the next morning when the lookout
+bawled down the open hatch:  "Land!  Land northwest by west!"
+
+I think we were all sick for the sight of land.  I know that I was;
+but my interest was quickly dissipated by the sudden illness of
+three of the Germans.  Almost simultaneously they commenced vomiting.
+They couldn't suggest any explanation for it.  I asked them what
+they had eaten, and found they had eaten nothing other than the
+food cooked for all of us.  "Have you drunk anything?"  I asked,
+for I knew that there was liquor aboard, and medicines in the
+same locker.
+
+"Only water," moaned one of them.  "We all drank water together
+this morning.  We opened a new tank.  Maybe it was the water."
+
+I started an investigation which revealed a terrifying condition--
+some one, probably Benson, had poisoned all the running water on
+the ship.  It would have been worse, though, had land not been
+in sight.  The sight of land filled us with renewed hope.
+
+Our course had been altered, and we were rapidly approaching what
+appeared to be a precipitous headland.  Cliffs, seemingly rising
+perpendicularly out of the sea, faded away into the mist upon either
+hand as we approached.  The land before us might have been a continent,
+so mighty appeared the shoreline; yet we knew that we must be
+thousands of miles from the nearest western land-mass--New Zealand
+or Australia.
+
+We took our bearings with our crude and inaccurate instruments;
+we searched the chart; we cudgeled our brains; and at last it was
+Bradley who suggested a solution.  He was in the tower and
+watching the compass, to which he called my attention.  The needle
+was pointing straight toward the land.  Bradley swung the helm
+hard to starboard.  I could feel the U-33 respond, and yet the
+arrow still clung straight and sure toward the distant cliffs.
+
+"What do you make of it?" I asked him.
+
+"Did you ever hear of Caproni?" he asked.
+
+"An early Italian navigator?" I returned.
+
+"Yes; he followed Cook about 1721.  He is scarcely mentioned even
+by contemporaneous historians--probably because he got into
+political difficulties on his return to Italy.  It was the
+fashion to scoff at his claims, but I recall reading one of his
+works--his only one, I believe--in which he described a new
+continent in the south seas, a continent made up of `some strange
+metal' which attracted the compass; a rockbound, inhospitable coast,
+without beach or harbor, which extended for hundreds of miles.
+He could make no landing; nor in the several days he cruised about
+it did he see sign of life.  He called it Caprona and sailed away.
+I believe, sir, that we are looking upon the coast of Caprona,
+uncharted and forgotten for two hundred years."
+
+"If you are right, it might account for much of the deviation of
+the compass during the past two days," I suggested.  "Caprona
+has been luring us upon her deadly rocks.  Well, we'll accept
+her challenge.  We'll land upon Caprona.  Along that long front
+there must be a vulnerable spot.  We will find it, Bradley, for
+we must find it.  We must find water on Caprona, or we must die."
+
+And so we approached the coast upon which no living eyes had
+ever rested.  Straight from the ocean's depths rose towering
+cliffs, shot with brown and blues and greens--withered moss
+and lichen and the verdigris of copper, and everywhere the
+rusty ocher of iron pyrites.  The cliff-tops, though ragged,
+were of such uniform height as to suggest the boundaries of
+a great plateau, and now and again we caught glimpses of verdure
+topping the rocky escarpment, as though bush or jungle-land had
+pushed outward from a lush vegetation farther inland to signal
+to an unseeing world that Caprona lived and joyed in life beyond
+her austere and repellent coast.
+
+But metaphor, however poetic, never slaked a dry throat.
+To enjoy Caprona's romantic suggestions we must have water,
+and so we came in close, always sounding, and skirted the shore.
+As close in as we dared cruise, we found fathomless depths, and
+always the same undented coastline of bald cliffs.  As darkness
+threatened, we drew away and lay well off the coast all night.
+We had not as yet really commenced to suffer for lack of water;
+but I knew that it would not be long before we did, and so at the
+first streak of dawn I moved in again and once more took up the
+hopeless survey of the forbidding coast.
+
+Toward noon we discovered a beach, the first we had seen.  It was
+a narrow strip of sand at the base of a part of the cliff that
+seemed lower than any we had before scanned.  At its foot, half
+buried in the sand, lay great boulders, mute evidence that in a
+bygone age some mighty natural force had crumpled Caprona's
+barrier at this point.  It was Bradley who first called our
+attention to a strange object lying among the boulders above
+the surf.
+
+"Looks like a man," he said, and passed his glasses to me.
+
+I looked long and carefully and could have sworn that the thing
+I saw was the sprawled figure of a human being.  Miss La Rue was
+on deck with us.  I turned and asked her to go below.  Without a
+word she did as I bade.  Then I stripped, and as I did so, Nobs
+looked questioningly at me.  He had been wont at home to enter
+the surf with me, and evidently he had not forgotten it.
+
+"What are you going to do, sir?" asked Olson.
+
+"I'm going to see what that thing is on shore," I replied.
+"If it's a man, it may mean that Caprona is inhabited, or it
+may merely mean that some poor devils were shipwrecked here.
+I ought to be able to tell from the clothing which is more
+near the truth.
+
+"How about sharks?" queried Olson.  "Sure, you ought to carry a knoife."
+
+"Here you are, sir," cried one of the men.
+
+It was a long slim blade he offered--one that I could carry
+between my teeth--and so I accepted it gladly.
+
+"Keep close in," I directed Bradley, and then I dived over the
+side and struck out for the narrow beach.  There was another
+splash directly behind me, and turning my head, I saw faithful
+old Nobs swimming valiantly in my wake.
+
+The surf was not heavy, and there was no undertow, so we made
+shore easily, effecting an equally easy landing.  The beach
+was composed largely of small stones worn smooth by the action
+of water.  There was little sand, though from the deck of the U-33
+the beach had appeared to be all sand, and I saw no evidences of
+mollusca or crustacea such as are common to all beaches I have
+previously seen.  I attribute this to the fact of the smallness
+of the beach, the enormous depth of surrounding water and the
+great distance at which Caprona lies from her nearest neighbor.
+
+As Nobs and I approached the recumbent figure farther up the
+beach, I was appraised by my nose that whether or not, the thing
+had once been organic and alive, but that for some time it had
+been dead.  Nobs halted, sniffed and growled.  A little later he
+sat down upon his haunches, raised his muzzle to the heavens and
+bayed forth a most dismal howl.  I shied a small stone at him and
+bade him shut up--his uncanny noise made me nervous.  When I had
+come quite close to the thing, I still could not say whether it
+had been man or beast.  The carcass was badly swollen and
+partly decomposed.  There was no sign of clothing upon or
+about it.  A fine, brownish hair covered the chest and abdomen,
+and the face, the palms of the hands, the feet, the shoulders and
+back were practically hairless.  The creature must have been
+about the height of a fair sized man; its features were similar
+to those of a man; yet had it been a man?
+
+I could not say, for it resembled an ape no more than it did
+a man.  Its large toes protruded laterally as do those of the
+semiarboreal peoples of Borneo, the Philippines and other remote
+regions where low types still persist.  The countenance might
+have been that of a cross between Pithecanthropus, the Java
+ape-man, and a daughter of the Piltdown race of prehistoric Sussex.
+A wooden cudgel lay beside the corpse.
+
+Now this fact set me thinking.  There was no wood of any
+description in sight.  There was nothing about the beach to
+suggest a wrecked mariner.  There was absolutely nothing about
+the body to suggest that it might possibly in life have known a
+maritime experience.  It was the body of a low type of man or a
+high type of beast.  In neither instance would it have been of a
+seafaring race.  Therefore I deduced that it was native to
+Caprona--that it lived inland, and that it had fallen or been
+hurled from the cliffs above.  Such being the case, Caprona was
+inhabitable, if not inhabited, by man; but how to reach the
+inhabitable interior!  That was the question.  A closer view
+of the cliffs than had been afforded me from the deck of the
+U-33 only confirmed my conviction that no mortal man could scale
+those perpendicular heights; there was not a finger-hold, not a
+toe-hold, upon them.  I turned away baffled.
+
+Nobs and I met with no sharks upon our return journey to
+the submarine.  My report filled everyone with theories and
+speculations, and with renewed hope and determination.  They all
+reasoned along the same lines that I had reasoned--the
+conclusions were obvious, but not the water.  We were now
+thirstier than ever.
+
+The balance of that day we spent in continuing a minute and
+fruitless exploration of the monotonous coast.  There was not
+another break in the frowning cliffs--not even another minute
+patch of pebbly beach.  As the sun fell, so did our spirits.
+I had tried to make advances to the girl again; but she would
+have none of me, and so I was not only thirsty but otherwise sad
+and downhearted.  I was glad when the new day broke the hideous
+spell of a sleepless night.
+
+The morning's search brought us no shred of hope.  Caprona was
+impregnable--that was the decision of all; yet we kept on.  It must
+have been about two bells of the afternoon watch that Bradley called
+my attention to the branch of a tree, with leaves upon it, floating
+on the sea.  "It may have been carried down to the ocean by a river,"
+he suggested.
+"Yes, " I replied, "it may have; it may have tumbled or been thrown
+off the top of one of these cliffs."
+
+Bradley's face fell.  "I thought of that, too," he replied, "but
+I wanted to believe the other."
+
+"Right you are!" I cried.  "We must believe the other until we
+prove it false.  We can't afford to give up heart now, when we
+need heart most.  The branch was carried down by a river, and we
+are going to find that river." I smote my open palm with a
+clenched fist, to emphasize a determination unsupported by hope.
+"There!" I cried suddenly.  "See that, Bradley?"  And I pointed at
+a spot closer to shore.  "See that, man!"  Some flowers and
+grasses and another leafy branch floated toward us.  We both
+scanned the water and the coastline.  Bradley evidently
+discovered something, or at least thought that he had.  He called
+down for a bucket and a rope, and when they were passed up to
+him, he lowered the former into the sea and drew it in filled
+with water.  Of this he took a taste, and straightening up,
+looked into my eyes with an expression of elation--as much as to
+say "I told you so!"
+
+"This water is warm," he announced, "and fresh!"
+
+I grabbed the bucket and tasted its contents.  The water was very
+warm, and it was fresh, but there was a most unpleasant taste to it.
+
+"Did you ever taste water from a stagnant pool full of tadpoles?"
+Bradley asked.
+
+"That's it," I exclaimed, "--that's just the taste exactly,
+though I haven't experienced it since boyhood; but how can water
+from a flowing stream, taste thus, and what the dickens makes it
+so warm?  It must be at least 70 or 80 Fahrenheit, possibly higher."
+
+"Yes," agreed Bradley, "I should say higher; but where does it
+come from?"
+
+"That is easily discovered now that we have found it," I answered.
+"It can't come from the ocean; so it must come from the land.
+All that we have to do is follow it, and sooner or later we shall
+come upon its source."
+
+We were already rather close in; but I ordered the U-33's prow
+turned inshore and we crept slowly along, constantly dipping up
+the water and tasting it to assure ourselves that we didn't get
+outside the fresh-water current.  There was a very light off-shore
+wind and scarcely any breakers, so that the approach to the shore
+was continued without finding bottom; yet though we were already
+quite close, we saw no indication of any indention in the coast
+from which even a tiny brooklet might issue, and certainly no
+mouth of a large river such as this must necessarily be to freshen
+the ocean even two hundred yards from shore.  The tide was running
+out, and this, together with the strong flow of the freshwater
+current, would have prevented our going against the cliffs even
+had we not been under power; as it was we had to buck the combined
+forces in order to hold our position at all.  We came up to within
+twenty-five feet of the sheer wall, which loomed high above us.
+There was no break in its forbidding face.  As we watched the face
+of the waters and searched the cliff's high face, Olson suggested
+that the fresh water might come from a submarine geyser.  This, he
+said, would account for its heat; but even as he spoke a bush,
+covered thickly with leaves and flowers, bubbled to the surface
+and floated off astern.
+
+"Flowering shrubs don't thrive in the subterranean caverns from
+which geysers spring," suggested Bradley.
+
+Olson shook his head.  "It beats me," he said.
+
+"I've got it!" I exclaimed suddenly.  "Look there!"  And I pointed
+at the base of the cliff ahead of us, which the receding tide was
+gradually exposing to our view.  They all looked, and all saw
+what I had seen--the top of a dark opening in the rock, through
+which water was pouring out into the sea.  "It's the subterranean
+channel of an inland river," I cried.  "It flows through a land
+covered with vegetation--and therefore a land upon which the
+sun shines.  No subterranean caverns produce any order of plant
+life even remotely resembling what we have seen disgorged by
+this river.  Beyond those cliffs lie fertile lands and fresh
+water--perhaps, game!"
+
+"Yis, sir," said Olson, "behoind the cliffs!  Ye spoke a true
+word, sir--behoind!"
+
+Bradley laughed--a rather sorry laugh, though.  "You might as
+well call our attention to the fact, sir," he said, "that science
+has indicated that there is fresh water and vegetation on Mars."
+
+"Not at all," I rejoined.  "A U-boat isn't constructed to navigate
+space, but it is designed to travel below the surface of the water."
+
+"You'd be after sailin' into that blank pocket?" asked Olson.
+
+"I would, Olson," I replied.  "We haven't one chance for life in
+a hundred thousand if we don't find food and water upon Caprona.
+This water coming out of the cliff is not salt; but neither is it
+fit to drink, though each of us has drunk.  It is fair to assume
+that inland the river is fed by pure streams, that there are
+fruits and herbs and game.  Shall we lie out here and die of
+thirst and starvation with a land of plenty possibly only a few
+hundred yards away?  We have the means for navigating a
+subterranean river.  Are we too cowardly to utilize this means?"
+
+"Be afther goin' to it," said Olson.
+
+"I'm willing to see it through," agreed Bradley.
+
+"Then under the bottom, wi' the best o' luck an' give 'em hell!"
+cried a young fellow who had been in the trenches.
+
+"To the diving-stations!"  I commanded, and in less than a minute
+the deck was deserted, the conning-tower covers had slammed to
+and the U-33 was submerging--possibly for the last time.  I know
+that I had this feeling, and I think that most of the others did.
+
+As we went down, I sat in the tower with the searchlight
+projecting its seemingly feeble rays ahead.  We submerged very
+slowly and without headway more than sufficient to keep her nose
+in the right direction, and as we went down, I saw outlined ahead
+of us the black opening in the great cliff.  It was an opening
+that would have admitted a half-dozen U-boats at one and the same
+time, roughly cylindrical in contour--and dark as the pit of perdition.
+
+As I gave the command which sent the U-33 slowly ahead, I could
+not but feel a certain uncanny presentiment of evil.  Where were
+we going?  What lay at the end of this great sewer?  Had we bidden
+farewell forever to the sunlight and life, or were there before
+us dangers even greater than those which we now faced?  I tried to
+keep my mind from vain imagining by calling everything which I
+observed to the eager ears below.  I was the eyes of the whole
+company, and I did my best not to fail them.  We had advanced a
+hundred yards, perhaps, when our first danger confronted us.
+Just ahead was a sharp right-angle turn in the tunnel.  I could
+see the river's flotsam hurtling against the rocky wall upon the
+left as it was driven on by the mighty current, and I feared for
+the safety of the U-33 in making so sharp a turn under such
+adverse conditions; but there was nothing for it but to try.
+I didn't warn my fellows of the danger--it could have but caused
+them useless apprehension, for if we were to be smashed against
+the rocky wall, no power on earth could avert the quick end that
+would come to us. I gave the command full speed ahead and went
+charging toward the menace.  I was forced to approach the
+dangerous left-hand wall in order to make the turn, and I
+depended upon the power of the motors to carry us through the
+surging waters in safety.  Well, we made it; but it was a
+narrow squeak.  As we swung around, the full force of the current
+caught us and drove the stern against the rocks; there was a thud
+which sent a tremor through the whole craft, and then a moment of
+nasty grinding as the steel hull scraped the rock wall.  I expected
+momentarily the inrush of waters that would seal our doom; but
+presently from below came the welcome word that all was well.
+
+In another fifty yards there was a second turn, this time toward
+the left! but it was more of a gentle curve, and we took it
+without trouble.  After that it was plain sailing, though as far
+as I could know, there might be most anything ahead of us, and my
+nerves strained to the snapping-point every instant.  After the
+second turn the channel ran comparatively straight for between
+one hundred and fifty and two hundred yards.  The waters grew
+suddenly lighter, and my spirits rose accordingly.  I shouted
+down to those below that I saw daylight ahead, and a great shout
+of thanksgiving reverberated through the ship.  A moment later we
+emerged into sunlit water, and immediately I raised the periscope
+and looked about me upon the strangest landscape I had ever seen.
+
+We were in the middle of a broad and now sluggish river the banks
+of which were lined by giant, arboraceous ferns, raising their
+mighty fronds fifty, one hundred, two hundred feet into the
+quiet air.  Close by us something rose to the surface of the river
+and dashed at the periscope.  I had a vision of wide, distended jaws,
+and then all was blotted out.  A shiver ran down into the tower as
+the thing closed upon the periscope.  A moment later it was gone,
+and I could see again.  Above the trees there soared into my vision
+a huge thing on batlike wings--a creature large as a large whale,
+but fashioned more after the order of a lizard.  Then again
+something charged the periscope and blotted out the mirror.  I will
+confess that I was almost gasping for breath as I gave the commands
+to emerge.  Into what sort of strange land had fate guided us?
+
+The instant the deck was awash, I opened the conning-tower hatch
+and stepped out.  In another minute the deck-hatch lifted, and
+those who were not on duty below streamed up the ladder, Olson
+bringing Nobs under one arm.  For several minutes no one spoke;
+I think they must each have been as overcome by awe as was I.
+All about us was a flora and fauna as strange and wonderful to us
+as might have been those upon a distant planet had we suddenly
+been miraculously transported through ether to an unknown world.
+Even the grass upon the nearer bank was unearthly--lush and high
+it grew, and each blade bore upon its tip a brilliant flower--
+violet or yellow or carmine or blue--making as gorgeous a sward
+as human imagination might conceive.  But the life!  It teemed.
+The tall, fernlike trees were alive with monkeys, snakes, and lizards.
+Huge insects hummed and buzzed hither and thither.  Mighty forms
+could be seen moving upon the ground in the thick forest, while
+the bosom of the river wriggled with living things, and above
+flapped the wings of gigantic creatures such as we are taught have
+been extinct throughout countless ages.
+
+"Look!" cried Olson.  "Would you look at the giraffe comin' up
+out o' the bottom of the say?"  We looked in the direction he
+pointed and saw a long, glossy neck surmounted by a small head
+rising above the surface of the river.  Presently the back of the
+creature was exposed, brown and glossy as the water dripped from it.
+It turned its eyes upon us, opened its lizard-like mouth, emitted
+a shrill hiss and came for us.  The thing must have been sixteen
+or eighteen feet in length and closely resembled pictures I had
+seen of restored plesiosaurs of the lower Jurassic.  It charged
+us as savagely as a mad bull, and one would have thought it
+intended to destroy and devour the mighty U-boat, as I verily
+believe it did intend.
+
+We were moving slowly up the river as the creature bore down upon
+us with distended jaws.  The long neck was far outstretched, and
+the four flippers with which it swam were working with powerful
+strokes, carrying it forward at a rapid pace.  When it reached
+the craft's side, the jaws closed upon one of the stanchions of
+the deck rail and tore it from its socket as though it had been
+a toothpick stuck in putty.  At this exhibition of titanic
+strength I think we all simultaneously stepped backward, and
+Bradley drew his revolver and fired.  The bullet struck the thing
+in the neck, just above its body; but instead of disabling it,
+merely increased its rage.  Its hissing rose to a shrill scream
+as it raised half its body out of water onto the sloping sides of
+the hull of the U-33 and endeavored to scramble upon the deck to
+devour us.  A dozen shots rang out as we who were armed drew our
+pistols and fired at the thing; but though struck several times,
+it showed no signs of succumbing and only floundered farther
+aboard the submarine.
+
+I had noticed that the girl had come on deck and was standing not
+far behind me, and when I saw the danger to which we were all
+exposed, I turned and forced her toward the hatch.  We had not
+spoken for some days, and we did not speak now; but she gave me
+a disdainful look, which was quite as eloquent as words, and
+broke loose from my grasp.  I saw I could do nothing with her
+unless I exerted force, and so I turned with my back toward her
+that I might be in a position to shield her from the strange
+reptile should it really succeed in reaching the deck; and as I
+did so I saw the thing raise one flipper over the rail, dart its
+head forward and with the quickness of lightning seize upon one
+of the boches.  I ran forward, discharging my pistol into the
+creature's body in an effort to force it to relinquish its prey;
+but I might as profitably have shot at the sun.
+
+Shrieking and screaming, the German was dragged from the deck,
+and the moment the reptile was clear of the boat, it dived
+beneath the surface of the water with its terrified prey.
+I think we were all more or less shaken by the frightfulness of
+the tragedy--until Olson remarked that the balance of power now
+rested where it belonged.  Following the death of Benson we had
+been nine and nine--nine Germans and nine "Allies," as we called
+ourselves, now there were but eight Germans.  We never counted
+the girl on either side, I suppose because she was a girl, though
+we knew well enough now that she was ours.
+
+And so Olson's remark helped to clear the atmosphere for the
+Allies at least, and then our attention was once more directed
+toward the river, for around us there had sprung up a perfect
+bedlam of screams and hisses and a seething caldron of hideous
+reptiles, devoid of fear and filled only with hunger and with rage.
+They clambered, squirmed and wriggled to the deck, forcing
+us steadily backward, though we emptied our pistols into them.
+There were all sorts and conditions of horrible things--huge,
+hideous, grotesque, monstrous--a veritable Mesozoic nightmare.
+I saw that the girl was gotten below as quickly as possible, and
+she took Nobs with her--poor Nobs had nearly barked his head off;
+and I think, too, that for the first time since his littlest
+puppyhood he had known fear; nor can I blame him.  After the girl
+I sent Bradley and most of the Allies and then the Germans who
+were on deck--von Schoenvorts being still in irons below.
+
+The creatures were approaching perilously close before I dropped
+through the hatchway and slammed down the cover.  Then I went
+into the tower and ordered full speed ahead, hoping to distance
+the fearsome things; but it was useless.  Not only could any of
+them easily outdistance the U-33, but the further upstream we
+progressed the greater the number of our besiegers, until fearful
+of navigating a strange river at high speed, I gave orders to
+reduce and moved slowly and majestically through the plunging,
+hissing mass.  I was mighty glad that our entrance into the
+interior of Caprona had been inside a submarine rather than in
+any other form of vessel.  I could readily understand how it
+might have been that Caprona had been invaded in the past by
+venturesome navigators without word of it ever reaching the
+outside world, for I can assure you that only by submarine could
+man pass up that great sluggish river, alive.
+
+We proceeded up the river for some forty miles before darkness
+overtook us.  I was afraid to submerge and lie on the bottom
+overnight for fear that the mud might be deep enough to hold us,
+and as we could not hold with the anchor, I ran in close to
+shore, and in a brief interim of attack from the reptiles we made
+fast to a large tree.  We also dipped up some of the river water
+and found it, though quite warm, a little sweeter than before.
+We had food enough, and with the water we were all quite
+refreshed; but we missed fresh meat.  It had been weeks, now,
+since we had tasted it, and the sight of the reptiles gave me
+an idea--that a steak or two from one of them might not be
+bad eating.  So I went on deck with a rifle, twenty of which were
+aboard the U-33.  At sight of me a huge thing charged and climbed
+to the deck.  I retreated to the top of the conning-tower, and
+when it had raised its mighty bulk to the level of the little deck
+on which I stood, I let it have a bullet right between the eyes.
+
+The thing stopped then and looked at me a moment as much as to
+say:  "Why this thing has a stinger!  I must be careful." And then
+it reached out its long neck and opened its mighty jaws and grabbed
+for me; but I wasn't there.  I had tumbled backward into the tower,
+and I mighty near killed myself doing it.  When I glanced up, that
+little head on the end of its long neck was coming straight down on
+top of me, and once more I tumbled into greater safety, sprawling
+upon the floor of the centrale.
+
+Olson was looking up, and seeing what was poking about in the
+tower, ran for an ax; nor did he hesitate a moment when he
+returned with one, but sprang up the ladder and commenced
+chopping away at that hideous face.  The thing didn't have
+sufficient brainpan to entertain more than a single idea at once.
+Though chopped and hacked, and with a bullethole between its
+eyes, it still persisted madly in its attempt to get inside the
+tower and devour Olson, though its body was many times the
+diameter of the hatch; nor did it cease its efforts until after
+Olson had succeeded in decapitating it.  Then the two men went on
+deck through the main hatch, and while one kept watch, the other
+cut a hind quarter off Plesiosaurus Olsoni, as Bradley dubbed
+the thing.  Meantime Olson cut off the long neck, saying that it
+would make fine soup.  By the time we had cleared away the blood
+and refuse in the tower, the cook had juicy steaks and a steaming
+broth upon the electric stove, and the aroma arising from P. Olsoni
+filled us an with a hitherto unfelt admiration for him and all his kind.
+
+
+
+Chapter 5
+
+
+The steaks we had that night, and they were fine; and the
+following morning we tasted the broth.  It seemed odd to be
+eating a creature that should, by all the laws of paleontology,
+have been extinct for several million years.  It gave one a
+feeling of newness that was almost embarrassing, although it
+didn't seem to embarrass our appetites.  Olson ate until I
+thought he would burst.
+
+The girl ate with us that night at the little officers' mess just
+back of the torpedo compartment.  The narrow table was unfolded;
+the four stools were set out; and for the first time in days we
+sat down to eat, and for the first time in weeks we had something
+to eat other than the monotony of the short rations of an
+impoverished U-boat.  Nobs sat between the girl and me and was
+fed with morsels of the Plesiosaurus steak, at the risk of
+forever contaminating his manners.  He looked at me sheepishly
+all the time, for he knew that no well-bred dog should eat at
+table; but the poor fellow was so wasted from improper food that
+I couldn't enjoy my own meal had he been denied an immediate share
+in it; and anyway Lys wanted to feed him.  So there you are.
+
+Lys was coldly polite to me and sweetly gracious to Bradley
+and Olson.  She wasn't of the gushing type, I knew; so I didn't
+expect much from her and was duly grateful for the few morsels of
+attention she threw upon the floor to me.  We had a pleasant
+meal, with only one unfortunate occurrence--when Olson suggested
+that possibly the creature we were eating was the same one that
+ate the German.  It was some time before we could persuade the
+girl to continue her meal, but at last Bradley prevailed upon
+her, pointing out that we had come upstream nearly forty miles
+since the boche had been seized, and that during that time we
+had seen literally thousands of these denizens of the river,
+indicating that the chances were very remote that this was the
+same Plesiosaur.  "And anyway," he concluded, "it was only a
+scheme of Mr. Olson's to get all the steaks for himself."
+
+We discussed the future and ventured opinions as to what lay
+before us; but we could only theorize at best, for none of
+us knew.  If the whole land was infested by these and similar
+horrid monsters, life would be impossible upon it, and we decided
+that we would only search long enough to find and take aboard fresh
+water and such meat and fruits as might be safely procurable and
+then retrace our way beneath the cliffs to the open sea.
+
+And so at last we turned into our narrow bunks, hopeful, happy
+and at peace with ourselves, our lives and our God, to awaken the
+following morning refreshed and still optimistic.  We had an easy
+time getting away--as we learned later, because the saurians do
+not commence to feed until late in the morning.  From noon to
+midnight their curve of activity is at its height, while from
+dawn to about nine o'clock it is lowest.  As a matter of fact, we
+didn't see one of them all the time we were getting under way,
+though I had the cannon raised to the deck and manned against
+an assault.  I hoped, but I was none too sure, that shells might
+discourage them.  The trees were full of monkeys of all sizes and
+shades, and once we thought we saw a manlike creature watching us
+from the depth of the forest.
+
+Shortly after we resumed our course upstream, we saw the mouth of
+another and smaller river emptying into the main channel from the
+south--that is, upon our right; and almost immediately after we
+came upon a large island five or six miles in length; and at
+fifty miles there was a still larger river than the last coming
+in from the northwest, the course of the main stream having now
+changed to northeast by southwest.  The water was quite free from
+reptiles, and the vegetation upon the banks of the river had
+altered to more open and parklike forest, with eucalyptus and
+acacia mingled with a scattering of tree ferns, as though two
+distinct periods of geologic time had overlapped and merged.
+The grass, too, was less flowering, though there were still
+gorgeous patches mottling the greensward; and lastly, the fauna
+was less multitudinous.
+
+Six or seven miles farther, and the river widened considerably;
+before us opened an expanse of water to the farther horizon, and
+then we sailed out upon an inland sea so large that only a shore-
+line upon our side was visible to us.  The waters all about us
+were alive with life.  There were still a few reptiles; but there
+were fish by the thousands, by the millions.
+
+The water of the inland sea was very warm, almost hot, and the
+atmosphere was hot and heavy above it.  It seemed strange that
+beyond the buttressed walls of Caprona icebergs floated and the
+south wind was biting, for only a gentle breeze moved across
+the face of these living waters, and that was damp and warm.
+Gradually, we commenced to divest ourselves of our clothing,
+retaining only sufficient for modesty; but the sun was not hot.
+It was more the heat of a steam-room than of an oven.
+
+We coasted up the shore of the lake in a north-westerly direction,
+sounding all the time.  We found the lake deep and the bottom
+rocky and steeply shelving toward the center, and once when I
+moved straight out from shore to take other soundings we could
+find no bottom whatsoever.  In open spaces along the shore we
+caught occasional glimpses of the distant cliffs, and here
+they appeared only a trifle less precipitous than those which
+bound Caprona on the seaward side.  My theory is that in a far
+distant era Caprona was a mighty mountain--perhaps the world's
+mightiest volcanic action blew off the entire crest, blew
+thousands of feet of the mountain upward and outward and onto the
+surrounding continent, leaving a great crater; and then,
+possibly, the continent sank as ancient continents have been
+known to do, leaving only the summit of Caprona above the sea.
+The encircling walls, the central lake, the hot springs which
+feed the lake, all point to a conclusion, and the fauna and the
+flora bear indisputable evidence that Caprona was once part of
+some great land-mass.
+
+As we cruised up along the coast, the landscape continued a more
+or less open forest, with here and there a small plain where we
+saw animals grazing.  With my glass I could make out a species of
+large red deer, some antelope and what appeared to be a species
+of horse; and once I saw the shaggy form of what might have been
+a monstrous bison.  Here was game a plenty!  There seemed little
+danger of starving upon Caprona.  The game, however, seemed wary;
+for the instant the animals discovered us, they threw up their
+heads and tails and went cavorting off, those farther inland
+following the example of the others until all were lost in the
+mazes of the distant forest.  Only the great, shaggy ox stood
+his ground.  With lowered head he watched us until we had passed,
+and then continued feeding.
+
+About twenty miles up the coast from the mouth of the river we
+encountered low cliffs of sandstone, broken and tortured evidence
+of the great upheaval which had torn Caprona asunder in the past,
+intermingling upon a common level the rock formations of widely
+separated eras, fusing some and leaving others untouched.
+
+We ran along beside them for a matter of ten miles, arriving off
+a broad cleft which led into what appeared to be another lake.
+As we were in search of pure water, we did not wish to overlook
+any portion of the coast, and so after sounding and finding that
+we had ample depth, I ran the U-33 between head-lands into as
+pretty a landlocked harbor as sailormen could care to see, with
+good water right up to within a few yards of the shore.  As we
+cruised slowly along, two of the boches again saw what they
+believed to be a man, or manlike creature, watching us from a
+fringe of trees a hundred yards inland, and shortly after we
+discovered the mouth of a small stream emptying into the bay:
+It was the first stream we had found since leaving the river, and
+I at once made preparations to test its water.  To land, it would
+be necessary to run the U-33 close in to the shore, at least as
+close as we could, for even these waters were infested, though,
+not so thickly, by savage reptiles.  I ordered sufficient water
+let into the diving-tanks to lower us about a foot, and then I
+ran the bow slowly toward the shore, confident that should we run
+aground, we still had sufficient lifting force to free us when
+the water should be pumped out of the tanks; but the bow nosed
+its way gently into the reeds and touched the shore with the keel
+still clear.
+
+My men were all armed now with both rifles and pistols, each
+having plenty of ammunition.  I ordered one of the Germans ashore
+with a line, and sent two of my own men to guard him, for from
+what little we had seen of Caprona, or Caspak as we learned later
+to call the interior, we realized that any instant some new and
+terrible danger might confront us.  The line was made fast to a
+small tree, and at the same time I had the stern anchor dropped.
+
+As soon as the boche and his guard were aboard again, I called
+all hands on deck, including von Schoenvorts, and there I
+explained to them that the time had come for us to enter into
+some sort of an agreement among ourselves that would relieve
+us of the annoyance and embarrassment of being divided into two
+antagonistic parts--prisoners and captors.  I told them that it
+was obvious our very existence depended upon our unity of action,
+that we were to all intent and purpose entering a new world as
+far from the seat and causes of our own world-war as if millions
+of miles of space and eons of time separated us from our past
+lives and habitations.
+
+"There is no reason why we should carry our racial and political
+hatreds into Caprona," I insisted.  "The Germans among us might
+kill all the English, or the English might kill the last German,
+without affecting in the slightest degree either the outcome of
+even the smallest skirmish upon the western front or the opinion
+of a single individual in any belligerent or neutral country.
+I therefore put the issue squarely to you all; shall we bury our
+animosities and work together with and for one another while we
+remain upon Caprona, or must we continue thus divided and but half
+armed, possibly until death has claimed the last of us?  And let
+me tell you, if you have not already realized it, the chances are
+a thousand to one that not one of us ever will see the outside
+world again.  We are safe now in the matter of food and water; we
+could provision the U-33 for a long cruise; but we are practically
+out of fuel, and without fuel we cannot hope to reach the ocean,
+as only a submarine can pass through the barrier cliffs.  What is
+your answer?" I turned toward von Schoenvorts.
+
+He eyed me in that disagreeable way of his and demanded to know,
+in case they accepted my suggestion, what their status would be
+in event of our finding a way to escape with the U-33.  I replied
+that I felt that if we had all worked loyally together we should
+leave Caprona upon a common footing, and to that end I suggested
+that should the remote possibility of our escape in the submarine
+develop into reality, we should then immediately make for the
+nearest neutral port and give ourselves into the hands of the
+authorities, when we should all probably be interned for the
+duration of the war.  To my surprise he agreed that this was fair
+and told me that they would accept my conditions and that I could
+depend upon their loyalty to the common cause.
+
+I thanked him and then addressed each one of his men individually,
+and each gave me his word that he would abide by all that I
+had outlined.  It was further understood that we were to act as
+a military organization under military rules and discipline--I
+as commander, with Bradley as my first lieutenant and Olson as
+my second, in command of the Englishmen; while von Schoenvorts
+was to act as an additional second lieutenant and have charge of
+his own men.  The four of us were to constitute a military court
+under which men might be tried and sentenced to punishment for
+infraction of military rules and discipline, even to the passing
+of the death-sentence.
+
+I then had arms and ammunition issued to the Germans, and leaving
+Bradley and five men to guard the U-33, the balance of us went ashore.
+The first thing we did was to taste the water of the little stream--
+which, to our delight, we found sweet, pure and cold.  This stream
+was entirely free from dangerous reptiles, because, as I later
+discovered, they became immediately dormant when subjected to a much
+lower temperature than 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  They dislike cold water
+and keep as far away from it as possible.  There were countless
+brook-trout here, and deep holes that invited us to bathe, and along
+the bank of the stream were trees bearing a close resemblance to
+ash and beech and oak, their characteristics evidently induced by
+the lower temperature of the air above the cold water and by the
+fact that their roots were watered by the water from the stream
+rather than from the warm springs which we afterward found in such
+abundance elsewhere.
+
+Our first concern was to fill the water tanks of the U-33 with
+fresh water, and that having been accomplished, we set out to
+hunt for game and explore inland for a short distance.  Olson, von
+Schoenvorts, two Englishmen and two Germans accompanied me,
+leaving ten to guard the ship and the girl.  I had intended
+leaving Nobs behind, but he got away and joined me and was so
+happy over it that I hadn't the heart to send him back.  We followed
+the stream upward through a beautiful country for about five miles,
+and then came upon its source in a little boulder-strewn clearing.
+From among the rocks bubbled fully twenty ice-cold springs.
+North of the clearing rose sandstone cliffs to a height of some
+fifty to seventy-five feet, with tall trees growing at their base
+and almost concealing them from our view.  To the west the country
+was flat and sparsely wooded, and here it was that we saw our first
+game--a large red deer.  It was grazing away from us and had not
+seen us when one of my men called my attention to it.  Motioning for
+silence and having the rest of the party lie down, I crept toward
+the quarry, accompanied only by Whitely.  We got within a hundred
+yards of the deer when he suddenly raised his antlered head and
+pricked up his great ears.  We both fired at once and had the
+satisfaction of seeing the buck drop; then we ran forward to finish
+him with our knives.  The deer lay in a small open space close to
+a clump of acacias, and we had advanced to within several yards
+of our kill when we both halted suddenly and simultaneously.
+Whitely looked at me, and I looked at Whitely, and then we both
+looked back in the direction of the deer.
+"Blime!' he said.  "Wot is hit, sir?"
+
+"It looks to me, Whitely, like an error," I said; "some assistant
+god who had been creating elephants must have been temporarily
+transferred to the lizard-department."
+
+"Hi wouldn't s'y that, sir," said Whitely; "it sounds blasphemous."
+
+"It is more blasphemous than that thing which is swiping our
+meat," I replied, for whatever the thing was, it had leaped upon
+our deer and was devouring it in great mouthfuls which it
+swallowed without mastication.  The creature appeared to be a
+great lizard at least ten feet high, with a huge, powerful tail
+as long as its torso, mighty hind legs and short forelegs.  When it
+had advanced from the wood, it hopped much after the fashion of a
+kangaroo, using its hind feet and tail to propel it, and when it
+stood erect, it sat upon its tail.  Its head was long and thick,
+with a blunt muzzle, and the opening of the jaws ran back to a
+point behind the eyes, and the jaws were armed with long sharp teeth.
+The scaly body was covered with black and yellow spots about a foot
+in diameter and irregular in contour.  These spots were outlined in
+red with edgings about an inch wide.  The underside of the chest,
+body and tail were a greenish white.
+
+"Wot s'y we pot the bloomin' bird, sir?" suggested Whitely.
+
+I told him to wait until I gave the word; then we would fire
+simultaneously, he at the heart and I at the spine.
+
+"Hat the 'eart, sir--yes, sir," he replied, and raised his piece
+to his shoulder.
+
+Our shots rang out together.  The thing raised its head and
+looked about until its eyes rested upon us; then it gave vent to
+a most appalling hiss that rose to the crescendo of a terrific
+shriek and came for us.
+
+"Beat it, Whitely!" I cried as I turned to run.
+
+We were about a quarter of a mile from the rest of our party, and
+in full sight of them as they lay in the tall grass watching us.
+That they saw all that had happened was evidenced by the fact that
+they now rose and ran toward us, and at their head leaped Nobs.
+The creature in our rear was gaining on us rapidly when Nobs flew
+past me like a meteor and rushed straight for the frightful reptile.
+I tried to recall him, but he would pay no attention to me, and as
+I couldn't see him sacrificed, I, too, stopped and faced the monster.
+The creature appeared to be more impressed with Nobs than by us and
+our firearms, for it stopped as the Airedale dashed at it growling,
+and struck at him viciously with its powerful jaws.
+
+Nobs, though, was lightning by comparison with the slow thinking
+beast and dodged his opponent's thrust with ease.  Then he raced
+to the rear of the tremendous thing and seized it by the tail.
+There Nobs made the error of his life.  Within that mottled organ
+were the muscles of a Titan, the force of a dozen mighty
+catapults, and the owner of the tail was fully aware of the
+possibilities which it contained.  With a single flip of the tip
+it sent poor Nobs sailing through the air a hundred feet above
+the ground, straight back into the clump of acacias from which
+the beast had leaped upon our kill--and then the grotesque thing
+sank lifeless to the ground.
+
+Olson and von Schoenvorts came up a minute later with their men;
+then we all cautiously approached the still form upon the ground.
+The creature was quite dead, and an examination resulted in
+disclosing the fact that Whitely's bullet had pierced its heart,
+and mine had severed the spinal cord.
+
+"But why didn't it die instantly?" I exclaimed.
+
+"Because," said von Schoenvorts in his disagreeable way, "the
+beast is so large, and its nervous organization of so low a
+caliber, that it took all this time for the intelligence of death
+to reach and be impressed upon the minute brain.  The thing was
+dead when your bullets struck it; but it did not know it for
+several seconds--possibly a minute.  If I am not mistaken, it is
+an Allosaurus of the Upper Jurassic, remains of which have been
+found in Central Wyoming, in the suburbs of New York."
+
+An Irishman by the name of Brady grinned.  I afterward learned
+that he had served three years on the traffic-squad of the
+Chicago police force.
+
+I had been calling Nobs in the meantime and was about to set out
+in search of him, fearing, to tell the truth, to do so lest I
+find him mangled and dead among the trees of the acacia grove,
+when he suddenly emerged from among the boles, his ears flattened,
+his tail between his legs and his body screwed into a suppliant S.
+He was unharmed except for minor bruises; but he was the most
+chastened dog I have ever seen.
+
+We gathered up what was left of the red deer after skinning and
+cleaning it, and set out upon our return journey toward the U-boat.
+On the way Olson, von Schoenvorts and I discussed the needs of our
+immediate future, and we were unanimous in placing foremost the
+necessity of a permanent camp on shore.  The interior of a U-boat
+is about as impossible and uncomfortable an abiding-place as one
+can well imagine, and in this warm climate, and in warm water, it
+was almost unendurable.  So we decided to construct a palisaded camp.
+
+
+
+Chapter 6
+
+
+As we strolled slowly back toward the boat, planning and discussing
+this, we were suddenly startled by a loud and unmistakable detonation.
+
+"A shell from the U-33!" exclaimed von Schoenvorts.
+
+"What can be after signifyin'?" queried Olson.
+
+"They are in trouble," I answered for all, "and it's up to us
+to get back to them.  Drop that carcass," I directed the men
+carrying the meat, "and follow me!"  I set off at a rapid run
+in the direction of the harbor.
+
+We ran for the better part of a mile without hearing anything
+more from the direction of the harbor, and then I reduced the
+speed to a walk, for the exercise was telling on us who had been
+cooped up for so long in the confined interior of the U-33.
+Puffing and panting, we plodded on until within about a mile of
+the harbor we came upon a sight that brought us all up standing.
+We had been passing through a little heavier timber than was
+usual to this part of the country, when we suddenly emerged into
+an open space in the center of which was such a band as might
+have caused the most courageous to pause.  It consisted of upward
+of five hundred individuals representing several species closely
+allied to man.  There were anthropoid apes and gorillas--these
+I had no difficulty in recognizing; but there were other forms
+which I had never before seen, and I was hard put to it to say
+whether they were ape or man.  Some of them resembled the corpse
+we had found upon the narrow beach against Caprona's sea-wall,
+while others were of a still lower type, more nearly resembling
+the apes, and yet others were uncannily manlike, standing there
+erect, being less hairy and possessing better shaped heads.
+
+There was one among the lot, evidently the leader of them, who
+bore a close resemblance to the so-called Neanderthal man of La
+Chapelle-aux-Saints.  There was the same short, stocky trunk upon
+which rested an enormous head habitually bent forward into the
+same curvature as the back, the arms shorter than the legs, and
+the lower leg considerably shorter than that of modern man, the
+knees bent forward and never straightened.  This creature and one
+or two others who appeared to be of a lower order than he, yet
+higher than that of the apes, carried heavy clubs; the others were
+armed only with giant muscles and fighting fangs--nature's weapons.
+All were males, and all were entirely naked; nor was there upon
+even the highest among them a sign of ornamentation.
+
+At sight of us they turned with bared fangs and low growls to
+confront us.  I did not wish to fire among them unless it became
+absolutely necessary, and so I started to lead my party around
+them; but the instant that the Neanderthal man guessed my
+intention, he evidently attributed it to cowardice upon our part,
+and with a wild cry he leaped toward us, waving his cudgel above
+his head.  The others followed him, and in a minute we should have
+been overwhelmed.  I gave the order to fire, and at the first
+volley six of them went down, including the Neanderthal man.
+The others hesitated a moment and then broke for the trees, some
+running nimbly among the branches, while others lost themselves
+to us between the boles.  Both von Schoenvorts and I noticed that
+at least two of the higher, manlike types took to the trees quite
+as nimbly as the apes, while others that more nearly approached
+man in carriage and appearance sought safety upon the ground with
+the gorillas.
+
+An examination disclosed that five of our erstwhile opponents
+were dead and the sixth, the Neanderthal man, was but slightly
+wounded, a bullet having glanced from his thick skull, stunning him.
+We decided to take him with us to camp, and by means of belts we
+managed to secure his hands behind his back and place a leash
+around his neck before he regained consciousness.  We then
+retraced our steps for our meat being convinced by our own
+experience that those aboard the U-33 had been able to frighten
+off this party with a single shell--but when we came to where we
+had left the deer it had disappeared.
+
+On the return journey Whitely and I preceded the rest of the
+party by about a hundred yards in the hope of getting another
+shot at something edible, for we were all greatly disgusted
+and disappointed by the loss of our venison.  Whitely and I
+advanced very cautiously, and not having the whole party with
+us, we fared better than on the journey out, bagging two large
+antelope not a half-mile from the harbor; so with our game and
+our prisoner we made a cheerful return to the boat, where we
+found that all were safe.  On the shore a little north of where
+we lay there were the corpses of twenty of the wild creatures who
+had attacked Bradley and his party in our absence, and the rest
+of whom we had met and scattered a few minutes later.
+
+We felt that we had taught these wild ape-men a lesson and that
+because of it we would be safer in the future--at least safer
+from them; but we decided not to abate our carefulness one whit;
+feeling that this new world was filled with terrors still unknown
+to us; nor were we wrong.
+The following morning we commenced work upon our camp, Bradley,
+Olson, von Schoenvorts, Miss La Rue, and I having sat up half the
+night discussing the matter and drawing plans.  We set the men at
+work felling trees, selecting for the purpose jarrah, a hard,
+weather-resisting timber which grew in profusion near by.  Half the
+men labored while the other half stood guard, alternating each hour
+with an hour off at noon.  Olson directed this work.  Bradley, von
+Schoenvorts and I, with Miss La Rue's help, staked out the various
+buildings and the outer wall.  When the day was done, we had quite
+an array of logs nicely notched and ready for our building operations
+on the morrow, and we were all tired, for after the buildings had
+been staked out we all fell in and helped with the logging--all but
+von Schoenvorts.  He, being a Prussian and a gentleman, couldn't
+stoop to such menial labor in the presence of his men, and I didn't
+see fit to ask it of him, as the work was purely voluntary upon
+our part.  He spent the afternoon shaping a swagger-stick from the
+branch of jarrah and talking with Miss La Rue, who had sufficiently
+unbent toward him to notice his existence.
+
+We saw nothing of the wild men of the previous day, and only once
+were we menaced by any of the strange denizens of Caprona, when
+some frightful nightmare of the sky swooped down upon us, only to
+be driven off by a fusillade of bullets.  The thing appeared to
+be some variety of pterodactyl, and what with its enormous size
+and ferocious aspect was most awe-inspiring.  There was another
+incident, too, which to me at least was far more unpleasant than
+the sudden onslaught of the prehistoric reptile.  Two of the men,
+both Germans, were stripping a felled tree of its branches.
+Von Schoenvorts had completed his swagger-stick, and he and I
+were passing close to where the two worked.
+
+One of them threw to his rear a small branch that he had just
+chopped off, and as misfortune would have it, it struck von
+Schoenvorts across the face.  It couldn't have hurt him, for it
+didn't leave a mark; but he flew into a terrific rage, shouting:
+"Attention!" in a loud voice.  The sailor immediately
+straightened up, faced his officer, clicked his heels together
+and saluted.  "Pig!" roared the Baron, and struck the fellow
+across the face, breaking his nose.  I grabbed von Schoenvorts'
+arm and jerked him away before he could strike again, if such had
+been his intention, and then he raised his little stick to strike
+me; but before it descended the muzzle of my pistol was against
+his belly and he must have seen in my eyes that nothing would
+suit me better than an excuse to pull the trigger.  Like all his
+kind and all other bullies, von Schoenvorts was a coward at
+heart, and so he dropped his hand to his side and started to turn
+away; but I pulled him back, and there before his men I told him
+that such a thing must never again occur--that no man was to be
+struck or otherwise punished other than in due process of the
+laws that we had made and the court that we had established.
+All the time the sailor stood rigidly at attention, nor could I
+tell from his expression whether he most resented the blow his
+officer had struck him or my interference in the gospel of the
+Kaiser-breed.  Nor did he move until I said to him:  "Plesser, you
+may return to your quarters and dress your wound."  Then he
+saluted and marched stiffly off toward the U-33.
+
+Just before dusk we moved out into the bay a hundred yards from
+shore and dropped anchor, for I felt that we should be safer
+there than elsewhere.  I also detailed men to stand watch during
+the night and appointed Olson officer of the watch for the entire
+night, telling him to bring his blankets on deck and get what
+rest he could.  At dinner we tasted our first roast Caprona
+antelope, and we had a mess of greens that the cook had found
+growing along the stream.  All during the meal von Schoenvorts
+was silent and surly.
+
+After dinner we all went on deck and watched the unfamiliar
+scenes of a Capronian night--that is, all but von Schoenvorts.
+There was less to see than to hear.  From the great inland lake
+behind us came the hissing and the screaming of countless saurians.
+Above us we heard the flap of giant wings, while from the shore
+rose the multitudinous voices of a tropical jungle--of a warm,
+damp atmosphere such as must have enveloped the entire earth
+during the Palezoic and Mesozoic eras.  But here were intermingled
+the voices of later eras--the scream of the panther, the roar of
+the lion, the baying of wolves and a thunderous growling which
+we could attribute to nothing earthly but which one day we were
+to connect with the most fearsome of ancient creatures.
+
+One by one the others went to their rooms, until the girl and
+I were left alone together, for I had permitted the watch to
+go below for a few minutes, knowing that I would be on deck.
+Miss La Rue was very quiet, though she replied graciously
+enough to whatever I had to say that required reply.  I asked
+her if she did not feel well.
+
+"Yes," she said, "but I am depressed by the awfulness of it all.
+I feel of so little consequence--so small and helpless in the
+face of all these myriad manifestations of life stripped to the
+bone of its savagery and brutality.  I realize as never before
+how cheap and valueless a thing is life.  Life seems a joke, a
+cruel, grim joke.  You are a laughable incident or a terrifying
+one as you happen to be less powerful or more powerful than some
+other form of life which crosses your path; but as a rule you are
+of no moment whatsoever to anything but yourself.  You are a comic
+little figure, hopping from the cradle to the grave.  Yes, that
+is our trouble--we take ourselves too seriously; but Caprona
+should be a sure cure for that."  She paused and laughed.
+
+"You have evolved a beautiful philosophy," I said.  "It fills
+such a longing in the human breast.  It is full, it is
+satisfying, it is ennobling.  What wonderous strides toward
+perfection the human race might have made if the first man had
+evolved it and it had persisted until now as the creed of humanity."
+
+"I don't like irony," she said; "it indicates a small soul."
+
+"What other sort of soul, then, would you expect from `a comic
+little figure hopping from the cradle to the grave'?" I inquired.
+"And what difference does it make, anyway, what you like and what
+you don't like?  You are here for but an instant, and you mustn't
+take yourself too seriously."
+
+She looked up at me with a smile.  "I imagine that I am frightened and
+blue," she said, "and I know that I am very, very homesick and lonely."
+There was almost a sob in her voice as she concluded.  It was the
+first time that she had spoken thus to me.  Involuntarily, I laid
+my hand upon hers where it rested on the rail.
+
+"I know how difficult your position is," I said; "but don't feel
+that you are alone.  There is--is one here who--who would do
+anything in the world for you," I ended lamely.  She did not
+withdraw her hand, and she looked up into my face with tears on her
+cheeks and I read in her eyes the thanks her lips could not voice.
+Then she looked away across the weird moonlit landscape and sighed.
+Evidently her new-found philosophy had tumbled about her ears, for
+she was seemingly taking herself seriously.  I wanted to take her
+in my arms and tell her how I loved her, and had taken her hand
+from the rail and started to draw her toward me when Olson came
+blundering up on deck with his bedding.
+
+The following morning we started building operations in earnest,
+and things progressed finely.  The Neanderthal man was something
+of a care, for we had to keep him in irons all the time, and he
+was mighty savage when approached; but after a time he became
+more docile, and then we tried to discover if he had a language.
+Lys spent a great deal of time talking to him and trying to draw
+him out; but for a long while she was unsuccessful.  It took us
+three weeks to build all the houses, which we constructed close
+by a cold spring some two miles from the harbor.
+
+We changed our plans a trifle when it came to building the
+palisade, for we found a rotted cliff near by where we could get
+all the flat building-stone we needed, and so we constructed a
+stone wall entirely around the buildings.  It was in the form of
+a square, with bastions and towers at each corner which would
+permit an enfilading fire along any side of the fort, and was
+about one hundred and thirty-five feet square on the outside,
+with walls three feet thick at the bottom and about a foot and
+a half wide at the top, and fifteen feet high.  It took a long
+time to build that wall, and we all turned in and helped except
+von Schoenvorts, who, by the way, had not spoken to me except
+in the line of official business since our encounter--a condition
+of armed neutrality which suited me to a T.  We have just finished
+it, the last touches being put on today.  I quit about a week ago
+and commenced working on this chronicle for our strange adventures,
+which will account for any minor errors in chronology which may
+have crept in; there was so much material that I may have made
+some mistakes, but I think they are but minor and few.
+
+I see in reading over the last few pages that I neglected to
+state that Lys finally discovered that the Neanderthal man
+possessed a language.  She had learned to speak it, and so have
+I, to some extent.  It was he--his name he says is Am, or Ahm--
+who told us that this country is called Caspak.  When we asked
+him how far it extended, he waved both arms about his head in an
+all-including gesture which took in, apparently, the entire universe.
+He is more tractable now, and we are going to release him, for he
+has assured us that he will not permit his fellows to harm us.
+He calls us Galus and says that in a short time he will be a Galu.
+It is not quite clear to us what he means.  He says that there are
+many Galus north of us, and that as soon as he becomes one he will
+go and live with them.
+
+Ahm went out to hunt with us yesterday and was much impressed by
+the ease with which our rifles brought down antelopes and deer.
+We have been living upon the fat of the land, Ahm, having shown
+us the edible fruits, tubers and herbs, and twice a week we go
+out after fresh meat.  A certain proportion of this we dry and
+store away, for we do not know what may come.  Our drying process
+is really smoking.  We have also dried a large quantity of two
+varieties of cereal which grow wild a few miles south of us.
+One of these is a giant Indian maize--a lofty perennial often fifty
+and sixty feet in height, with ears the size off a man's body and
+kernels as large as your fist.  We have had to construct a second
+store house for the great quantity of this that we have gathered.
+
+September 3, 1916:  Three months ago today the torpedo from the
+U-33 started me from the peaceful deck of the American liner upon
+the strange voyage which has ended here in Caspak.  We have settled
+down to an acceptance of our fate, for all are convinced that none
+of us will ever see the outer world again.  Ahm's repeated assertions
+that there are human beings like ourselves in Caspak have roused
+the men to a keen desire for exploration.  I sent out one party
+last week under Bradley.  Ahm, who is now free to go and come as
+he wishes, accompanied them.  They marched about twenty-five miles
+due west, encountering many terrible beasts and reptiles and not
+a few manlike creatures whom Ahm sent away.  Here is Bradley's
+report of the expedition:
+
+Marched fifteen miles the first day, camping on the bank of a
+large stream which runs southward.  Game was plentiful and we saw
+several varieties which we had not before encountered in Caspak.
+Just before making camp we were charged by an enormous woolly
+rhinoceros, which Plesser dropped with a perfect shot.  We had
+rhinoceros-steaks for supper.  Ahm called the thing "Atis."  It was
+almost a continuous battle from the time we left the fort until we
+arrived at camp.  The mind of man can scarce conceive the plethora
+of carnivorous life in this lost world; and their prey, of course,
+is even more abundant.
+
+The second day we marched about ten miles to the foot of the cliffs.
+Passed through dense forests close to the base of the cliffs.
+Saw manlike creatures and a low order of ape in one band, and
+some of the men swore that there was a white man among them.
+They were inclined to attack us at first; but a volley from our
+rifles caused them to change their minds.  We scaled the cliffs
+as far as we could; but near the top they are absolutely
+perpendicular without any sufficient cleft or protuberance to
+give hand or foot-hold.  All were disappointed, for we hungered
+for a view of the ocean and the outside world.  We even had a
+hope that we might see and attract the attention of a passing ship.
+Our exploration has determined one thing which will probably
+be of little value to us and never heard of beyond Caprona's
+walls--this crater was once entirely filled with water.
+Indisputable evidence of this is on the face of the cliffs.
+
+Our return journey occupied two days and was as filled with
+adventure as usual.  We are all becoming accustomed to adventure.
+It is beginning to pall on us.  We suffered no casualties and
+there was no illness.
+
+
+I had to smile as I read Bradley's report.  In those four days
+he had doubtless passed through more adventures than an African
+big-game hunter experiences in a lifetime, and yet he covered it
+all in a few lines.  Yes, we are becoming accustomed to adventure.
+Not a day passes that one or more of us does not face death at
+least once.  Ahm taught us a few things that have proved
+profitable and saved us much ammunition, which it is useless
+to expend except for food or in the last recourse of self-
+preservation.  Now when we are attacked by large flying reptiles
+we run beneath spreading trees; when land carnivora threaten us,
+we climb into trees, and we have learned not to fire at any of
+the dinosaurs unless we can keep out of their reach for at least
+two minutes after hitting them in the brain or spine, or five
+minutes after puncturing their hearts--it takes them so long to die.
+To hit them elsewhere is worse than useless, for they do not seem
+to notice it, and we had discovered that such shots do not kill
+or even disable them.
+
+September 7, 1916:  Much has happened since I last wrote.  Bradley is
+away again on another exploration expedition to the cliffs.  He expects
+to be gone several weeks and to follow along their base in search of
+a point where they may be scaled.  He took Sinclair, Brady, James,
+and Tippet with him.  Ahm has disappeared.  He has been gone about
+three days; but the most startling thing I have on record is that
+von Schoenvorts and Olson while out hunting the other day discovered
+oil about fifteen miles north of us beyond the sandstone cliffs.
+Olson says there is a geyser of oil there, and von Schoenvorts is
+making preparations to refine it.  If he succeeds, we shall have
+the means for leaving Caspak and returning to our own world.
+I can scarce believe the truth of it.  We are all elated to the
+seventh heaven of bliss.  Pray God we shall not be disappointed.
+
+I have tried on several occasions to broach the subject of my
+love to Lys; but she will not listen.
+
+
+
+Chapter 7
+
+
+October 8, 1916:  This is the last entry I shall make upon
+my manuscript.  When this is done, I shall be through.  Though I
+may pray that it reaches the haunts of civilized man, my better
+judgment tells me that it will never be perused by other eyes
+than mine, and that even though it should, it would be too late
+to avail me.  I am alone upon the summit of the great cliff
+overlooking the broad Pacific.  A chill south wind bites at my
+marrow, while far below me I can see the tropic foliage of Caspak
+on the one hand and huge icebergs from the near Antarctic upon
+the other.  Presently I shall stuff my folded manuscript into the
+thermos bottle I have carried with me for the purpose since I
+left the fort--Fort Dinosaur we named it--and hurl it far outward
+over the cliff-top into the Pacific.  What current washes the
+shore of Caprona I know not; whither my bottle will be borne I
+cannot even guess; but I have done all that mortal man may do to
+notify the world of my whereabouts and the dangers that threaten
+those of us who remain alive in Caspak--if there be any other
+than myself.
+
+About the 8th of September I accompanied Olson and von
+Schoenvorts to the oil-geyser.  Lys came with us, and we took a
+number of things which von Schoenvorts wanted for the purpose
+of erecting a crude refinery.  We went up the coast some ten or
+twelve miles in the U-33, tying up to shore near the mouth of a
+small stream which emptied great volumes of crude oil into the
+sea--I find it difficult to call this great lake by any other name.
+Then we disembarked and went inland about five miles, where we came
+upon a small lake entirely filled with oil, from the center of
+which a geyser of oil spouted.
+
+On the edge of the lake we helped von Schoenvorts build his
+primitive refinery.  We worked with him for two days until he got
+things fairly well started, and then we returned to Fort Dinosaur,
+as I feared that Bradley might return and be worried by our absence.
+The U-33 merely landed those of us that were to return to the fort
+and then retraced its course toward the oil-well.  Olson, Whitely,
+Wilson, Miss La Rue, and myself disembarked, while von Schoenvorts
+and his German crew returned to refine the oil.  The next day
+Plesser and two other Germans came down overland for ammunition.
+Plesser said they had been attacked by wild men and had exhausted
+a great deal of ammunition.  He also asked permission to get some
+dried meat and maize, saying that they were so busy with the work
+of refining that they had no time to hunt.  I let him have
+everything he asked for, and never once did a suspicion of their
+intentions enter my mind.  They returned to the oil-well the same
+day, while we continued with the multitudinous duties of camp life.
+
+For three days nothing of moment occurred.  Bradley did not
+return; nor did we have any word from von Schoenvorts.  In the
+evening Lys and I went up into one of the bastion towers and
+listened to the grim and terrible nightlife of the frightful ages
+of the past.  Once a saber-tooth screamed almost beneath us, and
+the girl shrank close against me.  As I felt her body against
+mine, all the pent love of these three long months shattered the
+bonds of timidity and conviction, and I swept her up into my arms
+and covered her face and lips with kisses.  She did not struggle
+to free herself; but instead her dear arms crept up about my neck
+and drew my own face even closer to hers.
+
+"You love me, Lys?" I cried.
+
+I felt her head nod an affirmative against my breast.  "Tell me,
+Lys," I begged, "tell me in words how much you love me."
+
+Low and sweet and tender came the answer:  "I love you beyond
+all conception."
+
+My heart filled with rapture then, and it fills now as it has
+each of the countless times I have recalled those dear words, as
+it shall fill always until death has claimed me.  I may never see
+her again; she may not know how I love her--she may question, she
+may doubt; but always true and steady, and warm with the fires of
+love my heart beats for the girl who said that night:  "I love you
+beyond all conception."
+
+For a long time we sat there upon the little bench constructed for
+the sentry that we had not as yet thought it necessary to post in
+more than one of the four towers.  We learned to know one another
+better in those two brief hours than we had in all the months that
+had intervened since we had been thrown together.  She told me that
+she had loved me from the first, and that she never had loved von
+Schoenvorts, their engagement having been arranged by her aunt for
+social reasons.
+
+That was the happiest evening of my life; nor ever do I expect
+to experience its like; but at last, as is the way of happiness,
+it terminated.  We descended to the compound, and I walked with Lys
+to the door of her quarters.  There again she kissed me and bade
+me good night, and then she went in and closed the door.
+
+I went to my own room, and there I sat by the light of one of the
+crude candles we had made from the tallow of the beasts we had
+killed, and lived over the events of the evening.  At last I
+turned in and fell asleep, dreaming happy dreams and planning for
+the future, for even in savage Caspak I was bound to make my girl
+safe and happy.  It was daylight when I awoke.  Wilson, who was
+acting as cook, was up and astir at his duties in the cook-house.
+The others slept; but I arose and followed by Nobs went down to
+the stream for a plunge.  As was our custom, I went armed with
+both rifle and revolver; but I stripped and had my swim without
+further disturbance than the approach of a large hyena, a number
+of which occupied caves in the sand-stone cliffs north of the camp.
+These brutes are enormous and exceedingly ferocious.  I imagine
+they correspond with the cave-hyena of prehistoric times.
+This fellow charged Nobs, whose Capronian experiences had taught
+him that discretion is the better part of valor--with the result
+that he dived head foremost into the stream beside me after giving
+vent to a series of ferocious growls which had no more effect upon
+Hyaena spelaeus than might a sweet smile upon an enraged tusker.
+Afterward I shot the beast, and Nobs had a feast while I dressed,
+for he had become quite a raw-meat eater during our numerous hunting
+expeditions, upon which we always gave him a portion of the kill.
+
+Whitely and Olson were up and dressed when we returned, and we
+all sat down to a good breakfast.  I could not but wonder at Lys'
+absence from the table, for she had always been one of the
+earliest risers in camp; so about nine o'clock, becoming
+apprehensive lest she might be indisposed, I went to the door of
+her room and knocked.  I received no response, though I finally
+pounded with all my strength; then I turned the knob and entered,
+only to find that she was not there.  Her bed had been occupied,
+and her clothing lay where she had placed it the previous night
+upon retiring; but Lys was gone.  To say that I was distracted
+with terror would be to put it mildly.  Though I knew she could
+not be in camp, I searched every square inch of the compound and
+all the buildings, yet without avail.
+
+It was Whitely who discovered the first clue--a huge human-like
+footprint in the soft earth beside the spring, and indications of
+a struggle in the mud.
+
+Then I found a tiny handkerchief close to the outer wall.
+Lys  had been stolen!  It was all too plain.  Some hideous member
+of the ape-man tribe had entered the fort and carried her off.
+While I stood stunned and horrified at the frightful evidence
+before me, there came from the direction of the great lake an
+increasing sound that rose to the volume of a shriek.  We all
+looked up as the noise approached apparently just above us, and
+a moment later there followed a terrific explosion which hurled
+us to the ground.  When we clambered to our feet, we saw a large
+section of the west wall torn and shattered.  It was Olson who
+first recovered from his daze sufficiently to guess the
+explanation of the phenomenon.
+
+"A shell!" he cried.  "And there ain't no shells in Caspak
+besides what's on the U-33.  The dirty boches are shellin'
+the fort.  Come on!"  And he grasped his rifle and started on
+a run toward the lake.  It was over two miles, but we did not pause
+until the harbor was in view, and still we could not see the lake
+because of the sandstone cliffs which intervened.  We ran as fast
+as we could around the lower end of the harbor, scrambled up the
+cliffs and at last stood upon their summit in full view of the lake.
+Far away down the coast, toward the river through which we had come
+to reach the lake, we saw upon the surface the outline of the U-33,
+black smoke vomiting from her funnel.
+
+Von Schoenvorts had succeeded in refining the oil!  The cur had
+broken his every pledge and was leaving us there to our fates.
+He had even shelled the fort as a parting compliment; nor could
+anything have been more truly Prussian than this leave-taking of
+the Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts.
+
+Olson, Whitely, Wilson, and I stood for a moment looking at
+one another.  It seemed incredible that man could be so
+perfidious--that we had really seen with our own eyes the thing
+that we had seen; but when we returned to the fort, the shattered
+wall gave us ample evidence that there was no mistake.
+
+Then we began to speculate as to whether it had been an ape-man
+or a Prussian that had abducted Lys.  From what we knew of von
+Schoenvorts, we would not have been surprised at anything from
+him; but the footprints by the spring seemed indisputable
+evidence that one of Caprona's undeveloped men had borne off
+the girl I loved.
+
+As soon as I had assured myself that such was the case, I made my
+preparations to follow and rescue her.  Olson, Whitely, and
+Wilson each wished to accompany me; but I told them that they
+were needed here, since with Bradley's party still absent and the
+Germans gone it was necessary that we conserve our force as far
+as might be possible.
+
+
+
+Chapter 8
+
+
+It was a sad leave-taking as in silence I shook hands with each
+of the three remaining men.  Even poor Nobs appeared dejected as
+we quit the compound and set out upon the well-marked spoor of
+the abductor.  Not once did I turn my eyes backward toward
+Fort Dinosaur.  I have not looked upon it since--nor in all
+likelihood shall I ever look upon it again.  The trail led
+northwest until it reached the western end of the sandstone
+cliffs to the north of the fort; there it ran into a well-defined
+path which wound northward into a country we had not as yet explored.
+It was a beautiful, gently rolling country, broken by occasional
+outcroppings of sandstone and by patches of dense forest relieved
+by open, park-like stretches and broad meadows whereon grazed
+countless herbivorous animals--red deer, aurochs, and infinite
+variety of antelope and at least three distinct species of horse,
+the latter ranging in size from a creature about as large as
+Nobs to a magnificent animal fourteen to sixteen hands high.
+These creatures fed together in perfect amity; nor did they show
+any great indications of terror when Nobs and I approached.
+They moved out of our way and kept their eyes upon us until we
+had passed; then they resumed their feeding.
+
+The path led straight across the clearing into another forest,
+lying upon the verge of which I saw a bit of white.  It appeared
+to stand out in marked contrast and incongruity to all its
+surroundings, and when I stopped to examine it, I found that
+it was a small strip of muslin--part of the hem of a garment.
+At once I was all excitement, for I knew that it was a sign left
+by Lys that she had been carried this way; it was a tiny bit torn
+from the hem of the undergarment that she wore in lieu of the
+night-robes she had lost with the sinking of the liner.
+Crushing the bit of fabric to my lips, I pressed on even more
+rapidly than before, because I now knew that I was upon the right
+trail and that up to this, point at least, Lys still had lived.
+
+I made over twenty miles that day, for I was now hardened to
+fatigue and accustomed to long hikes, having spent considerable
+time hunting and exploring in the immediate vicinity of camp.
+A dozen times that day was my life threatened by fearsome creatures
+of the earth or sky, though I could not but note that the farther
+north I traveled, the fewer were the great dinosaurs, though they
+still persisted in lesser numbers.  On the other hand the
+quantity of ruminants and the variety and frequency of
+carnivorous animals increased.  Each square mile of Caspak
+harbored its terrors.
+
+At intervals along the way I found bits of muslin, and often they
+reassured me when otherwise I should have been doubtful of the trail
+to take where two crossed or where there were forks, as occurred
+at several points.  And so, as night was drawing on, I came to the
+southern end of a line of cliffs loftier than any I had seen before,
+and as I approached them, there was wafted to my nostrils the pungent
+aroma of woodsmoke.  What could it mean? There could, to my mind,
+be but a single solution: man abided close by, a higher order of
+man than we had as yet seen, other than Ahm, the Neanderthal man.
+I wondered again as I had so many times that day if it had not been
+Ahm who stole Lys.
+
+Cautiously I approached the flank of the cliffs, where they
+terminated in an abrupt escarpment as though some all powerful
+hand had broken off a great section of rock and set it upon the
+surface of the earth.  It was now quite dark, and as I crept
+around the edge of the cliff, I saw at a little distance a great
+fire around which were many figures--apparently human figures.
+Cautioning Nobs to silence, and he had learned many lessons in
+the value of obedience since we had entered Caspak, I slunk
+forward, taking advantage of whatever cover I could find, until
+from behind a bush I could distinctly see the creatures assembled
+by the fire.  They were human and yet not human.  I should say
+that they were a little higher in the scale of evolution than
+Ahm, possibly occupying a place of evolution between that of the
+Neanderthal man and what is known as the Grimaldi race.  Their features
+were distinctly negroid, though their skins were white.  A considerable
+portion of both torso and limbs were covered with short hair, and
+their physical proportions were in many aspects apelike, though not
+so much so as were Ahm's.  They carried themselves in a more erect
+position, although their arms were considerably longer than those
+of the Neanderthal man.  As I watched them, I saw that they possessed
+a language, that they had knowledge of fire and that they carried
+besides the wooden club of Ahm, a thing which resembled a crude
+stone hatchet.  Evidently they were very low in the scale of
+humanity, but they were a step upward from those I had previously
+seen in Caspak.
+
+But what interested me most was the slender figure of a dainty
+girl, clad only in a thin bit of muslin which scarce covered her
+knees--a bit of muslin torn and ragged about the lower hem.  It was
+Lys, and she was alive and so far as I could see, unharmed.  A huge
+brute with thick lips and prognathous jaw stood at her shoulder.
+He was talking loudly and gesticulating wildly.  I was close enough
+to hear his words, which were similar to the language of Ahm, though
+much fuller, for there were many words I could not understand.
+However I caught the gist of what he was saying--which in effect
+was that he had found and captured this Galu, that she was his
+and that he defied anyone to question his right of possession.
+It appeared to me, as I afterward learned was the fact, that I was
+witnessing the most primitive of marriage ceremonies.  The assembled
+members of the tribe looked on and listened in a sort of dull and
+perfunctory apathy, for the speaker was by far the mightiest of the clan.
+
+There seemed no one to dispute his claims when he said, or rather
+shouted, in stentorian tones:  "I am Tsa.  This is my she.
+Who wishes her more than Tsa?"
+
+"I do," I said in the language of Ahm, and I stepped out into the
+firelight before them.  Lys gave a little cry of joy and started
+toward me, but Tsa grasped her arm and dragged her back.
+
+"Who are you?" shrieked Tsa.  "I kill!  I kill!  I kill!"
+
+"The she is mine," I replied, "and I have come to claim her.
+I kill if you do not let her come to me."  And I raised my pistol
+to a level with his heart.  Of course the creature had no conception
+of the purpose of the strange little implement which I was poking
+toward him.  With a sound that was half human and half the growl
+of a wild beast, he sprang toward me.  I aimed at his heart and
+fired, and as he sprawled headlong to the ground, the others of
+his tribe, overcome by fright at the report of the pistol,
+scattered toward the cliffs--while Lys, with outstretched arms,
+ran toward me.
+
+As I crushed her to me, there rose from the black night behind us
+and then to our right and to our left a series of frightful
+screams and shrieks, bellowings, roars and growls.  It was the
+night-life of this jungle world coming into its own--the huge,
+carnivorous nocturnal beasts which make the nights of Caspak hideous.
+A shuddering sob ran through Lys' figure.  "O God," she cried,
+"give me the strength to endure, for his sake!"  I saw that
+she was upon the verge of a breakdown, after all that she must
+have passed through of fear and horror that day, and I tried to
+quiet and reassure her as best I might; but even to me the future
+looked most unpromising, for what chance of life had we against
+the frightful hunters of the night who even now were prowling
+closer to us?
+
+Now I turned to see what had become of the tribe, and in the
+fitful glare of the fire I perceived that the face of the
+cliff was pitted with large holes into which the man-things
+were clambering.  "Come," I said to Lys, "we must follow them.
+We cannot last a half-hour out here.  We must find a cave."
+Already we could see the blazing green eyes of the hungry carnivora.
+I seized a brand from the fire and hurled it out into the night,
+and there came back an answering chorus of savage and rageful
+protest; but the eyes vanished for a short time.  Selecting a
+burning branch for each of us, we advanced toward the cliffs,
+where we were met by angry threats.
+
+"They will kill us," said Lys.  "We may as well keep on in search
+of another refuge."
+
+"They will not kill us so surely as will those others out there,"
+I replied.  "I am going to seek shelter in one of these caves;
+nor will the man-things prevent."  And I kept on in the direction
+of the cliff's base.  A huge creature stood upon a ledge and
+brandished his stone hatchet.  "Come and I will kill you and take
+the she," he boasted.
+
+"You saw how Tsa fared when he would have kept my she," I replied
+in his own tongue.  "Thus will you fare and all your fellows if
+you do not permit us to come in peace among you out of the dangers
+of the night."
+
+"Go north," he screamed.  "Go north among the Galus, and we will
+not harm you.  Some day will we be Galus; but now we are not.
+You do not belong among us.  Go away or we will kill you.  The she
+may remain if she is afraid, and we will keep her; but the he
+must depart."
+
+"The he won't depart," I replied, and approached still nearer.
+Rough and narrow ledges formed by nature gave access to the
+upper caves.  A man might scale them if unhampered and unhindered,
+but to clamber upward in the face of a belligerent tribe of half-men
+and with a girl to assist was beyond my capability.
+
+"I do not fear you," screamed the creature.  "You were close to
+Tsa; but I am far above you.  You cannot harm me as you harmed Tsa.
+Go away!"
+
+I placed a foot upon the lowest ledge and clambered upward,
+reaching down and pulling Lys to my side.  Already I felt safer.
+Soon we would be out of danger of the beasts again closing in
+upon us. The man above us raised his stone hatchet above his head
+and leaped lightly down to meet us.  His position above me gave
+him a great advantage, or at least so he probably thought, for he
+came with every show of confidence.  I hated to do it, but there
+seemed no other way, and so I shot him down as I had shot down Tsa.
+
+"You see," I cried to his fellows, "that I can kill you wherever
+you may be.  A long way off I can kill you as well as I can kill
+you near by.  Let us come among you in peace.  I will not harm you
+if you do not harm us.  We will take a cave high up.  Speak!"
+
+"Come, then," said one.  "If you will not harm us, you may come.
+Take Tsa's hole, which lies above you."
+
+The creature showed us the mouth of a black cave, but he kept at
+a distance while he did it, and Lys followed me as I crawled in
+to explore.  I had matches with me, and in the light of one I
+found a small cavern with a flat roof and floor which followed
+the cleavage of the strata.  Pieces of the roof had fallen at
+some long-distant date, as was evidenced by the depth of the
+filth and rubble in which they were embedded.  Even a superficial
+examination revealed the fact that nothing had ever been
+attempted that might have improved the livability of the cavern;
+nor, should I judge, had it ever been cleaned out.  With considerable
+difficulty I loosened some of the larger pieces of broken rock which
+littered the floor and placed them as a barrier before the doorway.
+It was too dark to do more than this.  I then gave Lys a piece of
+dried meat, and sitting inside the entrance, we dined as must have
+some of our ancient forbears at the dawning of the age of man, while
+far below the open diapason of the savage night rose weird and
+horrifying to our ears.  In the light of the great fire still
+burning we could see huge, skulking forms, and in the blacker
+background countless flaming eyes.
+
+Lys shuddered, and I put my arm around her and drew her to me;
+and thus we sat throughout the hot night.  She told me of her
+abduction and of the fright she had undergone, and together we
+thanked God that she had come through unharmed, because the great
+brute had dared not pause along the danger-infested way.  She said
+that they had but just reached the cliffs when I arrived, for on
+several occasions her captor had been forced to take to the trees
+with her to escape the clutches of some hungry cave-lion or saber-
+toothed tiger, and that twice they had been obliged to remain for
+considerable periods before the beasts had retired.
+
+Nobs, by dint of much scrambling and one or two narrow escapes
+from death, had managed to follow us up the cliff and was now
+curled between me and the doorway, having devoured a piece of the
+dried meat, which he seemed to relish immensely.  He was the
+first to fall asleep; but I imagine we must have followed suit
+soon, for we were both tired.  I had laid aside my ammunition-
+belt and rifle, though both were close beside me; but my pistol
+I kept in my lap beneath my hand.  However, we were not disturbed
+during the night, and when I awoke, the sun was shining on the
+tree-tops in the distance.  Lys' head had drooped to my breast,
+and my arm was still about her.
+
+Shortly afterward Lys awoke, and for a moment she could not seem
+to comprehend her situation.  She looked at me and then turned
+and glanced at my arm about her, and then she seemed quite
+suddenly to realize the scantiness of her apparel and drew away,
+covering her face with her palms and blushing furiously.  I drew
+her back toward me and kissed her, and then she threw her arms
+about my neck and wept softly in mute surrender to the inevitable.
+
+It was an hour later before the tribe began to stir about.
+We watched them from our "apartment," as Lys called it.
+Neither men nor women wore any sort of clothing or ornaments,
+and they all seemed to be about of an age; nor were there any
+babies or children among them.  This was, to us, the strangest
+and most inexplicable of facts, but it recalled to us that
+though we had seen many of the lesser developed wild people
+of Caspak, we had never yet seen a child or an old man or woman.
+
+After a while they became less suspicious of us and then quite
+friendly in their brutish way.  They picked at the fabric of our
+clothing, which seemed to interest them, and examined my rifle
+and pistol and the ammunition in the belt around my waist.
+I showed them the thermos-bottle, and when I poured a little water
+from it, they were delighted, thinking that it was a spring which
+I carried about with me--a never-failing source of water supply.
+
+One thing we both noticed among their other characteristics: they
+never laughed nor smiled; and then we remembered that Ahm had
+never done so, either.  I asked them if they knew Ahm; but they
+said they did not.
+
+One of them said:  "Back there we may have known him."  And he
+jerked his head to the south.
+
+"You came from back there?"  I asked.  He looked at me in surprise.
+
+"We all come from there," he said.  "After a while we go there."
+And this time he jerked his head toward the north.  "Be Galus,"
+he concluded.
+
+Many times now had we heard this reference to becoming Galus.
+Ahm had spoken of it many times.  Lys and I decided that it was
+a sort of original religious conviction, as much a part of them
+as their instinct for self-preservation--a primal acceptance of
+a hereafter and a holier state.  It was a brilliant theory, but
+it was all wrong.  I know it now, and how far we were from
+guessing the wonderful, the miraculous, the gigantic truth which
+even yet I may only guess at--the thing that sets Caspak apart
+from all the rest of the world far more definitely than her
+isolated geographical position or her impregnable barrier of
+giant cliffs.  If I could live to return to civilization, I
+should have meat for the clergy and the layman to chew upon for
+years--and for the evolutionists, too.
+
+After breakfast the men set out to hunt, while the women went to
+a large pool of warm water covered with a green scum and filled
+with billions of tadpoles.  They waded in to where the water was
+about a foot deep and lay down in the mud.  They remained there
+from one to two hours and then returned to the cliff.  While we
+were with them, we saw this same thing repeated every morning;
+but though we asked them why they did it we could get no reply
+which was intelligible to us.  All they vouchsafed in way of
+explanation was the single word Ata.  They tried to get Lys to go
+in with them and could not understand why she refused.  After the
+first day I went hunting with the men, leaving my pistol and
+Nobs with Lys, but she never had to use them, for no reptile or
+beast ever approached the pool while the women were there--nor,
+so far as we know, at other times.  There was no spoor of wild
+beast in the soft mud along the banks, and the water certainly
+didn't look fit to drink.
+
+This tribe lived largely upon the smaller animals which they
+bowled over with their stone hatchets after making a wide circle
+about their quarry and driving it so that it had to pass close to
+one of their number.  The little horses and the smaller antelope
+they secured in sufficient numbers to support life, and they also
+ate numerous varieties of fruits and vegetables.  They never
+brought in more than sufficient food for their immediate needs;
+but why bother?  The food problem of Caspak is not one to cause
+worry to her inhabitants.
+
+The fourth day Lys told me that she thought she felt equal to
+attempting the return journey on the morrow, and so I set out for
+the hunt in high spirits, for I was anxious to return to the fort
+and learn if Bradley and his party had returned and what had been
+the result of his expedition.  I also wanted to relieve their
+minds as to Lys and myself, as I knew that they must have already
+given us up for dead.  It was a cloudy day, though warm, as it
+always is in Caspak.  It seemed odd to realize that just a few
+miles away winter lay upon the storm-tossed ocean, and that snow
+might be falling all about Caprona; but no snow could ever
+penetrate the damp, hot atmosphere of the great crater.
+
+We had to go quite a bit farther than usual before we could
+surround a little bunch of antelope, and as I was helping drive
+them, I saw a fine red deer a couple of hundred yards behind me.
+He must have been asleep in the long grass, for I saw him rise
+and look about him in a bewildered way, and then I raised my gun
+and let him have it.  He dropped, and I ran forward to finish him
+with the long thin knife, which one of the men had given me; but
+just as I reached him, he staggered to his feet and ran on for
+another two hundred yards--when I dropped him again.  Once more
+was this repeated before I was able to reach him and cut his
+throat; then I looked around for my companions, as I wanted them
+to come and carry the meat home; but I could see nothing of them.
+I called a few times and waited, but there was no response and no
+one came.  At last I became disgusted, and cutting off all the
+meat that I could conveniently carry, I set off in the direction
+of the cliffs.  I must have gone about a mile before the truth
+dawn upon me--I was lost, hopelessly lost.
+
+The entire sky was still completely blotted out by dense clouds;
+nor was there any landmark visible by which I might have taken
+my bearings.  I went on in the direction I thought was south but
+which I now imagine must have been about due north, without
+detecting a single familiar object.  In a dense wood I suddenly
+stumbled upon a thing which at first filled me with hope and later
+with the most utter despair and dejection.  It was a little mound
+of new-turned earth sprinkled with flowers long since withered,
+and at one end was a flat slab of sandstone stuck in the ground.
+It was a grave, and it meant for me that I had at last stumbled
+into a country inhabited by human beings.  I would find them;
+they would direct me to the cliffs; perhaps they would accompany
+me and take us back with them to their abodes--to the abodes of
+men and women like ourselves.  My hopes and my imagination ran
+riot in the few yards I had to cover to reach that lonely grave
+and stoop that I might read the rude characters scratched upon
+the simple headstone.  This is what I read:
+
+HERE LIES JOHN TIPPET ENGLISHMAN KILLED BY TYRANNOSAURUS 10
+SEPT., A.D. 1916 R. I. P.
+
+
+Tippet! It seemed incredible.  Tippet lying here in this gloomy wood!
+Tippet dead!  He had been a good man, but the personal loss was not
+what affected me.  It was the fact that this silent grave gave
+evidence that Bradley had come this far upon his expedition and that
+he too probably was lost, for it was not our intention that he should
+be long gone.  If I had stumbled upon the grave of one of the party,
+was it not within reason to believe that the bones of the others lay
+scattered somewhere near?
+
+
+
+Chapter 9
+
+
+As I stood looking down upon that sad and lonely mound, wrapped
+in the most dismal of reflections and premonitions, I was
+suddenly seized from behind and thrown to earth.  As I fell, a
+warm body fell on top of me, and hands grasped my arms and legs.
+When I could look up, I saw a number of giant fingers pinioning
+me down, while others stood about surveying me.  Here again was
+a new type of man--a higher type than the primitive tribe I had
+just quitted.  They were a taller people, too, with better-shaped
+skulls and more intelligent faces.  There were less of the ape
+characteristics about their features, and less of the negroid, too.
+They carried weapons, stone-shod spears, stone knives, and hatchets--
+and they wore ornaments and breech-cloths--the former of feathers
+worn in their hair and the latter made of a single snake-skin cured
+with the head on, the head depending to their knees.
+
+Of course I did not take in all these details upon the instant of
+my capture, for I was busy with other matters.  Three of the
+warriors were sitting upon me, trying to hold me down by main
+strength and awkwardness, and they were having their hands full
+in the doing, I can tell you.  I don't like to appear conceited,
+but I may as well admit that I am proud of my strength and the
+science that I have acquired and developed in the directing of
+it--that and my horsemanship I always have been proud of.  And now,
+that day, all the long hours that I had put into careful study,
+practice and training brought me in two or three minutes a full
+return upon my investment.  Californians, as a rule, are familiar
+with ju-jutsu, and I especially had made a study of it for several
+years, both at school and in the gym of the Los Angeles Athletic
+Club, while recently I had had, in my employ, a Jap who was a
+wonder at the art.
+
+It took me just about thirty seconds to break the elbow of one of
+my assailants, trip another and send him stumbling backward among
+his fellows, and throw the third completely over my head in such
+a way that when he fell his neck was broken.  In the instant that
+the others of the party stood in mute and inactive surprise, I
+unslung my rifle--which, carelessly, I had been carrying across
+my back; and when they charged, as I felt they would, I put a
+bullet in the forehead of one of them.  This stopped them all
+temporarily--not the death of their fellow, but the report of the
+rifle, the first they had ever heard.  Before they were ready to
+attack me again, one of them spoke in a commanding tone to his
+fellows, and in a language similar but still more comprehensive
+than that of the tribe to the south, as theirs was more complete
+than Ahm's.  He commanded them to stand back and then he advanced
+and addressed me.
+
+He asked me who I was, from whence I came and what my intentions were.
+I replied that I was a stranger in Caspak, that I was lost and that
+my only desire was to find my way back to my companions.  He asked
+where they were and I told him toward the south somewhere, using
+the Caspakian phrase which, literally translated, means "toward
+the beginning."  His surprise showed upon his face before he voiced
+it in words.  "There are no Galus there," he said.
+
+"I tell you," I said angrily, "that I am from another country,
+far from Caspak, far beyond the high cliffs.  I do not know who
+the Galus may be; I have never seen them.  This is the farthest
+north I have been.  Look at me--look at my clothing and my weapons.
+Have you ever seen a Galu or any other creature in Caspak who
+possessed such things?"
+
+He had to admit that he had not, and also that he was much
+interested in me, my rifle and the way I had handled his
+three warriors.  Finally he became half convinced that I was
+telling him the truth and offered to aid me if I would show him
+how I had thrown the man over my head and also make him a present
+of the "bang-spear," as he called it.  I refused to give him my
+rifle, but promised to show him the trick he wished to learn if
+he would guide me in the right direction.  He told me that he
+would do so tomorrow, that it was too late today and that I might
+come to their village and spend the night with them.  I was loath
+to lose so much time; but the fellow was obdurate, and so I
+accompanied them.  The two dead men they left where they had
+fallen, nor gave them a second glance--thus cheap is life upon Caspak.
+
+These people also were cave-dwellers, but their caves showed the
+result of a higher intelligence that brought them a step nearer
+to civilized man than the tribe next "toward the beginning."
+The interiors of their caverns were cleared of rubbish, though
+still far from clean, and they had pallets of dried grasses
+covered with the skins of leopard, lynx, and bear, while before
+the entrances were barriers of stone and small, rudely circular
+stone ovens.  The walls of the cavern to which I was conducted were
+covered with drawings scratched upon the sandstone.  There were
+the outlines of the giant red-deer, of mammoths, of tigers and
+other beasts.  Here, as in the last tribe, there were no children
+or any old people.  The men of this tribe had two names, or
+rather names of two syllables, and their language contained words
+of two syllables; whereas in the tribe of Tsa the words were all
+of a single syllable, with the exception of a very few like Atis
+and Galus.  The chief's name was To-jo, and his household
+consisted of seven females and himself.  These women were much
+more comely, or rather less hideous than those of Tsa's people;
+one of them, even, was almost pretty, being less hairy and having
+a rather nice skin, with high coloring.
+
+They were all much interested in me and examined my clothing and
+equipment carefully, handling and feeling and smelling of each article.
+I learned from them that their people were known as Bandlu, or
+spear-men; Tsa's race was called Sto-lu--hatchet-men.  Below these
+in the scale of evolution came the Bo-lu, or club-men, and then the
+Alus, who had no weapons and no language.  In that word I recognized
+what to me seemed the most remarkable discovery I had made upon
+Caprona, for unless it were mere coincidence, I had come upon a word
+that had been handed down from the beginning of spoken language upon
+earth, been handed down for millions of years, perhaps, with
+little change.  It was the sole remaining thread of the ancient
+woof of a dawning culture which had been woven when Caprona was
+a fiery mount upon a great land-mass teeming with life.  It linked
+the unfathomable then to the eternal now.  And yet it may have been
+pure coincidence; my better judgment tells me that it is coincidence
+that in Caspak the term for speechless man is Alus, and in the outer
+world of our own day it is Alalus.
+
+The comely woman of whom I spoke was called So-ta, and she took
+such a lively interest in me that To-jo finally objected to her
+attentions, emphasizing his displeasure by knocking her down and
+kicking her into a corner of the cavern.  I leaped between them
+while he was still kicking her, and obtaining a quick hold upon
+him, dragged him screaming with pain from the cave.  Then I made
+him promise not to hurt the she again, upon pain of worse punishment.
+So-ta gave me a grateful look; but To-jo and the balance of his women
+were sullen and ominous.
+
+Later in the evening So-ta confided to me that she was soon to
+leave the tribe.
+
+"So-ta soon to be Kro-lu," she confided in a low whisper.  I asked
+her what a Kro-lu might be, and she tried to explain, but I do not
+yet know if I understood her.  From her gestures I deduced that the
+Kro-lus were a people who were armed with bows and arrows, had
+vessels in which to cook their food and huts of some sort in which
+they lived, and were accompanied by animals.  It was all very
+fragmentary and vague, but the idea seemed to be that the Kro-lus
+were a more advanced people than the Band-lus.  I pondered a long
+time upon all that I had heard, before sleep came to me.  I tried
+to find some connection between these various races that would
+explain the universal hope which each of them harbored that some
+day they would become Galus.  So-ta had given me a suggestion; but
+the resulting idea was so weird that I could scarce even entertain
+it; yet it coincided with Ahm's expressed hope, with the various
+steps in evolution I had noted in the several tribes I had encountered
+and with the range of type represented in each tribe.  For example,
+among the Band-lu were such types as So-ta, who seemed to me to be
+the highest in the scale of evolution, and To-jo, who was just a
+shade nearer the ape, while there were others who had flatter noses,
+more prognathous faces and hairier bodies.  The question puzzled me.
+Possibly in the outer world the answer to it is locked in the bosom
+of the Sphinx.  Who knows?  I do not.
+
+Thinking the thoughts of a lunatic or a dope-fiend, I fell asleep;
+and when I awoke, my hands and feet were securely tied and my
+weapons had been taken from me.  How they did it without awakening
+me I cannot tell you.  It was humiliating, but it was true.
+To-jo stood above me.  The early light of morning was dimly
+filtering into the cave.
+
+"Tell me," he demanded, "how to throw a man over my head and
+break his neck, for I am going to kill you, and I wish to know
+this thing before you die."
+
+Of all the ingenuous declarations I have ever heard, this one
+copped the proverbial bun.  It struck me as so funny that, even
+in the face of death, I laughed.  Death, I may remark here, had,
+however, lost much of his terror for me.  I had become a disciple
+of Lys' fleeting philosophy of the valuelessness of human life.
+I realized that she was quite right--that we were but comic figures
+hopping from the cradle to the grave, of interest to practically
+no other created thing than ourselves and our few intimates.
+
+Behind To-jo stood So-ta.  She raised one hand with the palm
+toward me--the Caspakian equivalent of a negative shake of the head.
+
+"Let me think about it," I parried, and To-jo said that he would
+wait until night.  He would give me a day to think it over; then
+he left, and the women left--the men for the hunt, and the women,
+as I later learned from So-ta, for the warm pool where they immersed
+their bodies as did the shes of the Sto-lu.  "Ata," explained So-ta,
+when I questioned her as to the purpose of this matutinal rite;
+but that was later.
+
+I must have lain there bound and uncomfortable for two or three
+hours when at last So-ta entered the cave.  She carried a sharp
+knife--mine, in fact, and with it she cut my bonds.
+
+"Come!" she said.  "So-ta will go with you back to the Galus.
+It is time that So-ta left the Band-lu.  Together we will go to
+the Kro-lu, and after that the Galus.  To-jo will kill you tonight.
+He will kill So-ta if he knows that So-ta aided you.  We will
+go together."
+
+"I will go with you to the Kro-lu," I replied, "but then I must
+return to my own people `toward the beginning.'"
+
+"You cannot go back," she said.  "It is forbidden.  They would
+kill you.  Thus far have you come--there is no returning."
+
+"But I must return," I insisted.  "My people are there.  I must
+return and lead them in this direction."
+
+She insisted, and I insisted; but at last we compromised.  I was
+to escort her as far as the country of the Kro-lu and then I was
+to go back after my own people and lead them north into a land
+where the dangers were fewer and the people less murderous.
+She brought me all my belongings that had been filched from
+me--rifle, ammunition, knife, and thermos bottle, and then hand
+in hand we descended the cliff and set off toward the north.
+
+For three days we continued upon our way, until we arrived
+outside a village of thatched huts just at dusk.  So-ta said
+that she would enter alone; I must not be seen if I did not
+intend to remain, as it was forbidden that one should return
+and live after having advanced this far.  So she left me.
+She was a dear girl and a stanch and true comrade--more like
+a man than a woman.  In her simple barbaric way she was both
+refined and chaste.  She had been the wife of To-jo.  Among the
+Kro-lu she would find another mate after the manner of the
+strange Caspakian world; but she told me very frankly that
+whenever I returned, she would leave her mate and come to me, as
+she preferred me above all others.  I was becoming a ladies' man
+after a lifetime of bashfulness!
+
+At the outskirts of the village I left her without even seeing
+the sort of people who inhabited it, and set off through the
+growing darkness toward the south.  On the third day I made a
+detour westward to avoid the country of the Band-lu, as I did not
+care to be detained by a meeting with To-jo.  On the sixth day I
+came to the cliffs of the Sto-lu, and my heart beat fast as I
+approached them, for here was Lys.  Soon I would hold her tight
+in my arms again; soon her warm lips would merge with mine.
+I felt sure that she was still safe among the hatchet people, and
+I was already picturing the joy and the love-light in her eyes
+when she should see me once more as I emerged from the last clump
+of trees and almost ran toward the cliffs.
+
+It was late in the morning.  The women must have returned from
+the pool; yet as I drew near, I saw no sign of life whatever.
+"They have remained longer," I thought; but when I was quite
+close to the base of the cliffs, I saw that which dashed my hopes
+and my happiness to earth.  Strewn along the ground were a score
+of mute and horrible suggestions of what had taken place during
+my absence--bones picked clean of flesh, the bones of manlike
+creatures, the bones of many of the tribe of Sto-lu; nor in any
+cave was there sign of life.
+
+Closely I examined the ghastly remains fearful each instant that
+I should find the dainty skull that would shatter my happiness
+for life; but though I searched diligently, picking up every
+one of the twenty-odd skulls, I found none that was the skull
+of a creature but slightly removed from the ape.  Hope, then,
+still lived.  For another three days I searched north and south,
+east and west for the hatchetmen of Caspak; but never a trace of
+them did I find.  It was raining most of the time now, and the
+weather was as near cold as it ever seems to get on Caprona.
+
+At last I gave up the search and set off toward Fort Dinosaur.
+For a week--a week filled with the terrors and dangers of a
+primeval world--I pushed on in the direction I thought was south.
+The sun never shone; the rain scarcely ever ceased falling.
+The beasts I met with were fewer in number but infinitely more
+terrible in temper; yet I lived on until there came to me the
+realization that I was hopelessly lost, that a year of sunshine
+would not again give me my bearings; and while I was cast down by
+this terrifying knowledge, the knowledge that I never again could
+find Lys, I stumbled upon another grave--the grave of William James,
+with its little crude headstone and its scrawled characters
+recording that he had died upon the 13th of September--killed by
+a saber-tooth tiger.
+
+I think that I almost gave up then.  Never in my life have I felt
+more hopeless or helpless or alone.  I was lost.  I could not
+find my friends.  I did not even know that they still lived; in
+fact, I could not bring myself to believe that they did.  I was
+sure that Lys was dead.  I wanted myself to die, and yet I clung
+to life--useless and hopeless and harrowing a thing as it had become.
+I clung to life because some ancient, reptilian forbear had clung
+to life and transmitted to me through the ages the most powerful
+motive that guided his minute brain--the motive of self-preservation.
+
+At last I came to the great barrier-cliffs; and after three days
+of mad effort--of maniacal effort--I scaled them.  I built crude
+ladders; I wedged sticks in narrow fissures; I chopped toe-holds
+and finger-holds with my long knife; but at last I scaled them.
+Near the summit I came upon a huge cavern.  It is the abode of
+some mighty winged creature of the Triassic--or rather it was.
+Now it is mine.  I slew the thing and took its abode.  I reached
+the summit and looked out upon the broad gray terrible Pacific of
+the far-southern winter.  It was cold up there.  It is cold here
+today; yet here I sit watching, watching, watching for the thing
+I know will never come--for a sail.
+
+
+
+Chapter 10
+
+
+Once a day I descend to the base of the cliff and hunt, and fill
+my stomach with water from a clear cold spring.  I have three
+gourds which I fill with water and take back to my cave against
+the long nights.  I have fashioned a spear and a bow and arrow,
+that I may conserve my ammunition, which is running low.  My clothes
+are worn to shreds.  Tomorrow I shall discard them for leopard-skins
+which I have tanned and sewn into a garment strong and warm.  It is
+cold up here.  I have a fire burning and I sit bent over it while
+I write; but I am safe here.  No other living creature ventures
+to the chill summit of the barrier cliffs.  I am safe, and I am
+alone with my sorrows and my remembered joys--but without hope.
+It is said that hope springs eternal in the human breast; but there
+is none in mine.
+
+I am about done.  Presently I shall fold these pages and push
+them into my thermos bottle.  I shall cork it and screw the cap
+tight, and then I shall hurl it as far out into the sea as my
+strength will permit.  The wind is off-shore; the tide is running
+out; perhaps it will be carried into one of those numerous
+ocean-currents which sweep perpetually from pole to pole and
+from continent to continent, to be deposited at last upon some
+inhabited shore.  If fate is kind and this does happen, then, for
+God's sake, come and get me!
+
+It was a week ago that I wrote the preceding paragraph, which I
+thought would end the written record of my life upon Caprona.
+I had paused to put a new point on my quill and stir the crude ink
+(which I made by crushing a black variety of berry and mixing it
+with water) before attaching my signature, when faintly from the
+valley far below came an unmistakable sound which brought me to
+my feet, trembling with excitement, to peer eagerly downward from
+my dizzy ledge.  How full of meaning that sound was to me you may
+guess when I tell you that it was the report of a firearm!  For a
+moment my gaze traversed the landscape beneath until it was
+caught and held by four figures near the base of the cliff--a
+human figure held at bay by three hyaenodons, those ferocious and
+blood-thirsty wild dogs of the Eocene.  A fourth beast lay dead
+or dying near by.
+
+I couldn't be sure, looking down from above as I was; but yet I
+trembled like a leaf in the intuitive belief that it was Lys, and
+my judgment served to confirm my wild desire, for whoever it was
+carried only a pistol, and thus had Lys been armed.  The first
+wave of sudden joy which surged through me was short-lived in the
+face of the swift-following conviction that the one who fought
+below was already doomed.  Luck and only luck it must have
+been which had permitted that first shot to lay low one of the
+savage creatures, for even such a heavy weapon as my pistol is
+entirely inadequate against even the lesser carnivora of Caspak.
+In a moment the three would charge! A futile shot would but tend
+more greatly to enrage the one it chanced to hit; and then the
+three would drag down the little human figure and tear it to pieces.
+
+And maybe it was Lys!  My heart stood still at the thought, but mind
+and muscle responded to the quick decision I was forced to make.
+There was but a single hope--a single chance--and I took it.
+I raised my rifle to my shoulder and took careful aim.  It was
+a long shot, a dangerous shot, for unless one is accustomed to
+it, shooting from a considerable altitude is most deceptive work.
+There is, though, something about marksmanship which is quite
+beyond all scientific laws.
+
+Upon no other theory can I explain my marksmanship of that moment.
+Three times my rifle spoke--three quick, short syllables of death.
+I did not take conscious aim; and yet at each report a beast
+crumpled in its tracks!
+
+From my ledge to the base of the cliff is a matter of several
+thousand feet of dangerous climbing; yet I venture to say that
+the first ape from whose loins my line has descended never could
+have equaled the speed with which I literally dropped down the
+face of that rugged escarpment.  The last two hundred feet is
+over a steep incline of loose rubble to the valley bottom, and I
+had just reached the top of this when there arose to my ears an
+agonized cry--"Bowen!  Bowen!  Quick, my love, quick!"
+
+I had been too much occupied with the dangers of the descent to
+glance down toward the valley; but that cry which told me that it
+was indeed Lys, and that she was again in danger, brought my eyes
+quickly upon her in time to see a hairy, burly brute seize her
+and start off at a run toward the near-by wood.  From rock to
+rock, chamoislike, I leaped downward toward the valley, in
+pursuit of Lys and her hideous abductor.
+
+He was heavier than I by many pounds, and so weighted by the
+burden he carried that I easily overtook him; and at last he
+turned, snarling, to face me.  It was Kho of the tribe of Tsa,
+the hatchet-men.  He recognized me, and with a low growl he
+threw Lys aside and came for me.  "The she is mine," he cried.
+"I kill!  I kill!"
+
+I had had to discard my rifle before I commenced the rapid descent
+of the cliff, so that now I was armed only with a hunting knife,
+and this I whipped from its scabbard as Kho leaped toward me.
+He was a mighty beast, mightily muscled, and the urge that has
+made males fight since the dawn of life on earth filled him with
+the blood-lust and the thirst to slay; but not one whit less did
+it fill me with the same primal passions.  Two abysmal beasts
+sprang at each other's throats that day beneath the shadow of
+earth's oldest cliffs--the man of now and the man-thing of the
+earliest, forgotten then, imbued by the same deathless passion
+that has come down unchanged through all the epochs, periods and
+eras of time from the beginning, and which shall continue to the
+incalculable end--woman, the imperishable Alpha and Omega of life.
+
+Kho closed and sought my jugular with his teeth.  He seemed to
+forget the hatchet dangling by its aurochs-hide thong at his hip,
+as I forgot, for the moment, the dagger in my hand.  And I doubt
+not but that Kho would easily have bested me in an encounter of
+that sort had not Lys' voice awakened within my momentarily
+reverted brain the skill and cunning of reasoning man.
+"Bowen!" she cried.  "Your knife!  Your knife!"
+It was enough.  It recalled me from the forgotten eon to which my
+brain had flown and left me once again a modern man battling with
+a clumsy, unskilled brute.  No longer did my jaws snap at the
+hairy throat before me; but instead my knife sought and found a
+space between two ribs over the savage heart.  Kho voiced a single
+horrid scream, stiffened spasmodically and sank to the earth.
+And Lys threw herself into my arms.  All the fears and sorrows of
+the past were wiped away, and once again I was the happiest of men.
+
+With some misgivings I shortly afterward cast my eyes upward
+toward the precarious ledge which ran before my cave, for it
+seemed to me quite beyond all reason to expect a dainty modern
+belle to essay the perils of that frightful climb.  I asked her
+if she thought she could brave the ascent, and she laughed gayly
+in my face.
+
+"Watch!" she cried, and ran eagerly toward the base of the cliff.
+Like a squirrel she clambered swiftly aloft, so that I was forced
+to exert myself to keep pace with her.  At first she frightened me;
+but presently I was aware that she was quite as safe here as was I.
+When we finally came to my ledge and I again held her in my arms,
+she recalled to my mind that for several weeks she had been living
+the life of a cave-girl with the tribe of hatchet-men.  They had
+been driven from their former caves by another tribe which had slain
+many and carried off quite half the females, and the new cliffs to
+which they had flown had proven far higher and more precipitous, so
+that she had become, through necessity, a most practiced climber.
+
+She told me of Kho's desire for her, since all his females had
+been stolen and of how her life had been a constant nightmare of
+terror as she sought by night and by day to elude the great brute.
+For a time Nobs had been all the protection she required; but one
+day he disappeared--nor has she seen him since.  She believes that
+he was deliberately made away with; and so do I, for we both are
+sure that he never would have deserted her.  With her means of
+protection gone, Lys was now at the mercy of the hatchet-man;
+nor was it many hours before he had caught her at the base of the
+cliff and seized her; but as he bore her triumphantly aloft toward
+his cave, she had managed to break loose and escape him.
+
+"For three days he has pursued me," she said, "through this
+horrible world.  How I have passed through in safety I cannot
+guess, nor how I have always managed to outdistance him; yet I
+have done it, until just as you discovered me.  Fate was kind
+to us, Bowen."
+
+I nodded my head in assent and crushed her to me. And then we
+talked and planned as I cooked antelope-steaks over my fire, and
+we came to the conclusion that there was no hope of rescue, that
+she and I were doomed to live and die upon Caprona.  Well, it
+might be worse!  I would rather live here always with Lys than to
+live elsewhere without her; and she, dear girl, says the same of
+me; but I am afraid of this life for her.  It is a hard, fierce,
+dangerous life, and I shall pray always that we shall be rescued
+from it--for her sake.
+
+That night the clouds broke, and the moon shone down upon our
+little ledge; and there, hand in hand, we turned our faces toward
+heaven and plighted our troth beneath the eyes of God.  No human
+agency could have married us more sacredly than we are wed.  We are
+man and wife, and we are content.  If God wills it, we shall live
+out our lives here.  If He wills otherwise, then this manuscript
+which I shall now consign to the inscrutable forces of the sea
+shall fall into friendly hands.  However, we are each without hope.
+And so we say good-bye in this, our last message to the world beyond
+the barrier cliffs.
+
+(Signed) Bowen J. Tyler, Jr. Lys La R. Tyler.
+
+
+
+
+
+The End of Project Gutenberg etext of "The Land that Time Forgot"
+
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Land That Time Forgot
+by Edgar Rice Burroughs
+(#1 in The Land That Time Forgot Series by Edgar Rice Burroughs)
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+Title: The Land That Time Forgot
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+Author: Edgar Rice Burroughs
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+Release Date: June, 1996  [Etext #551]
+[Yes, we are about one year ahead of schedule]
+[The actual date this file first posted = 11/1/01]
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+The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Land That Time Forgot
+by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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+*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.07/27/01*END*
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Created by Judith Boss, Omaha, Nebraska
+
+
+
+
+
+The Land that Time Forgot
+
+By Edgar Rice Burroughs
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 1
+
+
+
+
+It must have been a little after three o'clock in the afternoon
+that it happened--the afternoon of June 3rd, 1916.  It seems
+incredible that all that I have passed through--all those weird
+and terrifying experiences--should have been encompassed within
+so short a span as three brief months.  Rather might I have
+experienced a cosmic cycle, with all its changes and evolutions
+for that which I have seen with my own eyes in this brief
+interval of time--things that no other mortal eye had seen
+before, glimpses of a world past, a world dead, a world so
+long dead that even in the lowest Cambrian stratum no trace of
+it remains.  Fused with the melting inner crust, it has passed
+forever beyond the ken of man other than in that lost pocket of
+the earth whither fate has borne me and where my doom is sealed.
+I am here and here must remain.
+
+
+After reading this far, my interest, which already had been
+stimulated by the finding of the manuscript, was approaching
+the boiling-point.  I had come to Greenland for the summer, on the
+advice of my physician, and was slowly being bored to extinction,
+as I had thoughtlessly neglected to bring sufficient reading-matter.
+Being an indifferent fisherman, my enthusiasm for this form of
+sport soon waned; yet in the absence of other forms of recreation
+I was now risking my life in an entirely inadequate boat off Cape
+Farewell at the southernmost extremity of Greenland.
+
+Greenland!  As a descriptive appellation, it is a sorry joke--but my
+story has nothing to do with Greenland, nothing to do with me; so I
+shall get through with the one and the other as rapidly as possible.
+
+The inadequate boat finally arrived at a precarious landing, the
+natives, waist-deep in the surf, assisting.  I was carried ashore,
+and while the evening meal was being prepared, I wandered to and
+fro along the rocky, shattered shore.  Bits of surf-harried
+beach clove the worn granite, or whatever the rocks of Cape
+Farewell may be composed of, and as I followed the ebbing tide
+down one of these soft stretches, I saw the thing.  Were one
+to bump into a Bengal tiger in the ravine behind the Bimini
+Baths, one could be no more surprised than was I to see a
+perfectly good quart thermos bottle turning and twisting in the
+surf of Cape Farewell at the southern extremity of Greenland.
+I rescued it, but I was soaked above the knees doing it; and then
+I sat down in the sand and opened it, and in the long twilight
+read the manuscript, neatly written and tightly folded, which was
+its contents.
+
+You have read the opening paragraph, and if you are an imaginative
+idiot like myself, you will want to read the rest of it; so I shall
+give it to you here, omitting quotation marks--which are difficult
+of remembrance.  In two minutes you will forget me.
+
+
+My home is in Santa Monica.  I am, or was, junior member of my
+father's firm.  We are ship-builders.  Of recent years we have
+specialized on submarines, which we have built for Germany,
+England, France and the United States.  I know a sub as a mother
+knows her baby's face, and have commanded a score of them on
+their trial runs.  Yet my inclinations were all toward aviation.
+I graduated under Curtiss, and after a long siege with my father
+obtained his permission to try for the Lafayette Escadrille.  As a
+stepping-stone I obtained an appointment in the American ambulance
+service and was on my way to France when three shrill whistles
+altered, in as many seconds, my entire scheme of life.
+
+I was sitting on deck with some of the fellows who were going
+into the American ambulance service with me, my Airedale, Crown
+Prince Nobbler, asleep at my feet, when the first blast of the
+whistle shattered the peace and security of the ship.  Ever since
+entering the U-boat zone we had been on the lookout for periscopes,
+and children that we were, bemoaning the unkind fate that was to
+see us safely into France on the morrow without a glimpse of the
+dread marauders.  We were young; we craved thrills, and God knows
+we got them that day; yet by comparison with that through which I
+have since passed they were as tame as a Punch-and-Judy show.
+
+I shall never forget the ashy faces of the passengers as they
+stampeded for their life-belts, though there was no panic.
+Nobs rose with a low growl.  I rose, also, and over the ship's
+side, I saw not two hundred yards distant the periscope of a
+submarine, while racing toward the liner the wake of a torpedo
+was distinctly visible.  We were aboard an American ship--which,
+of course, was not armed.  We were entirely defenseless; yet
+without warning, we were being torpedoed.
+
+I stood rigid, spellbound, watching the white wake of the torpedo.
+It struck us on the starboard side almost amidships.  The vessel
+rocked as though the sea beneath it had been uptorn by a mighty volcano.
+We were thrown to the decks, bruised and stunned, and then above
+the ship, carrying with it fragments of steel and wood and
+dismembered human bodies, rose a column of water hundreds of feet
+into the air.
+
+The silence which followed the detonation of the exploding torpedo
+was almost equally horrifying.  It lasted for perhaps two seconds,
+to be followed by the screams and moans of the wounded, the cursing
+of the men and the hoarse commands of the ship's officers.  They were
+splendid--they and their crew.  Never before had I been so proud of
+my nationality as I was that moment.  In all the chaos which followed
+the torpedoing of the liner no officer or member of the crew lost his
+head or showed in the slightest any degree of panic or fear.
+
+While we were attempting to lower boats, the submarine emerged
+and trained guns on us.  The officer in command ordered us to
+lower our flag, but this the captain of the liner refused to do.
+The ship was listing frightfully to starboard, rendering the port
+boats useless, while half the starboard boats had been demolished
+by the explosion.  Even while the passengers were crowding the
+starboard rail and scrambling into the few boats left to us, the
+submarine commenced shelling the ship.  I saw one shell burst in
+a group of women and children, and then I turned my head and
+covered my eyes.
+
+When I looked again to horror was added chagrin, for with the
+emerging of the U-boat I had recognized her as a product of
+our own shipyard.  I knew her to a rivet.  I had superintended
+her construction.  I had sat in that very conning-tower and
+directed the efforts of the sweating crew below when first her
+prow clove the sunny summer waters of the Pacific; and now this
+creature of my brain and hand had turned Frankenstein, bent upon
+pursuing me to my death.
+
+A second shell exploded upon the deck.  One of the lifeboats,
+frightfully overcrowded, swung at a dangerous angle from its davits.
+A fragment of the shell shattered the bow tackle, and I saw the
+women and children and the men vomited into the sea beneath,
+while the boat dangled stern up for a moment from its single
+davit, and at last with increasing momentum dived into the midst
+of the struggling victims screaming upon the face of the waters.
+
+Now I saw men spring to the rail and leap into the ocean.  The deck
+was tilting to an impossible angle.  Nobs braced himself with all
+four feet to keep from slipping into the scuppers and looked up
+into my face with a questioning whine.  I stooped and stroked
+his head.
+
+"Come on, boy!" I cried, and running to the side of the ship,
+dived headforemost over the rail.  When I came up, the first
+thing I saw was Nobs swimming about in a bewildered sort of way
+a few yards from me.  At sight of me his ears went flat, and his
+lips parted in a characteristic grin.
+
+The submarine was withdrawing toward the north, but all the time
+it was shelling the open boats, three of them, loaded to the
+gunwales with survivors.  Fortunately the small boats presented
+a rather poor target, which, combined with the bad marksmanship
+of the Germans preserved their occupants from harm; and after a
+few minutes a blotch of smoke appeared upon the eastern horizon
+and the U-boat submerged and disappeared.
+
+All the time the lifeboats has been pulling away from the danger
+of the sinking liner, and now, though I yelled at the top of my
+lungs, they either did not hear my appeals for help or else did
+not dare return to succor me.  Nobs and I had gained some little
+distance from the ship when it rolled completely over and sank.
+We were caught in the suction only enough to be drawn backward
+a few yards, neither of us being carried beneath the surface.
+I glanced hurriedly about for something to which to cling.
+My eyes were directed toward the point at which the liner had
+disappeared when there came from the depths of the ocean the
+muffled reverberation of an explosion, and almost simultaneously
+a geyser of water in which were shattered lifeboats, human bodies,
+steam, coal, oil, and the flotsam of a liner's deck leaped high
+above the surface of the sea--a watery column momentarily marking
+the grave of another ship in this greatest cemetery of the seas.
+
+When the turbulent waters had somewhat subsided and the sea had
+ceased to spew up wreckage, I ventured to swim back in search of
+something substantial enough to support my weight and that of
+Nobs as well.  I had gotten well over the area of the wreck when
+not a half-dozen yards ahead of me a lifeboat shot bow foremost
+out of the ocean almost its entire length to flop down upon its
+keel with a mighty splash.  It must have been carried far below,
+held to its mother ship by a single rope which finally parted to
+the enormous strain put upon it.  In no other way can I account
+for its having leaped so far out of the water--a beneficent
+circumstance to which I doubtless owe my life, and that of
+another far dearer to me than my own.  I say beneficent
+circumstance even in the face of the fact that a fate far more
+hideous confronts us than that which we escaped that day; for
+because of that circumstance I have met her whom otherwise I
+never should have known; I have met and loved her.  At least I
+have had that great happiness in life; nor can Caspak, with all
+her horrors, expunge that which has been.
+
+So for the thousandth time I thank the strange fate which sent
+that lifeboat hurtling upward from the green pit of destruction
+to which it had been dragged--sent it far up above the surface,
+emptying its water as it rose above the waves, and dropping it
+upon the surface of the sea, buoyant and safe.
+
+It did not take me long to clamber over its side and drag Nobs in
+to comparative safety, and then I glanced around upon the scene
+of death and desolation which surrounded us.  The sea was
+littered with wreckage among which floated the pitiful forms
+of women and children, buoyed up by their useless lifebelts.
+Some were torn and mangled; others lay rolling quietly to the
+motion of the sea, their countenances composed and peaceful;
+others were set in hideous lines of agony or horror.  Close to
+the boat's side floated the figure of a girl.  Her face was
+turned upward, held above the surface by her life-belt, and was
+framed in a floating mass of dark and waving hair.  She was
+very beautiful.  I had never looked upon such perfect features,
+such a divine molding which was at the same time human--
+intensely human.  It was a face filled with character and
+strength and femininity--the face of one who was created to
+love and to be loved.  The cheeks were flushed to the hue of
+life and health and vitality, and yet she lay there upon the
+bosom of the sea, dead.  I felt something rise in my throat as
+I looked down upon that radiant vision, and I swore that I
+should live to avenge her murder.
+
+And then I let my eyes drop once more to the face upon the water,
+and what I saw nearly tumbled me backward into the sea, for the
+eyes in the dead face had opened; the lips had parted; and one
+hand was raised toward me in a mute appeal for succor.  She lived!
+She was not dead! I leaned over the boat's side and drew her quickly
+in to the comparative safety which God had given me.  I removed her
+life-belt and my soggy coat and made a pillow for her head.  I chafed
+her hands and arms and feet.  I worked over her for an hour, and
+at last I was rewarded by a deep sigh, and again those great eyes
+opened and looked into mine.
+
+At that I was all embarrassment.  I have never been a ladies' man;
+at Leland-Stanford I was the butt of the class because of my
+hopeless imbecility in the presence of a pretty girl; but the men
+liked me, nevertheless.  I was rubbing one of her hands when she
+opened her eyes, and I dropped it as though it were a red-hot rivet.
+Those eyes took me in slowly from head to foot; then they wandered
+slowly around the horizon marked by the rising and falling gunwales
+of the lifeboat.  They looked at Nobs and softened, and then came
+back to me filled with questioning.
+
+"I--I--" I stammered, moving away and stumbling over the next thwart.
+The vision smiled wanly.
+
+"Aye-aye, sir!" she replied faintly, and again her lips drooped,
+and her long lashes swept the firm, fair texture of her skin.
+
+"I hope that you are feeling better," I finally managed to say.
+
+"Do you know," she said after a moment of silence, "I have
+been awake for a long time!  But I did not dare open my eyes.
+I thought I must be dead, and I was afraid to look, for fear
+that I should see nothing but blackness about me.  I am afraid
+to die!  Tell me what happened after the ship went down.
+I remember all that happened before--oh, but I wish that I
+might forget it!"  A sob broke her voice.  "The beasts!" she
+went on after a moment.  "And to think that I was to have
+married one of them--a lieutenant in the German navy."
+
+Presently she resumed as though she had not ceased speaking.
+"I went down and down and down.  I thought I should never cease
+to sink.  I felt no particular distress until I suddenly started
+upward at ever-increasing velocity; then my lungs seemed about to
+burst, and I must have lost consciousness, for I remember nothing
+more until I opened my eyes after listening to a torrent of
+invective against Germany and Germans.  Tell me, please, all that
+happened after the ship sank."
+
+I told her, then, as well as I could, all that I had seen--the
+submarine shelling the open boats and all the rest of it.
+She thought it marvelous that we should have been spared in so
+providential a manner, and I had a pretty speech upon my tongue's
+end, but lacked the nerve to deliver it.  Nobs had come over and
+nosed his muzzle into her lap, and she stroked his ugly face, and
+at last she leaned over and put her cheek against his forehead.
+I have always admired Nobs; but this was the first time that it
+had ever occurred to me that I might wish to be Nobs.  I wondered
+how he would take it, for he is as unused to women as I.  But he
+took to it as a duck takes to water.  What I lack of being a
+ladies' man, Nobs certainly makes up for as a ladies' dog.
+The old scalawag just closed his eyes and put on one of the
+softest "sugar-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth" expressions you ever
+saw and stood there taking it and asking for more.  It made
+me jealous.
+
+"You seem fond of dogs," I said.
+
+"I am fond of this dog," she replied.
+
+Whether she meant anything personal in that reply I did not know;
+but I took it as personal and it made me feel mighty good.
+
+As we drifted about upon that vast expanse of loneliness it is
+not strange that we should quickly become well acquainted.
+Constantly we scanned the horizon for signs of smoke, venturing
+guesses as to our chances of rescue; but darkness settled, and
+the black night enveloped us without ever the sight of a speck
+upon the waters.
+
+We were thirsty, hungry, uncomfortable, and cold.  Our wet
+garments had dried but little and I knew that the girl must be
+in grave danger from the exposure to a night of cold and wet
+upon the water in an open boat, without sufficient clothing and
+no food.  I had managed to bail all the water out of the boat
+with cupped hands, ending by mopping the balance up with my
+handkerchief--a slow and back-breaking procedure; thus I had
+made a comparatively dry place for the girl to lie down low in
+the bottom of the boat, where the sides would protect her from
+the night wind, and when at last she did so, almost overcome as
+she was by weakness and fatigue, I threw my wet coat over her
+further to thwart the chill.  But it was of no avail; as I sat
+watching her, the moonlight marking out the graceful curves of
+her slender young body, I saw her shiver.
+
+"Isn't there something I can do?" I asked.  "You can't lie there
+chilled through all night.  Can't you suggest something?"
+
+She shook her head.  "We must grin and bear it," she replied
+after a moment.
+
+Nobbler came and lay down on the thwart beside me, his back
+against my leg, and I sat staring in dumb misery at the girl,
+knowing in my heart of hearts that she might die before morning
+came, for what with the shock and exposure, she had already gone
+through enough to kill almost any woman. And as I gazed down at
+her, so small and delicate and helpless, there was born slowly
+within my breast a new emotion.  It had never been there before;
+now it will never cease to be there.  It made me almost frantic
+in my desire to find some way to keep warm and cooling lifeblood
+in her veins.  I was cold myself, though I had almost forgotten
+it until Nobbler moved and I felt a new sensation of cold along
+my leg against which he had lain, and suddenly realized that in
+that one spot I had been warm.  Like a great light came the
+understanding of a means to warm the girl.  Immediately I knelt
+beside her to put my scheme into practice when suddenly I was
+overwhelmed with embarrassment.  Would she permit it, even if I
+could muster the courage to suggest it?  Then I saw her frame
+convulse, shudderingly, her muscles reacting to her rapidly
+lowering temperature, and casting prudery to the winds, I
+threw myself down beside her and took her in my arms, pressing
+her body close to mine.
+
+She drew away suddenly, voicing a little cry of fright, and tried
+to push me from her.
+
+"Forgive me," I managed to stammer.  "It is the only way.
+You will die of exposure if you are not warmed, and Nobs and
+I are the only means we can command for furnishing warmth."
+And I held her tightly while I called Nobs and bade him lie
+down at her back.  The girl didn't struggle any more when she
+learned my purpose; but she gave two or three little gasps,
+and then began to cry softly, burying her face on my arm, and
+thus she fell asleep.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 2
+
+
+
+
+Toward morning,  I must have dozed, though it seemed to me at the
+time that I had lain awake for days, instead of hours.  When I
+finally opened my eyes, it was daylight, and the girl's hair
+was in my face, and she was breathing normally.  I thanked God
+for that.  She had turned her head during the night so that as I
+opened my eyes I saw her face not an inch from mine, my lips
+almost touching hers.
+
+It was Nobs who finally awoke her.  He got up, stretched, turned
+around a few times and lay down again, and the girl opened her
+eyes and looked into mine.  Hers went very wide at first, and
+then slowly comprehension came to her, and she smiled.
+
+"You have been very good to me," she said, as I helped her to
+rise, though if the truth were known I was more in need of
+assistance than she; the circulation all along my left side
+seeming to be paralyzed entirely.  "You have been very good
+to me." And that was the only mention she ever made of it; yet
+I know that she was thankful and that only reserve prevented her
+from referring to what, to say the least, was an embarrassing
+situation, however unavoidable.
+
+Shortly after daylight we saw smoke apparently coming straight
+toward us, and after a time we made out the squat lines of a
+tug--one of those fearless exponents of England's supremacy of
+the sea that tows sailing ships into French and English ports.
+I stood up on a thwart and waved my soggy coat above my head.
+Nobs stood upon another and barked.  The girl sat at my feet
+straining her eyes toward the deck of the oncoming boat.
+"They see us," she said at last.  "There is a man answering
+your signal." She was right.  A lump came into my throat--for
+her sake rather than for mine.  She was saved, and none too soon.
+She could not have lived through another night upon the Channel;
+she might not have lived through the coming day.
+
+The tug came close beside us, and a man on deck threw us a rope.
+Willing hands dragged us to the deck, Nobs scrambling nimbly
+aboard without assistance.  The rough men were gentle as mothers
+with the girl.  Plying us both with questions they hustled her to
+the captain's cabin and me to the boiler-room.  They told the
+girl to take off her wet clothes and throw them outside the door
+that they might be dried, and then to slip into the captain's
+bunk and get warm.  They didn't have to tell me to strip after I
+once got into the warmth of the boiler-room.  In a jiffy, my
+clothes hung about where they might dry most quickly, and I
+myself was absorbing, through every pore, the welcome heat of the
+stifling compartment.  They brought us hot soup and coffee, and
+then those who were not on duty sat around and helped me damn the
+Kaiser and his brood.
+
+As soon as our clothes were dry, they bade us don them, as the
+chances were always more than fair in those waters that we should
+run into trouble with the enemy, as I was only too well aware.
+What with the warmth and the feeling of safety for the girl, and
+the knowledge that a little rest and food would quickly overcome
+the effects of her experiences of the past dismal hours, I was
+feeling more content than I had experienced since those three
+whistle-blasts had shattered the peace of my world the
+previous afternoon.
+
+But peace upon the Channel has been but a transitory thing since
+August, 1914.  It proved itself such that morning, for I had
+scarce gotten into my dry clothes and taken the girl's apparel
+to the captain's cabin when an order was shouted down into the
+engine-room for full speed ahead, and an instant later I heard
+the dull boom of a gun.  In a moment I was up on deck to see an
+enemy submarine about two hundred yards off our port bow.  She had
+signaled us to stop, and our skipper had ignored the order; but
+now she had her gun trained on us, and the second shot grazed
+the cabin, warning the belligerent tug-captain that it was time
+to obey.  Once again an order went down to the engine-room, and
+the tug reduced speed.  The U-boat ceased firing and ordered the
+tug to come about and approach.  Our momentum had carried us a
+little beyond the enemy craft, but we were turning now on the
+arc of a circle that would bring us alongside her.  As I stood
+watching the maneuver and wondering what was to become of us, I
+felt something touch my elbow and turned to see the girl standing
+at my side.  She looked up into my face with a rueful expression.
+"They seem bent on our destruction," she said, "and it looks like
+the same boat that sunk us yesterday."
+
+"It is," I replied.  "I know her well.  I helped design her and
+took her out on her first run."
+
+The girl drew back from me with a little exclamation of surprise
+and disappointment.  "I thought you were an American," she said.
+"I had no idea you were a--a--"
+
+"Nor am I," I replied.  "Americans have been building submarines
+for all nations for many years.  I wish, though, that we had gone
+bankrupt, my father and I, before ever we turned out that
+Frankenstein of a thing."
+
+We were approaching the U-boat at half speed now, and I could
+almost distinguish the features of the men upon her deck.
+A sailor stepped to my side and slipped something hard and cold
+into my hand.  I did not have to look at it to know that it was
+a heavy pistol.  "Tyke 'er an' use 'er," was all he said.
+
+Our bow was pointed straight toward the U-boat now as I heard
+word passed to the engine for full speed ahead.  I instantly
+grasped the brazen effrontery of the plucky English skipper--he
+was going to ram five hundreds tons of U-boat in the face of her
+trained gun.  I could scarce repress a cheer.  At first the
+boches didn't seem to grasp his intention.  Evidently they
+thought they were witnessing an exhibition of poor seamanship,
+and they yelled their warnings to the tug to reduce speed and
+throw the helm hard to port.
+
+We were within fifty feet of them when they awakened to the
+intentional menace of our maneuver.  Their gun crew was off its
+guard; but they sprang to their piece now and sent a futile shell
+above our heads.  Nobs leaped about and barked furiously.  "Let 'em
+have it!" commanded the tug-captain, and instantly revolvers and
+rifles poured bullets upon the deck of the submersible.  Two of
+the gun-crew went down; the other trained their piece at the
+water-line of the oncoming tug.  The balance of those on deck
+replied to our small-arms fire, directing their efforts toward
+the man at our wheel.
+
+I hastily pushed the girl down the companionway leading to the
+engine-room, and then I raised my pistol and fired my first shot
+at a boche.  What happened in the next few seconds happened so
+quickly that details are rather blurred in my memory.  I saw the
+helmsman lunge forward upon the wheel, pulling the helm around so
+that the tug sheered off quickly from her course, and I recall
+realizing that all our efforts were to be in vain, because of all
+the men aboard, Fate had decreed that this one should fall first
+to an enemy bullet.  I saw the depleted gun-crew on the submarine
+fire their piece and I felt the shock of impact and heard the
+loud explosion as the shell struck and exploded in our bows.
+
+I saw and realized these things even as I was leaping into the
+pilot-house and grasping the wheel, standing astride the dead
+body of the helmsman.  With all my strength I threw the helm
+to starboard; but it was too late to effect the purpose of
+our skipper.  The best I did was to scrape alongside the sub.
+I heard someone shriek an order into the engine-room; the boat
+shuddered and trembled to the sudden reversing of the engines,
+and our speed quickly lessened.  Then I saw what that madman of
+a skipper planned since his first scheme had gone wrong.
+
+With a loud-yelled command, he leaped to the slippery deck of the
+submersible, and at his heels came his hardy crew.  I sprang from
+the pilot-house and followed, not to be left out in the cold when
+it came to strafing the boches.  From the engine room companionway
+came the engineer and stockers, and together we leaped after the
+balance of the crew and into the hand-to-hand fight that was
+covering the wet deck with red blood.  Beside me came Nobs, silent
+now, and grim.  Germans were emerging from the open hatch to take
+part in the battle on deck.  At first the pistols cracked amidst
+the cursing of the men and the loud commands of the commander and
+his junior; but presently we were too indiscriminately mixed to
+make it safe to use our firearms, and the battle resolved itself
+into a hand-to-hand struggle for possession of the deck.
+
+The sole aim of each of us was to hurl one of the opposing force
+into the sea.  I shall never forget the hideous expression upon
+the face of the great Prussian with whom chance confronted me.
+He lowered his head and rushed at me, bellowing like a bull.
+With a quick side-step and ducking low beneath his outstretched
+arms, I eluded him; and as he turned to come back at me, I landed
+a blow upon his chin which sent him spinning toward the edge of
+the deck.  I saw his wild endeavors to regain his equilibrium;
+I saw him reel drunkenly for an instant upon the brink of eternity
+and then, with a loud scream, slip into the sea.  At the same
+instant a pair of giant arms encircled me from behind and lifted
+me entirely off my feet.  Kick and squirm as I would, I could
+neither turn toward my antagonist nor free myself from his
+maniacal grasp.  Relentlessly he was rushing me toward the side
+of the vessel and death.  There was none to stay him, for each
+of my companions was more than occupied by from one to three of
+the enemy.  For an instant I was fearful for myself, and then I
+saw that which filled me with a far greater terror for another.
+
+My boche was bearing me toward the side of the submarine against
+which the tug was still pounding.  That I should be ground to
+death between the two was lost upon me as I saw the girl standing
+alone upon the tug's deck, as I saw the stern high in air and the
+bow rapidly settling for the final dive, as I saw death from
+which I could not save her clutching at the skirts of the woman
+I now knew all too well that I loved.
+
+I had perhaps the fraction of a second longer to live when I
+heard an angry growl behind us mingle with a cry of pain and rage
+from the giant who carried me.  Instantly he went backward to the
+deck, and as he did so he threw his arms outwards to save himself,
+freeing me.  I fell heavily upon him, but was upon my feet in
+the instant.  As I arose, I cast a single glance at my opponent.
+Never again would he menace me or another, for Nob's great jaws
+had closed upon his throat.  Then I sprang toward the edge of the
+deck closest to the girl upon the sinking tug.
+
+"Jump!" I cried.  "Jump!"  And I held out my arms to her.
+Instantly as though with implicit confidence in my ability to
+save her, she leaped over the side of the tug onto the sloping,
+slippery side of the U-boat.  I reached far over to seize
+her hand.  At the same instant the tug pointed its stern
+straight toward the sky and plunged out of sight.  My hand
+missed the girl's by a fraction of an inch, and I saw her slip
+into the sea; but scarce had she touched the water when I was
+in after her.
+
+The sinking tug drew us far below the surface; but I had seized
+her the moment I struck the water, and so we went down together,
+and together we came up--a few yards from the U-boat.  The first
+thing I heard was Nobs barking furiously; evidently he had missed
+me and was searching.  A single glance at the vessel's deck
+assured me that the battle was over and that we had been
+victorious, for I saw our survivors holding a handful of the
+enemy at pistol points while one by one the rest of the crew was
+coming out of the craft's interior and lining up on deck with the
+other prisoners.
+
+As I swam toward the submarine with the girl, Nobs' persistent
+barking attracted the attention of some of the tug's crew, so
+that as soon as we reached the side there were hands to help
+us aboard.  I asked the girl if she was hurt, but she assured
+me that she was none the worse for this second wetting; nor did
+she seem to suffer any from shock.  I was to learn for myself
+that this slender and seemingly delicate creature possessed
+the heart and courage of a warrior.
+
+As we joined our own party, I found the tug's mate checking up
+our survivors.  There were ten of us left, not including the girl.
+Our brave skipper was missing, as were eight others.  There had
+been nineteen of us in the attacking party and we had accounted
+in one way and another during the battle for sixteen Germans and
+had taken nine prisoners, including the commander.  His lieutenant
+had been killed.
+
+"Not a bad day's work," said Bradley, the mate, when he had
+completed his roll.  "Only losing the skipper," he added, "was
+the worst.  He was a fine man, a fine man."
+
+Olson--who in spite of his name was Irish, and in spite of his
+not being Scotch had been the tug's engineer--was standing with
+Bradley and me.  "Yis," he agreed, "it's a day's wor-rk we're after
+doin', but what are we goin' to be doin' wid it now we got it?"
+
+"We'll run her into the nearest English port," said Bradley,
+"and then we'll all go ashore and get our V. C.'s," he
+concluded, laughing.
+
+"How you goin' to run her?" queried Olson.  "You can't trust
+these Dutchmen."
+
+Bradley scratched his head.  "I guess you're right," he admitted.
+"And I don't know the first thing about a sub."
+
+"I do," I assured him.  "I know more about this particular sub
+than the officer who commanded her."
+
+Both men looked at me in astonishment, and then I had to explain
+all over again as I had explained to the girl.  Bradley and Olson
+were delighted.  Immediately I was put in command, and the first
+thing I did was to go below with Olson and inspect the craft
+thoroughly for hidden boches and damaged machinery.  There were
+no Germans below, and everything was intact and in ship-shape
+working order.  I then ordered all hands below except one man who
+was to act as lookout.  Questioning the Germans, I found that all
+except the commander were willing to resume their posts and aid
+in bringing the vessel into an English port.  I believe that they
+were relieved at the prospect of being detained at a comfortable
+English prison-camp for the duration of the war after the perils
+and privations through which they had passed.  The officer,
+however, assured me that he would never be a party to the capture
+of his vessel.
+
+There was, therefore, nothing to do but put the man in irons.
+As we were preparing to put this decision into force, the girl
+descended from the deck.  It was the first time that she or the
+German officer had seen each other's faces since we had boarded
+the U-boat.  I was assisting the girl down the ladder and still
+retained a hold upon her arm--possibly after such support was no
+longer necessary--when she turned and looked squarely into the
+face of the German.  Each voiced a sudden exclamation of surprise
+and dismay.
+
+"Lys!" he cried, and took a step toward her.
+
+The girl's eyes went wide, and slowly filled with a great horror,
+as she shrank back.  Then her slender figure stiffened to the
+erectness of a soldier, and with chin in air and without a word
+she turned her back upon the officer.
+
+"Take him away," I directed the two men who guarded him, "and put
+him in irons."
+
+When he had gone, the girl raised her eyes to mine.  "He is the
+German of whom I spoke," she said.  "He is Baron von Schoenvorts."
+
+I merely inclined my head.  She had loved him!  I wondered if in
+her heart of hearts she did not love him yet.  Immediately I
+became insanely jealous.  I hated Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts
+with such utter intensity that the emotion thrilled me with a
+species of exaltation.
+
+But I didn't have much chance to enjoy my hatred then, for
+almost immediately the lookout poked his face over the hatchway
+and bawled down that there was smoke on the horizon, dead ahead.
+Immediately I went on deck to investigate, and Bradley came with me.
+
+"If she's friendly," he said, "we'll speak her.  If she's not,
+we'll sink her--eh, captain?"
+
+"Yes, lieutenant," I replied, and it was his turn to smile.
+
+We hoisted the Union Jack and remained on deck, asking Bradley
+to go below and assign to each member of the crew his duty,
+placing one Englishman with a pistol beside each German.
+
+"Half speed ahead," I commanded.
+
+More rapidly now we closed the distance between ourselves and the
+stranger, until I could plainly see the red ensign of the British
+merchant marine.  My heart swelled with pride at the thought that
+presently admiring British tars would be congratulating us upon
+our notable capture; and just about then the merchant steamer
+must have sighted us, for she veered suddenly toward the north,
+and a moment later dense volumes of smoke issued from her funnels.
+Then, steering a zigzag course, she fled from us as though we had
+been the bubonic plague.  I altered the course of the submarine
+and set off in chase; but the steamer was faster than we, and soon
+left us hopelessly astern.
+
+With a rueful smile, I directed that our original course be
+resumed, and once again we set off toward merry England.
+That was three months ago, and we haven't arrived yet; nor
+is there any likelihood that we ever shall.
+The steamer we had just sighted must have wirelessed a warning,
+for it wasn't half an hour before we saw more smoke on the
+horizon, and this time the vessel flew the white ensign of the
+Royal Navy and carried guns.  She didn't veer to the north or
+anywhere else, but bore down on us rapidly.  I was just preparing
+to signal her, when a flame flashed from her bows, and an instant
+later the water in front of us was thrown high by the explosion
+of a shell.
+
+Bradley had come on deck and was standing beside me.  "About one
+more of those, and she'll have our range," he said.  "She doesn't
+seem to take much stock in our Union Jack."
+
+A second shell passed over us, and then I gave the command to
+change our direction, at the same time directing Bradley to go
+below and give the order to submerge.  I passed Nobs down to him,
+and following, saw to the closing and fastening of the hatch.
+
+It seemed to me that the diving-tanks never had filled so slowly.
+We heard a loud explosion apparently directly above us; the craft
+trembled to the shock which threw us all to the deck.  I expected
+momentarily to feel the deluge of inrushing water, but none came.
+Instead we continued to submerge until the manometer registered forty
+feet and then I knew that we were safe.  Safe!  I almost smiled.
+I had relieved Olson, who had remained in the tower at my direction,
+having been a member of one of the early British submarine crews,
+and therefore having some knowledge of the business.  Bradley was
+at my side.  He looked at me quizzically.
+
+"What the devil are we to do?" he asked.  "The merchantman will
+flee us; the war-vessel will destroy us; neither will believe our
+colors or give us a chance to explain.  We will meet even a worse
+reception if we go nosing around a British port--mines, nets and
+all of it.  We can't do it."
+
+"Let's try it again when this fellow has lost the scent,"
+I urged.  "There must come a ship that will believe us."
+
+And try it again we did, only to be almost rammed by a huge freighter.
+Later we were fired upon by a destroyer, and two merchantmen
+turned and fled at our approach.  For two days we cruised up
+and down the Channel trying to tell some one, who would listen,
+that we were friends; but no one would listen.  After our
+encounter with the first warship I had given instructions
+that a wireless message be sent out explaining our predicament;
+but to my chagrin I discovered that both sending and receiving
+instruments had disappeared.
+
+"There is only one place you can go," von Schoenvorts sent word
+to me, "and that is Kiel.  You can't land anywhere else in
+these waters.  If you wish, I will take you there, and I can
+promise that you will be treated well."
+
+"There is another place we can go," I sent back my reply, "and we
+will before we'll go to Germany.  That place is hell."
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 3
+
+
+
+
+Those were anxious days, during which I had but little opportunity
+to associate with Lys.  I had given her the commander's room,
+Bradley and I taking that of the deck-officer, while Olson and
+two of our best men occupied the room ordinarily allotted to
+petty officers.  I made Nobs' bed down in Lys' room, for I knew
+she would feel less alone.
+
+Nothing of much moment occurred for a while after we left British
+waters behind us.  We ran steadily along upon the surface, making
+good time.  The first two boats we sighted made off as fast as they
+could go; and the third, a huge freighter, fired on us, forcing us
+to submerge.  It was after this that our troubles commenced.
+One of the Diesel engines broke down in the morning, and while
+we were working on it, the forward port diving-tank commenced
+to fill.  I was on deck at the time and noted the gradual list.
+Guessing at once what was happening, I leaped for the hatch and
+slamming it closed above my head, dropped to the centrale.  By this
+time the craft was going down by the head with a most unpleasant
+list to port, and I didn't wait to transmit orders to some one
+else but ran as fast as I could for the valve that let the sea
+into the forward port diving-tank.  It was wide open.  To close
+it and to have the pump started that would empty it were the work
+of but a minute; but we had had a close call.
+
+I knew that the valve had never opened itself.  Some one had
+opened it--some one who was willing to die himself if he might at
+the same time encompass the death of all of us.
+
+After that I kept a guard pacing the length of the narrow craft.
+We worked upon the engine all that day and night and half the
+following day.  Most of the time we drifted idly upon the
+surface, but toward noon we sighted smoke due west, and having
+found that only enemies inhabited the world for us, I ordered
+that the other engine be started so that we could move out of the
+path of the oncoming steamer.  The moment the engine started to
+turn, however, there was a grinding sound of tortured steel, and
+when it had been stopped, we found that some one had placed a
+cold-chisel in one of the gears.
+
+It was another two days before we were ready to limp along,
+half repaired.  The night before the repairs were completed,
+the sentry came to my room and awoke me.  He was rather an
+intelligent fellow of the English middle class, in whom I had
+much confidence.
+
+"Well, Wilson," I asked.  "What's the matter now?"
+
+He raised his finger to his lips and came closer to me.  "I think
+I've found out who's doin' the mischief," he whispered, and
+nodded his head toward the girl's room.  "I seen her sneakin'
+from the crew's room just now," he went on.  "She'd been in
+gassin' wit' the boche commander.  Benson seen her in there las'
+night, too, but he never said nothin' till I goes on watch tonight.
+Benson's sorter slow in the head, an' he never puts two an' two
+together till some one else has made four out of it."
+
+If the man had come in and struck me suddenly in the face, I
+could have been no more surprised.
+
+"Say nothing of this to anyone," I ordered.  "Keep your eyes and
+ears open and report every suspicious thing you see or hear."
+
+The man saluted and left me; but for an hour or more I tossed,
+restless, upon my hard bunk in an agony of jealousy and fear.
+Finally I fell into a troubled sleep.  It was daylight when I awoke.
+We were steaming along slowly upon the surface, my orders having
+been to proceed at half speed until we could take an observation
+and determine our position.  The sky had been overcast all the
+previous day and all night; but as I stepped into the centrale
+that morning I was delighted to see that the sun was again shining.
+The spirits of the men seemed improved; everything seemed propitious.
+I forgot at once the cruel misgivings of the past night as I set
+to work to take my observations.
+
+What a blow awaited me!  The sextant and chronometer had both
+been broken beyond repair,  and they had been broken just this
+very night.  They had been broken upon the night that Lys had been
+seen talking with von Schoenvorts.  I think that it was this last
+thought which hurt me the worst.  I could look the other disaster
+in the face with equanimity; but the bald fact that Lys might be
+a traitor appalled me.
+
+I called Bradley and Olson on deck and told them what had
+happened, but for the life of me I couldn't bring myself to
+repeat what Wilson had reported to me the previous night.
+In fact, as I had given the matter thought, it seemed incredible
+that the girl could have passed through my room, in which Bradley
+and I slept, and then carried on a conversation in the crew's
+room, in which Von Schoenvorts was kept, without having been seen
+by more than a single man.
+
+Bradley shook his head.  "I can't make it out," he said.  "One of
+those boches must be pretty clever to come it over us all like
+this; but they haven't harmed us as much as they think; there are
+still the extra instruments."
+
+It was my turn now to shake a doleful head.  "There are no extra
+instruments," I told them.  "They too have disappeared as did the
+wireless apparatus."
+
+Both men looked at me in amazement.  "We still have the compass
+and the sun," said Olson.  "They may be after getting the compass
+some night; but they's too many of us around in the daytime fer
+'em to get the sun."
+
+It was then that one of the men stuck his head up through the
+hatchway and seeing me, asked permission to come on deck and get
+a breath of fresh air.  I recognized him as Benson, the man who,
+Wilson had said, reported having seen Lys with von Schoenvorts two
+nights before.  I motioned him on deck and then called him to one
+side, asking if he had seen anything out of the way or unusual
+during his trick on watch the night before.  The fellow scratched
+his head a moment and said, "No," and then as though it was an
+afterthought, he told me that he had seen the girl in the crew's
+room about midnight talking with the German commander, but as
+there hadn't seemed to him to be any harm in that, he hadn't said
+anything about it.  Telling him never to fail to report to me
+anything in the slightest out of the ordinary routine of the ship,
+I dismissed him.
+
+Several of the other men now asked permission to come on deck, and
+soon all but those actually engaged in some necessary duty were
+standing around smoking and talking, all in the best of spirits.
+I took advantage of the absence of the men upon the deck to go
+below for my breakfast, which the cook was already preparing
+upon the electric stove.  Lys, followed by Nobs, appeared as I
+entered the centrale.  She met me with a pleasant "Good morning!"
+which I am afraid I replied to in a tone that was rather constrained
+and surly.
+
+"Will you breakfast with me?" I suddenly asked the girl,
+determined to commence a probe of my own along the lines which
+duty demanded.
+
+She nodded a sweet acceptance of my invitation, and together we
+sat down at the little table of the officers' mess.
+"You slept well last night?" I asked.
+
+"All night," she replied.  "I am a splendid sleeper."
+
+Her manner was so straightforward and honest that I could not
+bring myself to believe in her duplicity; yet--Thinking to
+surprise her into a betrayal of her guilt, I blurted out:  "The
+chronometer and sextant were both destroyed last night; there is
+a traitor among us."  But she never turned a hair by way of
+evidencing guilty knowledge of the catastrophe.
+
+"Who could it have been?" she cried.  "The Germans would be crazy
+to do it, for their lives are as much at stake as ours."
+
+"Men are often glad to die for an ideal--an ideal of patriotism,
+perhaps," I replied; "and a willingness to martyr themselves
+includes a willingness to sacrifice others, even those who
+love them.  Women are much the same, except that they will go
+even further than most men--they will sacrifice everything, even
+honor, for love."
+
+I watched her face carefully as I spoke, and I thought that I
+detected a very faint flush mounting her cheek.  Seeing an
+opening and an advantage, I sought to follow it up.
+
+"Take von Schoenvorts, for instance," I continued: "he would
+doubtless be glad to die and take us all with him, could he
+prevent in no other way the falling of his vessel into enemy hands.
+He would sacrifice anyone, even you; and if you still love him,
+you might be his ready tool.  Do you understand me?"
+
+She looked at me in wide-eyed consternation for a moment, and
+then she went very white and rose from her seat.  "I do," she
+replied, and turning her back upon me, she walked quickly toward
+her room.  I started to follow, for even believing what I did, I
+was sorry that I had hurt her.  I reached the door to the crew's
+room just behind her and in time to see von Schoenvorts lean
+forward and whisper something to her as she passed; but she must
+have guessed that she might be watched, for she passed on.
+
+That afternoon it clouded over; the wind mounted to a gale, and
+the sea rose until the craft was wallowing and rolling frightfully.
+Nearly everyone aboard was sick; the air became foul and oppressive.
+For twenty-four hours I did not leave my post in the conning tower,
+as both Olson and Bradley were sick.  Finally I found that I must
+get a little rest, and so I looked about for some one to relieve me.
+Benson volunteered.  He had not been sick, and assured me that he
+was a former R.N. man and had been detailed for submarine duty
+for over two years.  I was glad that it was he, for I had
+considerable confidence in his loyalty, and so it was with a
+feeling of security that I went below and lay down.
+
+I slept twelve hours straight, and when I awoke and discovered
+what I had done, I lost no time in getting to the conning tower.
+There sat Benson as wide awake as could be, and the compass
+showed that we were heading straight into the west.  The storm
+was still raging; nor did it abate its fury until the fourth day.
+We were all pretty well done up and looked forward to the time
+when we could go on deck and fill our lungs with fresh air.
+During the whole four days I had not seen the girl, as she
+evidently kept closely to her room; and during this time no
+untoward incident had occurred aboard the boat--a fact which
+seemed to strengthen the web of circumstantial evidence about her.
+
+For six more days after the storm lessened we still had fairly
+rough weather; nor did the sun once show himself during all
+that time.  For the season--it was now the middle of June--the
+storm was unusual; but being from southern California, I was
+accustomed to unusual weather.  In fact, I have discovered that
+the world over, unusual weather prevails at all times of the year.
+
+We kept steadily to our westward course, and as the U-33 was one
+of the fastest submersibles we had ever turned out, I knew that we
+must be pretty close to the North American coast.  What puzzled
+me most was the fact that for six days we had not sighted a
+single ship.  It seemed remarkable that we could cross the
+Atlantic almost to the coast of the American continent without
+glimpsing smoke or sail, and at last I came to the conclusion
+that we were way off our course, but whether to the north or to
+the south of it I could not determine.
+
+On the seventh day the sea lay comparatively calm at early dawn.
+There was a slight haze upon the ocean which had cut off our view
+of the stars; but conditions all pointed toward a clear morrow, and
+I was on deck anxiously awaiting the rising of the sun.  My eyes
+were glued upon the impenetrable mist astern, for there in the east
+I should see the first glow of the rising sun that would assure me
+we were still upon the right course.  Gradually the heavens
+lightened; but astern I could see no intenser glow that would
+indicate the rising sun behind the mist.  Bradley was standing
+at my side.  Presently he touched my arm.
+
+"Look, captain," he said, and pointed south.
+
+I looked and gasped, for there directly to port I saw outlined
+through the haze the red top of the rising sun.  Hurrying to the
+tower, I looked at the compass.  It showed that we were holding
+steadily upon our westward course.  Either the sun was rising in
+the south, or the compass had been tampered with.  The conclusion
+was obvious.
+
+I went back to Bradley and told him what I had discovered.
+"And," I concluded, "we can't make another five hundred knots
+without oil; our provisions are running low and so is our water.
+God only knows how far south we have run."
+
+"There is nothing to do," he replied, "other than to alter our
+course once more toward the west; we must raise land soon or we
+shall all be lost."
+
+I told him to do so; and then I set to work improvising a crude
+sextant with which we finally took our bearings in a rough and
+most unsatisfactory manner; for when the work was done, we did
+not know how far from the truth the result might be.  It showed
+us to be about 20' north and 30' west--nearly twenty-five
+hundred miles off our course.  In short, if our reading was
+anywhere near correct, we must have been traveling due south for
+six days.  Bradley now relieved Benson, for we had arranged our
+shifts so that the latter and Olson now divided the nights,
+while Bradley and I alternated with one another during the days.
+
+I questioned both Olson and Benson closely in the matter of the
+compass; but each stoutly maintained that no one had tampered
+with it during his tour of duty.  Benson gave me a knowing smile,
+as much as to say:  "Well, you and I know who did this."  Yet I
+could not believe that it was the girl.
+
+We kept to our westerly course for several hours when the
+lookout's cry announced a sail.  I ordered the U-33's course
+altered, and we bore down upon the stranger, for I had come to
+a decision which was the result of necessity.  We could not lie
+there in the middle of the Atlantic and starve to death if there
+was any way out of it.  The sailing ship saw us while we were
+still a long way off, as was evidenced by her efforts to escape.
+There was scarcely any wind, however, and her case was hopeless;
+so when we drew near and signaled her to stop, she came into the
+wind and lay there with her sails flapping idly.  We moved in
+quite close to her.  She was the Balmen of Halmstad, Sweden, with
+a general cargo from Brazil for Spain.
+
+I explained our circumstances to her skipper and asked for food,
+water and oil; but when he found that we were not German, he
+became very angry and abusive and started to draw away from us;
+but I was in no mood for any such business.  Turning toward
+Bradley, who was in the conning-tower, I snapped out:
+"Gun-service on deck!  To the diving stations!"  We had no
+opportunity for drill; but every man had been posted as to
+his duties, and the German members of the crew understood that
+it was obedience or death for them, as each was accompanied by
+a man with a pistol.  Most of them, though, were only too glad
+to obey me.
+
+Bradley passed the order down into the ship and a moment later
+the gun-crew clambered up the narrow ladder and at my direction
+trained their piece upon the slow-moving Swede.  "Fire a shot
+across her bow," I instructed the gun-captain.
+
+Accept it from me, it didn't take that Swede long to see the
+error of his way and get the red and white pennant signifying
+"I understand" to the masthead.  Once again the sails flapped
+idly, and then I ordered him to lower a boat and come after me.
+With Olson and a couple of the Englishmen I boarded the ship,
+and from her cargo selected what we needed--oil, provisions
+and water.  I gave the master of the Balmen a receipt for what
+we took, together with an affidavit signed by Bradley, Olson, and
+myself, stating briefly how we had come into possession of the
+U-33 and the urgency of our need for what we took.  We addressed
+both to any British agent with the request that the owners of the
+Balmen be reimbursed; but whether or not they were, I do not know. [1]
+
+
+[1]  Late in July, 1916, an item in the shipping news mentioned a
+Swedish sailing vessel, Balmen, Rio de Janiero to Barcelona, sunk
+by a German raider sometime in June.  A single survivor in an open
+boat was picked up off the Cape Verde Islands, in a dying condition.
+He expired without giving any details.
+
+
+With water, food, and oil aboard, we felt that we had obtained
+a new lease of life.  Now, too, we knew definitely where we were,
+and I determined to make for Georgetown, British Guiana--but I
+was destined to again suffer bitter disappointment.
+
+Six of us of the loyal crew had come on deck either to serve the
+gun or board the Swede during our set-to with her; and now, one
+by one, we descended the ladder into the centrale.  I was the
+last to come, and when I reached the bottom, I found myself
+looking into the muzzle of a pistol in the hands of Baron
+Friedrich von Schoenvorts--I saw all my men lined up at one
+side with the remaining eight Germans standing guard over them.
+
+
+I couldn't imagine how it had happened; but it had.  Later I
+learned that they had first overpowered Benson, who was asleep
+in his bunk, and taken his pistol from him, and then had found
+it an easy matter to disarm the cook and the remaining two
+Englishmen below.  After that it had been comparatively simple
+to stand at the foot of the ladder and arrest each individual as
+he descended.
+
+The first thing von Schoenvorts did was to send for me and
+announce that as a pirate I was to be shot early the next morning.
+Then he explained that the U-33 would cruise in these waters for
+a time, sinking neutral and enemy shipping indiscriminately, and
+looking for one of the German raiders that was supposed to be in
+these parts.
+
+He didn't shoot me the next morning as he had promised, and it
+has never been clear to me why he postponed the execution of
+my sentence.  Instead he kept me ironed just as he had been;
+then he kicked Bradley out of my room and took it all to himself.
+
+We cruised for a long time, sinking many vessels, all but one by
+gunfire, but we did not come across a German raider.  I was
+surprised to note that von Schoenvorts often permitted Benson to
+take command; but I reconciled this by the fact that Benson
+appeared to know more of the duties of a submarine commander than
+did any of the Stupid Germans.
+
+Once or twice Lys passed me; but for the most part she kept to
+her room.  The first time she hesitated as though she wished to
+speak to me; but I did not raise my head, and finally she passed on.
+Then one day came the word that we were about to round the Horn and
+that von Schoenvorts had taken it into his fool head to cruise up
+along the Pacific coast of North America and prey upon all sorts
+and conditions of merchantmen.
+
+"I'll put the fear of God and the Kaiser into them," he said.
+
+The very first day we entered the South Pacific we had an adventure.
+It turned out to be quite the most exciting adventure I had
+ever encountered.  It fell about this way.  About eight bells of
+the forenoon watch I heard a hail from the deck, and presently
+the footsteps of the entire ship's company, from the amount of
+noise I heard at the ladder.  Some one yelled back to those who
+had not yet reached the level of the deck:  "It's the raider,
+the German raider Geier!"
+
+I saw that we had reached the end of our rope.  Below all was
+quiet--not a man remained.  A door opened at the end of the
+narrow hull, and presently Nobs came trotting up to me.  He licked
+my face and rolled over on his back, reaching for me with his big,
+awkward paws.  Then other footsteps sounded, approaching me.
+I knew whose they were, and I looked straight down at the flooring.
+The girl was coming almost at a run--she was at my side immediately.
+"Here!" she cried.  "Quick!" And she slipped something into my hand.
+It was a key--the key to my irons.  At my side she also laid a
+pistol, and then she went on into the centrale.  As she passed me,
+I saw that she carried another pistol for herself.  It did not
+take me long to liberate myself, and then I was at her side.
+"How can I thank you?" I started; but she shut me up with a word.
+
+"Do not thank me," she said coldly.  "I do not care to hear your
+thanks or any other expression from you.  Do not stand there
+looking at me.  I have given you a chance to do something--now
+do it!" The last was a peremptory command that made me jump.
+
+Glancing up, I saw that the tower was empty, and I lost no time
+in clambering up, looking about me.  About a hundred yards off
+lay a small, swift cruiser-raider, and above her floated the
+German man-of-war's flag.  A boat had just been lowered, and I
+could see it moving toward us filled with officers and men.
+The cruiser lay dead ahead.  "My," I thought, "what a wonderful targ--"
+I stopped even thinking, so surprised and shocked was I by the
+boldness of my imagery.  The girl was just below me.  I looked
+down on her wistfully.  Could I trust her?  Why had she released
+me at this moment?  I must!  I must!  There was no other way.
+I dropped back below.  "Ask Olson to step down here, please,"
+I requested; "and don't let anyone see you ask him."
+
+She looked at me with a puzzled expression on her face for the
+barest fraction of a second, and then she turned and went up
+the ladder.  A moment later Olson returned, and the girl
+followed him.  "Quick!" I whispered to the big Irishman, and
+made for the bow compartment where the torpedo-tubes are built
+into the boat; here, too, were the torpedoes.  The girl
+accompanied us, and when she saw the thing I had in mind,
+she stepped forward and lent a hand to the swinging of the
+great cylinder of death and destruction into the mouth of
+its tube.  With oil and main strength we shoved the torpedo
+home and shut the tube; then I ran back to the conning-tower,
+praying in my heart of hearts that the U-33 had not swung her
+bow away from the prey.  No, thank God!
+
+Never could aim have been truer.  I signaled back to Olson:
+"Let 'er go!"  The U-33 trembled from stem to stern as the torpedo
+shot from its tube.  I saw the white wake leap from her bow straight
+toward the enemy cruiser.  A chorus of hoarse yells arose from the
+deck of our own craft:  I saw the officers stand suddenly erect in
+the boat that was approaching us, and I heard loud cries and
+curses from the raider.  Then I turned my attention to my
+own business.  Most of the men on the submarine's deck were
+standing in paralyzed fascination, staring at the torpedo.
+Bradley happened to be looking toward the conning-tower and
+saw me.  I sprang on deck and ran toward him.  "Quick!" I whispered.
+"While they are stunned, we must overcome them."
+
+A German was standing near Bradley--just in front of him.
+The Englishman struck the fellow a frantic blow upon the neck
+and at the same time snatched his pistol from its holster.
+Von Schoenvorts had recovered from his first surprise quickly
+and had turned toward the main hatch to investigate.  I covered
+him with my revolver, and at the same instant the torpedo struck
+the raider, the terrific explosion drowning the German's command
+to his men.
+
+Bradley was now running from one to another of our men, and
+though some of the Germans saw and heard him, they seemed too
+stunned for action.
+
+Olson was below, so that there were only nine of us against eight
+Germans, for the man Bradley had struck still lay upon the deck.
+Only two of us were armed; but the heart seemed to have gone out
+of the boches, and they put up but half-hearted resistance.
+Von Schoenvorts was the worst--he was fairly frenzied with rage
+and chagrin, and he came charging for me like a mad bull, and as
+he came he discharged his pistol.  If he'd stopped long enough to
+take aim, he might have gotten me; but his pace made him wild,
+so that not a shot touched me, and then we clinched and went to
+the deck.  This left two pistols, which two of my own men were
+quick to appropriate.  The Baron was no match for me in a
+hand-to-hand encounter, and I soon had him pinned to the deck
+and the life almost choked out of him.
+
+A half-hour later things had quieted down, and all was much the
+same as before the prisoners had revolted--only we kept a much
+closer watch on von Schoenvorts.  The Geier had sunk while we
+were still battling upon our deck, and afterward we had drawn
+away toward the north, leaving the survivors to the attention of
+the single boat which had been making its way toward us when
+Olson launched the torpedo.  I suppose the poor devils never
+reached land, and if they did, they most probably perished on
+that cold and unhospitable shore; but I couldn't permit them
+aboard the U-33.  We had all the Germans we could take care of.
+
+That evening the girl asked permission to go on deck.  She said
+that she felt the effects of long confinement below, and I
+readily granted her request.  I could not understand her, and I
+craved an opportunity to talk with her again in an effort to
+fathom her and her intentions, and so I made it a point to
+follow her up the ladder.  It was a clear, cold, beautiful night.
+The sea was calm except for the white water at our bows and the
+two long radiating swells running far off into the distance upon
+either hand astern, forming a great V which our propellers filled
+with choppy waves.  Benson was in the tower, we were bound for
+San Diego and all looked well.
+
+Lys stood with a heavy blanket wrapped around her slender figure,
+and as I approached her, she half turned toward me to see who it was.
+When she recognized me, she immediately turned away.
+
+"I want to thank you," I said, "for your bravery and loyalty--you
+were magnificent.  I am sorry that you had reason before to think
+that I doubted you."
+
+"You did doubt me," she replied in a level voice.  "You practically
+accused me of aiding Baron von Schoenvorts.  I can never forgive you."
+
+There was a great deal of finality in both her words and tone.
+
+"I could not believe it," I said; "and yet two of my men reported
+having seen you in conversation with von Schoenvorts late at
+night upon two separate occasions--after each of which some great
+damage was found done us in the morning.  I didn't want to doubt
+you; but I carried all the responsibility of the lives of these
+men, of the safety of the ship, of your life and mine.  I had to
+watch you, and I had to put you on your guard against a repetition
+of your madness."
+
+She was looking at me now with those great eyes of hers, very
+wide and round.
+
+"Who told you that I spoke with Baron von Schoenvorts at night,
+or any other time?" she asked.
+
+"I cannot tell you, Lys," I replied, "but it came to me from two
+different sources."
+
+"Then two men have lied," she asserted without heat.  "I have not
+spoken to Baron von Schoenvorts other than in your presence when
+first we came aboard the U-33.  And please, when you address me,
+remember that to others than my intimates I am Miss La Rue."
+
+Did you ever get slapped in the face when you least expected it?
+No?  Well, then you do not know how I felt at that moment.
+I could feel the hot, red flush surging up my neck, across my
+cheeks, over my ears, clear to my scalp.  And it made me love her
+all the more; it made me swear inwardly a thousand solemn oaths
+that I would win her.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 4
+
+
+
+
+For several days things went along in about the same course.
+I took our position every morning with my crude sextant; but the
+results were always most unsatisfactory.  They always showed a
+considerable westing when I knew that we had been sailing due north.
+I blamed my crude instrument, and kept on.  Then one afternoon the
+girl came to me.
+
+"Pardon me," she said, "but were I you, I should watch this man
+Benson--especially when he is in charge."  I asked her what she
+meant, thinking I could see the influence of von Schoenvorts
+raising a suspicion against one of my most trusted men.
+
+"If you will note the boat's course a half-hour after Benson goes
+on duty," she said, "you will know what I mean, and you will
+understand why he prefers a night watch.  Possibly, too, you will
+understand some other things that have taken place aboard."
+
+Then she went back to her room, thus ending the conversation.
+I waited until half an hour after Benson had gone on duty, and then
+I went on deck, passing through the conning-tower where Benson sat,
+and looking at the compass.  It showed that our course was
+north by west--that is, one point west of north, which was, for
+our assumed position, about right.  I was greatly relieved to
+find that nothing was wrong, for the girl's words had caused me
+considerable apprehension.  I was about to return to my room when
+a thought occurred to me that again caused me to change my
+mind--and, incidentally, came near proving my death-warrant.
+
+When I had left the conning-tower little more than a half-hour
+since, the sea had been breaking over the port bow, and it seemed
+to me quite improbable that in so short a time an equally heavy
+sea could be deluging us from the opposite side of the ship--winds
+may change quickly, but not a long, heavy sea.  There was only
+one other solution--since I left the tower, our course had been
+altered some eight points.  Turning quickly, I climbed out upon
+the conning-tower.  A single glance at the heavens confirmed my
+suspicions; the constellations which should have been dead ahead
+were directly starboard.  We were sailing due west.
+
+Just for an instant longer I stood there to check up my
+calculations--I wanted to be quite sure before I accused Benson
+of perfidy, and about the only thing I came near making quite
+sure of was death.  I cannot see even now how I escaped it.
+I was standing on the edge of the conning-tower, when a heavy
+palm suddenly struck me between the shoulders and hurled me
+forward into space.  The drop to the triangular deck forward of
+the conning-tower might easily have broken a leg for me, or I
+might have slipped off onto the deck and rolled overboard; but
+fate was upon my side, as I was only slightly bruised.  As I
+came to my feet, I heard the conning-tower cover slam.  There is
+a ladder which leads from the deck to the top of the tower.
+Up this I scrambled, as fast as I could go; but Benson had
+the cover tight before I reached it.
+
+I stood there a moment in dumb consternation.  What did the
+fellow intend?  What was going on below?  If Benson was a traitor,
+how could I know that there were not other traitors among us?
+I cursed myself for my folly in going out upon the deck, and then
+this thought suggested another--a hideous one: who was it that
+had really been responsible for my being here?
+
+Thinking to attract attention from inside the craft, I again ran
+down the ladder and onto the small deck only to find that the
+steel covers of the conning-tower windows were shut, and then I
+leaned with my back against the tower and cursed myself for a
+gullible idiot.
+
+I glanced at the bow.  The sea seemed to be getting heavier, for
+every wave now washed completely over the lower deck.  I watched
+them for a moment, and then a sudden chill pervaded my entire being.
+It was not the chill of wet clothing, or the dashing spray which
+drenched my face; no, it was the chill of the hand of death upon
+my heart.  In an instant I had turned the last corner of life's
+highway and was looking God Almighty in the face--the U-33 was
+being slowly submerged!
+
+It would be difficult, even impossible, to set down in writing
+my sensations at that moment.  All I can particularly recall
+is that I laughed, though neither from a spirit of bravado nor
+from hysteria.  And I wanted to smoke.  Lord! how I did want to
+smoke; but that was out of the question.
+
+I watched the water rise until the little deck I stood on was awash,
+and then I clambered once more to the top of the conning-tower.
+From the very slow submergence of the boat I knew that Benson was
+doing the entire trick alone--that he was merely permitting the
+diving-tanks to fill and that the diving-rudders were not in use.
+The throbbing of the engines ceased, and in its stead came the
+steady vibration of the electric motors.  The water was halfway
+up the conning-tower!  I had perhaps five minutes longer on the deck.
+I tried to decide what I should do after I was washed away.  Should I
+swim until exhaustion claimed me, or should I give up and end the
+agony at the first plunge?
+
+From below came two muffled reports.  They sounded not unlike shots.
+Was Benson meeting with resistance?  Personally it could mean little
+to me, for even though my men might overcome the enemy, none would
+know of my predicament until long after it was too late to succor me.
+The top of the conning-tower was now awash.  I clung to the wireless
+mast, while the great waves surged sometimes completely over me.
+
+I knew the end was near and, almost involuntarily, I did that
+which I had not done since childhood--I prayed.  After that I
+felt better.
+
+I clung and waited, but the water rose no higher.
+
+Instead it receded.  Now the top of the conning-tower received
+only the crests of the higher waves; now the little triangular
+deck below became visible!  What had occurred within?  Did Benson
+believe me already gone, and was he emerging because of that
+belief, or had he and his forces been vanquished?  The suspense
+was more wearing than that which I had endured while waiting
+for dissolution.  Presently the main deck came into view, and
+then the conning-tower opened behind me, and I turned to look
+into the anxious face of Bradley.  An expression of relief
+overspread his features.
+
+"Thank God, man!" was all he said as he reached forth and dragged
+me into the tower.  I was cold and numb and rather all in.
+Another few minutes would have done for me, I am sure, but the
+warmth of the interior helped to revive me, aided and abetted by
+some brandy which Bradley poured down my throat, from which it
+nearly removed the membrane.  That brandy would have revived a corpse.
+
+When I got down into the centrale, I saw the Germans lined up on
+one side with a couple of my men with pistols standing over them.
+Von Schoenvorts was among them.  On the floor lay Benson,
+moaning, and beyond him stood the girl, a revolver in one hand.
+I looked about, bewildered.
+
+"What has happened down here?" I asked.  "Tell me!"
+
+Bradley replied.  "You see the result, sir," he said.  "It might
+have been a very different result but for Miss La Rue.  We were
+all asleep.  Benson had relieved the guard early in the evening;
+there was no one to watch him--no one but Miss La Rue.  She felt
+the submergence of the boat and came out of her room to investigate.
+She was just in time to see Benson at the diving rudders.  When he
+saw her, he raised his pistol and fired point-blank at her, but he
+missed and she fired--and didn't miss.  The two shots awakened
+everyone, and as our men were armed, the result was inevitable as
+you see it; but it would have been very different had it not been
+for Miss La Rue.  It was she who closed the diving-tank sea-cocks
+and roused Olson and me, and had the pumps started to empty them."
+
+And there I had been thinking that through her machinations I had
+been lured to the deck and to my death!  I could have gone on my
+knees to her and begged her forgiveness--or at least I could
+have, had I not been Anglo-Saxon.  As it was, I could only remove
+my soggy cap and bow and mumble my appreciation.  She made no
+reply--only turned and walked very rapidly toward her room.
+Could I have heard aright?  Was it really a sob that came floating
+back to me through the narrow aisle of the U-33?
+
+Benson died that night.  He remained defiant almost to the last;
+but just before he went out, he motioned to me, and I leaned over
+to catch the faintly whispered words.
+
+"I did it alone," he said.  "I did it because I hate you--I hate
+all your kind.  I was kicked out of your shipyard at Santa Monica.
+I was locked out of California.  I am an I. W. W. I became a German
+agent--not because I love them, for I hate them too--but because
+I wanted to injure Americans, whom I hated more.  I threw the
+wireless apparatus overboard.  I destroyed the chronometer and
+the sextant.  I devised a scheme for varying the compass to suit
+my wishes.  I told Wilson that I had seen the girl talking with
+von Schoenvorts, and I made the poor egg think he had seen her
+doing the same thing.  I am sorry--sorry that my plans failed.
+I hate you."
+
+He didn't die for a half-hour after that; nor did he speak
+again--aloud; but just a few seconds before he went to meet his
+Maker, his lips moved in a faint whisper; and as I leaned closer
+to catch his words, what do you suppose I heard?  "Now--I--lay
+me--down--to--sleep"  That was all; Benson was dead.  We threw his
+body overboard.
+
+The wind of that night brought on some pretty rough weather with
+a lot of black clouds which persisted for several days.  We didn't
+know what course we had been holding, and there was no way of
+finding out, as we could no longer trust the compass, not knowing
+what Benson had done to it.  The long and the short of it was that
+we cruised about aimlessly until the sun came out again.  I'll never
+forget that day or its surprises.  We reckoned, or rather guessed,
+that we were somewhere off the coast of Peru.  The wind, which had
+been blowing fitfully from the east, suddenly veered around into
+the south, and presently we felt a sudden chill.
+
+"Peru!" snorted Olson.  "When were yez after smellin' iceber-rgs
+off Peru?"
+
+Icebergs!  "Icebergs, nothin'!" exclaimed one of the Englishmen.
+"Why, man, they don't come north of fourteen here in these waters."
+
+"Then," replied Olson, "ye're sout' of fourteen, me b'y."
+
+We thought he was crazy; but he wasn't, for that afternoon we
+sighted a great berg south of us, and we'd been running north, we
+thought, for days.  I can tell you we were a discouraged lot; but we
+got a faint thrill of hope early the next morning when the lookout
+bawled down the open hatch:  "Land!  Land northwest by west!"
+
+I think we were all sick for the sight of land.  I know that I was;
+but my interest was quickly dissipated by the sudden illness of
+three of the Germans.  Almost simultaneously they commenced vomiting.
+They couldn't suggest any explanation for it.  I asked them what
+they had eaten, and found they had eaten nothing other than the
+food cooked for all of us.  "Have you drunk anything?"  I asked,
+for I knew that there was liquor aboard, and medicines in the
+same locker.
+
+"Only water," moaned one of them.  "We all drank water together
+this morning.  We opened a new tank.  Maybe it was the water."
+
+I started an investigation which revealed a terrifying condition--
+some one, probably Benson, had poisoned all the running water on
+the ship.  It would have been worse, though, had land not been
+in sight.  The sight of land filled us with renewed hope.
+
+Our course had been altered, and we were rapidly approaching what
+appeared to be a precipitous headland.  Cliffs, seemingly rising
+perpendicularly out of the sea, faded away into the mist upon either
+hand as we approached.  The land before us might have been a continent,
+so mighty appeared the shoreline; yet we knew that we must be
+thousands of miles from the nearest western land-mass--New Zealand
+or Australia.
+
+We took our bearings with our crude and inaccurate instruments;
+we searched the chart; we cudgeled our brains; and at last it was
+Bradley who suggested a solution.  He was in the tower and
+watching the compass, to which he called my attention.  The needle
+was pointing straight toward the land.  Bradley swung the helm
+hard to starboard.  I could feel the U-33 respond, and yet the
+arrow still clung straight and sure toward the distant cliffs.
+
+"What do you make of it?" I asked him.
+
+"Did you ever hear of Caproni?" he asked.
+
+"An early Italian navigator?" I returned.
+
+"Yes; he followed Cook about 1721.  He is scarcely mentioned even
+by contemporaneous historians--probably because he got into
+political difficulties on his return to Italy.  It was the
+fashion to scoff at his claims, but I recall reading one of his
+works--his only one, I believe--in which he described a new
+continent in the south seas, a continent made up of `some strange
+metal' which attracted the compass; a rockbound, inhospitable coast,
+without beach or harbor, which extended for hundreds of miles.
+He could make no landing; nor in the several days he cruised about
+it did he see sign of life.  He called it Caprona and sailed away.
+I believe, sir, that we are looking upon the coast of Caprona,
+uncharted and forgotten for two hundred years."
+
+"If you are right, it might account for much of the deviation of
+the compass during the past two days," I suggested.  "Caprona
+has been luring us upon her deadly rocks.  Well, we'll accept
+her challenge.  We'll land upon Caprona.  Along that long front
+there must be a vulnerable spot.  We will find it, Bradley, for
+we must find it.  We must find water on Caprona, or we must die."
+
+And so we approached the coast upon which no living eyes had
+ever rested.  Straight from the ocean's depths rose towering
+cliffs, shot with brown and blues and greens--withered moss
+and lichen and the verdigris of copper, and everywhere the
+rusty ocher of iron pyrites.  The cliff-tops, though ragged,
+were of such uniform height as to suggest the boundaries of
+a great plateau, and now and again we caught glimpses of verdure
+topping the rocky escarpment, as though bush or jungle-land had
+pushed outward from a lush vegetation farther inland to signal
+to an unseeing world that Caprona lived and joyed in life beyond
+her austere and repellent coast.
+
+But metaphor, however poetic, never slaked a dry throat.
+To enjoy Caprona's romantic suggestions we must have water,
+and so we came in close, always sounding, and skirted the shore.
+As close in as we dared cruise, we found fathomless depths, and
+always the same undented coastline of bald cliffs.  As darkness
+threatened, we drew away and lay well off the coast all night.
+We had not as yet really commenced to suffer for lack of water;
+but I knew that it would not be long before we did, and so at the
+first streak of dawn I moved in again and once more took up the
+hopeless survey of the forbidding coast.
+
+Toward noon we discovered a beach, the first we had seen.  It was
+a narrow strip of sand at the base of a part of the cliff that
+seemed lower than any we had before scanned.  At its foot, half
+buried in the sand, lay great boulders, mute evidence that in a
+bygone age some mighty natural force had crumpled Caprona's
+barrier at this point.  It was Bradley who first called our
+attention to a strange object lying among the boulders above
+the surf.
+
+"Looks like a man," he said, and passed his glasses to me.
+
+I looked long and carefully and could have sworn that the thing
+I saw was the sprawled figure of a human being.  Miss La Rue was
+on deck with us.  I turned and asked her to go below.  Without a
+word she did as I bade.  Then I stripped, and as I did so, Nobs
+looked questioningly at me.  He had been wont at home to enter
+the surf with me, and evidently he had not forgotten it.
+
+"What are you going to do, sir?" asked Olson.
+
+"I'm going to see what that thing is on shore," I replied.
+"If it's a man, it may mean that Caprona is inhabited, or it
+may merely mean that some poor devils were shipwrecked here.
+I ought to be able to tell from the clothing which is more
+near the truth.
+
+"How about sharks?" queried Olson.  "Sure, you ought to carry a knoife."
+
+"Here you are, sir," cried one of the men.
+
+It was a long slim blade he offered--one that I could carry
+between my teeth--and so I accepted it gladly.
+
+"Keep close in," I directed Bradley, and then I dived over the
+side and struck out for the narrow beach.  There was another
+splash directly behind me, and turning my head, I saw faithful
+old Nobs swimming valiantly in my wake.
+
+The surf was not heavy, and there was no undertow, so we made
+shore easily, effecting an equally easy landing.  The beach
+was composed largely of small stones worn smooth by the action
+of water.  There was little sand, though from the deck of the U-33
+the beach had appeared to be all sand, and I saw no evidences of
+mollusca or crustacea such as are common to all beaches I have
+previously seen.  I attribute this to the fact of the smallness
+of the beach, the enormous depth of surrounding water and the
+great distance at which Caprona lies from her nearest neighbor.
+
+As Nobs and I approached the recumbent figure farther up the
+beach, I was appraised by my nose that whether or not, the thing
+had once been organic and alive, but that for some time it had
+been dead.  Nobs halted, sniffed and growled.  A little later he
+sat down upon his haunches, raised his muzzle to the heavens and
+bayed forth a most dismal howl.  I shied a small stone at him and
+bade him shut up--his uncanny noise made me nervous.  When I had
+come quite close to the thing, I still could not say whether it
+had been man or beast.  The carcass was badly swollen and
+partly decomposed.  There was no sign of clothing upon or
+about it.  A fine, brownish hair covered the chest and abdomen,
+and the face, the palms of the hands, the feet, the shoulders and
+back were practically hairless.  The creature must have been
+about the height of a fair sized man; its features were similar
+to those of a man; yet had it been a man?
+
+I could not say, for it resembled an ape no more than it did
+a man.  Its large toes protruded laterally as do those of the
+semiarboreal peoples of Borneo, the Philippines and other remote
+regions where low types still persist.  The countenance might
+have been that of a cross between Pithecanthropus, the Java
+ape-man, and a daughter of the Piltdown race of prehistoric Sussex.
+A wooden cudgel lay beside the corpse.
+
+Now this fact set me thinking.  There was no wood of any
+description in sight.  There was nothing about the beach to
+suggest a wrecked mariner.  There was absolutely nothing about
+the body to suggest that it might possibly in life have known a
+maritime experience.  It was the body of a low type of man or a
+high type of beast.  In neither instance would it have been of a
+seafaring race.  Therefore I deduced that it was native to
+Caprona--that it lived inland, and that it had fallen or been
+hurled from the cliffs above.  Such being the case, Caprona was
+inhabitable, if not inhabited, by man; but how to reach the
+inhabitable interior!  That was the question.  A closer view
+of the cliffs than had been afforded me from the deck of the
+U-33 only confirmed my conviction that no mortal man could scale
+those perpendicular heights; there was not a finger-hold, not a
+toe-hold, upon them.  I turned away baffled.
+
+Nobs and I met with no sharks upon our return journey to
+the submarine.  My report filled everyone with theories and
+speculations, and with renewed hope and determination.  They all
+reasoned along the same lines that I had reasoned--the
+conclusions were obvious, but not the water.  We were now
+thirstier than ever.
+
+The balance of that day we spent in continuing a minute and
+fruitless exploration of the monotonous coast.  There was not
+another break in the frowning cliffs--not even another minute
+patch of pebbly beach.  As the sun fell, so did our spirits.
+I had tried to make advances to the girl again; but she would
+have none of me, and so I was not only thirsty but otherwise sad
+and downhearted.  I was glad when the new day broke the hideous
+spell of a sleepless night.
+
+The morning's search brought us no shred of hope.  Caprona was
+impregnable--that was the decision of all; yet we kept on.  It must
+have been about two bells of the afternoon watch that Bradley called
+my attention to the branch of a tree, with leaves upon it, floating
+on the sea.  "It may have been carried down to the ocean by a river,"
+he suggested.
+"Yes, " I replied, "it may have; it may have tumbled or been thrown
+off the top of one of these cliffs."
+
+Bradley's face fell.  "I thought of that, too," he replied, "but
+I wanted to believe the other."
+
+"Right you are!" I cried.  "We must believe the other until we
+prove it false.  We can't afford to give up heart now, when we
+need heart most.  The branch was carried down by a river, and we
+are going to find that river." I smote my open palm with a
+clenched fist, to emphasize a determination unsupported by hope.
+"There!" I cried suddenly.  "See that, Bradley?"  And I pointed at
+a spot closer to shore.  "See that, man!"  Some flowers and
+grasses and another leafy branch floated toward us.  We both
+scanned the water and the coastline.  Bradley evidently
+discovered something, or at least thought that he had.  He called
+down for a bucket and a rope, and when they were passed up to
+him, he lowered the former into the sea and drew it in filled
+with water.  Of this he took a taste, and straightening up,
+looked into my eyes with an expression of elation--as much as to
+say "I told you so!"
+
+"This water is warm," he announced, "and fresh!"
+
+I grabbed the bucket and tasted its contents.  The water was very
+warm, and it was fresh, but there was a most unpleasant taste to it.
+
+"Did you ever taste water from a stagnant pool full of tadpoles?"
+Bradley asked.
+
+"That's it," I exclaimed, "--that's just the taste exactly,
+though I haven't experienced it since boyhood; but how can water
+from a flowing stream, taste thus, and what the dickens makes it
+so warm?  It must be at least 70 or 80 Fahrenheit, possibly higher."
+
+"Yes," agreed Bradley, "I should say higher; but where does it
+come from?"
+
+"That is easily discovered now that we have found it," I answered.
+"It can't come from the ocean; so it must come from the land.
+All that we have to do is follow it, and sooner or later we shall
+come upon its source."
+
+We were already rather close in; but I ordered the U-33's prow
+turned inshore and we crept slowly along, constantly dipping up
+the water and tasting it to assure ourselves that we didn't get
+outside the fresh-water current.  There was a very light off-shore
+wind and scarcely any breakers, so that the approach to the shore
+was continued without finding bottom; yet though we were already
+quite close, we saw no indication of any indention in the coast
+from which even a tiny brooklet might issue, and certainly no
+mouth of a large river such as this must necessarily be to freshen
+the ocean even two hundred yards from shore.  The tide was running
+out, and this, together with the strong flow of the freshwater
+current, would have prevented our going against the cliffs even
+had we not been under power; as it was we had to buck the combined
+forces in order to hold our position at all.  We came up to within
+twenty-five feet of the sheer wall, which loomed high above us.
+There was no break in its forbidding face.  As we watched the face
+of the waters and searched the cliff's high face, Olson suggested
+that the fresh water might come from a submarine geyser.  This, he
+said, would account for its heat; but even as he spoke a bush,
+covered thickly with leaves and flowers, bubbled to the surface
+and floated off astern.
+
+"Flowering shrubs don't thrive in the subterranean caverns from
+which geysers spring," suggested Bradley.
+
+Olson shook his head.  "It beats me," he said.
+
+"I've got it!" I exclaimed suddenly.  "Look there!"  And I pointed
+at the base of the cliff ahead of us, which the receding tide was
+gradually exposing to our view.  They all looked, and all saw
+what I had seen--the top of a dark opening in the rock, through
+which water was pouring out into the sea.  "It's the subterranean
+channel of an inland river," I cried.  "It flows through a land
+covered with vegetation--and therefore a land upon which the
+sun shines.  No subterranean caverns produce any order of plant
+life even remotely resembling what we have seen disgorged by
+this river.  Beyond those cliffs lie fertile lands and fresh
+water--perhaps, game!"
+
+"Yis, sir," said Olson, "behoind the cliffs!  Ye spoke a true
+word, sir--behoind!"
+
+Bradley laughed--a rather sorry laugh, though.  "You might as
+well call our attention to the fact, sir," he said, "that science
+has indicated that there is fresh water and vegetation on Mars."
+
+"Not at all," I rejoined.  "A U-boat isn't constructed to navigate
+space, but it is designed to travel below the surface of the water."
+
+"You'd be after sailin' into that blank pocket?" asked Olson.
+
+"I would, Olson," I replied.  "We haven't one chance for life in
+a hundred thousand if we don't find food and water upon Caprona.
+This water coming out of the cliff is not salt; but neither is it
+fit to drink, though each of us has drunk.  It is fair to assume
+that inland the river is fed by pure streams, that there are
+fruits and herbs and game.  Shall we lie out here and die of
+thirst and starvation with a land of plenty possibly only a few
+hundred yards away?  We have the means for navigating a
+subterranean river.  Are we too cowardly to utilize this means?"
+
+"Be afther goin' to it," said Olson.
+
+"I'm willing to see it through," agreed Bradley.
+
+"Then under the bottom, wi' the best o' luck an' give 'em hell!"
+cried a young fellow who had been in the trenches.
+
+"To the diving-stations!"  I commanded, and in less than a minute
+the deck was deserted, the conning-tower covers had slammed to
+and the U-33 was submerging--possibly for the last time.  I know
+that I had this feeling, and I think that most of the others did.
+
+As we went down, I sat in the tower with the searchlight
+projecting its seemingly feeble rays ahead.  We submerged very
+slowly and without headway more than sufficient to keep her nose
+in the right direction, and as we went down, I saw outlined ahead
+of us the black opening in the great cliff.  It was an opening
+that would have admitted a half-dozen U-boats at one and the same
+time, roughly cylindrical in contour--and dark as the pit of perdition.
+
+As I gave the command which sent the U-33 slowly ahead, I could
+not but feel a certain uncanny presentiment of evil.  Where were
+we going?  What lay at the end of this great sewer?  Had we bidden
+farewell forever to the sunlight and life, or were there before
+us dangers even greater than those which we now faced?  I tried to
+keep my mind from vain imagining by calling everything which I
+observed to the eager ears below.  I was the eyes of the whole
+company, and I did my best not to fail them.  We had advanced a
+hundred yards, perhaps, when our first danger confronted us.
+Just ahead was a sharp right-angle turn in the tunnel.  I could
+see the river's flotsam hurtling against the rocky wall upon the
+left as it was driven on by the mighty current, and I feared for
+the safety of the U-33 in making so sharp a turn under such
+adverse conditions; but there was nothing for it but to try.
+I didn't warn my fellows of the danger--it could have but caused
+them useless apprehension, for if we were to be smashed against
+the rocky wall, no power on earth could avert the quick end that
+would come to us. I gave the command full speed ahead and went
+charging toward the menace.  I was forced to approach the
+dangerous left-hand wall in order to make the turn, and I
+depended upon the power of the motors to carry us through the
+surging waters in safety.  Well, we made it; but it was a
+narrow squeak.  As we swung around, the full force of the current
+caught us and drove the stern against the rocks; there was a thud
+which sent a tremor through the whole craft, and then a moment of
+nasty grinding as the steel hull scraped the rock wall.  I expected
+momentarily the inrush of waters that would seal our doom; but
+presently from below came the welcome word that all was well.
+
+In another fifty yards there was a second turn, this time toward
+the left! but it was more of a gentle curve, and we took it
+without trouble.  After that it was plain sailing, though as far
+as I could know, there might be most anything ahead of us, and my
+nerves strained to the snapping-point every instant.  After the
+second turn the channel ran comparatively straight for between
+one hundred and fifty and two hundred yards.  The waters grew
+suddenly lighter, and my spirits rose accordingly.  I shouted
+down to those below that I saw daylight ahead, and a great shout
+of thanksgiving reverberated through the ship.  A moment later we
+emerged into sunlit water, and immediately I raised the periscope
+and looked about me upon the strangest landscape I had ever seen.
+
+We were in the middle of a broad and now sluggish river the banks
+of which were lined by giant, arboraceous ferns, raising their
+mighty fronds fifty, one hundred, two hundred feet into the
+quiet air.  Close by us something rose to the surface of the river
+and dashed at the periscope.  I had a vision of wide, distended jaws,
+and then all was blotted out.  A shiver ran down into the tower as
+the thing closed upon the periscope.  A moment later it was gone,
+and I could see again.  Above the trees there soared into my vision
+a huge thing on batlike wings--a creature large as a large whale,
+but fashioned more after the order of a lizard.  Then again
+something charged the periscope and blotted out the mirror.  I will
+confess that I was almost gasping for breath as I gave the commands
+to emerge.  Into what sort of strange land had fate guided us?
+
+The instant the deck was awash, I opened the conning-tower hatch
+and stepped out.  In another minute the deck-hatch lifted, and
+those who were not on duty below streamed up the ladder, Olson
+bringing Nobs under one arm.  For several minutes no one spoke;
+I think they must each have been as overcome by awe as was I.
+All about us was a flora and fauna as strange and wonderful to us
+as might have been those upon a distant planet had we suddenly
+been miraculously transported through ether to an unknown world.
+Even the grass upon the nearer bank was unearthly--lush and high
+it grew, and each blade bore upon its tip a brilliant flower--
+violet or yellow or carmine or blue--making as gorgeous a sward
+as human imagination might conceive.  But the life!  It teemed.
+The tall, fernlike trees were alive with monkeys, snakes, and lizards.
+Huge insects hummed and buzzed hither and thither.  Mighty forms
+could be seen moving upon the ground in the thick forest, while
+the bosom of the river wriggled with living things, and above
+flapped the wings of gigantic creatures such as we are taught have
+been extinct throughout countless ages.
+
+"Look!" cried Olson.  "Would you look at the giraffe comin' up
+out o' the bottom of the say?"  We looked in the direction he
+pointed and saw a long, glossy neck surmounted by a small head
+rising above the surface of the river.  Presently the back of the
+creature was exposed, brown and glossy as the water dripped from it.
+It turned its eyes upon us, opened its lizard-like mouth, emitted
+a shrill hiss and came for us.  The thing must have been sixteen
+or eighteen feet in length and closely resembled pictures I had
+seen of restored plesiosaurs of the lower Jurassic.  It charged
+us as savagely as a mad bull, and one would have thought it
+intended to destroy and devour the mighty U-boat, as I verily
+believe it did intend.
+
+We were moving slowly up the river as the creature bore down upon
+us with distended jaws.  The long neck was far outstretched, and
+the four flippers with which it swam were working with powerful
+strokes, carrying it forward at a rapid pace.  When it reached
+the craft's side, the jaws closed upon one of the stanchions of
+the deck rail and tore it from its socket as though it had been
+a toothpick stuck in putty.  At this exhibition of titanic
+strength I think we all simultaneously stepped backward, and
+Bradley drew his revolver and fired.  The bullet struck the thing
+in the neck, just above its body; but instead of disabling it,
+merely increased its rage.  Its hissing rose to a shrill scream
+as it raised half its body out of water onto the sloping sides of
+the hull of the U-33 and endeavored to scramble upon the deck to
+devour us.  A dozen shots rang out as we who were armed drew our
+pistols and fired at the thing; but though struck several times,
+it showed no signs of succumbing and only floundered farther
+aboard the submarine.
+
+I had noticed that the girl had come on deck and was standing not
+far behind me, and when I saw the danger to which we were all
+exposed, I turned and forced her toward the hatch.  We had not
+spoken for some days, and we did not speak now; but she gave me
+a disdainful look, which was quite as eloquent as words, and
+broke loose from my grasp.  I saw I could do nothing with her
+unless I exerted force, and so I turned with my back toward her
+that I might be in a position to shield her from the strange
+reptile should it really succeed in reaching the deck; and as I
+did so I saw the thing raise one flipper over the rail, dart its
+head forward and with the quickness of lightning seize upon one
+of the boches.  I ran forward, discharging my pistol into the
+creature's body in an effort to force it to relinquish its prey;
+but I might as profitably have shot at the sun.
+
+Shrieking and screaming, the German was dragged from the deck,
+and the moment the reptile was clear of the boat, it dived
+beneath the surface of the water with its terrified prey.
+I think we were all more or less shaken by the frightfulness of
+the tragedy--until Olson remarked that the balance of power now
+rested where it belonged.  Following the death of Benson we had
+been nine and nine--nine Germans and nine "Allies," as we called
+ourselves, now there were but eight Germans.  We never counted
+the girl on either side, I suppose because she was a girl, though
+we knew well enough now that she was ours.
+
+And so Olson's remark helped to clear the atmosphere for the
+Allies at least, and then our attention was once more directed
+toward the river, for around us there had sprung up a perfect
+bedlam of screams and hisses and a seething caldron of hideous
+reptiles, devoid of fear and filled only with hunger and with rage.
+They clambered, squirmed and wriggled to the deck, forcing
+us steadily backward, though we emptied our pistols into them.
+There were all sorts and conditions of horrible things--huge,
+hideous, grotesque, monstrous--a veritable Mesozoic nightmare.
+I saw that the girl was gotten below as quickly as possible, and
+she took Nobs with her--poor Nobs had nearly barked his head off;
+and I think, too, that for the first time since his littlest
+puppyhood he had known fear; nor can I blame him.  After the girl
+I sent Bradley and most of the Allies and then the Germans who
+were on deck--von Schoenvorts being still in irons below.
+
+The creatures were approaching perilously close before I dropped
+through the hatchway and slammed down the cover.  Then I went
+into the tower and ordered full speed ahead, hoping to distance
+the fearsome things; but it was useless.  Not only could any of
+them easily outdistance the U-33, but the further upstream we
+progressed the greater the number of our besiegers, until fearful
+of navigating a strange river at high speed, I gave orders to
+reduce and moved slowly and majestically through the plunging,
+hissing mass.  I was mighty glad that our entrance into the
+interior of Caprona had been inside a submarine rather than in
+any other form of vessel.  I could readily understand how it
+might have been that Caprona had been invaded in the past by
+venturesome navigators without word of it ever reaching the
+outside world, for I can assure you that only by submarine could
+man pass up that great sluggish river, alive.
+
+We proceeded up the river for some forty miles before darkness
+overtook us.  I was afraid to submerge and lie on the bottom
+overnight for fear that the mud might be deep enough to hold us,
+and as we could not hold with the anchor, I ran in close to
+shore, and in a brief interim of attack from the reptiles we made
+fast to a large tree.  We also dipped up some of the river water
+and found it, though quite warm, a little sweeter than before.
+We had food enough, and with the water we were all quite
+refreshed; but we missed fresh meat.  It had been weeks, now,
+since we had tasted it, and the sight of the reptiles gave me
+an idea--that a steak or two from one of them might not be
+bad eating.  So I went on deck with a rifle, twenty of which were
+aboard the U-33.  At sight of me a huge thing charged and climbed
+to the deck.  I retreated to the top of the conning-tower, and
+when it had raised its mighty bulk to the level of the little deck
+on which I stood, I let it have a bullet right between the eyes.
+
+The thing stopped then and looked at me a moment as much as to
+say:  "Why this thing has a stinger!  I must be careful." And then
+it reached out its long neck and opened its mighty jaws and grabbed
+for me; but I wasn't there.  I had tumbled backward into the tower,
+and I mighty near killed myself doing it.  When I glanced up, that
+little head on the end of its long neck was coming straight down on
+top of me, and once more I tumbled into greater safety, sprawling
+upon the floor of the centrale.
+
+Olson was looking up, and seeing what was poking about in the
+tower, ran for an ax; nor did he hesitate a moment when he
+returned with one, but sprang up the ladder and commenced
+chopping away at that hideous face.  The thing didn't have
+sufficient brainpan to entertain more than a single idea at once.
+Though chopped and hacked, and with a bullethole between its
+eyes, it still persisted madly in its attempt to get inside the
+tower and devour Olson, though its body was many times the
+diameter of the hatch; nor did it cease its efforts until after
+Olson had succeeded in decapitating it.  Then the two men went on
+deck through the main hatch, and while one kept watch, the other
+cut a hind quarter off Plesiosaurus Olsoni, as Bradley dubbed
+the thing.  Meantime Olson cut off the long neck, saying that it
+would make fine soup.  By the time we had cleared away the blood
+and refuse in the tower, the cook had juicy steaks and a steaming
+broth upon the electric stove, and the aroma arising from P. Olsoni
+filled us an with a hitherto unfelt admiration for him and all his kind.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 5
+
+
+
+
+The steaks we had that night, and they were fine; and the
+following morning we tasted the broth.  It seemed odd to be
+eating a creature that should, by all the laws of paleontology,
+have been extinct for several million years.  It gave one a
+feeling of newness that was almost embarrassing, although it
+didn't seem to embarrass our appetites.  Olson ate until I
+thought he would burst.
+
+The girl ate with us that night at the little officers' mess just
+back of the torpedo compartment.  The narrow table was unfolded;
+the four stools were set out; and for the first time in days we
+sat down to eat, and for the first time in weeks we had something
+to eat other than the monotony of the short rations of an
+impoverished U-boat.  Nobs sat between the girl and me and was
+fed with morsels of the Plesiosaurus steak, at the risk of
+forever contaminating his manners.  He looked at me sheepishly
+all the time, for he knew that no well-bred dog should eat at
+table; but the poor fellow was so wasted from improper food that
+I couldn't enjoy my own meal had he been denied an immediate share
+in it; and anyway Lys wanted to feed him.  So there you are.
+
+Lys was coldly polite to me and sweetly gracious to Bradley
+and Olson.  She wasn't of the gushing type, I knew; so I didn't
+expect much from her and was duly grateful for the few morsels of
+attention she threw upon the floor to me.  We had a pleasant
+meal, with only one unfortunate occurrence--when Olson suggested
+that possibly the creature we were eating was the same one that
+ate the German.  It was some time before we could persuade the
+girl to continue her meal, but at last Bradley prevailed upon
+her, pointing out that we had come upstream nearly forty miles
+since the boche had been seized, and that during that time we
+had seen literally thousands of these denizens of the river,
+indicating that the chances were very remote that this was the
+same Plesiosaur.  "And anyway," he concluded, "it was only a
+scheme of Mr. Olson's to get all the steaks for himself."
+
+We discussed the future and ventured opinions as to what lay
+before us; but we could only theorize at best, for none of
+us knew.  If the whole land was infested by these and similar
+horrid monsters, life would be impossible upon it, and we decided
+that we would only search long enough to find and take aboard fresh
+water and such meat and fruits as might be safely procurable and
+then retrace our way beneath the cliffs to the open sea.
+
+And so at last we turned into our narrow bunks, hopeful, happy
+and at peace with ourselves, our lives and our God, to awaken the
+following morning refreshed and still optimistic.  We had an easy
+time getting away--as we learned later, because the saurians do
+not commence to feed until late in the morning.  From noon to
+midnight their curve of activity is at its height, while from
+dawn to about nine o'clock it is lowest.  As a matter of fact, we
+didn't see one of them all the time we were getting under way,
+though I had the cannon raised to the deck and manned against
+an assault.  I hoped, but I was none too sure, that shells might
+discourage them.  The trees were full of monkeys of all sizes and
+shades, and once we thought we saw a manlike creature watching us
+from the depth of the forest.
+
+Shortly after we resumed our course upstream, we saw the mouth of
+another and smaller river emptying into the main channel from the
+south--that is, upon our right; and almost immediately after we
+came upon a large island five or six miles in length; and at
+fifty miles there was a still larger river than the last coming
+in from the northwest, the course of the main stream having now
+changed to northeast by southwest.  The water was quite free from
+reptiles, and the vegetation upon the banks of the river had
+altered to more open and parklike forest, with eucalyptus and
+acacia mingled with a scattering of tree ferns, as though two
+distinct periods of geologic time had overlapped and merged.
+The grass, too, was less flowering, though there were still
+gorgeous patches mottling the greensward; and lastly, the fauna
+was less multitudinous.
+
+Six or seven miles farther, and the river widened considerably;
+before us opened an expanse of water to the farther horizon, and
+then we sailed out upon an inland sea so large that only a shore-
+line upon our side was visible to us.  The waters all about us
+were alive with life.  There were still a few reptiles; but there
+were fish by the thousands, by the millions.
+
+The water of the inland sea was very warm, almost hot, and the
+atmosphere was hot and heavy above it.  It seemed strange that
+beyond the buttressed walls of Caprona icebergs floated and the
+south wind was biting, for only a gentle breeze moved across
+the face of these living waters, and that was damp and warm.
+Gradually, we commenced to divest ourselves of our clothing,
+retaining only sufficient for modesty; but the sun was not hot.
+It was more the heat of a steam-room than of an oven.
+
+We coasted up the shore of the lake in a north-westerly direction,
+sounding all the time.  We found the lake deep and the bottom
+rocky and steeply shelving toward the center, and once when I
+moved straight out from shore to take other soundings we could
+find no bottom whatsoever.  In open spaces along the shore we
+caught occasional glimpses of the distant cliffs, and here
+they appeared only a trifle less precipitous than those which
+bound Caprona on the seaward side.  My theory is that in a far
+distant era Caprona was a mighty mountain--perhaps the world's
+mightiest volcanic action blew off the entire crest, blew
+thousands of feet of the mountain upward and outward and onto the
+surrounding continent, leaving a great crater; and then,
+possibly, the continent sank as ancient continents have been
+known to do, leaving only the summit of Caprona above the sea.
+The encircling walls, the central lake, the hot springs which
+feed the lake, all point to a conclusion, and the fauna and the
+flora bear indisputable evidence that Caprona was once part of
+some great land-mass.
+
+As we cruised up along the coast, the landscape continued a more
+or less open forest, with here and there a small plain where we
+saw animals grazing.  With my glass I could make out a species of
+large red deer, some antelope and what appeared to be a species
+of horse; and once I saw the shaggy form of what might have been
+a monstrous bison.  Here was game a plenty!  There seemed little
+danger of starving upon Caprona.  The game, however, seemed wary;
+for the instant the animals discovered us, they threw up their
+heads and tails and went cavorting off, those farther inland
+following the example of the others until all were lost in the
+mazes of the distant forest.  Only the great, shaggy ox stood
+his ground.  With lowered head he watched us until we had passed,
+and then continued feeding.
+
+About twenty miles up the coast from the mouth of the river we
+encountered low cliffs of sandstone, broken and tortured evidence
+of the great upheaval which had torn Caprona asunder in the past,
+intermingling upon a common level the rock formations of widely
+separated eras, fusing some and leaving others untouched.
+
+We ran along beside them for a matter of ten miles, arriving off
+a broad cleft which led into what appeared to be another lake.
+As we were in search of pure water, we did not wish to overlook
+any portion of the coast, and so after sounding and finding that
+we had ample depth, I ran the U-33 between head-lands into as
+pretty a landlocked harbor as sailormen could care to see, with
+good water right up to within a few yards of the shore.  As we
+cruised slowly along, two of the boches again saw what they
+believed to be a man, or manlike creature, watching us from a
+fringe of trees a hundred yards inland, and shortly after we
+discovered the mouth of a small stream emptying into the bay:
+It was the first stream we had found since leaving the river, and
+I at once made preparations to test its water.  To land, it would
+be necessary to run the U-33 close in to the shore, at least as
+close as we could, for even these waters were infested, though,
+not so thickly, by savage reptiles.  I ordered sufficient water
+let into the diving-tanks to lower us about a foot, and then I
+ran the bow slowly toward the shore, confident that should we run
+aground, we still had sufficient lifting force to free us when
+the water should be pumped out of the tanks; but the bow nosed
+its way gently into the reeds and touched the shore with the keel
+still clear.
+
+My men were all armed now with both rifles and pistols, each
+having plenty of ammunition.  I ordered one of the Germans ashore
+with a line, and sent two of my own men to guard him, for from
+what little we had seen of Caprona, or Caspak as we learned later
+to call the interior, we realized that any instant some new and
+terrible danger might confront us.  The line was made fast to a
+small tree, and at the same time I had the stern anchor dropped.
+
+As soon as the boche and his guard were aboard again, I called
+all hands on deck, including von Schoenvorts, and there I
+explained to them that the time had come for us to enter into
+some sort of an agreement among ourselves that would relieve
+us of the annoyance and embarrassment of being divided into two
+antagonistic parts--prisoners and captors.  I told them that it
+was obvious our very existence depended upon our unity of action,
+that we were to all intent and purpose entering a new world as
+far from the seat and causes of our own world-war as if millions
+of miles of space and eons of time separated us from our past
+lives and habitations.
+
+"There is no reason why we should carry our racial and political
+hatreds into Caprona," I insisted.  "The Germans among us might
+kill all the English, or the English might kill the last German,
+without affecting in the slightest degree either the outcome of
+even the smallest skirmish upon the western front or the opinion
+of a single individual in any belligerent or neutral country.
+I therefore put the issue squarely to you all; shall we bury our
+animosities and work together with and for one another while we
+remain upon Caprona, or must we continue thus divided and but half
+armed, possibly until death has claimed the last of us?  And let
+me tell you, if you have not already realized it, the chances are
+a thousand to one that not one of us ever will see the outside
+world again.  We are safe now in the matter of food and water; we
+could provision the U-33 for a long cruise; but we are practically
+out of fuel, and without fuel we cannot hope to reach the ocean,
+as only a submarine can pass through the barrier cliffs.  What is
+your answer?" I turned toward von Schoenvorts.
+
+He eyed me in that disagreeable way of his and demanded to know,
+in case they accepted my suggestion, what their status would be
+in event of our finding a way to escape with the U-33.  I replied
+that I felt that if we had all worked loyally together we should
+leave Caprona upon a common footing, and to that end I suggested
+that should the remote possibility of our escape in the submarine
+develop into reality, we should then immediately make for the
+nearest neutral port and give ourselves into the hands of the
+authorities, when we should all probably be interned for the
+duration of the war.  To my surprise he agreed that this was fair
+and told me that they would accept my conditions and that I could
+depend upon their loyalty to the common cause.
+
+I thanked him and then addressed each one of his men individually,
+and each gave me his word that he would abide by all that I
+had outlined.  It was further understood that we were to act as
+a military organization under military rules and discipline--I
+as commander, with Bradley as my first lieutenant and Olson as
+my second, in command of the Englishmen; while von Schoenvorts
+was to act as an additional second lieutenant and have charge of
+his own men.  The four of us were to constitute a military court
+under which men might be tried and sentenced to punishment for
+infraction of military rules and discipline, even to the passing
+of the death-sentence.
+
+I then had arms and ammunition issued to the Germans, and leaving
+Bradley and five men to guard the U-33, the balance of us went ashore.
+The first thing we did was to taste the water of the little stream--
+which, to our delight, we found sweet, pure and cold.  This stream
+was entirely free from dangerous reptiles, because, as I later
+discovered, they became immediately dormant when subjected to a much
+lower temperature than 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  They dislike cold water
+and keep as far away from it as possible.  There were countless
+brook-trout here, and deep holes that invited us to bathe, and along
+the bank of the stream were trees bearing a close resemblance to
+ash and beech and oak, their characteristics evidently induced by
+the lower temperature of the air above the cold water and by the
+fact that their roots were watered by the water from the stream
+rather than from the warm springs which we afterward found in such
+abundance elsewhere.
+
+Our first concern was to fill the water tanks of the U-33 with
+fresh water, and that having been accomplished, we set out to
+hunt for game and explore inland for a short distance.  Olson, von
+Schoenvorts, two Englishmen and two Germans accompanied me,
+leaving ten to guard the ship and the girl.  I had intended
+leaving Nobs behind, but he got away and joined me and was so
+happy over it that I hadn't the heart to send him back.  We followed
+the stream upward through a beautiful country for about five miles,
+and then came upon its source in a little boulder-strewn clearing.
+From among the rocks bubbled fully twenty ice-cold springs.
+North of the clearing rose sandstone cliffs to a height of some
+fifty to seventy-five feet, with tall trees growing at their base
+and almost concealing them from our view.  To the west the country
+was flat and sparsely wooded, and here it was that we saw our first
+game--a large red deer.  It was grazing away from us and had not
+seen us when one of my men called my attention to it.  Motioning for
+silence and having the rest of the party lie down, I crept toward
+the quarry, accompanied only by Whitely.  We got within a hundred
+yards of the deer when he suddenly raised his antlered head and
+pricked up his great ears.  We both fired at once and had the
+satisfaction of seeing the buck drop; then we ran forward to finish
+him with our knives.  The deer lay in a small open space close to
+a clump of acacias, and we had advanced to within several yards
+of our kill when we both halted suddenly and simultaneously.
+Whitely looked at me, and I looked at Whitely, and then we both
+looked back in the direction of the deer.
+"Blime!' he said.  "Wot is hit, sir?"
+
+"It looks to me, Whitely, like an error," I said; "some assistant
+god who had been creating elephants must have been temporarily
+transferred to the lizard-department."
+
+"Hi wouldn't s'y that, sir," said Whitely; "it sounds blasphemous."
+
+"It is more blasphemous than that thing which is swiping our
+meat," I replied, for whatever the thing was, it had leaped upon
+our deer and was devouring it in great mouthfuls which it
+swallowed without mastication.  The creature appeared to be a
+great lizard at least ten feet high, with a huge, powerful tail
+as long as its torso, mighty hind legs and short forelegs.  When it
+had advanced from the wood, it hopped much after the fashion of a
+kangaroo, using its hind feet and tail to propel it, and when it
+stood erect, it sat upon its tail.  Its head was long and thick,
+with a blunt muzzle, and the opening of the jaws ran back to a
+point behind the eyes, and the jaws were armed with long sharp teeth.
+The scaly body was covered with black and yellow spots about a foot
+in diameter and irregular in contour.  These spots were outlined in
+red with edgings about an inch wide.  The underside of the chest,
+body and tail were a greenish white.
+
+"Wot s'y we pot the bloomin' bird, sir?" suggested Whitely.
+
+I told him to wait until I gave the word; then we would fire
+simultaneously, he at the heart and I at the spine.
+
+"Hat the 'eart, sir--yes, sir," he replied, and raised his piece
+to his shoulder.
+
+Our shots rang out together.  The thing raised its head and
+looked about until its eyes rested upon us; then it gave vent to
+a most appalling hiss that rose to the crescendo of a terrific
+shriek and came for us.
+
+"Beat it, Whitely!" I cried as I turned to run.
+
+We were about a quarter of a mile from the rest of our party, and
+in full sight of them as they lay in the tall grass watching us.
+That they saw all that had happened was evidenced by the fact that
+they now rose and ran toward us, and at their head leaped Nobs.
+The creature in our rear was gaining on us rapidly when Nobs flew
+past me like a meteor and rushed straight for the frightful reptile.
+I tried to recall him, but he would pay no attention to me, and as
+I couldn't see him sacrificed, I, too, stopped and faced the monster.
+The creature appeared to be more impressed with Nobs than by us and
+our firearms, for it stopped as the Airedale dashed at it growling,
+and struck at him viciously with its powerful jaws.
+
+Nobs, though, was lightning by comparison with the slow thinking
+beast and dodged his opponent's thrust with ease.  Then he raced
+to the rear of the tremendous thing and seized it by the tail.
+There Nobs made the error of his life.  Within that mottled organ
+were the muscles of a Titan, the force of a dozen mighty
+catapults, and the owner of the tail was fully aware of the
+possibilities which it contained.  With a single flip of the tip
+it sent poor Nobs sailing through the air a hundred feet above
+the ground, straight back into the clump of acacias from which
+the beast had leaped upon our kill--and then the grotesque thing
+sank lifeless to the ground.
+
+Olson and von Schoenvorts came up a minute later with their men;
+then we all cautiously approached the still form upon the ground.
+The creature was quite dead, and an examination resulted in
+disclosing the fact that Whitely's bullet had pierced its heart,
+and mine had severed the spinal cord.
+
+"But why didn't it die instantly?" I exclaimed.
+
+"Because," said von Schoenvorts in his disagreeable way, "the
+beast is so large, and its nervous organization of so low a
+caliber, that it took all this time for the intelligence of death
+to reach and be impressed upon the minute brain.  The thing was
+dead when your bullets struck it; but it did not know it for
+several seconds--possibly a minute.  If I am not mistaken, it is
+an Allosaurus of the Upper Jurassic, remains of which have been
+found in Central Wyoming, in the suburbs of New York."
+
+An Irishman by the name of Brady grinned.  I afterward learned
+that he had served three years on the traffic-squad of the
+Chicago police force.
+
+I had been calling Nobs in the meantime and was about to set out
+in search of him, fearing, to tell the truth, to do so lest I
+find him mangled and dead among the trees of the acacia grove,
+when he suddenly emerged from among the boles, his ears flattened,
+his tail between his legs and his body screwed into a suppliant S.
+He was unharmed except for minor bruises; but he was the most
+chastened dog I have ever seen.
+
+We gathered up what was left of the red deer after skinning and
+cleaning it, and set out upon our return journey toward the U-boat.
+On the way Olson, von Schoenvorts and I discussed the needs of our
+immediate future, and we were unanimous in placing foremost the
+necessity of a permanent camp on shore.  The interior of a U-boat
+is about as impossible and uncomfortable an abiding-place as one
+can well imagine, and in this warm climate, and in warm water, it
+was almost unendurable.  So we decided to construct a palisaded camp.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 6
+
+
+
+
+As we strolled slowly back toward the boat, planning and discussing
+this, we were suddenly startled by a loud and unmistakable detonation.
+
+"A shell from the U-33!" exclaimed von Schoenvorts.
+
+"What can be after signifyin'?" queried Olson.
+
+"They are in trouble," I answered for all, "and it's up to us
+to get back to them.  Drop that carcass," I directed the men
+carrying the meat, "and follow me!"  I set off at a rapid run
+in the direction of the harbor.
+
+We ran for the better part of a mile without hearing anything
+more from the direction of the harbor, and then I reduced the
+speed to a walk, for the exercise was telling on us who had been
+cooped up for so long in the confined interior of the U-33.
+Puffing and panting, we plodded on until within about a mile of
+the harbor we came upon a sight that brought us all up standing.
+We had been passing through a little heavier timber than was
+usual to this part of the country, when we suddenly emerged into
+an open space in the center of which was such a band as might
+have caused the most courageous to pause.  It consisted of upward
+of five hundred individuals representing several species closely
+allied to man.  There were anthropoid apes and gorillas--these
+I had no difficulty in recognizing; but there were other forms
+which I had never before seen, and I was hard put to it to say
+whether they were ape or man.  Some of them resembled the corpse
+we had found upon the narrow beach against Caprona's sea-wall,
+while others were of a still lower type, more nearly resembling
+the apes, and yet others were uncannily manlike, standing there
+erect, being less hairy and possessing better shaped heads.
+
+There was one among the lot, evidently the leader of them, who
+bore a close resemblance to the so-called Neanderthal man of La
+Chapelle-aux-Saints.  There was the same short, stocky trunk upon
+which rested an enormous head habitually bent forward into the
+same curvature as the back, the arms shorter than the legs, and
+the lower leg considerably shorter than that of modern man, the
+knees bent forward and never straightened.  This creature and one
+or two others who appeared to be of a lower order than he, yet
+higher than that of the apes, carried heavy clubs; the others were
+armed only with giant muscles and fighting fangs--nature's weapons.
+All were males, and all were entirely naked; nor was there upon
+even the highest among them a sign of ornamentation.
+
+At sight of us they turned with bared fangs and low growls to
+confront us.  I did not wish to fire among them unless it became
+absolutely necessary, and so I started to lead my party around
+them; but the instant that the Neanderthal man guessed my
+intention, he evidently attributed it to cowardice upon our part,
+and with a wild cry he leaped toward us, waving his cudgel above
+his head.  The others followed him, and in a minute we should have
+been overwhelmed.  I gave the order to fire, and at the first
+volley six of them went down, including the Neanderthal man.
+The others hesitated a moment and then broke for the trees, some
+running nimbly among the branches, while others lost themselves
+to us between the boles.  Both von Schoenvorts and I noticed that
+at least two of the higher, manlike types took to the trees quite
+as nimbly as the apes, while others that more nearly approached
+man in carriage and appearance sought safety upon the ground with
+the gorillas.
+
+An examination disclosed that five of our erstwhile opponents
+were dead and the sixth, the Neanderthal man, was but slightly
+wounded, a bullet having glanced from his thick skull, stunning him.
+We decided to take him with us to camp, and by means of belts we
+managed to secure his hands behind his back and place a leash
+around his neck before he regained consciousness.  We then
+retraced our steps for our meat being convinced by our own
+experience that those aboard the U-33 had been able to frighten
+off this party with a single shell--but when we came to where we
+had left the deer it had disappeared.
+
+On the return journey Whitely and I preceded the rest of the
+party by about a hundred yards in the hope of getting another
+shot at something edible, for we were all greatly disgusted
+and disappointed by the loss of our venison.  Whitely and I
+advanced very cautiously, and not having the whole party with
+us, we fared better than on the journey out, bagging two large
+antelope not a half-mile from the harbor; so with our game and
+our prisoner we made a cheerful return to the boat, where we
+found that all were safe.  On the shore a little north of where
+we lay there were the corpses of twenty of the wild creatures who
+had attacked Bradley and his party in our absence, and the rest
+of whom we had met and scattered a few minutes later.
+
+We felt that we had taught these wild ape-men a lesson and that
+because of it we would be safer in the future--at least safer
+from them; but we decided not to abate our carefulness one whit;
+feeling that this new world was filled with terrors still unknown
+to us; nor were we wrong.
+
+The following morning we commenced work upon our camp, Bradley,
+Olson, von Schoenvorts, Miss La Rue, and I having sat up half the
+night discussing the matter and drawing plans.  We set the men at
+work felling trees, selecting for the purpose jarrah, a hard,
+weather-resisting timber which grew in profusion near by.  Half the
+men labored while the other half stood guard, alternating each hour
+with an hour off at noon.  Olson directed this work.  Bradley, von
+Schoenvorts and I, with Miss La Rue's help, staked out the various
+buildings and the outer wall.  When the day was done, we had quite
+an array of logs nicely notched and ready for our building operations
+on the morrow, and we were all tired, for after the buildings had
+been staked out we all fell in and helped with the logging--all but
+von Schoenvorts.  He, being a Prussian and a gentleman, couldn't
+stoop to such menial labor in the presence of his men, and I didn't
+see fit to ask it of him, as the work was purely voluntary upon
+our part.  He spent the afternoon shaping a swagger-stick from the
+branch of jarrah and talking with Miss La Rue, who had sufficiently
+unbent toward him to notice his existence.
+
+We saw nothing of the wild men of the previous day, and only once
+were we menaced by any of the strange denizens of Caprona, when
+some frightful nightmare of the sky swooped down upon us, only to
+be driven off by a fusillade of bullets.  The thing appeared to
+be some variety of pterodactyl, and what with its enormous size
+and ferocious aspect was most awe-inspiring.  There was another
+incident, too, which to me at least was far more unpleasant than
+the sudden onslaught of the prehistoric reptile.  Two of the men,
+both Germans, were stripping a felled tree of its branches.
+Von Schoenvorts had completed his swagger-stick, and he and I
+were passing close to where the two worked.
+
+One of them threw to his rear a small branch that he had just
+chopped off, and as misfortune would have it, it struck von
+Schoenvorts across the face.  It couldn't have hurt him, for it
+didn't leave a mark; but he flew into a terrific rage, shouting:
+"Attention!" in a loud voice.  The sailor immediately
+straightened up, faced his officer, clicked his heels together
+and saluted.  "Pig!" roared the Baron, and struck the fellow
+across the face, breaking his nose.  I grabbed von Schoenvorts'
+arm and jerked him away before he could strike again, if such had
+been his intention, and then he raised his little stick to strike
+me; but before it descended the muzzle of my pistol was against
+his belly and he must have seen in my eyes that nothing would
+suit me better than an excuse to pull the trigger.  Like all his
+kind and all other bullies, von Schoenvorts was a coward at
+heart, and so he dropped his hand to his side and started to turn
+away; but I pulled him back, and there before his men I told him
+that such a thing must never again occur--that no man was to be
+struck or otherwise punished other than in due process of the
+laws that we had made and the court that we had established.
+All the time the sailor stood rigidly at attention, nor could I
+tell from his expression whether he most resented the blow his
+officer had struck him or my interference in the gospel of the
+Kaiser-breed.  Nor did he move until I said to him:  "Plesser, you
+may return to your quarters and dress your wound."  Then he
+saluted and marched stiffly off toward the U-33.
+
+Just before dusk we moved out into the bay a hundred yards from
+shore and dropped anchor, for I felt that we should be safer
+there than elsewhere.  I also detailed men to stand watch during
+the night and appointed Olson officer of the watch for the entire
+night, telling him to bring his blankets on deck and get what
+rest he could.  At dinner we tasted our first roast Caprona
+antelope, and we had a mess of greens that the cook had found
+growing along the stream.  All during the meal von Schoenvorts
+was silent and surly.
+
+After dinner we all went on deck and watched the unfamiliar
+scenes of a Capronian night--that is, all but von Schoenvorts.
+There was less to see than to hear.  From the great inland lake
+behind us came the hissing and the screaming of countless saurians.
+Above us we heard the flap of giant wings, while from the shore
+rose the multitudinous voices of a tropical jungle--of a warm,
+damp atmosphere such as must have enveloped the entire earth
+during the Palezoic and Mesozoic eras.  But here were intermingled
+the voices of later eras--the scream of the panther, the roar of
+the lion, the baying of wolves and a thunderous growling which
+we could attribute to nothing earthly but which one day we were
+to connect with the most fearsome of ancient creatures.
+
+One by one the others went to their rooms, until the girl and
+I were left alone together, for I had permitted the watch to
+go below for a few minutes, knowing that I would be on deck.
+Miss La Rue was very quiet, though she replied graciously
+enough to whatever I had to say that required reply.  I asked
+her if she did not feel well.
+
+"Yes," she said, "but I am depressed by the awfulness of it all.
+I feel of so little consequence--so small and helpless in the
+face of all these myriad manifestations of life stripped to the
+bone of its savagery and brutality.  I realize as never before
+how cheap and valueless a thing is life.  Life seems a joke, a
+cruel, grim joke.  You are a laughable incident or a terrifying
+one as you happen to be less powerful or more powerful than some
+other form of life which crosses your path; but as a rule you are
+of no moment whatsoever to anything but yourself.  You are a comic
+little figure, hopping from the cradle to the grave.  Yes, that
+is our trouble--we take ourselves too seriously; but Caprona
+should be a sure cure for that."  She paused and laughed.
+
+"You have evolved a beautiful philosophy," I said.  "It fills
+such a longing in the human breast.  It is full, it is
+satisfying, it is ennobling.  What wonderous strides toward
+perfection the human race might have made if the first man had
+evolved it and it had persisted until now as the creed of humanity."
+
+"I don't like irony," she said; "it indicates a small soul."
+
+"What other sort of soul, then, would you expect from `a comic
+little figure hopping from the cradle to the grave'?" I inquired.
+"And what difference does it make, anyway, what you like and what
+you don't like?  You are here for but an instant, and you mustn't
+take yourself too seriously."
+
+She looked up at me with a smile.  "I imagine that I am frightened and
+blue," she said, "and I know that I am very, very homesick and lonely."
+There was almost a sob in her voice as she concluded.  It was the
+first time that she had spoken thus to me.  Involuntarily, I laid
+my hand upon hers where it rested on the rail.
+
+"I know how difficult your position is," I said; "but don't feel
+that you are alone.  There is--is one here who--who would do
+anything in the world for you," I ended lamely.  She did not
+withdraw her hand, and she looked up into my face with tears on her
+cheeks and I read in her eyes the thanks her lips could not voice.
+Then she looked away across the weird moonlit landscape and sighed.
+Evidently her new-found philosophy had tumbled about her ears, for
+she was seemingly taking herself seriously.  I wanted to take her
+in my arms and tell her how I loved her, and had taken her hand
+from the rail and started to draw her toward me when Olson came
+blundering up on deck with his bedding.
+
+The following morning we started building operations in earnest,
+and things progressed finely.  The Neanderthal man was something
+of a care, for we had to keep him in irons all the time, and he
+was mighty savage when approached; but after a time he became
+more docile, and then we tried to discover if he had a language.
+Lys spent a great deal of time talking to him and trying to draw
+him out; but for a long while she was unsuccessful.  It took us
+three weeks to build all the houses, which we constructed close
+by a cold spring some two miles from the harbor.
+
+We changed our plans a trifle when it came to building the
+palisade, for we found a rotted cliff near by where we could get
+all the flat building-stone we needed, and so we constructed a
+stone wall entirely around the buildings.  It was in the form of
+a square, with bastions and towers at each corner which would
+permit an enfilading fire along any side of the fort, and was
+about one hundred and thirty-five feet square on the outside,
+with walls three feet thick at the bottom and about a foot and
+a half wide at the top, and fifteen feet high.  It took a long
+time to build that wall, and we all turned in and helped except
+von Schoenvorts, who, by the way, had not spoken to me except
+in the line of official business since our encounter--a condition
+of armed neutrality which suited me to a T.  We have just finished
+it, the last touches being put on today.  I quit about a week ago
+and commenced working on this chronicle for our strange adventures,
+which will account for any minor errors in chronology which may
+have crept in; there was so much material that I may have made
+some mistakes, but I think they are but minor and few.
+
+I see in reading over the last few pages that I neglected to
+state that Lys finally discovered that the Neanderthal man
+possessed a language.  She had learned to speak it, and so have
+I, to some extent.  It was he--his name he says is Am, or Ahm--
+who told us that this country is called Caspak.  When we asked
+him how far it extended, he waved both arms about his head in an
+all-including gesture which took in, apparently, the entire universe.
+He is more tractable now, and we are going to release him, for he
+has assured us that he will not permit his fellows to harm us.
+He calls us Galus and says that in a short time he will be a Galu.
+It is not quite clear to us what he means.  He says that there are
+many Galus north of us, and that as soon as he becomes one he will
+go and live with them.
+
+Ahm went out to hunt with us yesterday and was much impressed by
+the ease with which our rifles brought down antelopes and deer.
+We have been living upon the fat of the land, Ahm, having shown
+us the edible fruits, tubers and herbs, and twice a week we go
+out after fresh meat.  A certain proportion of this we dry and
+store away, for we do not know what may come.  Our drying process
+is really smoking.  We have also dried a large quantity of two
+varieties of cereal which grow wild a few miles south of us.
+One of these is a giant Indian maize--a lofty perennial often fifty
+and sixty feet in height, with ears the size off a man's body and
+kernels as large as your fist.  We have had to construct a second
+store house for the great quantity of this that we have gathered.
+
+September 3, 1916:  Three months ago today the torpedo from the
+U-33 started me from the peaceful deck of the American liner upon
+the strange voyage which has ended here in Caspak.  We have settled
+down to an acceptance of our fate, for all are convinced that none
+of us will ever see the outer world again.  Ahm's repeated assertions
+that there are human beings like ourselves in Caspak have roused
+the men to a keen desire for exploration.  I sent out one party
+last week under Bradley.  Ahm, who is now free to go and come as
+he wishes, accompanied them.  They marched about twenty-five miles
+due west, encountering many terrible beasts and reptiles and not
+a few manlike creatures whom Ahm sent away.  Here is Bradley's
+report of the expedition:
+
+Marched fifteen miles the first day, camping on the bank of a
+large stream which runs southward.  Game was plentiful and we saw
+several varieties which we had not before encountered in Caspak.
+Just before making camp we were charged by an enormous woolly
+rhinoceros, which Plesser dropped with a perfect shot.  We had
+rhinoceros-steaks for supper.  Ahm called the thing "Atis."  It was
+almost a continuous battle from the time we left the fort until we
+arrived at camp.  The mind of man can scarce conceive the plethora
+of carnivorous life in this lost world; and their prey, of course,
+is even more abundant.
+
+The second day we marched about ten miles to the foot of the cliffs.
+Passed through dense forests close to the base of the cliffs.
+Saw manlike creatures and a low order of ape in one band, and
+some of the men swore that there was a white man among them.
+They were inclined to attack us at first; but a volley from our
+rifles caused them to change their minds.  We scaled the cliffs
+as far as we could; but near the top they are absolutely
+perpendicular without any sufficient cleft or protuberance to
+give hand or foot-hold.  All were disappointed, for we hungered
+for a view of the ocean and the outside world.  We even had a
+hope that we might see and attract the attention of a passing ship.
+Our exploration has determined one thing which will probably
+be of little value to us and never heard of beyond Caprona's
+walls--this crater was once entirely filled with water.
+Indisputable evidence of this is on the face of the cliffs.
+
+Our return journey occupied two days and was as filled with
+adventure as usual.  We are all becoming accustomed to adventure.
+It is beginning to pall on us.  We suffered no casualties and
+there was no illness.
+
+
+I had to smile as I read Bradley's report.  In those four days
+he had doubtless passed through more adventures than an African
+big-game hunter experiences in a lifetime, and yet he covered it
+all in a few lines.  Yes, we are becoming accustomed to adventure.
+Not a day passes that one or more of us does not face death at
+least once.  Ahm taught us a few things that have proved
+profitable and saved us much ammunition, which it is useless
+to expend except for food or in the last recourse of self-
+preservation.  Now when we are attacked by large flying reptiles
+we run beneath spreading trees; when land carnivora threaten us,
+we climb into trees, and we have learned not to fire at any of
+the dinosaurs unless we can keep out of their reach for at least
+two minutes after hitting them in the brain or spine, or five
+minutes after puncturing their hearts--it takes them so long to die.
+To hit them elsewhere is worse than useless, for they do not seem
+to notice it, and we had discovered that such shots do not kill
+or even disable them.
+
+September 7, 1916:  Much has happened since I last wrote.  Bradley is
+away again on another exploration expedition to the cliffs.  He expects
+to be gone several weeks and to follow along their base in search of
+a point where they may be scaled.  He took Sinclair, Brady, James,
+and Tippet with him.  Ahm has disappeared.  He has been gone about
+three days; but the most startling thing I have on record is that
+von Schoenvorts and Olson while out hunting the other day discovered
+oil about fifteen miles north of us beyond the sandstone cliffs.
+Olson says there is a geyser of oil there, and von Schoenvorts is
+making preparations to refine it.  If he succeeds, we shall have
+the means for leaving Caspak and returning to our own world.
+I can scarce believe the truth of it.  We are all elated to the
+seventh heaven of bliss.  Pray God we shall not be disappointed.
+
+I have tried on several occasions to broach the subject of my
+love to Lys; but she will not listen.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 7
+
+
+
+
+October 8, 1916:  This is the last entry I shall make upon
+my manuscript.  When this is done, I shall be through.  Though I
+may pray that it reaches the haunts of civilized man, my better
+judgment tells me that it will never be perused by other eyes
+than mine, and that even though it should, it would be too late
+to avail me.  I am alone upon the summit of the great cliff
+overlooking the broad Pacific.  A chill south wind bites at my
+marrow, while far below me I can see the tropic foliage of Caspak
+on the one hand and huge icebergs from the near Antarctic upon
+the other.  Presently I shall stuff my folded manuscript into the
+thermos bottle I have carried with me for the purpose since I
+left the fort--Fort Dinosaur we named it--and hurl it far outward
+over the cliff-top into the Pacific.  What current washes the
+shore of Caprona I know not; whither my bottle will be borne I
+cannot even guess; but I have done all that mortal man may do to
+notify the world of my whereabouts and the dangers that threaten
+those of us who remain alive in Caspak--if there be any other
+than myself.
+
+About the 8th of September I accompanied Olson and von
+Schoenvorts to the oil-geyser.  Lys came with us, and we took a
+number of things which von Schoenvorts wanted for the purpose
+of erecting a crude refinery.  We went up the coast some ten or
+twelve miles in the U-33, tying up to shore near the mouth of a
+small stream which emptied great volumes of crude oil into the
+sea--I find it difficult to call this great lake by any other name.
+Then we disembarked and went inland about five miles, where we came
+upon a small lake entirely filled with oil, from the center of
+which a geyser of oil spouted.
+
+On the edge of the lake we helped von Schoenvorts build his
+primitive refinery.  We worked with him for two days until he got
+things fairly well started, and then we returned to Fort Dinosaur,
+as I feared that Bradley might return and be worried by our absence.
+The U-33 merely landed those of us that were to return to the fort
+and then retraced its course toward the oil-well.  Olson, Whitely,
+Wilson, Miss La Rue, and myself disembarked, while von Schoenvorts
+and his German crew returned to refine the oil.  The next day
+Plesser and two other Germans came down overland for ammunition.
+Plesser said they had been attacked by wild men and had exhausted
+a great deal of ammunition.  He also asked permission to get some
+dried meat and maize, saying that they were so busy with the work
+of refining that they had no time to hunt.  I let him have
+everything he asked for, and never once did a suspicion of their
+intentions enter my mind.  They returned to the oil-well the same
+day, while we continued with the multitudinous duties of camp life.
+
+For three days nothing of moment occurred.  Bradley did not
+return; nor did we have any word from von Schoenvorts.  In the
+evening Lys and I went up into one of the bastion towers and
+listened to the grim and terrible nightlife of the frightful ages
+of the past.  Once a saber-tooth screamed almost beneath us, and
+the girl shrank close against me.  As I felt her body against
+mine, all the pent love of these three long months shattered the
+bonds of timidity and conviction, and I swept her up into my arms
+and covered her face and lips with kisses.  She did not struggle
+to free herself; but instead her dear arms crept up about my neck
+and drew my own face even closer to hers.
+
+"You love me, Lys?" I cried.
+
+I felt her head nod an affirmative against my breast.  "Tell me,
+Lys," I begged, "tell me in words how much you love me."
+
+Low and sweet and tender came the answer:  "I love you beyond
+all conception."
+
+My heart filled with rapture then, and it fills now as it has
+each of the countless times I have recalled those dear words, as
+it shall fill always until death has claimed me.  I may never see
+her again; she may not know how I love her--she may question, she
+may doubt; but always true and steady, and warm with the fires of
+love my heart beats for the girl who said that night:  "I love you
+beyond all conception."
+
+For a long time we sat there upon the little bench constructed for
+the sentry that we had not as yet thought it necessary to post in
+more than one of the four towers.  We learned to know one another
+better in those two brief hours than we had in all the months that
+had intervened since we had been thrown together.  She told me that
+she had loved me from the first, and that she never had loved von
+Schoenvorts, their engagement having been arranged by her aunt for
+social reasons.
+
+That was the happiest evening of my life; nor ever do I expect
+to experience its like; but at last, as is the way of happiness,
+it terminated.  We descended to the compound, and I walked with Lys
+to the door of her quarters.  There again she kissed me and bade
+me good night, and then she went in and closed the door.
+
+I went to my own room, and there I sat by the light of one of the
+crude candles we had made from the tallow of the beasts we had
+killed, and lived over the events of the evening.  At last I
+turned in and fell asleep, dreaming happy dreams and planning for
+the future, for even in savage Caspak I was bound to make my girl
+safe and happy.  It was daylight when I awoke.  Wilson, who was
+acting as cook, was up and astir at his duties in the cook-house.
+The others slept; but I arose and followed by Nobs went down to
+the stream for a plunge.  As was our custom, I went armed with
+both rifle and revolver; but I stripped and had my swim without
+further disturbance than the approach of a large hyena, a number
+of which occupied caves in the sand-stone cliffs north of the camp.
+These brutes are enormous and exceedingly ferocious.  I imagine
+they correspond with the cave-hyena of prehistoric times.
+This fellow charged Nobs, whose Capronian experiences had taught
+him that discretion is the better part of valor--with the result
+that he dived head foremost into the stream beside me after giving
+vent to a series of ferocious growls which had no more effect upon
+Hyaena spelaeus than might a sweet smile upon an enraged tusker.
+Afterward I shot the beast, and Nobs had a feast while I dressed,
+for he had become quite a raw-meat eater during our numerous hunting
+expeditions, upon which we always gave him a portion of the kill.
+
+Whitely and Olson were up and dressed when we returned, and we
+all sat down to a good breakfast.  I could not but wonder at Lys'
+absence from the table, for she had always been one of the
+earliest risers in camp; so about nine o'clock, becoming
+apprehensive lest she might be indisposed, I went to the door of
+her room and knocked.  I received no response, though I finally
+pounded with all my strength; then I turned the knob and entered,
+only to find that she was not there.  Her bed had been occupied,
+and her clothing lay where she had placed it the previous night
+upon retiring; but Lys was gone.  To say that I was distracted
+with terror would be to put it mildly.  Though I knew she could
+not be in camp, I searched every square inch of the compound and
+all the buildings, yet without avail.
+
+It was Whitely who discovered the first clue--a huge human-like
+footprint in the soft earth beside the spring, and indications of
+a struggle in the mud.
+
+Then I found a tiny handkerchief close to the outer wall.
+Lys  had been stolen!  It was all too plain.  Some hideous member
+of the ape-man tribe had entered the fort and carried her off.
+While I stood stunned and horrified at the frightful evidence
+before me, there came from the direction of the great lake an
+increasing sound that rose to the volume of a shriek.  We all
+looked up as the noise approached apparently just above us, and
+a moment later there followed a terrific explosion which hurled
+us to the ground.  When we clambered to our feet, we saw a large
+section of the west wall torn and shattered.  It was Olson who
+first recovered from his daze sufficiently to guess the
+explanation of the phenomenon.
+
+"A shell!" he cried.  "And there ain't no shells in Caspak
+besides what's on the U-33.  The dirty boches are shellin'
+the fort.  Come on!"  And he grasped his rifle and started on
+a run toward the lake.  It was over two miles, but we did not pause
+until the harbor was in view, and still we could not see the lake
+because of the sandstone cliffs which intervened.  We ran as fast
+as we could around the lower end of the harbor, scrambled up the
+cliffs and at last stood upon their summit in full view of the lake.
+Far away down the coast, toward the river through which we had come
+to reach the lake, we saw upon the surface the outline of the U-33,
+black smoke vomiting from her funnel.
+
+Von Schoenvorts had succeeded in refining the oil!  The cur had
+broken his every pledge and was leaving us there to our fates.
+He had even shelled the fort as a parting compliment; nor could
+anything have been more truly Prussian than this leave-taking of
+the Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts.
+
+Olson, Whitely, Wilson, and I stood for a moment looking at
+one another.  It seemed incredible that man could be so
+perfidious--that we had really seen with our own eyes the thing
+that we had seen; but when we returned to the fort, the shattered
+wall gave us ample evidence that there was no mistake.
+
+Then we began to speculate as to whether it had been an ape-man
+or a Prussian that had abducted Lys.  From what we knew of von
+Schoenvorts, we would not have been surprised at anything from
+him; but the footprints by the spring seemed indisputable
+evidence that one of Caprona's undeveloped men had borne off
+the girl I loved.
+
+As soon as I had assured myself that such was the case, I made my
+preparations to follow and rescue her.  Olson, Whitely, and
+Wilson each wished to accompany me; but I told them that they
+were needed here, since with Bradley's party still absent and the
+Germans gone it was necessary that we conserve our force as far
+as might be possible.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 8
+
+
+
+
+It was a sad leave-taking as in silence I shook hands with each
+of the three remaining men.  Even poor Nobs appeared dejected as
+we quit the compound and set out upon the well-marked spoor of
+the abductor.  Not once did I turn my eyes backward toward
+Fort Dinosaur.  I have not looked upon it since--nor in all
+likelihood shall I ever look upon it again.  The trail led
+northwest until it reached the western end of the sandstone
+cliffs to the north of the fort; there it ran into a well-defined
+path which wound northward into a country we had not as yet explored.
+It was a beautiful, gently rolling country, broken by occasional
+outcroppings of sandstone and by patches of dense forest relieved
+by open, park-like stretches and broad meadows whereon grazed
+countless herbivorous animals--red deer, aurochs, and infinite
+variety of antelope and at least three distinct species of horse,
+the latter ranging in size from a creature about as large as
+Nobs to a magnificent animal fourteen to sixteen hands high.
+These creatures fed together in perfect amity; nor did they show
+any great indications of terror when Nobs and I approached.
+They moved out of our way and kept their eyes upon us until we
+had passed; then they resumed their feeding.
+
+The path led straight across the clearing into another forest,
+lying upon the verge of which I saw a bit of white.  It appeared
+to stand out in marked contrast and incongruity to all its
+surroundings, and when I stopped to examine it, I found that
+it was a small strip of muslin--part of the hem of a garment.
+At once I was all excitement, for I knew that it was a sign left
+by Lys that she had been carried this way; it was a tiny bit torn
+from the hem of the undergarment that she wore in lieu of the
+night-robes she had lost with the sinking of the liner.
+Crushing the bit of fabric to my lips, I pressed on even more
+rapidly than before, because I now knew that I was upon the right
+trail and that up to this, point at least, Lys still had lived.
+
+I made over twenty miles that day, for I was now hardened to
+fatigue and accustomed to long hikes, having spent considerable
+time hunting and exploring in the immediate vicinity of camp.
+A dozen times that day was my life threatened by fearsome creatures
+of the earth or sky, though I could not but note that the farther
+north I traveled, the fewer were the great dinosaurs, though they
+still persisted in lesser numbers.  On the other hand the
+quantity of ruminants and the variety and frequency of
+carnivorous animals increased.  Each square mile of Caspak
+harbored its terrors.
+
+At intervals along the way I found bits of muslin, and often they
+reassured me when otherwise I should have been doubtful of the trail
+to take where two crossed or where there were forks, as occurred
+at several points.  And so, as night was drawing on, I came to the
+southern end of a line of cliffs loftier than any I had seen before,
+and as I approached them, there was wafted to my nostrils the pungent
+aroma of woodsmoke.  What could it mean? There could, to my mind,
+be but a single solution: man abided close by, a higher order of
+man than we had as yet seen, other than Ahm, the Neanderthal man.
+I wondered again as I had so many times that day if it had not been
+Ahm who stole Lys.
+
+Cautiously I approached the flank of the cliffs, where they
+terminated in an abrupt escarpment as though some all powerful
+hand had broken off a great section of rock and set it upon the
+surface of the earth.  It was now quite dark, and as I crept
+around the edge of the cliff, I saw at a little distance a great
+fire around which were many figures--apparently human figures.
+Cautioning Nobs to silence, and he had learned many lessons in
+the value of obedience since we had entered Caspak, I slunk
+forward, taking advantage of whatever cover I could find, until
+from behind a bush I could distinctly see the creatures assembled
+by the fire.  They were human and yet not human.  I should say
+that they were a little higher in the scale of evolution than
+Ahm, possibly occupying a place of evolution between that of the
+Neanderthal man and what is known as the Grimaldi race.  Their features
+were distinctly negroid, though their skins were white.  A considerable
+portion of both torso and limbs were covered with short hair, and
+their physical proportions were in many aspects apelike, though not
+so much so as were Ahm's.  They carried themselves in a more erect
+position, although their arms were considerably longer than those
+of the Neanderthal man.  As I watched them, I saw that they possessed
+a language, that they had knowledge of fire and that they carried
+besides the wooden club of Ahm, a thing which resembled a crude
+stone hatchet.  Evidently they were very low in the scale of
+humanity, but they were a step upward from those I had previously
+seen in Caspak.
+
+But what interested me most was the slender figure of a dainty
+girl, clad only in a thin bit of muslin which scarce covered her
+knees--a bit of muslin torn and ragged about the lower hem.  It was
+Lys, and she was alive and so far as I could see, unharmed.  A huge
+brute with thick lips and prognathous jaw stood at her shoulder.
+He was talking loudly and gesticulating wildly.  I was close enough
+to hear his words, which were similar to the language of Ahm, though
+much fuller, for there were many words I could not understand.
+However I caught the gist of what he was saying--which in effect
+was that he had found and captured this Galu, that she was his
+and that he defied anyone to question his right of possession.
+It appeared to me, as I afterward learned was the fact, that I was
+witnessing the most primitive of marriage ceremonies.  The assembled
+members of the tribe looked on and listened in a sort of dull and
+perfunctory apathy, for the speaker was by far the mightiest of the clan.
+
+There seemed no one to dispute his claims when he said, or rather
+shouted, in stentorian tones:  "I am Tsa.  This is my she.
+Who wishes her more than Tsa?"
+
+"I do," I said in the language of Ahm, and I stepped out into the
+firelight before them.  Lys gave a little cry of joy and started
+toward me, but Tsa grasped her arm and dragged her back.
+
+"Who are you?" shrieked Tsa.  "I kill!  I kill!  I kill!"
+
+"The she is mine," I replied, "and I have come to claim her.
+I kill if you do not let her come to me."  And I raised my pistol
+to a level with his heart.  Of course the creature had no conception
+of the purpose of the strange little implement which I was poking
+toward him.  With a sound that was half human and half the growl
+of a wild beast, he sprang toward me.  I aimed at his heart and
+fired, and as he sprawled headlong to the ground, the others of
+his tribe, overcome by fright at the report of the pistol,
+scattered toward the cliffs--while Lys, with outstretched arms,
+ran toward me.
+
+As I crushed her to me, there rose from the black night behind us
+and then to our right and to our left a series of frightful
+screams and shrieks, bellowings, roars and growls.  It was the
+night-life of this jungle world coming into its own--the huge,
+carnivorous nocturnal beasts which make the nights of Caspak hideous.
+A shuddering sob ran through Lys' figure.  "O God," she cried,
+"give me the strength to endure, for his sake!"  I saw that
+she was upon the verge of a breakdown, after all that she must
+have passed through of fear and horror that day, and I tried to
+quiet and reassure her as best I might; but even to me the future
+looked most unpromising, for what chance of life had we against
+the frightful hunters of the night who even now were prowling
+closer to us?
+
+Now I turned to see what had become of the tribe, and in the
+fitful glare of the fire I perceived that the face of the
+cliff was pitted with large holes into which the man-things
+were clambering.  "Come," I said to Lys, "we must follow them.
+We cannot last a half-hour out here.  We must find a cave."
+Already we could see the blazing green eyes of the hungry carnivora.
+I seized a brand from the fire and hurled it out into the night,
+and there came back an answering chorus of savage and rageful
+protest; but the eyes vanished for a short time.  Selecting a
+burning branch for each of us, we advanced toward the cliffs,
+where we were met by angry threats.
+
+"They will kill us," said Lys.  "We may as well keep on in search
+of another refuge."
+
+"They will not kill us so surely as will those others out there,"
+I replied.  "I am going to seek shelter in one of these caves;
+nor will the man-things prevent."  And I kept on in the direction
+of the cliff's base.  A huge creature stood upon a ledge and
+brandished his stone hatchet.  "Come and I will kill you and take
+the she," he boasted.
+
+"You saw how Tsa fared when he would have kept my she," I replied
+in his own tongue.  "Thus will you fare and all your fellows if
+you do not permit us to come in peace among you out of the dangers
+of the night."
+
+"Go north," he screamed.  "Go north among the Galus, and we will
+not harm you.  Some day will we be Galus; but now we are not.
+You do not belong among us.  Go away or we will kill you.  The she
+may remain if she is afraid, and we will keep her; but the he
+must depart."
+
+"The he won't depart," I replied, and approached still nearer.
+Rough and narrow ledges formed by nature gave access to the
+upper caves.  A man might scale them if unhampered and unhindered,
+but to clamber upward in the face of a belligerent tribe of half-men
+and with a girl to assist was beyond my capability.
+
+"I do not fear you," screamed the creature.  "You were close to
+Tsa; but I am far above you.  You cannot harm me as you harmed Tsa.
+Go away!"
+
+I placed a foot upon the lowest ledge and clambered upward,
+reaching down and pulling Lys to my side.  Already I felt safer.
+Soon we would be out of danger of the beasts again closing in
+upon us. The man above us raised his stone hatchet above his head
+and leaped lightly down to meet us.  His position above me gave
+him a great advantage, or at least so he probably thought, for he
+came with every show of confidence.  I hated to do it, but there
+seemed no other way, and so I shot him down as I had shot down Tsa.
+
+"You see," I cried to his fellows, "that I can kill you wherever
+you may be.  A long way off I can kill you as well as I can kill
+you near by.  Let us come among you in peace.  I will not harm you
+if you do not harm us.  We will take a cave high up.  Speak!"
+
+"Come, then," said one.  "If you will not harm us, you may come.
+Take Tsa's hole, which lies above you."
+
+The creature showed us the mouth of a black cave, but he kept at
+a distance while he did it, and Lys followed me as I crawled in
+to explore.  I had matches with me, and in the light of one I
+found a small cavern with a flat roof and floor which followed
+the cleavage of the strata.  Pieces of the roof had fallen at
+some long-distant date, as was evidenced by the depth of the
+filth and rubble in which they were embedded.  Even a superficial
+examination revealed the fact that nothing had ever been
+attempted that might have improved the livability of the cavern;
+nor, should I judge, had it ever been cleaned out.  With considerable
+difficulty I loosened some of the larger pieces of broken rock which
+littered the floor and placed them as a barrier before the doorway.
+It was too dark to do more than this.  I then gave Lys a piece of
+dried meat, and sitting inside the entrance, we dined as must have
+some of our ancient forbears at the dawning of the age of man, while
+far below the open diapason of the savage night rose weird and
+horrifying to our ears.  In the light of the great fire still
+burning we could see huge, skulking forms, and in the blacker
+background countless flaming eyes.
+
+Lys shuddered, and I put my arm around her and drew her to me;
+and thus we sat throughout the hot night.  She told me of her
+abduction and of the fright she had undergone, and together we
+thanked God that she had come through unharmed, because the great
+brute had dared not pause along the danger-infested way.  She said
+that they had but just reached the cliffs when I arrived, for on
+several occasions her captor had been forced to take to the trees
+with her to escape the clutches of some hungry cave-lion or saber-
+toothed tiger, and that twice they had been obliged to remain for
+considerable periods before the beasts had retired.
+
+Nobs, by dint of much scrambling and one or two narrow escapes
+from death, had managed to follow us up the cliff and was now
+curled between me and the doorway, having devoured a piece of the
+dried meat, which he seemed to relish immensely.  He was the
+first to fall asleep; but I imagine we must have followed suit
+soon, for we were both tired.  I had laid aside my ammunition-
+belt and rifle, though both were close beside me; but my pistol
+I kept in my lap beneath my hand.  However, we were not disturbed
+during the night, and when I awoke, the sun was shining on the
+tree-tops in the distance.  Lys' head had drooped to my breast,
+and my arm was still about her.
+
+Shortly afterward Lys awoke, and for a moment she could not seem
+to comprehend her situation.  She looked at me and then turned
+and glanced at my arm about her, and then she seemed quite
+suddenly to realize the scantiness of her apparel and drew away,
+covering her face with her palms and blushing furiously.  I drew
+her back toward me and kissed her, and then she threw her arms
+about my neck and wept softly in mute surrender to the inevitable.
+
+It was an hour later before the tribe began to stir about.
+We watched them from our "apartment," as Lys called it.
+Neither men nor women wore any sort of clothing or ornaments,
+and they all seemed to be about of an age; nor were there any
+babies or children among them.  This was, to us, the strangest
+and most inexplicable of facts, but it recalled to us that
+though we had seen many of the lesser developed wild people
+of Caspak, we had never yet seen a child or an old man or woman.
+
+After a while they became less suspicious of us and then quite
+friendly in their brutish way.  They picked at the fabric of our
+clothing, which seemed to interest them, and examined my rifle
+and pistol and the ammunition in the belt around my waist.
+I showed them the thermos-bottle, and when I poured a little water
+from it, they were delighted, thinking that it was a spring which
+I carried about with me--a never-failing source of water supply.
+
+One thing we both noticed among their other characteristics: they
+never laughed nor smiled; and then we remembered that Ahm had
+never done so, either.  I asked them if they knew Ahm; but they
+said they did not.
+
+One of them said:  "Back there we may have known him."  And he
+jerked his head to the south.
+
+"You came from back there?"  I asked.  He looked at me in surprise.
+
+"We all come from there," he said.  "After a while we go there."
+And this time he jerked his head toward the north.  "Be Galus,"
+he concluded.
+
+Many times now had we heard this reference to becoming Galus.
+Ahm had spoken of it many times.  Lys and I decided that it was
+a sort of original religious conviction, as much a part of them
+as their instinct for self-preservation--a primal acceptance of
+a hereafter and a holier state.  It was a brilliant theory, but
+it was all wrong.  I know it now, and how far we were from
+guessing the wonderful, the miraculous, the gigantic truth which
+even yet I may only guess at--the thing that sets Caspak apart
+from all the rest of the world far more definitely than her
+isolated geographical position or her impregnable barrier of
+giant cliffs.  If I could live to return to civilization, I
+should have meat for the clergy and the layman to chew upon for
+years--and for the evolutionists, too.
+
+After breakfast the men set out to hunt, while the women went to
+a large pool of warm water covered with a green scum and filled
+with billions of tadpoles.  They waded in to where the water was
+about a foot deep and lay down in the mud.  They remained there
+from one to two hours and then returned to the cliff.  While we
+were with them, we saw this same thing repeated every morning;
+but though we asked them why they did it we could get no reply
+which was intelligible to us.  All they vouchsafed in way of
+explanation was the single word Ata.  They tried to get Lys to go
+in with them and could not understand why she refused.  After the
+first day I went hunting with the men, leaving my pistol and
+Nobs with Lys, but she never had to use them, for no reptile or
+beast ever approached the pool while the women were there--nor,
+so far as we know, at other times.  There was no spoor of wild
+beast in the soft mud along the banks, and the water certainly
+didn't look fit to drink.
+
+This tribe lived largely upon the smaller animals which they
+bowled over with their stone hatchets after making a wide circle
+about their quarry and driving it so that it had to pass close to
+one of their number.  The little horses and the smaller antelope
+they secured in sufficient numbers to support life, and they also
+ate numerous varieties of fruits and vegetables.  They never
+brought in more than sufficient food for their immediate needs;
+but why bother?  The food problem of Caspak is not one to cause
+worry to her inhabitants.
+
+The fourth day Lys told me that she thought she felt equal to
+attempting the return journey on the morrow, and so I set out for
+the hunt in high spirits, for I was anxious to return to the fort
+and learn if Bradley and his party had returned and what had been
+the result of his expedition.  I also wanted to relieve their
+minds as to Lys and myself, as I knew that they must have already
+given us up for dead.  It was a cloudy day, though warm, as it
+always is in Caspak.  It seemed odd to realize that just a few
+miles away winter lay upon the storm-tossed ocean, and that snow
+might be falling all about Caprona; but no snow could ever
+penetrate the damp, hot atmosphere of the great crater.
+
+We had to go quite a bit farther than usual before we could
+surround a little bunch of antelope, and as I was helping drive
+them, I saw a fine red deer a couple of hundred yards behind me.
+He must have been asleep in the long grass, for I saw him rise
+and look about him in a bewildered way, and then I raised my gun
+and let him have it.  He dropped, and I ran forward to finish him
+with the long thin knife, which one of the men had given me; but
+just as I reached him, he staggered to his feet and ran on for
+another two hundred yards--when I dropped him again.  Once more
+was this repeated before I was able to reach him and cut his
+throat; then I looked around for my companions, as I wanted them
+to come and carry the meat home; but I could see nothing of them.
+I called a few times and waited, but there was no response and no
+one came.  At last I became disgusted, and cutting off all the
+meat that I could conveniently carry, I set off in the direction
+of the cliffs.  I must have gone about a mile before the truth
+dawn upon me--I was lost, hopelessly lost.
+
+The entire sky was still completely blotted out by dense clouds;
+nor was there any landmark visible by which I might have taken
+my bearings.  I went on in the direction I thought was south but
+which I now imagine must have been about due north, without
+detecting a single familiar object.  In a dense wood I suddenly
+stumbled upon a thing which at first filled me with hope and later
+with the most utter despair and dejection.  It was a little mound
+of new-turned earth sprinkled with flowers long since withered,
+and at one end was a flat slab of sandstone stuck in the ground.
+It was a grave, and it meant for me that I had at last stumbled
+into a country inhabited by human beings.  I would find them;
+they would direct me to the cliffs; perhaps they would accompany
+me and take us back with them to their abodes--to the abodes of
+men and women like ourselves.  My hopes and my imagination ran
+riot in the few yards I had to cover to reach that lonely grave
+and stoop that I might read the rude characters scratched upon
+the simple headstone.  This is what I read:
+
+HERE LIES JOHN TIPPET ENGLISHMAN KILLED BY TYRANNOSAURUS 10
+SEPT., A.D. 1916 R. I. P.
+
+
+Tippet! It seemed incredible.  Tippet lying here in this gloomy wood!
+Tippet dead!  He had been a good man, but the personal loss was not
+what affected me.  It was the fact that this silent grave gave
+evidence that Bradley had come this far upon his expedition and that
+he too probably was lost, for it was not our intention that he should
+be long gone.  If I had stumbled upon the grave of one of the party,
+was it not within reason to believe that the bones of the others lay
+scattered somewhere near?
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 9
+
+
+
+
+As I stood looking down upon that sad and lonely mound, wrapped
+in the most dismal of reflections and premonitions, I was
+suddenly seized from behind and thrown to earth.  As I fell, a
+warm body fell on top of me, and hands grasped my arms and legs.
+When I could look up, I saw a number of giant fingers pinioning
+me down, while others stood about surveying me.  Here again was
+a new type of man--a higher type than the primitive tribe I had
+just quitted.  They were a taller people, too, with better-shaped
+skulls and more intelligent faces.  There were less of the ape
+characteristics about their features, and less of the negroid, too.
+They carried weapons, stone-shod spears, stone knives, and hatchets--
+and they wore ornaments and breech-cloths--the former of feathers
+worn in their hair and the latter made of a single snake-skin cured
+with the head on, the head depending to their knees.
+
+Of course I did not take in all these details upon the instant of
+my capture, for I was busy with other matters.  Three of the
+warriors were sitting upon me, trying to hold me down by main
+strength and awkwardness, and they were having their hands full
+in the doing, I can tell you.  I don't like to appear conceited,
+but I may as well admit that I am proud of my strength and the
+science that I have acquired and developed in the directing of
+it--that and my horsemanship I always have been proud of.  And now,
+that day, all the long hours that I had put into careful study,
+practice and training brought me in two or three minutes a full
+return upon my investment.  Californians, as a rule, are familiar
+with ju-jutsu, and I especially had made a study of it for several
+years, both at school and in the gym of the Los Angeles Athletic
+Club, while recently I had had, in my employ, a Jap who was a
+wonder at the art.
+
+It took me just about thirty seconds to break the elbow of one of
+my assailants, trip another and send him stumbling backward among
+his fellows, and throw the third completely over my head in such
+a way that when he fell his neck was broken.  In the instant that
+the others of the party stood in mute and inactive surprise, I
+unslung my rifle--which, carelessly, I had been carrying across
+my back; and when they charged, as I felt they would, I put a
+bullet in the forehead of one of them.  This stopped them all
+temporarily--not the death of their fellow, but the report of the
+rifle, the first they had ever heard.  Before they were ready to
+attack me again, one of them spoke in a commanding tone to his
+fellows, and in a language similar but still more comprehensive
+than that of the tribe to the south, as theirs was more complete
+than Ahm's.  He commanded them to stand back and then he advanced
+and addressed me.
+
+He asked me who I was, from whence I came and what my intentions were.
+I replied that I was a stranger in Caspak, that I was lost and that
+my only desire was to find my way back to my companions.  He asked
+where they were and I told him toward the south somewhere, using
+the Caspakian phrase which, literally translated, means "toward
+the beginning."  His surprise showed upon his face before he voiced
+it in words.  "There are no Galus there," he said.
+
+"I tell you," I said angrily, "that I am from another country,
+far from Caspak, far beyond the high cliffs.  I do not know who
+the Galus may be; I have never seen them.  This is the farthest
+north I have been.  Look at me--look at my clothing and my weapons.
+Have you ever seen a Galu or any other creature in Caspak who
+possessed such things?"
+
+He had to admit that he had not, and also that he was much
+interested in me, my rifle and the way I had handled his
+three warriors.  Finally he became half convinced that I was
+telling him the truth and offered to aid me if I would show him
+how I had thrown the man over my head and also make him a present
+of the "bang-spear," as he called it.  I refused to give him my
+rifle, but promised to show him the trick he wished to learn if
+he would guide me in the right direction.  He told me that he
+would do so tomorrow, that it was too late today and that I might
+come to their village and spend the night with them.  I was loath
+to lose so much time; but the fellow was obdurate, and so I
+accompanied them.  The two dead men they left where they had
+fallen, nor gave them a second glance--thus cheap is life upon Caspak.
+
+These people also were cave-dwellers, but their caves showed the
+result of a higher intelligence that brought them a step nearer
+to civilized man than the tribe next "toward the beginning."
+The interiors of their caverns were cleared of rubbish, though
+still far from clean, and they had pallets of dried grasses
+covered with the skins of leopard, lynx, and bear, while before
+the entrances were barriers of stone and small, rudely circular
+stone ovens.  The walls of the cavern to which I was conducted were
+covered with drawings scratched upon the sandstone.  There were
+the outlines of the giant red-deer, of mammoths, of tigers and
+other beasts.  Here, as in the last tribe, there were no children
+or any old people.  The men of this tribe had two names, or
+rather names of two syllables, and their language contained words
+of two syllables; whereas in the tribe of Tsa the words were all
+of a single syllable, with the exception of a very few like Atis
+and Galus.  The chief's name was To-jo, and his household
+consisted of seven females and himself.  These women were much
+more comely, or rather less hideous than those of Tsa's people;
+one of them, even, was almost pretty, being less hairy and having
+a rather nice skin, with high coloring.
+
+They were all much interested in me and examined my clothing and
+equipment carefully, handling and feeling and smelling of each article.
+I learned from them that their people were known as Bandlu, or
+spear-men; Tsa's race was called Sto-lu--hatchet-men.  Below these
+in the scale of evolution came the Bo-lu, or club-men, and then the
+Alus, who had no weapons and no language.  In that word I recognized
+what to me seemed the most remarkable discovery I had made upon
+Caprona, for unless it were mere coincidence, I had come upon a word
+that had been handed down from the beginning of spoken language upon
+earth, been handed down for millions of years, perhaps, with
+little change.  It was the sole remaining thread of the ancient
+woof of a dawning culture which had been woven when Caprona was
+a fiery mount upon a great land-mass teeming with life.  It linked
+the unfathomable then to the eternal now.  And yet it may have been
+pure coincidence; my better judgment tells me that it is coincidence
+that in Caspak the term for speechless man is Alus, and in the outer
+world of our own day it is Alalus.
+
+The comely woman of whom I spoke was called So-ta, and she took
+such a lively interest in me that To-jo finally objected to her
+attentions, emphasizing his displeasure by knocking her down and
+kicking her into a corner of the cavern.  I leaped between them
+while he was still kicking her, and obtaining a quick hold upon
+him, dragged him screaming with pain from the cave.  Then I made
+him promise not to hurt the she again, upon pain of worse punishment.
+So-ta gave me a grateful look; but To-jo and the balance of his women
+were sullen and ominous.
+
+Later in the evening So-ta confided to me that she was soon to
+leave the tribe.
+
+"So-ta soon to be Kro-lu," she confided in a low whisper.  I asked
+her what a Kro-lu might be, and she tried to explain, but I do not
+yet know if I understood her.  From her gestures I deduced that the
+Kro-lus were a people who were armed with bows and arrows, had
+vessels in which to cook their food and huts of some sort in which
+they lived, and were accompanied by animals.  It was all very
+fragmentary and vague, but the idea seemed to be that the Kro-lus
+were a more advanced people than the Band-lus.  I pondered a long
+time upon all that I had heard, before sleep came to me.  I tried
+to find some connection between these various races that would
+explain the universal hope which each of them harbored that some
+day they would become Galus.  So-ta had given me a suggestion; but
+the resulting idea was so weird that I could scarce even entertain
+it; yet it coincided with Ahm's expressed hope, with the various
+steps in evolution I had noted in the several tribes I had encountered
+and with the range of type represented in each tribe.  For example,
+among the Band-lu were such types as So-ta, who seemed to me to be
+the highest in the scale of evolution, and To-jo, who was just a
+shade nearer the ape, while there were others who had flatter noses,
+more prognathous faces and hairier bodies.  The question puzzled me.
+Possibly in the outer world the answer to it is locked in the bosom
+of the Sphinx.  Who knows?  I do not.
+
+Thinking the thoughts of a lunatic or a dope-fiend, I fell asleep;
+and when I awoke, my hands and feet were securely tied and my
+weapons had been taken from me.  How they did it without awakening
+me I cannot tell you.  It was humiliating, but it was true.
+To-jo stood above me.  The early light of morning was dimly
+filtering into the cave.
+
+"Tell me," he demanded, "how to throw a man over my head and
+break his neck, for I am going to kill you, and I wish to know
+this thing before you die."
+
+Of all the ingenuous declarations I have ever heard, this one
+copped the proverbial bun.  It struck me as so funny that, even
+in the face of death, I laughed.  Death, I may remark here, had,
+however, lost much of his terror for me.  I had become a disciple
+of Lys' fleeting philosophy of the valuelessness of human life.
+I realized that she was quite right--that we were but comic figures
+hopping from the cradle to the grave, of interest to practically
+no other created thing than ourselves and our few intimates.
+
+Behind To-jo stood So-ta.  She raised one hand with the palm
+toward me--the Caspakian equivalent of a negative shake of the head.
+
+"Let me think about it," I parried, and To-jo said that he would
+wait until night.  He would give me a day to think it over; then
+he left, and the women left--the men for the hunt, and the women,
+as I later learned from So-ta, for the warm pool where they immersed
+their bodies as did the shes of the Sto-lu.  "Ata," explained So-ta,
+when I questioned her as to the purpose of this matutinal rite;
+but that was later.
+
+I must have lain there bound and uncomfortable for two or three
+hours when at last So-ta entered the cave.  She carried a sharp
+knife--mine, in fact, and with it she cut my bonds.
+
+"Come!" she said.  "So-ta will go with you back to the Galus.
+It is time that So-ta left the Band-lu.  Together we will go to
+the Kro-lu, and after that the Galus.  To-jo will kill you tonight.
+He will kill So-ta if he knows that So-ta aided you.  We will
+go together."
+
+"I will go with you to the Kro-lu," I replied, "but then I must
+return to my own people `toward the beginning.'"
+
+"You cannot go back," she said.  "It is forbidden.  They would
+kill you.  Thus far have you come--there is no returning."
+
+"But I must return," I insisted.  "My people are there.  I must
+return and lead them in this direction."
+
+She insisted, and I insisted; but at last we compromised.  I was
+to escort her as far as the country of the Kro-lu and then I was
+to go back after my own people and lead them north into a land
+where the dangers were fewer and the people less murderous.
+She brought me all my belongings that had been filched from
+me--rifle, ammunition, knife, and thermos bottle, and then hand
+in hand we descended the cliff and set off toward the north.
+
+For three days we continued upon our way, until we arrived
+outside a village of thatched huts just at dusk.  So-ta said
+that she would enter alone; I must not be seen if I did not
+intend to remain, as it was forbidden that one should return
+and live after having advanced this far.  So she left me.
+She was a dear girl and a stanch and true comrade--more like
+a man than a woman.  In her simple barbaric way she was both
+refined and chaste.  She had been the wife of To-jo.  Among the
+Kro-lu she would find another mate after the manner of the
+strange Caspakian world; but she told me very frankly that
+whenever I returned, she would leave her mate and come to me, as
+she preferred me above all others.  I was becoming a ladies' man
+after a lifetime of bashfulness!
+
+At the outskirts of the village I left her without even seeing
+the sort of people who inhabited it, and set off through the
+growing darkness toward the south.  On the third day I made a
+detour westward to avoid the country of the Band-lu, as I did not
+care to be detained by a meeting with To-jo.  On the sixth day I
+came to the cliffs of the Sto-lu, and my heart beat fast as I
+approached them, for here was Lys.  Soon I would hold her tight
+in my arms again; soon her warm lips would merge with mine.
+I felt sure that she was still safe among the hatchet people, and
+I was already picturing the joy and the love-light in her eyes
+when she should see me once more as I emerged from the last clump
+of trees and almost ran toward the cliffs.
+
+It was late in the morning.  The women must have returned from
+the pool; yet as I drew near, I saw no sign of life whatever.
+"They have remained longer," I thought; but when I was quite
+close to the base of the cliffs, I saw that which dashed my hopes
+and my happiness to earth.  Strewn along the ground were a score
+of mute and horrible suggestions of what had taken place during
+my absence--bones picked clean of flesh, the bones of manlike
+creatures, the bones of many of the tribe of Sto-lu; nor in any
+cave was there sign of life.
+
+Closely I examined the ghastly remains fearful each instant that
+I should find the dainty skull that would shatter my happiness
+for life; but though I searched diligently, picking up every
+one of the twenty-odd skulls, I found none that was the skull
+of a creature but slightly removed from the ape.  Hope, then,
+still lived.  For another three days I searched north and south,
+east and west for the hatchetmen of Caspak; but never a trace of
+them did I find.  It was raining most of the time now, and the
+weather was as near cold as it ever seems to get on Caprona.
+
+At last I gave up the search and set off toward Fort Dinosaur.
+For a week--a week filled with the terrors and dangers of a
+primeval world--I pushed on in the direction I thought was south.
+The sun never shone; the rain scarcely ever ceased falling.
+The beasts I met with were fewer in number but infinitely more
+terrible in temper; yet I lived on until there came to me the
+realization that I was hopelessly lost, that a year of sunshine
+would not again give me my bearings; and while I was cast down by
+this terrifying knowledge, the knowledge that I never again could
+find Lys, I stumbled upon another grave--the grave of William James,
+with its little crude headstone and its scrawled characters
+recording that he had died upon the 13th of September--killed by
+a saber-tooth tiger.
+
+I think that I almost gave up then.  Never in my life have I felt
+more hopeless or helpless or alone.  I was lost.  I could not
+find my friends.  I did not even know that they still lived; in
+fact, I could not bring myself to believe that they did.  I was
+sure that Lys was dead.  I wanted myself to die, and yet I clung
+to life--useless and hopeless and harrowing a thing as it had become.
+I clung to life because some ancient, reptilian forbear had clung
+to life and transmitted to me through the ages the most powerful
+motive that guided his minute brain--the motive of self-preservation.
+
+At last I came to the great barrier-cliffs; and after three days
+of mad effort--of maniacal effort--I scaled them.  I built crude
+ladders; I wedged sticks in narrow fissures; I chopped toe-holds
+and finger-holds with my long knife; but at last I scaled them.
+Near the summit I came upon a huge cavern.  It is the abode of
+some mighty winged creature of the Triassic--or rather it was.
+Now it is mine.  I slew the thing and took its abode.  I reached
+the summit and looked out upon the broad gray terrible Pacific of
+the far-southern winter.  It was cold up there.  It is cold here
+today; yet here I sit watching, watching, watching for the thing
+I know will never come--for a sail.
+
+
+
+
+
+Chapter 10
+
+
+
+
+Once a day I descend to the base of the cliff and hunt, and fill
+my stomach with water from a clear cold spring.  I have three
+gourds which I fill with water and take back to my cave against
+the long nights.  I have fashioned a spear and a bow and arrow,
+that I may conserve my ammunition, which is running low.  My clothes
+are worn to shreds.  Tomorrow I shall discard them for leopard-skins
+which I have tanned and sewn into a garment strong and warm.  It is
+cold up here.  I have a fire burning and I sit bent over it while
+I write; but I am safe here.  No other living creature ventures
+to the chill summit of the barrier cliffs.  I am safe, and I am
+alone with my sorrows and my remembered joys--but without hope.
+It is said that hope springs eternal in the human breast; but there
+is none in mine.
+
+I am about done.  Presently I shall fold these pages and push
+them into my thermos bottle.  I shall cork it and screw the cap
+tight, and then I shall hurl it as far out into the sea as my
+strength will permit.  The wind is off-shore; the tide is running
+out; perhaps it will be carried into one of those numerous
+ocean-currents which sweep perpetually from pole to pole and
+from continent to continent, to be deposited at last upon some
+inhabited shore.  If fate is kind and this does happen, then, for
+God's sake, come and get me!
+
+It was a week ago that I wrote the preceding paragraph, which I
+thought would end the written record of my life upon Caprona.
+I had paused to put a new point on my quill and stir the crude ink
+(which I made by crushing a black variety of berry and mixing it
+with water) before attaching my signature, when faintly from the
+valley far below came an unmistakable sound which brought me to
+my feet, trembling with excitement, to peer eagerly downward from
+my dizzy ledge.  How full of meaning that sound was to me you may
+guess when I tell you that it was the report of a firearm!  For a
+moment my gaze traversed the landscape beneath until it was
+caught and held by four figures near the base of the cliff--a
+human figure held at bay by three hyaenodons, those ferocious and
+blood-thirsty wild dogs of the Eocene.  A fourth beast lay dead
+or dying near by.
+
+I couldn't be sure, looking down from above as I was; but yet I
+trembled like a leaf in the intuitive belief that it was Lys, and
+my judgment served to confirm my wild desire, for whoever it was
+carried only a pistol, and thus had Lys been armed.  The first
+wave of sudden joy which surged through me was short-lived in the
+face of the swift-following conviction that the one who fought
+below was already doomed.  Luck and only luck it must have
+been which had permitted that first shot to lay low one of the
+savage creatures, for even such a heavy weapon as my pistol is
+entirely inadequate against even the lesser carnivora of Caspak.
+In a moment the three would charge! A futile shot would but tend
+more greatly to enrage the one it chanced to hit; and then the
+three would drag down the little human figure and tear it to pieces.
+
+And maybe it was Lys!  My heart stood still at the thought, but mind
+and muscle responded to the quick decision I was forced to make.
+There was but a single hope--a single chance--and I took it.
+I raised my rifle to my shoulder and took careful aim.  It was
+a long shot, a dangerous shot, for unless one is accustomed to
+it, shooting from a considerable altitude is most deceptive work.
+There is, though, something about marksmanship which is quite
+beyond all scientific laws.
+
+Upon no other theory can I explain my marksmanship of that moment.
+Three times my rifle spoke--three quick, short syllables of death.
+I did not take conscious aim; and yet at each report a beast
+crumpled in its tracks!
+
+From my ledge to the base of the cliff is a matter of several
+thousand feet of dangerous climbing; yet I venture to say that
+the first ape from whose loins my line has descended never could
+have equaled the speed with which I literally dropped down the
+face of that rugged escarpment.  The last two hundred feet is
+over a steep incline of loose rubble to the valley bottom, and I
+had just reached the top of this when there arose to my ears an
+agonized cry--"Bowen!  Bowen!  Quick, my love, quick!"
+
+I had been too much occupied with the dangers of the descent to
+glance down toward the valley; but that cry which told me that it
+was indeed Lys, and that she was again in danger, brought my eyes
+quickly upon her in time to see a hairy, burly brute seize her
+and start off at a run toward the near-by wood.  From rock to
+rock, chamoislike, I leaped downward toward the valley, in
+pursuit of Lys and her hideous abductor.
+
+He was heavier than I by many pounds, and so weighted by the
+burden he carried that I easily overtook him; and at last he
+turned, snarling, to face me.  It was Kho of the tribe of Tsa,
+the hatchet-men.  He recognized me, and with a low growl he
+threw Lys aside and came for me.  "The she is mine," he cried.
+"I kill!  I kill!"
+
+I had had to discard my rifle before I commenced the rapid descent
+of the cliff, so that now I was armed only with a hunting knife,
+and this I whipped from its scabbard as Kho leaped toward me.
+He was a mighty beast, mightily muscled, and the urge that has
+made males fight since the dawn of life on earth filled him with
+the blood-lust and the thirst to slay; but not one whit less did
+it fill me with the same primal passions.  Two abysmal beasts
+sprang at each other's throats that day beneath the shadow of
+earth's oldest cliffs--the man of now and the man-thing of the
+earliest, forgotten then, imbued by the same deathless passion
+that has come down unchanged through all the epochs, periods and
+eras of time from the beginning, and which shall continue to the
+incalculable end--woman, the imperishable Alpha and Omega of life.
+
+Kho closed and sought my jugular with his teeth.  He seemed to
+forget the hatchet dangling by its aurochs-hide thong at his hip,
+as I forgot, for the moment, the dagger in my hand.  And I doubt
+not but that Kho would easily have bested me in an encounter of
+that sort had not Lys' voice awakened within my momentarily
+reverted brain the skill and cunning of reasoning man.
+"Bowen!" she cried.  "Your knife!  Your knife!"
+It was enough.  It recalled me from the forgotten eon to which my
+brain had flown and left me once again a modern man battling with
+a clumsy, unskilled brute.  No longer did my jaws snap at the
+hairy throat before me; but instead my knife sought and found a
+space between two ribs over the savage heart.  Kho voiced a single
+horrid scream, stiffened spasmodically and sank to the earth.
+And Lys threw herself into my arms.  All the fears and sorrows of
+the past were wiped away, and once again I was the happiest of men.
+
+With some misgivings I shortly afterward cast my eyes upward
+toward the precarious ledge which ran before my cave, for it
+seemed to me quite beyond all reason to expect a dainty modern
+belle to essay the perils of that frightful climb.  I asked her
+if she thought she could brave the ascent, and she laughed gayly
+in my face.
+
+"Watch!" she cried, and ran eagerly toward the base of the cliff.
+Like a squirrel she clambered swiftly aloft, so that I was forced
+to exert myself to keep pace with her.  At first she frightened me;
+but presently I was aware that she was quite as safe here as was I.
+When we finally came to my ledge and I again held her in my arms,
+she recalled to my mind that for several weeks she had been living
+the life of a cave-girl with the tribe of hatchet-men.  They had
+been driven from their former caves by another tribe which had slain
+many and carried off quite half the females, and the new cliffs to
+which they had flown had proven far higher and more precipitous, so
+that she had become, through necessity, a most practiced climber.
+
+She told me of Kho's desire for her, since all his females had
+been stolen and of how her life had been a constant nightmare of
+terror as she sought by night and by day to elude the great brute.
+For a time Nobs had been all the protection she required; but one
+day he disappeared--nor has she seen him since.  She believes that
+he was deliberately made away with; and so do I, for we both are
+sure that he never would have deserted her.  With her means of
+protection gone, Lys was now at the mercy of the hatchet-man;
+nor was it many hours before he had caught her at the base of the
+cliff and seized her; but as he bore her triumphantly aloft toward
+his cave, she had managed to break loose and escape him.
+
+"For three days he has pursued me," she said, "through this
+horrible world.  How I have passed through in safety I cannot
+guess, nor how I have always managed to outdistance him; yet I
+have done it, until just as you discovered me.  Fate was kind
+to us, Bowen."
+
+I nodded my head in assent and crushed her to me. And then we
+talked and planned as I cooked antelope-steaks over my fire, and
+we came to the conclusion that there was no hope of rescue, that
+she and I were doomed to live and die upon Caprona.  Well, it
+might be worse!  I would rather live here always with Lys than to
+live elsewhere without her; and she, dear girl, says the same of
+me; but I am afraid of this life for her.  It is a hard, fierce,
+dangerous life, and I shall pray always that we shall be rescued
+from it--for her sake.
+
+That night the clouds broke, and the moon shone down upon our
+little ledge; and there, hand in hand, we turned our faces toward
+heaven and plighted our troth beneath the eyes of God.  No human
+agency could have married us more sacredly than we are wed.  We are
+man and wife, and we are content.  If God wills it, we shall live
+out our lives here.  If He wills otherwise, then this manuscript
+which I shall now consign to the inscrutable forces of the sea
+shall fall into friendly hands.  However, we are each without hope.
+And so we say good-bye in this, our last message to the world beyond
+the barrier cliffs.
+
+(Signed) Bowen J. Tyler, Jr. Lys La R. Tyler.
+
+
+End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Land That Time Forgot
+by Edgar Rice Burroughs
+
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