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diff --git a/551-h/551-h.htm b/551-h/551-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a7615e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/551-h/551-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4268 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Land That Time Forgot | Project Gutenberg</title> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +.no-break {page-break-before: avoid;} /* for epubs */ + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +.p2 {margin-top: 2em;} + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.right {text-align: right; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.footnote {font-size: 90%; + text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> + +</head> + +<body> +<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° 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. +</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> + + |