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| author | www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org> | 2026-08-18 16:04:39 -0700 |
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| committer | www-data <www-data@mail.pglaf.org> | 2026-08-18 16:04:39 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9f57f44 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text +*.htm text +*.html text +*.png binary +*.jpg binary +*.svg text +*.pdf binary +*.bmp binary +*.zip binary +*.midi binary +*.mp3 binary diff --git a/79400-0.txt b/79400-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..171c9b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/79400-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7857 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79400 *** + + + + + The Greatest Adventure + + By JOHN TAINE + + ACE BOOKS, INC. + 23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N. Y. + + THE GREATEST ADVENTURE + + Copyright, 1929, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. + + An Ace Book, by arrangement with the author. + + All Rights Reserved + + Printed in U.S.A. + + +JOHN TAINE is the nom de plume of the prominent research mathematician, +Dr. Eric Temple Bell. Under his own name he has had published numerous +popular books on mathematics and science. Under his pen-name he is the +author of fifteen published science-fiction novels. + +Dr. Bell was born in Peterhead, Scotland, in 1883. After attending +various schools in England, he came to the United States (of which he +is a naturalized citizen) in 1902, graduating from Stanford University +in 1904. He took his master's degree at the University of Washington, +and attained his doctorate in mathematics at Columbia University in +1912. + +Since 1926 he has been Professor of Mathematics at the California +Institute of Technology. + + * * * * * + +THEY RIPPED THE VEIL OFF THE PAST + + +Dr. Eric Lane's party of five crept across the frozen Antarctic seeking +the discovery of the ages. For that explorer-archeologist was following +the startling account of a sea captain who had fished a lifeless +organism from the nearby waters--a devilish monstrosity which fit no +pattern of nature's. + +Dr. Lane knew when he saw it that the creature had been manufactured. +But how could that be? Had there once been intelligences on Earth so +much higher than our own that they could create new life-forms? + +But for all his excitement, what Dr. Lane was expecting to find were +fossils, and maybe some ruins. He did not suspect--until too late--that +he was opening a Pandora's box of living horrors. + + * * * * * + + + + + 1 + + BIRD OR REPTILE? + + +Undoubtedly Dr. Eric Lane was a man to be envied. With ordinary luck +he might yet look forward to thirty-five years of the keenest pleasure +a highly intelligent and healthy man can experience, the discovery of +natural laws and their application to the good of his fellow men. + +Although today was his fortieth birthday he felt not a day over +eighteen. He smiled as the thought occurred to him, for it reminded him +of his daughter Edith. She was just the age that he felt. + +"We're a pair of kids," he laughed, looking fondly at the white and +gold porcelain image of a sleepy tomcat, which she had deposited on +his worktable as a birthday offering. Their appreciation of cats +was but one among scores of likings which they shared in perfect +understanding. Edith's gift of sympathy no doubt was responsible for +her father's continued widowerhood. Not once in the ten years since his +wife's death had Dr. Lane thought of marrying. His wife had been like +Edith, quick to understand when he left the thought but half expressed, +and tactfully willing to let him think in silence for days when the +mood was on him. Her early death had broken him for a year or two, but +with Edith and his work to live for he had gradually taken a grip on +himself and set his face to the future. + +"I wonder what she is doing," he mused, dwelling affectionately on the +sleepy cat of her offering. As if in answer to his unspoken thought the +study door opened noiselessly two inches. An appraising brown eye took +in the situation. + +"Come in," he called. "I'm not working. Your precious cat makes me long +to sleep." + +Edith entered. "Have you everything you want?" she asked, ready to +withdraw at the slightest symptom of work on her father's part. + +"Everything," he replied with a smile, "but you. Come in and stay a +bit. Birthdays come only once a year." + +Edith joined him by the worktable with its litter of microscopes and +queer looking specimens pallid in their neatly stoppered alcohol jars. + +"Do you know," he said, "it sometimes scares me a little?" + +"What scares you, dear?" she queried, for once at a loss. + +"Why, that I do have everything I want." + +"Well, why shouldn't you? Surely you have earned it." + +"So have thousands of other men. Yet they have nothing while I have +everything." + +"Oh," she laughed, "it isn't so bad as all that. You are not a +billionaire. Nor do you want the whole earth as some of the others do, +and cry when they can't get it." + +"Still," he persisted, "there are thousands of men as able as I am who +slave all their lives and have nothing but a bare living to show for +all their labor." + +He strolled over to the French windows and stood gazing absently at the +clear spring beauty of San Francisco Bay and the tawny Marin hills on +the farther shore. With all the world to choose from he had selected +this spot as his abiding place, high upon Telegraph Hill overlooking +San Francisco and the whole sublime sweep of the harbor. Often he would +stand at this window for an hour at a time, lost in thought, only half +consciously watching the swift white ferry boats rounding Goat Island +with the clock-like precision of mechanical toys. + +In all weathers the colorful panorama of bay, city and steep hills had +a stimulating yet soothing effect on his mind. Although much of his +work with the strangely diseased things of the sea was not beautiful, +the ever changing beauty of his outlook seemed to infuse him with +inexhaustible energy for the repellent drudgery which is the necessary +foundation of any scientific advance. The warm spring breeze rustling +the leaves of the young eucalyptus by the open window brought him back +to the present and his surroundings. + +"Yes," he continued, "there is young Drake, for instance, twenty-nine +and as poor as a crow. When I was his age I had been a millionaire +several times over for almost six years. Yet Drake has a fundamentally +better mind than I have. He simply did not have my chance. That is all." + +"But suppose he had been given your chance," Edith protested, "could he +have taken it?" + +"No," her father replied thoughtfully. "There's not a grain of business +sense in him. Still, for all that, I maintain that his head is better +than mine." + +"Then why doesn't he use it?" There was just a tinge of scorn in +Edith's retort. Her father glanced up at her face in surprise. + +"I thought you and Drake were great pals," he said. + +"We are," she admitted readily enough. "But the sheer futility of his +everlasting inscriptions rather gets on my nerves. I do wish he would +turn his brains to something less trivial." + +"How do you know his work is so useless?" the Doctor parried. + +"Oh, if you are going to begin one of your scientific attacks on me," +she laughed, "I'll retire at once to my humble corner. I'm routed. But +can't you see," she protested earnestly, "that all his deciphering +of outlandish inscriptions cannot make an atom of difference, one +way or the other, to human beings today? What does it matter how a +half-civilized race, extinct centuries ago, predicted eclipses of the +moon? And who on earth cares whether they counted by twenties instead +of by tens as we do? Will it make life more endurable for any human +being to know how those dead and forgotten people disposed of their +corpses?" + +"Perhaps," the Doctor hazarded with a smile, "you would prefer to see +our young friend Drake turning his unique talents to the unsolved +problem of infant colics?" + +"It would be more useful," she flashed. + +"But consider," her father demurred, "what would become of the Mexican +and Guatemalan inscriptions in the meantime. Who would ever read them, +fully and satisfactorily? If Drake can't do it, nobody can. After his +brilliant success with the Bolivian puzzles he is almost certain to +make short work of the rest." + +"Yes," Edith admitted. "And if he does, what then?" + +"Why, my dear, he will have saved numberless future generations of +young Drakes from wasting their lives on a useless piece of tomfoolery." + +She laughed. "I knew when we began that you would corner me. Still, I'm +morally right, because you slipped out by the back door. That isn't +what you really think of Drake's work." + +"It isn't, angel child," he admitted. "You must look at life in a +broader way. The conquest of disease and the discovery of the origin +of life are not even half the problem. As the old fellows used to +say, the whole is one, and you can't change the smallest part in any +place without altering the entire fabric everywhere. Drake's Bolivian +hieroglyphics are just as vital a part of science as are the obscure +fish parasites that I mess with in the hope of learning something about +cancer. And I shouldn't wonder," he concluded half seriously, "if some +day Drake's work gives us a clue to the central problem." + +"And shows us what life is?" she laughed. "When it does, I'll eat that." + +She pointed to a particularly loathsome reptile in a glass jar. It was +one of the Doctor's favorites, as the tumor to which it had succumbed +appeared to be something unique in the history of disease. + +"You will eat it without salt or pepper?" he stipulated. + +"Absolutely," she agreed. + +"Very well then. We shall see." + +Edith turned to go. "Shall I send up anyone who comes with a real +specimen?" + +"Only if it looks pretty good." + +"Pretty bad, you mean. All right, I'll inspect the horror and use my +judgment." + +With a last smile she was gone as noiselessly as she had come. She had +her work, and the Doctor his. Her morning would be begun in a short +conference with the Chinese servants, short because both she and they +were efficient and wasted no words. Then she might work for an hour or +two among her flowers in the English garden which was her pride, before +settling down to the serious business of the day. This consisted of +systematic reading directed by her father. At her own request he had +mapped out a course of study and experiment which would enable her to +understand something of what he was attempting to do. For two hours +every evening a young doctor just from the University eked out his +meagre practice helping her over the rough places in the day's work. In +this way she made rapid and substantial progress. She never bothered +her father with difficulties that any competent teacher could set right. + +During the sunny part of the day she studied under the pepper trees +by the gate, to be ready to receive and pay the Italian and Japanese +fishermen who brought the curiosities of their catches to her father. +All up and down the Pacific Coast, and even to Hawaii and far-off +Japan, Dr. Lane of San Francisco was a celebrity among the fishermen +and sailors. They knew him only distantly and impersonally as a deluded +crank eager to pay one dollar apiece for curiously diseased and +otherwise unsaleable fish. For weird monstrosities from the deep-sea +levels he had been known to give as high as ten dollars each. What he +did with all these abominations they never inquired. Sufficient unto +their ignorance was the price thereof. + +Occasionally some ambitious sailor would offer Edith his ingenious +masterpiece of months of painstaking work in the forecastle. This +usually took the form of a fantastic kelp and cocoanut mermaid, or an +elaborately contrived sea-serpent of fish bladders and sea-weeds. One +such offering convinced him that he had been wasting his time. Edith +recognized the subtle distinction between abandoned nature and the +highest art at the first glance. If the fraud was sufficiently horrible +and otherwise pleasing she would buy it for her own collection, +intending, as she told her father when he protested at her growing +collection of freaks, some day to write a monograph on marine diseases +of the imagination. + +Left to himself the Doctor returned to the open window. Spring fever +was upon him. Work and all its paraphernalia appeared as an insult to +nature. Accordingly he yielded himself to the soft influences of the +warm breeze and the flashing blue and silver glory of the bay. Standing +there he let the memories of a busy lifetime stream through his mind +and out to the future with all its promise of great things to be. + +Ever since his school days he had been bitten by the ambition to trace +life to its secret source and lay bare its mystery. To create life, +or at least to control and direct it when once created, that was the +great problem. Then, when he had begun to learn something of systematic +biology, he had seen the utter hopelessness of a direct attack. +Wasting no time he had turned his energies elsewhere, to humbler +things, in order that he might, if lucky, surprise the enemy unaware. +For he realized that a wholesale creation of a fully living organism +by artificial means was probably centuries beyond the capabilities +of science, and his was too high an intelligence to waste itself on +unsolvable riddles. If in laborious investigations of lesser problems +he might catch a glimpse of the goal he would be happy, provided only +that his search was not otherwise fruitless and bore abundant good to +humanity in the alleviation of pain and preventable misery. But he +would not waste his gifts on crass impossibilities. + +His course at first had been hard and indirect. Forced by poverty to +work his way through school and college, he had come early to a wisdom +far beyond his years. With absolute clarity he had seen that freedom +from worry over money matters is the first essential for genuinely +creative scientific work. While constantly harassed by poverty he had +been powerless to concentrate his abilities on any problem worth the +solving. He therefore decided in his second college year to swerve +aside temporarily from his ambition and make money. To the regret of +his instructors he abruptly threw up the study of medicine and changed +over to geology. + +The new science was congenial. At many points it touched the past story +of life if not the present. Putting every ounce of brain and energy +into the work, he mastered the geology of coal and oil formations and +graduated easily at the top of his class. + +He was now twenty. The day after graduation he shipped as a coal passer +on a steamer bound for China. Arrived there, ignorant though he was of +the language, he disappeared into the interior. + +His subsequent career is one of the classics of mining engineering. In +eighteen months he had located one of the richest anthracite fields +in the history of coal. Moreover he had obtained from the Chinese +government certain concessions which, if worked, would make him one of +the hundred richest white men in the world. All he had to do was to +stay on the ground and let his prize develop. Capital would come almost +unasked. + +It was here that he showed the stuff he was made of. Instead of +degenerating into a money-making machine he placed all his rights in +the hands of an English company. Within six weeks he had sold out for +ten million dollars cash all of his interest which, if nursed with +ordinary business acumen, would have netted him a hundred million +before he died. But he had no time to squander in making money. The +most precious years of his life were slipping through his hands, and he +was still but half educated for the work he had set himself. + +While idling about Shanghai waiting to close up his business he met +and married the English girl who for eight years made him a flawlessly +happy man. + +Having invested his fortune in government bonds he forgot it and +proceeded with his wife to Vienna to finish his medical education. That +accomplished, he left his wife and infant daughter with his mother, +and took a year's holiday with half a dozen friends exploring the +southernmost extremity of Patagonia in a fossil hunting expedition. + +The fossils aroused his purely biological interests. On returning +to civilization he again went with his wife to Europe. There he +specialized for two years in the great centres of pure biology. At +twenty-seven, on returning to America, he felt himself fitted to begin +useful work. + +Resolutely putting from his mind the fantastic hope of discovering the +origin of life, he concentrated his powers on the difficult problems +of cell growth. Thus gradually and naturally was he led to the study +of cancer, on which he had now been engaged for about ten years, +publishing little but learning much, if only in a negative way. Always, +subconsciously, at the back of his mind loomed up the greater problem. +In his reading and in his experimental investigations he let slip no +chance of following out the slightest clue. These excursions into the +unpractical sometimes cost him weeks of precious time. Yet he never +regretted them, for the least profitable yielded two or three definite +facts worth the having. + +With singular detachment he had kept his mind free from speculative +theories. He followed neither Driesch nor Loeb. To him vitalism and +mechanism, as judged by their positive achievements, were equally +impotent to describe life. One side philosophized without experiment, +while the other, experimenting blindly without reason, contented +itself with a vague reference to electricity as the probable source +of all living phenomena. Profound technicalities like the intriguing +"polarity" and "heliotropism" that seemed to the unthinking to +"explain" so much while in fact they explained nothing but their +authors' taste in names, left him cold. All this might be the first +step, but surely it was no more. With the rapidly changing fashions in +science and the influx of men of genius into biology, ten years might +see polarity displaced by some newer fetish equally noncommittal. In +the meantime he would remain neutral. + +The door opened softly and Edith appeared. + +"Oh," she said, "you're not working. I'll bring him up, then." + +"Bring who up?" + +But Edith had vanished. Presently she reappeared, ushering in a +gray-bearded stranger, evidently a seafarer. The new-comer carried a +tar-soaked box about four feet long and ten inches square. + +"This is Captain Anderson," she said. "He insisted on showing you what +he has brought himself." + +"Pleased to meet you, Captain," said the Doctor, advancing to shake +hands with his visitor. "Won't you sit down?" + +"After you have seen what's in here." + +Captain Anderson produced a huge clasp knife and proceeded methodically +to pry off the lid of his long box. As he worked crystals of rock salt +spilled out over the table and floor. The mess seemed to trouble him +not at all. Evidently he had great faith in the soothing efficacy of +his pickled monster, whatever it might be. + +At last the cover was off and the closely packed salt invitingly ready +to be scooped out by the handful. The Captain used both hands. Then, +reaching in, he got the deceased monstrosity by what had been its neck, +gave it a vigorous shake to free it from the last crystals of salt, and +asked complacently, + +"Isn't he a little peach?" + +Edith, case-hardened as she was to monstrosities, could not repress a +gasp and a shudder of repulsion. Lane looked paralyzed. + +"Good Lord," he exclaimed, "what is it? Bird or reptile?" + + + + + 2 + + CAPTAIN ANDERSON'S STORY + + +The Doctor and Edith stood dumb before Captain Anderson's dried +monster. Its elaborate hideousness, unlike that of any living thing, +held them with a perverse fascination. Neither bird, reptile nor fish, +it was an incredible mongrel of all three. The serpent-like, heavily +scaled belly contradicted the bat-like wings with their short, bristly +feathers; while the exaggerated beak, crammed full of cruel yellow +teeth, revealed by the hard backward snarl of the horny lips, refuted +the monstrosity's claims to be considered a bird. Flattened against its +withered flanks were two lizard hands armed with ugly claws, to one of +which still adhered the dried scales of the last fish the creature had +devoured. + +A skeptic at first glance would have declared the creature an +impossible fraud perpetrated by some over-imaginative sailor in his +misused leisure. But Dr. Lane, also at the first glance, thought he +knew better. + +"It's only a baby of its kind," he said. "The parents have been dead +millions of years. This is the one perfect specimen in existence." The +Doctor thought he knew what he was talking about. + +"Then there are others like it?" Captain Anderson asked, somewhat +crestfallen. + +"No, only their fossilized bones and impressions of a few feathers +in the rocks that were mud when these things flew. The most perfect +impression was found in a mine in Bulgaria about four years ago. But +it was only a mark on the stone--not a shadow to this beauty. Where on +earth did you get it?" + +"In the South Polar seas." + +"Frozen into the ice?" the Doctor hazarded. He recalled instantly the +reputed discoveries of long extinct mastodons in Alaska, Northern +Siberia and elsewhere, their meat as fresh as on the day the giants +were trapped on the ice floes hundreds of centuries ago. + +"No," the Captain replied. "This thing was still warm when we picked it +up. It could not have been dead more than fifteen minutes." + +"But how on earth--" + +"First let me ask you one or two questions. What is it?" + +"I don't know," the Doctor confessed doubtfully. "At first I thought +it might be the missing link between the reptiles and the birds--a +half-way creature something like a pterodactyl and not quite an +archaeopterix. The last is the ancestor of all the birds. We know only +its fossil remains. Then I thought--but, here see for yourself." + +Dr. Lane strode over to the bookshelves and selected a large green +portfolio. "Put your beast on the table and compare it with this," he +said, exhibiting a photographic reproduction of the famous Bulgarian +fossil. "Now, isn't yours like this?" + +"In the main, yes. But that snake-bird in the mud had no scales on its +belly," the Captain objected. + +"So much the better for yours. Either this is a forefather of the known +reptilian ancestor of the birds or it is a distinctly new species." + +"Now for my second question," the Captain continued. "What is this +thing worth?" + +"That depends upon whom you ask to buy it. A fishmonger down the street +might give you ten cents for it as a curiosity. Then again the American +Museum of Natural History would offer you, I imagine, whatever it could +afford. For this specimen is priceless." + +"Very well. I'm only an ex-mining engineer and an old whaler. I know +next to nothing about such things and must take your word for the value +of this. Now, my last question. How much will you give me for it?" + +Dr. Lane hesitated, but only for a second. + +"Nothing," he replied. + +"Then that's settled," the Captain retorted, restoring his despised +monstrosity to its coffin. + +"Hold on a minute, Captain. By itself your wonderful find is of little +or no value to me. I care only for diseased things. This is perfectly +sound. A museum is the proper place for it after the right men have +worked out its anatomy in detail. When I said that I would give you +nothing for it I meant what I said. But I will give you a considerable +sum if you take me to the exact spot where you found this thing, as +you said, still warm." + +The Captain desisted in his efforts to scoop up all the salt spilled in +his first exuberant haste. + +"When you say a considerable sum what do you mean?" + +"Name what you think right and I'll see." + +"Ten thousand dollars?" + +"It is not too much. I would offer even more under certain conditions." + +"For instance?" + +"That you could show me where to find a living specimen like this one +you found so recently dead. Can you do that?" + +"Let me be aboveboard with you from the beginning, Dr. Lane. I can't." + +"Why not?" + +"Because we picked this up in the sea a hundred and twenty miles from +the nearest land." + +"It had fallen into the water from exhaustion and been drowned?" + +"I guess not. In fact I know that it never flew the hundred and twenty +miles from the land. For I saw it roll up from below directly under the +stern of our ship." + +"Did it leap out like a salmon? If so that was a queer performance for +a creature built like this." + +"No, it boiled out, dead as a dummy." + +The doctor regarded the grizzled whale pirate with rather more than a +touch of suspicion. + +"If I had not seen this thing with my own eyes," he remarked, "I should +disbelieve your whole story." + +"You haven't heard it yet," the Captain dryly rejoined. "Before I tell +it will you agree either to pay me ten thousand dollars for it or to +keep still about it after I leave this house?" + +"That's fair enough. I agree." + +"And this young lady?" the Captain queried, with an interrogative +glance at Edith. + +"My daughter Edith, Captain Anderson. Pardon me for not having +introduced you before." + +"Oh, we had a fine row in the garden," Edith laughed, "before I came +up. I agree too, Captain Anderson, if you will let me stay and listen. +Only please cover up the hideous thing before you begin. I shall have +nightmares for a month as it is." + +With a laugh the Captain replaced the cover of his box. But the Doctor, +after a moment's hesitation removed it, telling Edith she might turn +her back if the creature's beauty overpowered her. + +"I want to have a good long look at this thing," he said. "It isn't +what I thought it might be. Well, Captain, how did you happen to come +to me with your find?" + +"It was on the mate's advice. One of my men, it seems, once got five +dollars from your daughter for a fake mermaid. I thought," he added +with a malicious glint in his steel gray eyes, "she might be willing to +give me ten for a real one." + +"You may be sure, Captain Anderson," Edith retorted indignantly, "that +I knew perfectly well what I was buying. And if I gave your man five +dollars for a wretched fake worth fifty cents it was because the poor +fellow looked half-clothed and underfed. Really, Captain Anderson, you +should treat your men better." + +"He can't have been one of mine. The only thing my men suffer from is a +lack of rum." + +"That's fortunate," the Doctor interposed. "Otherwise they might pass +by feathered reptiles as mere creations of a rummy imagination." + +"True," the Captain agreed. "As a matter of fact all my men know of you +and your hobby. I was only trying to get a rise out of your daughter +for what she did to me in the garden. We're quits now." + +"Are you sure?" Edith asked with exasperating calm. + +"Not so sure as I was a second ago," the honest Captain admitted. "No +wonder your father lets you do the buying. Now, Dr. Lane," he continued +with a change in tone, "as I said in the beginning I want this whole +business to be open and aboveboard. So I should like you to know that +one of the main reasons for my troubling you at all is the fact that +you are a rich man with barrels of money to spend on your hobbies. I +have known of you for years. They still talk of your big coal strike +over in China. Now a man who knows as much as you do about coal should +be able to appreciate the value of oil." + +"To a certain extent," the Doctor smiled. "I have sense enough to let +wildcatting alone." + +"I haven't. And that, in a word, is why I'm here. Unless I can +persuade you for once to invest heavily in oil I shall have to take my +queer fish elsewhere." + +"Perhaps I can afford to throw ten thousand dollars down your oil well +to feed the fish at the bottom. Go ahead and see if you can sell me." + +"Then here goes. Don't call me a liar until I've finished. I shall tell +you only enough to let you see for yourself whether you want to come in +or stay out and forget all about me and my queer fowl. + +"I was educated as a mining engineer, but gave up my profession to +follow the sea. For the past twenty years I have been master and part +owner of a whaling vessel. + +"About eighteen months ago, having cleaned up for the season, we +started north. We were in the South Polar Seas, to the east of Cape +Horn and considerably south. That is close enough description of our +position for the present. The nearest coastline of the Antarctic +continent lay about a hundred and twenty miles southeast of us. The +season, though well advanced, was extraordinarily mild and open. For +eight days we had sighted no ice. + +"One night shortly before eleven I was awakened by a peculiar jarring +of the whole ship. It lasted fully forty seconds. The mate and the man +at the wheel also felt it. Like me they could make nothing of it till +daylight. Then we guessed. For the water was a peculiar milky green +as if muddied by finely powdered chalk. There had evidently been a +submarine earthquake and a volcanic eruption on the ocean floor during +the night. All that morning the water grew milkier and milkier. By +noon it was the color of a dirty river and as sluggish as molasses. + +"Suddenly, about two o'clock in the afternoon, the whole surface of the +water began to boil up in huge bubbles like a cauldron of hot porridge. +The ship rattled and clattered as if it were being shaken to bits. The +men, of course, acted like a pack of panic-stricken idiots. Discipline +went to the devil. That fool of a mate's account of what probably was +happening a mile or two beneath us drove them clean crazy. Then I took +a fist in things and knocked some sense into their silly heads. + +"But for the infernal boiling there was a dead calm. It was shortly +after three o'clock that the first great bubble of black oil burst with +a gurgling plop half over the decks. Inside of ten minutes the sea was +a heaving blanket of heavy oil three feet thick. If only we had been +a fleet of tankers with pumping gear we could have made our fortunes +within a radius of half a mile. Sheer to the horizon the whole sea was +a dance of sleek black bubbles as big as whales. + +"About five o'clock the oily mess began to boil more furiously. Our +decks were one black slop from stem to stern. Then without warning a +great gusher of sticky brown tar burst right under our bows and shot +roaring straight up a hundred and fifty feet above our masts in a +tumbling spout. + +"We had banked our fires at the beginning of the row. Otherwise we +should have been ablaze in a sea of fire hours before. Now the filthy +brown tar began streaming down our funnels to the boilers. There was +only one thing to do, stuck there as we were, and we did it, half +smothered in the sticky brown mess. Somehow or another we got the +funnels capped with tarpaulins. There we rocked and rattled in that +boiling filth till dark, unable to get up steam and dodge the worst of +it, stuck fast under that slapping deluge of brown muck. + +"Night came down slowly. Except for the eruption of oil and tar, and +the queer deadness of the air, the last hours of that rotten day were +like those of any other open weather twilight in the South Polar Seas. +Just as it began to get too dusky to see clearly that beastly tar spout +gave a mumbling gulp and dropped down into the pitch as dead as a +stone. That was the end of it. + +"We thought our troubles were over. And so they were in a way. I sent +the mate below to kick the men up to swab the decks. The sea was still +boiling violently when he left. I was alone on deck when the next +nightmare, and the jumpiest of all, leapt from the sea." + +Captain Anderson paused for a moment in his narrative, seeking the +right words to convince his curious audience of his veracity. + +"The mate had just disappeared," he resumed, "when a terrific jar, as +if the ship were being hit with a hundred battering rams, warned me +that the devil was about to break loose. And he did. A huge chunk of +black rock--the size of the Baptist Church down the street--shot from +the heaving oil about a hundred yards east of the ship, whizzed clear +over us in a crazy curve and sent up a whooping splash of black muck +as it dived that nearly swamped us. If that chunk had been aimed a +trifle lower I shouldn't be here now. + +"Well, that was only the first of them. At intervals of half a mile to +a mile apart the whole sputtering mess of black oil began to spit up +the floor of the sea in hunks of black rock as big as city hotels. None +of them broke loose or hit closer to the ship than half a mile. The +first was our one close call. + +"That fool of a mate got the men on deck just when the show was at +its best. They let out one yell and ducked back to their holes in the +forecastle. The idiots missed a sight they'll never get another chance +of seeing, for in five minutes that particular row was over. Either +there was nothing left on the bottom of the sea to be thrown up, or +sufficient vents had been torn in the floor for what was to come next. +It came with a gurgling, oily rush. + +"Before it happened, however, the black oil suddenly stopped heaving. +No more bubbles rose. Evidently the intermittent supply of oil from +below had given place to slow, even gushers. The surface of the oil +became almost flat with the whirling ends of stream lines spinning +up and twisting out everywhere. It looked just like a gigantic black +millrace, gnarled over like the water of a river half a mile below a +high fall. + +"The mate and I are the only witnesses of what seethed up through the +crawling oil. The only human witnesses, I mean. For if our pickled +friend in the salt there could speak he might spin us a good yarn. He +came up in that slow, churning motion of the pitch, one of thousands +like him, and one small fry in a stew of huge beasts whose horny +ugliness made him and his bigger sisters look like rosy June brides. + +"All the three hundred foot nightmares of our dragon-ridden fairy-tale +days boiled lazily up in that infernal black stew. Lizards as big +as small trains with grinning mouths jammed full of six-inch teeth +rolled over and over in the swashing oil as dead as Trojans, and huge +armor plated, four-legged brutes the size of locomotives twirled +round and round belly up in the twilight. Some of them had been split +wide open, and their insides, black with oil, steamed and smoked like +slaughter houses. Smaller beasts in thousands, and a thick scum of +broken insects, littered the crawling oil between the slowly plunging +carcasses of the big fellows. + +"The mate is a fussy man given to footling hobbies. Photography is his +messiest. He now dived below to fetch up his camera. Any fool could +have told the idiot there was no use trying to get a snapshot in that +light. But he kept at it like a mule and wasted five dollars' worth of +films. He found out what an extravagant fool he had been about three +weeks later when he got time to develop his rubbish. + +"His idiocy gave me an idea. Nobody would believe our unsupported +story. So I took a line and fished up this freak." He indicated the +bird-reptile in its box. "I should have liked one of the big lizard +brutes, but that we had no room to stow it on deck. And anyway the +light was about gone." + +"You said, Captain," Dr. Lane began, "that your catch was evidently +just dead when you hauled it in. How do you know?" + +"Because I stuck my knife into its neck to make sure. Thick warm blood +oozed out. Here, I'll show you the place." + +Once more he exhibited his scaly, feathered monster. It was as he had +said. There was plainly visible on the left side of the neck a deep +gash. + +"It's a queer fish and a queerer story," Edith remarked, with a glance +of distaste at the poor pickled monster. + +Dr. Lane agreed with his daughter's estimate. + +"For all its strangeness," he said, "I am inclined to take a chance. +Captain Anderson, I will back your oil stock to the extent of ten +thousand dollars, on one condition. You must take me to the exact spot +where you picked up this wonderful creature. Mind, I am not swallowing +your yarn whole. It is just possible that in your excitement you saw +things that weren't there. The light, according to your own statement, +was about gone." + +"But the mate?" Captain Anderson protested. "Was he crazy too?" + +"Possibly. Any psychologist will tell you that such things do happen +frequently. Collective hallucination is the scientific name for such +a state of affairs. Both you and he, I suppose, have seen pictures, +or restorations, of extinct animals like the ones you thought you saw +boiling up through the oil--dinosaurs, huge lizards three hundred feet +long, the ceratops, and the like? You, Captain, must have seen such +things when you were studying mining engineering." + +"I know I have," the Captain admitted. "And the mate is such a +hobby-ridden fool, always messing about libraries and reading rooms +when he is ashore, that doubtless he's in the same fix. For all that +you can't convince me that the whole thing was a nightmare. I saw it." + +"Did any of the men see it too?" Edith asked. "Next morning, I mean." + +"Not the main part of the show. All the heavy brutes had sunk. Nothing +but the scum of broken insects floated through the night." + +"It sounds queer," was Edith's frank comment. + +"Indeed it does, Captain," her father agreed. "Now this is my guess. +You found this bird-reptile right enough, for here it is. I don't +think," he said with a smile, "that even I can explain it away to your +satisfaction. What you took for thick warm blood oozing from the slash +in its neck was nothing but brown tar." + +"Well, suppose it was," the Captain retorted. "What does that prove?" + +"Everything. And in a perfectly reasonable way. I accept the eruption +of oil from beneath the sea floor as real. Your crew saw that?" + +The Captain nodded. + +"Very well, then, it's all clear. First let me tell you about a +somewhat similar state of affairs less than two hundred miles from here +in Southern California. It is at the famous asphalt and oil-hole on the +Rancho La Brea. Some years ago the geologists from the University of +California began digging out of the oily ooze all manner of bones and +other remains of extinct animals--skulls of sabre tooth tigers that +haven't lived in this part of the world for the past hundred thousand +years, and many others equally interesting. + +"The explanation of these remains is quite simple. Ages ago drinking +pools of rainwater collected on the sticky surface of the oily ooze. +The prehistoric beasts, not knowing the danger, picked their way out +to drink. On trying to return to solid ground they quickly mired +themselves like flies on tanglefoot. Now is it likely that in an entire +continent of tar holes this one at La Brea should be unique as an +animal trap?" + +"So you believe my reptile or whatever he is was thrown up from some +prehistoric asphalt hole buried under the floor of the Antarctic Ocean?" + +"Undoubtedly, Captain." + +The Captain grinned behind his gray beard. "A thoroughly scientific +theory no doubt, Doctor. As such it does you credit. According to you +my reptile should be full of brown tar, not dried blood and other +stuff. Suppose you cut him open and see." + +"That's a practical test," the Doctor assented, rising to get his +implements. "If he has anything inside him besides pitch, like a badly +cured mummy, I'll double my offer." + +"Then you might as well hand me your check for twenty thousand now. +I'll equal your offer. If you find nothing but mummy pudding inside +I'll let you have my yarn for the stuffing." + +The Doctor did not reply immediately. He was too busy making his +incision where it would do the least damage to the appearance of the +specimen. Presently he drew up with a gasp of astonishment. + +"Why," he exclaimed, "it's as fresh as a newly pickled salmon." + +"Of course it is. I packed it in salt the minute the mate had finished +washing it off with rum and turpentine." + +"Great Scott what a find! Edith, bring me the largest of those jars +about a third full of alcohol. This beats me. The thing must have been +miraculously preserved for ages. My offer stands, Captain. Take me to +the place where you found this and the twenty thousand is yours the day +we start." + +"You will raise that to fifty thousand when I tell you the rest," the +Captain prophesied confidently. "I asked you not to call me a liar +until I had finished. As a matter of fact I am only half-way through." + +"Have you more specimens?" + +"No, but I have a round gross of first-class photographs." + +"But you said the mate's pictures were a failure." + +"So they were that time. He had better luck the next when I could boss +him properly." + +"Prehistoric animals?" + +"Something much better, unless I'm badly off." + +"Do go on," Edith begged, "and tell us what else you found." + +"In a moment. Shall I telephone the mate to bring up his pictures?" + +"Yes, do!" they exclaimed together, and Edith handed him the desk +telephone. + +Having got his number Anderson asked if Ole Hansen were still about. +The answer apparently was satisfactory, for Ole was asked to step to +the telephone. + +"It's all right, Ole," the Captain shouted, as if his faithful mate +were still in the vicinity of the South Pole. "The Doctor has swallowed +it all so far, bait, hook and sinker. Bring the rest of the junk up +here to his house. Get Christensen to show you the way. Jump on a +street car and shake a leg." + + + + + 3 + + A PUZZLE FOR DRAKE + + +"While we are waiting for Hansen," the Captain resumed, "I may as well +tell you how he collected his photographs. As the blundering idiot will +probably manage to lose himself between the gate and the back door, I +have plenty of time." + +"Is your mate Hansen so stupid as you make out?" Edith asked with +genuine interest. "If so he must be worth studying." + +"Stupider, Miss Lane. You never met his equal for cracked theorizing. +Well, let us leave him to find his way here and get on with our +business. I'll tell you what I want from you, doctor, when I reach the +end of my story." + +"Although you may not be aware of the fact," Dr. Lane replied shrewdly, +"you have already told me. You want me to foot the bill for an +expedition to track down those new oil fields in your name. Well, it's +all right with me. I'll take the fossils and anything else in that line +and you can have the oil. Convince me that I should go in heavily and +you need have no worry about finances." + +"Hansen's pictures will put the finishing touches to what I begin. +Well, except for one thing, the morning after the shakeup was just like +any other perfectly clear South Polar calm. The sea was still covered +with heavy black oil to a depth of several feet. Only a long, even +swell heaved it gently up and down in billows a mile long. + +"During the night I had ordered the fires drawn. We dared take no +chances with the oil-soaked decks and rigging. With the first light +the mate and I got the men out to clean up the mess. We drove them +like niggers to keep their minds off the oil. It wouldn't do when we +reached port to have them blabbing to the first shark they met. Later +we decided to take the whole crew in on the scheme. They are to get a +third share of all profits if they keep their mouths shut. That seems +to be the only safe way. They're as mum as clams. + +"All that day we sweated to get the worst of the oil off or covered up +so it wouldn't be noticed when we reached civilization. By nightfall +we had done a pretty thorough job. I decided to explain the oil-soaked +hull by saying it was an idea of Hansen's to use crude oil instead of +paint as a weather defier. It sounds just like one of his theories. + +"The next question was how to swim out of the soup. With steam up +of course it would have been easy. But the mate and I agreed--for +once--that it would be a fool's trick to start any kind of a fire. The +air reeked of natural gas and oil fumes. A spark, and the whole sea +would be hell. There was nothing for it but to trust to the sails. By +dark we were fully rigged and whistling for the breeze. + +"It came like a thunderclap from seven directions at once. All in all +that was the worst blow I have weathered through in twenty years of +dirty squalls from the equator to Cape Horn. The mate of course had a +theory to account for the suddenness of the hurricane. Like most of his +efforts it came five minutes late. I'll tell you of it presently. + +"For the moment I didn't give a damn for theories, being more +interested in trying to save our masts. Except for a few whistling +ribbons like rags on a clothesline the sails were gone. The filthy +black oil broke over the decks in buckets and hogsheads, smothering us +whenever we attempted to make a line fast. All our deck tackle went by +the board, knocked clean off the plates by the sledge-hammer kicks of +the heavy pitch. + +"After the first mad wrench the hurricane settled down to a steady, +snoring gale from the north. The ship drove dead ahead for the ice +barrier a hundred and twenty miles south of us. Nothing was to be done. +We could only sit tight for the smash. Unless the wind fell we should +ram the ice cliffs full tilt some time between midnight and dawn. The +wind held. + +"Tired of holding his breath, Hansen suggested that all hands join in +prayer. He is always at it, before meals, at meals and after meals. I +told him to go to hell and took the wheel out of his lily white hands. +In the howling uproar he misunderstood the order. Evidently he thought +I wished him to hold chapel in the forecastle. Anyway there is where I +found him at daybreak with half the crew bellowing Norwegian hymns to +beat the devil. + +"Toward midnight I first noticed a cherry colored glow coming and going +in the sky ahead of the ship. If I thought at all in the mad rush to +the final smash I put the flickering down to an aurora, and tried to +steer a course that would graze the ice when we struck. By my reckoning +we should have been smashed about three o'clock in the morning. Four +o'clock passed and still the ship staggered on through the oil under +the terrific gale. I began to think I must have misjudged our speed. +Five o'clock came, and with the first light the wind began to drop. In +half an hour it was broad daylight over a sea with only a film of oil +coating the waves, and not a sign of the ice barrier ahead. I left the +wheel to hammer some sense into those hymn singing idiots of Hansen's. + +"When they shot up on deck the wind was no longer a gale and the ship +was manageable. Hansen said we had been saved by his bawling in the +forecastle. About an hour later he sighted the volcano. Then he gave it +the honor and glory for everything, including the wind. + +"For a stretch of at least twenty miles the great ice barrier had been +wiped out. Whether it had sunk, or whether it had been lifted up bodily +by the eruption and tossed back on the continent I don't know. Hansen +says the rock and ice just cracked apart that far in the earthquake. +Anyhow the twenty miles of solid ice and rock was gone. In its place +stretched a long broad inlet as straight as a street running clear out +of sight into the continent. + +"The wind dropped abruptly to a mere breeze, and the last of the oil +film fell away in our wake. All about us the water was as white as +milk, thick and soupy. + +"When we came fully to our senses we noticed the unusual warmth. The +air was as balmy as a spring day in California. It occurred to me to +test the temperature of the water. One of the men drew up a bucketful +of the milky soup. It was lukewarm. + +"A yell from that excitable idiot Hansen made me drop the bucket. He +was pointing up the inlet to a huge pillar of ink billowing up like +the smoke from a burning oil well. I judged it must have been at least +fifty miles from where we were. But I had no means then of making more +than a crude guess. + +"As we stood gaping at it the whole mass of ink was suddenly sucked +down out of the sky. Only a dirty brown mist marked the place where it +had been. + +"'It's an eruption,' Hansen was good enough to explain. He meant well, +but who ever saw an eruption acting down instead of up? There was no +time to argue it out with him, for while we were looking the show began +in earnest. + +"First an enormous black smoke ring teetered crazily up and mushroomed +out over the sky line like an umbrella. Then a solid pillar of red +flames gushed up after the smoke. My common sense was working in spite +of me, for I found myself counting off the seconds. When I got to +fifty-eight, the fist of the explosion struck us with all its force. +Being ready for it I was braced against the funnel with my hands over +my ears. Hansen, theorizing as usual, wasn't prepared. Nor were the +men. For an hour after they had picked themselves up they went about +staring like owls. + +"If my count was right the volcano must be two hundred fifty to three +hundred miles inland. At that distance I had no fears for the ship. + +"The next thing to do was to get out before something started under our +keel. Before doing so I could not resist the temptation of lowering +a boat to see what had happened ashore--if anything was to be seen +without dangerous delay. I decided to take Hansen and two men to pull +the oars. When he understood what was doing--he was still deaf, like +the rest of the theorizers--he made a dive below to bring up his +everlasting camera and a bale of films. + +"The pull through that beastly warm milk to the shore was both pleasant +and disgusting. How these society women can bathe in hot milk--as I +understand from the Sunday newspapers they do--beats me! That by the +way, however. I see Miss Lane is blushing. Our landing was as easy as a +picnic on a river. We at once tramped inland over the level snowfields +to see what was to be seen. + +"Hansen saw it first. About a mile ahead of us he made out a black dot +on the snow. We made for it as fast as the loosely crystallized surface +would let us. Coming up to it we found a chunk of black rock the size +of a cow. At least that was all of it above the ice and snow. The rest +lay buried in the star-shaped pit which its fall had dented through to +the ice and underlying rock. + +"One side of the rock was smooth. The rest was just a jagged nothing. +Hansen took a photograph of the smooth side. + +"I don't blame him for wanting to find another of the black chunks. Nor +do I criticize him for stopping to take its picture. If the camera had +been mine I should have been just as unreasonable. He dragged us over +that forsaken wilderness of snow and ice for ten mortal hours hunting +black rocks. There was no returning to the ship until he had shot his +last roll of films. In all he got twelve dozen first-class negatives. + +"Once I got him aboard our normal relations were resumed. He recovered +his mind and obeyed orders. We steamed out of that photographer's +heaven without another picture." + +"Are you sure, Captain Anderson," Edith smiled, "that your mate's craze +for photography isn't by your orders too?" + +"Oh, quite. Still, I admit that Hansen is the keeper of my artistic +temperament. Otherwise I should be mincing about Rio de Janeiro in pale +lavender kid gloves instead of boiling blubber on Kerguelen like a +Christian." + +"What was Hansen's explanation of the storm?" Dr. Lane asked. + +"The common-sense one, for a wonder. The sudden rise in temperature +over the land caused the cold air from the sea to rush in toward the +volcano and take us with it." + +"In Hansen I recognize a brother," the Doctor laughed. + +"You won't when you see him," the Captain prophesied grimly. "He looks +like a fat barrel that has been well hammered down. Hullo, here's one +of your mandarins." + +The diplomatic Wong announced in faultless English that a gentleman by +the name of Ole Hansen awaited the Doctor's pleasure. + +"Show him up, Wong." + +Hansen entered, as red as a lobster and shaped like a brandy keg. + +"I've brought the photographs," he announced after the introductions. + +"Dump them on the table and let the Doctor see for himself. They need +no explanation--" + +"But," Hansen expostulated, unburdening himself of his twelve dozen +masterpieces, "I have a theory. If you will let me--" + +"I won't, so don't try." + +Giving his Captain a red explosive look, Hansen sat on the safety +valve and obeyed orders. Heaven only knows what clouds of theories he +generated under the suppression of all that superheated steam. A man +of less robust build must have burst into a thousand hypotheses. The +barrel-shaped Hansen merely swelled and held his peace. + +Meanwhile Dr. Lane was devouring the photographs of the black rocks +with feverish interest. Occasionally he passed one to Edith with a +terse suggestion to "take a look at that." Each picture was that of a +smooth black surface, in many cases badly fissured by the violence of +the explosion which had disrupted the mass from its matrix, densely +incised with pictograms. + +"Call up Drake," the Doctor ordered before he had worked half through +the pile, "and tell him we have a puzzle here that makes the Bolivian +inscriptions look like A. B. C." + +Edith reported that Drake would join them as fast as his legs would let +him. + +"Captain Anderson," the Doctor said, rising, "I'm in with you on this +to the limit of my means. You can have the oil, I'll take the rest. +It's worth more." + + + + + 4 + + THE RIDDLE OF THE ROCKS + + +Lean, lanky, hatless, Drake arrived at the conference breathless and +disheveled. Edith greeted him with applause and a peal of laughter. + +Drake shot one agonized glance at his long legs. Reassured that the +worst had not happened, he drew himself up with the dignity of a stork +and replied in frigid tones, + +"I am perfectly dressed." + +"Where did you leave your tie and socks, John?" + +Drake groaned. The telephone message had interrupted the stream of +his Mexican musings and here he was, just as he had flung himself +together. Striking negligées in public were his specialty. Given +ten years more of bachelor freedom and he would evolve into the +ideal absent-minded professor who moons through the movies and the +comic supplements, but scarcely at all through the business-like +atmosphere of a living university. Drake was one of the extremely rare +exceptions. Like many other mortals afflicted with the same failing, +Drake always indignantly repudiated the insinuation that he was not as +other men. Only repeated ocular proof, which he promptly forgot after +each application, convinced him when he was a walking comic. Edith's +attitude toward this embryo delight was a little philistine. She should +have encouraged him for the sake of art. It surely would be a great +pity to thwart his almost unique proclivities to play the idiotic part +demanded of him by the practical man. And what would be the net gain of +her motherly efforts? Drake at thirty-five would be outwardly like any +ordinary scholar--except of course the professional quacks--and quite +indistinguishable from any floor walker or bank cashier. + +"Never mind, Drake," the Doctor consoled him. "I'll lend you things +before dinner. In the meantime, here is something more important." + +He handed the ruffled young archaeologist a pocket lens and one of +Hansen's photographs. With a nod of acknowledgment to Captain Anderson +and the mate whom the Doctor introduced, Drake seated himself near the +open window and peered through the lens at the photograph. + +The fifteen minute silence lengthened to twenty and the atmosphere of +the study grew unpleasantly tense. Half an hour passed without a sound. +At last Drake rose and handed back the picture to Dr. Lane. + +"Well, what do you make of it?" the Doctor demanded. + +"Do you want the truth?" + +"Of course." + +"Very well. I do not wish to insult either of your guests," Drake began +with anxious diffidence. "Especially as I have just been introduced," +he added with an apprehensive glance at the compressed, husky Hansen. +"However, you asked for the truth. I may as well let you have it before +I know what parts precisely Mr. Hansen and Captain Anderson play in +this affair. That photograph, in my opinion, is a clever fake." + +"What!" the Captain exploded, bounding out of his chair. "You're crazy. +Tell him about it, Ole." + +But the outraged Hansen was beyond coherent speech. One of his round +gross of masterpieces, and therefore the whole twelve dozen, had been +pronounced fraudulent by this herring-gutted young dude without a shirt +to his back or a collar to his neck. + +"You'll eat those words," he spluttered in a turkey-cock fury. + +Drake, with roseate visions of an early martyrdom in the cause of +Truth, stood his ground before the advancing barrel of high explosives. + +"Gentlemen!" the Doctor intervened sharply. "This isn't the forecastle. +Be seated, Mr. Hansen. Drake, remember where you are. I won't have you +making a prize ring out of my study. Sit down and explain yourself." + +The bewildered Drake, by nature a pacifist to the marrow of his bones, +subsided into a chair. Hansen, with a few choice compliments in +Norwegian, also sat. Captain Anderson opened the attack. + +"You're dead wrong, Mr. Drake. As a man of common-sense, would you +suppose it likely that any fakir has money enough to manufacture a +hundred and forty-four frauds weighing fifty to five hundred tons +apiece? You wouldn't, eh? Well, neither would I. You've only seen the +picture of one. Show him the rest, Dr. Lane." + +Retiring once more with his glass to the window, Drake made a rapid +inspection of the entire series of photographs. After the first few +his frankly skeptical expression changed rapidly to bewilderment and +finally to intense interest. Beginning again with the first he ran +more slowly through the series, selecting fourteen of the pictures for +further consideration. + +"Well," said the Captain, "what do you make of them now?" + +Like most specialists Drake saw his beloved hobby in everything. + +"Pictograms," he announced incisively. + +"Real or fake?" Hansen demanded with a red scowl. + +"Real, I should say." + +"What significance, if any, have they?" the Doctor inquired. + +"That I don't know. In fact this is a problem that may well take fifty +years or a century to solve." + +"I have a theory--" Hansen began, but the rude Captain nipped it +cruelly in the bud. + +"Bother your theory!" he snapped. "Let us hear what Mr. Drake has to +say." + +"Perhaps," Drake hesitated, "if you told me where these pictures were +taken I might be able to form a more intelligent opinion." + +"No," the Doctor objected, "we want an expert's unbiased estimate. Mr. +Drake," he continued, "is probably the best man in the world for our +purpose. Whatever he decides will be worth learning and absolutely +without prejudice. Go ahead, Drake. Take your time." + +Drake picked up the fourteen pictures which he had selected from the +pile. + +"These," he said, "seem to go together. They are parts, I judge, of +some much larger inscription. The rest of the pictures seem to be +dislocated, but a close examination would be necessary before reaching +a definite conclusion. I feel certain, however, of one very curious +fact. Two widely separated ages of art are represented in these entire +series. This feature is extremely puzzling for one peculiarity. Any +archaeologist will tell you that two such periods of art are never +of equal brilliance. Yet these pictograms, in respect of artistic +excellence, are all on a par--and a very high one at that. Now these," +he continued, exhibiting the fourteen, "are not by any means nearly the +whole of their story. They are nothing more than disjointed fragments. +Yet they are the one evidence of some sort of continuity in the whole +lot. On them, if at all, we must base our attempt at decipherment." + +"I told you we should have spent a week looking for the rest," Captain +Anderson bellowed at the indignant Hansen. "Why did you drag me back to +the ship?" + +"It was you who got as fussy as an old woman and dragged me back," Ole +retorted, swelling ominously. "I knew we hadn't enough--" + +"Oh, well. Go on, Mr. Drake." + +"As I was saying," Drake resumed, "these fourteen hang together. But +they are evidently not by any means the whole story. However they +are enough to show that there must be some consistent scheme running +through the lot. Whether I shall be able to unravel the tangle is +another question. At present I doubt whether the inscriptions are more +than mere picture writing. If so, what meaning are we to give all these +excellent representations, literally by the thousands, of impossible +monsters?" + +"Not so impossible as you think," Lane objected. "Had your education +been less lopsided you would recognize many of these monsters as +first-class and highly probably restorations of extinct animals. They +are life-like to an amazing degree." + +Such was Dr. Lane's first opinion, reached after only a cursory +examination of those remarkable inscriptions. He has since modified his +estimate profoundly. Attentive study under suggestions from Drake in +fact wrought a radical change in the Doctor's view within the year. For +the present, however, it made a fair enough working guess. + +"I must disagree with you," Drake replied. "In a way I can appreciate +the obvious fact that these pictured monsters are vividly life-like, +although I never saw anything resembling them. But in a more +significant sense they are strikingly artificial and, if I may make a +rough hypothesis, intentionally so. The people who cut these rows upon +rows of pictures into the rocks must have been in a highly advanced +state of civilization. The very perfection of the art was the chief +thing that made me suspicious at first. Our own stone-cutters with all +their modern appliances could do no better today. Now is it not at +least curious, I ask you, that artists capable of such excellent work +should deliberately go out of their way to cast an air of unlife-like +unreality over certain aspects of their art? I shall not attempt +at present to support my contention that the art is intentionally +fantastic. The evidence is here; examine it for yourselves. Again, +another circumstance roused my suspicions at once. There is a complete +absence of any attempt to represent the human figure. How are we to +explain this? I confess I don't know. Such a lack is unheard of in the +art of any known race." + +"Would you expect to find portraits of human beings in a treatise, say, +on crabs?" + +"Yes," Hansen promptly and unexpectedly replied, with a hard stare at +the Captain. + +"I'll crab you when we get aboard," the Captain promised sweetly. "Your +style is improving, Ole. But you must not interrupt the speaker. This +is not a labor temple." + +"I see your point, Doctor," Drake admitted. "Yet what race of human +beings would go to all this trouble to cut into hard stone a work on +prehistoric animals--as you say these are--when paper and printers' ink +are so cheap?" + +"Suppose printing hadn't been invented when these inscriptions were cut +into the rocks?" + +"Your hypothesis is fantastic. What--" + +"I have a theory--" Hansen interrupted with desperate eagerness, but +the Captain squashed it. + +"Ole!" + +"Since Drake is all at sea," the Doctor smiled, "perhaps it would be as +well to hear what Mr. Hansen has to say." + +"All right, Ole. Get it off your chest and don't take till next Sunday." + +"It's like this," Ole began, rising to give his utterance all the +impressiveness of his rotund authority. "I agree with Dr. Lane and +therefore disagree with Mr. Drake. Those pictures are life-like. They +are life itself! And now I tell you why. + +"Two years ago in the Sailors' Free Reading Room at Rio de Janeiro +I saw a book with pictures of extinct animals from some French and +Spanish caves. Now who made those pictures? The damn fool who found +them?" + +"Ole!" + +"All right, Captain. I forgot the lady. No, the d ..., the fool I mean, +who found those pictures did not make them. He had not brains enough, +not what you call the artistic genius, to draw like that. Nobody any +longer has so much genius. Those pictures were made by men who had +never seen what you call modern art. They were too good, too much like +nature, only better--if you know what I mean. Did the great Michael +Angelo ever paint a herd of wild buffaloes? No. Michael Angelo only +painted flocks of big she angels out of his head. Then came Rubenstein. +Did he--" + +"It's getting late, Ole. Cut out the wild asses and the encyclopaedia +and come to your theory." + +"I am arriving, Captain. Therefore, I say, those long extinct buffaloes +were drawn by men who had seen buffaloes, who had lived with them _en +famille_ as the French say. And therefore it follows in the same way," +he concluded with a geometrical flower of rhetoric culled from his +gourmand reading, "the men who cut the pictures of those monstrous +animals into the rocks lived with them. They drew their likenesses +from nature. For these animals are life-like, they are almost alive! +Did those forgotten geniuses delay their masterpieces for Gutenberg? +No. They needed no printing presses in their business. Which was to be +proved, was it not?" + +"Preposterous," Drake remarked as Ole, with a self-conscious bow, +resumed his creaking chair. + +"Is it?" the Doctor asked quizzically. "Precisely why is Mr. Hansen's +theory absurd?" + +"Because it would put the art of a million years before the Stone Age +on a higher level than that of the Twentieth Century." + +"Perhaps it was. It seems impossible that it could have been any lower. +Edith, can you find the last number of 'Vanity Fair' with the latest +masterpieces of potato peeling embroidery or whatever it is that the +connoisseurs are raving over? Never mind, if you don't know where to +look. After dinner will do." + +"The point is, Drake," he continued, "that you know as little of what +art was in prehistoric times as do I. Why, it is less than thirty +years since you archaeological chaps were telling us that all real art +began with the Greeks. Then they found those Stone Age cave paintings +that Mr. Hansen has mentioned. Since then we haven't heard so much of +'Greece, wonder-child of the Ages.' You are open-minded enough about +your own stuff. Why can't you examine Hansen's photographs in the same +spirit?" + +"Never. At least not until I have deciphered them." + +"Then go to it. That's just what we want you to do." + +"How can I make anything out of a bald catalogue of dead beasts? Why, I +don't even know their blessed names." + +"Drake, you are deliberately playing the fool for some reason of your +own. I believe you have guessed more than you admit." + +"It is always best," Drake generalized, "to know nothing at the +beginning of an investigation. For then one is certain not to know less +at the end." + +"Do you see any sort of regularities running through those fourteen you +put aside?" the Doctor persisted. + +"Dozens of them." + +"That sounds encouraging. What, for instance?" + +"First, about five-eighths of the monsters have four legs each. Second, +approximately fifty-five per cent of them have no tails and the rest +one apiece. Third, each of several has one eye by actual count, or two +by inference, the second being on the invisible side of the profile. +Fourth--" + +"You're an ass," the Doctor interrupted irritably. + +"Hear, hear sir," Ole agreed. + +Drake grinned. "Did you ever try opening a live oyster with a +toothpick? When I have something definite I'll let you know. Until then +Mr. Hansen no doubt will be glad to hatch out poetic theories for you." + +"All right," Lane assented good-naturedly. "Only don't spend ten years +in finding out that all these inscriptions are nothing more exciting +than a fossilized multiplication table." + +"Or a treatise on the integral calculus," Ole gravely added. + +"Oh Lord," said Drake, "do you know the name of that too? When do you +find time to navigate your raft?" + +"He doesn't know half of what he gabs about," Anderson explained. There +was a distinct note of jealousy in the Captain's voice. "He owns the A, +Q, X volumes of the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_, the _Song of Solomon_ +in Norwegian, Balzac's _Droll Stories_ in French--which I can't read, +confound it, a third-rate pocket dictionary, Herbert Spencer's _Through +Nature to God_, about three-quarters of Maeterlinck's _Bluebird_ +in Swedish and half of it in English, and a seven figure table of +logarithms. That's his whole damned library. Now if you think he's a +blazing genius it's your own lookout." + +"When I was in Boston two and a half years ago," Ole volunteered à +propos of nothing, "I took an intelligence test. The psychologist said +I was in the upper one per cent of the entire population of the United +States." + +"He lied," said the Captain. + +"My library is not the only source of my erudition," Ole continued, +ignoring the Captain's remark. "I also read much in public libraries +while ashore," he concluded with smug modesty. + +"Well, gentlemen," the Doctor remarked, "I am sure Mr. Hansen makes +good use of his library, small though it may be. It isn't the gross +tonnage that counts so much; it is the choice of one's reading matter. +Mr. Hansen seems to have selected his 'five-foot shelf' with a taste +and care that has not been exceeded by Dr. Eliot himself. Would you +like a copy of William Jennings Bryan's memoirs on evolution as a +companion piece to your Herbert Spencer, Mr. Hansen?" + +Ole blushed his thanks. The Doctor turned to Anderson. + +"Now Captain, what about oil?" + +"Are you coming in?" + +"Yes, even if our friend Drake doesn't succeed before he's seventy in +deciphering Mr. Hansen's photographs. We shall need a ship, I suppose." + +"The old whaler will do." + +"Not much ice, then, where we are going?" + +"No more than she can buck. Our troubles will begin on land." + +"So I have guessed. Would an airplane be of any use? Amundsen is taking +one with him on his North Polar expedition." + +"Who would fly the beastly thing if we did take one along?" + +"Why not Drake? He's young and therefore teachable." + +"Oh, let me learn too," Edith begged. "You know how useless Drake is +when anything goes wrong with his typewriter." + +"Indeed?" said Drake, deeply mortified. He truly was as helpless as a +baby before any machine more complicated than a monkey wrench. Rather +pathetically he imagined himself a first-class amateur mechanic, +for Edith always tactfully let him do the bossing while she did the +tinkering when his typewriter collapsed. + +The Doctor turned to Edith. "Who said you were coming with us, young +lady?" + +"Nobody yet. But you were just going to invite me. Weren't you, dear?" + +"What about it, Captain?" + +"It's up to you. She's not my daughter. If she can stand forty below +zero she may enjoy the trip." + +"I'm afraid not," the Doctor said doubtfully. "You do so hate the cold, +Edith." + +"Fiddlesticks! Captain Anderson said the water was warm. Any way I'm +younger than you are. If I'm unfit to go it will be suicide for you." + +"Well, we'll consider your case when the time comes." + +Knowing that she had won, Edith sensibly said no more. + +"How long will it take us to get ready?" the Doctor asked. + +"About six months. You, Drake, and your daughter if she comes, must +get thoroughly hardened before we start. Hansen and I can see to +overhauling the ship and laying in the necessary stores. We're both old +hands at the game." + +"Where is your ship now?" + +"Drydock. Rio de Janeiro." + +"What!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Do you mean to say you came clear to San +Francisco just to show me that reptile bird?" + +"Why not?" the Captain asked complacently. "I knew you would join us." + +"Am I as easy as they told you I was?" + +"No, Doctor. You wouldn't swallow a mermaid." + +"Such is the bubble reputation. Edith, this comes of your collection of +freaks. I wish you would adopt some less humiliating form of charity in +future." + +"You haven't believed my story of all those big beasts in the oil yet," +the Captain reminded him soothingly. + +"No, and I'll be hanged if I do until I see them with my own eyes. +Well, I'm game. That thing in the box is real, anyway. You can +telegraph the Rio de Janeiro drydock to give your ship a thorough +overhauling. Fit up quarters somewhere for a passenger or two." + +"Ole and I saw to all that before we left." + +"Easier and easier. Well, well. You _are_ a surprising person." +This bit of information seemed almost to surprise him more than the +captain's strange tale. "It's too late for lunch and too early for +dinner. Will you have tea with us?" + +"We shall be only too glad to enjoy your hospitality," Ole +sententiously replied. + +"Ah, Hansen, I see you have a treatise on Dutch etiquette among your +literary treasures as well as a table of logarithms. All right, boys. +Edith, tell Wong to do his best in the true old Spanish style." + + + + + 5 + + "BATTLES LONG AGO" + + +Seven strenuous months of physical toughening lay behind Drake, +Edith, and her father. They had lost no time in setting about their +preparations for the hardships ahead. + +The day after the tea with Captain Anderson and the mate they were on +their way to the Canadian Rockies. Before leaving, Dr. Lane gave the +efficient Wong a sheaf of checks dated the first of each month for the +next three years. With these Wong was to pay his own salary and keep +the house in order. + +To his rage and stupefaction Drake was dragged kicking from his puzzles +to become a hardened mountaineer. The Doctor was determined that the +obstinate archaeologist should accompany them to see with his own eyes +the originals of Hansen's photographs. Anderson and the mate left San +Francisco the same afternoon to return to Rio via Boston. + +The party of three had gone straight north to a fashionable resort +in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. They planned to begin their +training gradually. Arrived at the luxurious hotel, they hired guides +and mapped out their program. Four hours' mountain hiking a day for the +first week, six the second, and so on up to fifteen, when they would be +sufficiently seasoned to dispense with the guides. + +Drake, who had brought with him the fourteen most promising of Hansen's +puzzles for study, proved a most refractory companion. As the daily +marches lengthened he seemed to demand more and more sleep. It was a +ten minute job to get him out of bed in the mornings. The Doctor became +alarmed, thinking the rarefied air and violent exercise might have +affected the young man's heart. A searching physical examination showed +him to be in perfect health. Drake himself said nothing, enduring the +interminable climbs up precipices and the endless crawls over glaciers +with glum stoicism. + +When the party left their quarters at the hotel to live in the bleak +open with only their sleeping bags for shelter, Drake became positively +morose. Edith declared in confidence to her father that the cranky +young antiquarian was developing such a devil of a temper that the only +comfortable course would be to send him home. She had stood all she +could of the snapping turtle. The thought of a possible two years with +him in a frozen wilderness appeared singularly uninviting. + +"I should like to beat him up," she confided, "for I am sure there is +nothing the matter with him but a vile disposition." + +An unusually cold and foggy night on the snowfields gave her the key +to Drake's ailment. Unable to sleep for the wretched discomfort, +she lay on her side staring wide-eyed at the soupy mist. Presently +she became aware of a tiny, faint glow in the direction of Drake's +quarters. Slipping from her bag she crawled on all fours over the soft +snow toward the source of the light. Unobserved she got close enough +to see Drake lying flat on his stomach in his sleeping bag, his head +propped up on his hands, intent on one of Hansen's photographs. The +dim illumination came from an improvised reading lamp consisting of +two inches of candle in a small tomato can on its side. She stole back +to her bag and crept in, to keep a lookout on the dim glow. After +what seemed an eternity it vanished, only to reappear half a minute +later. Drake had lighted another two-inch candle. And so it went until +about an hour before dawn when the glow finally disappeared and Drake +presumably slept the sleep of the unjust. + +Edith said nothing of her discovery to her father. The next night +was clearer. Between cat naps she watched again. Once more the light +vanished an hour before dawn, and the criminal slept. Edith decided not +to peach. Instead she contrived an ingenious plan for the salvaging of +whatever survived the general wreck of Drake's temper. + +She had not long to wait before putting her plan into action. The two +men shared the labor of splitting wood and keeping the campfire going +while she cooked. They planned at last two hot meals a week, descending +from the snowfields to the timberline to find fuel, for with their +heavy packs it was impossible to carry oil. On these occasions the men +peeled off their coats and went after wood with a will. The prospect +of a well-cooked steaming hot meal put enthusiasm even into the +dissipated, cantankerous Drake. + +Edith bided her time. When next the perspiring Drake, having collected +twice as much wood as he could carry, was swearing under his breath +like a bobcat, she quietly abstracted the fourteen photographic puzzles +from the inner pocket of his discarded coat. + +"It's a dirty trick," she murmured, stowing them safely away inside her +shirt, "but it is for his own good." + +That night Drake was like a forlorn cow that has just lost its beloved +calf. Edith heard him rooting about in the dark, scraping his shins and +swearing at anything and everything. That night, she said later, was +just one long, whispered curse. + +She let him suffer for his calf three days. Then, with a six-foot +crevasse between them, she confessed. Drake looked murder at her. But +by the time he scrambled the mile and a half which she, with rare +foresight, had placed between them by going rapidly ahead of the party, +the outraged Drake was too exhausted to fight. He regained his fourteen +tormentors only on the solemn promise that he would blow out the candle +every morning at two o'clock sharp. Thus, unless the enthusiastic +Doctor insisted upon routing them from their bags ahead of schedule, +Drake would get a full four hours' sleep every night. + +"If that isn't enough to sweeten your disposition," Edith stipulated, +"I'll add half an hour at a time until we hit the right dose." + +Under the new ordering of his disreputable habits Drake became as +suave as melted butter. Not that he talked much more than he had, for +he still emulated the oyster. What little he did say, however, was all +that Edith desired in affability. The Doctor, noticing the change, +ascribed it to a sudden, bone-freezing drop in the temperature. + +"Drake will do famously when we get to the real thing," he told Edith. +"Just see how this cold snap bucks him up." + +"Oh, he will be all right," Edith agreed. "When he gets something to do +he will lose his grouch for good." + +After twelve weeks of roughing it on the snowfields and glaciers of +the Rockies the three went to Alaska for a more drastic course of the +same training. Little by little they accustomed themselves to scantier +and scantier clothing, until by the end of their hardening they were +clambering over ice and snow in howling blizzards with no clothing +but a single loose overall garment of wool. The Doctor in his joyous +enthusiasm was inclined to go farther, pointing out that if stark +nakedness in the snow is the proper thing for consumptive children, +surely a breech clout in a blizzard should be sufficient for tough +campaigners like themselves. But Edith wouldn't hear of it, although +Drake seemed to entertain the suggestion favorably. + +And now all this, the hardship and the fun, lay behind them. That night +they were sailing from Montreal for Rio de Janeiro, there to meet the +rest of the expedition and undergo their last training. They must +learn to fly. Dr. Lane still believed that an airplane might prove +the decisive factor in the success of their venture, although Captain +Anderson, with all an old sailor's conservatism, belittled the idea +and grudged the two months' delay which it would cost. + +Ole, on the contrary, by letter and cablegram, fairly gloated over the +prospect. A mastery of flying would bring him many steps nearer the +omniscience which was his ideal in this imperfect life. The Captain's +letters reported him already a past master of the art of flying--on +paper. He had even invented an improved type of flying machine which, +according to the envious Anderson, resembled a wheelbarrow with wings. +This masterpiece of Ole's unsuspected mechanical genius was still +in the chrysaloid stage of development, being as yet only one-third +drawings and two-thirds pure theory. Still, all in all it justified +Ole's high rating in the Boston intelligence tests. Anderson could +never have done anything like it. + +Except for Drake's alleged seasickness the voyage down to Rio de +Janeiro was uneventful. Drake had telegraphed from Vancouver to one +of his antiquarian cronies to meet him in Montreal with half a ton of +carefully selected books, for the most part profusely illustrated works +on biology, geology and evolution. With these he shut himself up in his +cabin, admitting only the stewards who reported him in the last stages +of seasickness. Smelling a prosperous rat, Dr. Lane left the sufferer +to his agonies and hopefully promenaded the decks or played quoits with +Edith. + +On the morning of the last day of the voyage the doctor's patience +was rewarded. The invalid emerged from his cabin looking, as Edith +informed him, as fresh as a young string bean. + +"I'm better," Drake announced. + +"That's good," said the Doctor. "How are Hansen's photographs?" + +Drake tried not to look pleased. He failed. His face broke into a grin. + +"Doing as well as could be expected, thank you," he replied. + +"Have you deciphered them?" + +"If I say 'yes' you will pester me to death with questions; if I say +'no' you will set me down as a blockhead. So I shall evade the question +by answering both yes and no. And that, as a matter of fact, is the +exact state of affairs." + +"The Lord should have made you a woman," the Doctor remarked. + +"A beautiful blonde," Drake sighed. "A perfect thirty-six," he added +with an admiring glance at Edith's lithe figure. + +"I'll give you a swift kick unless you come through with what you have +found," the Doctor snapped. "Come on; out with it." + +"Before violence I am powerless. I am too proud to run away." He became +more serious. "You were right when you said my education was lopsided. +A thorough knowledge of biology, geology, evolution and half a dozen +tougher sciences is just what I lack now to read those fragments fully. +I have been doing my weak best to make up the deficiency and learn +something worth knowing. At present I can guess at the meaning of those +fragments, but only through thick blankets of woolly ignorance. Unless +I am clean off there is vastly more than can be read at a glance in +those rows upon rows of prehistoric monsters. I don't believe those +inscriptions will ever be fully deciphered by any man who like me is an +ignoramus on all the sciences connected with living things." + +"You evidently have found more than you admit. Tell us what you know. +If you need more science to go ahead I'll give you all I have." + +After a brief tussle with his antiquarian conscience Drake yielded. + +"First," he began, "this sort of work is very deceptive. Take the case +of the Etruscan writing for instance, or the Hittite inscriptions if +you prefer. Either one has been 'read' in half a dozen different ways. +One man making perfect sense of a particular inscription says it is +an extremely modest account of a marriage ceremony. His opponent and +critic reads precisely the same signs as a detailed description of the +slaughter of forty bulls. Both can't be right, unless of course the +forty bulls are a poetic metaphor for the bridegroom. And so it goes; +what one theorist reads as a beautiful prayer to the goddess of love +another deciphers as a simple recipe for lentil soup. Unless there are +dates, numerals, or other mathematical signs that can be definitely +checked against facts in such work it is all likely to be a mere +reflection of the decipherer's personality. So when a man says 'forty +bulls,' I know what to think of him." + +"And you are afraid now," Edith smiled, "of giving yourself away? Never +mind, I'll forget all the compromising parts." + +"I have nothing to be ashamed of in my private life," he retorted, +drawing himself up like a stork. + +"That is what they all say when they begin to tell their dreams," the +Doctor laughed. "Then they are as mad as tarantulas when they find they +have given away the whole show. But go ahead; those beasts of yours are +not all purely subjective." + +"That is where you are wrong. It is the ideal, the subjective part +that matters in these particular inscriptions. And that is precisely +what I can't decipher. The rest is easy enough. Superficially those +fourteen inscriptions are fragments of the history of a terrible war. +It is the symbolism behind the bald account of battles and sieges that +I can't get at. It is like one of those sentences that can be read in +a dozen different ways to give good sense. The surface meaning seems +perfectly clear. Then when the sentence is read a second time another +meaning begins to appear, and so on, until the whole shows up as a most +ingeniously constructed cipher. + +"Consider, for example, the simple statement 'It rained yesterday.' +Ordinarily we should think nothing of it. But suppose you were an +intelligence officer in the army and you found one of your men sneaking +over to the enemy with 'It rained yesterday' sewn into his left sock. +You would ask for the code, wouldn't you, before shooting? + +"Well, so it is in my case. At first sight those inscriptions record +only fragments of a hideous war. But only at first sight. The account +of the war is consistent and thorough, even if it is appalling in +its stark insanity. Intelligence, if I may say so without becoming +oratorical, is dethroned. There never was another war like it, and +there never will be again. For the fighting material has gone out of +existence." + +"Beast against beast?" the Doctor hazarded. + +"No. Beast against intellect and intellect against beast. Only I can't +make out whose intellect it was or what, exactly, the beasts were. + +"That, however, is not my main difficulty. The whole story, I am +convinced, is merely the symbol of the real conflict which those +inscriptions record. I have no definite knowledge that this is the +case. Yet I feel it to be the absolute truth. Some terrific struggle +has been disguised under the fairly straightforward account of a war +unique in the history of the world. It is my guess that the real +conflict was of so terrible a character that the survivors deliberately +wrapped it up in a symbolism that may never be explained." + +"What could have been their motive for recording this struggle at all +if they took such pains to obscure its history?" + +"Can't you see? Perhaps they guessed that some day a similar devil +might break loose, and they left this hint of their own chaining of +the fiend. They suppressed a plain history lest some idiot be tempted +to try again what had wrecked them. Such things do happen. If it were +not for the lofty patriotism of certain old men we younger fellows +might never have to face gas and other horrors never intended for +the destruction of life. The makers of those inscriptions decided +to disguise the truth so that only beings as intelligent as they +themselves could decipher its meaning. This is only my theory, as our +friend Hansen would say." + +"Still," the Doctor objected, "I fail to see in your theory why a +record of the horror should have been left at all, even in the most +obscure form. If they wished oblivion for it, surely the safest way +would have been to leave no record, symbolic or otherwise." + +"If that was their only anxiety, yes. But what if they wished to leave +a warning to anyone intelligent enough to read and take it? Suppose, +for the sake of argument, they had discovered some secret of nature. +And suppose that this very discovery undid them. Would they not wish +to leave a caution to the next race of investigators who might blunder +through to the forbidden door?" + +"Your imagination is running away with your brains, to say nothing of +your tongue. What about the actual war that is recorded?" + +"I'm feeling seasick again," Drake prevaricated, diving for his cabin. +"Some other time." + +And that was all they got out of him, for he locked his stateroom door. + + + + + 6 + + A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH + + +Their two busy months in Rio de Janeiro passed pleasantly enough. With +the help of a young lieutenant from the Brazilian navy one at least of +the adventure seekers became an expert aviator. Possibly it was Edith's +striking beauty that caused the young officer to lavish his skill +and patience upon perfecting her in those finer points of aviation +which she probably would never use unless she became a stuntist at a +county fair. It is at any rate certain that he took far less pains +with the industrious Ole who, after one shocking misalliance with a +gilded virgin--on top of a church,--developed into a safe and sane air +navigator, largely self-taught. + +Captain Anderson gave it up immediately after his first stomach raising +flight with the daredevil lieutenant. He refused flatly to learn the +knack of being seasick all over again. + +Dr. Lane, learning easily, showed a bad tendency to loop the loop +without due provocation. Edith begged the Captain to set her father +to work on the ship's stores--taking inventory, anything to keep +him out of the dazzling sapphire sky. The Captain consenting, Edith +was left a clean heaven which she shared with the lieutenant. Ole, +an indiscriminating admirer of Maeterlinck, remarked to Drake that +Edith's airy antics were precisely those of a queen bee on her +prenuptial flight. What Drake replied is unrepeatable. + +Poor Drake had proven himself a hopeless duffer at the game. After a +truly conscientious attempt to teach him the rudiments of flight, the +lieutenant announced with considerable relief that Mr. Drake would make +excellent ballast in an emergency, but was otherwise useless. So Drake, +discomfited and humiliated, returned to his inscriptions. Such at least +was the outward appearance of things. But Ole evolved a deeper theory +which he generously confided to Edith. + +"No man, Miss Lane, can be such a fool as Drake made of himself. Drake +does not want to fly. He goes back to my photographs. That young man +has brains. Some day he will have a theory." Ole spoke in the hushed +tones of a fat old woman contemplating her buxom daughter-in-law. + +And Edith, reflecting that she had begged Drake to let her give him +private lessons, felt like boxing Ole's red ears. In her heart of heart +she knew that the mate's theory was the truth; Drake was infatuated +with a lovely abstraction. And sighing her exasperation she resumed her +bee-like flirtation with the lieutenant. He at any rate was aware of +her charms. But she would have liked to set her even white teeth in the +one apple just beyond her reach. + +By the end of the first month in Rio Drake's habits were ruined. He +now had the whole of Hansen's masterpieces in his room for study, one +hundred and forty-four dumb tormentors of the reason. Although the heat +was terrific, the long lean Drake seemed not to suffer. But his food +did, intensely. Meals brought to his door remained outside until the +porter devoured them with ghoulish glee or took them away for burial. +At last, however, the sympathetic landlord concocted a villainous +ration which was both meat and drink, and which could be downed at one +gulp with a minimum of attention to details. Oysters and cream formed +the basis of this ghastly diet to which rum and a dash of absinthe gave +the finishing flavor. The intervening strata were a horrible mystery. +A suspicious granulated blackness about the middle suggested caviare. +This perhaps was confirmed at the curdled surface by the unmistakable +odor of finely chopped garlic. The necessary balance of carbohydrates +was supplied by a liberal admixture of brown sugar. A quart of this +ambrosial hooch placed four times daily in his hand, with unlimited +coffee "as black as the devil, as sweet as love and as hot as hell" in +the Spanish phrase, kept the wolf from Drake's vitals. + +Lane spent his nights aboard ship, while Edith danced till three in the +morning with the amorous lieutenant under the perfunctory chaperonage +of his aged mother. So Drake had a free hand to do what he liked with +the twenty-four hours between dawn and dawn. He slept when sleep +stole upon him from behind and overpowered him in his chair. If when +exhausted he instinctively sought his bed he lay down without bothering +to undress. Within four hours he was at his problem again. Refuting all +theories of the hygienists he took no exercise whatever and remained in +perfect health, as hard as a rock. After all, a busy mind is perhaps +the perfect tonic and the best exerciser. + +Ole, gleaning daily bulletins from the landlord, developed an awed +respect for this unprecedented young hatcher of theories. That +something huge and universal must at last leap forth from such an +aeonial gestation he had not the slightest doubt. On the morning of +departure he led Drake aboard to his quarters on the old whaler--now +cleansed and rechristened the _Edith_--with all the solicitude he would +have shown an expectant mother. + +The _Edith_ slunk under her own steam from the grand harbor, rounded +the point, and headed due south in the sparkling air, cleaving a sea of +chrysoprase. Officially they were on a whaling expedition. The airplane +was sophisticated to the Brazilian officers as a freak hobby of the +rich and eccentric Dr. Lane who wished before he died to harpoon a +whale from the air. + +The great adventure had begun, but what was to be its outcome not one +soul aboard the silent ship had the slightest idea. They were headed +due south for the undiscovered oilfields and for a stranger thing +which, could they have foreseen it, they would not have wished to +discover. It is in this unreasoning way that human beings are forever +blundering into the mysteries of life. + +By Lane's orders Drake was left to himself. Hansen's reports had +impressed him, and he knew from experience the powerful drive of +unbroken thought. + +As the days flew over them like azure birds the breeze freshened and +knife-edged cold cut the unhardened members of the crew to the bones. +The oldtimers and the well-seasoned beginners merely quickened their +movements and went about their work with a new energy. The greenhorns +would soon get used to it. In the meantime they must stamp and swear +and get on with it as best they could. + +The lightly ballasted _Edith_ beginning to pitch and roll like a +porpoise, the oysters, caviare and brown sugar of Drake's orgy had +their revenge. His abused stomach, protesting at the sound ship fare, +rejected honest salt horse with ineffable scorn. Edith forgot his +inconstancy, pardoning him all his theories, and ministered to him like +a white robed angel of forgiveness. His recovery was as sudden as his +collapse. And with the return of his vigor and his temper--he had been +as sweet as a consumptive curate during his prostration--he once more +jilted Edith for his houri. + +"Let us go to the Captain's cabin and talk over what we are to do," he +suggested. "You bring your father and I'll rout out Ole. This is the +second mate's watch. They will be off duty." + +Seated comfortably round the red baize of the Captain's table the five +discussed their plans. Anderson and Lane had decided to head directly +for the inlet which the Captain had discovered the morning after the +submarine eruption. They were then to steam up the inlet as far as +possible. Then they were to leave the ship in charge of Bronson, the +second mate and a capable seaman, and travel inland by dogteam and +sledges to the volcano whose smoke and flames Anderson and the mate +had seen from the inlet. If practicable to use the airplane two of the +party could return for it. + +The men under Bronson's charge were to wait at the ship three months +for the party to return. If at the end of that time they had heard +nothing from the explorers they were to despatch a relief party to go +in search. The organization of the relief had been planned to its last +detail. Should circumstances so dictate Bronson would have only to +carry out his written instructions to the letter. + +Anderson had made only a rough guess as to the probable location of +the oil which he expected to find. Although this first conjecture +was founded on a theory of Ole's the Captain refused to give him any +credit. With a rare flash of common sense Ole had observed that since +the heavy black smoke and ruddy pillar of flame which they had seen +from the inlet looked like burning oil, probably it was burning oil. + +The one stumbling block which this sensible hypothesis had to surmount +was, as Lane pointed out, the Captain's estimate of two hundred fifty +to three hundred miles inland as the distance of the explosion which +they had heard. It hardly seemed probable that an outburst of burning +oil could make itself heard and seen at such a distance. A volcanic +eruption, on the other hand, easily might carry that far. Krakatoa, +Katmai, Pelée and many others among the more famous eruptions had +carried even farther. + +The Captain, however, would have none of Lane's objections. To him the +mere vastness of an oilfield was no slur on its probability. The bigger +the likelier was his theory. And staring up at the swinging kerosene +lamp he beheld a beatific vision of stocks and shares floating like all +the leaves of Vallombrosa on an ocean of unlimited liability. + +Lane was curiously reticent about what he expected to get out of +the expedition. Since that afternoon, now ten months ago, in his +San Francisco study, he had not once alluded to the Captain's tale +of dead prehistoric monsters boiling up as fresh as life through a +sea of pitch. If questioned he would have said that his judgment +was suspended, as undoubtedly it was. The indubitable bird-reptile +obstinately continued to exist as an awkward reality not yet +satisfactorily explained away. + +On mature reflection he had abandoned his first theory that the +reptilian bird had been preserved for ages like a sardine in oil. But +he refrained from acquainting the Captain with his changed state of +mind lest that imaginative ex-mining engineer and inventive whaler +should be moved to show what he really could do in the way of a yarn +when put on his mettle. In the true scientific spirit the Doctor was +resolved to wait further facts before abandoning himself like Ole to +seductive theories. + +One sore spot in his memories hardened him in this decision. He had +not yet forgiven the Captain for assuming that he was a gullible +enthusiast eager to swallow the first mermaid with a cocoanut head +dangled before his mouth. Above all, still holding the opinion that +Drake was the greatest decipherer of his time, he wished to hear what +the young archaeologist had to report as to the outcome of his intense +concentration on Hansen's photographs. Edith, with Drake's permission, +had revealed the secret of his vile temper in the Canadian Rockies. + +"Well, oyster," said the Doctor, turning to Drake, "are you ready to +open up yet?" + +"Have you a theory?" Ole blurted out. + +"Two," Drake replied. + +"Two theories!" Ole rhapsodized. "Young man, you are a scientist. What +are your theories?" + +"The first, and the one which I favor, is that I'm crazy." + +"So impossible as all that?" the Doctor asked, raising his brows. + +"I told you in San Francisco it was impossible," the Captain asserted. +"Now Drake is going to prove what I said. Wait till you see it with +your own eyes." + +"It is not that part of it which is impossible," Drake replied. "After +what I have guessed as the true meaning of the symbolism of the +inscriptions your stew of monsters sounds a little tame. I am willing +to accept your account as true to the facts, even if Dr. Lane is still +too cautious to commit himself. But the other thing, the real meaning +of that fragmentary history recorded in the inscriptions, is a subject +which I must decline to discuss until events have proved me either +crazy or right." + +"I appreciate your stand, Drake," said the Doctor. "Under like +circumstances I should feel the same way. Still, you can tell us this +much without prejudicing your case. From what you have made out so far +do you believe that we shall find any tangible evidence of the true +struggle? I mean of course the one which the makers of the inscriptions +took such pains to disguise." + +Drake gave him a shrewd look. "You have guessed the nature of that +conflict?" + +"Perhaps, reasoning from other data, I have. In that case you can +understand why I prefer to wait before venturing my guesses. Shall we +find any traces of the real fight?" + +"I don't know. To me it is incredible that we should." + +"Some things are eternal," the Doctor remarked quietly. "For all we +know life may be indestructible." + +"Have you ever whiffed a dead whale?" the Captain interposed. He was a +practical man. + +"That isn't what the Doctor means," Ole expostulated, beginning to +redden. + +"I know, Ole. I know what the doctor means. He's talking of the soul. +Now, did you ever see a whale with a soul?" + +"Not after it was dead," the Doctor admitted with a smile. "However, +that was not what I had in mind. My idea was something much more +prosaic--question of energy and cells, and all that commonplace sort of +stuff." + +"Cells?" the Captain snorted. "Rotten fish is rotten fish, cells or no +cells." + +"That isn't--" + +"Shut up, Ole. No, Doctor Lane, I'm not fool enough to argue with +you on your own deck. But when you show me a whale that I can't +set stinking ripe in three weeks I'll begin to believe in the +indestructibility of life." + +"That--" + +"Shut up, Ole. Well, Doctor, where's your immortal whale?" + +"In Heaven," the Doctor replied without the flicker of an eyelash. + +"Father," Edith protested, "you are irreverent." + +"Not necessarily, Chick. Remember the prophet of Nineveh. Now Drake, +what is your second theory?" + +"That the whole thing is literally true." + +"And that is mine," said the Doctor. + +"Mine too," Ole echoed before the Captain could squelch him. + +"It can't be, Ole," the Doctor replied. "For, prolific as you may be, +you are constitutionally incapable of hatching such a nightmare." + +Ole looked crestfallen. He was rebuked. Edith felt for him as she was +suffering acutely from repressed curiosity. + +"I wish you two wouldn't talk as if I were a baby in long dresses. If +I'm old enough to be here I'm certainly old enough to be let in on +things." + +"You might take the plane and fly back to Rio in the night," her father +laughed, "if we frightened you with all our half-baked theories. Better +wait and see--" + +He was cut short by a jarring tremor that shook the stout ship from +stem to stern. + +"My God!" the Captain shouted, bolting for the door, "we've struck! All +hands on deck!" + +They reached the deck a second behind him. Instantly an overpowering +stench enveloped them body and soul, searching out the secret +convolutions of their brains with a sense-destroying, paralyzing +nausea. Hardened old whale pirates were leaning over the rail in a +paroxysm of the extremest misery. + +On the less calloused members of the expedition the effect was +instantaneous and drastic. It was complete. No chemist in the distorted +ambition of his wildest nightmare ever dreamed of a smell such as that +which defiled the very soul of this night, otherwise so beautiful and +serene. + +A full moon silvered the calm meadows of the sea. Nature, dead and +living, lay peacefully asleep. Athwart the silver road through the +ripples floated majestically the vast corpse through whose middle +rottenness the sturdy ship had churned her filthy way. Four pillars, +two at either end, towered up in the mystic light like the ruins of a +shattered temple on a hill in Greece. These were the creature's legs. +What else of it the moonlight revealed had better be veiled. + +"There's your immortal whale, Captain," the doctor sobbed when from +very emptiness he ceased his calisthenics. + +"Whale be blowed. That carcass is the size of four Whales. It's one of +them." + +"I believe," said the penitent Doctor, "smelling is a severer test +of truth than seeing. Lead us below and give us asafetida from your +medicine chest to take the taste of truth out of our mouths." + +Returning to the Captain's cabin they sought forgetfulness in rum +tinctured with Jamaica ginger. + +"How shall I ever get it out of my hair?" Edith wailed. + +"Shave your hair, dear," the Doctor prescribed, "and then boil it in +lye." + + + + + 7 + + BEACHED + + +Shortly after midnight Captain Anderson called the sleepers. + +"This is the spot, Doctor," he said. "You wanted to see it with your +own eyes." + +"What spot?" the Doctor sleepily inquired. + +"Where all those big beasts boiled up from the bottom of the sea." + +They stood gazing over the rail at the cold, glittering Antarctic waste +of black water. Far to the south the dim shapes of five huge bergs +towered up like vast frozen ghosts in the moonlight. + +"The water looks clean enough," the Doctor remarked suspiciously. The +smell having dissipated, his skepticism was returning. "Where's your +oil?" + +"Blest if I know. Washed ashore months ago, I expect." + +"In what direction is the nearest land?" + +"Southeast. Directly in line with the southernmost of those bergs." + +"When shall we reach it?" + +"Within twelve hours if the wind doesn't rise." + +The Doctor glanced at the cloudless sky. "Everything looks serene. +Well, we should see your inlet sometime tomorrow afternoon. By the way, +has the lookout sighted any more dead--whales?" + +"Whales? That was no whale we cut through, I tell you. It had four +times the bulk of the biggest whale afloat. Think what you like, that +was one of those brutes that boiled up when I was here before. And the +lookout saw three others." + +"How close?" + +"About two miles. Of course he couldn't make out exactly what they were +at that distance. But I'll bet they were not floating islands, or ice, +or dead whales. If we sight another I'll steam up close to give you a +whiff if you like." + +"For mercy's sake don't," Edith begged. "My cabin is full of the last +one still." + +"A mere smell proves nothing," the Doctor remarked dryly. + +"Mere smell?" Drake exploded. "Great Scott! What is your idea of +full-blown reek?" + +"I mean," the Doctor explained, "the smell may have come from +putrefying whale blubber. The odor is notorious and far reaching I'm +told." + +"You bet it is," the Captain asserted. "Twenty years of it have made +me an expert. And I tell you straight that a ripe whale smells like a +bunch of violets beside that beauty we cut through." + +Disdaining further argument the Doctor retired to his cabin, and the +others after a last look at the austere grandeur of the icy night +turned in to their warm bunks. + +About nine o'clock the next morning the breeze veered and blew from +the icebound land far to the southeast. It was still a mere sigh. The +Captain and Ole anticipated a safe and early arrival at their goal. +That afternoon would bring them to the mouth of the volcanic inlet. + +No spot on the oceans of the earth could have been more coldly serene, +more vastly mysterious. The water, almost black in the mass, curled +over in hard glassy waves intensely green as they broke, and far to +the south the airy peaks and pinnacles of huge bergs swam like dreams +athwart the taut horizon. Then the offshore breeze freshening brought +with it the first faint hint of an indescribable pollution. + +"Dead whales," the Captain laconically remarked to Lane. + +"Undoubtedly," replied the Doctor through his handkerchief. + +Edith gazed longingly at the high-powered airplane under its tarpaulins. + +"We must have run over another of them," she sighed. + +Anderson laughed. "Did you feel a jar, Edith? No? Well, neither did I, +and my sea legs are more sensitive than yours. We're not running over +the rotten brutes; we're running into them." + +And with that comforting assurance he swung below to see if the +engineer could crowd on more steam. He was tremendously eager. + +Lunch time passed unobserved. Those of the crew who were off duty +followed the example of the passengers and sought seclusion below +decks. But the ever increasing stench found them out like a forgotten +sin. Every mile less between them and the land multiplied their misery +tenfold. To the inexperienced passengers this penetrating torment which +prostrated hardened whalers became unendurable. At last Lane, reaching +his limit, went in search of medical relief. + +He had no definite idea of what he wanted, trusting blindly to the +stores for inspiration. And he found it. Presently he returned with +three improvised gas masks of surgical gauze soaked in spirits of +camphor. + +"Who ever would have guessed that we should need gas masks in the +Antarctic," he laughed ruefully as he adjusted Drake's. "Edith, get out +your needles and thread and make nosebags for all hands." + +Under her father's supervision Edith labored diligently at a new style +of mask designed to filter the tainted air through finely sifted ashes. +If the temperature kept up the ashes might be soaked in deodorizer. +Otherwise the sufferers would have to put up with the lesser efficiency +of the dry material. + +Ole, coming in to see how the greenhorns were bearing up, found Edith +at her task. The poor fellow was the sickly hue of cheesy white +phosphorus. Some of the men, he reported, were on the point of mutiny. + +"Order them to make masks for themselves," Edith advised. "They can all +sew. Here, take this one as a pattern." + +His rotundity drooping from his shoulders in soggy folds, Ole +departed. Although his faith in the vanity of nosebags was slight, +yet in the true scientific spirit he would test any theory before +condemning it as useless. The men, therefore, were soon in the throes +of a sewing bee. And it may be said here that the masks later made +endurable a labor which without them might well have proved impossible. + +Land was sighted at two thirty-five. Due south along the horizon +stretched the great barrier cliff of black rock and sheer ice, shadowy +in the distance and unsubstantial as a vision. Anderson joined the +three at the rail and passed Lane his binoculars. + +"Look about two points east of south and you will see the opening of +the inlet." + +"Ah, I get it. Not very wide, is it?" + +"No. Just a twenty mile crack in the Antarctic continent that wasn't +there two years ago. I imagine it narrows down fast after it gets +farther inland." + +He turned and left them to go about his business. They stood watching +the distant shadow assume definite outline. Presently Lane hailed the +Captain on the bridge. + +"We're getting off our course, aren't we?" + +"No. Dead on it." + +"But we are going thirty degrees east of the inlet." + +"Thirty-three, Doctor. There's an eight mile stony beach over there +that I want to have a look at first. It might give the men fresh seal +meat if there's any way of landing. We have plenty of time to make the +inlet before dark if we decide to go on." + +"Oh, all right. You're the captain." + +Although their changed course drifted them across the breeze instead of +directly into it, the stench became more terrific. Without their masks +they could not have faced it. Presently the Captain called Lane up on +the bridge and handed him his glasses. + +"There's the beach, Doctor. Now if smelling isn't believing perhaps +seeing is. Take a close look at your whales." + +Lane almost dropped the Captain's best glasses. + +"Good Lord," he gasped, "hundreds and hundreds of them! Full steam +ahead, Captain!" + +He ran down the steps to tell the others to keep their eyes open. As +the _Edith_ rapidly neared the long beach they saw at first only a coal +black slope littered with what looked like huge rounded lumps of black +rock. Then a blast from the whistle raised a cloud of scavengers from +the black masses and the truth leapt out before their eyes. The eight +mile beach was a refuse heap of huge oil-soaked carcasses festering in +the sun. + +Piled five and six deep where the winter hurricanes had hurled them the +monsters of a forgotten age rotted in the delayed death which should +have been theirs nine million years ago. On that beach there must +have been hundreds of thousands of the gigantic brutes. The smaller +monstrosities wedged and packed between the mountainous carcasses were +without number. The Antarctic cold, their long immersion in the salt +water and their thick coating of oil had but postponed the colossal +corruption which now, at the height of a mild open season, preyed upon +their mountains of rich flesh. + +A boat was already being lowered. They sprang in with Ole and the +Captain and were rapidly pulled ashore. The landing on that shelving +beach was easy. They stood up in the oozing slop of oil to gaze as in a +nightmare at the horror of the shambles surrounding them. + +"Well," said the Captain, pointing to the sheer black cliffs barring +the beach from the frozen continent, "there's what is left of my oil. +The wind swabbed those rocks with some of it and blew the rest inland +or wasted it all over the ocean from here to Cape Horn. Is there any +money to make out of these carcasses, Doctor? What about blubber? +That big brute over there," he indicated a twisted dragon mailed in +triangular two-foot plates of horn, "looks pretty good to me. He's not +so ripe as some of the others." + +"Money be damned!" snapped the Doctor. "This is a bigger thing than the +Standard Oil and Dutch Shell combined. It would be nothing short of an +infamous sacrilege to hack these beautiful things to pieces for the +sake of a few dirty dollars. No sir! I am financing this expedition, +and so long as you are on land you will obey my orders. Aboard ship you +are the master, but only for so long as I choose to employ you. I am +the owner. Now, is that clear?" + +"All right, Doctor. Keep your shirt on." + +The soft answer mollified the indignant lover of beauty. + +"Do as I tell you," he said, "and I'll see that you find your precious +oil. You can go prospecting while the rest of us are discovering our +treasure. And although it isn't in our contract I'll give you gratis +all the very best expert mining and geological advice I can. To begin +now, there is not the ghost of a possibility of striking oil on a beach +like this. For your encouragement, however, I may tell you that I have +already formed a pretty rational theory where to look for the main +reservoir. Your earthquake tapped only a top bubble of it." + +"So have I a theory," Ole announced with modest pride. + +"Shut up, Ole. I want to hear what the Doctor thinks." + +"I was only going to say," Lane continued, "that if my guess is right +all the oil you saw is only a bucketful of the big tank. Unless I'm all +wrong you will stumble into a reservoir of the highest grade oil as +big as the State of California. To settle this thing once for all, I +promise to finance another expedition for oil prospecting if you return +from this a cent poorer than you wish to be. If we don't get your oil +this time we certainly will next. There is no argument about it; I am +positive. Now let us get to something more important and inspect some +of these gorgeous jewels while the light lasts." + +They followed him into the thick of the shambles. + +"Ole," he continued, "I see you have brought your camera. Get busy. +Begin with the big fellows and be sure you take enough pictures of each +to show clearly the head, neck, position of the legs, pattern of the +scales, and tail--if there is one. Take in the small fry too. They're +just as important as the big fellows." + +While Ole industriously clicked away at the mountains before him, the +rest of the party clambered over monsters whose horny armor still +afforded a sure footing, carefully avoiding the inviting slopes of the +colossal three hundred foot lizards. A step on those smooth, bloated +bodies meant a plunge up to the neck in corruption. + +From many of the hideous skulls most of the flesh had already +disappeared, leaving only irregular patches of blackened skin above +the arsenals of sabre teeth and around the huge glasslike masses of +lustreless jelly in the eye sockets. + +As they passed from monster to monster along that shambles of a beach, +Lane's expression changed gradually from reverent wonder to puzzled +incredulity. His theory was taking shape before his eyes. Yet so +strange was it that he doubted the evidence of tangible proofs. The +thing he had imagined was unbelievable when seen. What, he wondered, +lay behind this veil which his own speculations and those of Drake had +lifted ever so little? Had they guessed the whole truth, or did an +unimagined catastrophe wait for them at the end of their untrodden path +into the unknown? At this first partial confirmation of their theory +his belief in himself faltered. For once he hoped that he had been +misled by reason. + +Going up to one huge head he peered into the gaping cavity of the mouth +and began to count the teeth. Their number would either confirm or +destroy Drake's theory and his. Hoping that he had made a mistake he +counted the teeth a second time. He had made no error. + +"As I thought," he said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "These +things are all wrong." + +"Is an ugly brute like that ever right?" Anderson asked. + +"Always, in nature. At least according to their fossil remains they are +invariably true to type. What would you think of a man with forty-eight +teeth instead of the normal thirty-two?" + +"As a practical seaman," said the Captain, "I should advise him to +go to a dentist and have sixteen pulled. It would save him a lot of +toothache on the high seas." + +"That wouldn't work on this fellow. It would take a steam shovel to dig +out his eight superfluous molars." + +"Perhaps," Drake suggested hopefully, "this one is a freak. Try +another. There are plenty lying about." + +"Yes, but I don't see one of the same species. That's another curious +thing about all this. There are not more than a dozen specimens of any +one kind, I should judge, in the whole stew." + +"Isn't that one over there the same sort as this?" Edith asked, +pointing to a huger brute that resembled the monster of too many teeth. + +The Doctor surveyed its frozen death agony. "I believe you are right," +he said. "Let's count his teeth." + +The count checked. Again the monster had eight molars in excess of what +nature should have given him. + +"That settles it," the Doctor muttered, sitting down on the treacherous +tail of a defunct reptile. + +"Oh see what a mess you are in!" Edith cried. "Stand up. You can't come +back to the ship till you've burned your clothes." + +"Clothes don't matter in a crisis like this. Science is rotting to its +foundations." + +"That's no reason why you should sit down in the basement," Edith +retorted. Her mask had slipped, and naturally she was inclined to be +severe. + +"If this is science," Drake remarked, "I agree. It's putrid from cellar +to attic." + +"Don't play the fool. If you have guessed as much as I think you have, +you should be able to appreciate what this may mean. This is serious. +Not one of these creatures, I'll wager, is all that it should be. +Each at first glance is like its supposed type. When you look at them +closely and begin to apply scientific tests you find they are all +either deformities or new species. Off hand one would say that nature +had been practising and had forgotten her art." + +"That," said Drake, "isn't your theory, however. Is it?" + +"No," the Doctor admitted. "But the facts, all theories aside, can +be ascertained either to establish or to refute my contention that +these things are not as nature should have made them. Now here is a +crucial test. See that blue brute like a potbellied crocodile over +there? No, not the one with the saw ridge of three-foot spines down +its back, but the one with the red bags hanging down from its jowls. +All right. According to all we know from fossil anatomy that beast was +comparatively harmless. Its only weapons were its teeth and its claws. +I don't know what those obscene looking pouches mean--they don't show +in any fossil remains yet found. Nor do I know whether red is their +natural color, or whether it is due to faster decay owing to all the +oil having dripped down off them. So much for its supposed identity. + +"Now I suspect," he continued, "from the shape of that beast's head and +snout that it was venomous when alive. The true animal, the one in the +fossil beds was as innocuous as a tame worm. I'm going over to see. +If that brute has poison glands above its evil fangs the question is +settled. It is some reptile utterly unknown to science." + +Accompanying him to the grinning head they watched while he inspected +the rows of yellowish knives bared by the upward snarl of the dry, +scaled lips. The great cavern of the mouth gaped open, revealing +a single five-foot row of teeth on each side of the gums. Having +carefully selected the fang for his test, Lane picked up the largest +stone he could heft and hurled it with all his strength at the point. +The stone rebounded like a pebble from a brick wall. + +"Here, Ole!" the Captain shouted. "Come and play hand-ball." + +Ole with his knotted strength was more successful. Behind his +thirty-pound pebble he put the full barrel of his strength. The fang +was jarred. The deep musical boom which it emitted died gradually away +and Ole took another shot. At the fifth impact the fang was loose. The +sixth, aimed at the base, sent it crashing out of the monster's head. +Lane peered up in the gaping cavity. + +"There's a sac of something up there," he said, "but it may only be a +cushion of fat. Ole, will you fetch an oar from the boat?" + +When the oar arrived Lane thrust the blade far up the cavity and +prodded hard. The sac broke, and a heavy oily green liquid oozed down +like cold pitch on the decaying remnants of the reptile's tongue. + +"I want some of that," the Doctor exclaimed, hastily emptying the +brandy from his pocket flask. "Ole, scoop up a ladleful on the end of +the oar. I'll hold the flask; you let the stuff pour in like molasses." + +"What is the decision?" Drake asked curiously, as the Doctor carefully +tucked away his pint of supposed venom. + +"We can't tell until this stuff is tried on some living creature. +Nevertheless I am willing to stake my reputation on the outcome. That +brute, when alive, was as venomous as a regiment of rattlesnakes." + +"Then it is like no prehistoric monster known to science?" + +"As different as a hen is from a hippopotamus. And so, I am willing +to wager, is every other creature that we have seen on this nightmare +of a beach. They are all new. For one thing the majority of them are +enormously bigger and bulkier than they should be. That in itself, +however, is not conclusive. It would be possible for such a state of +affairs to exist in, say, a herd of cattle. If all suffered from the +same disease of certain glands--those regulating growth--they might all +be enormous giants and yet not unnatural. These are abnormal in a far +more radical way." + +"But," Edith protested, "several of them look very much like the +restorations in some of your books on fossils." + +"That is the strangest part of all this unearthly dream. They are like +bad copies, botched imitations if you like, of those huge brutes whose +bones we chisel out of the rocks from Wyoming to Patagonia. Nature +must have been drunk, drugged or asleep when she allowed these aborted +beasts to mature. Every last one of them is a freak. It is just like +looking at a shambles of all the deformities of a nation." + +"The whole thing is inexpressibly hideous and depressing," Edith +shivered. "And these masks are becoming useless." + +"Hideous? Depressing? Why this is Heaven!" + +"Then I wish I were in hell," the mate remarked. + +"Hadn't we better be getting back to the ship, Doctor? We shan't want +to plough our way through this in the dark." + +"Perhaps we had," the Doctor reluctantly admitted, feeling like Adam +when the angel showed him the back door of paradise. "How many pictures +did you get, Ole?" + +"Twenty dozen." + +"You look it," said Drake with a glance at Ole's bulging sweater. "Are +you always half loaded or is part of it natural?" + +"Pinhead," said Ole under his breath, beginning to pull on his oar. + +Drake, who had been unusually taciturn on the beach expressed himself +before reaching the ship. + +"Doctor," he said, "your conclusion that all those rotten brutes are +only half natural confirms my theory of the inscriptions." + +"Mine too," said the Doctor. + +"And you still want to go on with this?" + +"Of course." + +"Well, I don't. I'm beginning to turn back and go home right now." + +"When it is just beginning to get interesting?" + +"I don't believe you know what you are up against." + +"Neither do you. But we both seem to have made a pretty good guess. I'm +going to see it through and find out what is at the other end of the +chain." + +"Then I shall have to stick it out too. For I'm hanged if I'll let an +old man like you get the better of me." + +"Old man?" Edith exclaimed indignantly. "He's only eleven years older +than you are, baby. And he's not half so frightened of the dark." + + + + + 8 + + A SIGNIFICANT HINT + + +The doctor and Ole would have been deliriously happy to spend the rest +of their days among the monsters on the beach. The weather however cut +short their ecstasies in the middle of the fifth week. + +It had been growing gradually colder, although the sky still retained +its crystal clarity. The wind steadily freshened. Twice the party +had been caught by a "woolly" which knocked them sprawling in the +evil-smelling brown slush. Young ice beginning to tinkle and chafe +against the ship, Anderson became anxious lest they be frozen fast for +the season over three hundred miles from their goal. He counselled an +immediate withdrawal to the inlet. Ole and the Doctor reluctantly gave +him best. + +They were not ten hours too soon in their decision. All about the ship +the water curdled rapidly into a churning waste of young ice which in +another twelve hours would render the propeller useless. As it was, the +propeller several times on their short run to the inlet jammed, and the +Captain's heart descended to his boots to rise again as the desperate +expedient of full steam ahead sent the screw kicking. + +If the worst came to the worst, Lane reflected, and they were caught, +they could leave the ship in charge of Bronson and make their way over +the pack to the mainland with dogs and sledges. But to be forced to +this expedient would disrupt the plan of their whole campaign. + +Anderson, still obstinately trusting to his volcanic theory, expected +to find open water in the inlet. And indeed as they bucked their slow +course toward the mouth the severe cold moderated several degrees +and the pack became less dense. Lane and Ole began to regret their +precipitate flight from the heaven of their dreams. + +The sudden departure from the slaughter beach had cut short the +Doctor's most ambitious project. Another day might have seen it +accomplished. With the help of Bronson and Ole he had rigged up a +tackle by which he planned to transport one of the larger horn-plated +monstrosities intact to the ship. The crew had already cleared a place +for it on deck. Over the protests of Edith, Drake and the crew, all was +ready for the reception of the huge evil-smelling brute when the sudden +necessity for getting out or being frozen in caused Lane to abandon the +beast and tackle at the water's edge. + +"Never mind," Anderson consoled him, "we can hoist your lily aboard +when we come back this way. It will be no sweeter then than it is now." + +With a sigh of regret Lane resigned himself to the loss of his loved +one. It was the prize of the whole filthy brood. Whatever may have been +the state of its interior the heavy armor of its enormous scales had +preserved it, outwardly at least, from the more distressing features of +dissolution. Edith rejoiced openly at her father's misfortune, and the +crew wore a smile that even the knife-edged blast from the south was +powerless to chill. + +Despite his heartbreaking loss Lane did not quit the beach in absolute +poverty. Every available nook of the _Edith_ was packed with his +well-salted and pitch-soaked mummies. His collection as it stood would +be the scientific sensation of a century. + +More valuable still were Ole's photographs. An able-bodied Norwegian +seaman with the most expensive cameras and an unlimited supply of films +can take an overpowering abundance of excellent photographs in five +and a half weeks. Under Lane's expert direction he had photographed +practically everything visible on that eight mile beach. + +This indeed was but the minor part of Ole's Herculean labor. His +greater masterpieces had been achieved by the freehanded expenditure +of Anderson's dynamite and blasting powder. This the sagacious Captain +had stowed aboard the _Edith_ in ton lots, confident that he should +have heavy blasting to do in his oil prospecting. He expected to find +his oceans of wealth under rocks buried beneath the accumulated ice +of ages. An incautious remark to the Doctor, who was bewailing his +stupidity in not having brought crosscut saws, steam shovels and other +modern implements of surgery in the large, had betrayed the Captain's +hoard to the rapacious zoölogist. The three weeks orgy of judicious +blasting which followed gave Ole his unique collection of interior +views. + +In this filthy business Lane and the mate toiled alone. The others +refused point blank to be present at the opening ceremonies. A day's +practice with its attendant disasters, which may be imagined but not +described, made the adaptable Ole expert in the planting of the charge. +By the evening of the second day he was splitting open swollen monsters +with the expert neatness of a specialist on prehistoric appendicitis. +A second charge skilfully inserted when the Doctor so desired brought +forth the creature's stomach for detailed examination. + +Lane was anxious to learn all that he could of the dead monsters' +life habits. Anatomy alone, as revealed by Ole's beautiful interior +photographs, was not enough. He must find out on what the creatures +had lived. As a rich by-product of this work he obtained, from the +undigested contents of the stomachs of the carnivorous reptiles and +mammals in the shambles, many of his most curious specimens. Seclusion +from the air in the stomachs of the huge lizards and enormous +salamanders had preserved many of these beautiful objects practically +fresh. + +One remarkable incident of all that surgical saturnalia deserves to be +recorded here. At the time it gained only a passing notice from Ole +and the Doctor, absorbed as they were in the larger beauties of their +obscene orgy. But had Lane given it the attention which it merited, and +which he as a scientifically-trained man should have accorded it, the +party might later have avoided a disastrous mistake. Through ignorance +of its inevitable consequences they were all but destroyed. + +Late one afternoon Ole had placed an unusually heavy charge against +the belly of an enormous brute whose carcass, from its well-preserved +condition, promised a rich mine of vegetable treasures. An inspection +of the teeth showed Lane that the dead monster had been an eater of +herbs, leaves and grass. The charge exploding prematurely only half did +its work. The downward force of the dynamite tore a deep pit in the +loose, oil-soaked shale of the beach and shattered the underlying bed +of perpetual ice. The broken surface of the deepest ice lay clean of +oil. Immediately after the explosion some undigested green fronds of a +mossy plant dropped from the creature's torn stomach upon the clean, +freshly broken ice. + +The half accidental explosion having ruined the specimen for further +investigation, Lane and his assistant shed no tears over the mess but +hurried on to the next. They had but three-quarters of an hour's +daylight left, and their time was too precious for regrets. + +Having finished their next operation successfully they prepared to +return to the ship while the light still served. + +Their shortest way back led past the botched job. Glancing down at the +ice pit, Lane called Ole's attention to the rich bright green mass of +hair-like vegetation which, presumably, had fallen from the rip in the +creature's stomach. Already overburdened with their implements and +specimens, they abandoned their intention of immediately collecting +some of the curious plant. Reluctantly deciding to leave it till +tomorrow they hurried on through the dusk to the boat. + +During the night the temperature rose several degrees. This otherwise +fortunate incident robbed them of their expected prize. For when they +visited the hole in the ice they found that the oily slush oozing down +through the shale had made of the vegetation a dirty brown soup. + +Nothing was to be gained by crying over rotten vegetables. They +proceeded at once to their surgery elsewhere, confident that the next +herb eater would furnish them with a ton of the green stuff. + +In this they were deceived. It was not until some weeks later, however, +that Lane discovered their serious error. They found an abundance +of green vegetation in the stomachs of such monsters as were plant +feeders, including tons of a particular variety whose green fronds and +masses of long tendrils resembled closely those which they had missed. + +Mere resemblance is far from identity, as the Doctor realized when it +was too late. When knowledge finally came the party was fighting for +its life with a foe which gave no quarter. But for this unpardonable +negligence on Lane's part the explorers need not have brought upon +themselves a hideous warfare for which they, as twentieth century human +beings, were totally unprepared. The dropped fragments of Ole's and +Lane's green loot littered the clean shore, the fresh young ice from +the beach to the ship, and the decks. Had Lane used his scientific eyes +he would have noticed immediately the sinister difference between the +habits of the plants he had collected and that which, through force of +circumstances, he had abandoned. + +This oversight and its subsequent consequences gave Lane the scientific +chastisement of his life. Since that ghastly fight on the ice he has +not scorned the humblest detail in his battles with the unknown. + +The _Edith_ reached the mouth of the inlet not an hour too soon. +Snow began to fall as the gap of the inlet swung into view. Within +ten minutes the opening disappeared behind a thick grey confusion of +whirling feathers. The ship crushed her way through thickening ice +pack, cautiously feeling for the door in the iron wall ahead. To take +the pack at a rush was impossible. Every yard of the way must be felt +out or a smash against the barrier would send the ship like a brick to +the bottom. Along this barren coast the ice cliffs plunged sheer down +to deep water. + +The slow going all but blocked the propeller with floating ice. At each +succeeding jar the Captain's face became whiter. He had no physical +fear; his anguish was purely mental. It was the prospect of losing his +hypothetical oil that froze his nerves. + +Suddenly the nerve-racking grinding lessened. In fifteen minutes it had +ceased completely. + +"We're in," Anderson announced with undisguised relief. He would die +rich after all. "No ice, as I expected." + +A sounding gave no bottom. The volcanic crack in the earth's crust, +if such indeed was its nature, was deeper than the Captain had +anticipated. Although before them loomed the impenetrable gray wall of +tumbling snow it seemed safe to proceed at half speed. + +"For twenty miles at least this thing is as straight as a street," the +Captain explained, "and we want to get on." + +Occasional blasts from the whistle reverberating from the high cliffs +nearest them gave a check on the course and kept the ship off the +rocks. By daylight they had made only thirty miles, having slackened +speed for greater safety during the darkest hours of the morning. The +snow had thinned and now showed signs of clearing. Shortly after nine +o'clock only a dazzling glitter of finely divided crystals scintillated +in the sunlight. For the first time the party saw its surroundings. + +Ahead, and due south, stretched the inlet, at this point about a +quarter of a mile wide, to disappear finally as a jagged black line on +the white waste. + +Not a particle of ice floated on the water. Anderson ordered one of +the men to draw up a bucketful and take the temperature. The reading +gave forty degrees Fahrenheit--eight degrees above freezing, while all +about them the bleak wilderness beneath its shroud of dry snow crystals +lay locked in perpetual ice. + +"What do you make of it, Doctor?" the Captain asked. + +"Nothing, yet. I just accept it as a fact. What current is there?" + +"About two miles an hour against us. Shall we go ahead, or land here +and have a look at things?" + +"Go ahead, full steam. For all we know this may freeze over with the +first blizzard. Besides I am anxious to see what is at the end of this +long street." + +"So am I. Full steam ahead it is." + +Their progress was finally blocked in a most peculiar manner. Sixty +odd miles of the roughly straight watercourse lay behind them when +they began to notice a decided rise in temperature. Simultaneously a +heavy fog met them, rolling up from the south toward which they were +headed. The dazzling sunshine and the stark blue sky became memories. +Anderson now proceeded as slowly as it was possible to do and still +make headway against the current. The street showing unmistakable signs +of degenerating into a crooked alleyway, he kept the whistle tooting +almost continuously. The engineer kept the screw just turning, ready to +reverse at the first blackening of the mist ahead. But it was water, +not rock that stopped them. + +A sudden gush sweeping down the channel in a three-foot wave sent the +_Edith_ spinning. Full steam ahead kept her barely abreast of her +former position. A second torrent brought with it clouds of steam. +Instantly the ship was racing to keep her place in a scalding deluge. +The waves breaking over the stern drenched and blistered the deckhands +with boiling water. + +There was but one thing to do. Taking a desperate chance in the +blinding steam, Anderson slewed the ship about in the narrow channel +and went down with the torrent, trusting to sound signals to keep him +off the cliffs. By midnight the immediate danger was past. Once more +the _Edith_ lay where she had started ahead at full steam. + +"No lobsters boiled yet," said the Captain with a sigh. "Even Ole is +still raw." The stars glittered in the hard black sky like crystals of +icy fire. "I shall drop anchor for the night here. The lookout can see +far enough ahead to give warning if anything breaks loose." + +"We should be safe enough here," the Doctor agreed. "The last of the +steam fog is all of forty miles away." + +And so it proved. However, the night was not to pass without a flurry. +At three in the morning the lookout called Captain Anderson to view a +spectacle which had been troubling him at intervals for the past two +hours. Having seen it, Anderson at once routed out Ole and all the +passengers. They found the watchman staring straight ahead at a heavy +pall of low black clouds suspended above the southern horizon. + +"Keep your eyes on those clouds," Anderson directed. + +He had barely spoken when the under side of the pall burst into vivid +crimson. For perhaps three minutes the cloud pall pulsated from +crimson to cherry red like the intermittent reflection from a forge +fanned by an old-fashioned bellows. Then suddenly the light went black. + +"How long before it lights up again?" Anderson asked the watchman. + +"Thirteen and a half minutes, sir. Regular as a clock." + +The interval passed and again the clouds burst into fire. And so it +went till dawn when the rising winds of the upper atmosphere, tattering +the pall, flung it far to the frozen south. During all that time the +party had watched in fascination, not heeding the stiffening of their +joints in the cold. The unearthly beauty of that distant inferno, and +the mysterious regularity with which its manifestations recurred, made +conversation trivial. Little was said until daylight, when the upper +winds and the rising sun obliterated the awful grandeur of the night. + +"Is that your volcano?" the Doctor asked. + +"Ole's burning oil well, you mean. No I'm sure it isn't. Those clouds +were not more than fifty miles away at the most. My estimate of the +other thing, you remember, was between two hundred and fifty and three +hundred miles inland. That would make it over two hundred miles from +here." + +"Then what do you make of it?" Edith asked. + +The Captain grinned. "Like the Doctor, I'll wait and see what's ahead +before I jump." + +"I have a theory," Ole began. + +"Bottle it. When it's ripe enough to blow the cork let it fizz." + +Ole rolled off rumbling to vent his emotions on purely masculine ears. + +"What is it to be, Lane?" the Captain asked. "Do we try it again up +stream or shall we take to the land?" + +"How long will it take to get ready for the land journey?" + +"Four hours. I saw to rationing the sledges while you and Ole were +enjoying yourselves." + +"Are the dogs in fit shape?" + +"They will do. The four weeks' exercise on that rotten beach wasn't all +it should have been, but it will have to do." + +"Why not compromise?" Drake suggested. "Let us go by ship as far as we +can before taking to the sledges. I don't relish dragging the beastly +things over the ice. For that is what it will come to when the fool +dogs give in. Sooner or later they are bound to go. We can't pack four +months' grub for them and ourselves." + +"What about it, Captain?" the Doctor asked. "Are you willing to risk +the boiling water?" + +"Now that we know what to expect I see no great danger. Unless," he +added, "boiling mud comes down with the water and mires us a hundred +miles from the sea." + +"We'll chance it," the Doctor decided. "If there had been no more of an +eruption than boiling water so far it seems improbable that there will +be one now just to welcome us." + +"There is always the airplane as a last resort," Edith pointed out. + +"Yes," said the Captain, "and who would be the happy pair to escape +while the rest stayed behind and starved?" + +"Don't you see? The pilot could take off the men one at a time. In a +pinch five or six could crowd on somehow. The plane can lift the weight +of ten men easily." + +"And get the last of them off the night after Judgment Day. No, Edith, +if we do get caught your plan won't work. However, I'm as game as your +father. And what I say the men will do--and be damned quick about it, +too. Now, Doctor, since we are going back I should like to ask a favor." + +"Go ahead. If it's anything reasonable consider it granted." + +"It is this. I want to find out what caused that glow on the clouds. +Suppose we take a side trip to find out before going on to the main +show?" + +"That sounds all right to me. And it will give the dogs some real +exercise." + +"To say nothing of ourselves," Drake prophesied gloomily. "I know the +brutes will be unmanageable. One tried yesterday to take a piece out of +my leg--and I have no meat to spare." + +Without further discussion the ship was put about. They proceeded +upstream at full speed. By noon they reached the point where they +judged it would be wise to leave the ship and take to the sledges. + +Within two hours Anderson, Ole, Drake, Lane and Edith, who refused to +be separated from her father, were on their way over the ice with a +week's provisions. Bronson was left in charge of the ship with orders +to head her downstream and keep a sharp lookout for trouble. At the +first hint he was to steam for the mouth of the inlet. Should the +party send no word to the contrary before the seventh night out, he was +to organize a relief and go in search. + + + + + 9 + + INTO IT + + +The party had two sledges. Anderson and Ole, being the only members +experienced with dogs, taking charge of the sledges, instructed the +others. One who has never had the pleasure cannot appreciate how much +sport goes with the skilful manipulation of a dog team. The greenhorns +soon learned. A temperature several degrees above zero, dead calm, a +blinding glare from the undulating snowfields, and their own panting +exertions quickly brought out the perspiration. Edith bore it with +compressed lips, the Doctor grinned like a cat in pain, and Drake, +wishing he might lie down and die, contented himself with a continuous +profane commentary on the dogs, the desolate landscape and the idiot +who had dragged him into this brainless mess. + +Drake's misery reached its climax when he was just on the point of +abandoning the expedition after three gruelling hours of elaborate +awkwardness. His sledge at the moment was careering sideways like a +crab down a gentle ice slope which the winds had swept clean of ice +crystals. Reaching the bottom without mishap he stubbed his toe on some +hard obstruction cunningly concealed beneath the loose drift. At the +same instant one runner of the sledge found another stumbling block. +Before Drake knew what it was all about he was sprawling on his back +like a lanky frog in the snow, his sledge was upside down, and the dear +dogs had tied themselves into a true lovers' knot. + +Scrambling to his feet he forgot Edith, his surroundings, everything +in fact but his fluent vocabulary. His rhythmic denunciation of the +universe brought a blush to the ears of the sensitive Ole, who at +that moment was acting as Edith's instructor. Quitting Edith's side +with alacrity Ole hastened over to extinguish Drake. Anderson and the +Doctor, taking things easy, were some distance ahead. In that clear, +cold air every syllable carried like a bullet. They spun round as if +shot by a machine gun. + +"Great Scott!" said the Doctor, "I didn't know he had that much in him. +Let us go back and see what brought it out." + +Ole discovered the cause of offense before the others reached the spot. +Drake's eruption had ceased abruptly in an ominous calm. With a glare +of suppressed rage he stood regarding Ole's dangerously inviting pose. +The mate was on his knees scratching like a terrier to scoop away the +loose snow from a black object, of which the pointed cap had already +been exposed by his frantic enthusiasm. + +"Ah," he puffed, "you are a born researcher, Mr. Drake. Invisible +though this was to the naked eye you found it. You have the scientific +penetration, the genius that sees through deceptive appearances to the +underlying truth." + +Drake, speechless, considered. Should he give Ole a thundering kick, or +was his toe too sore? By habit he kicked only with his right foot, the +one which had 'researched' Ole's treasure. He decided for peace. + +"What is it, idiot?" + +Ole ignored the compliment. "See for yourself. Inscriptions!" + +Drake was now on his knees, rooting with Ole. An exclamation from the +Captain proclaimed the discovery of the second black stone which, +buried in the snow, had wrecked the sledge. All hands now began +digging. In a few minutes two small, jagged fragments, evidently pieces +of a larger rock which had been shattered by its impact on the ground +ice, lay clean for inspection. + +At first the result was deeply disappointing. One of the fragments +had been so badly scarred by its rough treatment that not a single +pictogram remained on its surface, while the other exhibited only +the broken remains of half a dozen. Neither was worth photographing. +Anderson, having set Drake's disaster to rights, suggested that they +move on. + +But Drake appeared to be deaf. The more badly damaged of the two +fragments seemed to hold him hypnotized. Presently he rose to his feet +and kicked the black mass savagely with his heel. + +"Fetch a sledge-hammer," he ordered Ole. + +"Where in hell am I to get one?" + +Edith had already located the handaxe which she now offered to Drake. +With one sharp blow he split the black fragment into two along a +plane of cleavage. The sight which met their eyes brought a cry of +astonishment from all but Anderson and Ole. One surface of the divided +rock was covered with the deeply incised pictograms of prehistoric +monsters, while the other, like a relief map, bore the raised replica +of the same inscription. Yet the whole fragment before Drake split it +into two had seemed to be an ordinary chunk of black, cement-like rock. +Drake's brain was at work. + +"If you found twelve dozen of one kind, Hansen," he said, "it is +against all probability that you saw none of the other. Why didn't you +photograph some of them too?" + +"I did," Ole replied like a stolid keg. "In all I took over one hundred +pictures of the raised kind of inscriptions. They are in my chest +aboard the ship." + +"Then why on earth didn't you show them to me?" + +"Because," Anderson informed him, "we knew what sort of men you +scientific chaps are. We didn't want to give you too much to swallow +all at once--just enough in fact to make you hungry for more." + +"You win," said Lane. "I want everything you have." + +"That's the lot, Doctor, honest. From now on we are as green as you +are." + +"And that's saying a good deal. Does this throw any light on your +difficulties with Ole's photographs, Drake?" + +"Enough to show me why the whole series doesn't hang together. No +wonder the drawings of those animals are in two different styles +belonging to two totally distinct epochs of art. It also explains a +thing you would have noticed if you had taken the trouble to examine +the pictures carefully. Even I, with my vast ignorance of natural +science, can see that the monsters represented belong to different +ages of the earth's history. Roughly they seem to be alike. But the +resemblance, although real, is no deeper than the similarity between +men and apes. They belong to the same races of creatures, but are +separated by millions of years of evolution." + +"You're wrong there, Drake. I prefer to think that the differences are +merely the varying expression of a fixed idea. The minds of the artists +have evolved, not the creations of their art. I'll argue it out with +you later. For the present, does this find affect your guess as to +what's ahead of us?" + +"Not materially. The struggle that I deduced from the symbolism of the +inscriptions must have been longer than I thought. That's all." + +"Where did you find your inscriptions, Ole?" + +"A good seventy miles north of here." + +"Then there should be more in this neighborhood, because it probably +is nearer the source of the explosion. If so, we shall find enough to +write a prehistoric encyclopaedia from A to Z." + +And so it proved. At intervals of half a mile to a mile they found +the vast undulating snowfields littered with colossal fragments of +black rock, many of which on their level faces were covered with the +deeply cut figures of prehistoric monsters. As many more smaller chunks +doubtless lay buried beneath the snow and ice of two winters. Not +stopping to photograph these now they hurried on to their goal, the +source of the eerie light which they had seen from the ship. + +That night, without much wind, was cloudless. Although the temperature +dropped below zero none of the party experienced any serious discomfort +in their dry sleeping bags. The months of hardening in the Canadian +Rockies and Alaska had well prepared the new-comers to the Antarctic +for hardships which otherwise might have proved unendurable. The +absence of high winds on the bleak plateau was an unexpected piece of +good luck. By rare fortune they had penetrated one of those mysterious, +almost windless regions of the Antarctic continent which have puzzled +explorers. + +The first day they covered only twenty miles. With the experience of a +march behind them they made a little over forty miles through the dead +calm of the second day, to creep into their bags at night exhausted. +The men took watch by turns in two-hour spells. Not a flicker of +the strange fire they were seeking stained the cloudless night sky. +Beginning to doubt the correctness of their route they were wholly +unprepared for the inferno into which they blundered at five o'clock of +the third day. + +The start at five o'clock on that memorable morning was made under a +sky blazing with the icy jewels of innumerable stars. At sunrise they +found themselves ascending a sharp declivity of blue ice. Up that long +ascent the going was necessarily slow. By slogging ahead they had risen +two thousand feet shortly before ten o'clock. As nearly as they could +judge they were now climbing over a huge fold of rock running almost +due north and south. The view from the crest of the rise confirmed +their guess. Below them they saw a broad trough running north and south +as far as vision carried, filled almost to the brim with tumbling white +mist. Some thirty miles distant the farther side of the trough towered +high above the rolling mists in an unbroken barrier of jagged black +peaks. + +Although it looked hopeless they decided after a brief consultation to +continue on their course. Should the black barrier prove as forbidding +as it looked from thirty miles away they must turn back. They were +not going to be balked, however, by the mere aspect of difficulties. +Without further debate they descended the long ice slope into the +heaving pall of white fog. + +The descent was made without accident. Arrived on the floor of the +trough Anderson produced his compass and led off through the swirling +mist. Lane assumed command of one sledge with Drake as helper. A few +yards behind the leader Ole and Edith managed the second. So thick was +the fog that Anderson's figure only some forty feet ahead was invisible +to the tenders of the second sledge. Nevertheless the Captain set a +stiff pace over the blue ice and hard packed snow crystals. + +They had now but four and a half days left in which to make their +objective and return to the ship. The Captain was determined to find +out the nature of that black barrier before Bronson could overtake him +with an unwelcome relief party. The stiff pace, almost a run, suited +the others, for the clutching cold of the fog sought out and gripped +the marrows of their bones. + +For perhaps three-quarters of an hour all went well. Then a horrified +shout from Anderson brought the party to a palpitating halt. + +"Don't come here," the Captain called back. "Wait till I fetch you." + +One by one he led the others to the brink of the death which he had +escaped by half a second. There it gaped, a sheer well in the blue ice +thirty feet across and of depth unknown. The lip of the circular hole +lay flush with the surrounding ice. Its sides dropped straight down as +if carved out with a huge knife. It was a perfect circular well, over +a hundred feet in circumference and of a depth which they could only +guess, for it was full to the brim with white fog. + +Edith had an inspiration. She returned to the first sledge. + +"Here," she said, handing the Captain a pound tin of soup, "throw that +down and listen for the echo. Then we can figure out how deep it is." + +Anderson tossed the can into the centre of the hole. Only the breathing +of the dogs broke the intense stillness. Not the ghost of an echo rose +from the well. + +"Probably there is soft snow at the bottom," the Captain remarked. +"Well, I'm glad I'm above instead of below." + +Not suspecting what lay before them, the party proceeded through the +fog at a brisk trot. An astonished shout again brought them instantly +to a halt. + +"Here's another of the damned things," the Captain announced. "Ole, +fetch a rope. There's one on the second sledge." + +"You're not going down it, are you?" Drake asked nervously. + +"Not if I can help it, nor the next one either." He tied one end of the +rope securely about his middle and passed the other end to Lane. "Make +that fast to both sledges. When they begin to shoot ahead, pull back +hard. All right, come on. These may be oil wells for all we know." + +He marched rapidly forward through the blinding mist. "Follow me +exactly," he called back. "I've just gone two yards south of another." + +From that time on they passed at least two of the wells every five +minutes, occasionally cutting across the narrow strip which separated +three or four in a cluster. Prudence urged them to return, but the +determination to see the thing through held them to their course. + +They had neither time nor inclination to speculate on the significance +of those sheer pits in the ice and rock. All their will was +concentrated on their feet. One slip and they might learn more of the +mystery than they cared to know. + +Anderson forged steadily ahead without speaking. He was bent on +reaching the barrier before turning back, holes or no holes. + +At five o'clock they had been marching almost continuously for twelve +hours. The constant strain on their nerves no less than the pull on +their muscles was beginning to tell. Anderson suggested a brief halt +and a warm drink. It would take half an hour to prepare the chocolate. +That would leave them about an hour of such daylight as there was in +the cheesy fog. + +They were just about to enjoy the steaming drink when, with a rapid +up and down vibration, the ice beneath them began to shake violently. +The dogs howled dismally and tried to bolt. Suddenly a terrific jar +directly under them sent the party rolling. Staggering to their feet +they succeeded in cowing the dogs. The jarring ceased. In dead silence +the last tremor died. + +White and still, they stood staring at each other's scared eyes in the +ghostly mist. Few things so terrify even the most courageous human +being as a violent earthquake. There is about the terrific jarring +an impression of uncontrollable and insane force that temporarily +upsets the balance of the reason, and the helpless victim, powerless +to escape, can only wonder when the torment will cease. Lane had +experienced earthquakes in central China. This, however, was a +different order. To the other members of the party it was a new test of +courage. Drake's knees turned to water. He almost went down when Edith, +suffering from the same malady, clung to him for support. Ole said +nothing. He was too scared to pray. Anderson stood it best. + +"That's nothing," he said. "It will save my blasting powder." + +The words were hardly off his tongue before it began again, worse than +ever. In ten seconds it was over. + +"That's the queerest shake I ever felt," said the Doctor, wiping the +perspiration from his face. "The motion was entirely vertical. It felt +exactly as if someone miles below us was hitting the roof over him with +a heavy iron bar. Listen!" + +Miles under their feet they heard a muffled crashing like the slamming +of thousands of doors along a hundred mile corridor. With a last +crescendo of slams the noise ceased, to be followed immediately by a +hollow rumble as of water bursting underground from the sea through +labyrinths of rock. Rising to a sudden, deafening thunder directly +beneath them the shattering noise passed, to mutter itself out in the +bowels of the earth leagues to the south. Then the mist all about them +took sudden life. A great wind, eddying like a maelstrom, spun them +helplessly on the ice. + +By instinct rather than reason Anderson got his claspknife open and +cut the rope which bound him to the sledges. At the same instant Drake +and Ole each clutched one of Edith's arms, Lane seized Anderson by his +collar and with the other hand grasped Ole's coat, and all five huddled +together, flattened themselves on the ice. Not one of them afterward +recalled any thought in all of this. It had been purely the instinct of +self-preservation acting automatically. + +Spinning like straws in a whirlwind, now this way, now that, they were +too dazed to comprehend what was happening. Only a dim consciousness +that the air was being swept clean of fog penetrated their numbed +consciousness. + +The vortex motion of the atmosphere ceased as abruptly as it had begun. +Staggering to their feet in an air as clear and hard as glass they +found themselves less than two feet from the brink of a well fifty +yards across. The last vestige of the fog had been sucked down the +innumerable blowholes. These they now saw thickly pitted over the +desolate ice in all directions to the range of vision. + +It was some seconds before they realized the full horror of their +plight. Drake was the first to come out of the stupor. + +"The sledges?" he muttered, staring about him in a daze. + +They were gone. Anderson took in the situation at a glance. He kept his +nerve. + +"Out of this as fast as we can," he said quietly. + +He still clutched his compass. They followed him at a run. There was no +time to speculate down which of the wells the sledges had been sucked. +Every nerve strained to get out of that ghastly maze of death traps. + +"It's beginning again," Lane said presently. "I felt a slight jar. Down +on your stomachs and all hang together. Hansen, you're heaviest. Get in +the middle." + +They cowered on the ice, their hands joined round Ole's stout figure, +waiting for they knew not what. + + + + + 10 + + UNDAUNTED + + +Huddled on the trembling ice they set their teeth and prayed inwardly, +expecting to be hurled skyward. A rushing roar, like the tumbling +of flames in a furnace when the door is suddenly opened, rose with +incredible speed to a high, singing pitch of shattering intensity. +Just when the shrill whistling grew unendurable there shot from the +innumerable wells dotted over the ice hard white pillars of compressed +mist. With explosive violence the fog which the wind had sucked down +into the bowels of the rocks was being expelled. + +Straight up shot the thousands upon thousands of dense white columns to +fray themselves out in a whirling tracery on the roof of the sky like +the groining of a vast cathedral. + +Then the bottoms of the rushing fog pillars soared free of the wells. +The shortening columns, sucked up into the newly formed clouds +flattened themselves upon the misty roof in thousands of rings that +vibrated, clashed into one another, rebounded, clashed again, and +finally rolled along the underside of the cloudy dome in a mazy tangle +of spinning filaments. + +The pitch of the singing note from the blowholes heightened. Air or +gas was being forced up under tremendous pressure from the interior of +the earth. Speechless with awe, the huddled watchers beheld the tops +of the invisible columns burst into pale blue conical flames. Almost +immediately after they heard the thudding of the ignition. + +For perhaps ten seconds the whole cloud roof over the vast ice trough +was hung with the thousands of these pendant cones of blue flame. As +the sustaining pressure now rapidly dropped the shrillness of the +whistling diminished, and by great trembling bounds the blue cones +descended toward the wells, reddening as they fell. + +Half-way between the blood-red ice and the crimsoned cloud roof the +downward-rushing cones of red flame halted, suspended in mid-air, +roaring like ten thousand blast furnaces. Then with a tumbling +reverberation the innumerable tongues of crimson lengthened, swooped +upon the wells, and with a last earth-shaking thunder disappeared. + +Although daylight still lingered beneath the high gray pall of fog, +the party, blinded by that last downward rush of fire, saw nothing. +Dazed and trembling, they got to their feet. Gradually vision returned. +Without a word Anderson peered at his compass and led off. They were +too stunned by the mere magnitude of what they had seen to attempt as +yet to comprehend it. Only the instinct of self-preservation urged them +to immediate flight. + +They had made a little less than a mile when again the subterranean +thunder shook the ice under their feet. Then they remembered for the +first time their night vigil on the deck of the _Edith_. That periodic +glow on the distant clouds had recurred every thirteen and a half +minutes. + +For safety they again huddled together on the ice. Again the surface +air was sucked down the wells, but with considerably less violence. +Apparently the initial disturbance had stored up fuel for the +succeeding flames. Once more the shrill whistle from innumerable vents +announced the coming of the fires, and again the blue cones hung from +the massive cloud roof, to hover down presently in crimson fire before +the final swift plunge to the darkness of the wells. + +Long before they escaped from the trap night overtook them. Their march +had been a succession of panting runs while the tumbling flames and the +crimson glow lit up the icy desolation like a frozen hell. When the +flames vanished, and the air all about them became a black well, they +halted breathless with fear while the rapid jarring of the ice rocked +their brains, and the fierce whirlwinds clutched at their bodies to +hurl them down the bottomless pits of fire. + +The terror of the fiftieth grim watch was no less than that of the +first. At any instant the gyrating wind might get a surer hold of +their shrinking bodies and dash them all to a horrible death. Ordinary +courage, steeled by lifelong habit to brave the commonplace dangers of +human existence, availed them nothing. Their minds being unprepared for +this torture they could only cower under its fiendish recurrence. + +Dawn found them still crouched in the trap or stumbling blindly forward +under the lash of instinct. They had no idea how many miles they had +reeled through during the night. For all they knew they might be two +miles or twenty from the comparative heaven of the icy desolation +between them and the ship. + +With the coming of full daylight the temperature rose and the heavy +pall above them began slowly to descend. A new terror gripped them when +the icy mists swirled down, enveloping the party in impenetrable gray. +They must now grope their way forward a step at a time. Haste meant +death in the wells, which still with maddening regularity shot up their +pillars of descending flame. Numb with cold and stupefied by fatigue as +they were, they yet had feelings of awe for the mysterious beauty of +the infernal dream when the crimson flames, smoky as milky-red opals +through the shrouding mists, paused for a fraction of a second above +the wells for their final plunge. + +Three hours after dawn the last rumble jarred the ice, and the +blowholes droned wearily, but no flame issued. It was as if some titan +chained beneath the rock had expired his last flaming breath. For that +day at least the strange terror was ended. + +Through the searching cold of the dead mist they groped their way in +stunned misery for another four hours. Only the necessary words of +caution as the leader avoided the pitfalls at his feet broke their +dazed silence. + +At last they felt themselves climbing uphill. They were out of the +inferno. Urging their jaded bodies to the limit of endurance, they +panted up the long slope. Two hours later they flung themselves on the +ice, face up in the glorious sunlight. + +For half an hour they lay there in silence, soaking in the light of +heaven. The heat of their bodies melting the ice, presently their +clothes were sagging with freezing water. In spite of themselves they +slept. + +"We can't stay here," Anderson said, getting to his feet. "Wake up, +everybody. We must go on as far as we can and trust that Bronson will +find us." + +The Captain was right. Sleep with no covering but their clothes, even +in the afternoon sunshine, was almost certain suicide. Like automatons +they followed Anderson over the dazzling snowfields, tramping +monotonously till dark. Among the weary five of them there was not a +particle of food. And having no fuel they could not thaw out the hard +frozen snow or ice to drink. The bits of ice which they sucked in the +stinging cold to allay the raging thirst cracked their lips and seared +their tongues, causing them exquisite torture. + +Never slacking his gait, Anderson crunched steadily ahead. Fatigue +to him might have been an alien mystery. The three men followed him +doggedly. Hansen appeared to notice nothing more than the ordinary +day's work. He bobbed along like a jogging barrel directly behind +Anderson, treading down a firm foothold for Edith, who trudged after +him. Lane came next, some yards behind, and Drake, cursing softly to +himself to keep up his spirits, brought up the rear. + +The deepest darkness of the early morning made no difference to +Anderson. He kept on. It is a perennial miracle what the human body can +stand when it is driven by a relentless mind. All that night, half-mad +with thirst, the party slogged on through the black cold. + +Dawn found them still marching. + +"Anybody for a rest?" Anderson croaked through his cracked lips. + +Edith nodded, and sank down in her tracks. Instantly she was asleep. +Taking off his outer coat, Ole rolled her in it and slapped his sides +to keep from freezing. To the protests of Drake and Lane, who peeled +their coats, Ole replied that he, having more blubber than both of them +together, could better stand a freeze. + +None of the men attempted to sleep. They sat on the ice or stamped +about when they began to stiffen. + +"Hereafter I carry my sleeping bag on my back," the Captain croaked. +"Damn the dogs." + +"Captain Anderson!" Ole reproved him. + +"She's asleep, idiot. Shut up." + +Stirring uneasily, Edith rolled over on her side. Suddenly she sat up +with a start. + +"O, I'm dreadfully ashamed," she cried, scrambling painfully to her +feet. + +"How long have I slept?" + +"Five minutes," Anderson lied nobly, and Drake nodded. + +"It felt like five seconds," Edith sighed. Then she noticed Ole's coat. +"Oh Ole, how generous of you," she exclaimed, helping him into it. "But +you shouldn't have done it; I'm not a baby." + +"That's nothing," Ole protested. + +"It's a great deal," she replied. "My, but it's cold." + +"All right," Anderson croaked, "we'll go on. You will soon warm up." + +From that hour Edith became a firm adherent of the theory that five +minute naps at the proper time are as refreshing as a night's sleep. +None of the men had the heart to explode her theory. They never told +her that she had slept three hours and twelve minutes. + +Another rest of two hours in mid-afternoon refreshed them all. By +huddling together three of the men generated warmth enough in the clear +sunshine to enjoy a profound sleep. The fourth kept watch, rousing +the next man when his turn came. Edith slept straight through the two +hours. + +That night they marched briskly from dusk to dawn without a halt. +Another two hour rest restored them for the final effort. The men had +found their second wind. Edith's sufficient sleep and youth made her +a good match for the men. She would go through with it to the end and +come out smiling. Curiously enough, hunger did not greatly distress +them. After the first sharp pangs they forgot food in the intense +longing for copious draughts of water. Putting their wills to it they +forged ahead almost at a run over the hard, packed snow. + +Seventeen hours later they saw the rubies and emeralds of the ship's +lights gleaming through the crystal night air. In fifteen minutes they +were wallowing alternately in cold water and steaming hot chocolate. + +"Never again," said the Captain, limping off to his cabin. "I'll leave +that sort of thing to professional explorers who enjoy talking about it +afterwards from a platform." + +This, however, was the rash statement of a pessimistic and leg-weary +man. By twelve o'clock the next day he was up to his neck in plans for +another assault on the black barrier which he was determined to cross. +He persisted in his belief that oceans of oil lapped the farther side +of the jagged range which they had failed to reach. + +Lane regarded this as a delusion. Finally as a geological expert he +convinced the Captain that sweet pickles were a likelier prospect than +oil in a rock formation such as they had seen. Later he modified this +verdict. + +"Have patience," he said, "and you will get your oil. Don't expect it +to rain down on your head like blessings from above." + +"Listen to me," Ole broke in. For some time he had been suffering +agonies from the high pressure of his superheated theories. "Those +blowholes," he said impressively, "spouted natural gas. Therefore there +is oil at the bottom of them. There are our wells, Captain." + +"Idiot," said the Captain, "how are we to get at the oil if it is at +the bottom of those hell holes?" + +"Pumps." + +"Pump yourself and dry up." The Captain turned to Lane. "What is it to +be?" + +"Full steam ahead as far as we can go. Then deposit a cache of dynamite +and provisions, send the ship downstream a safe distance, and make it +inland by sledges to your volcano." + +"Burning oil well," Ole corrected under his breath. + +"We shall see when we get there," said the Doctor. "Suppose we can +approach to within fifty or even a hundred miles of the volcano--pardon +me, Ole, burning oil well. We could establish a base there--bury our +supplies in the ice, if necessary--and deposit caches of food and fuel +every ten miles to the place itself. There are plenty of able-bodied +men aboard to chop holes in the ice and pack in the stuff. Then we +won't be bothered with those beastly dogs." + +"There are only two teams left, anyway," said the Captain. "Your plan +sounds reasonable." + +"And I know John will go wild over it," Edith added. "He would rather +fall down one of those wells than coo to a dogteam again." + +Drake was absent from the council, having locked himself in with Ole's +photographs. + +"Oh," the Doctor replied, "I was planning on Drake managing one sledge +and you the other. We shall need all the transport we can scrape +together, for there is no telling how long we may be away from our +base. Ole, Anderson and I will be busy looking for oil wells." + +Edith ignored the suggestion. + +"May a mere woman participate in the councils of the gods?" she asked +with mock humility. + +"Yea," her father answered, "even a mere child may prattle about our +feet. 'Out of the mouths of babes--' you know. Proceed, infant." + +"I shall do so," the child replied. "And presently you won't be able +to see me for my smoke. For I intend to take Ole with me on a tour of +inspection while you and the others are breaking pickaxes and your +backs over cast iron ice." + +"How so, child?" + +"I have wings, have I not?" + +"Even so, angel child. You were born with feathers on your back." + +"Then I shall fly. In three hours I shall find out more about this +country than you and the blessed dogs will learn in ten years. If +Ole's cameras are good for anything we shall supply you with a map of +the continent from here to the South Pole. Then you will be able to +find your way to the Captain's oil field without stubbing your toes +over every brick on the road as poor John did. Ole, consider yourself +engaged as official photographer of the air reconnaissance. In the +meantime, Captain Anderson, full steam ahead while our luck lasts." + +The last order being confirmed by Lane, the Captain obeyed. Returning +to the cabin, he found Lane with his back to the wall fighting his last +battle against Ole and Edith. + +"Help me talk these lunatics out of their insanity," he begged, "before +they break their silly necks." + +But the Captain, having reflected, was less inclined than the Doctor to +the lunacy theory. + +"Let me take a squint at the barometer, first," he said. + +"Set fair," he announced. "This seems to be an almost windless region. +Those tornadoes round the blowholes don't count. The devil alone is +responsible for them. Having his hands full there he won't bother us +here--at least not for twelve hours unless the barometer is a worse +liar than he is. + +"Now here is my vote," he continued. "If the weather stays set until +we reach our anchorage I say Edith and Ole should go. She is right. In +three hours they can find out what it would take us years to bungle +through. At the first sign of wind or dirty weather she can scoot back +to the ship. She is the best air pilot of us all. And I'll say this of +Ole: he is second best." + +Ole blushed appreciatively. "You bet your boots I am." + +"Also you are as dumb as a barrel," the Captain resumed, "so you won't +put Miss Lane up to any foolishness. She will do the thinking for both +of you." + +"Ole can take the pictures and theorize," Edith promised consolingly. + +"And mend the motor when you bust it," Ole added with a touch of +vindictiveness. It is one thing to call a man a masterbuilder of +theories and quite another to say he theorizes. Ole sensed the +distinction. + +The Doctor was finally routed. And so it happened that Edith and Ole +took not one reconnoitering flight, while the men and gods toiled +fifteen hours a day at the caches, but several. + +That afternoon they proceeded upstream to within fifty miles of their +projected goal. For twelve days of perfect calm they anchored in the +narrow channel, ready at a second's notice to race from the deluge of +hot mud which they half expected but which never came. The stout ship +was to leave her timbers in that desolate spot to the end of time, but +it was not mud or lava which held her fast. + +The powerful airplane had been unshipped without difficulty. A level +stretch of hard packed snow made an ideal landing ground. When tanked +to capacity the plane carried enough petrol for a thousand mile flight. +Taking no chances, the explorers carried the full complement on each +trip. + +"Au revoir," Edith said as she climbed in for her first flight. "We'll +be back before midnight. I promise." + +"How far are you going?" Drake asked. + +"To Hades." + +Edith's answer had been given merely to shock Ole. Yet it contained +an unsuspected element of truth. That was precisely where she landed +before the end of her explorations. + + + + + 11 + + HOT WATER + + +Edith's intention was to fly due south. She wished if possible to +discover the source of the eruption which Anderson had observed on his +first trip. The account of the gigantic smoke ring, visible at over +two hundred and fifty miles, "teetering crazily up the sky" had taken +her imagination by storm. She wished to see for herself what sort of a +monster blew such delightful rings. Ole's burning oil well theory did +not seem entirely satisfactory. Edith rather expected to find a crater +pursed up through the ice like a smoker's lips, lazily generating smoke +for the next puff. + +So far the party had seen no sign of the distant disturbance from the +ship. The cordial gush of hot water which had first welcomed them, +however, they regarded as highly significant. + +If there was hot water in the vicinity Edith longed to be in it. Her +rather inactive part in the expedition so far had made her feel young +and unimportant. She now wished, as she said to herself, to return +from her trip distinguished or busted. Giving the engine more gas she +let it out to seventy miles an hour, humming through the zero air in +a bee-line for her hive. If Anderson's estimate had been correct she +should reach it in less than an hour. + +Ole set himself with stolid perseverance to photograph the Antarctic +continent as seen from above. With the results of his labors it would +be possible, he hoped, for subsequent explorers to find their way +blindfolded to the South Pole. + +Forty freezing minutes flew behind them before they noticed any feature +of interest on the desolate, icebound landscape rolling up from the +south to meet them. The jagged black crests of what appeared as an +almost perpendicular rock barrier pricked the horizon. + +Nearing this barrier at the rate of a mile a minute they saw it rise +by leaps above the white wilderness. Ole had charge of the navigating +instruments. By a rough calculation, half guess and half arithmetic, +he estimated the barren cliffs to be not over three hundred feet high. +A glance vertically down showed an undulating ice plain thickly dotted +with huge fragments of black rock. Occasionally one of these jagged +fragments, having fallen with the flat side uppermost, presented a +thatch of last winter's snow to the observers, but for the most part +their stark pinnacles were bare and black. + +Presently Ole gave a shout that was audible above the droning of the +propeller. + +"Blowholes," he bellowed, handing Edith his binoculars. + +Peering over the side Edith beheld a pockmarked expanse of blue ice, +pitted with bottomless wells and littered with huge fragments of rock. +Putting her trust in Providence not to "blow" the wells until she had +flown over them, she gave the engine more gas and spun toward the low +barrier at a hundred mile clip. + +Coming directly over the barrier they saw that the apparent wall was +tumbled desolation of huge rock masses at least five miles broad. It +would be impossible to traverse that jumble with dog teams. If the goal +of the expedition lay beyond that chaos they must traverse it painfully +on foot with packs on their backs. + +Edith flew on. The speedometer showed eighty miles an hour. +Some minutes later they saw the black mass beneath them curving +precipitously down like the slope of a steep mountain. + +Determined to ascertain the extent of the vast crater--for such they +judged it to be--Edith continued to fly due south with one eye on the +speedometer. The walls of the huge depression below them were soon +no longer visible. Only a sheer void with slowly heaving sooty black +clouds at the bottom, apparently several miles below them, met their +awed gaze. + +That deep expanse of inky billows seemed never ending. On they flew at +eighty miles an hour until seventy minutes lay between them and their +starting point at the lip of the gigantic crater, and the precipitous +slopes of the farther side soared suddenly up out of the black smoke +to meet them. The crater, they inferred, must be ninety miles across. +Vast as this estimate made it, they could not be sure that it was +adequate, as they had no means of judging whether they had flown above +a diameter. + +When they finally cleared the last of the shattered buttress and level +ice stretched unbroken for miles beneath them, Ole signified his urgent +wish to descend. They landed without mishap. + +"Where are you going?" Edith demanded as Ole started on a run back to +the lip of the crater. + +"I have just had a theory," he bellowed, forgetting in his enthusiasm +that he was no longer competing with the propeller. "Now I test it." + +When he rejoined her forty minutes later his face bore the smug +expression of one who has looked on Truth and found her all that he +hoped. + +"Just as I thought," he said. "The south sides of those rocks on the +edge of the crater are covered with lichens." + +"Well," said Edith, testy from the cold, "did you expect to find +barnacles?" + +"No," he replied with the bland complacency of a sunfish, "I knew I +should find lichens." + +"Then it was stupid of you to waste nearly an hour looking for them," +she retorted. "Get in. I'm going on." + +"But," he expostulated, "I have proved my theory. That is no new +crater. It must be very old. Therefore Captain Anderson did not see it +erupting." + +"Then what did he see?" + +"An eruption within an eruption. Just the old floor of this volcano has +blown up in our times." + +"And the floor was covered with inscriptions? Yours is a likely theory, +I must say. Who ever heard of people carving inscriptions on the floor +of a volcano?" + +"Who ever didn't hear of it?" Ole retorted, not quite sure of his +logic. "Why shouldn't they? Perhaps those inscriptions were only +tombstones. Haven't you seen the flat ones in the churchyards? Those +ancient makers of inscriptions wished to bury something." + +"So they dug a hole in the red hot lava and put a lid over it?" + +"Not of course. I mean," he corrected himself, "of course not. No, that +isn't what I mean. I want to say it doesn't follow. The main eruption +may have been millions and millions of years ago." Ole grew poetical. +"When the earth was but an infant in swaddling clothes that ancient +eruption moved, and lived, and had its being." + +"Colic?" Edith asked innocently. "Is that from the _Song of Solomon_? +It sounds familiar." + +"No," said Ole, as stolid as a keg of soused herrings, "Solomon sang of +other things. All those rocks I photographed," he continued, "are parts +of that old cracked floor. Satan has recently been unchained again down +there"--Ole's polite way of saying that hell had broken loose again in +modern times--"and those far hurled tons of inscriptions testify to +his inordinate vehemence. We are witnessing a recrudescence of that +prehistoric calamity which rocked the Pole to its roots." + +"I too have a theory," Edith announced. + +"Yes?" said Ole eagerly. + +"My theory is that you will be left here talking through your hat +forever if you don't climb in at once. I'm going on." + +The unappreciated Ole took the hint. They were off again. + +Edith decided to fly home in a wide circle, following the southern +rim of the crater until it began to turn sharply to the north. Then, +leaving it behind she hummed on due west for about a hundred miles. She +was on the point of turning north again, and home to the ship, when a +peculiar dim blue line across the western horizon caught her attention. +To investigate would take only half an hour. She investigated. + +So did Ole. He again discovered innumerable blowholes in the ice over +which they whizzed, and called Edith's attention to the significant +detail. + +"This looks promising," she said to herself, for Ole could hear +nothing. "Now if Nature knows anything at all about logic she should +have planted another big hole in the ice over behind that blue line." + +Nature proved herself logical. The blue line became the sheer edge of a +tremendous ice precipice sweeping in a gradual curve round the horizon. +Fifty miles was a conservative guess at the diameter of this vast +depression. Unlike the other no jumble of black rock cluttered its edge +or the surrounding plain. + +Half a mile from the edge Edith landed. In silence she and Ole hurried +over to the edge of the precipice. Reaching it they stood a few yards +back and gazed into the immense void before them. No smoke obscured the +sunlit floor of this vast amphitheatre. So far below them it lay that +it appeared only as a dim blue shadow. + +"Come," said Edith, "that's too good to spoil today. We shall return +tomorrow and see it properly. Don't say anything to the others about +this. One thing at a time is enough for those doubting Thomas cats." + +"I won't," Ole promised. "My theory is," he jabbered before Edith could +choke him off, "my theory is that Satan is still chained down there." + +"There will be the devil to pay," she said simply, "if he breaks loose +tomorrow while you and I are exploring. I hope you are on good terms +with him." + +Ole was shocked. Never before had he heard a young lady use such +language outside of a church. He registered his disapproval by climbing +into the machine without another theory. + +Edith's report brought tears to the Captain's eyes. + +"That fool Ole was right," he admitted generously. "What he and I saw +from the ship was a burning oil well. Now you have found it." + +"Full of black smoke," Ole added gloomily. "Probably all the oil is +burning away." + +"No, idiot," the Captain replied, "or you would have seen flames." + +"I suppose it was just smouldering?" Ole suggested with a nasty touch +of irony. + +"Oh, undoubtedly," the Captain sneered. "The obvious, practical +solution always escapes your colossal mind. Can't you see it? That +smoke is simply what has settled down after the fire went out." + +"And burned up all the oil," the pessimist supplemented. + +"Oh, shut up. If what he says is true, Doctor, isn't there likely to be +more oil under the floor of that hole in the rock?" + +"I'll tell you when I see the floor." + +"Well, whatever theory you and he may hatch between you I'm going to +tear up an acre or two of what's left of that floor with dynamite. +Tomorrow we begin packing my part of the show to the circus tent." + +Before sunrise the next morning Edith and Ole were stirring in +preparation for their trip. They were off with the first ray. The +Captain having assured Lane that the cold, windless spell was certain +to continue, Edith coaxed her father into giving his consent at the +last minute. She departed with the Captain's heartfelt blessing and his +best thermos bottle full of hot chocolate. What souvenir the blessed +girl might bring back to him today he could only speculate, but he +hoped it would be another oil well of even vaster dimensions than her +first. + +What Edith and Ole expected to find on their private expedition they +kept to themselves. Neither had the least suspicion of the handsome +surprise which Nature had generously prepared for their welcome. + +Turning sharply to the west as soon as the airplane lost sight of the +ship, Edith steered a straight line toward her find. Ole as navigator +gave her the signals keeping her on the course. She made the propeller +hum. Not being interested in the dreary Antarctic landscape she +shot over it at a hundred and twenty miles an hour, the limit of the +machine's capacity. + +The dim blue line on the horizon raced forward to meet them. Slackening +her speed to eighty miles an hour Edith spiralled down like a seagull. +Reaching the level of the lip she circled for a turn near the +precipitous wall and then, to Ole's horror, made a nose dive for the +bottom of that vast well. Cutting out the engine presently she tilted +to forty-five degrees, and glided down, down to the sunlight of the +blue plain below. + +"Where are we going?" Ole gibbered in his fright. + +"Down there, of course. It looks nice and sunny. I'm half frozen." + +"What if we can't land?" + +"Then we must fly out again." + +"But suppose something goes wrong with the engine?" + +"Then we shall be a pair of scrambled eggs with no toast, but only the +hard ground, beneath us." + +The sunlight swam up to meet them, and to their astonished eyes was +revealed an azure river winding through a green plain. Dropping +lower they saw the huge trees rush out, and then, farther away, the +innumerable silvery plumes of the pampas grass undulating to the warm +breeze. Entranced they saw the long billows of light rising and falling +like the swell of a silver tide. Here, sunk deep in the icy heart of +the Antarctic Continent lay a paradise of flowing water and luxuriant +vegetation. + +Accepting it for what it was they flew on in silence, looking for +a spot to land. For once Ole was without a theory. Later he hatched +several. The probable solution of the mystery was not, however, his +work alone. Drake supplied the egg; Ole merely brooded on it and gave +it wings wherewith to soar. + +The dense vegetation by the river thinned here and there into rolling +meadows of lush grass. They flew over these, seeking more level ground +for a landing. At last they spied what they sought, a long sandy spit +cleaving a still blue bay in the river. + +They made a perfect landing. Then, when they stood with their numbed +feet on the warm sand they realized the wonder of the place and its +beauty. They were almost in the centre of the vast well. Twenty-five +miles distant in whatever direction they looked towered up the sheer +blue cliffs fifteen thousand feet above the floor of the valley. + +Age-old ice bound the brows of those precipices, and over the circular +opening to the sky howled the winter blizzards of the Antarctic, +powerless to freeze the water in this blue river or blight the +tenderest flowers of the valley's perpetual spring. By what miracle +had time preserved this deep garden against the advancing cold? Dying +ages had piled on the once tropical regions above a crushing desolation +of ice a thousand feet thick. While overhead the yelling gales of +winter warred against themselves with whirlwinds of frozen sleet and +splintered shafts of clanging ice, only rain fell through this mild +atmosphere above the valley. How had this spot, this very heart of a +forgotten paradise retained its life-giving warmth, while all about lay +the stark body of life frozen cold in the death of ages? Or had it +always been as they now saw it? These were questions which they could +only ask themselves but not answer. + +"This is more beautiful than a California valley," Edith sighed, "and +on a far grander scale than any of them. No other valley in the world +is an almost perfect circle like this one, nor is there another with +cliffs like those to shelter it. Those walls are three miles high." + +"Less about a fifth of a mile," the precise Ole corrected her. "I +watched the barometer as we dropped down. Say two and four-fifths miles +high." + +"Ole, you are impossible." + +They strolled off the sandy spit to ascend a little knoll whence they +might obtain a view of the whole valley. Not until they had been +walking about five minutes did they notice the oppressive discomfort of +locomotion. Thinking that it must be due to their own thawing out in +this mild air after the long flight through zero temperature, they took +off their heavy sheepskin tunics. Another ten yards and they stripped +their Jaegers. + +"At this rate," Edith laughed, "we shall be shedding our skins before +we reach the top of the hill." + +Ole, puffing like an overfed porpoise, tried hard not to look shocked. +He took a mental oath not to shed another rag. Respecting his modesty +Edith forbore her next impulse and toiled up the slope lugging only her +outer garments. She wished she were Eve and he Adam. + +"I know what it is," Ole exclaimed, not stopping to do his theorizing. +"We are two and four-fifths miles below the surface of the earth, +aren't we?" + +"Three," said Edith. "But it's too stuffy to argue. Go on." + +"Then we are at the bottom of a mine. I mean," he explained +laboriously, "it is just as if we were at the bottom of a mine. All +that air is crushing us." + +"You do seem to bulge more than usual," Edith admitted. + +Ole ignored this verification of his theory. + +"And," he continued, expounding the article on _abyss_ from the A +volume of his sample of the encyclopaedia, "the internal heat of the +earth can be felt at this depth. It gets so hot in the deep mines that +the miners have to stop going down, and just burrow out sideways like +moles." + +"Thank Heaven," Edith sighed, "you don't own the entire Encyclopaedia +Britannica. I simply couldn't stand it all in this infernal heat." + +"Miss Lane!" + +"Oh, I shall swear in a minute. Don't mind me; it's my nerves." + +At the crest of the hill they flung themselves panting on the thick, +mossy grass. + +"I shall never growl at the cold again," Edith declared. "This place +must be like a steam bath when the sky is clouded up over the opening." + +"And the clouds blanket in the radiation," Ole added appreciatively. +This evidently was a gem from the one masterpiece of Herbert Spencer's +which he possessed. It certainly seems unlikely that he found anything +so sensible in either the tattered "_Bluebird_" or his seven-figure +table of logarithms. "On such occasions the humidity must be very high." + +"As muggy as lukewarm pea-soup for breakfast. I'm fed up. Let's get out +of here. Put on your clothes. It's less bother to wear than to carry +them." + +As she stood up to shake on her sealskin a darker blue stain on the +azure of the distant wall caught her eye. Looking intently at the +deeper blue she imagined that she could see clear through the vast +cliffs into a dim azure world beyond. Then dismissing the illusion +with a laugh at her own fancifulness she started slightly at a new +aspect of the shadow. It was in the form of a perfect arch at least +three thousand feet high. Ole's remark about the miners burrowing out +sideways when the heat grew unendurable stuck in her mind with an odd +persistence. What if this were an old mine, disused since a million +years before the dawn of history? + +"What do you see?" Ole demanded nervously. He was struggling with his +heavy tunic. + +"Nothing. But you have a look. What is that shadow on the cliffs over +there?" + +Ole stared long and hard. His seaman's eyes made out no more than +had Edith's. Not wishing to commit himself to an untenable theory +he wheeled slowly round, searching the whole hundred and sixty mile +precipice. + +"There is another," he began cautiously, "three points east of south." + +"Yes," said Edith, "and I have counted four more. That makes six in +all. Let's investigate." + +"Right, Miss Lane. I'm with you." + +Their lassitude vanished at the prospect of adventure. Joining hands +they raced down the little hill by a shortcut which would take them +through a clump of high bushes directly to the airplane. Laughing like +a pair of children off for a picnic they romped into the shade. + +Suddenly a huge gray boulder blocking their path came to life with an +earth-shaking screech. Edith screamed and clung to Ole. He stood frozen +in his tracks, paralyzed with terror. + +How they ever reached the plane they were unable afterwards to recall. +Edith remembers being thrown in bodily by Ole. He only has a blurred +memory of cranking the propeller, climbing and kicking madly at the +evil red eyes in a hideous serpent head that shot up after him on a +massive thirty foot neck. He swears that he struck one glaring red +eye just before the motor lifted and the heavy bodied brute flopped +on its belly in the sand, fanning the air with the vast spread of its +ineffectual, bat-like membranes. + + + + + 12 + + TRAPPED + + +To the Captain's anxious inquiries the fliers replied that they had +returned early on account of the cold. Although sorely disappointed +that Edith had not discovered another oil-hole for him, Anderson said +nothing. He contented himself with putting Ole to the dirtiest job in +sight. Lane was far inland, superintending the caching of stores. Drake +had gone off somewhere to exercise his beloved dogs. + +Edith and Ole conspired to keep their find to themselves until they +should have explored it thoroughly. They began to regret their panicky +flight straight back to the ship. Tomorrow, however, they would keep +their nerve and spend a heavenly day investigating the abode of the +dragon. A landing in the open should be sufficient protection from a +surprise. By avoiding clumps of brush, rock piles and the pampas they +might see much before being chased. + +That evening they gathered in the Captain's cabin. The Doctor, having +unpacked his scientific paraphernalia, was absorbed in an attempt to +analyze the green venom which he had collected from the giant reptile +on the beach. The scanty equipment proving insufficient he put away his +test tubes with a sigh of disappointment. + +"I shall have to wait for a living victim." + +"Let me see your flask, Doctor," Ole begged. + +"Have you a theory?" the Doctor laughed, handing over the pint of +thick, evil, green fluid. + +"Not this time. But I have a knife." + +To the astonishment of the party Ole proceeded to anoint the eight-inch +blade of his murderous knife with the sticky green venom. + +"There," he said complacently, brandishing the knife to dry it, "nobody +gets fresh with me any more." + +"It may be harmless," Edith remarked with a meaning look. "You had +better not put too much faith in that messy stuff." + +"I'll chance it." + +As he spoke he unconsciously fixed his eyes on Anderson. The Captain +stirred uneasily. + +"Look here, Ole, I set you at that job this afternoon because all the +men were away with Lane." + +"That's all right, Captain." Ole was not going to let his accidental +advantage slip. "It gave me a touch of lumbago. Can Bronson take my +watch tonight?" + +"I'll take it myself if he can't. With lumbago like that you're not fit +to be on deck. Will you be able to fly tomorrow?" + +"Flying rests my back. I'll be better in a week or two." + +Edith rose to retire. As she went out she shot Ole a significant +glance. Mumbling an excuse he followed her. + +"Why not take a revolver tomorrow?" she whispered. + +"No use. I couldn't hit the side of the ship at ten yards." + +"But suppose we do get caught again? That stuff may take hours to act. +I doubt whether it is a poison at all. Father really knows nothing +about it." + +"What can we do? A guess is better than nothing. Besides, I don't mean +to get caught." + +"Neither do I. Oh, that awful brute. I shall have a ghastly nightmare. +Good-night, Ole." + +They were off at sunrise in the stinging cold. Drake for a spell at +breakfast had grown quite peevish, not to say profanely rude, when Ole +harmlessly asked him to pass the butter. The memory of what Drake +had said was food and warmth to Edith on the freezing spin south. +Having nothing to cheer him but the shadowy prospect of sticking an +over-developed lizard with wings in the gullet, Ole froze. It was with +reckless relief that he shed his sealskin when at last they landed. + +Today they had come down in the centre of a five mile meadow. Unless +the enemy flew they were safe. + +Ole had brought the Captain's strongest binoculars. With these he +now slowly swept every mile of the vast precipices, blue in the hazy +distance. On each of the six sapphire shadows he lingered a full five +minutes. The dim shadows, he decided, might be weather stains on the +cliffs. If nothing more a three thousand foot stain should be worth +investigating. + +"You take a look, Miss Lane." + +"Those are caves full of mist," she said decisively, handing back the +glasses. "Which one shall we try first?" + +"The nearest. That one to the southeast. If we don't like what we find +this is a good place to fall back on." + +"You think we may wish to turn tail in a hurry?" + +"We can't tell," he said uneasily. "I am no coward." + +"Of course you are not. Neither am I. Shall we go?" + +"My eyes are better than yours, Miss Lane. Remember, I have been half +my life at sea." + +"Well?" + +"I thought I saw things moving at the base of those cliffs. They were +only shadows." + +"Afraid of a shadow, Ole?" + +"Yes," he admitted frankly. "Show me something real and I'll fight it +like the next man. Put me up against a nightmare the devil himself +never dreamed of and my legs turn to water. Now you know how I feel." + +Impressed by his outspokenness she held out her hand for the glasses. +Long and curiously she searched the base of the cliff. + +"I believe you are right. There is something over there at the foot of +the precipice. How far away from it are we?" + +"About twenty-three miles." + +"Even if the shadow were an elephant's we couldn't make it out at that +distance." + +"Not with these glasses," he admitted. + +"Has it struck you that those moving things can't possibly be shadows?" + +"Why not?" he queried nervously. + +"Because that whole sector of the cliffs is itself in deep shadow." + +"I hadn't thought of that," the unpractical builder of theories +admitted. "Are you going on?" + +"Yes." + +"No woman ever got the better of me yet, and I'm damned if a kid in +short skirts is going to make a monkey of me now." + +"Ole!" + +"Oh, it's all right, Miss Lane. The Captain isn't here." + +"You behave yourself or I'll leave you with the reptiles." + +Flying as slowly as was possible they cautiously approached the +mysterious stain on the southeastern wall. At that hour of the morning +the shadow of the precipice lay in a great blue crescent on the valley +before them. Soon entering the shadow they experienced a sudden drop in +spirits. To the superstitious Ole the semi-twilight was a gloomy omen +of disaster. + +Edith began to wish she had been less daring. Hating to back out after +her bold front to Ole she kept her forebodings to herself. Nevertheless +she had a strong premonition of trouble. The thought that the motor +might fail them at a critical moment almost made her sick. Swallowing +hard she anxiously scanned the terrain for a safe landing place. To her +joy she observed a gentle three mile grassy slope from the base of the +precipice to the edge of the pampas. + +They were now near enough to make out the nature of the stain. It was +indeed what they had first guessed, a colossal archway over half a mile +high in the face of the sheer cliff. Smoky with blue mist it might +have been either a huge cave or the entrance to a tunnel under the +continent. If the latter, Edith made a sudden resolution to explore it +to the end--some day. At present she felt too shaky. Her nervousness +soon received a shock that acted as a counter irritant. + +Ole had been making efficient use of the binoculars. + +"Let me have the wheel," he said presently, "while you take a look with +the glasses." + +They were now within five miles of the cliffs. Although it was not +exactly a sane proceeding, they changed places in mid-air. Ole now +became the pilot and Edith the observer. + +Her first observation stopped her heart for two sickening seconds. The +green slope at the base of the cliffs was a crawling den of gigantic +monsters. The huge, torpid beasts blundered and crawled over one +another's sluggish carcasses like blind salamanders. Evidently they +were just awakening to greet the sunlight which in a few hours would +stir them into activity. The vast cave or tunnel no doubt was their den +and breeding place. + +"Fly lower," Edith ordered, "and let us see what the brutes look like." +Her stomach had resumed its normal position. + +Without the flicker of an eyelash the stolid Ole obeyed. No snippy +kid in short dresses could outdare him. He dropped sharply to the +fifty-foot level, let out the motor to its limit and shot straight as a +bullet toward the misty cavern. Edith shrieked. She had met her master. + +The droning roar of the propeller roused the lethargic brutes to a +trumpeting rage. A hideous forest of writhing necks shot up; flat, +brainless heads swayed up to spit their hatred and their venom at the +breaker of their bestial sloth, and the obscene red membranes of the +huge brutes' aborted wings clattered impotently against their bloated +bodies. The fetid stench of their breath mingling with the reek of +their foul lair defiled the morning with an unforgettable sickness. +A flashing vision of innumerable eyes red with brainless ferocity, +a din of yellowed fangs clashing after their unattainable prey, the +penetrating breath of a living decay, and the hideous flight was a +memory. + +Was Hansen insane? Again Edith shrieked as he shot full speed into the +blue mists of the cavern. Shutting her eyes she instinctively braced +herself for the obliterating crash. + +It never came. Whether or not she fainted she doesn't know. Ole swears +she did. + +When she opened her eyes she thought for one wild moment that she was +in hell. The blue mists had given way to a rapidly flickering crimson +glow. The oppressive heat all but stifled her. Great gushers of flame +thundering up from the floor of the vast tunnel flattened and curled in +fronded fire over the arched rock half a mile above. Down the endless +distance colonnades of pillared flames dwindled in vistas of alluring +terror, enticing the damned to their torments. + +Ole had been less rash than he seemed. While Edith was taking her fill +of the den over which they shot he, like a born navigator, was minding +his own business. As the blue entrance of the tunnel rushed forward +to meet him he saw that its interior was approximately straight and +sufficiently well lighted for safe flying. The chance he took was +negligible. A mile from the entrance he sighted the first flaming well, +and thereafter the tunnel became a well lighted corridor, broad and +lofty, ideal for rapid flight. Danger of a collision with one of the +roaring flame pillars was nil, the highway down the tunnel being over a +mile broad and the avenue of flame wells at least half a mile wide at +its narrowest point. + +Those three thousand foot pillars of flame were absolutely without +smoke. Ole's reasonable theory--inadequate, as later events +proved--made them vast natural gas jets. He recalled that there are on +record in Asia oil wells and escapes of natural gas which have been +flaming continuously for over two thousand years. Therefore, he said, +this probably was the same sort of thing on a much grander scale. The +age-long action of water opening fissures in the rocks had first let +vents into the subterranean oil and gas reservoirs. Then the heat of +chemical reactions between the water and the minerals in the rocks had +ignited the gas. This detail of his theory led him seriously astray. +Had he chanced upon the true explanation of how those gas pillars took +fire--which any competent physicist would have guessed at once from the +peculiar behavior of the flames over the blowholes which Anderson had +discovered--he would not have rushed like a fool into the trap which +nature had prepared for him. + +Granting the ignition of the gas the astute Ole reflected that the +rest of the inferno explained itself. Intense heat and the constant +high pressure of escaping gas had enlarged the first vents into huge +circular wells, up which the solid flames shot until they impinged on +the rock roof three thousand feet above. Doubtless, he reflected, the +red hot rocks up there were constantly flaking. In time an avenue of +blowholes would burst through the roof of rock and ice for some later +explorer, far in the future, to find and wonder over. He inferred +naturally that under Anderson's trough of blowholes there probably +extended another vast tunnel through the solid rock. The six shadowy +arches which he and Edith had observed on the wall of their circular +valley no doubt were all of one kind. The continent must be, in this +strange region, a vast rabbit warren with tunnels branching in all +directions, some even to the sea. + +At this point of his meditations Ole experienced his first qualm. Those +other blowholes onto which the party had blundered differed in one +significant respect from those which the future explorer of his musings +was to discover. The escape of gas and flames through the first was +intermittent and its period strangely regular. The periodicity of the +first blowholes was the disturbing peculiarity. These gushing wells of +fire in the tunnel seemed to be continuous. Did they ever go out like +the others? Ole's imagination leapt ahead of the racing machine. What +if those pillared flames should suddenly drop down their vents and +disappear? In the dark he must smash himself against the tunnel wall +like a ripe tomato. + +This squeamish reflection passed from his mind to make way for another. +One detail of his inadequate blowhole theory received a sudden and +disconcerting confirmation. Half a ton of red hot rock shattered itself +with a crash on the floor of the tunnel not a hundred yards to the +right of his course. The whole roof must be cracking under the fierce +bombardment of flames from those thousands of gigantic blast furnaces. + +For the first time he now noticed the stifling heat of the tunnel. +The rushing air positively scorched. What if his petrol tank should +explode. And what if a red hot fragment of stone set fire to the +airplane? Ole began to sweat from a combination of too many clothes, +too much heat and too little nerve. He was not having the best time in +the world. Nevertheless he shot on like a courageous fool at a hundred +and twenty miles an hour down that vast tunnel into the bowels of the +earth. No snippy little kid in short dresses should make a monkey of +him. + +The kid had recovered her senses. She was having a heavenly time. Her +one regret was that her father had not seen all those nice beasts. She +must take him back an egg if the beasts were that sort. + +The air in the tunnel began to grow faintly smoky. They were not over +an hour from the entrance. Consequently at least a hundred and twenty +miles lay between them and daylight. + +The same thought occurred to the pair: they should now be nearing the +vicinity of the smoke-filled crater which they had discovered first. +Theorizing rapidly Ole concluded that the tunnel joined these two, +the ruined crater and the vast depression still green as a paradise. +Doubtless the explosion of a huge reservoir of oil beneath the first +had sent its floor skyward to litter the surrounding desolation with +chunks of black rock. Then, he speculated, had the first also been a +den of prehistoric monsters--or, as Lane maintained, botched imitations +of such--before its destruction? It had. + +The verification of Ole's speculation was twofold and twice convincing. +Like a dead memory from a forgotten existence a nauseating stench +assailed their nostrils. They remembered that moonlit night on the +Antarctic ocean and the soul destroying pollution of the winds from the +beach of monsters. + +Presently through the thickening smoke they saw the shambles. The +tunnel was all but blocked by the rotting carcasses of huge brutes +which had trampled one another to pulp in their panic to escape the +fumes which finally suffocated their multitudes. + +Cutting out the engine Ole glided toward the mountain of decay. Just as +he turned the plane to escape from the immense corruption he spied the +second confirmation of his theory. + +Great, slow-moving brutes, each the bulk of three full grown +hippopotami, mailed in horn and with a ridge of jagged armor sticking +up along their spines from the flat, broad head to the tip of the +thirty-foot tail, were crawling like huge newts over the rotting +mountain, or splashing heavily through the foul brown ooze from its +base. + +These gigantic scavengers took no notice of the intruders, continuing +with voracity their filthy feasts. The whole decaying pile crawled with +them. Their number could only be guessed, for the end of the tunnel was +invisible through the murky smoke. For all the explorers definitely +knew, they might be one mile or twenty from the ruined crater. + +They decided it was time to fly. Both felt faint from the awful +stench. Ole let out the engine to its limit. The sudden roar startled +a flapping horde of lesser scavengers which they had not seen. Being +almost the color of their obscene food these had escaped notice in +the murky light. They now arose in thousands, cloud upon cloud of +long-necked reptilian "birds" with the wings of bats. From tip to tip +the spread of their leathery membranes averaged a good eight feet, and +on each six-foot neck a grinning head the size of a horse's stretched +hungrily forward. Hard round eyes like those of gigantic serpents +stared stonily at the intruders, estimating their value as food. The +six-inch teeth clashing aimlessly at nothing filled the air with a +hideous cacophony. + +Either their own foul banquet was more to their taste or the reptilian +birds were by nature peace loving scavengers averse to combat, for they +contented themselves with flapping round and round this unknown bird +of the twentieth century. Their lineage went back millions of years; +this parvenu was an infant yesterday. With hard stares of contempt they +circled back in wide spirals to their interrupted repast. + +Thanking Heaven for this deliverance, Edith breathed again. But her +thanks were premature. A strangely familiar rumbling was but the +prelude to a remembered thunder of subterranean explosions. She knew +what was coming. + +So did Ole. Anticipating it he cut out the engine and dipped gradually. +Taking the desperate chance that no considerable mass of shattered rock +littered the floor immediately ahead he brought the plane down. Luck +favored him. They came to rest whole on the rocky floor. + +They climbed hastily out. The jarring under their feet all but threw +them prostrate. They heard the sudden suction of the rushing whirlwinds +rushing down to the subterranean chambers, and saw what they dreaded. +As if struggling for their life with the demon winds the pillars of +descending flame quivered for an instant in mid-air. Then with a +knelling roar they disappeared in absolute night down the wells. + + + + + 13 + + HADES + + +An hour in the impenetrable darkness of that suffocating stench was a +hundred years long. Unfortunately Ole had a liberal supply of matches. +Under ordinary trials these would have been a godsend. Here they proved +an exceedingly cunning gift from the devil. + +The instant the terrific jarring ceased Ole lit his first match. It +was just half past eleven in the morning. Five hours before he and +Edith had been enjoying an extensive breakfast. For lunch they now had +nothing but the air, such as it was. They had given up the attempt to +eat their sandwiches after the first mouthful. The meat tasted like +carrion, and the bread had made of itself a sponge to soak up all the +noisomeness of that foul shambles. + +They climbed back into the machine to await the next earthquake and the +rekindling of the gas wells. To pass the time Ole theorized and struck +matches every five minutes. The brief light showed him a set white +face, the large brown eyes with their dilated pupils almost black, and +the resolute, finely shaped mouth compressed in a firm bow. The kid, he +admitted to himself, was sticking it like a hero. He had expected her +to blubber. + +"I have been wondering," she said about the fifth match, "how we are +to get out of this beastly tunnel if the darkness continues for, say +a week." She laughed ruefully. "'Beastly' is right in more ways than +one. The smell is beastly, there is a hideous den of prehistoric beasts +at the less obscene end of this filthy burrow, and a stinking mountain +of dead beasts blocking the back door. Suppose we do have to walk out, +which way shall we go? All those scavengers and hideous bird things are +behind us too." + +"Whatever happens," he replied with savage conviction, "I am not going +to walk. To the living devils it is a hundred and twenty miles. What +kind of a fool would walk that far to be torn to pieces? Especially on +an empty stomach?" + +"Not my kind," she admitted ruefully enough. + +"And do you think I'm going to swim through those miles of muck behind +us?" + +She shuddered. "I couldn't go that way even if those vile bird +creatures and the huge crawling brutes weren't there." + +"No more could I. No, I shall not walk." + +"Then if the wells have gone out for good we must stay here forever." + +"We can fly," he asserted. + +"And smash ourselves in the dark like a pair of goose eggs. I can think +of nothing stupider than two unhatched geese unless it be three." + +"Well, isn't a quick smash better than slow rotting? It wouldn't be +suicide," he added to pacify his conscience, "because we should be +doing it on the chance of saving our lives." + +"Yes, a quick death is better. I wonder if I shall ever see my father +again. And my garden, and the dear cats in San Francisco...." + +Ole was touched. The poor kid was going to cry. He struck a match. Her +eyes had grown larger and darker, but there were no tears. After all +she was a brick. + +"Listen," he said confidently. "I have a theory." + +"If it's as depressing as the rest of this nightmare please keep it to +yourself." + +"But it isn't. You remember how long it was between blow-offs at those +holes the other day?" + +"About thirteen minutes." + +"And the flames only lasted a few minutes after they caught. Now those +jets in here were going full blast for over an hour. Suppose they had +been going for a full day when we flew in." + +"I'll suppose it. What then?" + +"They will light up again as the others did. But not for a much longer +time." + +"A week, perhaps? We shall suffocate long before we see." + +"No. The same cause must be at the bottom of those flame holes and +these." + +"And that cause may operate only once a month, once a year, or once a +century for all we know. The next flare may light our bones." + +"For two reasons I say no. The first is practical, the second is +theory. First, those bat birds have eyes. They can see. I know that is +so from the way they glared at us. Now animals that can see don't stay +long away from the light." + +"The encyclopaedia has fooled you, Ole. All that you say may be true. +But there is probably a back door to this tunnel, and those filthy +things just swoop in here to feed. When they are gorged they flap out +again to roost in their dens. They get all the fresh air and sunshine +they need for perfect health in their rookeries." + +"I hadn't thought of that. Still, having eyes they must be used to +seeing their food." + +"Eyes for such creatures in this stinking place are an ornament of +luxury. They have nostrils. I saw them myself--two holes on the snout +like a snake's." + +"Well, listen now to my theory. You can't knock out that, any way, +because it is all pure reason." + +He lit another match. Her eyes were fixed straight ahead on the +impenetrable soot. The match died. + +"Why do these blowholes come and go?" he continued. "Why don't they +shoot off burning gas all the time?" + +"Is it a riddle?" + +"Not to me," Ole replied proudly, lavishing two matches on the +invisible stench. + +"I give it up. What's the answer?" + +"The moon." + +She wondered if she could climb out unnoticed by the theorizer. Poor +Ole; his mind must suddenly have given way. She was sorry for him, but +sorrier for herself. A lunatic on top of her other troubles would be +too much. + +"Where are you going?" Ole demanded. + +The flaring match revealed a scared pair of eyes searching his. Edith +had started to climb down. + +"I thought you had gone crazy," she said, climbing back just as the +match expired and burnt Ole's fingers. "But you seem no more insane +than usual. Go on with your theory." + +"The moon does it all. Really it is quite simple when you get the idea. +As a practical seaman I know how the moon raises the tides--they follow +it round the earth. The moon attracts the water. Then a big heap of +water gathers in the middle of the sea, and the bulge follows the moon." + +"I wish I could follow you." + +"When the moon gets so far ahead that the bulge can't keep up the tide +falls. When the bulge sweeps over a place it is high tide there. Anyhow +that's something like it." + +Ole proceeded to elaborate his account by an obscure reference to that +bane of all amateur theorizers, centrifugal force. With the squaring +of the circle and perpetual motion this mystical conception forms the +unholy trinity of the born paradoxer. Not one of them knows what it +means, yet by invoking its magic powers they explain everything from +germs to God. Edith, trying not to listen, felt like a quart of milk in +a cream separator. Centrifugal force was separating her mind from her +body, but which was which she could not have told. Mercifully it did +not last long, and Ole soon reached the practical application of his +moonshine. + +"Now my theory is," he said more rationally, "that there is a vast +tank of oil--perhaps several--under the whole region." + +"Won't Captain Anderson be pleased to hear that? I'm glad somebody will +be happy in all this mess." + +"Not all oil, perhaps. I think it may be floating on salt water." + +"I wish it were carbolic acid." + +"Now when the moon raises a tide on all that oil it rushes through the +underground galleries of this continent and forces up all the collected +gases of twenty-four hours through the blowholes." + +"And somebody is waiting to set a match to it, I suppose?" + +"You mean how does it catch fire?" + +For a moment the inventive Ole was badly stumped. Then his chambered +mind gave up its buried reminiscences: all gases when compressed get +hot. Keep on compressing them far enough and they get red hot--if gases +ever do behave in such a revolutionary way. + +"Compression," he answered offhandedly, as if the effort had cost +him no labor. "Compression heats up the gas. When the wave passes it +presses the gas into a small volume next to the roof. That makes it +red hot. Then it escapes through the blowholes. Friction on the sides +makes it hotter still. Of course it catches fire--high up in the air, +high enough so the rush of escaping gas can't blow out the flame. It +couldn't light up, could it, before it reached the air? Then the tide +falls, air has to rush in to fill up the place left by the falling oil +and water, and the flames are sucked down." + +"Tides don't rise and fall every thirteen minutes. Your theory is up +the spout." + +"My theory is irrefutable. Of course tides don't happen every thirteen +minutes. But haven't you ever seen the way the water swings back and +forth, up and down, when you set it going in a long bathtub?" + +"I do bathe occasionally when I'm in civilization. And you may be sure +I shall spend a month in the first real tub I see. Yes, I may even have +time to try your experiment." + +"When the tide rushes into some vast underground cavern, half filling +it, big waves must be set up travelling back and forth, up and down +along the trough. Suppose the wave comes in by a long tunnel into a +vast hole, and has to squeeze out by another tunnel. In trying to +squeeze out all at once the waves will be started at the wall above the +tunnel. And all the time the hole is filling up, compressing the gas +against the roof. Now suppose it takes a wave thirteen minutes to run +the length of the underground tank. Then it will force up the gases at +a particular place once every thirteen minutes. + +"As it passes the place," he went on with enthusiasm that fed upon +itself, "the air will be sucked down again. That explains our first +blowholes. Now for these. The tank under them must be much longer. The +waves therefore take a longer time to pass under. It follows that the +flame jets will burn much longer. Which was to be proved." + +"You have proved also," she pointed out, "that the flame pillars will +be dead for half an eternity. We must wait at least until the next +full moon raises the gas for our torches. And by then we shall be in +Heaven--I hope." + +"No, I think every tide must raise the gas enough to send up a flame. +Of course at full moon the flame will be hotter and last much longer." + +"And where does your blessed salt water come from to float the oil and +gas and raise the tides?" + +"Where all salt water comes from--the sea." + +"These tunnels, or others like them--bigger and longer, of course--must +stretch far out under the floor of the Antarctic ocean." + +He became encyclopaedic, explaining how, gradually weakening under the +pressure and seeping of ages of water, the bottom of things aqueous had +suddenly given way letting the ocean burst down to the subterranean +fires, flooding them and the innumerable tunnels. This, he said, +accounted for everything. The oily stew of prehistoric monsters which +he and the Captain had witnessed was merely the backwash, the jetsam +of the sudden deluge which had drowned out perhaps a dozen of the +interconnected paradises such as the one Edith and he had discovered. +Some day the floor of the unruined one would give way too and there +would be another grand boiling up of monsters somewhere between South +Georgia and Cape Horn. Or the accumulating gas under its rock bottom +might suddenly hurl it skyward at some tide higher than the usual one. + +The origin of these vast tunnels and semitropical paradises in the +frozen continent he was as yet unable to explain. At them his theory +balked, baffled. He doubted now whether the monsters of the stew had +been so recently dead as he and Anderson imagined. Their freshness and +the still uncoagulated blood of the baby devil they had fished up could +be rationally explained on a twenty-four hour immersion in warm oil and +water. + +Theorizing thus freely Ole was happy despite the ever present, all +enveloping, stinking darkness. Edith's respectful silence flattered +him. He outdid himself. Never before had he lectured to an audience +so sympathetically appreciative. During his interminable harangue he +forgot even to strike a match. When finally he did, Edith's eyes were +closed. She was fast asleep. + +Although deeply chagrined Ole considerately let her sleep. Taking out +his pipe he rammed it full of twist. The coarsely cut tobacco refusing +to burn he reached into his pocket for his knife. Only when he was +about to cut up the tobacco in his palm did he remember what he had +done to the blade. In a cold sweat he closed the knife and returned it +to his pocket. A scratch, for all he knew, might be deadlier than the +fangs of a hundred cobras. Any way he would take no chance of a slip in +the dark. + +Refilling his pipe he tried again to smoke. Finally he compromised at +the rate of a match to a puff. It became a continuous performance. The +tobacco in that smoke-fouled atmosphere reeking with an unspeakable +corruption lacked the rich, nutty flavor emphasized by the billboards, +yet it was some consolation. The matches, especially their heads, +tasted even better than the tobacco smoke. + +The devil betrayed him just as he broached the fourth box of matches. +He became aware of a wet, dragging noise. Instantly he had a theory +that made him sick. Those filthy scavengers also had eyes. Not only the +bat birds were by nature lovers of the light. One of those huge foul +brutes, dripping corruption at every move, was wallowing toward Ole's +friendly little beacon in the universal darkness. + +The noise stopped. Then a measured slopping announced that the filthy +monster had paused to lick itself. Having swabbed off its lunch, or +having performed its unseemly toilette, it sighed prodigiously and +rattled the grating armor of its horny scales. Once more there was +silence. + +Presently a hideous rasping proclaimed that the obscenity was +scratching its parasites. Again it sighed heavily, profoundly. The +companionable candle of its quest was perhaps but the disordered +illusion of an overloaded stomach. A long-winded, slobbering belch +automatically begot and confirmed this hypothesis in Ole's paralyzed +brain. He struck no more matches. + +Should he wake Edith? If she made any sound the monster must find them. +On the other hand if she woke suddenly when the beast had crawled +closer, as it might, she would go mad from terror and be unmanageable. +He decided to rouse her as gently as possible. + +"What is it?" she said, and remembered. "Oh--" + +He clapped his hand over her mouth. Again thinking him demented she +struggled violently. + +"Danger," he whispered in her ear. "Be quiet." + +All her muscles tensed, she instantly became still. Then she heard the +dragging shuffle of some ponderous body approaching the airplane. In a +flash she realized what was upon them. + +"Your knife," she whispered. + +He opened the blade. Of what use was this toy against a mailed brute +weighing over a hundred tons? Yet it was his one weapon, and instinct +compelled him to be ready for his feeble best. + +The creature heard their movements. Its lurching drag, bringing with +it a leprosy of smells, quickened. It was abreast of them, on Edith's +side. Was it going past the machine? In the sooty darkness the brute +blundered forward. Its horny side rasped and rocked the plane, all but +upsetting it. + +For some seconds the slow brain of the brute failed to interpret the +unusual sensations. Then it registered, and the foul monster squatted. +The plane tipped sideways. A foot higher and it must capsize. + +The dull brain proving inadequate for its problem, the huge brute +resumed its wallowing progress. Presently, to judge by the sounds, it +turned at right angles to the line of the machine, slewed round on its +belly and squatted. Was its head or its tail toward them? And in which +position could it hear the better? They soon learned. + +One or other of the occupants of the machine moved slightly and +something creaked. For some ten seconds the brute took no notice. Then, +the significance of the noise penetrating its ganglia, the monster +moved slightly forward, directly toward Edith's side of the plane. + +"Quick!" she cried, "the knife! Light!" + +A cold breath, unutterably foul, blasted her own and extinguished Ole's +half handful of matches. But the flare had shown her where to aim. With +her whole body she struck at the brute's eye. The keen eight-inch blade +cut it like jelly. Her hand plunged into the slit, burying the knife. + +No injury to the slow-witted creature's eye alone could account for +the terrible sound which tore the silence of the tunnel to tatters of +screaming agony. The green paste on the blade was indeed a venom. It +had shot along the blood vessels and the optic nerve directly to the +monster's brain. + +Its every nerve was in hell. In its excruciating agony it bounded +furiously about the tunnel, missing the plane by bare yards, and +thundering down from its convulsive leaps in a writhing mass of torment +that shook the very rocks. + +No human being could hear those terrible screams without pity. In the +minute and a half that it lived the wretched thing suffered all the +agonies of all the hells imagined by human beings since the beginning +of the world. + +With a last shivering yell of absolute pain it was dead. + +"Oh my God," Edith gasped, "I did it. Hell, hell, hell!" + +In a paroxysm of sobbing she beat her clenched fists against her ears. + + + + + 14 + + THE DEVIL CHICK + + +Their brother's death agonies had roused the bewildered scavengers in +a bellowing horde. Blundering into one another in the darkness, the +monsters fought and screamed till the roof shook. And the multitude of +reptilian birds, alarmed at the tumult, clattered down the black tunnel +in flapping clouds, screeching their fright or pain where they dashed +their brainless heads against the unseen walls. Their broken bodies, +raining down on the rock floor, flapped convulsively till the maddened +monsters trampled them to smears. + +Twice when a batwinged bird became entangled for a moment in the guy +wires the plane jarred dizzily, and once a bellowing monster lumbering +from its pursuer set the whole machine spinning like a top. Unless the +pillars of fire burst forth soon it would be only a matter of minutes +until the plane was splinters and the bodies of its occupants pulp. + +Above the jarring din they sensed a deeper tremor and a heavier +reverberation. The subterranean waves were buffeting their way through +the labyrinthine corridors beneath the tunnel. In a moment the solid +rock floor heaved like a swell of the sea, the blowholes roared, and +ten thousand pillars of flame burst thundering to the roof. + +Panic-stricken, the huge monsters scuttled for their burrows in the +mountain of corruption. On a vast scale it was the scurrying of a +multitude of beetles when a board is lifted, letting down the sun on +their secret world. + +Blinded by the sudden glare, clouds of the reptilian bat birds crashed +against the walls of the tunnel, breaking heads and wings and necks. +Most horrible of all, hundreds dashed directly into the pillared flames +to be roasted alive and shot to the rock vault, where they exploded. +Their steaming viscera rained upon the floor. + +Before she realized what he was about, Ole had cranked the propeller +and was back in the machine. The impact of the bewildered scavenger had +reversed the plane. + +"The shortest way," Ole shouted, and headed for the shambles. + +Soaring over it, he plunged into the smoke and stench above. They +saw now the cause of the dimmer light above the festering pile. The +blowholes were choked with the huge carcasses which had rolled down +from the vast heap undermined by the feeding of the scavengers. Until +the rushing flames could incinerate these obstructions they must bell +out in roses of fire. Heavy black smoke billowing up from these fierce +crematories filled the narrow channel above the mountain of corruption +with an indescribable foulness. + +Mile after mile they flew down the shallow channel between the +corruption and the rock roof, lighted only by the flickering crimson +reflected from the vault. Would it never end? Twenty miles fell behind +them, twenty-five, and still the obscene bat birds rose at their +approach to circle down to their interrupted banquet when the droning +parvenu had passed. + +The smoke thickened, but became less foul. Like a breath of heaven they +recognized the reek of burning petroleum. + +A cleaner wind cut their faces. Black with soot, the plane shot clear +of the tunnel into the relatively clean night. + +They were still enveloped in billowing smoke, but it was not unclean. +An occasional banner of crimson flame unfurling for a moment at the +bottom of the black sea revealed the source of the conflagration. A +vast lake of oil was burning far down there on the floor of the ruined +crater. + +Rising sharply, they pierced the heaving smoke pall up to the wonder of +sweet air and icy stars. + +The moon had just set. They had emerged into the ruined crater of their +first discovery far west of the line along which they had previously +flown. + +Edith, as a rational being, assumed that Ole would fly straight for +the ship at top speed. He, however, had a nobler intention, and one +which did him great credit. Taking the shortest air line to the jagged +rim against the northern stars he let out the engine, soared over the +wilderness of black rocks, black now as Tophet in the moonless night, +and then, when the dim gray of the icy desolation swam into sight, cut +out the motor. + +"What in the name of sin are you going to do?" Edith demanded. + +"I am going to land on the snowfield beyond these rocks." + +"And what for? Are you crazy?" + +"Not crazy," he replied solemnly, "although the scoffers would call me +so. And why? Because I am thankful." + +"You're raving." + +"This is not the first time I have been scorned and mocked for my +faith. If I can forgive Captain Anderson's blasphemous jeers I can put +up with yours." + +"I haven't jeered at you, and besides I'm not blasphemous. Just now I +wish I were." + +"Whosoever lusteth in his heart after an oath to say it hath committed +the unmentionable sin." + +The plane was running along the snowfield parallel to the outlying mass +of jumbled rocks and about eight hundred yards from the nearest. + +"On my knees," Ole announced as the plane came to rest, "I shall offer +up thanks for our merciful deliverance to God." + +"If you do any such thing in this absurd place I shall box your fat +ears till they sing like all the hosts of Heaven. Don't be a fool. Get +on home to the ship. I'm freezing." + +"I pray that you may not some day long for a lump of ice to cool your +tongue." + +And with that hypocritical intercession he climbed down to the frozen +snow. + +"Look here, Ole," she flung after him, "if you think the Creator is as +big a fool as you are, you are jolly well mistaken. It will serve you +right if you fall down a blowhole. You might at least have the decency +to crank the propeller before you commit suicide." + +But Ole was absorbed in his search for the most uncomfortable square +foot on the Antarctic continent. To offer thanks from a bed of downy +ease would not be treating his audience with due respect. + +Having found what he sought, he knelt down, uncovered his head, and +opened fire. Edith suspected that his extreme humility, voiced in an +unnecessarily loud tone, was aimed at her instead of at Heaven. His +impersonal allusions to hardness of heart, a stiff neck, a disagreeable +temper and an ungrateful disposition were put with remarkable skill. +Although Edith's name, age, sex and color were meticulously omitted +from his oration he yet contrived to give her a severe and exceedingly +long-winded lecture on her numerous shortcomings. Bitterly did she +regret that her aim was like that of any girl. Otherwise she would have +heaved the heavy thermos bottle into his fat, smug face. It was such a +lovely chance to miss; with his eyes closed like a sleeping lobster's +he wouldn't see it coming. + +But common-sense and the Lord were on her side. Ole had overlooked +more than the blowholes. In so astute a theorizer his oversight really +was unpardonable. He should have observed that all the monsters of his +acquaintance were confirmed lovers of a mild temperature. And he should +have reflected that such of the poor brutes as had wandered back to +their ruined home, would naturally gather round the cheerful hearths to +drool over the good old times. + +In short, Ole should have known that these heat-loving, carnivorous +monsters would frequent the vicinity of the blowholes. To be snugly +out of the draughts they would retire between eruptions to their +spacious lairs in the jumble of rocks. When the home fires burned +again they would emerge and gather round the blaze. The spells of +cold between roasts would be excellent sharpeners of the appetite. +Undoubtedly the home-loving beasts were communists, sharing all things. +When a journey from the cheery blowholes to the gloomy banquet halls of +the tunnel seemed long and unattractive, they stayed at home and ate +one another. + +To these simple-minded beasts the thankful Ole was literally a godsend. +Their pious instincts perceived him as manna dropped from Heaven. It +chanced that he had selected his uncomfortable spot opposite one of +the poorer rookeries. For a week all the famished beasts had been of +two sizes only: mere babies just born and therefore still dear to +their ferocious mothers, and huge, agile brutes of approximately equal +fighting abilities. All intermediate sizes had devoted their lives to +the welfare of the community. + +Being of extremely low intelligence, the strapping survivors had not +yet mastered the theory and practice of co-operation. It never entered +their brainless heads that any two of them were more than a match for +an unlucky third. Consequently all starved, whereas two-thirds of +them at any time until the Armageddon between the last gigantic pair +might have wallowed in luxury. Lacking farsighted statesmen they lived +in armed neutrality and hunger until such time as the babies of the +community should develop militarism. But this sporadic sort of uprising +furnished pretty lean pickings. + +Unaware of his grateful audience, Ole prayed vigorously. He thanked +Heaven that the blowholes in his immediate vicinity were not as other +blowholes. These were orderly and quiet, the others roaring furnaces of +the devil. He proceeded to inform headquarters that he had a theory. + +"This chain of blowholes, O Lord, vents the gas of another tunnel. The +oil tank under these is not connected with the tank under the others. +Thus, O Lord, hast thou prepared a safe place in the wilderness that +thy servant may give thanks unto Thee." + +To say the least, Ole lacked neither brazen nerve nor conceit. To +give Edith the full strength of his lecture he continued facing +her. His back, therefore, was toward the rookery. Nevertheless his +remarks carried in all directions unimpaired by distance in that +intensely still air. Staccato echoes from the black rocks repeated his +vainglorious theory. The echoes even improved on his remarks. To Edith, +trying not to listen, it seemed that over there in the rocks there was +a sound of sleepy revelry, a drowsy, incredulous chuckling as it were, +reinforced by subdued squawks. The infernal brood was awake. + +Curiously watching a shadow against the starry sky she saw it move, +black out a dazzling planet, and grow larger. Evidently it was not a +lump of rock. A long neck cautiously raised itself above the black mass +like a periscope. Having sighted its prey, the hungry head was quickly +lowered. The black mass effaced itself on the blacker slope of the +rocks. + +"Look out!" she cried. "It's coming." + +Ignoring the unseemly interruption, Ole theorized louder. + +"You idiot! Crank the propeller--run for it!" + +"The Lord is mindful of his own," Ole responded unctuously, and +proceeded to give thanks for the fact. + +A piercing shriek from Edith brought him to his common sense. One +glance over his shoulder and he was on his feet, running as he had +never run in his fat life. After him like a gigantic ostrich raced +the enormous lizard on its long hind legs, the tail curved up like a +scimitar, and the twenty-foot neck stretched forward to the elastic +limit. No turkey after a hapless grasshopper was ever more eager. + +Ole's seven or eight hundred yard start saved him. He fell into Edith's +lap just as a vicious swish of the monster's tail cut the air under the +machine in two. + +Looking back toward the rocks, they saw the whole black brood boiling +out over the dim gray desolation. As aimlessly as brainless hens they +darted hither and thither over the snowfields, seeking a prey which had +escaped. Far over the black expanse they raced like great scuttling +lizards, and behind some of the huger shadows trailed three or four +tiny dots like pursuing vermin. These were the babies of the brood +following their eager mothers. + +Evidently these creatures were of a breed distinct from any that Edith +and Ole had yet seen alive. On the slaughter beach Ole and Lane had +operated on three roughly similar giants. + +So entranced were the observers with the ludicrous steeple-chase that +they failed to note the familiar thunder preceding a "blow." Before +Edith knew what was happening the plane was bounding and tumbling like +a glass ball in a fountain. + +She came to her senses just in time. As she shot the plane up for a +sixty degree climb the air immediately below them burst with a dull +roar into thousands of blue flame cones. It was a sharp rebuke to +Ole's irreverent conceit. The theory which he had confided to Heaven +evidently was faulty. After all, the oil tank under this region of +blowholes probably was connected with that under the tunnel. The +backwash of the tide under the tunnel was now forcing up the compressed +gas through the secondary chain of vents. + +Looking down, they saw the flame cones descending rapidly. In a +moment they would disappear down the wells. Such, at least, was Ole's +confident prediction. As if to teach him caution in theorizing, the +flames did nothing of the kind. This eruption of gas was not of +precisely the same sort as that first one into which Anderson had +blundered with his party. It was more like the neighboring one under +the tunnel. The flames did not disappear, but lengthening downward to +the blowholes became short pillars of fire. These, however, were on a +much smaller scale, mere conical candles a hundred feet high and from +five to thirty feet thick. + +The home fires were again burning merrily. It was impossible not to +feel a twinge of sympathy for the exiled monsters scurrying over the +icy plain to the friendly fires. Mothers abandoned their trailing young +in the race after their more agile mates to the cheery hearths, and +many a small monster was left squawking piteously in the cold. Around +the invigorating warmth and light of the blowholes sociable groups of +three or four huge lizards squatted in amiable content, their hunger +and its consequent animosities for the moment forgotten. Edith was +touched; Ole wasn't. + +Mother instinct is said to be universal. Those brainless females +hobnobbing with their ferocious mates around the comforting fires while +their babies cried miserably in the cold, disproved the theory. Again +Edith was deeply touched. + +Wheeling back in the starlight, she dipped and circled low above the +forlorn little monsters on the ice. All her dormant mother love awoke +and strode rampant over one particularly shameful case of abandonment. +The isolated little creature, no bigger than a Newfoundland dog, could +not have been more than a few days old. Its ridiculous little tail +was a mere stub, and its grotesquely disproportionate head all but +over-balanced the emaciated body see-sawing on two feeble pins. + +"Ole," she exclaimed, "we must take that darling little devil chick +back to the ship. It is perishing for warmth and its mother." + +"You're not its mother, and I'm blowed if I'll warm it." + +"Oh yes you will. For you are going to catch it." + +"Who is crazy now?" + +"Not I. You will be perfectly safe with the parents away selfishly +enjoying themselves. Besides, you will have a fair start of nearly +three-quarters of a mile if the mother sees your kidnapping. If you +can't outrun her at that distance you're no good. Here we are. Climb +out and fetch the baby. Grab it well up by the neck so it can't bite." + +"I'll be damned if I do." + +"You will be if you don't. Now look here, Ole. Either you get that +chick for me or I make your life miserable forever by telling the +Captain how you ran away from your prayers. You will be famous from +Liverpool to San Francisco and from there to Hong Kong as the grateful +seaman whose able-bodied prayers raised the devil. Get that poor little +beast for me and I swear never to tell a soul what kind of a fool you +looked racing that two-legged reptile." + +It was rank blackmail, and as such succeeded in a continent where there +is not a single lawyer. + +With elaborate but unnecessary caution Ole sneaked up on the squawking +foundling from behind. In its hunger and pathetic loneliness it would +have welcomed him with open mouth. Grabbing its long thin neck with one +hand, he clutched its stubby tail with the other. Then putting forth +all his barrel of strength he started to lug the kicking little monster +toward the airplane. + +Who would have suspected that the puny wretch had such a fight in its +emaciated body? And who would have dreamed from its plaintive squawk +that the little devil had lungs of leather? It bawled for its daddy, +screeched for its big brother, and yelled for its gadding mother. They +came bounding in great hops. + +All things considered, we must conclude with Edith that Ole, not the +abandoned chick, was the attraction. + +Edith's mother love suddenly fell below zero. She implored Ole to +drop the little beast--he was now carrying it bodily by its neck +and tail--and win the race to the propeller. But Ole's Norwegian +perseverance was roused. Having begun the job he would finish it or +bust. + +Only an exceptionally strong man could have duplicated his feat. While +with one hand he cranked the propeller he held the chick by its neck at +arm's length with the other. The little beast had a wicked, raking kick +with its feeble-looking legs. One rip with its claws might have taught +Ole anatomy. + +The bereaved family arrived in time to hear their darling's farewell +wafted from above. It was dangling over the side of the plane, still +kicking. Ole had not relaxed his strangle hold on its neck. With a +deft swing he got it aboard and sat on its stomach. He still did not +trust the chick with its own head. Consequently its last message to its +mother was sufficiently like the skirl of a bagpipe to be distressing. + +"Cuddle it up in the sealskins," Edith directed, "so it won't freeze on +the way home." + +Ole cuddled it. He was careful, however, not to let go of its neck. + +"Won't father be delighted?" Edith resumed. "This is better than a +whole continent of dead ones. I wonder what it eats?" + +"Shall I let go of its neck and find out?" + +"Not yet. Milk, I think is probably the right diet for so tender an +infant. Have we plenty of the canned variety aboard?" + +"About a hundred cases, I suppose. They will last this little devil all +of a week." + +Their way home passed over a region which was new to them, some thirty +miles west of the line which they had flown first. About ten miles +beyond the blowholes they saw far beneath them a strange black lake. + +"That looks interesting," Edith remarked, dipping down, "let's +investigate. We can't be much later than we are already." + +Nearing the surface of the lake they saw that it was in violent motion. +Even by starlight Ole recognized the appearance of those huge bubbles +instantly. + +"Oil!" he shouted. + +Oil was in fact bubbling up from hundreds of gushers at the bottom +of the lake. The theory which Ole spontaneously brought forth was +probably not far from the truth. The underground tides having risen to +the rock roof above them were forcing the crude oil through a chain +of blowholes. At this point some obstruction, possibly a heavy fall +of rock from the roof, jarred loose by the violent earthquakes, had +blocked the passageway damming back the tidal oil. Consequently it now +spouted through the gas vents. The correspondingly slower motion of the +heavy oil as it was forced upward had not generated sufficient friction +to ignite the fluid. Such at any rate was Ole's theory. + +As a first rough guess it may pass. Much further work, however, must +be done before all the scientific puzzles raised by Lane's historic +expedition are finally elucidated. + +The practical question troubling Ole now was whether the oil would +be sucked down with the receding subterranean tide. If so Anderson +might find it difficult to form a stock company. For obviously it +would be one thing to sell shares in a thirty by fifteen mile lake of +oil and quite another to float stock on a dirty hole in the ground. +He comforted himself with the reflection that more oil stock is sold +on one smell of oil than on a thousand gushers. With a practically +unlimited supply of smell in the hole even when empty they might easily +make millionaires of themselves and the entire crew in a month. + +The southern boundary of the lake gave Ole a qualm. On the south the +oil was dammed back by a mere swell in the ice not fifty feet broad on +top and less than twenty feet high. What if this slight wall should +give way before the pressure of the oil? The millions of dollars in +that beautiful lake would rush down the blowholes on the plain beyond. +To the north, on the shore nearer the ship, conditions were more +satisfactory. Here the wall of the long trough--fifteen miles broad +by thirty long--was well over a hundred yards across the top. His +calculations, of course, were only rough estimates based on their time +of flight and their first observation from above that the lake was +about twice as long as it was broad. + +With a thousand fortunes in sight Ole forgot himself. A tentative nip +on his leg reminded him of his infant charge. Once more he grasped it +firmly by the neck. + +The reception of the wanderers was cordial in the extreme. Edith had +expected the very deuce from her father, but she was totally unprepared +for Drake's attack. The devoted John tersely vented a longing to shake +the tar out of her. + +"Try it," Edith suggested. "You might find it profitable." + +"What?" the Captain shouted. "Have you found oil?" + +"Oceans of it." + +The Captain forgave both her and Ole on the spot. + +"Father," said Edith, uncovering the devil chick which till now they +had kept concealed beneath the skins, "I have brought you a little +playmate. Am I forgiven?" + +Ole at that instant loosened his stranglehold on the chick's windpipe. +A whooping squawk greeted the Doctor. + +"Oh you beautiful child!" he exclaimed with wondering reverence. But +whether he was referring to Edith or her peace offering she was unable +to decide. + + + + + 15 + + ANTICIPATIONS + + +"What do you expect to get out of all this, Doctor?" the Captain asked +curiously. + +They were sitting in the Captain's cabin. Eight days had elapsed since +the advent of the devil chick. Tomorrow the explorers were to begin +their first serious attack on the unknown. Everything was in readiness +for a quick march to the heart of the mystery and for a safe return to +the ship. + +Lane parried the Captain's question. + +"I may have come for my share of the oil stock. I'm a member of the +crew, am I not?" + +"You're no money grubber. Come on, tell us why you came. I've owned up +to everything. A thousand-acre orange grove in California with nothing +to do but boss it drove me into this mess. After twenty years of +whaling you might be just as ready as I am to sell your soul for a pint +of dirty oil. I've had enough of the cold and the stink. Now I want +sunshine and orange blossoms. What do you want? You have all the money +you need. Now just why did you come?" + +"Perhaps I came to collect all those magnificent specimens we have +stowed away. The lively little devil chick alone is enough to make any +lover of the beautiful happy for life. Perhaps that is what I expect in +return for my money." + +"I don't think so," said the Captain shrewdly. + +"To change the subject for a moment," Lane rejoined after a pause, +"have you any relatives who would miss you if you died?" + +"Not one. Why?" + +"Because we may never see the ship again after tomorrow." + +"If these two," the Captain indicated Edith and Ole, "got through +alive, why can't we? There is dynamite enough between here and the +crater to blow up an army of two-legged reptiles. We shan't be taken by +surprise." + +"It isn't that. Yet if you were to ask me what I anticipate I should +have to put you off. For I don't know myself. Only I have a feeling +that we may blunder into more than we foresee. Don't you feel the same, +Drake?" + +"Yes," he admitted useasily. "That's why I say Edith shouldn't go. Not +on the first attack, anyway. If everything is all right she can come +with us the second time." + +"There may be no second attempt," Edith replied. "I'm coming, John. Now +don't get fussy about it." + +"All this may seem rather old womanish to you, Captain," the Doctor +resumed. "Nevertheless that is how Drake and I feel. We have +collaborated during the past seven or eight evenings and have now a +fairly definite theory." + +"As to feeling nervous," the Captain laughed, "I occasionally have an +attack of nerves myself when I think of all that beautiful oil being +sucked down the blowholes. It may at any time, you know. But you +haven't told us yet why you want to go on." + +"Drake really knows more about what may be ahead of us than I do." He +grew strangely serious. "On the eve of what may be our last peaceful +day on earth I think it only right to tell you everything I suspect. +Drake can speak for himself later. + +"This is no mere naturalist's holiday. The tons of specimens we have +gathered are priceless beyond count, no doubt, compared to the oceans +of oil which you expect to discover. Yet priceless as our collections +are, and rich as your oil fields may prove, both together are not worth +the fraction of a cent when balanced against the true purpose of this +expedition." + +Anderson gaped at him, "What under the sun did you come for?" + +"As I have said, I don't really know. I can only guess. If my +suspicion is right we shall save civilization from a horrible +destruction." + +The Captain looked incredulous. "You're pulling my leg for what Ole and +I did to yours in San Francisco. When did you find out that we are a +gang of anointed crusaders prancing forth to make the world safe for +democracy?" + +"We shall not make it safe for democracy, or for aristocracy, or for +socialism, or for any other pet creed. What we shall make the world +safe for is life itself. I am serious. This is the greatest adventure. +It was on the slaughter beach that I first definitely recognized +something fundamentally evil in all the strange things we have seen +so far. The second definite hint came from that black rock over which +Drake stumbled." + +"The inscriptions on it?" Ole asked sagaciously. + +"No. The rock itself gave the clue. Drake, have you a piece of the one +you chipped yesterday?" + +Drake produced a small fragment of the black rock. Lane handed it to +the Captain. + +"You were trained as a mining engineer, Anderson. Even twenty years of +whales can't have made you forget all the simplest things in elementary +geology. Take a good look at that chunk of rock and tell me what you +think it is. Here's my magnifying glass." + +The Captain studied the fragment long and curiously. + +"I don't want to make a fool of myself," he said at last, handing back +the glass and rock. + +"Go ahead. What is the stuff? I'm not trying to trap you." + +"Well, Doctor, either I have forgotten all I ever knew or that stuff +isn't rock at all." + +"If it isn't rock, what is it?" + +"Manufactured, I should say--some artificial stone, if you like, or a +queer sort of cement." + +"Precisely." + +"Well, what of it?" + +"Doesn't it strike you as remarkable that millions upon millions +of tons of artificial cement, scribbled over with inscriptions, +should exist on a continent that died before America was born? The +inscriptions alone would not be so mysterious. Races without number, I +am convinced, have lived, died and been forgotten since the beginning +of time. The archaean rocks are an unread history. But that any race +should pave vast areas of its dwelling place with an unimaginable mass +of artificial cement as hard as diamond, is a thing for which history +has no parallel. It is unique." + +"You are right," Ole agreed. "No race known ever paved more than ten +acres in one place. The ancient Babylonians--" + +"Shut up, Ole. Go on, Doctor." + +"Well, that is about all. Drake can tell the rest better." + +"But you haven't said yet what made you bite in San Francisco." + +"Your pickled reptile." + +"That won't go. You have just said that all your junk isn't worth half +a cent compared to the real thing you are after." + +"I am after my life's ambition. Does that satisfy you?" + +"Perfectly. What is your life's ambition?" + +The Doctor laughed. "You are a greater sea lawyer than Ole. I may as +well give you the whole story and be done with it. Then Drake can tell +you something worth hearing." + +He paused for a moment, selecting the few facts necessary. + +"It all began," he resumed, "when I was about ten years old. An aunt +gave me for Christmas a copy of that remarkable scientific romance by +Mary Shelley--the wife of the poet--based on the artificial creation of +life." + +"I've read it," Ole interrupted eagerly. "It's a peach. Just like a +nightmare. '_Frankenstein_' is the name of the book." + +"Most readers with any brains at all enjoy the story. If nothing +else it is imaginative, and that's a great deal in a world of prosy, +oversexed bores. Well, that book determined the course of my life. You +remember, Ole, how the hero of the story creates a living creature out +of chemicals. This creature was no mere amoeba, but a complex, highly +organized, half-human monstrosity. + +"It is nothing against Mrs. Shelley's fascinating tale to state that +today we know definitely that such a thing is impossible. By merely +mixing together chemicals as her hero did it is not feasible to create +a complex, highly organized animal. + +"On the other hand it _may_ be possible to create out of chemicals a +colloid--a sort of jelly or gluelike substance--having some of the +essential properties of living matter. Although thus far no chemist or +biologist has actually done this, it is not a sheer impossibility. If +it could be done, and this is what I wish to emphasize, it would be +an incomparably easier feat than the one which is the basis of Mrs. +Shelley's story. + +"We can see the relative difficulty of the two by an example from +another field. The first savages killed one another by hurling stones +with their bare hands. We destroy one another wholesale by--among +other ingenious and devilish ways--exceedingly complicated machines. +There is a vastly greater gap between a gluelike substance having +some resemblance to living matter, and the simplest organized living +creature, than exists between a lump of stone hurtling through the air +and a torpedo directed by wireless. + +"All this by the way. The significant thing for me in Mrs. Shelley's +book is that it awoke my imagination when I was ten years old. I +determined to become a scientist. The creation of life was to be my +life's ambition. This, I believe, is the greatest adventure. + +"Then later, learning something of science while picking up an +education in odd hours, I saw clearly that I was a million miles from +my goal. And still later, digging deeper into the natural sciences, I +realized that my ambition was a fantastic dream. + +"I saw then, and I see now, that if life is to be created by human +beings using purely artificial means it will not be in our generation, +nor in our century, nor perhaps in the next two centuries. That it will +be done eventually I have not the slightest doubt. But thus far we have +not succeeded even in stating the problem precisely. + +"When we come to know exactly what it is that we are seeking we +shall find it. At present we lack even a definition of life that is +scientific and more than a scholastic jumble of words. Consequently, +although many of us may feel that we know what we are looking for, +few indeed have the training, the ability and the scientific tact to +seek it intelligently. Men who today search for the origin of life +are hopeless cranks in a class with circle squarers and inventors of +perpetual motion. + +"Having realized early that my first ambition was a chimera, I turned +to more natural and far more useful investigations. I do not regret +the time lost in the vain pursuit of unattainable knowledge. It was +not indeed lost, for it was my apprenticeship to true science. Most of +my work since has been in the laws governing the growth and decay of +animals, and, as a by-product, the study of such diseases as depend +upon abnormal growth. I need not bore you with any of this. + +"I said that I abandoned my quest for life. That is not strictly true. +It is impossible to eradicate from the mind the hopes, desires and +fears of childhood and adolescence. Although in maturity I put away all +thought of ever directly attacking the problem of life, my subconscious +habits of thought were unalterably fixed in my youth. My psychology +is what it was and I yet am driven against my will, for the most part +subconsciously, to think incessantly of the problem of life. + +"All my work, I sometimes think, has been aimed at my first ambition. +It frequently gives me a shock to discover that what I am truly +interested in doing is not the artificial duplication of cancerous +growths, but the out and out creation of living cells. It is almost +as if some familiar spirit keeps whispering 'do this, and in spite +of yourself you will find what you are looking for,' and I, not +consciously hearing the whisper do as I am directed. This of course is +merely my own repressed desire taking its revenge. + +"Again I do not regret. For my work has led to at least three positive +facts recognized by competent authorities as contributions of real +value to our knowledge and control of certain diseases. + +"Now, Anderson, you will ask what all this has to do with our +expedition. In one word, everything. But for my repressed ambition you +would never have obtained one cent toward expenses, I am not interested +in oil or in any other form of wealth. I would not walk across this +cabin to make a million dollars. For I have all the money that is good +for myself and Edith. More would be a nuisance. Had you come to me +without that pickled reptile I should have shown you the door at once. + +"You remember how at first I mistook your find for a young specimen of +a known prehistoric animal. It is true that no fossil yet discovered +has both scales and feathers. There is a 'missing link' in the chain +from reptiles to birds no less than in that from anthropoids to men. +But for all that your monster did not at first look wholly anomalous. +It might, in short, have been a natural animal. And that is what I at +first thought it was. + +"Then, while you were talking of your adventures, I began to think. If +you were an ex-zoölogist instead of an ex-mining engineer, I could +make my next point--the crux of the whole story--much clearer. + +"Thinking over your specimen and looking more closely at it, I +recognized that the monster was indeed a monster, a thing never created +and evolved by nature. There were certain astounding differences +between the obvious anatomy of the creature and any conceivable product +of orderly evolution. + +"A frog will not evolve into a horse no matter how much time you give +him. From now to the end of eternity all the descendants of frogs will +retain certain specific peculiarities of structure which will easily +differentiate them from horses. At no point of the story will the two +become confused. It will be possible a million years hence for any +trained scientist to say at a glance that the descendants of our frogs +and of our horses living in his day, or fossilized in the rocks of his +time, never had a common ancestor. + +"And so it was with your monster. At first it might have been a missing +link between the birds and the reptiles. Closer inspection showed that +none of its ancestors were related to reptiles and that none of its +descendants would ever evolve into birds. And it fitted nowhere else +into the scheme of evolution. + +"Nor was it a deformity. A kitten with three eyes is still a young +cat for all its eyes. A man with six fingers on his right hand still +belongs to the family of men. Mere abnormality does not exclude a freak +from the family to which it otherwise would belong. Your queer find, +Anderson, was no deformed reptile, nor was it a freak bird, 'thrust +into the world before its time but half made up.' + +"There remained but one rational conclusion. The thing was no creation +of nature but the result of a conscious attempt to imitate nature. +Either that monster had been created whole and alive by intelligent +beings, or it was the descendant of remote ancestors so created. + +"The first possibility was out of the question. Had the monster been +recently created we should have had another Frankenstein. I know enough +of the present state of biology to be certain that such a complete +creation of a highly complex organism today is impossible. + +"There remained the alternative. Your monster was the descendant of +inconceivably remote ancestors, and those ancestors, incomparably +simpler in structure, had been created by conscious, intelligent beings. + +"Evolution had done the rest. Shaping the initial, simple organism +through millions of years, time and evolution had gradually complicated +its simplicity into a highly developed organism. + +"The first creation probably was a mere speck of living matter, perhaps +a single cell, and this full-blown monster of yours was the slow flower +of ages blooming from that first almost formless seed. + +"Such was my guess while you sat talking of the monsters boiling up in +oil from the floor of the ocean. I decided to chance your veracity and +see for myself. + +"On the slaughter beach, you remember, I pointed out how all those +dead monsters differed radically, in spite of superficial resemblances, +from their nearest types in the fossil beds. The number and arrangement +of one monster's teeth I emphasized as particularly significant. Nature +does not cram one man's mouth full with eighty teeth and give his +neighbor only sixteen. She does nothing by violent jumps that can be +seen by a blind man. Her changes are minute. That is my second point. + +"On that beach another thought disturbed me greatly. All those monsters +gave me the impression of being badly botched jobs. Suppose you were +aiming to create a harmless toad and achieved a deadly rattlesnake. You +wouldn't consider yourself a master of the technique of life, would +you? Well, neither can the beings whose scientific blundering millions +of years ago started the evolution of all those hideous monsters on the +beach. + +"What those misguided experimenters intended to do I don't know. +What they did start, I do know, and I pronounce its fruit an obscene +abomination. Not one of those huge creatures had intelligence above a +worm's and not one of them ever could be of any possible value to the +world. They are merely gigantic feeding, breeding and fighting machines +with just a spark of intelligence--enough to make them exceedingly +dangerous and no more. + +"I suspect that all those huge brutes are, as I have tried to make +clear, the result of minute seeds first created and sown millions of +years ago. Further, I believe that nature, taking the artificially +created seeds, has grown from them, through countless mutations, the +changing shapes whose perfected, dangerous uselessness infests the +secret places of this continent. The beginning was unnatural, the +development and its conclusion are the work of natural laws. + +"Finally I believe that the original creators of those monstrosities +realized when it was too late what they were doing, foresaw its +consequences, became terrified, tried to undo their blundering work +and perished in a war to destroy their own creations. This, however, +belongs to Drake's part of the investigation. He can tell it better +than I. + +"Now last, let me say exactly what I expect to get from this +expedition. I hope from close study of the anatomy, habits and +environment of these strange creatures to rediscover their origin. +See what this implies. If I am successful I shall be able to create +artificially a true living seed of life. Whether or not I shall wish to +do so depends upon what we discover in the next few days. + +"Mind, I am not expecting to make a gigantic lizard out of dead slime +or anything of that fantastic sort. But I do hope to rediscover the +lost secret which started all those monstrosities. A mere speck of +living matter, a single cell visible only under a high power microscope +is all that I shall achieve, if anything. For I am convinced that the +originators of that aborted creation on the beach achieved no more. +One spark starts the forest fire; their invisible specks of artificial +living matter started the self-imposed catastrophe that wiped them out." + +"But Doctor," Ole objected, "if they only made those very small specks +of living matter how were they wiped out? You say it took millions of +years to evolve dangerous animals out of those bad beginnings. The +things were too small, according to you, to bother a flea. If I get +your meaning they were nothing better than pieces of jelly invisible to +the naked eye. How could such things fight anybody?" + +"That is what I hope to find out, definitely and in detail. Drake and I +already have a rational theory." + +"Is it your theory that they were disease germs when first created?" + +"No, Ole, nothing so romantic. As I tried to make plain a robin's egg +will never hatch crocodiles. Nor will a disease germ ever evolve into a +three hundred foot brute with a head and body like a bad dream." + +"Then what is your theory?" + +"On that point, if I understand your question, I have none. Before +indulging in hypotheses on the origin of life I shall find out the +facts." + +"Listen, Doctor. I have a theory. Those things were first created--" + +"Oh, pipe down, Ole." The Captain was back on the job. "Now Drake, let +us have your side of it." + +"It is so late," Drake yawned, "that I shall have to beg off this time. +We start at five in the morning. Good-night, everybody." + + + + + 16 + + ATTACK + + +By forced marches the party reached the north shore of the oil lake +early the third morning after leaving the ship. Lane, Anderson, Ole and +Drake had gone by land. Edith was to arrive at the base by air. While +the men marched she flew back and forth to the ship for last minute +supplies which she dropped conveniently near the southern boundary of +the oil lake. + +No detail that might increase the safety of the expedition had been +neglected. Between the ship and the north shore of the lake a chain +of provision caches made starvation impossible no matter what might +happen. The party of five might all have hung onto the plane somehow, +and so have reached their goal more quickly. But for several reasons +they decided to march, carrying with them the essentials of a light +prospecting outfit. Anderson half expected to find indications of oil +by zigzagging slightly across the line of caches. He was nothing if not +optimistic. + +In case of an accident to the ship, Bronson's men had deposited +provisions in caches parallel to the inlet north a distance of forty +miles. As a final measure of safety they had landed every gallon of +petrol, storing it a mile inland in a deep dugout. Even if forced to +flee on foot the expedition would have sufficient provisions. Each +man could pack on his back a sleeping bag and short rations enough +from the northerly caches to last him to the coast. Should no whaling +vessel appear within two weeks to take them off, Edith or Ole was to +fly northeast to the nearest whaling station for help. No member of the +party expected the worst to happen. But Anderson disbelieved in luck, +preferring arduous certainty to easy going chance. + +At this moment the Captain, speechless with cupidity, was gazing over +the thirty-mile expanse of bubbling black oil. With a hundred huge +fortunes before his eyes he was beginning to regret that Ole and +the crew had been promised a share of the profits. More potential +gold bubbled and swirled in that vast bowl than the most ingeniously +dissolute debauchee could squander in fifty lifetimes. Yet the Captain +wished that Ole and the crew were in Halifax. Such is human nature. + +The men were waiting for Edith. She was to transport them and their +packs comfortably one at a time to the south shore of the lake. They +were then to march at once for the blowholes where Edith and Ole had +seen the monsters warming themselves. Lane's objective was the ruined +crater. He and Drake were determined to inspect the black rocks at +first hand. The shattered floor being his ultimate goal, the Doctor +hoped also to penetrate the black smoke at the bottom and search for +further animal remains. + +An immediate assault on the crater would, of course, be suicide. The +famished monsters would consider the party as a trifling hors d'oeuvre +vouchsafed by the generosity of Heaven for the great feast to come. + +How then were the explorers to traverse the region of blowholes, scale +the crater lip, and reach the Doctor's objective? This puzzle had +exercised the wits of the party for the first two days after the return +of Edith and Ole with the devil chick. Between the oil lake and the +black rocks lay the blowholes, and round these the sociable monsters +might gather at just the most embarrassing moment. + +The puzzle had indeed seemed unsolvable. Of all unpracticable beings it +was Drake who solved the problem by a brilliant flash of imagination. +And of all things that might have inspired him it actually was the +last that might occur to a practical man. Who but Drake would have +turned for inspiration to the memory of his sufferings in a dentist's +chair? Having sat for several hours with the glass hook of a long +rubber siphon under his tongue, he now remembered his discomfort with +advantage. + +As a consequence Edith and Ole during the six days following had +transported every foot of hose--fire hose and other--on the ship to the +south shore of the oil lake. All the iron pipe that could be spared +also was taken to the same depot. To both ends of each section of hose +the men had tied heavy iron slugs, and the end of each pipe they bent +into a short L. This inefficient looking junk, a tangle of doubly +weighted hoses and bent pipes, constituted the entire arsenal of the +attacking party. With this alone they must overcome the army of huge +lizards. Otherwise they must turn back, provided they were not eaten +first. + +"There she comes," the Doctor announced, pointing to a tiny speck +against the blue far to the north. "Ole, you fly over the first and +take our packs. Hang them on somehow." + +Ole seemed nervous at the prospect of being left alone with the packs +on the south shore while Edith returned for the next passenger. + +"What if those brutes come out to get warm while the plane is over on +this side?" + +"But you said the blowholes end quite a distance south of the lake," +the Doctor replied. "They won't come several miles from the heat just +to say hello to you." + +"They will if they smell me." + +"Cheer up, Ole," said Drake; "we will see you avenged." + +"Lot of good that will do me. You go over first." + +"I'm not fat enough." + +The dispute was cut short by the landing of Edith. + +"Captain Anderson," she began at once, "Bronson asked me to tell you +that he may be forced to steam down the inlet at any minute. A wave of +warm water came down again early this morning." + +"Boiling?" + +"No, just warm enough to raise a thick fog over the inlet." + +"There is no great danger, I guess. If he has to run he can make it. +And we are safe with all the supplies cached and the plane. What did he +want me to do?" + +"To send back word by me if he is to move at once. If he doesn't hear +from you by night he will stay where he is." + +"What about it, Lane?" + +"I see no immediate danger. There has been no violent earthquake." + +"That's my best judgment too. He is safe enough where he is. All right, +Ole, hop in. Miss Lane will waft you over for lunch." + +"For lunch?" + +"Yes, idiot. Not yours, theirs." + +With a fat groan Ole obeyed orders. + +Arrived at the south shore of the lake they noted with alarm that the +oil had risen since their visit the previous week. The black waves +were crawling slowly up the narrow rise separating the lake from the +chain of blowholes. Should the wall of rock and ice give way under the +steadily increasing pressure, Anderson's fortune would vanish down the +blowholes in a week. The thought that even if the wall held yet a flow +of oil over the top might overspread the plain and catch fire from the +blowholes, setting the entire lake aflame, was anything but reassuring. +Leaving Ole to his dismal theories Edith skimmed back for the next +passenger. + +Shortly after one o'clock the party assembled on the south shore +with their packs, ready for the opening move of their offensive. The +blowholes were still quiescent. This favoring the strategy of the +proposed attack the party decided to take advantage of it immediately. + +Their first question was, who is to bell the cat? More definitely, +which members of the party should risk their lives to carry out Drake's +ingenious plan? The scheme demanded half an hour's work around the +blowholes. The workers, if seen by the reptiles, certainly would be +welcomed by the whole rookery. And no pair of human legs was a match +for the slowest of the huge lizards. Again, if the work party proceeded +on foot by daylight to the blowholes they were sure to be seen. If they +waited till dark the blowholes might flare up just at the wrong time, +and refreshments would enliven an otherwise dull gathering round the +home fires. It was clear that the party must go by airplane. + +The landing on a plain spotted with bottomless wells would be difficult +enough, but the quick escape, if necessary, would be a feat for the +most expert aviator. A landing at night obviously was out of the +question. + +Edith was elected pilot by the simple process of elimination. Who +should be her helper? An active, practical man was needed for the +job. Although Drake pleaded for the honor of carrying his scheme into +effect, he was rejected on the first ballot. His forte was brains, +not beef. Lane followed him on the second. It was between Ole and the +Captain. Anderson being ignorant of aviation, Ole won the honor which +only Drake coveted. + +Having loaded the plane with all the bent pipe and weighted hose it +could lift, Ole took his place behind Edith. They were off. + +In all they made ten trips. Their work, they hoped, had converted a +hundred and eight of the blowholes nearest the ruined crater into +deadly engines of destruction. They had worked unmolested. The rookery +either was asleep or all except the babies were away for the week-end +foraging under the black smoke of the crater. + +"Well, Drake," the Doctor asked, "have you the courage of your +invention?" + +"Absolutely. It would wipe out an army." + +"That may be just the optimism of the inventor. What about it, +Anderson? Do you feel like marching forward to await developments? Or +shall we camp here until after the blow is over?" + +"To stay here would be the sane thing, I suppose. Still, I want to see +the show. I vote for marching." + +"So do I. Unless we sit on him Drake of course won't miss seeing his +idea in action. How about you, Ole?" + +"Miss Lane and I will take care of the plane." + +"All right, go ahead with our packs and wait for us on this side just +before the beginning of the blowholes. If the reptiles see you before +the blow, don't bother about our packs. Leave them and fly due east to +confuse the brutes. Then they won't blunder into us." + +Two hours after sundown Edith heard the far off crunching of the men's +boots in the frozen snow. + +"There they are," she said. "Ole, meet them and show them the way here." + +A hot drink all round from the thermos bottles and a full meal cheered +the tedium of the early watch. Deciding at eleven o'clock that the +blowholes probably would not spout that night, all but the first +watchman turned into their sleeping bags. The temperature being several +degrees above zero they were quite comfortable. + +In the brilliantly clear starlight the black barrier of the crater lip +seemed ominously near. Yet, conscious as they were of what the rocks +hid, all but the sentry slept like stones. The rookery also was fast +asleep or numbed by the cold, for no drowsy squawks floated over the +silence of no man's land. + +It was the calm sleep before battle. Should Drake's strategy prove +inadequate the attackers would not see the sunrise. If on the other +hand Drake's invention was all that he hoped, those huge two-legged +reptiles would never again visit the black ruins of their shattered +paradise. Their next gathering round the cheerful fires would be +their last. They would die happy, poor brutes. Better one last hour +of comfort and then oblivion forever, than the slow death of years of +recurrent cold and increasing starvation. Left to themselves they might +starve and fight and freeze and cling with all their brute instinct to +life for half a century. It was more humane to destroy them outright. + +Midnight passed without a tremor. Anderson relieved Lane. Two o'clock +uneventfully came and went, and Drake relieved Anderson. + +For the first half hour of Drake's watch all remained quiet with the +stillness of a dead world. Then he became aware of a faint stirring +among the infested rocks. Huge creatures not yet awake were moving +uneasily in their sleep. Something had disturbed them. + +In a few moments they might awake fully and scour the plain. For all +Drake or the others knew the creatures might be nocturnal in their +habits, prowling for their food only in the darkest hours of the early +morning. He had not anticipated this. Should the monsters emerge before +the blowholes spouted his strategem was worthless. It took him but a +second to make up his mind. He instantly roused the sleepers. + +"Get out of here at once. They're coming." + +Not stopping to argue the men shook themselves together. They were +still half-dazed by sleep. Drake's news falling on befogged brains +completed their befuddlement. It did not occur to one of them that all +five might easily climb onto the plane and reach safety in ten minutes. +The unpractical Drake, being the only member of the party with all his +wits, of course did not think of anything so simple and obvious. + +"Take your father north ten miles, leave him, and come back for one of +us," he ordered Edith. "Ole, crank up." + +Ole was about to obey when a sleepy chorus of clattering squawks +drifted over the ice of no man's land. It occurred to him that probably +the reptiles had been away from home, foraging, while he and Edith were +preparing the attack that afternoon. This, in Ole's opinion, accounted +for their good luck. + +"If I start the motor," he said in a hoarse whisper, "those brutes will +hear it. In five minutes we shall be smothered." + +"They are awake anyway," Drake whispered back. "If they come out they +will see the plane against the snow." + +Still hesitating Ole regarded Drake curiously in the dark. + +"I can't see your face, String Bean," he said, still whispering +hoarsely, "but I can guess its color. What are you going to do if those +brutes race out before Miss Lane comes back to fetch you? She will take +you next." + +"Don't stand there whispering and shaking like a blasted jelly. Crank +that motor! She could have been there and back by now." + +"All right, General," Ole whispered. "One second. Now before I obey +orders I'll tell you what I'm going to do next. The instant this +propeller hums you'll see me making tracks for the nearest blowhole. If +I beat the brutes to it, I dive. It won't be suicide because there is +no way out. I had rather smash or drown in oil than die the other way. +Take my tip and follow me. I've seen the brutes; you haven't. And I've +had one race. Miss Lane will tell you about it in Heaven. I don't want +another. All right, General, here goes." + +He braced himself to spin the blades. + +"Wait," Lane whispered tensely. "I felt it coming." + +His more sensitive nervous system had detected the true cause of the +reptiles' awakening. Scarcely breathing the others stood rigid in an +agony of hoping. Did the ice sway beneath their feet ever so gently? +Or was it merely the wish rocking their imaginations? Seconds passed +without a recurrence of the sensation. Then, with infinite relief they +heard, miles beneath them and far to the north, the faint, muffled +buffeting of subterranean thunder. The jarring became unmistakable. In +a moment the icebound plain was vibrating like a steel plate beneath +the impact of a trip-hammer. + +Half a mile to the south they heard the swish of air being sucked down +the blowholes. Then while the ice heaved like a wave of the sea, they +saw the black skyline of the ruined paradise boiling with gigantic +shapes that inked out the low stars for an instant and vanished. + +A moment later a thudding in the upper air announced the kindling of +the innumerable flame cones, the ice for twenty miles around leapt into +dull crimson, and they saw the whole herd of gigantic monsters racing +with incredible speed directly toward them. + +Ten minutes would decide whether Drake's invention meant victory +or death. The flame cones descended, hovered a second in mid-air, +lengthened downward with a reverberant roar and became pillars of fire. + +Once more the sociable monsters forgot the miseries of their frozen +existence. Gathering round the comforting flames with ludicrous yet +touching exclamations of delight they surrendered themselves to the +gracious warmth. Around many of the roaring fires a dozen or more +snuggled at a safe distance in rings of blissful enjoyment. Thawing +rapidly in the fierce heat they licked their flanks, rolled over on +their backs and pawed luxuriously at the warm air. + +The sounds of their pleasure, the inarticulate noises of their +gratitude, would have softened the most calloused heart to pity. There +was an appeal in the playful antics of the colossal beasts that was +irresistible. Huge tails that might have buckled steel plates in the +full viciousness of their cut slapped harmlessly against lean sides +whose ribs stuck out like the timbers of an unfinished hull. They were +starving; yet for this hour they frolicked in the enjoyment of their +other great need, heat. + +Their slow brains neither speculated nor dreamed. When once more the +flames vanished into the bowels of the earth they would crawl back to +their frozen caves. Waking or sleeping they would remember nothing of +their transient happiness. Only at the distant thunder of the next +subterranean tide would their instincts urge them to break anew the +iron spell of their misery. Without memory each pain was a miracle, +each pleasure an accident without cause or consequence. Without +consciousness of the past their future was a blank, their existence a +void. With no pleasure remembered they could look forward to none. + +They were damned with life. Would it not be a gentle act of mercy to +bless them with death? + +Watching their happiness the author of their destruction felt no +regret. They would be killed painlessly at the high tide of their +pleasure. + +"Look," he said, pointing to a blowhole where four of the great lizards +basked in the heat. "Those have it already." + +They saw the four huge bodies roll over as if to sleep. The monsters +shuffled on their sides and lay still, their great tails listlessly +curved on the ice, and their long necks resting on one another's +flanks. + +One by one others of the friendly rings fell asleep. Then, in fifteen +minutes, all were locked fast in death. + +Still the cheerful flames thundered up undiminished. The late comers, +the babies of the sleeping monsters, began to arrive. Hopping feebly +they joined their mothers and nestled down in the genial glow. Soon +they too were asleep forever. + +Suddenly the air about the sleepers burst with a dull explosion into a +sheet of fire. The instant flame lived but a second. Only the cheery +fires rustled and glowed above the dead. + + + + + 17 + + AT CLOSE QUARTERS + + +An hour before sunrise the ice again began to shake. They heard the +returning subterranean wave bursting through the underground corridors. +The pillared flames, struggling an instant, plunged down the blowholes. +Only the morning star shed its chilly ray on the sleeping monsters, +cold now as the barren ice they cumbered. Obliterating the very +memory of their last happiness the passing wave, with a whistling +reverberation, sucked down the warm air about the sleeping forms. + +The party waited until two hours after sunrise before venturing among +the dead. There remained one simple task before proceeding to the +ruined paradise, lest on their return they meet the same fate as the +monsters. + +To save time the men loaded their packs before starting. On the +previous afternoon Edith and Ole had transported four fifty-pound cases +of dynamite from the caches on the south shore of the oil lake. Each of +the men now loaded one of the fifty-pound cases on his back with his +sleeping bag and enough food to last two days, or on short rations, +four. In addition Ole packed a five-foot steel drill and a heavy +sledge-hammer. + +Edith was to have charge of the plane. A landing in the ruined crater +being out of the question she was to circle above the men in their +descent, mark their route, and watch until they emerged from the smoke. +Should they not reappear by dark she was to fly to a safe place, camp, +and return at daylight to watch for them. If they appeared she was +to observe the easiest route up the rocks of the crater side, and by +flying toward it, direct them. But if by noon they did not come out of +the smoke she was to fly straight back to the ship and guide Bronson's +search party. + +The men planned to descend the crater only far enough to learn what +they wished to know, Anderson and Ole whether oil was to be found, Lane +and Drake the appearance of the black cement in situ. + +Edith accompanied the men on foot to the blowholes. Threading their +way between the huge carcasses the party methodically undid Ole's and +Edith's work of the previous afternoon. There being no further use +for the weighted hose and bent pipes they threw the sections down the +blowholes. No echoes rose. + +"How on earth did you ever think of it?" Anderson asked Drake as he +heaved down the last bent pipe. + +"As I told you," Drake answered modestly. "That siphon arrangement +the dentist puts into your mouth to keep it dry while he works gave +me the idea. If we could stick one leg of a pipe bent into a right +angle down a blowhole, laying the other flush along the surface of +the ice, some of the gas being forced up the hole would spray out +over the surrounding ice. From watching those flames the first day +we saw them I knew that the gas ignites only when it meets the air. +The columns of gas caught at the top. The flame only travelled down +the column as the upward pressure of the gas diminished. For this and +other obvious reasons it was clear that the flames did not start down +in the blowholes, at least not until after the pressure had decreased +markedly and the flames were about to be sucked down and extinguished. +A considerable volume of gas therefore would be blown out through the +pipes and hose over the ice before the flames descended low enough to +ignite the mixture of air and gas near the surface. + +"As for the rest I trusted to nature. The gas, I knew from my school +chemistry, must be rich in carbon monoxide. Now carbon monoxide is +deadly in even minute quantities to all animal life. Less than a minute +under that enormous pressure would suffice to spray out enough of the +gas to asphyxiate an army of monsters. Long before it became rich +enough in carbon monoxide to explode the mixture of gas and air would +reach the point fatal to animal life. You saw what happened." + +"The monsters probably did not actually die," Lane added, "until some +time after the flash. The gas they had inhaled took some minutes to do +its work thoroughly." + +"Well," said Edith, sadly regarding the pathetic groups, "I am glad it +was painless. They just fell asleep." + +"I shouldn't have cried if they had kicked a bit," Ole remarked +viciously. + +"I'll never call you unpractical again," Edith said to Drake. "Merely +in putting these poor things out of their misery you have justified +your existence." + +Drake shouldered his heavy pack and strode off after the others. + +"Because a man prefers to use his head instead of his feet like +a baboon," he flung back, "you call him unpractical. You're as +short-sighted as the pick and shovel men in the street." + +"Now don't get a swelled head over your smartness," she called after +him, "or you'll rise and burst like a toy balloon. Good-bye. I'll come +and fetch you when you stub your toe." + +The men fully realized the danger of their undertaking. Although they +probably had exterminated one rookery of the huge monsters there must +be hundreds more infesting the ruined crater. They accordingly chose +a route down the steep side as nearly as possible in line with the +destroyed rookery. The scramble down over the chaotic fragments of +rock alone was no easy undertaking, nor was its safety increased by +the two hundred pounds of dynamite which the men carried. A slip on +the treacherous rocks might set off a private eruption. There was one +comforting thought, however, which gave them courage. Should one of +them stumble and explode his charge neither he nor the rest would ever +know it. + +By noon they had safely descended about a thousand feet. Another +thousand feet would take them down to the rolling black billows. +Already the reek of burning petroleum was acrid in their nostrils. Ole +and the Captain, breathing deeply, filled their lungs with the odor of +wealth. + +"Here you are, Anderson," said the Doctor. "Strike the rock and see the +oil gush forth." They were resting on a ledge of blocks at the base of +a two hundred foot cliff in the face of the crater wall. On either side +of the unbroken expanse of cement great void pockets and tunnels gaped +in the shattered wall of what, before the explosion which destroyed it, +had been a green paradise such as that of Edith's and Ole's discovery. +The whole wall probably was honeycombed with galleries, tunnels and +vast chambers which, until the eruption, had been sealed over by thick +masses of cement. The explanation of these which Lane gave later is +reasonable and probably correct. + +"Where is my oil?" Anderson demanded. + +"Almost anywhere behind those rocks if you go far enough, I should +say. For some time past I have noticed indications. See that stain up +there?" The Captain nodded. "That's oil. It is probably oozing along +a fissure through the rocks. Find the other end of the fissure and you +tap your first oil tank." + +"But you said the other day that oil in this kind of rock--or +cement--is impossible." + +"And I meant it. Since then I have done some thinking. The oil is +seeping through defects in the ruins of this artificial wall. I have +good reasons for supposing that this wall was built ages ago partly to +keep out the raw material that ultimately became oil." + +"How thick is this cement?" + +"I haven't the least idea. It may be a foot or a hundred miles. I +should chance a shot if I were you." + +The Captain was already busy with his dynamite. + +"Better stand aside when you do," Lane advised. "The oil may shoot you +into the middle of eternity." + +Ole's steady swing soon drilled a hole for the stick of dynamite. He +stood back on the ledge a few feet wiping the sweat from his face while +Anderson placed the charge and laid out the three-minute fuse. He moved +forward to watch the Captain just in time. A fifty-ton block of the +black cement hurtled down from the brow of the cliff, shot directly +through the place where he had been standing, ricocheted on the lip of +the ledge and shattered itself to bits all down the steep slope to the +smoke. + +"Who in hell did that?" Ole shouted, white with rage. + +"Not guilty," said Drake, flattening himself against the wall just as +the next huge missile crashed clear of the ledge. Smaller fragments +showered down spattering the ledge with energetic chunks of cement +that stung and bruised the would be dynamiters. + +"I have a theory," the Doctor announced with a wry smile when the +pelting finally ceased. "Pardon me, Ole, for taking it out of your +mouth. There is something alive up there moving about and dislodging +the loose blocks. Of course that first fifty-ton brick may have been +very nicely balanced, needing only a slight push to send it over. The +alternative is that our friend up there weighs two or three hundred +tons. Take your choice." + +"What shall we do?" Anderson asked, going white. + +"Go ahead with our work. If the brute comes down after us we can crawl +along the base of the cliff and get into one of those empty pockets. +The ledge peters out nicely over there to the right. That beast, if it +is the size I estimate, can't get a foothold on anything narrower than +a city highway." + +"Yes," said Drake, "and this ledge right here is just broad enough for +the brute's rump. It will camp here for a week if necessary waiting for +us to come out to dinner." + +"Would you prefer to race it to the bottom? The smoke down there, I +suspect, covers a multitude of prowlers feasting on the dead." + +"It isn't so bad," the Captain said hopefully. "We can set off dynamite +sticks to scare the brute away." + +"Our popgun won't annoy it after the explosions it must have heard in +the neighborhood of this exciting hole," Drake objected. "But your +idea is good. Edith will hear our efforts and bring help." + +"Dessert, you mean," Lane dryly corrected him. "Go ahead, Captain, +touch it off. We might as well find out all there is to be known about +the place if we've got to die in it." + +"If I strike oil," the Captain grimly rejoined, "I'll sell stock to the +devil himself." + +He lit the fuse and followed the others to a safe place against the +wall. + +The explosion flaked off a thick slab of the cement, revealing a deep +pocket, or possibly the entrance to a tunnel, similar to the others in +the face of the cliff. Not a drop of oil issued. + +"Sold." The Captain swore heartily. + +They followed him to the hole. The entrance was just high enough for a +tall man to walk through without bending his neck. Anderson entered. +His feet raised a cloud of greenish gray dust. + +"Empty," he said to those without. + +He was about to continue his disgruntled observations when a cascade of +rubble plunged over the top of the cliff. Not waiting for an invitation +the others joined him in the dark pocket. Their haste raised the +pungent, suffocating greenish gray dust in clouds. + +"It's coming," said the Doctor. "Down the slope to the left as fast as +its tonnage will let it. Our fireworks attracted its attention." + +"I hope it slips and breaks its beastly neck," Drake remarked viciously. + +"Oh," the Doctor replied, "since the big blow-up here it probably has +acquired a sure foot in scrambling about this hole. Most likely it does +all its heavier feeding in Ole's tunnel restaurant, coming out here +merely for exercise and lighter refreshments. We're just in time for +lunch." + +"I don't believe you give a damn whether you live or die," the Captain +snapped. + +"Except for Edith's sake I don't. I would give a great deal to see one +of those brutes alive and at close quarters." + +"You'll shake hands with it in five minutes." + +"If it becomes too sociable I shall take a short cut out of my +troubles. Fit up one of your sticks with a cap and give it about a +ten-second fuse." + +"Do you mean it?" + +"Certainly. If I must die I see neither virtue nor courage in +deliberately choosing a hideous death. I shall not kiss death till hell +stares me in the face." + +The Captain handed him the prepared stick of dynamite. + +"If you go that way," he said, "the rest of us must follow, you know." + +"Not necessarily. This pocket is almost a tunnel, I'm sure. It +certainly is long enough for you to get your packs out of danger of +detonation from my explosion." + +"I'm for the shortcut," said Drake. + +"So am I." It was Anderson. + +"Then I must," said Ole. "In my case it won't be suicide. I do it +against my will." + +Unstrapping his pack he knelt down and prayed, silently. The others +respectfully turned their backs, listening to the crash of falling +rocks heralding the approach of the monster. Anderson began to grow +nervous. + +"We might as well go farther back," he suggested. + +"All right," Lane replied. "You men leave your packs and go clear to +the back of the cave. I'll take three sticks together so as to be sure +of setting off the lot. It will be over before you know anything." + +"What about you?" + +"I'm going to see it. Don't be afraid. I shall take no chance of being +caught before my time." + +Ole rose from his knees. Their gigantic enemy, to judge by the sounds, +was now lumbering its slow way along the ledge. Ole spoke. + +"The Lord has answered." + +"Let us hear what He said." The Captain was sarcastic. He disbelieved +in Ole's private conversations with headquarters. "Most likely it will +be your last message." + +"That beast may be too big to get in through the hole." + +"Then it will sit down outside and wait for us." + +"I see your idea," Drake exclaimed. "When the brute squats we can +tickle its ramp and make it move on. Captain, fit up a punk with a +three-minute fuse." + +Anderson did the quickest job of his life. Fantastic visions of +euthanasia vanished like the fumes of a sickly dream. The men once +more were what nature intended them to be, resourceful, self-reliant, +and instinctively determined to fight to the last breath. + +"I'll never sneer at you again, Ole," the Captain promised solemnly. +"You put guts into us. Take your dynamite clear to the back of the +tunnel--mine too. Hurry! Drake, lug back yours and Lane's." + +Drake and Ole rejoined the others just as the vast bulk of the monster +blacked out the opening. Still lumbering stupidly forward it passed +the entrance. Daylight again entering the pocket the four crept to the +opening. + +Lane peered out. The brainless monster had reached the end of its +path. Further progress along the narrowing ledge being impossible +the brute squatted. In its stupidity it had gone so far that now it +could not turn with safety. A cat in a similar predicament would have +backed instantly. Apparently the solution of its problem was beyond the +monster's infinitesimal intelligence. It just squatted. + +The Doctor was entranced. He saw only the creature's mountainous back, +one enormous hind foot with its fifty-inch talons, and the gross, +forty-foot tail tapering out to a blunt nub. But even this much with +the close view of the monster's irregular ridge of fleshy humps and its +blotched hide--it had no armor of horny scales, merely a thick skin +like an elephant's--rotten with festering colonies of parasites, was a +feast to the eyes. He longed to scrape off a specimen of those living +diseases devouring the monster from the nub of its tail to the limit of +visibility. And he did. + +Emptying his tobacco box he stepped softly through the entrance. Going +noiselessly up to the nearest patch of disease on the brute's tail he +scraped it with the sharp edge of the open box. The huge beast gave no +sign of feeling. Closing the box carefully Lane estimated the distance +to the entrance to the cave. Then with all his force he kicked the +sorest looking spot on the tail and bolted. He regained the cave just +as the tail struck the cliff like a broadside from a battleship. + +"Why the devil did you do that?" Anderson demanded. "Are you crazy?" + +"We planned to make it move on, didn't we?" the Doctor asked innocently. + +"Not that way. But for your damn foolishness we might have got out of +here unnoticed." + +"To tell the truth I wanted to see how long it would take a nervous +impulse to travel the distance from the brute's tail to its head." + +"Well, you saw, confound it. Now you've started the machinery. Go out +and stop it." + +"I have made a most interesting discovery," the Doctor rhapsodized. +"Zoologists have long suspected that the biggest of the prehistoric +monsters had two main nervous centres, one in the head, the other +somewhere in the rear. One paleontologist of note even went so +far as to assert that reptiles roughly like this one could reason +simultaneously à priori and à posteriori. His theory is brilliantly +confirmed. That brainless lout registered my kick in its tail. It would +have taken a week to get the news up in its head." + +"Oh blast your theories!" + +The Captain had good grounds for his impatience. Lane's energetic kick +had solved the monster's problem. The whole stupid mass was slowly +backing. In a few moments the brute's brainless head would be opposite +the entrance. + +"Draw farther back," Lane advised. "It will probably want to look in. +Sort of reverse reflex action, you know. Where the tail went the head +will follow." + +He was right. The last few yards of the bony neck passed, and the flat, +reptilian head blocked the entrance. By tilting it sideways the monster +managed to insinuate its head. The thirty-foot neck followed slowly, +with ample leeway on either side of the entrance. + +Just as they became aware of its heavy, slow breathing the monster saw +them in the dim light. In a flash the lethargy of the brute vanished. +The straining neck, lashing from side to side, cut the air like a whip. +The whole vast bulk of the giant hurled itself furiously against the +jarring cliff in an endeavor to follow the head. + +Great flakes of the black cement crumbled from the rapidly widening +entrance as the balked hunger of the monster rose to a screaming fury. + +Its deafening screeches, like the shrilling of a herd of wild camels, +shook the cave with a terrific din, and its panting breath raised the +gray green dust in stifling clouds. + +It was now or never. While Drake struck matches, Anderson rapidly but +coolly prepared two more sticks of dynamite. Then, watching his chance, +he lit all three fuses at once and deftly rolled the sticks over the +floor of the cave so that one lay in the middle and one at either end +of the arc threshed out by the huge serpent head. He overtook the +others before they reached the end of the cave. + +When the terrific thunder finally ceased, and the men realized that +their two hundreds had not exploded, they stumbled back through the +dark in a daze to the entrance. In their confusion they blundered +directly into the headless stump of neck--gushing blood like a hydrant. + + + + + 18 + + THE ENEMY + + +They blasted their way out. When the gory job was done they were +scarlet from boots to hair. Crawling out under the smoking shoulders of +the butchered giant they saw Edith circling dangerously near the rocks, +risking herself and the plane in her eagerness to help should her +chance come. They signalled that all was well, and she wheeled farther +from the shattered wall. + +During their long descent Edith had lost sight of the men among the +huge blocks littering the sides of the crater. She rediscovered them a +second after she observed the monster starting to back in response to +her father's kick. With her binoculars she made out her father peering +through the entrance to the cave. Until that moment she had not seen +the monster. From her height it was as inconspicuous as an ant crawling +about among the jumbled blocks. Unless one knew exactly where to look +it was safe from detection. + +Her feelings as she watched the gigantic brute trying to break its way +into the cave may be imagined. The three muffled detonations in rapid +succession, the third of which blew off the monster's head, reassured +her. Someone's brain was still working in that cave. She saw the entire +carcass of the brute bound from the ledge as if in astonished pain. +Descending with a dead slap that echoed round the crater, the massive +body struck the ledge, the enormous hind legs kicked convulsively, the +powerful tail thrashed the flying blocks of cement, and with a last +shudder from shoulder to rump the monster became still. The neck was +not withdrawn. Guessing what had happened Edith sighed her thankfulness +and stood by to help. + +"Well," said Anderson, "is that a day's work? Does anyone want to go +farther down?" + +"Let us go down another hundred feet," Drake proposed. "So far we have +passed only half a dozen blocks showing traces of inscriptions. I +should like if possible to photograph one unbroken record. Ole has a +pocket camera." + +"Very well," the Captain agreed. "You and Ole keep in sight of this +ledge while Lane and I take a look round the cave. There may be an ooze +of oil at the back. Didn't you smell petroleum, Doctor, when we were +waiting for that shot to go off?" + +"I can't say that I did, but then I was so busy waiting. Drake, why +don't you try that other unbroken bluff over to the left? If our theory +is right you should find inscriptions, if anywhere, either on what was +the surface of the cement before the explosion or on a concealed layer +some inches deeper into the cement. If you can find an unbroken stretch +you will have the revised version of the prehistoric fight. What we +want is the original history. Look for a place where only a few inches +of the outer surface have been flaked off by the explosion." + +While Lane and Anderson explored the cave, Drake and Ole descended in +quest of inscriptions. Edith hovered above the climbers like an anxious +robin over her fledglings. + +"That's for you," Ole remarked with a grin. + +"Mind your own business," Drake snapped. + +Reaching the unbroken cliff which Lane had pointed out they found it +blank. + +"There's another over there," Ole observed hopefully, indicating a +smooth vertical expanse about a thousand yards to their left. + +"Yes, but if we go there we shall be out of sight of the ledge." + +"It's safe enough." He glanced up at the circling airplane. "Take my +tip and don't let her see you running away." + +With a muttered comment on Ole's meddlesome stupidity Drake started +over the intervening blocks like an excited crab. His impetuosity was +rewarded. + +"Hurry up with your camera," he shouted. "This is just what we want." + +They regretted keenly that Ole had not packed a hundred pounds of films +instead of his dynamite. Five or six acres of cliff was covered with +representations of monsters in every conceivable posture. Evidently +this was a record of importance. + +Both strata of inscriptions were represented on the cliff. In several +places the impact of the bombarding blocks from the eruption had flaked +off great scales from the outer layer of cement, baring the original +inscriptions. The unscarred surface bore the revised version. After +deliberating they decided to photograph the entire cliff in three +dozen sections--the limit of Ole's films. This seemed better than +concentrating on individual inscriptions. Drake hoped from enlargement +of the three dozen pictures to obtain a complete record of everything +on the cliff. + +Anderson and Lane meanwhile were busy in the cave. To the Captain's +disappointment they found no trace of oil. + +"You have that lake beyond the blowholes," Lane expostulated. "Isn't +that enough?" + +"No. I want to endow a school of whales." + +"For that rotten pun you deserve to lose everything from your shirt to +your soul. Let us get into the fresh air. This vile dust is choking me." + +"It has a mouldy smell, hasn't it?" + +"You're right," the Doctor agreed. "I wonder what it is." His interest +was aroused. + +"Take some out to the daylight and see. These matches were made by the +devil only to burn my fingers." + +Lane scooped up a double handful of the dust and hurried to the +entrance. + +"Spores," he announced excitedly. + +Although he did not recognize it he had met the enemy. + +"I'm no wiser," the Captain remarked. + +"These are masses of seeds from some fern-like plant. Lord! I wish I +had a microscope. Haven't you ever seen the underside of a fern frond?" +The Captain nodded. "Well, all that brown stuff on it is millions of +fern seeds finer than dust." + +"But this stuff is grayish green." + +"That makes it all the more interesting. These are the spores, the life +germs, of some unknown plant. I am sure of it. We must take back all we +can carry. Cram your pockets." + +Lane dived into the cave and set the example. Reluctantly enough +Anderson followed suit. + +"Over by the wall where we haven't trampled the stuff should be a good +place," Lane continued. "Sift it through your fingers and save anything +not finer than dust." + +Presently Lane rose to his feet with an exclamation of delight. + +"Look what I've found!" + +Anderson followed him to the light. The Doctor was lost in the +contemplation of a tiny desiccated frond of some plant that resembled a +fern yet most decidedly was not a fern. The dried foliage, more like a +rank mould than a decent plant, was of hair-like fineness. + +"Where have I seen something like this before?" Lane muttered to +himself. "It was alive. Where the deuce was it?" + +"In Heaven, before you were born," the Captain suggested. He also was +an admirer of Maeterlinck, having read Ole's bedraggled _Bluebird_. + +"Rot," said the Doctor. He was not an admirer of the romantic Belgian. +"But your suggestion, by the law that action and reaction are equal and +opposite, recalls the place where I did see this plant growing. It was +next door to hell." + +"San Francisco?" the Captain hazarded. + +"No. On that beach of monsters. Ole blew the stomach out of one and in +the process ripped the lining. Some of this plant, as fresh as newly +cut lettuce, dropped out of the rent. I remember now. We planned to +collect some on our way back to the ship. When we returned we were too +heavily loaded to take on more. Also it was getting dark. So we had to +leave it till next day. By morning the oil and slush oozing into the +hole in the ice where the plant lay had made soup of everything. Well, +this more than makes up for our loss. I shall have a chance to settle +whether life remains dormant under the right conditions, practically +indefinitely." + +"Ah, your theory of immortal whales?" + +"The laugh will be on you when I make this greenish dust grow. The +chances are infinity to nothing that the living plant disappeared from +the earth millions of years ago." + +Lane was wrong in his first statement. Less than twenty-four hours +later he found that the laugh was on him. And a nasty, sardonic laugh +it was at that. He spoke from insufficient knowledge. + +Between them he and Drake had reconstructed the history of the perished +race whose records the rigors of the Antarctic solitudes had preserved +unviolated. Drake as decipherer, and Lane as scientist, working +together imagined themselves in possession of all the essential details +of the catastrophe which had swept intelligence from the Earth when the +poles were regions of perpetual summer. In the light of what happened +less than twenty-four hours after Lane's discovery of the greenish +spores, neither he nor Drake is now willing to claim finality for their +conclusions. Before the struggle in which they all but perished, both +were confident of their theory. It explained all the facts in their +possession and it was rational. + +Their desperate fight for life showed them that they had not visualized +one half of the truth. What they had guessed was the obvious part. +Their failure to reconstruct a single less obvious detail has taught +them modesty. Neither Drake nor Lane will now admit that he knows more +than a small fraction of that obliterated history. + +Lane moreover for the present is disinclined to speculate on the +obscure science behind the history. He prefers to leave fundamental +theories and explanations to Ole. And it may be said in passing that +Ole's most ambitious theory has already attracted numerous followers. +His fame, however, is rather mixed. His following is as large as +Lane's is select. For the notorious conservatism of professional +scientists holds them back in following Ole in regions where the more +adventurous layman rushes in whooping. + +Lane had been so absorbed in his greenish spores that he failed to +note the disappearance of Ole and Drake. They came into sight just +as Anderson began to swear. Joining the others they voted it a day's +work, firmly strapped on their packs, and started up the thousand foot +scramble to the skyline. Topping it shortly before sunset they marched +fast and reached the site of their last night's camp before dusk. Edith +joined them presently. + +"Shall we camp here?" she asked. + +"We might as well," Anderson replied. "It is convenient to the crater. +Have you any reason for wishing to go farther back toward the oil lake?" + +"Perhaps not. You can decide best. The wind seems to be rising. Up on +the three thousand foot level it is blowing half a gale--thirty miles +an hour from the north. Camped here in the open we shall have trouble +with the plane if the current descends during the night." + +"There is only a four or five mile breeze blowing from the southeast +down here at present," the Captain pointed out. "So far as I can see +the weather is exactly what it has been the past nine days." + +"All right. If you are satisfied I am. Only I thought if there is any +danger of the wind rising in the night it would be easier to manage +the plane in the shelter of the south bank of the oil lake." + +"There is no danger, I am sure. This breeze won't go to more than six +miles an hour at any time during the night. Your speaking of the lake +reminds me of something. Will you take Ole and fly to the cache on the +south shore for more matches? He can dig them out." + +"Of course. We shall be back in half an hour." + +"And while you are there," her father begged, "dig up some sort of a +tin can for me. Bring one with a lid. I want to pack these precious +spores safely away." + +"Very well. I shall bring a fresh tin of ship bread and we can have +a real feast. I know how to make a heavenly hoosh with hardtack and +corned beef. You may have the tin." + +"And the rest of you the stew, I suppose?" + +"If you go shares on your blessed spores," she laughed, "we'll do +likewise on the banquet." + +When she returned Anderson thankfully emptied his pockets of the +greenish gray mess. + +"Be careful," Lane admonished, hopping about excitedly on the frozen +snow. "You're losing half of the stuff. The breeze carries it off like +smoke." + +The Captain did indeed lose about a pound and three-quarters. Finally +turning his pockets inside out he gave them a thorough dusting in the +breeze. Although Lane was more careful he also lost half a pound to the +wind. + +"Well," he said, "I have enough any way." He slapped down the lid. +"With this I should be able to prove whether or not the life principle +can remain indefinitely in abeyance." + +"The great Swedish chemist Arrhenius almost says it can," Ole informed +them. "He has a theory that life originates on planets by the life +seeds from another planet. The seeds drift across empty spaces for ages +till they strike a planet cool enough for life. When the life seeds +drift too close to the sun or some other star the heat destroys them." + +Lane received Arrhenius' famous theory with the silence of disrespect. +He was already familiar with it as a speculation of the well known +physicists Tait and Stewart. To him it had always been the example +par excellence of the incompetence of the average scientist to reason +straight about another man's specialty. The Captain thought he saw the +point. + +"The hen and the egg over again, isn't it? What starts life on the +first planet? How do your precious life seeds begin in the first place?" + +"They're not mine," Ole retorted indignantly. "Arrhenius invented them. +The life came to the first planet from another planet." + +"Exactly," the Captain sneered. "And when the chain is complete you +have perpetual motion. Go and patent it." + +The dispute becoming personal, the pacific Drake intervened. + +"Both of you are right. Ole can't he held responsible for any +foolishness but his own. Nor can you, Captain, be blamed for +criticizing a scientific theory. The ones that I have looked into are +all like that. They assume the egg in order to produce the hen to +explain the egg." + +"And you," the Doctor hotly interposed, "being a bat-eyed archaeologist +are a competent critic of science. You may be able to read prehistoric +picture books but you couldn't tell the difference between evolution +and relativity. Just because you mess about with fossilized opinions +you set yourself up as a judge of modern science." + +"Not at all," Drake retorted. "I only say that my training in +antiquities enables me to tell fresh eggs from Chinese. And if +Arrhenius' perpetual motion theory of the origin of life isn't a +scientific bad egg I have no nose. One doesn't need a brain to test +things as far gone as that." + +"Now you two," said Edith, giving each of them a shake, "eat your hoosh +before it freezes. You can fight afterwards." + +"We won't want to," Drake grinned, "with a gallon of food under our +belts." + +"True," the Doctor agreed. "If those poor monsters over there had +been properly fed they might have made great pets. The struggle for +subsistence ruined their tempers." + +"I wonder if the blowholes will perform tonight?" Edith asked. + +"No," Ole confidently asserted. "By my theory they should not go off +till early tomorrow forenoon." + +"Your theory be blowed," the Captain growled. He was jealous. "You're +always theorizing and always wrong." + +But Ole was right. There was no flareup till nine o'clock the next +morning. + + + + + 19 + + ATTACKED + + +After the meal they luxuriously crawled into their warm sleeping bags +and lay talking for an hour. Having exterminated the adjacent rookery +of monsters they saw no necessity for setting a watch. The chances of +any adventurous prowlers from the interior of the crater foraging the +icy wilderness were negligible. + +They decided to have a good night's sleep and be fresh in the morning +for a deeper descent into the crater. The day following Edith had +reserved to take her father to the unruined paradise which she and Ole +had discovered. The others were to march to the oil lake and wait there +for Edith to take them across. They were then to return to the ship +for a second attempt to reach the black barrier of Anderson's first +objective. Although they had not yet devised a means for traversing +the dangerous trough of blowholes which they had blundered on in their +first expedition, nevertheless they felt confident that necessity would +stimulate their inventiveness to a safe plan. + +Anderson was more determined than ever to reach his first goal. There +was no doubt that the black rock barrier beyond the trough was the wall +of another vast ruined paradise. Therefore, he argued, there must be +oil in its vicinity. What was true of one hole in the ice, he said, +must be true of another just like it. Lane had considerably modified +his veto of the possibility of finding oil in such a formation. And the +deciding factor in his change of opinion was his discovery that the +black cement was not of natural origin. + +"What do you make of it all, Lane?" the Captain asked from his sleeping +bag. + +"I told you the other day. We have discovered the final product of +an intelligence that vanished from the earth before America was a +continent. That intelligence, I believe, either deliberately or +accidentally solved the problem of life. For some reasons I think it +more probable that the initial discovery was a blunder. + +"The authors of the mistake were impotent to control it. Everything we +have discovered points to their inability to direct their creation. As +I said the other day they realized what they had done only when it was +too late, foresaw its probable consequences, and destroyed their entire +civilization in the attempt to nullify their blunder. That they failed +to carry out their destructive purpose completely is self-evident. Had +they succeeded not one of those dead monsters over there would ever +have come into existence." + +"If they knew enough to create life," Ole objected, "they must have +known how to destroy it." + +"Not necessarily. An idiot with a test tube of the right sort of +germs might start a plague that not all the doctors of the world +could control. And so with this thing. The minute specks of living +matter which they created--I am assuming the process for the sake of +illustration only--multiplied like bacteria. Now what is the last +remedy for a plague infested village? Why, to burn it to the ground. So +possibly those rash experimenters learned. But the seeds of life--again +I am merely guessing--had been scattered broadcast over the country by +the winds. + +"What was to be done? Fire the whole country? That would have been +useless. For it is impossible to bake the soil over thousands of square +miles to a depth of several feet. I am assuming from tangible evidence +that the plague of life had passed so far beyond control that the very +soil was impregnated with its germs. + +"What would they do? What could they do but seal every mile of the +infected soil? No air must reach the life spores. Light must be +excluded. They systematically set about burying the fertility of their +continent under millions of tons of air tight cement." + +"But why should they bring slow starvation on themselves," Edith +objected, "if, as you say, they had not created any dangerous animals +to prey on them, but only the merest beginnings of life?" + +"For one very good reason, my darling angel child. We may assume that +their intelligence was higher than ours. Otherwise they could not have +created life. Knowing enough even to blunder onto the secret of life +they certainly would be competent to decide whether their creation was +in line with orderly, normal evolution. Finding that their artificial +life spores all were but the potential ancestors of abominations to +be evolved to maturity millions of years in the future, they looked +forward to the probable state of the world as a result of their +mistake. They foresaw hell on earth. + +"There was no immediate danger. There was not even the possibility of +slight discomfort for millions upon millions of years. But there was +the absolute certainty at the end of ages of a world that a decent +beast wouldn't live in. They weighed one against the other--the +certainty of continued happiness for their race for a few million years +longer against the equal certainty of hell on earth forever thereafter. +And they decided that their protracted happiness, even their continued +existence, was not worth its deferred cost. + +"I have said that they were intelligent. The deliberate sacrifice +of their own happiness for a future that would never dream of their +existence, proves my assertion. It is your stupid man who has the soul +of a hog. Drake, you go on." + +"Let me first knock the stuffing out of one of Ole's numerous +theories," Drake began. "Then I can go on where the Doctor stopped. +Ole maintains that the intelligent beings--I won't call them human, +for they were too unselfish to deserve the epithet--who depicted all +those acres of fantastic monsters actually saw the creatures whose +outlines they pressed into the wet cement. He contends that the artists +drew from living models. That I flatly deny. I admit that they saw +the models which inspired them. But they saw with the mind's eye +only. Lane, I believe, is right. They actually created nothing more +terrifying to behold than tiny specks of jelly." + +"You must prove your theory," Ole exploded, rising bodily in his +sleeping bag to defend his offspring. + +"It proved itself the first time I saw your precious photographs. Of +all those thousands of different monsters represented in your pictures, +not one was in a posture that by any stretch of the imagination could +be called natural. Every last one of them is drawn in some grotesque +attitude that would set an Apache artist's teeth on edge. There has +been a deliberate and successful attempt to make each posture unnatural +in at least one detail. The variations are not mere conventions. They +are systematic, infinitely various, and exceedingly ingenious. + +"That gave me my first clue. Whatever race designed those inscriptions +had done its best to convey the information that the beasts were in a +definite sense, imaginary. They were not imaginary in the sense that a +fire breathing dragon is fictitious. By the help of half a ton of books +I learned that such creatures were not flesh and bone impossibilities. +They _might_ have come into being if natural evolution had started from +different beginnings. Lane helped me a lot on this. My own first guess +was merely a jump in the dark. + +"Being ideal representations of non-existent but possible creatures, +what could they signify? The answer was immediate: the results of an +elaborate scientific prophecy. + +"Even I, unscientific antiquarian as I am, have heard of those +astronomers who predicted the exact spot in the heavens in which a +planet--Neptune--that no human eye had ever seen, would be found at +a definite time on a certain night. And in spite of Lane's harsh +estimate of my scientific incompetence, I have also admired that +splendid discovery by the Scotch mathematician who foresaw from his +equations our wireless waves and described their behavior a generation +before wireless became practical. + +"Knowing these antiquarian scraps of scientific history I let my +imagination loose. If it is possible for us to predict unseen planets +and foretell in detail great scientific advances, why should not a more +intelligent race beat us at our own game? We predict only physical +things. Why shouldn't Lane, if he had brains enough, predict the future +course of a hen's life from an examination of the unhatched egg?" + +"No reason at all," Lane laughed. "Some day they will do better than +that. You should let your imagination go." + +"It might never come back to earth if I let loose altogether. Well, +I made my working guess. I supposed that the authors of those +inscriptions were predicting the distant evolution of some form of +life. Taking that as a foundation I tried what I could build. + +"You remember my remarking the entire absence of human figures from +the inscriptions. Not one of those thousands of creatures represented +could by any flight of the imagination be considered above brute +intelligence. The artists had taken great trouble to depict in each +instance a savage, almost brainless stupidity. + +"Now I had also noticed immediately the vivid and life-like pictograms +of sanguinary battles. Putting these two facts together, the total +absence of all higher intelligence and the repeated depiction of +terrible conflicts, I reached what seemed an obvious conclusion. + +"The authors of the inscriptions, I inferred, were predicting their +own annihilation by an enemy as yet not fully created. Further they +predicted the subsequent reign of brutal anarchy and unintelligence. +The inscriptions were a forecast of what was to happen in the course +of evolution. Intelligence, they predicted, was to disappear from the +earth. Brute force, nature gone mad, and a chaos of living things were +to rule in the place of dethroned order. + +"So much for the prophecy. Now for the recorded history. Almost at the +first glance I recognized that two distinct periods of art, separated +by a vast interval of time, were represented in the inscriptions. +Between the earlier and the later the technique of pictorial design +had changed fundamentally. The art of both periods is developed almost +to perfection. Nevertheless, ages separate the two schools, and they +belong to the same race. I need not bore you with the evidence. It +is of the same sort as that which enables archaeologists to say at a +glance whether a sculpture is Greek or Egyptian and further to fix its +date relatively to some standard object. + +"Notice now the extraordinary and significant detail. The two periods +of art, although widely separated in time, were of equal brilliance. +During the ages between the first and second there had been no decline. +We have no parallel to this in recorded history. A few centuries, or +at most two or three thousand years, sees the rise to approximate +perfection and the sure descent to mediocrity. + +"This fact puzzled me more than all the other difficulties together, +and it still is baffling although to a lesser degree. I was totally +unable to decide which inscriptions were the earlier. The inscriptions +of both periods depicted struggles and, so far as I could see for +a long time, struggles of almost identical character. What was the +obvious conclusion? The earlier inscriptions prophesied the ghastly +conflict, the later recorded its occurrence. I became convinced that +the forgotten race early foresaw its extinction in the shadowy future, +lived for ages in undiminished vigor anticipating destruction, and +finally was overwhelmed in the height of its power, surviving only long +enough to leave a record of impending and absolute defeat. + +"I then tried on this hypothesis to decide which set of inscriptions +was the earlier. The net result was nil. Either the problem was beyond +me or I had gone stale. + +"The intense scrutiny was not however a dead waste. A suspicion which +had long been germinating in my subconscious mind struggled up to +certainty. One set of inscriptions undoubtedly and possibly the other +also, was in cipher. The actual conflict depicted was merely the symbol +of a deeper war. It was not beast against beast, but beast against +intelligence. Unmistakably the battles of one set of inscriptions were +symbols of a conflict that was not material. What then could have been +its nature? + +"By a process of exclusion I decided that the only rational guess +was a struggle against natural laws. The conflict was not material; +it could not be against spirits. It therefore most probably was +intellect against brute nature, the endless struggle of intelligence to +be master of itself and creator of its own fate. The symbolic set of +inscriptions, I decided, must record the struggles of the long extinct +race to subdue nature. In short the inscription must be a summary of +the more important scientific discoveries and technical achievements of +the race. + +"The next question was, why should they wish to conceal their +scientific knowledge? My answer was immediate. It was also, I am +now convinced, inadequate. The scientific knowledge of the race, I +reasoned, must have been entrusted to a particular cult whose business +it was to increase and apply the store of wisdom. To prevent disasters +this cult by means of hieroglyphics and symbolic language would conceal +from the uninitiated all dangerous discoveries. Only a history of the +severe struggle to master the secrets of life and the material universe +would be recorded, so that later generations of seekers should not +repeat the experiments and encounter the same dangers. + +"It was now natural to ascribe the purely symbolic, or scientific, +writings to the earlier period. The later inscriptions I took to be +a record of the destruction of the race by the creations of its own +science. The ruin which their scientists early predicted overtook them, +and the perishing race left a warning to intelligent life, should such +ever again inhabit the world, not to repeat the uncontrollable blunder +which had destroyed its first perpetrators. + +"This hypothesis received a startling confirmation when we discovered +that lump of black cement with the embedded inscriptions. The interior +inscriptions, those which had been cemented over, belonged to what I +had decided was the earlier period; those on the face of the fragment +to the latter. Evidently the attempt at concealment had been much more +thorough than I dreamed. The race not only disguised their dangerous +scientific knowledge in ambiguous symbolism; it actually buried the +obnoxious wisdom beneath several inches of a cement as hard as diamond. + +"What could have driven them to such drastic caution? Only the +desperate determination to obliterate the last traces of their +scientific knowledge. Any why? Because in the final conflict they had +found its consequences terrible beyond belief. + +"As to the nature of their dangerous knowledge and the aspect of the +monstrous catastrophe which it engendered, I can only follow Lane in +his speculations. That race blundered onto the secret of life. Creating +it, they fashioned the seeds of abominations. This they realized. And +they foresaw that with the lapse of ages evolution would breed from +their beginnings, innocuous enough at the time and for millions of +years to come, a swarming, uncontrollable multitude of monstrosities +without intelligence. + +"Lane has outlined their probable motives in choosing for themselves +wholesale destruction. Until we shall have spent several years on the +inscriptions we can venture no theory as to how they created life." + +"I have a theory!" Ole exploded. He had been suffering for twenty +minutes. + +"Pipe down," the Captain ordered. "Lane, how do you account for all +those dead monsters over there by the blowholes? And for the thousands +on the beach, to say nothing of the half million I saw boiling up from +the bottom of the ocean?" + +"Easily. Those originators of life destroyed their creation, I pointed +out, by burying the fertile soil of their continent under millions of +tons of air-tight cement. A job like that takes time. The longer they +worked at it the slower became their rate of progress. And for a very +simple reason. As the cemented region grew the food supply diminished. +They took care, of course, to cement over the most dangerous places +first, leaving the lighter work for the last few survivors of the race." + +"Now where did they get the rock and other material for making their +untold millions of tons of the hardest cement?" + +"Out of the ground, of course. Mines." + +"Exactly. That crater we were in today is the ruin of one of their +mines. The vast circular depression that Ole and Edith visited is +another. It fortunately is still undestroyed. That black barrier you +are so determined to explore is the ruined floor of another, heaved up +by the explosion of vast quantities of oil and natural gas. How many +more there may be dotted about this frozen continent I hope some day to +discover. + +"Well, as I see it, they mined out those enormous holes to get +material for their cement. The execution of so vast a project as +theirs demanded the highest intelligence and extraordinary engineering +skill. I suspect that they sunk those pits so deep in order to utilize +the internal heat of the earth. In their day, millions of years ago, +the heat at comparatively shallow depths must have been much greater +than it is today in our deepest mines. For the same purpose, and also +perhaps in the search for rarer minerals required in making their +time-outlasting cement, they drove enormous tunnels, galleries and vast +pockets far into the rocks at every stage of their work. We have heard +the tides of oil and water surging along them under our feet. + +"Now for your animals. The race in its prime having cemented all the +most dangerous regions, the diminishing survivors had only to complete +the project by cementing the easier places. Their task was to seal the +mines and subterranean chambers. The mines are these vast holes in this +forsaken wilderness. The one we explored this morning certainly has +been plastered with cement. They did a thorough job. That black wall +must have been yards thick before the gas explosion blew the whole +interior to bits. + +"The first engineers, foreseeing that the last survivors must perish +of starvation before the completion of their work, took the precaution +of making the sides of their mines perpendicular. It was extremely +improbable that every square yard of the floors, walls and roofs of the +open mines and subterranean galleries would be safely cemented over +before the last worker perished. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of acres +of free soil would be left exposed to the light, air and moisture. The +dangerous life seeds polluting these extensive uncemented areas would +live and develop, and with the lapse of ages evolve into abominations. +That is why they made those pits, three miles deep, with perpendicular +walls as smooth as glass. Whatever bred in those mines and galleries +would live and die there. Soil and heat alike eventually becoming +exhausted, the last vestiges of life in the mines and tunnels would +perish. We happen to have arrived before the natural end, which may not +come for millions of years yet. + +"Why don't we find the mighty engines which those great workers must +have used? Those which they left exposed to the air were rust a million +years ago. Stone will outlast iron, and this cement, hard as diamond, +would outlast the finest steel. As for such of their machines as they +used in their tunnels and caves, I confidently expect to find traces, +perhaps even one or two complete engines. For I intend to explore +thoroughly every mile of those subterranean galleries from here to the +South Pole if necessary, and from there to far under the floor of the +Antarctic ocean. + +"I am convinced that the age-long action of heat and water has slowly +widened the tunnels and extended them far out under the ocean. The roof +of one of these, weakening under the same course, gave way, letting in +the ocean. You saw the backwash of oil and dead beasts blown up by the +steam when the returning wave burst through to the subterranean fires. +The monsters, I suspect, came from another such paradise as the one Ole +and Edith discovered. I shouldn't wonder if it turned out to be the +one you are set on visiting. + +"I have also a theory, as Ole might say, concerning the origin of your +oil. These monsters have been living, evolving, multiplying and dying +in the galleries and uncemented mines for millions of years, literally +for ages of geologic time. Their constantly decomposing carcasses are +responsible for the lakes and oceans of oil which, I feel confident, +swing their black tides deep down under this polar ice cap. + +"Now, one last thing, and I shall have done. We've been talking an hour +and it's time we all went to sleep. I am willing to bet my specimens, +including the incomparable devil chick, against your oil lake, that +when we visit the unruined mine the day after tomorrow, Edith and I +shan't find a single inscription on its walls. No other pit besides +the one we explored today, I am convinced, will show the trace of +an inscription. One record, the authors of the inscriptions rightly +surmised, would be sufficient. So why waste their labor in leaving a +score? The first record, the one which they later cemented over, was +inscribed near the beginning of their gigantic labor. They were just +about to cement over the walls of the first vast mine, now grown so +unwieldy as to be unmanageable. They decided to leave a record of the +harsh science which was driving them to suicide. + +"Accordingly as they worked, they pressed into the unset cement the +secret symbolism of their fatal discoveries. This record they intended +as a warning to their successors should intelligence ever again visit +the earth. Thousands of years later, still toiling at their stupendous +task, they realized fully its crushing magnitude and the horror of +the doom which they labored to nullify. While their own end still was +thousands of years in the future they decided to obliterate forever +the record of the knowledge which had driven their race down the long, +slow way to death. Returning to their first mine they cemented over the +dangerous science which was their ruin. Now let us go to sleep." + +"Not yet," Ole expostulated. "You have no theory of how they created +life. Your science comes to a dead halt. Now I have a theory--" + +"Shut up, Ole!" the Captain roared. "We want to sleep." + +"Shut up yourself!" Ole bellowed, struggling to his feet, sleeping +bag and all. "It is always 'shut up Ole.' The rest of you gab all day +and rave all night. I never get a chance to say anything. Now you are +going to listen to me and learn something for once. I have a theory," +he shouted, "and you've got to accept it because it is common-sense and +the only true theory of life." + +They were sound asleep already. + +Ole however was not to be balked. He talked to the bags and, having +delivered himself, joined his audience in slumber. + +Edith was the first to awake. She first noticed an oppressive warmth. +Not yet fully aroused she turned over on her side for a last nap. The +sense of discomfort increased. Her hair, she imagined, had fallen over +her face as she turned. Some strands evidently had got into her mouth. + +Still lazy, she tried to eject the supposed hair with her tongue. +Failing, she used her fingers. The suspected hair having an unusual +feel she held it before her eyes for examination. In the semi-darkness +she saw that it was green. Startled, she looked more attentively. What +she saw was a mass of fern-like foliage of hair-like fineness. + +It was the enemy. + + + + + 20 + + DESPERATE + + +Edith's cries brought the others, unable to get out of their sleeping +bags, struggling to their feet. The mouths of the bags were choked with +thick masses of the hair-like vegetation. + +Freeing their heads from the entangling meshes they stared out over +a dense, matted jungle of green hair five feet high. To the south +numerous vivid mounds marked the thickly overgrown carcasses of +the asphyxiated monsters. To the north stretched a dense mat of +impenetrable vegetation disappearing in a dark green cloud on the +horizon. + +A hundred yards beyond the mounded monsters the tangled green mass +ended abruptly, save for a single band a hundred yards broad reaching +to the base of the black rocks. There the band stopped. It marked the +course which the men had taken across the ice on their return from the +crater. + +Were their ears deceived? They stood motionless, five blunted pillars +festooned with great streamers and wreaths of the rank, fungus like +green weed, listening in fear to the rustling crepitation. The whole +mass was growing audibly. + +Then they noticed a deep green discoloration of the ice on the west +side of the broad band between the blowholes and rocks. The edges of +the band were not sharp, like the edge of a cornfield. The green mass, +tapering down at the boundaries, merged with the ice and snow. The +green tinge on the ice far beyond the limit of growing vegetation was +the dust of innumerable spores blown from the living plants by the East +wind which rose with the dawn. + +Attempting to move they found themselves bound from feet to armpits +by living ropes woven from thousands of growing, hair-like strands. +They fully realized their desperate situation only when Edith with a +frightened cry called attention to the airplane. It had disappeared +beneath a tangled mound of green ropes. Even if they could extricate +the machine it would be impossible to rise. That matted vegetation +would stop a thousand horsepower tractor in less than a hundred yards. + +"It is those infernal spores," the Doctor said quietly. "See how our +track from the rocks to the blowholes is marked by the filthy weeds. +All that started from the dust Anderson and I shed from our boots and +our clothes as we marched. The sea of green rope between us and the +horizon grew up in the night from the spores we lost to the wind. +Evidently this stuff grows very slowly at first, then like a fire, or +we should have noticed it before we went to sleep. So much for theory. +Has anyone a plan for getting out of this? Don't get panicky. Take your +time." + +"We might try to break our way through to the clean ice east of the +band," the Captain suggested, "and march round the stuff." + +"Not much chance of beating it to the ship, I'm afraid. Still, that's +one plan. Any more?" + +There was no response. + +"Well," said Lane, "I suppose it is forward march. Not that I am +particularly anxious to return to civilization with this blunder on +my head. My stupidity has let loose one of the enemies which that +forgotten race gave its life to chain. Having done the asinine thing +I now see how it could have been avoided. Evidently these spores +require cold and moisture in order to grow like this. Possibly a low +temperature actually forces the growth beyond all nature. In the dry, +warm pockets in the cement, sealed from light and moisture, the spores +would lie dormant indefinitely. + +"Probably what we found is the mass of spores from a growth which +started from a few dusted off the bodies of the last workers. When the +vegetation had exhausted the soil and moisture in the pocket it ceased +to grow. In the warmth, I imagine, the growth was slow and natural. The +spores have retained their life all these millions of years, waiting +for a fool like me to broadcast them over the ideal medium for their +luxuriant growth and propagation. Did those dead workers foresee the +ice ages ahead? Did they seal the caves against the escape of this +fiend to its stimulating cold? I don't know. Such is my theory, and it +is my last. Which way, Anderson?" + +"Head northeast. Ole, you're the strongest. Go first till you give in. +We must head off the stuff before it grows over that bay against the +rocks to the left. Then we can climb along the rocks and beat it to +the east--if we can. It is an inch higher than it was when we began +talking." + +Ole made about twenty feet. Panting and sweating he stopped for breath. +He made another two feet and collapsed in the green slush. + +"All right, Ole," the Captain said, taking his place. "Fall behind +while I have a go." + +Anderson gave out at the third yard. + +"Drake, you're next." + +Drake made less than a yard. Lane followed with a yard and a half. +Edith shoved. And so it went until complete exhaustion overtook them +less than a hundred feet from their starting place. By now the green +mass grew high above their heads when they stood erect. + +"I can do no more," Anderson panted. "We might as well give up." + +Saying nothing they flung themselves down on the green mess they had +trampled. Presently Edith got to her feet and beckoned to Drake. He +followed her back along the green tunnel. The hair-like mass at the +farther end was already a foot high. This was a second growth springing +rankly up from the trampled slush of the first. + +"I wish you to know," Edith began when they reached the end, "that I +have always loved you. We shall not get out of here. I feel no shame in +telling you." + +"Why didn't you tell me before?" he said, touched to the heart. "I +never knew you cared that way for me, although I hoped that some day +you might, darling. We shall die here. Let us forget the past and not +think of the cold eternity before us. The present is enough." + +And they spent their priceless moments as only lovers know how. Death +might strangle them before night, certainly before morning. These few +moments were their eternity. + +Years later, it seemed to them, they heard someone ripping through the +young growth in the tunnel. It was Ole. + +"The Doctor sent me to fetch some grub," he apologized guiltily. + +Edith's heart gave a great leap. While there is appetite there is hope. +Her father's head had started working again. + +"Come on," she said to Drake, "we shall be married after all." + +They found Lane and the Captain sitting in silence. Anderson's face +was expressionless. The Doctor glanced up at Edith's happy face, and +a spasm of pain contracted his own. For he had sent Ole to fetch, +not food, but a hundred pounds of dynamite. He had hoped to end the +misery of all of them painlessly and instantaneously without Edith's +foreknowledge. + +"Have you thought of a way out?" she asked hopefully. + +"Yes," he said. "But seeing you I haven't the courage to take it." + +She guessed. + +"John and I," she said, laying her hand on Drake's arm, "will go back +again to the end of the tunnel where you can't see us. I'm not afraid." + +"But I am," he said. + +She stood looking down at him, all the love and affection of her past +happy life in her eyes. + +"You needn't be afraid. I never was frightened of the dark." + +Ole joined them, dragging his mossgrown pack. Anderson glared at him. + +"Why didn't you do it back there instead of coming here to scare the +girl to death?" + +"I'm not going to do it. You are. Suicide and murder are against my +religion." + +"Blowing you to hell is the only good thing about this whole business. +Hand me a cap and cut off a three-inch fuse." + +In spite of himself Ole began to fumble. His half-frozen fingers +refused to pick out the cap. Then searching for his knife to cut the +fuse he remembered what had become of it. He looked at Edith. + +"You couldn't fetch my knife, could you?" + +"No, stupid," she laughed. "How could I fly back to the tunnel?" + +"Here," the Captain exclaimed, impatiently brushing him aside, "I'll do +it if you haven't brains enough to use your teeth." + +Drawing out his knife he opened the blade and gave Ole a sour look. + +"I've a good mind to cut your fat throat," he said. "They can't hang +me." + +"Then you will go to hell for sure," Ole asserted with certain +confidence. + +Working in silence Anderson methodically set about his business. Lane +still sat in the green slush, trying not to think of Edith. Presently +he rose to his feet. + +"The blowholes will spout in a moment," he said. "I just felt the +suspicion of a tremor." + +Involuntarily Anderson paused in his work. + +"You're right. Well, we shall add to the general celebration in a +minute or two." + +The violent shaking began and ended with unexpected suddenness, +throwing them down in the slush. A dull thudding in the air announced +the kindling of the flame cones. + +"Gas, oil!" Lane shouted. + +In his excitement he was incapable of giving coherent expression to +the association of ideas which flashed across his memory. The others +started away from him. Even Edith drew back in alarm. Although they +were about to die it seemed a terrible thing that one of their number +should go out of life mad. + +"Don't you remember, Ole?" he continued, barely able to utter the words +for emotion. "The oil from the shale on the beach oozed down into the +hole where that green stuff lay. That plant was the same as this. What +destroyed it? Oil! The whole mass was dissolved, a mess of brown +sludge when we saw it next. Oil is its natural enemy! Those gas flames +made me think of oil. Thank God for memory!" + +They still thought him demented. + +"Nitric acid might as well be its natural enemy," Drake remarked, "for +all the good it will do us. Where are we to get oil?" + +Drake had not yet learned that genius is the gift for making the most +of circumstances. + +"Where?" the Doctor shouted. "From the tank of the airplane of course. +Edith, can you spare two hundred gallons and still have enough petrol +to take us to the south shore of the oil lake?" + +"Yes. It is less than a ten-minute fly. I can spare three hundred +gallons if you need that much and have plenty to fly to the cache by +the ship." + +But Lane had not yet thought that far. Neither his own possible escape +from death nor that of the party had yet come above his horizon. He was +planning a greater deliverance. + +"Break through to the plane, Ole," he ordered, "while I get the can." + +The twelve feet to the oil tank took only half an hour. Hope had +trebled their strength. The first petrol drawn was used to soak the +spores in the can. These were then thrown away in the tunnel and the +can washed clean. + +"Strip that green devil off the plane somehow, the rest of you," Lane +directed, "while I spread the petrol in the tunnel." + +They went at the job like tigers. + +"Look," Lane cried from the tunnel. "See what the soaked spores did." + +Hurrying back they found him standing in a pool of brown muck. Like a +field of dry flax before a fire the eight-foot wall of green hair was +dissolving round the edges of the pool. The almost instantaneous decay +ate like a flame into the impenetrable thicket. + +Lane carefully spread his can of oil against the matted roots along the +left side of the tunnel. When he returned with the second can a band of +brown slush two feet broad marked the destruction wrought by the first. + +Four hours later they had cleared the plane and opened up a straight +alleyway through the matted tangle sufficiently broad and long enough +for the plane to run along and take the air. + +"Hang on all your dynamite," Lane ordered. "I'll bring the can. Leave +everything else." + +Ole and Edith climbed into their places, Drake sat on the back of the +seat clutching Ole round the neck, while Lane and the Captain disposing +themselves on either side of Drake clung to him and to one another. +The load, although considerable, was far below the plane's lifting +capacity. Edith ran it down the long alleyway and lifted from the brown +sludge with thirty feet to spare. + +Their last look at the blowholes showed the green mounds all about them +lit up by the cheery fires. + +Rising to the thousand foot level they saw beneath them a vivid green +band twelve miles broad winding like a river due north toward the oil +lake. + +"That's what the wind did with the spores we lost last night. The stuff +multiplies on itself like compound interest at ten thousand per cent. +Unless we stop its growth now this whole continent will be matted thick +in a month." + +"And then it will blow across the ocean to South America." + +"Not if I can help it. We don't know yet whether it can multiply like +this in a warmer climate. Freezing temperature seems to act on it like +a violent stimulant. For all we know it might be controllable at ten +degrees and perish at fifty. But I'm not going to find out. This plague +will never get farther than that lake. Land near the cache, Edith. We +shall need all the dynamite we have." + +Anderson guessing the Doctor's purpose made no remonstrance. The oil +had risen high in the lake during the night. Six inches more and it +would begin spilling over the south barrier of the lake. But they could +not wait for nature. The green plague river was broadening before their +eyes. In half a day it would have streamed up the intervening three +miles to the oil lake, surrounded it, and swept onto the desolate plain +beyond in its ever swifter rush to the ocean. + +Ole unearthed the pick and began digging furiously into the ice under +the narrowest point of the barrier. + +"How long will it take to fly across the lake, Edith?" Lane asked. + +"Twenty minutes at the most." + +"Then give your shots a twenty-minute fuse," Lane directed. "We shan't +stay to see the show. The oil may catch when the dynamite explodes. +All hands soak themselves in crude oil. We can't risk starting those +infernal spores in a new place." + +Setting the example Lane baled up several canfulls of the black oil and +drenched himself from head to feet. Then he soused the plane. Having +finished he passed the can to Drake and stood watching Anderson at his +work. The Captain was saying nothing in the presence of his tragedy. + +"Look here, Captain," Lane said, "all this is due to my stupidity +alone. I have lost your oil for you. In slight return I shall make you +a present of the finest thousand-acre orange grove in California." + +The proud temptation to refuse gave way to the memory of twenty years +of cold and stink. + +"I accept the sunshine and orange blossoms with all my thanks," the +Captain replied. + +"And while you are about that job," Lane continued, "put this in with +the dynamite too." He handed the Captain his tobacco box containing the +parasites which he had scraped from the monster's tail. "I shall not +take another chance with any of the infernal diseases of the archaean +age," he said. + +Having planted the last charge Anderson soaked his clothing in oil +before lighting all four fuses. He then clambered up on the plane with +the others. They were off as fast as they could fly. + +Twenty minutes passed, twenty-five, and they were well beyond the +north shore of the lake speeding toward the ship. + +"Are you sure those fuses were dry?" Lane shouted above the roar of the +propeller. + +Anderson nodded. They flew another three minutes before hearing in +rapid succession the four dull explosions which announced the release +of the oil flood. + +Nearing the ship they saw Bronson and the men on the ice near the +petrol cache loafing about, exercising the dogs and the now sturdy +devil chick. + +"Out of here at once," Anderson ordered. "Is steam up?" + +"Yes sir." + +"Send four of the men to the petrol cache to fill the tank of the plane +to capacity. Order the rest to get the sledges and their packs in shape +for an immediate march to the coast. Hell's going to break loose." + +Bronson obeyed orders on the run. + +"Now Edith," Anderson continued, "you and Hansen stand by ready to +follow the ship down the channel. If mud comes down and mires us fly +as fast as you can to the nearest whaling station and send help. Ole +will do the navigating. We shall pack to the coast and wait there for +relief." + +"Can I take the devil chick?" she pleaded. + +"That brute? It's as big as a cow." + +"The plane can lift it easily." + +"Nothing doing. But," he added, seeing the tears in her eyes, "we'll +herd the ugly beast along with us to the coast if we have to hike." + +Bronson rejoined them to say that the plane was now ready for a +thousand mile flight. + +"Very well. Get the ship out of here. Have the men ready to leave her +at the first sign of trouble." + +The men were already stowing their effects, including the obstinate +devil chick, aboard the ship. + +Bronson had gone but four steps when the ice leapt into a crimson glow. + +"Get the men on the ice and run for the coast," Anderson shouted. + +The men needed no orders. They were swarming out as fast as they could. +The appalling concussion swept over them just as they reached the ice. +Looking south they saw the roof of the continent hurtling skyward. A +vast gush of red flames surging up overtook the black mass, flattened +along its underside in curling billows of crimson, and for an instant +pressed the millions of tons of suspended rock and cement hard against +the sky. Then it fell. + +The fliers were already headed for the coast. Edith's last vision of +the ship revealed one of the crew tugging desperately at the devil +chick's head in a final attempt to get it ashore again. Failing, the +man abandoned the wretched creature and jumped to save his own life. + +The falling of the suspended rock had set up a choppy land tide of +waves twenty feet high. Like a thunderclap the walls of the inlet met, +parted, and met again. The ship was matches. + +Explosion after explosion rolled the fleeing machine over and over in +the turbulent air like a feather. But it was a well built plane, and +nothing of consequence snapped. + +The fliers, better than the men far behind reeling over the heaving +ice, knew what might come at any instant. The oil which had gushed +over the plain from the lake, to plunge down the flaming blowholes and +generate vast quantities of gas, must still be rushing in a river of +fire toward the subterranean reservoirs beneath the unruined paradise. +That the two chains of underground lakes were connected they had good +grounds for believing. + +Their expectations were realized late that afternoon as they sped +northeast in their flight toward the nearest whaling station. Neither +has any memory of how they weathered the unimaginable tempest of +detonations which shook the upper air from the Antarctic to Rio. The +unruined paradise was ruined. + +Four weeks later the whaling vessel _Orion_ of Boston rescued a party +of stunned and half-starved men shivering on the ice at the mouth of +what had been the inlet. They were unable to give any coherent account +of their experiences. Not a member of the crew had been lost. The +expedition had returned with its life. + + * * * * * + + +THEY FOUND A LOST WORLD OF WEIRD MONSTERS + + +When a sea captain brought a baby dinosaur to the home of a wealthy, +brilliant scientist, it triggered off an expedition that well deserves +the title of THE GREATEST ADVENTURE. For the trail of that little +creature led straight into the unexplored, quake-shaken Antarctic to +a lost world overrun with the monsters of an evolution gone wild! In +every way a classic of science-fiction, it's breathtaking story-telling +by John Taine back in print at last! + + +ACE BOOKS + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79400 *** diff --git a/79400-h/79400-h.htm b/79400-h/79400-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..52afa6d --- /dev/null +++ b/79400-h/79400-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8031 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> +<head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title> + The Greatest Adventure | Project Gutenberg + </title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .51em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .49em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: 33.5%; + margin-right: 33.5%; + clear: both; +} + +hr.tb {width: 45%; margin-left: 27.5%; margin-right: 27.5%;} +hr.chap {width: 65%; margin-left: 17.5%; margin-right: 17.5%;} +@media print { hr.chap {display: none; visibility: hidden;} } +hr.full {width: 95%; margin-left: 2.5%; margin-right: 2.5%;} +div.chapter {page-break-before: always;} +h2.nobreak {page-break-before: avoid;} + +x-ebookmaker-drop {display: none;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.right {text-align: right;} + +.smcap { font-variant:small-caps; } + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; + page-break-inside: avoid; + max-width: 100%; +} + +div.titlepage { + text-align: center; + page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; +} + +div.titlepage p { + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; + margin-top: 3em; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +table.autotable { border-collapse: collapse; } +table.autotable td, +table.autotable th { padding: 4px; } + +.tdl {text-align: left;} +.tdr {text-align: right;} +.tdc {text-align: center;} + +.ph1 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph1 { font-size: x-large; margin: .83em auto; } + +.ph2 { text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; } +.ph2 { font-size: medium; margin: .83em auto; } + + </style> +</head> + +<body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79400 ***</div> + + +<div class="figcenter x-ebookmaker-drop"> + <img src="images/illusc.jpg" alt=""> +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="titlepage"> + +<h1>The Greatest Adventure</h1> + +<p class="ph1">By JOHN TAINE</p> + +<p>ACE BOOKS, INC.<br> +23 West 47th Street, New York 36, N. Y.</p> + +<p>THE GREATEST ADVENTURE</p> + +<p>Copyright, 1929, by E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc.</p> + +<p>An Ace Book, by arrangement with the author.</p> + +<p>All Rights Reserved</p> + +<p>Printed in U.S.A.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<p>JOHN TAINE is the nom de plume of the prominent research mathematician, +Dr. Eric Temple Bell. Under his own name he has had published numerous +popular books on mathematics and science. Under his pen-name he is the +author of fifteen published science-fiction novels.</p> + +<p>Dr. Bell was born in Peterhead, Scotland, in 1883. After attending +various schools in England, he came to the United States (of which he +is a naturalized citizen) in 1902, graduating from Stanford University +in 1904. He took his master's degree at the University of Washington, +and attained his doctorate in mathematics at Columbia University in +1912.</p> + +<p>Since 1926 he has been Professor of Mathematics at the California +Institute of Technology.</p> + + +<hr class="chap"> + + +<p class="ph2">THEY RIPPED THE VEIL OFF THE PAST</p> + + + +<p>Dr. Eric Lane's party of five crept across the frozen Antarctic seeking +the discovery of the ages. For that explorer-archeologist was following +the startling account of a sea captain who had fished a lifeless +organism from the nearby waters—a devilish monstrosity which fit no +pattern of nature's.</p> + +<p>Dr. Lane knew when he saw it that the creature had been manufactured. +But how could that be? Had there once been intelligences on Earth so +much higher than our own that they could create new life-forms?</p> + +<p>But for all his excitement, what Dr. Lane was expecting to find were +fossils, and maybe some ruins. He did not suspect—until too late—that +he was opening a Pandora's box of living horrors.</p> + +<hr class="chap"> + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<table> +<tr><td class="tdr">1.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c1">BIRD OR REPTILE?</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">2.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c2">CAPTAIN ANDERSON'S STORY</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">3.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c3">A PUZZLE FOR DRAKE</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">4.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c4">THE RIDDLE OF THE ROCKS</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">5.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c5">"BATTLES LONG AGO"</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">6.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c6">A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">7.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c7">BEACHED</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">8.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c8">A SIGNIFICANT HINT</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">9.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c9">INTO IT</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">10.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c10">UNDAUNTED</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">11.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c11">HOT WATER</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">12.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c12">TRAPPED</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">13.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c13">HADES</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">14.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c14">THE DEVIL CHICK</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">15.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c15">ANTICIPATIONS</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">16.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c16">ATTACK</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">17.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c17">AT CLOSE QUARTERS</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">18.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c18">THE ENEMY</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">19.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c19">ATTACKED</a></td></tr> +<tr><td class="tdr">20.</td> <td class="tdl"><a href="#c20">DESPERATE</a></td></tr> +</table> + + +<hr class="chap"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c1">1</h2> +</div> + +<h3>BIRD OR REPTILE?</h3> + + +<p>Undoubtedly Dr. Eric Lane was a man to be envied. With ordinary luck +he might yet look forward to thirty-five years of the keenest pleasure +a highly intelligent and healthy man can experience, the discovery of +natural laws and their application to the good of his fellow men.</p> + +<p>Although today was his fortieth birthday he felt not a day over +eighteen. He smiled as the thought occurred to him, for it reminded him +of his daughter Edith. She was just the age that he felt.</p> + +<p>"We're a pair of kids," he laughed, looking fondly at the white and +gold porcelain image of a sleepy tomcat, which she had deposited on +his worktable as a birthday offering. Their appreciation of cats +was but one among scores of likings which they shared in perfect +understanding. Edith's gift of sympathy no doubt was responsible for +her father's continued widowerhood. Not once in the ten years since his +wife's death had Dr. Lane thought of marrying. His wife had been like +Edith, quick to understand when he left the thought but half expressed, +and tactfully willing to let him think in silence for days when the +mood was on him. Her early death had broken him for a year or two, but +with Edith and his work to live for he had gradually taken a grip on +himself and set his face to the future.</p> + +<p>"I wonder what she is doing," he mused, dwelling affectionately on the +sleepy cat of her offering. As if in answer to his unspoken thought the +study door opened noiselessly two inches. An appraising brown eye took +in the situation.</p> + +<p>"Come in," he called. "I'm not working. Your precious cat makes me long +to sleep."</p> + +<p>Edith entered. "Have you everything you want?" she asked, ready to +withdraw at the slightest symptom of work on her father's part.</p> + +<p>"Everything," he replied with a smile, "but you. Come in and stay a +bit. Birthdays come only once a year."</p> + +<p>Edith joined him by the worktable with its litter of microscopes and +queer looking specimens pallid in their neatly stoppered alcohol jars.</p> + +<p>"Do you know," he said, "it sometimes scares me a little?"</p> + +<p>"What scares you, dear?" she queried, for once at a loss.</p> + +<p>"Why, that I do have everything I want."</p> + +<p>"Well, why shouldn't you? Surely you have earned it."</p> + +<p>"So have thousands of other men. Yet they have nothing while I have +everything."</p> + +<p>"Oh," she laughed, "it isn't so bad as all that. You are not a +billionaire. Nor do you want the whole earth as some of the others do, +and cry when they can't get it."</p> + +<p>"Still," he persisted, "there are thousands of men as able as I am who +slave all their lives and have nothing but a bare living to show for +all their labor."</p> + +<p>He strolled over to the French windows and stood gazing absently at the +clear spring beauty of San Francisco Bay and the tawny Marin hills on +the farther shore. With all the world to choose from he had selected +this spot as his abiding place, high upon Telegraph Hill overlooking +San Francisco and the whole sublime sweep of the harbor. Often he would +stand at this window for an hour at a time, lost in thought, only half +consciously watching the swift white ferry boats rounding Goat Island +with the clock-like precision of mechanical toys.</p> + +<p>In all weathers the colorful panorama of bay, city and steep hills had +a stimulating yet soothing effect on his mind. Although much of his +work with the strangely diseased things of the sea was not beautiful, +the ever changing beauty of his outlook seemed to infuse him with +inexhaustible energy for the repellent drudgery which is the necessary +foundation of any scientific advance. The warm spring breeze rustling +the leaves of the young eucalyptus by the open window brought him back +to the present and his surroundings.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he continued, "there is young Drake, for instance, twenty-nine +and as poor as a crow. When I was his age I had been a millionaire +several times over for almost six years. Yet Drake has a fundamentally +better mind than I have. He simply did not have my chance. That is all."</p> + +<p>"But suppose he had been given your chance," Edith protested, "could he +have taken it?"</p> + +<p>"No," her father replied thoughtfully. "There's not a grain of business +sense in him. Still, for all that, I maintain that his head is better +than mine."</p> + +<p>"Then why doesn't he use it?" There was just a tinge of scorn in +Edith's retort. Her father glanced up at her face in surprise.</p> + +<p>"I thought you and Drake were great pals," he said.</p> + +<p>"We are," she admitted readily enough. "But the sheer futility of his +everlasting inscriptions rather gets on my nerves. I do wish he would +turn his brains to something less trivial."</p> + +<p>"How do you know his work is so useless?" the Doctor parried.</p> + +<p>"Oh, if you are going to begin one of your scientific attacks on me," +she laughed, "I'll retire at once to my humble corner. I'm routed. But +can't you see," she protested earnestly, "that all his deciphering +of outlandish inscriptions cannot make an atom of difference, one +way or the other, to human beings today? What does it matter how a +half-civilized race, extinct centuries ago, predicted eclipses of the +moon? And who on earth cares whether they counted by twenties instead +of by tens as we do? Will it make life more endurable for any human +being to know how those dead and forgotten people disposed of their +corpses?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," the Doctor hazarded with a smile, "you would prefer to see +our young friend Drake turning his unique talents to the unsolved +problem of infant colics?"</p> + +<p>"It would be more useful," she flashed.</p> + +<p>"But consider," her father demurred, "what would become of the Mexican +and Guatemalan inscriptions in the meantime. Who would ever read them, +fully and satisfactorily? If Drake can't do it, nobody can. After his +brilliant success with the Bolivian puzzles he is almost certain to +make short work of the rest."</p> + +<p>"Yes," Edith admitted. "And if he does, what then?"</p> + +<p>"Why, my dear, he will have saved numberless future generations of +young Drakes from wasting their lives on a useless piece of tomfoolery."</p> + +<p>She laughed. "I knew when we began that you would corner me. Still, I'm +morally right, because you slipped out by the back door. That isn't +what you really think of Drake's work."</p> + +<p>"It isn't, angel child," he admitted. "You must look at life in a +broader way. The conquest of disease and the discovery of the origin +of life are not even half the problem. As the old fellows used to +say, the whole is one, and you can't change the smallest part in any +place without altering the entire fabric everywhere. Drake's Bolivian +hieroglyphics are just as vital a part of science as are the obscure +fish parasites that I mess with in the hope of learning something about +cancer. And I shouldn't wonder," he concluded half seriously, "if some +day Drake's work gives us a clue to the central problem."</p> + +<p>"And shows us what life is?" she laughed. "When it does, I'll eat that."</p> + +<p>She pointed to a particularly loathsome reptile in a glass jar. It was +one of the Doctor's favorites, as the tumor to which it had succumbed +appeared to be something unique in the history of disease.</p> + +<p>"You will eat it without salt or pepper?" he stipulated.</p> + +<p>"Absolutely," she agreed.</p> + +<p>"Very well then. We shall see."</p> + +<p>Edith turned to go. "Shall I send up anyone who comes with a real +specimen?"</p> + +<p>"Only if it looks pretty good."</p> + +<p>"Pretty bad, you mean. All right, I'll inspect the horror and use my +judgment."</p> + +<p>With a last smile she was gone as noiselessly as she had come. She had +her work, and the Doctor his. Her morning would be begun in a short +conference with the Chinese servants, short because both she and they +were efficient and wasted no words. Then she might work for an hour or +two among her flowers in the English garden which was her pride, before +settling down to the serious business of the day. This consisted of +systematic reading directed by her father. At her own request he had +mapped out a course of study and experiment which would enable her to +understand something of what he was attempting to do. For two hours +every evening a young doctor just from the University eked out his +meagre practice helping her over the rough places in the day's work. In +this way she made rapid and substantial progress. She never bothered +her father with difficulties that any competent teacher could set right.</p> + +<p>During the sunny part of the day she studied under the pepper trees +by the gate, to be ready to receive and pay the Italian and Japanese +fishermen who brought the curiosities of their catches to her father. +All up and down the Pacific Coast, and even to Hawaii and far-off +Japan, Dr. Lane of San Francisco was a celebrity among the fishermen +and sailors. They knew him only distantly and impersonally as a deluded +crank eager to pay one dollar apiece for curiously diseased and +otherwise unsaleable fish. For weird monstrosities from the deep-sea +levels he had been known to give as high as ten dollars each. What he +did with all these abominations they never inquired. Sufficient unto +their ignorance was the price thereof.</p> + +<p>Occasionally some ambitious sailor would offer Edith his ingenious +masterpiece of months of painstaking work in the forecastle. This +usually took the form of a fantastic kelp and cocoanut mermaid, or an +elaborately contrived sea-serpent of fish bladders and sea-weeds. One +such offering convinced him that he had been wasting his time. Edith +recognized the subtle distinction between abandoned nature and the +highest art at the first glance. If the fraud was sufficiently horrible +and otherwise pleasing she would buy it for her own collection, +intending, as she told her father when he protested at her growing +collection of freaks, some day to write a monograph on marine diseases +of the imagination.</p> + +<p>Left to himself the Doctor returned to the open window. Spring fever +was upon him. Work and all its paraphernalia appeared as an insult to +nature. Accordingly he yielded himself to the soft influences of the +warm breeze and the flashing blue and silver glory of the bay. Standing +there he let the memories of a busy lifetime stream through his mind +and out to the future with all its promise of great things to be.</p> + +<p>Ever since his school days he had been bitten by the ambition to trace +life to its secret source and lay bare its mystery. To create life, +or at least to control and direct it when once created, that was the +great problem. Then, when he had begun to learn something of systematic +biology, he had seen the utter hopelessness of a direct attack. +Wasting no time he had turned his energies elsewhere, to humbler +things, in order that he might, if lucky, surprise the enemy unaware. +For he realized that a wholesale creation of a fully living organism +by artificial means was probably centuries beyond the capabilities +of science, and his was too high an intelligence to waste itself on +unsolvable riddles. If in laborious investigations of lesser problems +he might catch a glimpse of the goal he would be happy, provided only +that his search was not otherwise fruitless and bore abundant good to +humanity in the alleviation of pain and preventable misery. But he +would not waste his gifts on crass impossibilities.</p> + +<p>His course at first had been hard and indirect. Forced by poverty to +work his way through school and college, he had come early to a wisdom +far beyond his years. With absolute clarity he had seen that freedom +from worry over money matters is the first essential for genuinely +creative scientific work. While constantly harassed by poverty he had +been powerless to concentrate his abilities on any problem worth the +solving. He therefore decided in his second college year to swerve +aside temporarily from his ambition and make money. To the regret of +his instructors he abruptly threw up the study of medicine and changed +over to geology.</p> + +<p>The new science was congenial. At many points it touched the past story +of life if not the present. Putting every ounce of brain and energy +into the work, he mastered the geology of coal and oil formations and +graduated easily at the top of his class.</p> + +<p>He was now twenty. The day after graduation he shipped as a coal passer +on a steamer bound for China. Arrived there, ignorant though he was of +the language, he disappeared into the interior.</p> + +<p>His subsequent career is one of the classics of mining engineering. In +eighteen months he had located one of the richest anthracite fields +in the history of coal. Moreover he had obtained from the Chinese +government certain concessions which, if worked, would make him one of +the hundred richest white men in the world. All he had to do was to +stay on the ground and let his prize develop. Capital would come almost +unasked.</p> + +<p>It was here that he showed the stuff he was made of. Instead of +degenerating into a money-making machine he placed all his rights in +the hands of an English company. Within six weeks he had sold out for +ten million dollars cash all of his interest which, if nursed with +ordinary business acumen, would have netted him a hundred million +before he died. But he had no time to squander in making money. The +most precious years of his life were slipping through his hands, and he +was still but half educated for the work he had set himself.</p> + +<p>While idling about Shanghai waiting to close up his business he met +and married the English girl who for eight years made him a flawlessly +happy man.</p> + +<p>Having invested his fortune in government bonds he forgot it and +proceeded with his wife to Vienna to finish his medical education. That +accomplished, he left his wife and infant daughter with his mother, +and took a year's holiday with half a dozen friends exploring the +southernmost extremity of Patagonia in a fossil hunting expedition.</p> + +<p>The fossils aroused his purely biological interests. On returning +to civilization he again went with his wife to Europe. There he +specialized for two years in the great centres of pure biology. At +twenty-seven, on returning to America, he felt himself fitted to begin +useful work.</p> + +<p>Resolutely putting from his mind the fantastic hope of discovering the +origin of life, he concentrated his powers on the difficult problems +of cell growth. Thus gradually and naturally was he led to the study +of cancer, on which he had now been engaged for about ten years, +publishing little but learning much, if only in a negative way. Always, +subconsciously, at the back of his mind loomed up the greater problem. +In his reading and in his experimental investigations he let slip no +chance of following out the slightest clue. These excursions into the +unpractical sometimes cost him weeks of precious time. Yet he never +regretted them, for the least profitable yielded two or three definite +facts worth the having.</p> + +<p>With singular detachment he had kept his mind free from speculative +theories. He followed neither Driesch nor Loeb. To him vitalism and +mechanism, as judged by their positive achievements, were equally +impotent to describe life. One side philosophized without experiment, +while the other, experimenting blindly without reason, contented +itself with a vague reference to electricity as the probable source +of all living phenomena. Profound technicalities like the intriguing +"polarity" and "heliotropism" that seemed to the unthinking to +"explain" so much while in fact they explained nothing but their +authors' taste in names, left him cold. All this might be the first +step, but surely it was no more. With the rapidly changing fashions in +science and the influx of men of genius into biology, ten years might +see polarity displaced by some newer fetish equally noncommittal. In +the meantime he would remain neutral.</p> + +<p>The door opened softly and Edith appeared.</p> + +<p>"Oh," she said, "you're not working. I'll bring him up, then."</p> + +<p>"Bring who up?"</p> + +<p>But Edith had vanished. Presently she reappeared, ushering in a +gray-bearded stranger, evidently a seafarer. The new-comer carried a +tar-soaked box about four feet long and ten inches square.</p> + +<p>"This is Captain Anderson," she said. "He insisted on showing you what +he has brought himself."</p> + +<p>"Pleased to meet you, Captain," said the Doctor, advancing to shake +hands with his visitor. "Won't you sit down?"</p> + +<p>"After you have seen what's in here."</p> + +<p>Captain Anderson produced a huge clasp knife and proceeded methodically +to pry off the lid of his long box. As he worked crystals of rock salt +spilled out over the table and floor. The mess seemed to trouble him +not at all. Evidently he had great faith in the soothing efficacy of +his pickled monster, whatever it might be.</p> + +<p>At last the cover was off and the closely packed salt invitingly ready +to be scooped out by the handful. The Captain used both hands. Then, +reaching in, he got the deceased monstrosity by what had been its neck, +gave it a vigorous shake to free it from the last crystals of salt, and +asked complacently,</p> + +<p>"Isn't he a little peach?"</p> + +<p>Edith, case-hardened as she was to monstrosities, could not repress a +gasp and a shudder of repulsion. Lane looked paralyzed.</p> + +<p>"Good Lord," he exclaimed, "what is it? Bird or reptile?"</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c2">2</h2> +</div> + +<h3>CAPTAIN ANDERSON'S STORY</h3> + + +<p>The Doctor and Edith stood dumb before Captain Anderson's dried +monster. Its elaborate hideousness, unlike that of any living thing, +held them with a perverse fascination. Neither bird, reptile nor fish, +it was an incredible mongrel of all three. The serpent-like, heavily +scaled belly contradicted the bat-like wings with their short, bristly +feathers; while the exaggerated beak, crammed full of cruel yellow +teeth, revealed by the hard backward snarl of the horny lips, refuted +the monstrosity's claims to be considered a bird. Flattened against its +withered flanks were two lizard hands armed with ugly claws, to one of +which still adhered the dried scales of the last fish the creature had +devoured.</p> + +<p>A skeptic at first glance would have declared the creature an +impossible fraud perpetrated by some over-imaginative sailor in his +misused leisure. But Dr. Lane, also at the first glance, thought he +knew better.</p> + +<p>"It's only a baby of its kind," he said. "The parents have been dead +millions of years. This is the one perfect specimen in existence." The +Doctor thought he knew what he was talking about.</p> + +<p>"Then there are others like it?" Captain Anderson asked, somewhat +crestfallen.</p> + +<p>"No, only their fossilized bones and impressions of a few feathers +in the rocks that were mud when these things flew. The most perfect +impression was found in a mine in Bulgaria about four years ago. But +it was only a mark on the stone—not a shadow to this beauty. Where on +earth did you get it?"</p> + +<p>"In the South Polar seas."</p> + +<p>"Frozen into the ice?" the Doctor hazarded. He recalled instantly the +reputed discoveries of long extinct mastodons in Alaska, Northern +Siberia and elsewhere, their meat as fresh as on the day the giants +were trapped on the ice floes hundreds of centuries ago.</p> + +<p>"No," the Captain replied. "This thing was still warm when we picked it +up. It could not have been dead more than fifteen minutes."</p> + +<p>"But how on earth—"</p> + +<p>"First let me ask you one or two questions. What is it?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know," the Doctor confessed doubtfully. "At first I thought +it might be the missing link between the reptiles and the birds—a +half-way creature something like a pterodactyl and not quite an +archaeopterix. The last is the ancestor of all the birds. We know only +its fossil remains. Then I thought—but, here see for yourself."</p> + +<p>Dr. Lane strode over to the bookshelves and selected a large green +portfolio. "Put your beast on the table and compare it with this," he +said, exhibiting a photographic reproduction of the famous Bulgarian +fossil. "Now, isn't yours like this?"</p> + +<p>"In the main, yes. But that snake-bird in the mud had no scales on its +belly," the Captain objected.</p> + +<p>"So much the better for yours. Either this is a forefather of the known +reptilian ancestor of the birds or it is a distinctly new species."</p> + +<p>"Now for my second question," the Captain continued. "What is this +thing worth?"</p> + +<p>"That depends upon whom you ask to buy it. A fishmonger down the street +might give you ten cents for it as a curiosity. Then again the American +Museum of Natural History would offer you, I imagine, whatever it could +afford. For this specimen is priceless."</p> + +<p>"Very well. I'm only an ex-mining engineer and an old whaler. I know +next to nothing about such things and must take your word for the value +of this. Now, my last question. How much will you give me for it?"</p> + +<p>Dr. Lane hesitated, but only for a second.</p> + +<p>"Nothing," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Then that's settled," the Captain retorted, restoring his despised +monstrosity to its coffin.</p> + +<p>"Hold on a minute, Captain. By itself your wonderful find is of little +or no value to me. I care only for diseased things. This is perfectly +sound. A museum is the proper place for it after the right men have +worked out its anatomy in detail. When I said that I would give you +nothing for it I meant what I said. But I will give you a considerable +sum if you take me to the exact spot where you found this thing, as +you said, still warm."</p> + +<p>The Captain desisted in his efforts to scoop up all the salt spilled in +his first exuberant haste.</p> + +<p>"When you say a considerable sum what do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Name what you think right and I'll see."</p> + +<p>"Ten thousand dollars?"</p> + +<p>"It is not too much. I would offer even more under certain conditions."</p> + +<p>"For instance?"</p> + +<p>"That you could show me where to find a living specimen like this one +you found so recently dead. Can you do that?"</p> + +<p>"Let me be aboveboard with you from the beginning, Dr. Lane. I can't."</p> + +<p>"Why not?"</p> + +<p>"Because we picked this up in the sea a hundred and twenty miles from +the nearest land."</p> + +<p>"It had fallen into the water from exhaustion and been drowned?"</p> + +<p>"I guess not. In fact I know that it never flew the hundred and twenty +miles from the land. For I saw it roll up from below directly under the +stern of our ship."</p> + +<p>"Did it leap out like a salmon? If so that was a queer performance for +a creature built like this."</p> + +<p>"No, it boiled out, dead as a dummy."</p> + +<p>The doctor regarded the grizzled whale pirate with rather more than a +touch of suspicion.</p> + +<p>"If I had not seen this thing with my own eyes," he remarked, "I should +disbelieve your whole story."</p> + +<p>"You haven't heard it yet," the Captain dryly rejoined. "Before I tell +it will you agree either to pay me ten thousand dollars for it or to +keep still about it after I leave this house?"</p> + +<p>"That's fair enough. I agree."</p> + +<p>"And this young lady?" the Captain queried, with an interrogative +glance at Edith.</p> + +<p>"My daughter Edith, Captain Anderson. Pardon me for not having +introduced you before."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we had a fine row in the garden," Edith laughed, "before I came +up. I agree too, Captain Anderson, if you will let me stay and listen. +Only please cover up the hideous thing before you begin. I shall have +nightmares for a month as it is."</p> + +<p>With a laugh the Captain replaced the cover of his box. But the Doctor, +after a moment's hesitation removed it, telling Edith she might turn +her back if the creature's beauty overpowered her.</p> + +<p>"I want to have a good long look at this thing," he said. "It isn't +what I thought it might be. Well, Captain, how did you happen to come +to me with your find?"</p> + +<p>"It was on the mate's advice. One of my men, it seems, once got five +dollars from your daughter for a fake mermaid. I thought," he added +with a malicious glint in his steel gray eyes, "she might be willing to +give me ten for a real one."</p> + +<p>"You may be sure, Captain Anderson," Edith retorted indignantly, "that +I knew perfectly well what I was buying. And if I gave your man five +dollars for a wretched fake worth fifty cents it was because the poor +fellow looked half-clothed and underfed. Really, Captain Anderson, you +should treat your men better."</p> + +<p>"He can't have been one of mine. The only thing my men suffer from is a +lack of rum."</p> + +<p>"That's fortunate," the Doctor interposed. "Otherwise they might pass +by feathered reptiles as mere creations of a rummy imagination."</p> + +<p>"True," the Captain agreed. "As a matter of fact all my men know of you +and your hobby. I was only trying to get a rise out of your daughter +for what she did to me in the garden. We're quits now."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?" Edith asked with exasperating calm.</p> + +<p>"Not so sure as I was a second ago," the honest Captain admitted. "No +wonder your father lets you do the buying. Now, Dr. Lane," he continued +with a change in tone, "as I said in the beginning I want this whole +business to be open and aboveboard. So I should like you to know that +one of the main reasons for my troubling you at all is the fact that +you are a rich man with barrels of money to spend on your hobbies. I +have known of you for years. They still talk of your big coal strike +over in China. Now a man who knows as much as you do about coal should +be able to appreciate the value of oil."</p> + +<p>"To a certain extent," the Doctor smiled. "I have sense enough to let +wildcatting alone."</p> + +<p>"I haven't. And that, in a word, is why I'm here. Unless I can +persuade you for once to invest heavily in oil I shall have to take my +queer fish elsewhere."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I can afford to throw ten thousand dollars down your oil well +to feed the fish at the bottom. Go ahead and see if you can sell me."</p> + +<p>"Then here goes. Don't call me a liar until I've finished. I shall tell +you only enough to let you see for yourself whether you want to come in +or stay out and forget all about me and my queer fowl.</p> + +<p>"I was educated as a mining engineer, but gave up my profession to +follow the sea. For the past twenty years I have been master and part +owner of a whaling vessel.</p> + +<p>"About eighteen months ago, having cleaned up for the season, we +started north. We were in the South Polar Seas, to the east of Cape +Horn and considerably south. That is close enough description of our +position for the present. The nearest coastline of the Antarctic +continent lay about a hundred and twenty miles southeast of us. The +season, though well advanced, was extraordinarily mild and open. For +eight days we had sighted no ice.</p> + +<p>"One night shortly before eleven I was awakened by a peculiar jarring +of the whole ship. It lasted fully forty seconds. The mate and the man +at the wheel also felt it. Like me they could make nothing of it till +daylight. Then we guessed. For the water was a peculiar milky green +as if muddied by finely powdered chalk. There had evidently been a +submarine earthquake and a volcanic eruption on the ocean floor during +the night. All that morning the water grew milkier and milkier. By +noon it was the color of a dirty river and as sluggish as molasses.</p> + +<p>"Suddenly, about two o'clock in the afternoon, the whole surface of the +water began to boil up in huge bubbles like a cauldron of hot porridge. +The ship rattled and clattered as if it were being shaken to bits. The +men, of course, acted like a pack of panic-stricken idiots. Discipline +went to the devil. That fool of a mate's account of what probably was +happening a mile or two beneath us drove them clean crazy. Then I took +a fist in things and knocked some sense into their silly heads.</p> + +<p>"But for the infernal boiling there was a dead calm. It was shortly +after three o'clock that the first great bubble of black oil burst with +a gurgling plop half over the decks. Inside of ten minutes the sea was +a heaving blanket of heavy oil three feet thick. If only we had been +a fleet of tankers with pumping gear we could have made our fortunes +within a radius of half a mile. Sheer to the horizon the whole sea was +a dance of sleek black bubbles as big as whales.</p> + +<p>"About five o'clock the oily mess began to boil more furiously. Our +decks were one black slop from stem to stern. Then without warning a +great gusher of sticky brown tar burst right under our bows and shot +roaring straight up a hundred and fifty feet above our masts in a +tumbling spout.</p> + +<p>"We had banked our fires at the beginning of the row. Otherwise we +should have been ablaze in a sea of fire hours before. Now the filthy +brown tar began streaming down our funnels to the boilers. There was +only one thing to do, stuck there as we were, and we did it, half +smothered in the sticky brown mess. Somehow or another we got the +funnels capped with tarpaulins. There we rocked and rattled in that +boiling filth till dark, unable to get up steam and dodge the worst of +it, stuck fast under that slapping deluge of brown muck.</p> + +<p>"Night came down slowly. Except for the eruption of oil and tar, and +the queer deadness of the air, the last hours of that rotten day were +like those of any other open weather twilight in the South Polar Seas. +Just as it began to get too dusky to see clearly that beastly tar spout +gave a mumbling gulp and dropped down into the pitch as dead as a +stone. That was the end of it.</p> + +<p>"We thought our troubles were over. And so they were in a way. I sent +the mate below to kick the men up to swab the decks. The sea was still +boiling violently when he left. I was alone on deck when the next +nightmare, and the jumpiest of all, leapt from the sea."</p> + +<p>Captain Anderson paused for a moment in his narrative, seeking the +right words to convince his curious audience of his veracity.</p> + +<p>"The mate had just disappeared," he resumed, "when a terrific jar, as +if the ship were being hit with a hundred battering rams, warned me +that the devil was about to break loose. And he did. A huge chunk of +black rock—the size of the Baptist Church down the street—shot from +the heaving oil about a hundred yards east of the ship, whizzed clear +over us in a crazy curve and sent up a whooping splash of black muck +as it dived that nearly swamped us. If that chunk had been aimed a +trifle lower I shouldn't be here now.</p> + +<p>"Well, that was only the first of them. At intervals of half a mile to +a mile apart the whole sputtering mess of black oil began to spit up +the floor of the sea in hunks of black rock as big as city hotels. None +of them broke loose or hit closer to the ship than half a mile. The +first was our one close call.</p> + +<p>"That fool of a mate got the men on deck just when the show was at +its best. They let out one yell and ducked back to their holes in the +forecastle. The idiots missed a sight they'll never get another chance +of seeing, for in five minutes that particular row was over. Either +there was nothing left on the bottom of the sea to be thrown up, or +sufficient vents had been torn in the floor for what was to come next. +It came with a gurgling, oily rush.</p> + +<p>"Before it happened, however, the black oil suddenly stopped heaving. +No more bubbles rose. Evidently the intermittent supply of oil from +below had given place to slow, even gushers. The surface of the oil +became almost flat with the whirling ends of stream lines spinning +up and twisting out everywhere. It looked just like a gigantic black +millrace, gnarled over like the water of a river half a mile below a +high fall.</p> + +<p>"The mate and I are the only witnesses of what seethed up through the +crawling oil. The only human witnesses, I mean. For if our pickled +friend in the salt there could speak he might spin us a good yarn. He +came up in that slow, churning motion of the pitch, one of thousands +like him, and one small fry in a stew of huge beasts whose horny +ugliness made him and his bigger sisters look like rosy June brides.</p> + +<p>"All the three hundred foot nightmares of our dragon-ridden fairy-tale +days boiled lazily up in that infernal black stew. Lizards as big +as small trains with grinning mouths jammed full of six-inch teeth +rolled over and over in the swashing oil as dead as Trojans, and huge +armor plated, four-legged brutes the size of locomotives twirled +round and round belly up in the twilight. Some of them had been split +wide open, and their insides, black with oil, steamed and smoked like +slaughter houses. Smaller beasts in thousands, and a thick scum of +broken insects, littered the crawling oil between the slowly plunging +carcasses of the big fellows.</p> + +<p>"The mate is a fussy man given to footling hobbies. Photography is his +messiest. He now dived below to fetch up his camera. Any fool could +have told the idiot there was no use trying to get a snapshot in that +light. But he kept at it like a mule and wasted five dollars' worth of +films. He found out what an extravagant fool he had been about three +weeks later when he got time to develop his rubbish.</p> + +<p>"His idiocy gave me an idea. Nobody would believe our unsupported +story. So I took a line and fished up this freak." He indicated the +bird-reptile in its box. "I should have liked one of the big lizard +brutes, but that we had no room to stow it on deck. And anyway the +light was about gone."</p> + +<p>"You said, Captain," Dr. Lane began, "that your catch was evidently +just dead when you hauled it in. How do you know?"</p> + +<p>"Because I stuck my knife into its neck to make sure. Thick warm blood +oozed out. Here, I'll show you the place."</p> + +<p>Once more he exhibited his scaly, feathered monster. It was as he had +said. There was plainly visible on the left side of the neck a deep +gash.</p> + +<p>"It's a queer fish and a queerer story," Edith remarked, with a glance +of distaste at the poor pickled monster.</p> + +<p>Dr. Lane agreed with his daughter's estimate.</p> + +<p>"For all its strangeness," he said, "I am inclined to take a chance. +Captain Anderson, I will back your oil stock to the extent of ten +thousand dollars, on one condition. You must take me to the exact spot +where you picked up this wonderful creature. Mind, I am not swallowing +your yarn whole. It is just possible that in your excitement you saw +things that weren't there. The light, according to your own statement, +was about gone."</p> + +<p>"But the mate?" Captain Anderson protested. "Was he crazy too?"</p> + +<p>"Possibly. Any psychologist will tell you that such things do happen +frequently. Collective hallucination is the scientific name for such +a state of affairs. Both you and he, I suppose, have seen pictures, +or restorations, of extinct animals like the ones you thought you saw +boiling up through the oil—dinosaurs, huge lizards three hundred feet +long, the ceratops, and the like? You, Captain, must have seen such +things when you were studying mining engineering."</p> + +<p>"I know I have," the Captain admitted. "And the mate is such a +hobby-ridden fool, always messing about libraries and reading rooms +when he is ashore, that doubtless he's in the same fix. For all that +you can't convince me that the whole thing was a nightmare. I saw it."</p> + +<p>"Did any of the men see it too?" Edith asked. "Next morning, I mean."</p> + +<p>"Not the main part of the show. All the heavy brutes had sunk. Nothing +but the scum of broken insects floated through the night."</p> + +<p>"It sounds queer," was Edith's frank comment.</p> + +<p>"Indeed it does, Captain," her father agreed. "Now this is my guess. +You found this bird-reptile right enough, for here it is. I don't +think," he said with a smile, "that even I can explain it away to your +satisfaction. What you took for thick warm blood oozing from the slash +in its neck was nothing but brown tar."</p> + +<p>"Well, suppose it was," the Captain retorted. "What does that prove?"</p> + +<p>"Everything. And in a perfectly reasonable way. I accept the eruption +of oil from beneath the sea floor as real. Your crew saw that?"</p> + +<p>The Captain nodded.</p> + +<p>"Very well, then, it's all clear. First let me tell you about a +somewhat similar state of affairs less than two hundred miles from here +in Southern California. It is at the famous asphalt and oil-hole on the +Rancho La Brea. Some years ago the geologists from the University of +California began digging out of the oily ooze all manner of bones and +other remains of extinct animals—skulls of sabre tooth tigers that +haven't lived in this part of the world for the past hundred thousand +years, and many others equally interesting.</p> + +<p>"The explanation of these remains is quite simple. Ages ago drinking +pools of rainwater collected on the sticky surface of the oily ooze. +The prehistoric beasts, not knowing the danger, picked their way out +to drink. On trying to return to solid ground they quickly mired +themselves like flies on tanglefoot. Now is it likely that in an entire +continent of tar holes this one at La Brea should be unique as an +animal trap?"</p> + +<p>"So you believe my reptile or whatever he is was thrown up from some +prehistoric asphalt hole buried under the floor of the Antarctic Ocean?"</p> + +<p>"Undoubtedly, Captain."</p> + +<p>The Captain grinned behind his gray beard. "A thoroughly scientific +theory no doubt, Doctor. As such it does you credit. According to you +my reptile should be full of brown tar, not dried blood and other +stuff. Suppose you cut him open and see."</p> + +<p>"That's a practical test," the Doctor assented, rising to get his +implements. "If he has anything inside him besides pitch, like a badly +cured mummy, I'll double my offer."</p> + +<p>"Then you might as well hand me your check for twenty thousand now. +I'll equal your offer. If you find nothing but mummy pudding inside +I'll let you have my yarn for the stuffing."</p> + +<p>The Doctor did not reply immediately. He was too busy making his +incision where it would do the least damage to the appearance of the +specimen. Presently he drew up with a gasp of astonishment.</p> + +<p>"Why," he exclaimed, "it's as fresh as a newly pickled salmon."</p> + +<p>"Of course it is. I packed it in salt the minute the mate had finished +washing it off with rum and turpentine."</p> + +<p>"Great Scott what a find! Edith, bring me the largest of those jars +about a third full of alcohol. This beats me. The thing must have been +miraculously preserved for ages. My offer stands, Captain. Take me to +the place where you found this and the twenty thousand is yours the day +we start."</p> + +<p>"You will raise that to fifty thousand when I tell you the rest," the +Captain prophesied confidently. "I asked you not to call me a liar +until I had finished. As a matter of fact I am only half-way through."</p> + +<p>"Have you more specimens?"</p> + +<p>"No, but I have a round gross of first-class photographs."</p> + +<p>"But you said the mate's pictures were a failure."</p> + +<p>"So they were that time. He had better luck the next when I could boss +him properly."</p> + +<p>"Prehistoric animals?"</p> + +<p>"Something much better, unless I'm badly off."</p> + +<p>"Do go on," Edith begged, "and tell us what else you found."</p> + +<p>"In a moment. Shall I telephone the mate to bring up his pictures?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, do!" they exclaimed together, and Edith handed him the desk +telephone.</p> + +<p>Having got his number Anderson asked if Ole Hansen were still about. +The answer apparently was satisfactory, for Ole was asked to step to +the telephone.</p> + +<p>"It's all right, Ole," the Captain shouted, as if his faithful mate +were still in the vicinity of the South Pole. "The Doctor has swallowed +it all so far, bait, hook and sinker. Bring the rest of the junk up +here to his house. Get Christensen to show you the way. Jump on a +street car and shake a leg."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c3">3</h2> +</div> + +<h3>A PUZZLE FOR DRAKE</h3> + + +<p>"While we are waiting for Hansen," the Captain resumed, "I may as well +tell you how he collected his photographs. As the blundering idiot will +probably manage to lose himself between the gate and the back door, I +have plenty of time."</p> + +<p>"Is your mate Hansen so stupid as you make out?" Edith asked with +genuine interest. "If so he must be worth studying."</p> + +<p>"Stupider, Miss Lane. You never met his equal for cracked theorizing. +Well, let us leave him to find his way here and get on with our +business. I'll tell you what I want from you, doctor, when I reach the +end of my story."</p> + +<p>"Although you may not be aware of the fact," Dr. Lane replied shrewdly, +"you have already told me. You want me to foot the bill for an +expedition to track down those new oil fields in your name. Well, it's +all right with me. I'll take the fossils and anything else in that line +and you can have the oil. Convince me that I should go in heavily and +you need have no worry about finances."</p> + +<p>"Hansen's pictures will put the finishing touches to what I begin. +Well, except for one thing, the morning after the shakeup was just like +any other perfectly clear South Polar calm. The sea was still covered +with heavy black oil to a depth of several feet. Only a long, even +swell heaved it gently up and down in billows a mile long.</p> + +<p>"During the night I had ordered the fires drawn. We dared take no +chances with the oil-soaked decks and rigging. With the first light +the mate and I got the men out to clean up the mess. We drove them +like niggers to keep their minds off the oil. It wouldn't do when we +reached port to have them blabbing to the first shark they met. Later +we decided to take the whole crew in on the scheme. They are to get a +third share of all profits if they keep their mouths shut. That seems +to be the only safe way. They're as mum as clams.</p> + +<p>"All that day we sweated to get the worst of the oil off or covered up +so it wouldn't be noticed when we reached civilization. By nightfall +we had done a pretty thorough job. I decided to explain the oil-soaked +hull by saying it was an idea of Hansen's to use crude oil instead of +paint as a weather defier. It sounds just like one of his theories.</p> + +<p>"The next question was how to swim out of the soup. With steam up +of course it would have been easy. But the mate and I agreed—for +once—that it would be a fool's trick to start any kind of a fire. The +air reeked of natural gas and oil fumes. A spark, and the whole sea +would be hell. There was nothing for it but to trust to the sails. By +dark we were fully rigged and whistling for the breeze.</p> + +<p>"It came like a thunderclap from seven directions at once. All in all +that was the worst blow I have weathered through in twenty years of +dirty squalls from the equator to Cape Horn. The mate of course had a +theory to account for the suddenness of the hurricane. Like most of his +efforts it came five minutes late. I'll tell you of it presently.</p> + +<p>"For the moment I didn't give a damn for theories, being more +interested in trying to save our masts. Except for a few whistling +ribbons like rags on a clothesline the sails were gone. The filthy +black oil broke over the decks in buckets and hogsheads, smothering us +whenever we attempted to make a line fast. All our deck tackle went by +the board, knocked clean off the plates by the sledge-hammer kicks of +the heavy pitch.</p> + +<p>"After the first mad wrench the hurricane settled down to a steady, +snoring gale from the north. The ship drove dead ahead for the ice +barrier a hundred and twenty miles south of us. Nothing was to be done. +We could only sit tight for the smash. Unless the wind fell we should +ram the ice cliffs full tilt some time between midnight and dawn. The +wind held.</p> + +<p>"Tired of holding his breath, Hansen suggested that all hands join in +prayer. He is always at it, before meals, at meals and after meals. I +told him to go to hell and took the wheel out of his lily white hands. +In the howling uproar he misunderstood the order. Evidently he thought +I wished him to hold chapel in the forecastle. Anyway there is where I +found him at daybreak with half the crew bellowing Norwegian hymns to +beat the devil.</p> + +<p>"Toward midnight I first noticed a cherry colored glow coming and going +in the sky ahead of the ship. If I thought at all in the mad rush to +the final smash I put the flickering down to an aurora, and tried to +steer a course that would graze the ice when we struck. By my reckoning +we should have been smashed about three o'clock in the morning. Four +o'clock passed and still the ship staggered on through the oil under +the terrific gale. I began to think I must have misjudged our speed. +Five o'clock came, and with the first light the wind began to drop. In +half an hour it was broad daylight over a sea with only a film of oil +coating the waves, and not a sign of the ice barrier ahead. I left the +wheel to hammer some sense into those hymn singing idiots of Hansen's.</p> + +<p>"When they shot up on deck the wind was no longer a gale and the ship +was manageable. Hansen said we had been saved by his bawling in the +forecastle. About an hour later he sighted the volcano. Then he gave it +the honor and glory for everything, including the wind.</p> + +<p>"For a stretch of at least twenty miles the great ice barrier had been +wiped out. Whether it had sunk, or whether it had been lifted up bodily +by the eruption and tossed back on the continent I don't know. Hansen +says the rock and ice just cracked apart that far in the earthquake. +Anyhow the twenty miles of solid ice and rock was gone. In its place +stretched a long broad inlet as straight as a street running clear out +of sight into the continent.</p> + +<p>"The wind dropped abruptly to a mere breeze, and the last of the oil +film fell away in our wake. All about us the water was as white as +milk, thick and soupy.</p> + +<p>"When we came fully to our senses we noticed the unusual warmth. The +air was as balmy as a spring day in California. It occurred to me to +test the temperature of the water. One of the men drew up a bucketful +of the milky soup. It was lukewarm.</p> + +<p>"A yell from that excitable idiot Hansen made me drop the bucket. He +was pointing up the inlet to a huge pillar of ink billowing up like +the smoke from a burning oil well. I judged it must have been at least +fifty miles from where we were. But I had no means then of making more +than a crude guess.</p> + +<p>"As we stood gaping at it the whole mass of ink was suddenly sucked +down out of the sky. Only a dirty brown mist marked the place where it +had been.</p> + +<p>"'It's an eruption,' Hansen was good enough to explain. He meant well, +but who ever saw an eruption acting down instead of up? There was no +time to argue it out with him, for while we were looking the show began +in earnest.</p> + +<p>"First an enormous black smoke ring teetered crazily up and mushroomed +out over the sky line like an umbrella. Then a solid pillar of red +flames gushed up after the smoke. My common sense was working in spite +of me, for I found myself counting off the seconds. When I got to +fifty-eight, the fist of the explosion struck us with all its force. +Being ready for it I was braced against the funnel with my hands over +my ears. Hansen, theorizing as usual, wasn't prepared. Nor were the +men. For an hour after they had picked themselves up they went about +staring like owls.</p> + +<p>"If my count was right the volcano must be two hundred fifty to three +hundred miles inland. At that distance I had no fears for the ship.</p> + +<p>"The next thing to do was to get out before something started under our +keel. Before doing so I could not resist the temptation of lowering +a boat to see what had happened ashore—if anything was to be seen +without dangerous delay. I decided to take Hansen and two men to pull +the oars. When he understood what was doing—he was still deaf, like +the rest of the theorizers—he made a dive below to bring up his +everlasting camera and a bale of films.</p> + +<p>"The pull through that beastly warm milk to the shore was both pleasant +and disgusting. How these society women can bathe in hot milk—as I +understand from the Sunday newspapers they do—beats me! That by the +way, however. I see Miss Lane is blushing. Our landing was as easy as a +picnic on a river. We at once tramped inland over the level snowfields +to see what was to be seen.</p> + +<p>"Hansen saw it first. About a mile ahead of us he made out a black dot +on the snow. We made for it as fast as the loosely crystallized surface +would let us. Coming up to it we found a chunk of black rock the size +of a cow. At least that was all of it above the ice and snow. The rest +lay buried in the star-shaped pit which its fall had dented through to +the ice and underlying rock.</p> + +<p>"One side of the rock was smooth. The rest was just a jagged nothing. +Hansen took a photograph of the smooth side.</p> + +<p>"I don't blame him for wanting to find another of the black chunks. Nor +do I criticize him for stopping to take its picture. If the camera had +been mine I should have been just as unreasonable. He dragged us over +that forsaken wilderness of snow and ice for ten mortal hours hunting +black rocks. There was no returning to the ship until he had shot his +last roll of films. In all he got twelve dozen first-class negatives.</p> + +<p>"Once I got him aboard our normal relations were resumed. He recovered +his mind and obeyed orders. We steamed out of that photographer's +heaven without another picture."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure, Captain Anderson," Edith smiled, "that your mate's craze +for photography isn't by your orders too?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, quite. Still, I admit that Hansen is the keeper of my artistic +temperament. Otherwise I should be mincing about Rio de Janeiro in pale +lavender kid gloves instead of boiling blubber on Kerguelen like a +Christian."</p> + +<p>"What was Hansen's explanation of the storm?" Dr. Lane asked.</p> + +<p>"The common-sense one, for a wonder. The sudden rise in temperature +over the land caused the cold air from the sea to rush in toward the +volcano and take us with it."</p> + +<p>"In Hansen I recognize a brother," the Doctor laughed.</p> + +<p>"You won't when you see him," the Captain prophesied grimly. "He looks +like a fat barrel that has been well hammered down. Hullo, here's one +of your mandarins."</p> + +<p>The diplomatic Wong announced in faultless English that a gentleman by +the name of Ole Hansen awaited the Doctor's pleasure.</p> + +<p>"Show him up, Wong."</p> + +<p>Hansen entered, as red as a lobster and shaped like a brandy keg.</p> + +<p>"I've brought the photographs," he announced after the introductions.</p> + +<p>"Dump them on the table and let the Doctor see for himself. They need +no explanation—"</p> + +<p>"But," Hansen expostulated, unburdening himself of his twelve dozen +masterpieces, "I have a theory. If you will let me—"</p> + +<p>"I won't, so don't try."</p> + +<p>Giving his Captain a red explosive look, Hansen sat on the safety +valve and obeyed orders. Heaven only knows what clouds of theories he +generated under the suppression of all that superheated steam. A man +of less robust build must have burst into a thousand hypotheses. The +barrel-shaped Hansen merely swelled and held his peace.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Dr. Lane was devouring the photographs of the black rocks +with feverish interest. Occasionally he passed one to Edith with a +terse suggestion to "take a look at that." Each picture was that of a +smooth black surface, in many cases badly fissured by the violence of +the explosion which had disrupted the mass from its matrix, densely +incised with pictograms.</p> + +<p>"Call up Drake," the Doctor ordered before he had worked half through +the pile, "and tell him we have a puzzle here that makes the Bolivian +inscriptions look like A. B. C."</p> + +<p>Edith reported that Drake would join them as fast as his legs would let +him.</p> + +<p>"Captain Anderson," the Doctor said, rising, "I'm in with you on this +to the limit of my means. You can have the oil, I'll take the rest. +It's worth more."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c4">4</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE RIDDLE OF THE ROCKS</h3> + + +<p>Lean, lanky, hatless, Drake arrived at the conference breathless and +disheveled. Edith greeted him with applause and a peal of laughter.</p> + +<p>Drake shot one agonized glance at his long legs. Reassured that the +worst had not happened, he drew himself up with the dignity of a stork +and replied in frigid tones,</p> + +<p>"I am perfectly dressed."</p> + +<p>"Where did you leave your tie and socks, John?"</p> + +<p>Drake groaned. The telephone message had interrupted the stream of +his Mexican musings and here he was, just as he had flung himself +together. Striking negligées in public were his specialty. Given +ten years more of bachelor freedom and he would evolve into the +ideal absent-minded professor who moons through the movies and the +comic supplements, but scarcely at all through the business-like +atmosphere of a living university. Drake was one of the extremely rare +exceptions. Like many other mortals afflicted with the same failing, +Drake always indignantly repudiated the insinuation that he was not as +other men. Only repeated ocular proof, which he promptly forgot after +each application, convinced him when he was a walking comic. Edith's +attitude toward this embryo delight was a little philistine. She should +have encouraged him for the sake of art. It surely would be a great +pity to thwart his almost unique proclivities to play the idiotic part +demanded of him by the practical man. And what would be the net gain of +her motherly efforts? Drake at thirty-five would be outwardly like any +ordinary scholar—except of course the professional quacks—and quite +indistinguishable from any floor walker or bank cashier.</p> + +<p>"Never mind, Drake," the Doctor consoled him. "I'll lend you things +before dinner. In the meantime, here is something more important."</p> + +<p>He handed the ruffled young archaeologist a pocket lens and one of +Hansen's photographs. With a nod of acknowledgment to Captain Anderson +and the mate whom the Doctor introduced, Drake seated himself near the +open window and peered through the lens at the photograph.</p> + +<p>The fifteen minute silence lengthened to twenty and the atmosphere of +the study grew unpleasantly tense. Half an hour passed without a sound. +At last Drake rose and handed back the picture to Dr. Lane.</p> + +<p>"Well, what do you make of it?" the Doctor demanded.</p> + +<p>"Do you want the truth?"</p> + +<p>"Of course."</p> + +<p>"Very well. I do not wish to insult either of your guests," Drake began +with anxious diffidence. "Especially as I have just been introduced," +he added with an apprehensive glance at the compressed, husky Hansen. +"However, you asked for the truth. I may as well let you have it before +I know what parts precisely Mr. Hansen and Captain Anderson play in +this affair. That photograph, in my opinion, is a clever fake."</p> + +<p>"What!" the Captain exploded, bounding out of his chair. "You're crazy. +Tell him about it, Ole."</p> + +<p>But the outraged Hansen was beyond coherent speech. One of his round +gross of masterpieces, and therefore the whole twelve dozen, had been +pronounced fraudulent by this herring-gutted young dude without a shirt +to his back or a collar to his neck.</p> + +<p>"You'll eat those words," he spluttered in a turkey-cock fury.</p> + +<p>Drake, with roseate visions of an early martyrdom in the cause of +Truth, stood his ground before the advancing barrel of high explosives.</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen!" the Doctor intervened sharply. "This isn't the forecastle. +Be seated, Mr. Hansen. Drake, remember where you are. I won't have you +making a prize ring out of my study. Sit down and explain yourself."</p> + +<p>The bewildered Drake, by nature a pacifist to the marrow of his bones, +subsided into a chair. Hansen, with a few choice compliments in +Norwegian, also sat. Captain Anderson opened the attack.</p> + +<p>"You're dead wrong, Mr. Drake. As a man of common-sense, would you +suppose it likely that any fakir has money enough to manufacture a +hundred and forty-four frauds weighing fifty to five hundred tons +apiece? You wouldn't, eh? Well, neither would I. You've only seen the +picture of one. Show him the rest, Dr. Lane."</p> + +<p>Retiring once more with his glass to the window, Drake made a rapid +inspection of the entire series of photographs. After the first few +his frankly skeptical expression changed rapidly to bewilderment and +finally to intense interest. Beginning again with the first he ran +more slowly through the series, selecting fourteen of the pictures for +further consideration.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the Captain, "what do you make of them now?"</p> + +<p>Like most specialists Drake saw his beloved hobby in everything.</p> + +<p>"Pictograms," he announced incisively.</p> + +<p>"Real or fake?" Hansen demanded with a red scowl.</p> + +<p>"Real, I should say."</p> + +<p>"What significance, if any, have they?" the Doctor inquired.</p> + +<p>"That I don't know. In fact this is a problem that may well take fifty +years or a century to solve."</p> + +<p>"I have a theory—" Hansen began, but the rude Captain nipped it +cruelly in the bud.</p> + +<p>"Bother your theory!" he snapped. "Let us hear what Mr. Drake has to +say."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," Drake hesitated, "if you told me where these pictures were +taken I might be able to form a more intelligent opinion."</p> + +<p>"No," the Doctor objected, "we want an expert's unbiased estimate. Mr. +Drake," he continued, "is probably the best man in the world for our +purpose. Whatever he decides will be worth learning and absolutely +without prejudice. Go ahead, Drake. Take your time."</p> + +<p>Drake picked up the fourteen pictures which he had selected from the +pile.</p> + +<p>"These," he said, "seem to go together. They are parts, I judge, of +some much larger inscription. The rest of the pictures seem to be +dislocated, but a close examination would be necessary before reaching +a definite conclusion. I feel certain, however, of one very curious +fact. Two widely separated ages of art are represented in these entire +series. This feature is extremely puzzling for one peculiarity. Any +archaeologist will tell you that two such periods of art are never +of equal brilliance. Yet these pictograms, in respect of artistic +excellence, are all on a par—and a very high one at that. Now these," +he continued, exhibiting the fourteen, "are not by any means nearly the +whole of their story. They are nothing more than disjointed fragments. +Yet they are the one evidence of some sort of continuity in the whole +lot. On them, if at all, we must base our attempt at decipherment."</p> + +<p>"I told you we should have spent a week looking for the rest," Captain +Anderson bellowed at the indignant Hansen. "Why did you drag me back to +the ship?"</p> + +<p>"It was you who got as fussy as an old woman and dragged me back," Ole +retorted, swelling ominously. "I knew we hadn't enough—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, well. Go on, Mr. Drake."</p> + +<p>"As I was saying," Drake resumed, "these fourteen hang together. But +they are evidently not by any means the whole story. However they +are enough to show that there must be some consistent scheme running +through the lot. Whether I shall be able to unravel the tangle is +another question. At present I doubt whether the inscriptions are more +than mere picture writing. If so, what meaning are we to give all these +excellent representations, literally by the thousands, of impossible +monsters?"</p> + +<p>"Not so impossible as you think," Lane objected. "Had your education +been less lopsided you would recognize many of these monsters as +first-class and highly probably restorations of extinct animals. They +are life-like to an amazing degree."</p> + +<p>Such was Dr. Lane's first opinion, reached after only a cursory +examination of those remarkable inscriptions. He has since modified his +estimate profoundly. Attentive study under suggestions from Drake in +fact wrought a radical change in the Doctor's view within the year. For +the present, however, it made a fair enough working guess.</p> + +<p>"I must disagree with you," Drake replied. "In a way I can appreciate +the obvious fact that these pictured monsters are vividly life-like, +although I never saw anything resembling them. But in a more +significant sense they are strikingly artificial and, if I may make a +rough hypothesis, intentionally so. The people who cut these rows upon +rows of pictures into the rocks must have been in a highly advanced +state of civilization. The very perfection of the art was the chief +thing that made me suspicious at first. Our own stone-cutters with all +their modern appliances could do no better today. Now is it not at +least curious, I ask you, that artists capable of such excellent work +should deliberately go out of their way to cast an air of unlife-like +unreality over certain aspects of their art? I shall not attempt +at present to support my contention that the art is intentionally +fantastic. The evidence is here; examine it for yourselves. Again, +another circumstance roused my suspicions at once. There is a complete +absence of any attempt to represent the human figure. How are we to +explain this? I confess I don't know. Such a lack is unheard of in the +art of any known race."</p> + +<p>"Would you expect to find portraits of human beings in a treatise, say, +on crabs?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," Hansen promptly and unexpectedly replied, with a hard stare at +the Captain.</p> + +<p>"I'll crab you when we get aboard," the Captain promised sweetly. "Your +style is improving, Ole. But you must not interrupt the speaker. This +is not a labor temple."</p> + +<p>"I see your point, Doctor," Drake admitted. "Yet what race of human +beings would go to all this trouble to cut into hard stone a work on +prehistoric animals—as you say these are—when paper and printers' ink +are so cheap?"</p> + +<p>"Suppose printing hadn't been invented when these inscriptions were cut +into the rocks?"</p> + +<p>"Your hypothesis is fantastic. What—"</p> + +<p>"I have a theory—" Hansen interrupted with desperate eagerness, but +the Captain squashed it.</p> + +<p>"Ole!"</p> + +<p>"Since Drake is all at sea," the Doctor smiled, "perhaps it would be as +well to hear what Mr. Hansen has to say."</p> + +<p>"All right, Ole. Get it off your chest and don't take till next Sunday."</p> + +<p>"It's like this," Ole began, rising to give his utterance all the +impressiveness of his rotund authority. "I agree with Dr. Lane and +therefore disagree with Mr. Drake. Those pictures are life-like. They +are life itself! And now I tell you why.</p> + +<p>"Two years ago in the Sailors' Free Reading Room at Rio de Janeiro +I saw a book with pictures of extinct animals from some French and +Spanish caves. Now who made those pictures? The damn fool who found +them?"</p> + +<p>"Ole!"</p> + +<p>"All right, Captain. I forgot the lady. No, the d ..., the fool I mean, +who found those pictures did not make them. He had not brains enough, +not what you call the artistic genius, to draw like that. Nobody any +longer has so much genius. Those pictures were made by men who had +never seen what you call modern art. They were too good, too much like +nature, only better—if you know what I mean. Did the great Michael +Angelo ever paint a herd of wild buffaloes? No. Michael Angelo only +painted flocks of big she angels out of his head. Then came Rubenstein. +Did he—"</p> + +<p>"It's getting late, Ole. Cut out the wild asses and the encyclopaedia +and come to your theory."</p> + +<p>"I am arriving, Captain. Therefore, I say, those long extinct buffaloes +were drawn by men who had seen buffaloes, who had lived with them <i>en +famille</i> as the French say. And therefore it follows in the same way," +he concluded with a geometrical flower of rhetoric culled from his +gourmand reading, "the men who cut the pictures of those monstrous +animals into the rocks lived with them. They drew their likenesses +from nature. For these animals are life-like, they are almost alive! +Did those forgotten geniuses delay their masterpieces for Gutenberg? +No. They needed no printing presses in their business. Which was to be +proved, was it not?"</p> + +<p>"Preposterous," Drake remarked as Ole, with a self-conscious bow, +resumed his creaking chair.</p> + +<p>"Is it?" the Doctor asked quizzically. "Precisely why is Mr. Hansen's +theory absurd?"</p> + +<p>"Because it would put the art of a million years before the Stone Age +on a higher level than that of the Twentieth Century."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it was. It seems impossible that it could have been any lower. +Edith, can you find the last number of 'Vanity Fair' with the latest +masterpieces of potato peeling embroidery or whatever it is that the +connoisseurs are raving over? Never mind, if you don't know where to +look. After dinner will do."</p> + +<p>"The point is, Drake," he continued, "that you know as little of what +art was in prehistoric times as do I. Why, it is less than thirty +years since you archaeological chaps were telling us that all real art +began with the Greeks. Then they found those Stone Age cave paintings +that Mr. Hansen has mentioned. Since then we haven't heard so much of +'Greece, wonder-child of the Ages.' You are open-minded enough about +your own stuff. Why can't you examine Hansen's photographs in the same +spirit?"</p> + +<p>"Never. At least not until I have deciphered them."</p> + +<p>"Then go to it. That's just what we want you to do."</p> + +<p>"How can I make anything out of a bald catalogue of dead beasts? Why, I +don't even know their blessed names."</p> + +<p>"Drake, you are deliberately playing the fool for some reason of your +own. I believe you have guessed more than you admit."</p> + +<p>"It is always best," Drake generalized, "to know nothing at the +beginning of an investigation. For then one is certain not to know less +at the end."</p> + +<p>"Do you see any sort of regularities running through those fourteen you +put aside?" the Doctor persisted.</p> + +<p>"Dozens of them."</p> + +<p>"That sounds encouraging. What, for instance?"</p> + +<p>"First, about five-eighths of the monsters have four legs each. Second, +approximately fifty-five per cent of them have no tails and the rest +one apiece. Third, each of several has one eye by actual count, or two +by inference, the second being on the invisible side of the profile. +Fourth—"</p> + +<p>"You're an ass," the Doctor interrupted irritably.</p> + +<p>"Hear, hear sir," Ole agreed.</p> + +<p>Drake grinned. "Did you ever try opening a live oyster with a +toothpick? When I have something definite I'll let you know. Until then +Mr. Hansen no doubt will be glad to hatch out poetic theories for you."</p> + +<p>"All right," Lane assented good-naturedly. "Only don't spend ten years +in finding out that all these inscriptions are nothing more exciting +than a fossilized multiplication table."</p> + +<p>"Or a treatise on the integral calculus," Ole gravely added.</p> + +<p>"Oh Lord," said Drake, "do you know the name of that too? When do you +find time to navigate your raft?"</p> + +<p>"He doesn't know half of what he gabs about," Anderson explained. There +was a distinct note of jealousy in the Captain's voice. "He owns the A, +Q, X volumes of the <i>Encyclopaedia Britannica</i>, the <i>Song of Solomon</i> +in Norwegian, Balzac's <i>Droll Stories</i> in French—which I can't read, +confound it, a third-rate pocket dictionary, Herbert Spencer's <i>Through +Nature to God</i>, about three-quarters of Maeterlinck's <i>Bluebird</i> +in Swedish and half of it in English, and a seven figure table of +logarithms. That's his whole damned library. Now if you think he's a +blazing genius it's your own lookout."</p> + +<p>"When I was in Boston two and a half years ago," Ole volunteered à +propos of nothing, "I took an intelligence test. The psychologist said +I was in the upper one per cent of the entire population of the United +States."</p> + +<p>"He lied," said the Captain.</p> + +<p>"My library is not the only source of my erudition," Ole continued, +ignoring the Captain's remark. "I also read much in public libraries +while ashore," he concluded with smug modesty.</p> + +<p>"Well, gentlemen," the Doctor remarked, "I am sure Mr. Hansen makes +good use of his library, small though it may be. It isn't the gross +tonnage that counts so much; it is the choice of one's reading matter. +Mr. Hansen seems to have selected his 'five-foot shelf' with a taste +and care that has not been exceeded by Dr. Eliot himself. Would you +like a copy of William Jennings Bryan's memoirs on evolution as a +companion piece to your Herbert Spencer, Mr. Hansen?"</p> + +<p>Ole blushed his thanks. The Doctor turned to Anderson.</p> + +<p>"Now Captain, what about oil?"</p> + +<p>"Are you coming in?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, even if our friend Drake doesn't succeed before he's seventy in +deciphering Mr. Hansen's photographs. We shall need a ship, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"The old whaler will do."</p> + +<p>"Not much ice, then, where we are going?"</p> + +<p>"No more than she can buck. Our troubles will begin on land."</p> + +<p>"So I have guessed. Would an airplane be of any use? Amundsen is taking +one with him on his North Polar expedition."</p> + +<p>"Who would fly the beastly thing if we did take one along?"</p> + +<p>"Why not Drake? He's young and therefore teachable."</p> + +<p>"Oh, let me learn too," Edith begged. "You know how useless Drake is +when anything goes wrong with his typewriter."</p> + +<p>"Indeed?" said Drake, deeply mortified. He truly was as helpless as a +baby before any machine more complicated than a monkey wrench. Rather +pathetically he imagined himself a first-class amateur mechanic, +for Edith always tactfully let him do the bossing while she did the +tinkering when his typewriter collapsed.</p> + +<p>The Doctor turned to Edith. "Who said you were coming with us, young +lady?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody yet. But you were just going to invite me. Weren't you, dear?"</p> + +<p>"What about it, Captain?"</p> + +<p>"It's up to you. She's not my daughter. If she can stand forty below +zero she may enjoy the trip."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid not," the Doctor said doubtfully. "You do so hate the cold, +Edith."</p> + +<p>"Fiddlesticks! Captain Anderson said the water was warm. Any way I'm +younger than you are. If I'm unfit to go it will be suicide for you."</p> + +<p>"Well, we'll consider your case when the time comes."</p> + +<p>Knowing that she had won, Edith sensibly said no more.</p> + +<p>"How long will it take us to get ready?" the Doctor asked.</p> + +<p>"About six months. You, Drake, and your daughter if she comes, must +get thoroughly hardened before we start. Hansen and I can see to +overhauling the ship and laying in the necessary stores. We're both old +hands at the game."</p> + +<p>"Where is your ship now?"</p> + +<p>"Drydock. Rio de Janeiro."</p> + +<p>"What!" the Doctor exclaimed. "Do you mean to say you came clear to San +Francisco just to show me that reptile bird?"</p> + +<p>"Why not?" the Captain asked complacently. "I knew you would join us."</p> + +<p>"Am I as easy as they told you I was?"</p> + +<p>"No, Doctor. You wouldn't swallow a mermaid."</p> + +<p>"Such is the bubble reputation. Edith, this comes of your collection of +freaks. I wish you would adopt some less humiliating form of charity in +future."</p> + +<p>"You haven't believed my story of all those big beasts in the oil yet," +the Captain reminded him soothingly.</p> + +<p>"No, and I'll be hanged if I do until I see them with my own eyes. +Well, I'm game. That thing in the box is real, anyway. You can +telegraph the Rio de Janeiro drydock to give your ship a thorough +overhauling. Fit up quarters somewhere for a passenger or two."</p> + +<p>"Ole and I saw to all that before we left."</p> + +<p>"Easier and easier. Well, well. You <i>are</i> a surprising person." +This bit of information seemed almost to surprise him more than the +captain's strange tale. "It's too late for lunch and too early for +dinner. Will you have tea with us?"</p> + +<p>"We shall be only too glad to enjoy your hospitality," Ole +sententiously replied.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Hansen, I see you have a treatise on Dutch etiquette among your +literary treasures as well as a table of logarithms. All right, boys. +Edith, tell Wong to do his best in the true old Spanish style."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c5">5</h2> +</div> + +<h3>"BATTLES LONG AGO"</h3> + + +<p>Seven strenuous months of physical toughening lay behind Drake, +Edith, and her father. They had lost no time in setting about their +preparations for the hardships ahead.</p> + +<p>The day after the tea with Captain Anderson and the mate they were on +their way to the Canadian Rockies. Before leaving, Dr. Lane gave the +efficient Wong a sheaf of checks dated the first of each month for the +next three years. With these Wong was to pay his own salary and keep +the house in order.</p> + +<p>To his rage and stupefaction Drake was dragged kicking from his puzzles +to become a hardened mountaineer. The Doctor was determined that the +obstinate archaeologist should accompany them to see with his own eyes +the originals of Hansen's photographs. Anderson and the mate left San +Francisco the same afternoon to return to Rio via Boston.</p> + +<p>The party of three had gone straight north to a fashionable resort +in the heart of the Canadian Rockies. They planned to begin their +training gradually. Arrived at the luxurious hotel, they hired guides +and mapped out their program. Four hours' mountain hiking a day for the +first week, six the second, and so on up to fifteen, when they would be +sufficiently seasoned to dispense with the guides.</p> + +<p>Drake, who had brought with him the fourteen most promising of Hansen's +puzzles for study, proved a most refractory companion. As the daily +marches lengthened he seemed to demand more and more sleep. It was a +ten minute job to get him out of bed in the mornings. The Doctor became +alarmed, thinking the rarefied air and violent exercise might have +affected the young man's heart. A searching physical examination showed +him to be in perfect health. Drake himself said nothing, enduring the +interminable climbs up precipices and the endless crawls over glaciers +with glum stoicism.</p> + +<p>When the party left their quarters at the hotel to live in the bleak +open with only their sleeping bags for shelter, Drake became positively +morose. Edith declared in confidence to her father that the cranky +young antiquarian was developing such a devil of a temper that the only +comfortable course would be to send him home. She had stood all she +could of the snapping turtle. The thought of a possible two years with +him in a frozen wilderness appeared singularly uninviting.</p> + +<p>"I should like to beat him up," she confided, "for I am sure there is +nothing the matter with him but a vile disposition."</p> + +<p>An unusually cold and foggy night on the snowfields gave her the key +to Drake's ailment. Unable to sleep for the wretched discomfort, +she lay on her side staring wide-eyed at the soupy mist. Presently +she became aware of a tiny, faint glow in the direction of Drake's +quarters. Slipping from her bag she crawled on all fours over the soft +snow toward the source of the light. Unobserved she got close enough +to see Drake lying flat on his stomach in his sleeping bag, his head +propped up on his hands, intent on one of Hansen's photographs. The +dim illumination came from an improvised reading lamp consisting of +two inches of candle in a small tomato can on its side. She stole back +to her bag and crept in, to keep a lookout on the dim glow. After +what seemed an eternity it vanished, only to reappear half a minute +later. Drake had lighted another two-inch candle. And so it went until +about an hour before dawn when the glow finally disappeared and Drake +presumably slept the sleep of the unjust.</p> + +<p>Edith said nothing of her discovery to her father. The next night +was clearer. Between cat naps she watched again. Once more the light +vanished an hour before dawn, and the criminal slept. Edith decided not +to peach. Instead she contrived an ingenious plan for the salvaging of +whatever survived the general wreck of Drake's temper.</p> + +<p>She had not long to wait before putting her plan into action. The two +men shared the labor of splitting wood and keeping the campfire going +while she cooked. They planned at last two hot meals a week, descending +from the snowfields to the timberline to find fuel, for with their +heavy packs it was impossible to carry oil. On these occasions the men +peeled off their coats and went after wood with a will. The prospect +of a well-cooked steaming hot meal put enthusiasm even into the +dissipated, cantankerous Drake.</p> + +<p>Edith bided her time. When next the perspiring Drake, having collected +twice as much wood as he could carry, was swearing under his breath +like a bobcat, she quietly abstracted the fourteen photographic puzzles +from the inner pocket of his discarded coat.</p> + +<p>"It's a dirty trick," she murmured, stowing them safely away inside her +shirt, "but it is for his own good."</p> + +<p>That night Drake was like a forlorn cow that has just lost its beloved +calf. Edith heard him rooting about in the dark, scraping his shins and +swearing at anything and everything. That night, she said later, was +just one long, whispered curse.</p> + +<p>She let him suffer for his calf three days. Then, with a six-foot +crevasse between them, she confessed. Drake looked murder at her. But +by the time he scrambled the mile and a half which she, with rare +foresight, had placed between them by going rapidly ahead of the party, +the outraged Drake was too exhausted to fight. He regained his fourteen +tormentors only on the solemn promise that he would blow out the candle +every morning at two o'clock sharp. Thus, unless the enthusiastic +Doctor insisted upon routing them from their bags ahead of schedule, +Drake would get a full four hours' sleep every night.</p> + +<p>"If that isn't enough to sweeten your disposition," Edith stipulated, +"I'll add half an hour at a time until we hit the right dose."</p> + +<p>Under the new ordering of his disreputable habits Drake became as +suave as melted butter. Not that he talked much more than he had, for +he still emulated the oyster. What little he did say, however, was all +that Edith desired in affability. The Doctor, noticing the change, +ascribed it to a sudden, bone-freezing drop in the temperature.</p> + +<p>"Drake will do famously when we get to the real thing," he told Edith. +"Just see how this cold snap bucks him up."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he will be all right," Edith agreed. "When he gets something to do +he will lose his grouch for good."</p> + +<p>After twelve weeks of roughing it on the snowfields and glaciers of +the Rockies the three went to Alaska for a more drastic course of the +same training. Little by little they accustomed themselves to scantier +and scantier clothing, until by the end of their hardening they were +clambering over ice and snow in howling blizzards with no clothing +but a single loose overall garment of wool. The Doctor in his joyous +enthusiasm was inclined to go farther, pointing out that if stark +nakedness in the snow is the proper thing for consumptive children, +surely a breech clout in a blizzard should be sufficient for tough +campaigners like themselves. But Edith wouldn't hear of it, although +Drake seemed to entertain the suggestion favorably.</p> + +<p>And now all this, the hardship and the fun, lay behind them. That night +they were sailing from Montreal for Rio de Janeiro, there to meet the +rest of the expedition and undergo their last training. They must +learn to fly. Dr. Lane still believed that an airplane might prove +the decisive factor in the success of their venture, although Captain +Anderson, with all an old sailor's conservatism, belittled the idea +and grudged the two months' delay which it would cost.</p> + +<p>Ole, on the contrary, by letter and cablegram, fairly gloated over the +prospect. A mastery of flying would bring him many steps nearer the +omniscience which was his ideal in this imperfect life. The Captain's +letters reported him already a past master of the art of flying—on +paper. He had even invented an improved type of flying machine which, +according to the envious Anderson, resembled a wheelbarrow with wings. +This masterpiece of Ole's unsuspected mechanical genius was still +in the chrysaloid stage of development, being as yet only one-third +drawings and two-thirds pure theory. Still, all in all it justified +Ole's high rating in the Boston intelligence tests. Anderson could +never have done anything like it.</p> + +<p>Except for Drake's alleged seasickness the voyage down to Rio de +Janeiro was uneventful. Drake had telegraphed from Vancouver to one +of his antiquarian cronies to meet him in Montreal with half a ton of +carefully selected books, for the most part profusely illustrated works +on biology, geology and evolution. With these he shut himself up in his +cabin, admitting only the stewards who reported him in the last stages +of seasickness. Smelling a prosperous rat, Dr. Lane left the sufferer +to his agonies and hopefully promenaded the decks or played quoits with +Edith.</p> + +<p>On the morning of the last day of the voyage the doctor's patience +was rewarded. The invalid emerged from his cabin looking, as Edith +informed him, as fresh as a young string bean.</p> + +<p>"I'm better," Drake announced.</p> + +<p>"That's good," said the Doctor. "How are Hansen's photographs?"</p> + +<p>Drake tried not to look pleased. He failed. His face broke into a grin.</p> + +<p>"Doing as well as could be expected, thank you," he replied.</p> + +<p>"Have you deciphered them?"</p> + +<p>"If I say 'yes' you will pester me to death with questions; if I say +'no' you will set me down as a blockhead. So I shall evade the question +by answering both yes and no. And that, as a matter of fact, is the +exact state of affairs."</p> + +<p>"The Lord should have made you a woman," the Doctor remarked.</p> + +<p>"A beautiful blonde," Drake sighed. "A perfect thirty-six," he added +with an admiring glance at Edith's lithe figure.</p> + +<p>"I'll give you a swift kick unless you come through with what you have +found," the Doctor snapped. "Come on; out with it."</p> + +<p>"Before violence I am powerless. I am too proud to run away." He became +more serious. "You were right when you said my education was lopsided. +A thorough knowledge of biology, geology, evolution and half a dozen +tougher sciences is just what I lack now to read those fragments fully. +I have been doing my weak best to make up the deficiency and learn +something worth knowing. At present I can guess at the meaning of those +fragments, but only through thick blankets of woolly ignorance. Unless +I am clean off there is vastly more than can be read at a glance in +those rows upon rows of prehistoric monsters. I don't believe those +inscriptions will ever be fully deciphered by any man who like me is an +ignoramus on all the sciences connected with living things."</p> + +<p>"You evidently have found more than you admit. Tell us what you know. +If you need more science to go ahead I'll give you all I have."</p> + +<p>After a brief tussle with his antiquarian conscience Drake yielded.</p> + +<p>"First," he began, "this sort of work is very deceptive. Take the case +of the Etruscan writing for instance, or the Hittite inscriptions if +you prefer. Either one has been 'read' in half a dozen different ways. +One man making perfect sense of a particular inscription says it is +an extremely modest account of a marriage ceremony. His opponent and +critic reads precisely the same signs as a detailed description of the +slaughter of forty bulls. Both can't be right, unless of course the +forty bulls are a poetic metaphor for the bridegroom. And so it goes; +what one theorist reads as a beautiful prayer to the goddess of love +another deciphers as a simple recipe for lentil soup. Unless there are +dates, numerals, or other mathematical signs that can be definitely +checked against facts in such work it is all likely to be a mere +reflection of the decipherer's personality. So when a man says 'forty +bulls,' I know what to think of him."</p> + +<p>"And you are afraid now," Edith smiled, "of giving yourself away? Never +mind, I'll forget all the compromising parts."</p> + +<p>"I have nothing to be ashamed of in my private life," he retorted, +drawing himself up like a stork.</p> + +<p>"That is what they all say when they begin to tell their dreams," the +Doctor laughed. "Then they are as mad as tarantulas when they find they +have given away the whole show. But go ahead; those beasts of yours are +not all purely subjective."</p> + +<p>"That is where you are wrong. It is the ideal, the subjective part +that matters in these particular inscriptions. And that is precisely +what I can't decipher. The rest is easy enough. Superficially those +fourteen inscriptions are fragments of the history of a terrible war. +It is the symbolism behind the bald account of battles and sieges that +I can't get at. It is like one of those sentences that can be read in +a dozen different ways to give good sense. The surface meaning seems +perfectly clear. Then when the sentence is read a second time another +meaning begins to appear, and so on, until the whole shows up as a most +ingeniously constructed cipher.</p> + +<p>"Consider, for example, the simple statement 'It rained yesterday.' +Ordinarily we should think nothing of it. But suppose you were an +intelligence officer in the army and you found one of your men sneaking +over to the enemy with 'It rained yesterday' sewn into his left sock. +You would ask for the code, wouldn't you, before shooting?</p> + +<p>"Well, so it is in my case. At first sight those inscriptions record +only fragments of a hideous war. But only at first sight. The account +of the war is consistent and thorough, even if it is appalling in +its stark insanity. Intelligence, if I may say so without becoming +oratorical, is dethroned. There never was another war like it, and +there never will be again. For the fighting material has gone out of +existence."</p> + +<p>"Beast against beast?" the Doctor hazarded.</p> + +<p>"No. Beast against intellect and intellect against beast. Only I can't +make out whose intellect it was or what, exactly, the beasts were.</p> + +<p>"That, however, is not my main difficulty. The whole story, I am +convinced, is merely the symbol of the real conflict which those +inscriptions record. I have no definite knowledge that this is the +case. Yet I feel it to be the absolute truth. Some terrific struggle +has been disguised under the fairly straightforward account of a war +unique in the history of the world. It is my guess that the real +conflict was of so terrible a character that the survivors deliberately +wrapped it up in a symbolism that may never be explained."</p> + +<p>"What could have been their motive for recording this struggle at all +if they took such pains to obscure its history?"</p> + +<p>"Can't you see? Perhaps they guessed that some day a similar devil +might break loose, and they left this hint of their own chaining of +the fiend. They suppressed a plain history lest some idiot be tempted +to try again what had wrecked them. Such things do happen. If it were +not for the lofty patriotism of certain old men we younger fellows +might never have to face gas and other horrors never intended for +the destruction of life. The makers of those inscriptions decided +to disguise the truth so that only beings as intelligent as they +themselves could decipher its meaning. This is only my theory, as our +friend Hansen would say."</p> + +<p>"Still," the Doctor objected, "I fail to see in your theory why a +record of the horror should have been left at all, even in the most +obscure form. If they wished oblivion for it, surely the safest way +would have been to leave no record, symbolic or otherwise."</p> + +<p>"If that was their only anxiety, yes. But what if they wished to leave +a warning to anyone intelligent enough to read and take it? Suppose, +for the sake of argument, they had discovered some secret of nature. +And suppose that this very discovery undid them. Would they not wish +to leave a caution to the next race of investigators who might blunder +through to the forbidden door?"</p> + +<p>"Your imagination is running away with your brains, to say nothing of +your tongue. What about the actual war that is recorded?"</p> + +<p>"I'm feeling seasick again," Drake prevaricated, diving for his cabin. +"Some other time."</p> + +<p>And that was all they got out of him, for he locked his stateroom door.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c6">6</h2> +</div> + +<h3>A WITNESS TO THE TRUTH</h3> + + +<p>Their two busy months in Rio de Janeiro passed pleasantly enough. With +the help of a young lieutenant from the Brazilian navy one at least of +the adventure seekers became an expert aviator. Possibly it was Edith's +striking beauty that caused the young officer to lavish his skill +and patience upon perfecting her in those finer points of aviation +which she probably would never use unless she became a stuntist at a +county fair. It is at any rate certain that he took far less pains +with the industrious Ole who, after one shocking misalliance with a +gilded virgin—on top of a church,—developed into a safe and sane air +navigator, largely self-taught.</p> + +<p>Captain Anderson gave it up immediately after his first stomach raising +flight with the daredevil lieutenant. He refused flatly to learn the +knack of being seasick all over again.</p> + +<p>Dr. Lane, learning easily, showed a bad tendency to loop the loop +without due provocation. Edith begged the Captain to set her father +to work on the ship's stores—taking inventory, anything to keep +him out of the dazzling sapphire sky. The Captain consenting, Edith +was left a clean heaven which she shared with the lieutenant. Ole, +an indiscriminating admirer of Maeterlinck, remarked to Drake that +Edith's airy antics were precisely those of a queen bee on her +prenuptial flight. What Drake replied is unrepeatable.</p> + +<p>Poor Drake had proven himself a hopeless duffer at the game. After a +truly conscientious attempt to teach him the rudiments of flight, the +lieutenant announced with considerable relief that Mr. Drake would make +excellent ballast in an emergency, but was otherwise useless. So Drake, +discomfited and humiliated, returned to his inscriptions. Such at least +was the outward appearance of things. But Ole evolved a deeper theory +which he generously confided to Edith.</p> + +<p>"No man, Miss Lane, can be such a fool as Drake made of himself. Drake +does not want to fly. He goes back to my photographs. That young man +has brains. Some day he will have a theory." Ole spoke in the hushed +tones of a fat old woman contemplating her buxom daughter-in-law.</p> + +<p>And Edith, reflecting that she had begged Drake to let her give him +private lessons, felt like boxing Ole's red ears. In her heart of heart +she knew that the mate's theory was the truth; Drake was infatuated +with a lovely abstraction. And sighing her exasperation she resumed her +bee-like flirtation with the lieutenant. He at any rate was aware of +her charms. But she would have liked to set her even white teeth in the +one apple just beyond her reach.</p> + +<p>By the end of the first month in Rio Drake's habits were ruined. He +now had the whole of Hansen's masterpieces in his room for study, one +hundred and forty-four dumb tormentors of the reason. Although the heat +was terrific, the long lean Drake seemed not to suffer. But his food +did, intensely. Meals brought to his door remained outside until the +porter devoured them with ghoulish glee or took them away for burial. +At last, however, the sympathetic landlord concocted a villainous +ration which was both meat and drink, and which could be downed at one +gulp with a minimum of attention to details. Oysters and cream formed +the basis of this ghastly diet to which rum and a dash of absinthe gave +the finishing flavor. The intervening strata were a horrible mystery. +A suspicious granulated blackness about the middle suggested caviare. +This perhaps was confirmed at the curdled surface by the unmistakable +odor of finely chopped garlic. The necessary balance of carbohydrates +was supplied by a liberal admixture of brown sugar. A quart of this +ambrosial hooch placed four times daily in his hand, with unlimited +coffee "as black as the devil, as sweet as love and as hot as hell" in +the Spanish phrase, kept the wolf from Drake's vitals.</p> + +<p>Lane spent his nights aboard ship, while Edith danced till three in the +morning with the amorous lieutenant under the perfunctory chaperonage +of his aged mother. So Drake had a free hand to do what he liked with +the twenty-four hours between dawn and dawn. He slept when sleep +stole upon him from behind and overpowered him in his chair. If when +exhausted he instinctively sought his bed he lay down without bothering +to undress. Within four hours he was at his problem again. Refuting all +theories of the hygienists he took no exercise whatever and remained in +perfect health, as hard as a rock. After all, a busy mind is perhaps +the perfect tonic and the best exerciser.</p> + +<p>Ole, gleaning daily bulletins from the landlord, developed an awed +respect for this unprecedented young hatcher of theories. That +something huge and universal must at last leap forth from such an +aeonial gestation he had not the slightest doubt. On the morning of +departure he led Drake aboard to his quarters on the old whaler—now +cleansed and rechristened the <i>Edith</i>—with all the solicitude he would +have shown an expectant mother.</p> + +<p>The <i>Edith</i> slunk under her own steam from the grand harbor, rounded +the point, and headed due south in the sparkling air, cleaving a sea of +chrysoprase. Officially they were on a whaling expedition. The airplane +was sophisticated to the Brazilian officers as a freak hobby of the +rich and eccentric Dr. Lane who wished before he died to harpoon a +whale from the air.</p> + +<p>The great adventure had begun, but what was to be its outcome not one +soul aboard the silent ship had the slightest idea. They were headed +due south for the undiscovered oilfields and for a stranger thing +which, could they have foreseen it, they would not have wished to +discover. It is in this unreasoning way that human beings are forever +blundering into the mysteries of life.</p> + +<p>By Lane's orders Drake was left to himself. Hansen's reports had +impressed him, and he knew from experience the powerful drive of +unbroken thought.</p> + +<p>As the days flew over them like azure birds the breeze freshened and +knife-edged cold cut the unhardened members of the crew to the bones. +The oldtimers and the well-seasoned beginners merely quickened their +movements and went about their work with a new energy. The greenhorns +would soon get used to it. In the meantime they must stamp and swear +and get on with it as best they could.</p> + +<p>The lightly ballasted <i>Edith</i> beginning to pitch and roll like a +porpoise, the oysters, caviare and brown sugar of Drake's orgy had +their revenge. His abused stomach, protesting at the sound ship fare, +rejected honest salt horse with ineffable scorn. Edith forgot his +inconstancy, pardoning him all his theories, and ministered to him like +a white robed angel of forgiveness. His recovery was as sudden as his +collapse. And with the return of his vigor and his temper—he had been +as sweet as a consumptive curate during his prostration—he once more +jilted Edith for his houri.</p> + +<p>"Let us go to the Captain's cabin and talk over what we are to do," he +suggested. "You bring your father and I'll rout out Ole. This is the +second mate's watch. They will be off duty."</p> + +<p>Seated comfortably round the red baize of the Captain's table the five +discussed their plans. Anderson and Lane had decided to head directly +for the inlet which the Captain had discovered the morning after the +submarine eruption. They were then to steam up the inlet as far as +possible. Then they were to leave the ship in charge of Bronson, the +second mate and a capable seaman, and travel inland by dogteam and +sledges to the volcano whose smoke and flames Anderson and the mate +had seen from the inlet. If practicable to use the airplane two of the +party could return for it.</p> + +<p>The men under Bronson's charge were to wait at the ship three months +for the party to return. If at the end of that time they had heard +nothing from the explorers they were to despatch a relief party to go +in search. The organization of the relief had been planned to its last +detail. Should circumstances so dictate Bronson would have only to +carry out his written instructions to the letter.</p> + +<p>Anderson had made only a rough guess as to the probable location of +the oil which he expected to find. Although this first conjecture +was founded on a theory of Ole's the Captain refused to give him any +credit. With a rare flash of common sense Ole had observed that since +the heavy black smoke and ruddy pillar of flame which they had seen +from the inlet looked like burning oil, probably it was burning oil.</p> + +<p>The one stumbling block which this sensible hypothesis had to surmount +was, as Lane pointed out, the Captain's estimate of two hundred fifty +to three hundred miles inland as the distance of the explosion which +they had heard. It hardly seemed probable that an outburst of burning +oil could make itself heard and seen at such a distance. A volcanic +eruption, on the other hand, easily might carry that far. Krakatoa, +Katmai, Pelée and many others among the more famous eruptions had +carried even farther.</p> + +<p>The Captain, however, would have none of Lane's objections. To him the +mere vastness of an oilfield was no slur on its probability. The bigger +the likelier was his theory. And staring up at the swinging kerosene +lamp he beheld a beatific vision of stocks and shares floating like all +the leaves of Vallombrosa on an ocean of unlimited liability.</p> + +<p>Lane was curiously reticent about what he expected to get out of +the expedition. Since that afternoon, now ten months ago, in his +San Francisco study, he had not once alluded to the Captain's tale +of dead prehistoric monsters boiling up as fresh as life through a +sea of pitch. If questioned he would have said that his judgment +was suspended, as undoubtedly it was. The indubitable bird-reptile +obstinately continued to exist as an awkward reality not yet +satisfactorily explained away.</p> + +<p>On mature reflection he had abandoned his first theory that the +reptilian bird had been preserved for ages like a sardine in oil. But +he refrained from acquainting the Captain with his changed state of +mind lest that imaginative ex-mining engineer and inventive whaler +should be moved to show what he really could do in the way of a yarn +when put on his mettle. In the true scientific spirit the Doctor was +resolved to wait further facts before abandoning himself like Ole to +seductive theories.</p> + +<p>One sore spot in his memories hardened him in this decision. He had +not yet forgiven the Captain for assuming that he was a gullible +enthusiast eager to swallow the first mermaid with a cocoanut head +dangled before his mouth. Above all, still holding the opinion that +Drake was the greatest decipherer of his time, he wished to hear what +the young archaeologist had to report as to the outcome of his intense +concentration on Hansen's photographs. Edith, with Drake's permission, +had revealed the secret of his vile temper in the Canadian Rockies.</p> + +<p>"Well, oyster," said the Doctor, turning to Drake, "are you ready to +open up yet?"</p> + +<p>"Have you a theory?" Ole blurted out.</p> + +<p>"Two," Drake replied.</p> + +<p>"Two theories!" Ole rhapsodized. "Young man, you are a scientist. What +are your theories?"</p> + +<p>"The first, and the one which I favor, is that I'm crazy."</p> + +<p>"So impossible as all that?" the Doctor asked, raising his brows.</p> + +<p>"I told you in San Francisco it was impossible," the Captain asserted. +"Now Drake is going to prove what I said. Wait till you see it with +your own eyes."</p> + +<p>"It is not that part of it which is impossible," Drake replied. "After +what I have guessed as the true meaning of the symbolism of the +inscriptions your stew of monsters sounds a little tame. I am willing +to accept your account as true to the facts, even if Dr. Lane is still +too cautious to commit himself. But the other thing, the real meaning +of that fragmentary history recorded in the inscriptions, is a subject +which I must decline to discuss until events have proved me either +crazy or right."</p> + +<p>"I appreciate your stand, Drake," said the Doctor. "Under like +circumstances I should feel the same way. Still, you can tell us this +much without prejudicing your case. From what you have made out so far +do you believe that we shall find any tangible evidence of the true +struggle? I mean of course the one which the makers of the inscriptions +took such pains to disguise."</p> + +<p>Drake gave him a shrewd look. "You have guessed the nature of that +conflict?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, reasoning from other data, I have. In that case you can +understand why I prefer to wait before venturing my guesses. Shall we +find any traces of the real fight?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. To me it is incredible that we should."</p> + +<p>"Some things are eternal," the Doctor remarked quietly. "For all we +know life may be indestructible."</p> + +<p>"Have you ever whiffed a dead whale?" the Captain interposed. He was a +practical man.</p> + +<p>"That isn't what the Doctor means," Ole expostulated, beginning to +redden.</p> + +<p>"I know, Ole. I know what the doctor means. He's talking of the soul. +Now, did you ever see a whale with a soul?"</p> + +<p>"Not after it was dead," the Doctor admitted with a smile. "However, +that was not what I had in mind. My idea was something much more +prosaic—question of energy and cells, and all that commonplace sort of +stuff."</p> + +<p>"Cells?" the Captain snorted. "Rotten fish is rotten fish, cells or no +cells."</p> + +<p>"That isn't—"</p> + +<p>"Shut up, Ole. No, Doctor Lane, I'm not fool enough to argue with +you on your own deck. But when you show me a whale that I can't +set stinking ripe in three weeks I'll begin to believe in the +indestructibility of life."</p> + +<p>"That—"</p> + +<p>"Shut up, Ole. Well, Doctor, where's your immortal whale?"</p> + +<p>"In Heaven," the Doctor replied without the flicker of an eyelash.</p> + +<p>"Father," Edith protested, "you are irreverent."</p> + +<p>"Not necessarily, Chick. Remember the prophet of Nineveh. Now Drake, +what is your second theory?"</p> + +<p>"That the whole thing is literally true."</p> + +<p>"And that is mine," said the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"Mine too," Ole echoed before the Captain could squelch him.</p> + +<p>"It can't be, Ole," the Doctor replied. "For, prolific as you may be, +you are constitutionally incapable of hatching such a nightmare."</p> + +<p>Ole looked crestfallen. He was rebuked. Edith felt for him as she was +suffering acutely from repressed curiosity.</p> + +<p>"I wish you two wouldn't talk as if I were a baby in long dresses. If +I'm old enough to be here I'm certainly old enough to be let in on +things."</p> + +<p>"You might take the plane and fly back to Rio in the night," her father +laughed, "if we frightened you with all our half-baked theories. Better +wait and see—"</p> + +<p>He was cut short by a jarring tremor that shook the stout ship from +stem to stern.</p> + +<p>"My God!" the Captain shouted, bolting for the door, "we've struck! All +hands on deck!"</p> + +<p>They reached the deck a second behind him. Instantly an overpowering +stench enveloped them body and soul, searching out the secret +convolutions of their brains with a sense-destroying, paralyzing +nausea. Hardened old whale pirates were leaning over the rail in a +paroxysm of the extremest misery.</p> + +<p>On the less calloused members of the expedition the effect was +instantaneous and drastic. It was complete. No chemist in the distorted +ambition of his wildest nightmare ever dreamed of a smell such as that +which defiled the very soul of this night, otherwise so beautiful and +serene.</p> + +<p>A full moon silvered the calm meadows of the sea. Nature, dead and +living, lay peacefully asleep. Athwart the silver road through the +ripples floated majestically the vast corpse through whose middle +rottenness the sturdy ship had churned her filthy way. Four pillars, +two at either end, towered up in the mystic light like the ruins of a +shattered temple on a hill in Greece. These were the creature's legs. +What else of it the moonlight revealed had better be veiled.</p> + +<p>"There's your immortal whale, Captain," the doctor sobbed when from +very emptiness he ceased his calisthenics.</p> + +<p>"Whale be blowed. That carcass is the size of four Whales. It's one of +them."</p> + +<p>"I believe," said the penitent Doctor, "smelling is a severer test +of truth than seeing. Lead us below and give us asafetida from your +medicine chest to take the taste of truth out of our mouths."</p> + +<p>Returning to the Captain's cabin they sought forgetfulness in rum +tinctured with Jamaica ginger.</p> + +<p>"How shall I ever get it out of my hair?" Edith wailed.</p> + +<p>"Shave your hair, dear," the Doctor prescribed, "and then boil it in +lye."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c7">7</h2> +</div> + +<h3>BEACHED</h3> + + +<p>Shortly after midnight Captain Anderson called the sleepers.</p> + +<p>"This is the spot, Doctor," he said. "You wanted to see it with your +own eyes."</p> + +<p>"What spot?" the Doctor sleepily inquired.</p> + +<p>"Where all those big beasts boiled up from the bottom of the sea."</p> + +<p>They stood gazing over the rail at the cold, glittering Antarctic waste +of black water. Far to the south the dim shapes of five huge bergs +towered up like vast frozen ghosts in the moonlight.</p> + +<p>"The water looks clean enough," the Doctor remarked suspiciously. The +smell having dissipated, his skepticism was returning. "Where's your +oil?"</p> + +<p>"Blest if I know. Washed ashore months ago, I expect."</p> + +<p>"In what direction is the nearest land?"</p> + +<p>"Southeast. Directly in line with the southernmost of those bergs."</p> + +<p>"When shall we reach it?"</p> + +<p>"Within twelve hours if the wind doesn't rise."</p> + +<p>The Doctor glanced at the cloudless sky. "Everything looks serene. +Well, we should see your inlet sometime tomorrow afternoon. By the way, +has the lookout sighted any more dead—whales?"</p> + +<p>"Whales? That was no whale we cut through, I tell you. It had four +times the bulk of the biggest whale afloat. Think what you like, that +was one of those brutes that boiled up when I was here before. And the +lookout saw three others."</p> + +<p>"How close?"</p> + +<p>"About two miles. Of course he couldn't make out exactly what they were +at that distance. But I'll bet they were not floating islands, or ice, +or dead whales. If we sight another I'll steam up close to give you a +whiff if you like."</p> + +<p>"For mercy's sake don't," Edith begged. "My cabin is full of the last +one still."</p> + +<p>"A mere smell proves nothing," the Doctor remarked dryly.</p> + +<p>"Mere smell?" Drake exploded. "Great Scott! What is your idea of +full-blown reek?"</p> + +<p>"I mean," the Doctor explained, "the smell may have come from +putrefying whale blubber. The odor is notorious and far reaching I'm +told."</p> + +<p>"You bet it is," the Captain asserted. "Twenty years of it have made +me an expert. And I tell you straight that a ripe whale smells like a +bunch of violets beside that beauty we cut through."</p> + +<p>Disdaining further argument the Doctor retired to his cabin, and the +others after a last look at the austere grandeur of the icy night +turned in to their warm bunks.</p> + +<p>About nine o'clock the next morning the breeze veered and blew from +the icebound land far to the southeast. It was still a mere sigh. The +Captain and Ole anticipated a safe and early arrival at their goal. +That afternoon would bring them to the mouth of the volcanic inlet.</p> + +<p>No spot on the oceans of the earth could have been more coldly serene, +more vastly mysterious. The water, almost black in the mass, curled +over in hard glassy waves intensely green as they broke, and far to +the south the airy peaks and pinnacles of huge bergs swam like dreams +athwart the taut horizon. Then the offshore breeze freshening brought +with it the first faint hint of an indescribable pollution.</p> + +<p>"Dead whales," the Captain laconically remarked to Lane.</p> + +<p>"Undoubtedly," replied the Doctor through his handkerchief.</p> + +<p>Edith gazed longingly at the high-powered airplane under its tarpaulins.</p> + +<p>"We must have run over another of them," she sighed.</p> + +<p>Anderson laughed. "Did you feel a jar, Edith? No? Well, neither did I, +and my sea legs are more sensitive than yours. We're not running over +the rotten brutes; we're running into them."</p> + +<p>And with that comforting assurance he swung below to see if the +engineer could crowd on more steam. He was tremendously eager.</p> + +<p>Lunch time passed unobserved. Those of the crew who were off duty +followed the example of the passengers and sought seclusion below +decks. But the ever increasing stench found them out like a forgotten +sin. Every mile less between them and the land multiplied their misery +tenfold. To the inexperienced passengers this penetrating torment which +prostrated hardened whalers became unendurable. At last Lane, reaching +his limit, went in search of medical relief.</p> + +<p>He had no definite idea of what he wanted, trusting blindly to the +stores for inspiration. And he found it. Presently he returned with +three improvised gas masks of surgical gauze soaked in spirits of +camphor.</p> + +<p>"Who ever would have guessed that we should need gas masks in the +Antarctic," he laughed ruefully as he adjusted Drake's. "Edith, get out +your needles and thread and make nosebags for all hands."</p> + +<p>Under her father's supervision Edith labored diligently at a new style +of mask designed to filter the tainted air through finely sifted ashes. +If the temperature kept up the ashes might be soaked in deodorizer. +Otherwise the sufferers would have to put up with the lesser efficiency +of the dry material.</p> + +<p>Ole, coming in to see how the greenhorns were bearing up, found Edith +at her task. The poor fellow was the sickly hue of cheesy white +phosphorus. Some of the men, he reported, were on the point of mutiny.</p> + +<p>"Order them to make masks for themselves," Edith advised. "They can all +sew. Here, take this one as a pattern."</p> + +<p>His rotundity drooping from his shoulders in soggy folds, Ole +departed. Although his faith in the vanity of nosebags was slight, +yet in the true scientific spirit he would test any theory before +condemning it as useless. The men, therefore, were soon in the throes +of a sewing bee. And it may be said here that the masks later made +endurable a labor which without them might well have proved impossible.</p> + +<p>Land was sighted at two thirty-five. Due south along the horizon +stretched the great barrier cliff of black rock and sheer ice, shadowy +in the distance and unsubstantial as a vision. Anderson joined the +three at the rail and passed Lane his binoculars.</p> + +<p>"Look about two points east of south and you will see the opening of +the inlet."</p> + +<p>"Ah, I get it. Not very wide, is it?"</p> + +<p>"No. Just a twenty mile crack in the Antarctic continent that wasn't +there two years ago. I imagine it narrows down fast after it gets +farther inland."</p> + +<p>He turned and left them to go about his business. They stood watching +the distant shadow assume definite outline. Presently Lane hailed the +Captain on the bridge.</p> + +<p>"We're getting off our course, aren't we?"</p> + +<p>"No. Dead on it."</p> + +<p>"But we are going thirty degrees east of the inlet."</p> + +<p>"Thirty-three, Doctor. There's an eight mile stony beach over there +that I want to have a look at first. It might give the men fresh seal +meat if there's any way of landing. We have plenty of time to make the +inlet before dark if we decide to go on."</p> + +<p>"Oh, all right. You're the captain."</p> + +<p>Although their changed course drifted them across the breeze instead of +directly into it, the stench became more terrific. Without their masks +they could not have faced it. Presently the Captain called Lane up on +the bridge and handed him his glasses.</p> + +<p>"There's the beach, Doctor. Now if smelling isn't believing perhaps +seeing is. Take a close look at your whales."</p> + +<p>Lane almost dropped the Captain's best glasses.</p> + +<p>"Good Lord," he gasped, "hundreds and hundreds of them! Full steam +ahead, Captain!"</p> + +<p>He ran down the steps to tell the others to keep their eyes open. As +the <i>Edith</i> rapidly neared the long beach they saw at first only a coal +black slope littered with what looked like huge rounded lumps of black +rock. Then a blast from the whistle raised a cloud of scavengers from +the black masses and the truth leapt out before their eyes. The eight +mile beach was a refuse heap of huge oil-soaked carcasses festering in +the sun.</p> + +<p>Piled five and six deep where the winter hurricanes had hurled them the +monsters of a forgotten age rotted in the delayed death which should +have been theirs nine million years ago. On that beach there must +have been hundreds of thousands of the gigantic brutes. The smaller +monstrosities wedged and packed between the mountainous carcasses were +without number. The Antarctic cold, their long immersion in the salt +water and their thick coating of oil had but postponed the colossal +corruption which now, at the height of a mild open season, preyed upon +their mountains of rich flesh.</p> + +<p>A boat was already being lowered. They sprang in with Ole and the +Captain and were rapidly pulled ashore. The landing on that shelving +beach was easy. They stood up in the oozing slop of oil to gaze as in a +nightmare at the horror of the shambles surrounding them.</p> + +<p>"Well," said the Captain, pointing to the sheer black cliffs barring +the beach from the frozen continent, "there's what is left of my oil. +The wind swabbed those rocks with some of it and blew the rest inland +or wasted it all over the ocean from here to Cape Horn. Is there any +money to make out of these carcasses, Doctor? What about blubber? +That big brute over there," he indicated a twisted dragon mailed in +triangular two-foot plates of horn, "looks pretty good to me. He's not +so ripe as some of the others."</p> + +<p>"Money be damned!" snapped the Doctor. "This is a bigger thing than the +Standard Oil and Dutch Shell combined. It would be nothing short of an +infamous sacrilege to hack these beautiful things to pieces for the +sake of a few dirty dollars. No sir! I am financing this expedition, +and so long as you are on land you will obey my orders. Aboard ship you +are the master, but only for so long as I choose to employ you. I am +the owner. Now, is that clear?"</p> + +<p>"All right, Doctor. Keep your shirt on."</p> + +<p>The soft answer mollified the indignant lover of beauty.</p> + +<p>"Do as I tell you," he said, "and I'll see that you find your precious +oil. You can go prospecting while the rest of us are discovering our +treasure. And although it isn't in our contract I'll give you gratis +all the very best expert mining and geological advice I can. To begin +now, there is not the ghost of a possibility of striking oil on a beach +like this. For your encouragement, however, I may tell you that I have +already formed a pretty rational theory where to look for the main +reservoir. Your earthquake tapped only a top bubble of it."</p> + +<p>"So have I a theory," Ole announced with modest pride.</p> + +<p>"Shut up, Ole. I want to hear what the Doctor thinks."</p> + +<p>"I was only going to say," Lane continued, "that if my guess is right +all the oil you saw is only a bucketful of the big tank. Unless I'm all +wrong you will stumble into a reservoir of the highest grade oil as +big as the State of California. To settle this thing once for all, I +promise to finance another expedition for oil prospecting if you return +from this a cent poorer than you wish to be. If we don't get your oil +this time we certainly will next. There is no argument about it; I am +positive. Now let us get to something more important and inspect some +of these gorgeous jewels while the light lasts."</p> + +<p>They followed him into the thick of the shambles.</p> + +<p>"Ole," he continued, "I see you have brought your camera. Get busy. +Begin with the big fellows and be sure you take enough pictures of each +to show clearly the head, neck, position of the legs, pattern of the +scales, and tail—if there is one. Take in the small fry too. They're +just as important as the big fellows."</p> + +<p>While Ole industriously clicked away at the mountains before him, the +rest of the party clambered over monsters whose horny armor still +afforded a sure footing, carefully avoiding the inviting slopes of the +colossal three hundred foot lizards. A step on those smooth, bloated +bodies meant a plunge up to the neck in corruption.</p> + +<p>From many of the hideous skulls most of the flesh had already +disappeared, leaving only irregular patches of blackened skin above +the arsenals of sabre teeth and around the huge glasslike masses of +lustreless jelly in the eye sockets.</p> + +<p>As they passed from monster to monster along that shambles of a beach, +Lane's expression changed gradually from reverent wonder to puzzled +incredulity. His theory was taking shape before his eyes. Yet so +strange was it that he doubted the evidence of tangible proofs. The +thing he had imagined was unbelievable when seen. What, he wondered, +lay behind this veil which his own speculations and those of Drake had +lifted ever so little? Had they guessed the whole truth, or did an +unimagined catastrophe wait for them at the end of their untrodden path +into the unknown? At this first partial confirmation of their theory +his belief in himself faltered. For once he hoped that he had been +misled by reason.</p> + +<p>Going up to one huge head he peered into the gaping cavity of the mouth +and began to count the teeth. Their number would either confirm or +destroy Drake's theory and his. Hoping that he had made a mistake he +counted the teeth a second time. He had made no error.</p> + +<p>"As I thought," he said, wiping the sweat from his forehead. "These +things are all wrong."</p> + +<p>"Is an ugly brute like that ever right?" Anderson asked.</p> + +<p>"Always, in nature. At least according to their fossil remains they are +invariably true to type. What would you think of a man with forty-eight +teeth instead of the normal thirty-two?"</p> + +<p>"As a practical seaman," said the Captain, "I should advise him to +go to a dentist and have sixteen pulled. It would save him a lot of +toothache on the high seas."</p> + +<p>"That wouldn't work on this fellow. It would take a steam shovel to dig +out his eight superfluous molars."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," Drake suggested hopefully, "this one is a freak. Try +another. There are plenty lying about."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I don't see one of the same species. That's another curious +thing about all this. There are not more than a dozen specimens of any +one kind, I should judge, in the whole stew."</p> + +<p>"Isn't that one over there the same sort as this?" Edith asked, +pointing to a huger brute that resembled the monster of too many teeth.</p> + +<p>The Doctor surveyed its frozen death agony. "I believe you are right," +he said. "Let's count his teeth."</p> + +<p>The count checked. Again the monster had eight molars in excess of what +nature should have given him.</p> + +<p>"That settles it," the Doctor muttered, sitting down on the treacherous +tail of a defunct reptile.</p> + +<p>"Oh see what a mess you are in!" Edith cried. "Stand up. You can't come +back to the ship till you've burned your clothes."</p> + +<p>"Clothes don't matter in a crisis like this. Science is rotting to its +foundations."</p> + +<p>"That's no reason why you should sit down in the basement," Edith +retorted. Her mask had slipped, and naturally she was inclined to be +severe.</p> + +<p>"If this is science," Drake remarked, "I agree. It's putrid from cellar +to attic."</p> + +<p>"Don't play the fool. If you have guessed as much as I think you have, +you should be able to appreciate what this may mean. This is serious. +Not one of these creatures, I'll wager, is all that it should be. +Each at first glance is like its supposed type. When you look at them +closely and begin to apply scientific tests you find they are all +either deformities or new species. Off hand one would say that nature +had been practising and had forgotten her art."</p> + +<p>"That," said Drake, "isn't your theory, however. Is it?"</p> + +<p>"No," the Doctor admitted. "But the facts, all theories aside, can +be ascertained either to establish or to refute my contention that +these things are not as nature should have made them. Now here is a +crucial test. See that blue brute like a potbellied crocodile over +there? No, not the one with the saw ridge of three-foot spines down +its back, but the one with the red bags hanging down from its jowls. +All right. According to all we know from fossil anatomy that beast was +comparatively harmless. Its only weapons were its teeth and its claws. +I don't know what those obscene looking pouches mean—they don't show +in any fossil remains yet found. Nor do I know whether red is their +natural color, or whether it is due to faster decay owing to all the +oil having dripped down off them. So much for its supposed identity.</p> + +<p>"Now I suspect," he continued, "from the shape of that beast's head and +snout that it was venomous when alive. The true animal, the one in the +fossil beds was as innocuous as a tame worm. I'm going over to see. +If that brute has poison glands above its evil fangs the question is +settled. It is some reptile utterly unknown to science."</p> + +<p>Accompanying him to the grinning head they watched while he inspected +the rows of yellowish knives bared by the upward snarl of the dry, +scaled lips. The great cavern of the mouth gaped open, revealing +a single five-foot row of teeth on each side of the gums. Having +carefully selected the fang for his test, Lane picked up the largest +stone he could heft and hurled it with all his strength at the point. +The stone rebounded like a pebble from a brick wall.</p> + +<p>"Here, Ole!" the Captain shouted. "Come and play hand-ball."</p> + +<p>Ole with his knotted strength was more successful. Behind his +thirty-pound pebble he put the full barrel of his strength. The fang +was jarred. The deep musical boom which it emitted died gradually away +and Ole took another shot. At the fifth impact the fang was loose. The +sixth, aimed at the base, sent it crashing out of the monster's head. +Lane peered up in the gaping cavity.</p> + +<p>"There's a sac of something up there," he said, "but it may only be a +cushion of fat. Ole, will you fetch an oar from the boat?"</p> + +<p>When the oar arrived Lane thrust the blade far up the cavity and +prodded hard. The sac broke, and a heavy oily green liquid oozed down +like cold pitch on the decaying remnants of the reptile's tongue.</p> + +<p>"I want some of that," the Doctor exclaimed, hastily emptying the +brandy from his pocket flask. "Ole, scoop up a ladleful on the end of +the oar. I'll hold the flask; you let the stuff pour in like molasses."</p> + +<p>"What is the decision?" Drake asked curiously, as the Doctor carefully +tucked away his pint of supposed venom.</p> + +<p>"We can't tell until this stuff is tried on some living creature. +Nevertheless I am willing to stake my reputation on the outcome. That +brute, when alive, was as venomous as a regiment of rattlesnakes."</p> + +<p>"Then it is like no prehistoric monster known to science?"</p> + +<p>"As different as a hen is from a hippopotamus. And so, I am willing +to wager, is every other creature that we have seen on this nightmare +of a beach. They are all new. For one thing the majority of them are +enormously bigger and bulkier than they should be. That in itself, +however, is not conclusive. It would be possible for such a state of +affairs to exist in, say, a herd of cattle. If all suffered from the +same disease of certain glands—those regulating growth—they might all +be enormous giants and yet not unnatural. These are abnormal in a far +more radical way."</p> + +<p>"But," Edith protested, "several of them look very much like the +restorations in some of your books on fossils."</p> + +<p>"That is the strangest part of all this unearthly dream. They are like +bad copies, botched imitations if you like, of those huge brutes whose +bones we chisel out of the rocks from Wyoming to Patagonia. Nature +must have been drunk, drugged or asleep when she allowed these aborted +beasts to mature. Every last one of them is a freak. It is just like +looking at a shambles of all the deformities of a nation."</p> + +<p>"The whole thing is inexpressibly hideous and depressing," Edith +shivered. "And these masks are becoming useless."</p> + +<p>"Hideous? Depressing? Why this is Heaven!"</p> + +<p>"Then I wish I were in hell," the mate remarked.</p> + +<p>"Hadn't we better be getting back to the ship, Doctor? We shan't want +to plough our way through this in the dark."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we had," the Doctor reluctantly admitted, feeling like Adam +when the angel showed him the back door of paradise. "How many pictures +did you get, Ole?"</p> + +<p>"Twenty dozen."</p> + +<p>"You look it," said Drake with a glance at Ole's bulging sweater. "Are +you always half loaded or is part of it natural?"</p> + +<p>"Pinhead," said Ole under his breath, beginning to pull on his oar.</p> + +<p>Drake, who had been unusually taciturn on the beach expressed himself +before reaching the ship.</p> + +<p>"Doctor," he said, "your conclusion that all those rotten brutes are +only half natural confirms my theory of the inscriptions."</p> + +<p>"Mine too," said the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"And you still want to go on with this?"</p> + +<p>"Of course."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't. I'm beginning to turn back and go home right now."</p> + +<p>"When it is just beginning to get interesting?"</p> + +<p>"I don't believe you know what you are up against."</p> + +<p>"Neither do you. But we both seem to have made a pretty good guess. I'm +going to see it through and find out what is at the other end of the +chain."</p> + +<p>"Then I shall have to stick it out too. For I'm hanged if I'll let an +old man like you get the better of me."</p> + +<p>"Old man?" Edith exclaimed indignantly. "He's only eleven years older +than you are, baby. And he's not half so frightened of the dark."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c8">8</h2> +</div> + +<h3>A SIGNIFICANT HINT</h3> + + +<p>The doctor and Ole would have been deliriously happy to spend the rest +of their days among the monsters on the beach. The weather however cut +short their ecstasies in the middle of the fifth week.</p> + +<p>It had been growing gradually colder, although the sky still retained +its crystal clarity. The wind steadily freshened. Twice the party +had been caught by a "woolly" which knocked them sprawling in the +evil-smelling brown slush. Young ice beginning to tinkle and chafe +against the ship, Anderson became anxious lest they be frozen fast for +the season over three hundred miles from their goal. He counselled an +immediate withdrawal to the inlet. Ole and the Doctor reluctantly gave +him best.</p> + +<p>They were not ten hours too soon in their decision. All about the ship +the water curdled rapidly into a churning waste of young ice which in +another twelve hours would render the propeller useless. As it was, the +propeller several times on their short run to the inlet jammed, and the +Captain's heart descended to his boots to rise again as the desperate +expedient of full steam ahead sent the screw kicking.</p> + +<p>If the worst came to the worst, Lane reflected, and they were caught, +they could leave the ship in charge of Bronson and make their way over +the pack to the mainland with dogs and sledges. But to be forced to +this expedient would disrupt the plan of their whole campaign.</p> + +<p>Anderson, still obstinately trusting to his volcanic theory, expected +to find open water in the inlet. And indeed as they bucked their slow +course toward the mouth the severe cold moderated several degrees +and the pack became less dense. Lane and Ole began to regret their +precipitate flight from the heaven of their dreams.</p> + +<p>The sudden departure from the slaughter beach had cut short the +Doctor's most ambitious project. Another day might have seen it +accomplished. With the help of Bronson and Ole he had rigged up a +tackle by which he planned to transport one of the larger horn-plated +monstrosities intact to the ship. The crew had already cleared a place +for it on deck. Over the protests of Edith, Drake and the crew, all was +ready for the reception of the huge evil-smelling brute when the sudden +necessity for getting out or being frozen in caused Lane to abandon the +beast and tackle at the water's edge.</p> + +<p>"Never mind," Anderson consoled him, "we can hoist your lily aboard +when we come back this way. It will be no sweeter then than it is now."</p> + +<p>With a sigh of regret Lane resigned himself to the loss of his loved +one. It was the prize of the whole filthy brood. Whatever may have been +the state of its interior the heavy armor of its enormous scales had +preserved it, outwardly at least, from the more distressing features of +dissolution. Edith rejoiced openly at her father's misfortune, and the +crew wore a smile that even the knife-edged blast from the south was +powerless to chill.</p> + +<p>Despite his heartbreaking loss Lane did not quit the beach in absolute +poverty. Every available nook of the <i>Edith</i> was packed with his +well-salted and pitch-soaked mummies. His collection as it stood would +be the scientific sensation of a century.</p> + +<p>More valuable still were Ole's photographs. An able-bodied Norwegian +seaman with the most expensive cameras and an unlimited supply of films +can take an overpowering abundance of excellent photographs in five +and a half weeks. Under Lane's expert direction he had photographed +practically everything visible on that eight mile beach.</p> + +<p>This indeed was but the minor part of Ole's Herculean labor. His +greater masterpieces had been achieved by the freehanded expenditure +of Anderson's dynamite and blasting powder. This the sagacious Captain +had stowed aboard the <i>Edith</i> in ton lots, confident that he should +have heavy blasting to do in his oil prospecting. He expected to find +his oceans of wealth under rocks buried beneath the accumulated ice +of ages. An incautious remark to the Doctor, who was bewailing his +stupidity in not having brought crosscut saws, steam shovels and other +modern implements of surgery in the large, had betrayed the Captain's +hoard to the rapacious zoölogist. The three weeks orgy of judicious +blasting which followed gave Ole his unique collection of interior +views.</p> + +<p>In this filthy business Lane and the mate toiled alone. The others +refused point blank to be present at the opening ceremonies. A day's +practice with its attendant disasters, which may be imagined but not +described, made the adaptable Ole expert in the planting of the charge. +By the evening of the second day he was splitting open swollen monsters +with the expert neatness of a specialist on prehistoric appendicitis. +A second charge skilfully inserted when the Doctor so desired brought +forth the creature's stomach for detailed examination.</p> + +<p>Lane was anxious to learn all that he could of the dead monsters' +life habits. Anatomy alone, as revealed by Ole's beautiful interior +photographs, was not enough. He must find out on what the creatures +had lived. As a rich by-product of this work he obtained, from the +undigested contents of the stomachs of the carnivorous reptiles and +mammals in the shambles, many of his most curious specimens. Seclusion +from the air in the stomachs of the huge lizards and enormous +salamanders had preserved many of these beautiful objects practically +fresh.</p> + +<p>One remarkable incident of all that surgical saturnalia deserves to be +recorded here. At the time it gained only a passing notice from Ole +and the Doctor, absorbed as they were in the larger beauties of their +obscene orgy. But had Lane given it the attention which it merited, and +which he as a scientifically-trained man should have accorded it, the +party might later have avoided a disastrous mistake. Through ignorance +of its inevitable consequences they were all but destroyed.</p> + +<p>Late one afternoon Ole had placed an unusually heavy charge against +the belly of an enormous brute whose carcass, from its well-preserved +condition, promised a rich mine of vegetable treasures. An inspection +of the teeth showed Lane that the dead monster had been an eater of +herbs, leaves and grass. The charge exploding prematurely only half did +its work. The downward force of the dynamite tore a deep pit in the +loose, oil-soaked shale of the beach and shattered the underlying bed +of perpetual ice. The broken surface of the deepest ice lay clean of +oil. Immediately after the explosion some undigested green fronds of a +mossy plant dropped from the creature's torn stomach upon the clean, +freshly broken ice.</p> + +<p>The half accidental explosion having ruined the specimen for further +investigation, Lane and his assistant shed no tears over the mess but +hurried on to the next. They had but three-quarters of an hour's +daylight left, and their time was too precious for regrets.</p> + +<p>Having finished their next operation successfully they prepared to +return to the ship while the light still served.</p> + +<p>Their shortest way back led past the botched job. Glancing down at the +ice pit, Lane called Ole's attention to the rich bright green mass of +hair-like vegetation which, presumably, had fallen from the rip in the +creature's stomach. Already overburdened with their implements and +specimens, they abandoned their intention of immediately collecting +some of the curious plant. Reluctantly deciding to leave it till +tomorrow they hurried on through the dusk to the boat.</p> + +<p>During the night the temperature rose several degrees. This otherwise +fortunate incident robbed them of their expected prize. For when they +visited the hole in the ice they found that the oily slush oozing down +through the shale had made of the vegetation a dirty brown soup.</p> + +<p>Nothing was to be gained by crying over rotten vegetables. They +proceeded at once to their surgery elsewhere, confident that the next +herb eater would furnish them with a ton of the green stuff.</p> + +<p>In this they were deceived. It was not until some weeks later, however, +that Lane discovered their serious error. They found an abundance +of green vegetation in the stomachs of such monsters as were plant +feeders, including tons of a particular variety whose green fronds and +masses of long tendrils resembled closely those which they had missed.</p> + +<p>Mere resemblance is far from identity, as the Doctor realized when it +was too late. When knowledge finally came the party was fighting for +its life with a foe which gave no quarter. But for this unpardonable +negligence on Lane's part the explorers need not have brought upon +themselves a hideous warfare for which they, as twentieth century human +beings, were totally unprepared. The dropped fragments of Ole's and +Lane's green loot littered the clean shore, the fresh young ice from +the beach to the ship, and the decks. Had Lane used his scientific eyes +he would have noticed immediately the sinister difference between the +habits of the plants he had collected and that which, through force of +circumstances, he had abandoned.</p> + +<p>This oversight and its subsequent consequences gave Lane the scientific +chastisement of his life. Since that ghastly fight on the ice he has +not scorned the humblest detail in his battles with the unknown.</p> + +<p>The <i>Edith</i> reached the mouth of the inlet not an hour too soon. +Snow began to fall as the gap of the inlet swung into view. Within +ten minutes the opening disappeared behind a thick grey confusion of +whirling feathers. The ship crushed her way through thickening ice +pack, cautiously feeling for the door in the iron wall ahead. To take +the pack at a rush was impossible. Every yard of the way must be felt +out or a smash against the barrier would send the ship like a brick to +the bottom. Along this barren coast the ice cliffs plunged sheer down +to deep water.</p> + +<p>The slow going all but blocked the propeller with floating ice. At each +succeeding jar the Captain's face became whiter. He had no physical +fear; his anguish was purely mental. It was the prospect of losing his +hypothetical oil that froze his nerves.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the nerve-racking grinding lessened. In fifteen minutes it had +ceased completely.</p> + +<p>"We're in," Anderson announced with undisguised relief. He would die +rich after all. "No ice, as I expected."</p> + +<p>A sounding gave no bottom. The volcanic crack in the earth's crust, +if such indeed was its nature, was deeper than the Captain had +anticipated. Although before them loomed the impenetrable gray wall of +tumbling snow it seemed safe to proceed at half speed.</p> + +<p>"For twenty miles at least this thing is as straight as a street," the +Captain explained, "and we want to get on."</p> + +<p>Occasional blasts from the whistle reverberating from the high cliffs +nearest them gave a check on the course and kept the ship off the +rocks. By daylight they had made only thirty miles, having slackened +speed for greater safety during the darkest hours of the morning. The +snow had thinned and now showed signs of clearing. Shortly after nine +o'clock only a dazzling glitter of finely divided crystals scintillated +in the sunlight. For the first time the party saw its surroundings.</p> + +<p>Ahead, and due south, stretched the inlet, at this point about a +quarter of a mile wide, to disappear finally as a jagged black line on +the white waste.</p> + +<p>Not a particle of ice floated on the water. Anderson ordered one of +the men to draw up a bucketful and take the temperature. The reading +gave forty degrees Fahrenheit—eight degrees above freezing, while all +about them the bleak wilderness beneath its shroud of dry snow crystals +lay locked in perpetual ice.</p> + +<p>"What do you make of it, Doctor?" the Captain asked.</p> + +<p>"Nothing, yet. I just accept it as a fact. What current is there?"</p> + +<p>"About two miles an hour against us. Shall we go ahead, or land here +and have a look at things?"</p> + +<p>"Go ahead, full steam. For all we know this may freeze over with the +first blizzard. Besides I am anxious to see what is at the end of this +long street."</p> + +<p>"So am I. Full steam ahead it is."</p> + +<p>Their progress was finally blocked in a most peculiar manner. Sixty +odd miles of the roughly straight watercourse lay behind them when +they began to notice a decided rise in temperature. Simultaneously a +heavy fog met them, rolling up from the south toward which they were +headed. The dazzling sunshine and the stark blue sky became memories. +Anderson now proceeded as slowly as it was possible to do and still +make headway against the current. The street showing unmistakable signs +of degenerating into a crooked alleyway, he kept the whistle tooting +almost continuously. The engineer kept the screw just turning, ready to +reverse at the first blackening of the mist ahead. But it was water, +not rock that stopped them.</p> + +<p>A sudden gush sweeping down the channel in a three-foot wave sent the +<i>Edith</i> spinning. Full steam ahead kept her barely abreast of her +former position. A second torrent brought with it clouds of steam. +Instantly the ship was racing to keep her place in a scalding deluge. +The waves breaking over the stern drenched and blistered the deckhands +with boiling water.</p> + +<p>There was but one thing to do. Taking a desperate chance in the +blinding steam, Anderson slewed the ship about in the narrow channel +and went down with the torrent, trusting to sound signals to keep him +off the cliffs. By midnight the immediate danger was past. Once more +the <i>Edith</i> lay where she had started ahead at full steam.</p> + +<p>"No lobsters boiled yet," said the Captain with a sigh. "Even Ole is +still raw." The stars glittered in the hard black sky like crystals of +icy fire. "I shall drop anchor for the night here. The lookout can see +far enough ahead to give warning if anything breaks loose."</p> + +<p>"We should be safe enough here," the Doctor agreed. "The last of the +steam fog is all of forty miles away."</p> + +<p>And so it proved. However, the night was not to pass without a flurry. +At three in the morning the lookout called Captain Anderson to view a +spectacle which had been troubling him at intervals for the past two +hours. Having seen it, Anderson at once routed out Ole and all the +passengers. They found the watchman staring straight ahead at a heavy +pall of low black clouds suspended above the southern horizon.</p> + +<p>"Keep your eyes on those clouds," Anderson directed.</p> + +<p>He had barely spoken when the under side of the pall burst into vivid +crimson. For perhaps three minutes the cloud pall pulsated from +crimson to cherry red like the intermittent reflection from a forge +fanned by an old-fashioned bellows. Then suddenly the light went black.</p> + +<p>"How long before it lights up again?" Anderson asked the watchman.</p> + +<p>"Thirteen and a half minutes, sir. Regular as a clock."</p> + +<p>The interval passed and again the clouds burst into fire. And so it +went till dawn when the rising winds of the upper atmosphere, tattering +the pall, flung it far to the frozen south. During all that time the +party had watched in fascination, not heeding the stiffening of their +joints in the cold. The unearthly beauty of that distant inferno, and +the mysterious regularity with which its manifestations recurred, made +conversation trivial. Little was said until daylight, when the upper +winds and the rising sun obliterated the awful grandeur of the night.</p> + +<p>"Is that your volcano?" the Doctor asked.</p> + +<p>"Ole's burning oil well, you mean. No I'm sure it isn't. Those clouds +were not more than fifty miles away at the most. My estimate of the +other thing, you remember, was between two hundred and fifty and three +hundred miles inland. That would make it over two hundred miles from +here."</p> + +<p>"Then what do you make of it?" Edith asked.</p> + +<p>The Captain grinned. "Like the Doctor, I'll wait and see what's ahead +before I jump."</p> + +<p>"I have a theory," Ole began.</p> + +<p>"Bottle it. When it's ripe enough to blow the cork let it fizz."</p> + +<p>Ole rolled off rumbling to vent his emotions on purely masculine ears.</p> + +<p>"What is it to be, Lane?" the Captain asked. "Do we try it again up +stream or shall we take to the land?"</p> + +<p>"How long will it take to get ready for the land journey?"</p> + +<p>"Four hours. I saw to rationing the sledges while you and Ole were +enjoying yourselves."</p> + +<p>"Are the dogs in fit shape?"</p> + +<p>"They will do. The four weeks' exercise on that rotten beach wasn't all +it should have been, but it will have to do."</p> + +<p>"Why not compromise?" Drake suggested. "Let us go by ship as far as we +can before taking to the sledges. I don't relish dragging the beastly +things over the ice. For that is what it will come to when the fool +dogs give in. Sooner or later they are bound to go. We can't pack four +months' grub for them and ourselves."</p> + +<p>"What about it, Captain?" the Doctor asked. "Are you willing to risk +the boiling water?"</p> + +<p>"Now that we know what to expect I see no great danger. Unless," he +added, "boiling mud comes down with the water and mires us a hundred +miles from the sea."</p> + +<p>"We'll chance it," the Doctor decided. "If there had been no more of an +eruption than boiling water so far it seems improbable that there will +be one now just to welcome us."</p> + +<p>"There is always the airplane as a last resort," Edith pointed out.</p> + +<p>"Yes," said the Captain, "and who would be the happy pair to escape +while the rest stayed behind and starved?"</p> + +<p>"Don't you see? The pilot could take off the men one at a time. In a +pinch five or six could crowd on somehow. The plane can lift the weight +of ten men easily."</p> + +<p>"And get the last of them off the night after Judgment Day. No, Edith, +if we do get caught your plan won't work. However, I'm as game as your +father. And what I say the men will do—and be damned quick about it, +too. Now, Doctor, since we are going back I should like to ask a favor."</p> + +<p>"Go ahead. If it's anything reasonable consider it granted."</p> + +<p>"It is this. I want to find out what caused that glow on the clouds. +Suppose we take a side trip to find out before going on to the main +show?"</p> + +<p>"That sounds all right to me. And it will give the dogs some real +exercise."</p> + +<p>"To say nothing of ourselves," Drake prophesied gloomily. "I know the +brutes will be unmanageable. One tried yesterday to take a piece out of +my leg—and I have no meat to spare."</p> + +<p>Without further discussion the ship was put about. They proceeded +upstream at full speed. By noon they reached the point where they +judged it would be wise to leave the ship and take to the sledges.</p> + +<p>Within two hours Anderson, Ole, Drake, Lane and Edith, who refused to +be separated from her father, were on their way over the ice with a +week's provisions. Bronson was left in charge of the ship with orders +to head her downstream and keep a sharp lookout for trouble. At the +first hint he was to steam for the mouth of the inlet. Should the +party send no word to the contrary before the seventh night out, he was +to organize a relief and go in search.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c9">9</h2> +</div> + +<h3>INTO IT</h3> + + +<p>The party had two sledges. Anderson and Ole, being the only members +experienced with dogs, taking charge of the sledges, instructed the +others. One who has never had the pleasure cannot appreciate how much +sport goes with the skilful manipulation of a dog team. The greenhorns +soon learned. A temperature several degrees above zero, dead calm, a +blinding glare from the undulating snowfields, and their own panting +exertions quickly brought out the perspiration. Edith bore it with +compressed lips, the Doctor grinned like a cat in pain, and Drake, +wishing he might lie down and die, contented himself with a continuous +profane commentary on the dogs, the desolate landscape and the idiot +who had dragged him into this brainless mess.</p> + +<p>Drake's misery reached its climax when he was just on the point of +abandoning the expedition after three gruelling hours of elaborate +awkwardness. His sledge at the moment was careering sideways like a +crab down a gentle ice slope which the winds had swept clean of ice +crystals. Reaching the bottom without mishap he stubbed his toe on some +hard obstruction cunningly concealed beneath the loose drift. At the +same instant one runner of the sledge found another stumbling block. +Before Drake knew what it was all about he was sprawling on his back +like a lanky frog in the snow, his sledge was upside down, and the dear +dogs had tied themselves into a true lovers' knot.</p> + +<p>Scrambling to his feet he forgot Edith, his surroundings, everything +in fact but his fluent vocabulary. His rhythmic denunciation of the +universe brought a blush to the ears of the sensitive Ole, who at +that moment was acting as Edith's instructor. Quitting Edith's side +with alacrity Ole hastened over to extinguish Drake. Anderson and the +Doctor, taking things easy, were some distance ahead. In that clear, +cold air every syllable carried like a bullet. They spun round as if +shot by a machine gun.</p> + +<p>"Great Scott!" said the Doctor, "I didn't know he had that much in him. +Let us go back and see what brought it out."</p> + +<p>Ole discovered the cause of offense before the others reached the spot. +Drake's eruption had ceased abruptly in an ominous calm. With a glare +of suppressed rage he stood regarding Ole's dangerously inviting pose. +The mate was on his knees scratching like a terrier to scoop away the +loose snow from a black object, of which the pointed cap had already +been exposed by his frantic enthusiasm.</p> + +<p>"Ah," he puffed, "you are a born researcher, Mr. Drake. Invisible +though this was to the naked eye you found it. You have the scientific +penetration, the genius that sees through deceptive appearances to the +underlying truth."</p> + +<p>Drake, speechless, considered. Should he give Ole a thundering kick, or +was his toe too sore? By habit he kicked only with his right foot, the +one which had 'researched' Ole's treasure. He decided for peace.</p> + +<p>"What is it, idiot?"</p> + +<p>Ole ignored the compliment. "See for yourself. Inscriptions!"</p> + +<p>Drake was now on his knees, rooting with Ole. An exclamation from the +Captain proclaimed the discovery of the second black stone which, +buried in the snow, had wrecked the sledge. All hands now began +digging. In a few minutes two small, jagged fragments, evidently pieces +of a larger rock which had been shattered by its impact on the ground +ice, lay clean for inspection.</p> + +<p>At first the result was deeply disappointing. One of the fragments +had been so badly scarred by its rough treatment that not a single +pictogram remained on its surface, while the other exhibited only +the broken remains of half a dozen. Neither was worth photographing. +Anderson, having set Drake's disaster to rights, suggested that they +move on.</p> + +<p>But Drake appeared to be deaf. The more badly damaged of the two +fragments seemed to hold him hypnotized. Presently he rose to his feet +and kicked the black mass savagely with his heel.</p> + +<p>"Fetch a sledge-hammer," he ordered Ole.</p> + +<p>"Where in hell am I to get one?"</p> + +<p>Edith had already located the handaxe which she now offered to Drake. +With one sharp blow he split the black fragment into two along a +plane of cleavage. The sight which met their eyes brought a cry of +astonishment from all but Anderson and Ole. One surface of the divided +rock was covered with the deeply incised pictograms of prehistoric +monsters, while the other, like a relief map, bore the raised replica +of the same inscription. Yet the whole fragment before Drake split it +into two had seemed to be an ordinary chunk of black, cement-like rock. +Drake's brain was at work.</p> + +<p>"If you found twelve dozen of one kind, Hansen," he said, "it is +against all probability that you saw none of the other. Why didn't you +photograph some of them too?"</p> + +<p>"I did," Ole replied like a stolid keg. "In all I took over one hundred +pictures of the raised kind of inscriptions. They are in my chest +aboard the ship."</p> + +<p>"Then why on earth didn't you show them to me?"</p> + +<p>"Because," Anderson informed him, "we knew what sort of men you +scientific chaps are. We didn't want to give you too much to swallow +all at once—just enough in fact to make you hungry for more."</p> + +<p>"You win," said Lane. "I want everything you have."</p> + +<p>"That's the lot, Doctor, honest. From now on we are as green as you +are."</p> + +<p>"And that's saying a good deal. Does this throw any light on your +difficulties with Ole's photographs, Drake?"</p> + +<p>"Enough to show me why the whole series doesn't hang together. No +wonder the drawings of those animals are in two different styles +belonging to two totally distinct epochs of art. It also explains a +thing you would have noticed if you had taken the trouble to examine +the pictures carefully. Even I, with my vast ignorance of natural +science, can see that the monsters represented belong to different +ages of the earth's history. Roughly they seem to be alike. But the +resemblance, although real, is no deeper than the similarity between +men and apes. They belong to the same races of creatures, but are +separated by millions of years of evolution."</p> + +<p>"You're wrong there, Drake. I prefer to think that the differences are +merely the varying expression of a fixed idea. The minds of the artists +have evolved, not the creations of their art. I'll argue it out with +you later. For the present, does this find affect your guess as to +what's ahead of us?"</p> + +<p>"Not materially. The struggle that I deduced from the symbolism of the +inscriptions must have been longer than I thought. That's all."</p> + +<p>"Where did you find your inscriptions, Ole?"</p> + +<p>"A good seventy miles north of here."</p> + +<p>"Then there should be more in this neighborhood, because it probably +is nearer the source of the explosion. If so, we shall find enough to +write a prehistoric encyclopaedia from A to Z."</p> + +<p>And so it proved. At intervals of half a mile to a mile they found +the vast undulating snowfields littered with colossal fragments of +black rock, many of which on their level faces were covered with the +deeply cut figures of prehistoric monsters. As many more smaller chunks +doubtless lay buried beneath the snow and ice of two winters. Not +stopping to photograph these now they hurried on to their goal, the +source of the eerie light which they had seen from the ship.</p> + +<p>That night, without much wind, was cloudless. Although the temperature +dropped below zero none of the party experienced any serious discomfort +in their dry sleeping bags. The months of hardening in the Canadian +Rockies and Alaska had well prepared the new-comers to the Antarctic for +hardships which otherwise might have proved unendurable. The absence +of high winds on the bleak plateau was an unexpected piece of good +luck. By rare fortune they had penetrated one of those mysterious, +almost windless regions of the Antarctic continent which have puzzled +explorers.</p> + +<p>The first day they covered only twenty miles. With the experience of a +march behind them they made a little over forty miles through the dead +calm of the second day, to creep into their bags at night exhausted. +The men took watch by turns in two-hour spells. Not a flicker of +the strange fire they were seeking stained the cloudless night sky. +Beginning to doubt the correctness of their route they were wholly +unprepared for the inferno into which they blundered at five o'clock of +the third day.</p> + +<p>The start at five o'clock on that memorable morning was made under a +sky blazing with the icy jewels of innumerable stars. At sunrise they +found themselves ascending a sharp declivity of blue ice. Up that long +ascent the going was necessarily slow. By slogging ahead they had risen +two thousand feet shortly before ten o'clock. As nearly as they could +judge they were now climbing over a huge fold of rock running almost +due north and south. The view from the crest of the rise confirmed +their guess. Below them they saw a broad trough running north and south +as far as vision carried, filled almost to the brim with tumbling white +mist. Some thirty miles distant the farther side of the trough towered +high above the rolling mists in an unbroken barrier of jagged black +peaks.</p> + +<p>Although it looked hopeless they decided after a brief consultation to +continue on their course. Should the black barrier prove as forbidding +as it looked from thirty miles away they must turn back. They were +not going to be balked, however, by the mere aspect of difficulties. +Without further debate they descended the long ice slope into the +heaving pall of white fog.</p> + +<p>The descent was made without accident. Arrived on the floor of the +trough Anderson produced his compass and led off through the swirling +mist. Lane assumed command of one sledge with Drake as helper. A few +yards behind the leader Ole and Edith managed the second. So thick was +the fog that Anderson's figure only some forty feet ahead was invisible +to the tenders of the second sledge. Nevertheless the Captain set a +stiff pace over the blue ice and hard packed snow crystals.</p> + +<p>They had now but four and a half days left in which to make their +objective and return to the ship. The Captain was determined to find +out the nature of that black barrier before Bronson could overtake him +with an unwelcome relief party. The stiff pace, almost a run, suited +the others, for the clutching cold of the fog sought out and gripped +the marrows of their bones.</p> + +<p>For perhaps three-quarters of an hour all went well. Then a horrified +shout from Anderson brought the party to a palpitating halt.</p> + +<p>"Don't come here," the Captain called back. "Wait till I fetch you."</p> + +<p>One by one he led the others to the brink of the death which he had +escaped by half a second. There it gaped, a sheer well in the blue ice +thirty feet across and of depth unknown. The lip of the circular hole +lay flush with the surrounding ice. Its sides dropped straight down as +if carved out with a huge knife. It was a perfect circular well, over +a hundred feet in circumference and of a depth which they could only +guess, for it was full to the brim with white fog.</p> + +<p>Edith had an inspiration. She returned to the first sledge.</p> + +<p>"Here," she said, handing the Captain a pound tin of soup, "throw that +down and listen for the echo. Then we can figure out how deep it is."</p> + +<p>Anderson tossed the can into the centre of the hole. Only the breathing +of the dogs broke the intense stillness. Not the ghost of an echo rose +from the well.</p> + +<p>"Probably there is soft snow at the bottom," the Captain remarked. +"Well, I'm glad I'm above instead of below."</p> + +<p>Not suspecting what lay before them, the party proceeded through the +fog at a brisk trot. An astonished shout again brought them instantly +to a halt.</p> + +<p>"Here's another of the damned things," the Captain announced. "Ole, +fetch a rope. There's one on the second sledge."</p> + +<p>"You're not going down it, are you?" Drake asked nervously.</p> + +<p>"Not if I can help it, nor the next one either." He tied one end of the +rope securely about his middle and passed the other end to Lane. "Make +that fast to both sledges. When they begin to shoot ahead, pull back +hard. All right, come on. These may be oil wells for all we know."</p> + +<p>He marched rapidly forward through the blinding mist. "Follow me +exactly," he called back. "I've just gone two yards south of another."</p> + +<p>From that time on they passed at least two of the wells every five +minutes, occasionally cutting across the narrow strip which separated +three or four in a cluster. Prudence urged them to return, but the +determination to see the thing through held them to their course.</p> + +<p>They had neither time nor inclination to speculate on the significance +of those sheer pits in the ice and rock. All their will was +concentrated on their feet. One slip and they might learn more of the +mystery than they cared to know.</p> + +<p>Anderson forged steadily ahead without speaking. He was bent on +reaching the barrier before turning back, holes or no holes.</p> + +<p>At five o'clock they had been marching almost continuously for twelve +hours. The constant strain on their nerves no less than the pull on +their muscles was beginning to tell. Anderson suggested a brief halt +and a warm drink. It would take half an hour to prepare the chocolate. +That would leave them about an hour of such daylight as there was in +the cheesy fog.</p> + +<p>They were just about to enjoy the steaming drink when, with a rapid +up and down vibration, the ice beneath them began to shake violently. +The dogs howled dismally and tried to bolt. Suddenly a terrific jar +directly under them sent the party rolling. Staggering to their feet +they succeeded in cowing the dogs. The jarring ceased. In dead silence +the last tremor died.</p> + +<p>White and still, they stood staring at each other's scared eyes in the +ghostly mist. Few things so terrify even the most courageous human +being as a violent earthquake. There is about the terrific jarring +an impression of uncontrollable and insane force that temporarily +upsets the balance of the reason, and the helpless victim, powerless +to escape, can only wonder when the torment will cease. Lane had +experienced earthquakes in central China. This, however, was a +different order. To the other members of the party it was a new test of +courage. Drake's knees turned to water. He almost went down when Edith, +suffering from the same malady, clung to him for support. Ole said +nothing. He was too scared to pray. Anderson stood it best.</p> + +<p>"That's nothing," he said. "It will save my blasting powder."</p> + +<p>The words were hardly off his tongue before it began again, worse than +ever. In ten seconds it was over.</p> + +<p>"That's the queerest shake I ever felt," said the Doctor, wiping the +perspiration from his face. "The motion was entirely vertical. It felt +exactly as if someone miles below us was hitting the roof over him with +a heavy iron bar. Listen!"</p> + +<p>Miles under their feet they heard a muffled crashing like the slamming +of thousands of doors along a hundred mile corridor. With a last +crescendo of slams the noise ceased, to be followed immediately by a +hollow rumble as of water bursting underground from the sea through +labyrinths of rock. Rising to a sudden, deafening thunder directly +beneath them the shattering noise passed, to mutter itself out in the +bowels of the earth leagues to the south. Then the mist all about them +took sudden life. A great wind, eddying like a maelstrom, spun them +helplessly on the ice.</p> + +<p>By instinct rather than reason Anderson got his claspknife open and +cut the rope which bound him to the sledges. At the same instant Drake +and Ole each clutched one of Edith's arms, Lane seized Anderson by his +collar and with the other hand grasped Ole's coat, and all five huddled +together, flattened themselves on the ice. Not one of them afterward +recalled any thought in all of this. It had been purely the instinct of +self-preservation acting automatically.</p> + +<p>Spinning like straws in a whirlwind, now this way, now that, they were +too dazed to comprehend what was happening. Only a dim consciousness +that the air was being swept clean of fog penetrated their numbed +consciousness.</p> + +<p>The vortex motion of the atmosphere ceased as abruptly as it had begun. +Staggering to their feet in an air as clear and hard as glass they +found themselves less than two feet from the brink of a well fifty +yards across. The last vestige of the fog had been sucked down the +innumerable blowholes. These they now saw thickly pitted over the +desolate ice in all directions to the range of vision.</p> + +<p>It was some seconds before they realized the full horror of their +plight. Drake was the first to come out of the stupor.</p> + +<p>"The sledges?" he muttered, staring about him in a daze.</p> + +<p>They were gone. Anderson took in the situation at a glance. He kept his +nerve.</p> + +<p>"Out of this as fast as we can," he said quietly.</p> + +<p>He still clutched his compass. They followed him at a run. There was no +time to speculate down which of the wells the sledges had been sucked. +Every nerve strained to get out of that ghastly maze of death traps.</p> + +<p>"It's beginning again," Lane said presently. "I felt a slight jar. Down +on your stomachs and all hang together. Hansen, you're heaviest. Get in +the middle."</p> + +<p>They cowered on the ice, their hands joined round Ole's stout figure, +waiting for they knew not what.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c10">10</h2> +</div> + +<h3>UNDAUNTED</h3> + + +<p>Huddled on the trembling ice they set their teeth and prayed inwardly, +expecting to be hurled skyward. A rushing roar, like the tumbling +of flames in a furnace when the door is suddenly opened, rose with +incredible speed to a high, singing pitch of shattering intensity. +Just when the shrill whistling grew unendurable there shot from the +innumerable wells dotted over the ice hard white pillars of compressed +mist. With explosive violence the fog which the wind had sucked down +into the bowels of the rocks was being expelled.</p> + +<p>Straight up shot the thousands upon thousands of dense white columns to +fray themselves out in a whirling tracery on the roof of the sky like +the groining of a vast cathedral.</p> + +<p>Then the bottoms of the rushing fog pillars soared free of the wells. +The shortening columns, sucked up into the newly formed clouds +flattened themselves upon the misty roof in thousands of rings that +vibrated, clashed into one another, rebounded, clashed again, and +finally rolled along the underside of the cloudy dome in a mazy tangle +of spinning filaments.</p> + +<p>The pitch of the singing note from the blowholes heightened. Air or +gas was being forced up under tremendous pressure from the interior of +the earth. Speechless with awe, the huddled watchers beheld the tops +of the invisible columns burst into pale blue conical flames. Almost +immediately after they heard the thudding of the ignition.</p> + +<p>For perhaps ten seconds the whole cloud roof over the vast ice trough +was hung with the thousands of these pendant cones of blue flame. As +the sustaining pressure now rapidly dropped the shrillness of the +whistling diminished, and by great trembling bounds the blue cones +descended toward the wells, reddening as they fell.</p> + +<p>Half-way between the blood-red ice and the crimsoned cloud roof the +downward-rushing cones of red flame halted, suspended in mid-air, +roaring like ten thousand blast furnaces. Then with a tumbling +reverberation the innumerable tongues of crimson lengthened, swooped +upon the wells, and with a last earth-shaking thunder disappeared.</p> + +<p>Although daylight still lingered beneath the high gray pall of fog, +the party, blinded by that last downward rush of fire, saw nothing. +Dazed and trembling, they got to their feet. Gradually vision returned. +Without a word Anderson peered at his compass and led off. They were +too stunned by the mere magnitude of what they had seen to attempt as +yet to comprehend it. Only the instinct of self-preservation urged them +to immediate flight.</p> + +<p>They had made a little less than a mile when again the subterranean +thunder shook the ice under their feet. Then they remembered for the +first time their night vigil on the deck of the <i>Edith</i>. That periodic +glow on the distant clouds had recurred every thirteen and a half +minutes.</p> + +<p>For safety they again huddled together on the ice. Again the surface +air was sucked down the wells, but with considerably less violence. +Apparently the initial disturbance had stored up fuel for the +succeeding flames. Once more the shrill whistle from innumerable vents +announced the coming of the fires, and again the blue cones hung from +the massive cloud roof, to hover down presently in crimson fire before +the final swift plunge to the darkness of the wells.</p> + +<p>Long before they escaped from the trap night overtook them. Their march +had been a succession of panting runs while the tumbling flames and the +crimson glow lit up the icy desolation like a frozen hell. When the +flames vanished, and the air all about them became a black well, they +halted breathless with fear while the rapid jarring of the ice rocked +their brains, and the fierce whirlwinds clutched at their bodies to +hurl them down the bottomless pits of fire.</p> + +<p>The terror of the fiftieth grim watch was no less than that of the +first. At any instant the gyrating wind might get a surer hold of +their shrinking bodies and dash them all to a horrible death. Ordinary +courage, steeled by lifelong habit to brave the commonplace dangers of +human existence, availed them nothing. Their minds being unprepared for +this torture they could only cower under its fiendish recurrence.</p> + +<p>Dawn found them still crouched in the trap or stumbling blindly forward +under the lash of instinct. They had no idea how many miles they had +reeled through during the night. For all they knew they might be two +miles or twenty from the comparative heaven of the icy desolation +between them and the ship.</p> + +<p>With the coming of full daylight the temperature rose and the heavy +pall above them began slowly to descend. A new terror gripped them when +the icy mists swirled down, enveloping the party in impenetrable gray. +They must now grope their way forward a step at a time. Haste meant +death in the wells, which still with maddening regularity shot up their +pillars of descending flame. Numb with cold and stupefied by fatigue as +they were, they yet had feelings of awe for the mysterious beauty of +the infernal dream when the crimson flames, smoky as milky-red opals +through the shrouding mists, paused for a fraction of a second above +the wells for their final plunge.</p> + +<p>Three hours after dawn the last rumble jarred the ice, and the +blowholes droned wearily, but no flame issued. It was as if some titan +chained beneath the rock had expired his last flaming breath. For that +day at least the strange terror was ended.</p> + +<p>Through the searching cold of the dead mist they groped their way in +stunned misery for another four hours. Only the necessary words of +caution as the leader avoided the pitfalls at his feet broke their +dazed silence.</p> + +<p>At last they felt themselves climbing uphill. They were out of the +inferno. Urging their jaded bodies to the limit of endurance, they +panted up the long slope. Two hours later they flung themselves on the +ice, face up in the glorious sunlight.</p> + +<p>For half an hour they lay there in silence, soaking in the light of +heaven. The heat of their bodies melting the ice, presently their +clothes were sagging with freezing water. In spite of themselves they +slept.</p> + +<p>"We can't stay here," Anderson said, getting to his feet. "Wake up, +everybody. We must go on as far as we can and trust that Bronson will +find us."</p> + +<p>The Captain was right. Sleep with no covering but their clothes, even +in the afternoon sunshine, was almost certain suicide. Like automatons +they followed Anderson over the dazzling snowfields, tramping +monotonously till dark. Among the weary five of them there was not a +particle of food. And having no fuel they could not thaw out the hard +frozen snow or ice to drink. The bits of ice which they sucked in the +stinging cold to allay the raging thirst cracked their lips and seared +their tongues, causing them exquisite torture.</p> + +<p>Never slacking his gait, Anderson crunched steadily ahead. Fatigue +to him might have been an alien mystery. The three men followed him +doggedly. Hansen appeared to notice nothing more than the ordinary +day's work. He bobbed along like a jogging barrel directly behind +Anderson, treading down a firm foothold for Edith, who trudged after +him. Lane came next, some yards behind, and Drake, cursing softly to +himself to keep up his spirits, brought up the rear.</p> + +<p>The deepest darkness of the early morning made no difference to +Anderson. He kept on. It is a perennial miracle what the human body can +stand when it is driven by a relentless mind. All that night, half-mad +with thirst, the party slogged on through the black cold.</p> + +<p>Dawn found them still marching.</p> + +<p>"Anybody for a rest?" Anderson croaked through his cracked lips.</p> + +<p>Edith nodded, and sank down in her tracks. Instantly she was asleep. +Taking off his outer coat, Ole rolled her in it and slapped his sides +to keep from freezing. To the protests of Drake and Lane, who peeled +their coats, Ole replied that he, having more blubber than both of them +together, could better stand a freeze.</p> + +<p>None of the men attempted to sleep. They sat on the ice or stamped +about when they began to stiffen.</p> + +<p>"Hereafter I carry my sleeping bag on my back," the Captain croaked. +"Damn the dogs."</p> + +<p>"Captain Anderson!" Ole reproved him.</p> + +<p>"She's asleep, idiot. Shut up."</p> + +<p>Stirring uneasily, Edith rolled over on her side. Suddenly she sat up +with a start.</p> + +<p>"O, I'm dreadfully ashamed," she cried, scrambling painfully to her +feet.</p> + +<p>"How long have I slept?"</p> + +<p>"Five minutes," Anderson lied nobly, and Drake nodded.</p> + +<p>"It felt like five seconds," Edith sighed. Then she noticed Ole's coat. +"Oh Ole, how generous of you," she exclaimed, helping him into it. "But +you shouldn't have done it; I'm not a baby."</p> + +<p>"That's nothing," Ole protested.</p> + +<p>"It's a great deal," she replied. "My, but it's cold."</p> + +<p>"All right," Anderson croaked, "we'll go on. You will soon warm up."</p> + +<p>From that hour Edith became a firm adherent of the theory that five +minute naps at the proper time are as refreshing as a night's sleep. +None of the men had the heart to explode her theory. They never told +her that she had slept three hours and twelve minutes.</p> + +<p>Another rest of two hours in mid-afternoon refreshed them all. By +huddling together three of the men generated warmth enough in the clear +sunshine to enjoy a profound sleep. The fourth kept watch, rousing +the next man when his turn came. Edith slept straight through the two +hours.</p> + +<p>That night they marched briskly from dusk to dawn without a halt. +Another two hour rest restored them for the final effort. The men had +found their second wind. Edith's sufficient sleep and youth made her +a good match for the men. She would go through with it to the end and +come out smiling. Curiously enough, hunger did not greatly distress +them. After the first sharp pangs they forgot food in the intense +longing for copious draughts of water. Putting their wills to it they +forged ahead almost at a run over the hard, packed snow.</p> + +<p>Seventeen hours later they saw the rubies and emeralds of the ship's +lights gleaming through the crystal night air. In fifteen minutes they +were wallowing alternately in cold water and steaming hot chocolate.</p> + +<p>"Never again," said the Captain, limping off to his cabin. "I'll leave +that sort of thing to professional explorers who enjoy talking about it +afterwards from a platform."</p> + +<p>This, however, was the rash statement of a pessimistic and leg-weary +man. By twelve o'clock the next day he was up to his neck in plans for +another assault on the black barrier which he was determined to cross. +He persisted in his belief that oceans of oil lapped the farther side +of the jagged range which they had failed to reach.</p> + +<p>Lane regarded this as a delusion. Finally as a geological expert he +convinced the Captain that sweet pickles were a likelier prospect than +oil in a rock formation such as they had seen. Later he modified this +verdict.</p> + +<p>"Have patience," he said, "and you will get your oil. Don't expect it +to rain down on your head like blessings from above."</p> + +<p>"Listen to me," Ole broke in. For some time he had been suffering +agonies from the high pressure of his superheated theories. "Those +blowholes," he said impressively, "spouted natural gas. Therefore there +is oil at the bottom of them. There are our wells, Captain."</p> + +<p>"Idiot," said the Captain, "how are we to get at the oil if it is at +the bottom of those hell holes?"</p> + +<p>"Pumps."</p> + +<p>"Pump yourself and dry up." The Captain turned to Lane. "What is it to +be?"</p> + +<p>"Full steam ahead as far as we can go. Then deposit a cache of dynamite +and provisions, send the ship downstream a safe distance, and make it +inland by sledges to your volcano."</p> + +<p>"Burning oil well," Ole corrected under his breath.</p> + +<p>"We shall see when we get there," said the Doctor. "Suppose we can +approach to within fifty or even a hundred miles of the volcano—pardon +me, Ole, burning oil well. We could establish a base there—bury our +supplies in the ice, if necessary—and deposit caches of food and fuel +every ten miles to the place itself. There are plenty of able-bodied +men aboard to chop holes in the ice and pack in the stuff. Then we +won't be bothered with those beastly dogs."</p> + +<p>"There are only two teams left, anyway," said the Captain. "Your plan +sounds reasonable."</p> + +<p>"And I know John will go wild over it," Edith added. "He would rather +fall down one of those wells than coo to a dogteam again."</p> + +<p>Drake was absent from the council, having locked himself in with Ole's +photographs.</p> + +<p>"Oh," the Doctor replied, "I was planning on Drake managing one sledge +and you the other. We shall need all the transport we can scrape +together, for there is no telling how long we may be away from our +base. Ole, Anderson and I will be busy looking for oil wells."</p> + +<p>Edith ignored the suggestion.</p> + +<p>"May a mere woman participate in the councils of the gods?" she asked +with mock humility.</p> + +<p>"Yea," her father answered, "even a mere child may prattle about our +feet. 'Out of the mouths of babes—' you know. Proceed, infant."</p> + +<p>"I shall do so," the child replied. "And presently you won't be able +to see me for my smoke. For I intend to take Ole with me on a tour of +inspection while you and the others are breaking pickaxes and your +backs over cast iron ice."</p> + +<p>"How so, child?"</p> + +<p>"I have wings, have I not?"</p> + +<p>"Even so, angel child. You were born with feathers on your back."</p> + +<p>"Then I shall fly. In three hours I shall find out more about this +country than you and the blessed dogs will learn in ten years. If +Ole's cameras are good for anything we shall supply you with a map of +the continent from here to the South Pole. Then you will be able to +find your way to the Captain's oil field without stubbing your toes +over every brick on the road as poor John did. Ole, consider yourself +engaged as official photographer of the air reconnaissance. In the +meantime, Captain Anderson, full steam ahead while our luck lasts."</p> + +<p>The last order being confirmed by Lane, the Captain obeyed. Returning +to the cabin, he found Lane with his back to the wall fighting his last +battle against Ole and Edith.</p> + +<p>"Help me talk these lunatics out of their insanity," he begged, "before +they break their silly necks."</p> + +<p>But the Captain, having reflected, was less inclined than the Doctor to +the lunacy theory.</p> + +<p>"Let me take a squint at the barometer, first," he said.</p> + +<p>"Set fair," he announced. "This seems to be an almost windless region. +Those tornadoes round the blowholes don't count. The devil alone is +responsible for them. Having his hands full there he won't bother us +here—at least not for twelve hours unless the barometer is a worse +liar than he is.</p> + +<p>"Now here is my vote," he continued. "If the weather stays set until +we reach our anchorage I say Edith and Ole should go. She is right. In +three hours they can find out what it would take us years to bungle +through. At the first sign of wind or dirty weather she can scoot back +to the ship. She is the best air pilot of us all. And I'll say this of +Ole: he is second best."</p> + +<p>Ole blushed appreciatively. "You bet your boots I am."</p> + +<p>"Also you are as dumb as a barrel," the Captain resumed, "so you won't +put Miss Lane up to any foolishness. She will do the thinking for both +of you."</p> + +<p>"Ole can take the pictures and theorize," Edith promised consolingly.</p> + +<p>"And mend the motor when you bust it," Ole added with a touch of +vindictiveness. It is one thing to call a man a masterbuilder of +theories and quite another to say he theorizes. Ole sensed the +distinction.</p> + +<p>The Doctor was finally routed. And so it happened that Edith and Ole +took not one reconnoitering flight, while the men and gods toiled +fifteen hours a day at the caches, but several.</p> + +<p>That afternoon they proceeded upstream to within fifty miles of their +projected goal. For twelve days of perfect calm they anchored in the +narrow channel, ready at a second's notice to race from the deluge of +hot mud which they half expected but which never came. The stout ship +was to leave her timbers in that desolate spot to the end of time, but +it was not mud or lava which held her fast.</p> + +<p>The powerful airplane had been unshipped without difficulty. A level +stretch of hard packed snow made an ideal landing ground. When tanked +to capacity the plane carried enough petrol for a thousand mile flight. +Taking no chances, the explorers carried the full complement on each +trip.</p> + +<p>"Au revoir," Edith said as she climbed in for her first flight. "We'll +be back before midnight. I promise."</p> + +<p>"How far are you going?" Drake asked.</p> + +<p>"To Hades."</p> + +<p>Edith's answer had been given merely to shock Ole. Yet it contained +an unsuspected element of truth. That was precisely where she landed +before the end of her explorations.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c11">11</h2> +</div> + +<h3>HOT WATER</h3> + + +<p>Edith's intention was to fly due south. She wished if possible to +discover the source of the eruption which Anderson had observed on his +first trip. The account of the gigantic smoke ring, visible at over +two hundred and fifty miles, "teetering crazily up the sky" had taken +her imagination by storm. She wished to see for herself what sort of a +monster blew such delightful rings. Ole's burning oil well theory did +not seem entirely satisfactory. Edith rather expected to find a crater +pursed up through the ice like a smoker's lips, lazily generating smoke +for the next puff.</p> + +<p>So far the party had seen no sign of the distant disturbance from the +ship. The cordial gush of hot water which had first welcomed them, +however, they regarded as highly significant.</p> + +<p>If there was hot water in the vicinity Edith longed to be in it. Her +rather inactive part in the expedition so far had made her feel young +and unimportant. She now wished, as she said to herself, to return +from her trip distinguished or busted. Giving the engine more gas she +let it out to seventy miles an hour, humming through the zero air in +a bee-line for her hive. If Anderson's estimate had been correct she +should reach it in less than an hour.</p> + +<p>Ole set himself with stolid perseverance to photograph the Antarctic +continent as seen from above. With the results of his labors it would +be possible, he hoped, for subsequent explorers to find their way +blindfolded to the South Pole.</p> + +<p>Forty freezing minutes flew behind them before they noticed any feature +of interest on the desolate, icebound landscape rolling up from the +south to meet them. The jagged black crests of what appeared as an +almost perpendicular rock barrier pricked the horizon.</p> + +<p>Nearing this barrier at the rate of a mile a minute they saw it rise +by leaps above the white wilderness. Ole had charge of the navigating +instruments. By a rough calculation, half guess and half arithmetic, +he estimated the barren cliffs to be not over three hundred feet high. +A glance vertically down showed an undulating ice plain thickly dotted +with huge fragments of black rock. Occasionally one of these jagged +fragments, having fallen with the flat side uppermost, presented a +thatch of last winter's snow to the observers, but for the most part +their stark pinnacles were bare and black.</p> + +<p>Presently Ole gave a shout that was audible above the droning of the +propeller.</p> + +<p>"Blowholes," he bellowed, handing Edith his binoculars.</p> + +<p>Peering over the side Edith beheld a pockmarked expanse of blue ice, +pitted with bottomless wells and littered with huge fragments of rock. +Putting her trust in Providence not to "blow" the wells until she had +flown over them, she gave the engine more gas and spun toward the low +barrier at a hundred mile clip.</p> + +<p>Coming directly over the barrier they saw that the apparent wall was +tumbled desolation of huge rock masses at least five miles broad. It +would be impossible to traverse that jumble with dog teams. If the goal +of the expedition lay beyond that chaos they must traverse it painfully +on foot with packs on their backs.</p> + +<p>Edith flew on. The speedometer showed eighty miles an hour. +Some minutes later they saw the black mass beneath them curving +precipitously down like the slope of a steep mountain.</p> + +<p>Determined to ascertain the extent of the vast crater—for such they +judged it to be—Edith continued to fly due south with one eye on the +speedometer. The walls of the huge depression below them were soon +no longer visible. Only a sheer void with slowly heaving sooty black +clouds at the bottom, apparently several miles below them, met their +awed gaze.</p> + +<p>That deep expanse of inky billows seemed never ending. On they flew at +eighty miles an hour until seventy minutes lay between them and their +starting point at the lip of the gigantic crater, and the precipitous +slopes of the farther side soared suddenly up out of the black smoke +to meet them. The crater, they inferred, must be ninety miles across. +Vast as this estimate made it, they could not be sure that it was +adequate, as they had no means of judging whether they had flown above +a diameter.</p> + +<p>When they finally cleared the last of the shattered buttress and level +ice stretched unbroken for miles beneath them, Ole signified his urgent +wish to descend. They landed without mishap.</p> + +<p>"Where are you going?" Edith demanded as Ole started on a run back to +the lip of the crater.</p> + +<p>"I have just had a theory," he bellowed, forgetting in his enthusiasm +that he was no longer competing with the propeller. "Now I test it."</p> + +<p>When he rejoined her forty minutes later his face bore the smug +expression of one who has looked on Truth and found her all that he +hoped.</p> + +<p>"Just as I thought," he said. "The south sides of those rocks on the +edge of the crater are covered with lichens."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Edith, testy from the cold, "did you expect to find +barnacles?"</p> + +<p>"No," he replied with the bland complacency of a sunfish, "I knew I +should find lichens."</p> + +<p>"Then it was stupid of you to waste nearly an hour looking for them," +she retorted. "Get in. I'm going on."</p> + +<p>"But," he expostulated, "I have proved my theory. That is no new +crater. It must be very old. Therefore Captain Anderson did not see it +erupting."</p> + +<p>"Then what did he see?"</p> + +<p>"An eruption within an eruption. Just the old floor of this volcano has +blown up in our times."</p> + +<p>"And the floor was covered with inscriptions? Yours is a likely theory, +I must say. Who ever heard of people carving inscriptions on the floor +of a volcano?"</p> + +<p>"Who ever didn't hear of it?" Ole retorted, not quite sure of his +logic. "Why shouldn't they? Perhaps those inscriptions were only +tombstones. Haven't you seen the flat ones in the churchyards? Those +ancient makers of inscriptions wished to bury something."</p> + +<p>"So they dug a hole in the red hot lava and put a lid over it?"</p> + +<p>"Not of course. I mean," he corrected himself, "of course not. No, that +isn't what I mean. I want to say it doesn't follow. The main eruption +may have been millions and millions of years ago." Ole grew poetical. +"When the earth was but an infant in swaddling clothes that ancient +eruption moved, and lived, and had its being."</p> + +<p>"Colic?" Edith asked innocently. "Is that from the <i>Song of Solomon</i>? +It sounds familiar."</p> + +<p>"No," said Ole, as stolid as a keg of soused herrings, "Solomon sang of +other things. All those rocks I photographed," he continued, "are parts +of that old cracked floor. Satan has recently been unchained again down +there"—Ole's polite way of saying that hell had broken loose again in +modern times—"and those far hurled tons of inscriptions testify to +his inordinate vehemence. We are witnessing a recrudescence of that +prehistoric calamity which rocked the Pole to its roots."</p> + +<p>"I too have a theory," Edith announced.</p> + +<p>"Yes?" said Ole eagerly.</p> + +<p>"My theory is that you will be left here talking through your hat +forever if you don't climb in at once. I'm going on."</p> + +<p>The unappreciated Ole took the hint. They were off again.</p> + +<p>Edith decided to fly home in a wide circle, following the southern +rim of the crater until it began to turn sharply to the north. Then, +leaving it behind she hummed on due west for about a hundred miles. She +was on the point of turning north again, and home to the ship, when a +peculiar dim blue line across the western horizon caught her attention. +To investigate would take only half an hour. She investigated.</p> + +<p>So did Ole. He again discovered innumerable blowholes in the ice over +which they whizzed, and called Edith's attention to the significant +detail.</p> + +<p>"This looks promising," she said to herself, for Ole could hear +nothing. "Now if Nature knows anything at all about logic she should +have planted another big hole in the ice over behind that blue line."</p> + +<p>Nature proved herself logical. The blue line became the sheer edge of a +tremendous ice precipice sweeping in a gradual curve round the horizon. +Fifty miles was a conservative guess at the diameter of this vast +depression. Unlike the other no jumble of black rock cluttered its edge +or the surrounding plain.</p> + +<p>Half a mile from the edge Edith landed. In silence she and Ole hurried +over to the edge of the precipice. Reaching it they stood a few yards +back and gazed into the immense void before them. No smoke obscured the +sunlit floor of this vast amphitheatre. So far below them it lay that +it appeared only as a dim blue shadow.</p> + +<p>"Come," said Edith, "that's too good to spoil today. We shall return +tomorrow and see it properly. Don't say anything to the others about +this. One thing at a time is enough for those doubting Thomas cats."</p> + +<p>"I won't," Ole promised. "My theory is," he jabbered before Edith could +choke him off, "my theory is that Satan is still chained down there."</p> + +<p>"There will be the devil to pay," she said simply, "if he breaks loose +tomorrow while you and I are exploring. I hope you are on good terms +with him."</p> + +<p>Ole was shocked. Never before had he heard a young lady use such +language outside of a church. He registered his disapproval by climbing +into the machine without another theory.</p> + +<p>Edith's report brought tears to the Captain's eyes.</p> + +<p>"That fool Ole was right," he admitted generously. "What he and I saw +from the ship was a burning oil well. Now you have found it."</p> + +<p>"Full of black smoke," Ole added gloomily. "Probably all the oil is +burning away."</p> + +<p>"No, idiot," the Captain replied, "or you would have seen flames."</p> + +<p>"I suppose it was just smouldering?" Ole suggested with a nasty touch +of irony.</p> + +<p>"Oh, undoubtedly," the Captain sneered. "The obvious, practical +solution always escapes your colossal mind. Can't you see it? That +smoke is simply what has settled down after the fire went out."</p> + +<p>"And burned up all the oil," the pessimist supplemented.</p> + +<p>"Oh, shut up. If what he says is true, Doctor, isn't there likely to be +more oil under the floor of that hole in the rock?"</p> + +<p>"I'll tell you when I see the floor."</p> + +<p>"Well, whatever theory you and he may hatch between you I'm going to +tear up an acre or two of what's left of that floor with dynamite. +Tomorrow we begin packing my part of the show to the circus tent."</p> + +<p>Before sunrise the next morning Edith and Ole were stirring in +preparation for their trip. They were off with the first ray. The +Captain having assured Lane that the cold, windless spell was certain +to continue, Edith coaxed her father into giving his consent at the +last minute. She departed with the Captain's heartfelt blessing and his +best thermos bottle full of hot chocolate. What souvenir the blessed +girl might bring back to him today he could only speculate, but he +hoped it would be another oil well of even vaster dimensions than her +first.</p> + +<p>What Edith and Ole expected to find on their private expedition they +kept to themselves. Neither had the least suspicion of the handsome +surprise which Nature had generously prepared for their welcome.</p> + +<p>Turning sharply to the west as soon as the airplane lost sight of the +ship, Edith steered a straight line toward her find. Ole as navigator +gave her the signals keeping her on the course. She made the propeller +hum. Not being interested in the dreary Antarctic landscape she +shot over it at a hundred and twenty miles an hour, the limit of the +machine's capacity.</p> + +<p>The dim blue line on the horizon raced forward to meet them. Slackening +her speed to eighty miles an hour Edith spiralled down like a seagull. +Reaching the level of the lip she circled for a turn near the +precipitous wall and then, to Ole's horror, made a nose dive for the +bottom of that vast well. Cutting out the engine presently she tilted +to forty-five degrees, and glided down, down to the sunlight of the +blue plain below.</p> + +<p>"Where are we going?" Ole gibbered in his fright.</p> + +<p>"Down there, of course. It looks nice and sunny. I'm half frozen."</p> + +<p>"What if we can't land?"</p> + +<p>"Then we must fly out again."</p> + +<p>"But suppose something goes wrong with the engine?"</p> + +<p>"Then we shall be a pair of scrambled eggs with no toast, but only the +hard ground, beneath us."</p> + +<p>The sunlight swam up to meet them, and to their astonished eyes was +revealed an azure river winding through a green plain. Dropping +lower they saw the huge trees rush out, and then, farther away, the +innumerable silvery plumes of the pampas grass undulating to the warm +breeze. Entranced they saw the long billows of light rising and falling +like the swell of a silver tide. Here, sunk deep in the icy heart of +the Antarctic Continent lay a paradise of flowing water and luxuriant +vegetation.</p> + +<p>Accepting it for what it was they flew on in silence, looking for +a spot to land. For once Ole was without a theory. Later he hatched +several. The probable solution of the mystery was not, however, his +work alone. Drake supplied the egg; Ole merely brooded on it and gave +it wings wherewith to soar.</p> + +<p>The dense vegetation by the river thinned here and there into rolling +meadows of lush grass. They flew over these, seeking more level ground +for a landing. At last they spied what they sought, a long sandy spit +cleaving a still blue bay in the river.</p> + +<p>They made a perfect landing. Then, when they stood with their numbed +feet on the warm sand they realized the wonder of the place and its +beauty. They were almost in the centre of the vast well. Twenty-five +miles distant in whatever direction they looked towered up the sheer +blue cliffs fifteen thousand feet above the floor of the valley.</p> + +<p>Age-old ice bound the brows of those precipices, and over the circular +opening to the sky howled the winter blizzards of the Antarctic, +powerless to freeze the water in this blue river or blight the +tenderest flowers of the valley's perpetual spring. By what miracle +had time preserved this deep garden against the advancing cold? Dying +ages had piled on the once tropical regions above a crushing desolation +of ice a thousand feet thick. While overhead the yelling gales of +winter warred against themselves with whirlwinds of frozen sleet and +splintered shafts of clanging ice, only rain fell through this mild +atmosphere above the valley. How had this spot, this very heart of a +forgotten paradise retained its life-giving warmth, while all about lay +the stark body of life frozen cold in the death of ages? Or had it +always been as they now saw it? These were questions which they could +only ask themselves but not answer.</p> + +<p>"This is more beautiful than a California valley," Edith sighed, "and +on a far grander scale than any of them. No other valley in the world +is an almost perfect circle like this one, nor is there another with +cliffs like those to shelter it. Those walls are three miles high."</p> + +<p>"Less about a fifth of a mile," the precise Ole corrected her. "I +watched the barometer as we dropped down. Say two and four-fifths miles +high."</p> + +<p>"Ole, you are impossible."</p> + +<p>They strolled off the sandy spit to ascend a little knoll whence they +might obtain a view of the whole valley. Not until they had been +walking about five minutes did they notice the oppressive discomfort of +locomotion. Thinking that it must be due to their own thawing out in +this mild air after the long flight through zero temperature, they took +off their heavy sheepskin tunics. Another ten yards and they stripped +their Jaegers.</p> + +<p>"At this rate," Edith laughed, "we shall be shedding our skins before +we reach the top of the hill."</p> + +<p>Ole, puffing like an overfed porpoise, tried hard not to look shocked. +He took a mental oath not to shed another rag. Respecting his modesty +Edith forbore her next impulse and toiled up the slope lugging only her +outer garments. She wished she were Eve and he Adam.</p> + +<p>"I know what it is," Ole exclaimed, not stopping to do his theorizing. +"We are two and four-fifths miles below the surface of the earth, +aren't we?"</p> + +<p>"Three," said Edith. "But it's too stuffy to argue. Go on."</p> + +<p>"Then we are at the bottom of a mine. I mean," he explained +laboriously, "it is just as if we were at the bottom of a mine. All +that air is crushing us."</p> + +<p>"You do seem to bulge more than usual," Edith admitted.</p> + +<p>Ole ignored this verification of his theory.</p> + +<p>"And," he continued, expounding the article on <i>abyss</i> from the A +volume of his sample of the encyclopaedia, "the internal heat of the +earth can be felt at this depth. It gets so hot in the deep mines that +the miners have to stop going down, and just burrow out sideways like +moles."</p> + +<p>"Thank Heaven," Edith sighed, "you don't own the entire Encyclopaedia +Britannica. I simply couldn't stand it all in this infernal heat."</p> + +<p>"Miss Lane!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I shall swear in a minute. Don't mind me; it's my nerves."</p> + +<p>At the crest of the hill they flung themselves panting on the thick, +mossy grass.</p> + +<p>"I shall never growl at the cold again," Edith declared. "This place +must be like a steam bath when the sky is clouded up over the opening."</p> + +<p>"And the clouds blanket in the radiation," Ole added appreciatively. +This evidently was a gem from the one masterpiece of Herbert Spencer's +which he possessed. It certainly seems unlikely that he found anything +so sensible in either the tattered "<i>Bluebird</i>" or his seven-figure +table of logarithms. "On such occasions the humidity must be very high."</p> + +<p>"As muggy as lukewarm pea-soup for breakfast. I'm fed up. Let's get out +of here. Put on your clothes. It's less bother to wear than to carry +them."</p> + +<p>As she stood up to shake on her sealskin a darker blue stain on the +azure of the distant wall caught her eye. Looking intently at the +deeper blue she imagined that she could see clear through the vast +cliffs into a dim azure world beyond. Then dismissing the illusion +with a laugh at her own fancifulness she started slightly at a new +aspect of the shadow. It was in the form of a perfect arch at least +three thousand feet high. Ole's remark about the miners burrowing out +sideways when the heat grew unendurable stuck in her mind with an odd +persistence. What if this were an old mine, disused since a million +years before the dawn of history?</p> + +<p>"What do you see?" Ole demanded nervously. He was struggling with his +heavy tunic.</p> + +<p>"Nothing. But you have a look. What is that shadow on the cliffs over +there?"</p> + +<p>Ole stared long and hard. His seaman's eyes made out no more than +had Edith's. Not wishing to commit himself to an untenable theory +he wheeled slowly round, searching the whole hundred and sixty mile +precipice.</p> + +<p>"There is another," he began cautiously, "three points east of south."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Edith, "and I have counted four more. That makes six in +all. Let's investigate."</p> + +<p>"Right, Miss Lane. I'm with you."</p> + +<p>Their lassitude vanished at the prospect of adventure. Joining hands +they raced down the little hill by a shortcut which would take them +through a clump of high bushes directly to the airplane. Laughing like +a pair of children off for a picnic they romped into the shade.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a huge gray boulder blocking their path came to life with an +earth-shaking screech. Edith screamed and clung to Ole. He stood frozen +in his tracks, paralyzed with terror.</p> + +<p>How they ever reached the plane they were unable afterwards to recall. +Edith remembers being thrown in bodily by Ole. He only has a blurred +memory of cranking the propeller, climbing and kicking madly at the +evil red eyes in a hideous serpent head that shot up after him on a +massive thirty foot neck. He swears that he struck one glaring red +eye just before the motor lifted and the heavy bodied brute flopped +on its belly in the sand, fanning the air with the vast spread of its +ineffectual, bat-like membranes.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c12">12</h2> +</div> + +<h3>TRAPPED</h3> + + +<p>To the Captain's anxious inquiries the fliers replied that they had +returned early on account of the cold. Although sorely disappointed +that Edith had not discovered another oil-hole for him, Anderson said +nothing. He contented himself with putting Ole to the dirtiest job in +sight. Lane was far inland, superintending the caching of stores. Drake +had gone off somewhere to exercise his beloved dogs.</p> + +<p>Edith and Ole conspired to keep their find to themselves until they +should have explored it thoroughly. They began to regret their panicky +flight straight back to the ship. Tomorrow, however, they would keep +their nerve and spend a heavenly day investigating the abode of the +dragon. A landing in the open should be sufficient protection from a +surprise. By avoiding clumps of brush, rock piles and the pampas they +might see much before being chased.</p> + +<p>That evening they gathered in the Captain's cabin. The Doctor, having +unpacked his scientific paraphernalia, was absorbed in an attempt to +analyze the green venom which he had collected from the giant reptile +on the beach. The scanty equipment proving insufficient he put away his +test tubes with a sigh of disappointment.</p> + +<p>"I shall have to wait for a living victim."</p> + +<p>"Let me see your flask, Doctor," Ole begged.</p> + +<p>"Have you a theory?" the Doctor laughed, handing over the pint of +thick, evil, green fluid.</p> + +<p>"Not this time. But I have a knife."</p> + +<p>To the astonishment of the party Ole proceeded to anoint the eight-inch +blade of his murderous knife with the sticky green venom.</p> + +<p>"There," he said complacently, brandishing the knife to dry it, "nobody +gets fresh with me any more."</p> + +<p>"It may be harmless," Edith remarked with a meaning look. "You had +better not put too much faith in that messy stuff."</p> + +<p>"I'll chance it."</p> + +<p>As he spoke he unconsciously fixed his eyes on Anderson. The Captain +stirred uneasily.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Ole, I set you at that job this afternoon because all the +men were away with Lane."</p> + +<p>"That's all right, Captain." Ole was not going to let his accidental +advantage slip. "It gave me a touch of lumbago. Can Bronson take my +watch tonight?"</p> + +<p>"I'll take it myself if he can't. With lumbago like that you're not fit +to be on deck. Will you be able to fly tomorrow?"</p> + +<p>"Flying rests my back. I'll be better in a week or two."</p> + +<p>Edith rose to retire. As she went out she shot Ole a significant +glance. Mumbling an excuse he followed her.</p> + +<p>"Why not take a revolver tomorrow?" she whispered.</p> + +<p>"No use. I couldn't hit the side of the ship at ten yards."</p> + +<p>"But suppose we do get caught again? That stuff may take hours to act. +I doubt whether it is a poison at all. Father really knows nothing +about it."</p> + +<p>"What can we do? A guess is better than nothing. Besides, I don't mean +to get caught."</p> + +<p>"Neither do I. Oh, that awful brute. I shall have a ghastly nightmare. +Good-night, Ole."</p> + +<p>They were off at sunrise in the stinging cold. Drake for a spell at +breakfast had grown quite peevish, not to say profanely rude, when Ole +harmlessly asked him to pass the butter. The memory of what Drake +had said was food and warmth to Edith on the freezing spin south. +Having nothing to cheer him but the shadowy prospect of sticking an +over-developed lizard with wings in the gullet, Ole froze. It was with +reckless relief that he shed his sealskin when at last they landed.</p> + +<p>Today they had come down in the centre of a five mile meadow. Unless +the enemy flew they were safe.</p> + +<p>Ole had brought the Captain's strongest binoculars. With these he +now slowly swept every mile of the vast precipices, blue in the hazy +distance. On each of the six sapphire shadows he lingered a full five +minutes. The dim shadows, he decided, might be weather stains on the +cliffs. If nothing more a three thousand foot stain should be worth +investigating.</p> + +<p>"You take a look, Miss Lane."</p> + +<p>"Those are caves full of mist," she said decisively, handing back the +glasses. "Which one shall we try first?"</p> + +<p>"The nearest. That one to the southeast. If we don't like what we find +this is a good place to fall back on."</p> + +<p>"You think we may wish to turn tail in a hurry?"</p> + +<p>"We can't tell," he said uneasily. "I am no coward."</p> + +<p>"Of course you are not. Neither am I. Shall we go?"</p> + +<p>"My eyes are better than yours, Miss Lane. Remember, I have been half +my life at sea."</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"I thought I saw things moving at the base of those cliffs. They were +only shadows."</p> + +<p>"Afraid of a shadow, Ole?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," he admitted frankly. "Show me something real and I'll fight it +like the next man. Put me up against a nightmare the devil himself +never dreamed of and my legs turn to water. Now you know how I feel."</p> + +<p>Impressed by his outspokenness she held out her hand for the glasses. +Long and curiously she searched the base of the cliff.</p> + +<p>"I believe you are right. There is something over there at the foot of +the precipice. How far away from it are we?"</p> + +<p>"About twenty-three miles."</p> + +<p>"Even if the shadow were an elephant's we couldn't make it out at that +distance."</p> + +<p>"Not with these glasses," he admitted.</p> + +<p>"Has it struck you that those moving things can't possibly be shadows?"</p> + +<p>"Why not?" he queried nervously.</p> + +<p>"Because that whole sector of the cliffs is itself in deep shadow."</p> + +<p>"I hadn't thought of that," the unpractical builder of theories +admitted. "Are you going on?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"No woman ever got the better of me yet, and I'm damned if a kid in +short skirts is going to make a monkey of me now."</p> + +<p>"Ole!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's all right, Miss Lane. The Captain isn't here."</p> + +<p>"You behave yourself or I'll leave you with the reptiles."</p> + +<p>Flying as slowly as was possible they cautiously approached the +mysterious stain on the southeastern wall. At that hour of the morning +the shadow of the precipice lay in a great blue crescent on the valley +before them. Soon entering the shadow they experienced a sudden drop in +spirits. To the superstitious Ole the semi-twilight was a gloomy omen +of disaster.</p> + +<p>Edith began to wish she had been less daring. Hating to back out after +her bold front to Ole she kept her forebodings to herself. Nevertheless +she had a strong premonition of trouble. The thought that the motor +might fail them at a critical moment almost made her sick. Swallowing +hard she anxiously scanned the terrain for a safe landing place. To her +joy she observed a gentle three mile grassy slope from the base of the +precipice to the edge of the pampas.</p> + +<p>They were now near enough to make out the nature of the stain. It was +indeed what they had first guessed, a colossal archway over half a mile +high in the face of the sheer cliff. Smoky with blue mist it might +have been either a huge cave or the entrance to a tunnel under the +continent. If the latter, Edith made a sudden resolution to explore it +to the end—some day. At present she felt too shaky. Her nervousness +soon received a shock that acted as a counter irritant.</p> + +<p>Ole had been making efficient use of the binoculars.</p> + +<p>"Let me have the wheel," he said presently, "while you take a look with +the glasses."</p> + +<p>They were now within five miles of the cliffs. Although it was not +exactly a sane proceeding, they changed places in mid-air. Ole now +became the pilot and Edith the observer.</p> + +<p>Her first observation stopped her heart for two sickening seconds. The +green slope at the base of the cliffs was a crawling den of gigantic +monsters. The huge, torpid beasts blundered and crawled over one +another's sluggish carcasses like blind salamanders. Evidently they +were just awakening to greet the sunlight which in a few hours would +stir them into activity. The vast cave or tunnel no doubt was their den +and breeding place.</p> + +<p>"Fly lower," Edith ordered, "and let us see what the brutes look like." +Her stomach had resumed its normal position.</p> + +<p>Without the flicker of an eyelash the stolid Ole obeyed. No snippy +kid in short dresses could outdare him. He dropped sharply to the +fifty-foot level, let out the motor to its limit and shot straight as a +bullet toward the misty cavern. Edith shrieked. She had met her master.</p> + +<p>The droning roar of the propeller roused the lethargic brutes to a +trumpeting rage. A hideous forest of writhing necks shot up; flat, +brainless heads swayed up to spit their hatred and their venom at the +breaker of their bestial sloth, and the obscene red membranes of the +huge brutes' aborted wings clattered impotently against their bloated +bodies. The fetid stench of their breath mingling with the reek of +their foul lair defiled the morning with an unforgettable sickness. +A flashing vision of innumerable eyes red with brainless ferocity, +a din of yellowed fangs clashing after their unattainable prey, the +penetrating breath of a living decay, and the hideous flight was a +memory.</p> + +<p>Was Hansen insane? Again Edith shrieked as he shot full speed into the +blue mists of the cavern. Shutting her eyes she instinctively braced +herself for the obliterating crash.</p> + +<p>It never came. Whether or not she fainted she doesn't know. Ole swears +she did.</p> + +<p>When she opened her eyes she thought for one wild moment that she was +in hell. The blue mists had given way to a rapidly flickering crimson +glow. The oppressive heat all but stifled her. Great gushers of flame +thundering up from the floor of the vast tunnel flattened and curled in +fronded fire over the arched rock half a mile above. Down the endless +distance colonnades of pillared flames dwindled in vistas of alluring +terror, enticing the damned to their torments.</p> + +<p>Ole had been less rash than he seemed. While Edith was taking her fill +of the den over which they shot he, like a born navigator, was minding +his own business. As the blue entrance of the tunnel rushed forward +to meet him he saw that its interior was approximately straight and +sufficiently well lighted for safe flying. The chance he took was +negligible. A mile from the entrance he sighted the first flaming well, +and thereafter the tunnel became a well lighted corridor, broad and +lofty, ideal for rapid flight. Danger of a collision with one of the +roaring flame pillars was nil, the highway down the tunnel being over a +mile broad and the avenue of flame wells at least half a mile wide at +its narrowest point.</p> + +<p>Those three thousand foot pillars of flame were absolutely without +smoke. Ole's reasonable theory—inadequate, as later events +proved—made them vast natural gas jets. He recalled that there are on +record in Asia oil wells and escapes of natural gas which have been +flaming continuously for over two thousand years. Therefore, he said, +this probably was the same sort of thing on a much grander scale. The +age-long action of water opening fissures in the rocks had first let +vents into the subterranean oil and gas reservoirs. Then the heat of +chemical reactions between the water and the minerals in the rocks had +ignited the gas. This detail of his theory led him seriously astray. +Had he chanced upon the true explanation of how those gas pillars took +fire—which any competent physicist would have guessed at once from the +peculiar behavior of the flames over the blowholes which Anderson had +discovered—he would not have rushed like a fool into the trap which +nature had prepared for him.</p> + +<p>Granting the ignition of the gas the astute Ole reflected that the +rest of the inferno explained itself. Intense heat and the constant +high pressure of escaping gas had enlarged the first vents into huge +circular wells, up which the solid flames shot until they impinged on +the rock roof three thousand feet above. Doubtless, he reflected, the +red hot rocks up there were constantly flaking. In time an avenue of +blowholes would burst through the roof of rock and ice for some later +explorer, far in the future, to find and wonder over. He inferred +naturally that under Anderson's trough of blowholes there probably +extended another vast tunnel through the solid rock. The six shadowy +arches which he and Edith had observed on the wall of their circular +valley no doubt were all of one kind. The continent must be, in this +strange region, a vast rabbit warren with tunnels branching in all +directions, some even to the sea.</p> + +<p>At this point of his meditations Ole experienced his first qualm. Those +other blowholes onto which the party had blundered differed in one +significant respect from those which the future explorer of his musings +was to discover. The escape of gas and flames through the first was +intermittent and its period strangely regular. The periodicity of the +first blowholes was the disturbing peculiarity. These gushing wells of +fire in the tunnel seemed to be continuous. Did they ever go out like +the others? Ole's imagination leapt ahead of the racing machine. What +if those pillared flames should suddenly drop down their vents and +disappear? In the dark he must smash himself against the tunnel wall +like a ripe tomato.</p> + +<p>This squeamish reflection passed from his mind to make way for another. +One detail of his inadequate blowhole theory received a sudden and +disconcerting confirmation. Half a ton of red hot rock shattered itself +with a crash on the floor of the tunnel not a hundred yards to the +right of his course. The whole roof must be cracking under the fierce +bombardment of flames from those thousands of gigantic blast furnaces.</p> + +<p>For the first time he now noticed the stifling heat of the tunnel. +The rushing air positively scorched. What if his petrol tank should +explode. And what if a red hot fragment of stone set fire to the +airplane? Ole began to sweat from a combination of too many clothes, +too much heat and too little nerve. He was not having the best time in +the world. Nevertheless he shot on like a courageous fool at a hundred +and twenty miles an hour down that vast tunnel into the bowels of the +earth. No snippy little kid in short dresses should make a monkey of +him.</p> + +<p>The kid had recovered her senses. She was having a heavenly time. Her +one regret was that her father had not seen all those nice beasts. She +must take him back an egg if the beasts were that sort.</p> + +<p>The air in the tunnel began to grow faintly smoky. They were not over +an hour from the entrance. Consequently at least a hundred and twenty +miles lay between them and daylight.</p> + +<p>The same thought occurred to the pair: they should now be nearing the +vicinity of the smoke-filled crater which they had discovered first. +Theorizing rapidly Ole concluded that the tunnel joined these two, +the ruined crater and the vast depression still green as a paradise. +Doubtless the explosion of a huge reservoir of oil beneath the first +had sent its floor skyward to litter the surrounding desolation with +chunks of black rock. Then, he speculated, had the first also been a +den of prehistoric monsters—or, as Lane maintained, botched imitations +of such—before its destruction? It had.</p> + +<p>The verification of Ole's speculation was twofold and twice convincing. +Like a dead memory from a forgotten existence a nauseating stench +assailed their nostrils. They remembered that moonlit night on the +Antarctic ocean and the soul destroying pollution of the winds from the +beach of monsters.</p> + +<p>Presently through the thickening smoke they saw the shambles. The +tunnel was all but blocked by the rotting carcasses of huge brutes +which had trampled one another to pulp in their panic to escape the +fumes which finally suffocated their multitudes.</p> + +<p>Cutting out the engine Ole glided toward the mountain of decay. Just as +he turned the plane to escape from the immense corruption he spied the +second confirmation of his theory.</p> + +<p>Great, slow-moving brutes, each the bulk of three full grown +hippopotami, mailed in horn and with a ridge of jagged armor sticking +up along their spines from the flat, broad head to the tip of the +thirty-foot tail, were crawling like huge newts over the rotting +mountain, or splashing heavily through the foul brown ooze from its +base.</p> + +<p>These gigantic scavengers took no notice of the intruders, continuing +with voracity their filthy feasts. The whole decaying pile crawled with +them. Their number could only be guessed, for the end of the tunnel was +invisible through the murky smoke. For all the explorers definitely +knew, they might be one mile or twenty from the ruined crater.</p> + +<p>They decided it was time to fly. Both felt faint from the awful +stench. Ole let out the engine to its limit. The sudden roar startled +a flapping horde of lesser scavengers which they had not seen. Being +almost the color of their obscene food these had escaped notice in +the murky light. They now arose in thousands, cloud upon cloud of +long-necked reptilian "birds" with the wings of bats. From tip to tip +the spread of their leathery membranes averaged a good eight feet, and +on each six-foot neck a grinning head the size of a horse's stretched +hungrily forward. Hard round eyes like those of gigantic serpents +stared stonily at the intruders, estimating their value as food. The +six-inch teeth clashing aimlessly at nothing filled the air with a +hideous cacophony.</p> + +<p>Either their own foul banquet was more to their taste or the reptilian +birds were by nature peace loving scavengers averse to combat, for they +contented themselves with flapping round and round this unknown bird +of the twentieth century. Their lineage went back millions of years; +this parvenu was an infant yesterday. With hard stares of contempt they +circled back in wide spirals to their interrupted repast.</p> + +<p>Thanking Heaven for this deliverance, Edith breathed again. But her +thanks were premature. A strangely familiar rumbling was but the +prelude to a remembered thunder of subterranean explosions. She knew +what was coming.</p> + +<p>So did Ole. Anticipating it he cut out the engine and dipped gradually. +Taking the desperate chance that no considerable mass of shattered rock +littered the floor immediately ahead he brought the plane down. Luck +favored him. They came to rest whole on the rocky floor.</p> + +<p>They climbed hastily out. The jarring under their feet all but threw +them prostrate. They heard the sudden suction of the rushing whirlwinds +rushing down to the subterranean chambers, and saw what they dreaded. +As if struggling for their life with the demon winds the pillars of +descending flame quivered for an instant in mid-air. Then with a +knelling roar they disappeared in absolute night down the wells.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c13">13</h2> +</div> + +<h3>HADES</h3> + + +<p>An hour in the impenetrable darkness of that suffocating stench was a +hundred years long. Unfortunately Ole had a liberal supply of matches. +Under ordinary trials these would have been a godsend. Here they proved +an exceedingly cunning gift from the devil.</p> + +<p>The instant the terrific jarring ceased Ole lit his first match. It +was just half past eleven in the morning. Five hours before he and +Edith had been enjoying an extensive breakfast. For lunch they now had +nothing but the air, such as it was. They had given up the attempt to +eat their sandwiches after the first mouthful. The meat tasted like +carrion, and the bread had made of itself a sponge to soak up all the +noisomeness of that foul shambles.</p> + +<p>They climbed back into the machine to await the next earthquake and the +rekindling of the gas wells. To pass the time Ole theorized and struck +matches every five minutes. The brief light showed him a set white +face, the large brown eyes with their dilated pupils almost black, and +the resolute, finely shaped mouth compressed in a firm bow. The kid, he +admitted to himself, was sticking it like a hero. He had expected her +to blubber.</p> + +<p>"I have been wondering," she said about the fifth match, "how we are +to get out of this beastly tunnel if the darkness continues for, say +a week." She laughed ruefully. "'Beastly' is right in more ways than +one. The smell is beastly, there is a hideous den of prehistoric beasts +at the less obscene end of this filthy burrow, and a stinking mountain +of dead beasts blocking the back door. Suppose we do have to walk out, +which way shall we go? All those scavengers and hideous bird things are +behind us too."</p> + +<p>"Whatever happens," he replied with savage conviction, "I am not going +to walk. To the living devils it is a hundred and twenty miles. What +kind of a fool would walk that far to be torn to pieces? Especially on +an empty stomach?"</p> + +<p>"Not my kind," she admitted ruefully enough.</p> + +<p>"And do you think I'm going to swim through those miles of muck behind +us?"</p> + +<p>She shuddered. "I couldn't go that way even if those vile bird +creatures and the huge crawling brutes weren't there."</p> + +<p>"No more could I. No, I shall not walk."</p> + +<p>"Then if the wells have gone out for good we must stay here forever."</p> + +<p>"We can fly," he asserted.</p> + +<p>"And smash ourselves in the dark like a pair of goose eggs. I can think +of nothing stupider than two unhatched geese unless it be three."</p> + +<p>"Well, isn't a quick smash better than slow rotting? It wouldn't be +suicide," he added to pacify his conscience, "because we should be +doing it on the chance of saving our lives."</p> + +<p>"Yes, a quick death is better. I wonder if I shall ever see my father +again. And my garden, and the dear cats in San Francisco...."</p> + +<p>Ole was touched. The poor kid was going to cry. He struck a match. Her +eyes had grown larger and darker, but there were no tears. After all +she was a brick.</p> + +<p>"Listen," he said confidently. "I have a theory."</p> + +<p>"If it's as depressing as the rest of this nightmare please keep it to +yourself."</p> + +<p>"But it isn't. You remember how long it was between blow-offs at those +holes the other day?"</p> + +<p>"About thirteen minutes."</p> + +<p>"And the flames only lasted a few minutes after they caught. Now those +jets in here were going full blast for over an hour. Suppose they had +been going for a full day when we flew in."</p> + +<p>"I'll suppose it. What then?"</p> + +<p>"They will light up again as the others did. But not for a much longer +time."</p> + +<p>"A week, perhaps? We shall suffocate long before we see."</p> + +<p>"No. The same cause must be at the bottom of those flame holes and +these."</p> + +<p>"And that cause may operate only once a month, once a year, or once a +century for all we know. The next flare may light our bones."</p> + +<p>"For two reasons I say no. The first is practical, the second is +theory. First, those bat birds have eyes. They can see. I know that is +so from the way they glared at us. Now animals that can see don't stay +long away from the light."</p> + +<p>"The encyclopaedia has fooled you, Ole. All that you say may be true. +But there is probably a back door to this tunnel, and those filthy +things just swoop in here to feed. When they are gorged they flap out +again to roost in their dens. They get all the fresh air and sunshine +they need for perfect health in their rookeries."</p> + +<p>"I hadn't thought of that. Still, having eyes they must be used to +seeing their food."</p> + +<p>"Eyes for such creatures in this stinking place are an ornament of +luxury. They have nostrils. I saw them myself—two holes on the snout +like a snake's."</p> + +<p>"Well, listen now to my theory. You can't knock out that, any way, +because it is all pure reason."</p> + +<p>He lit another match. Her eyes were fixed straight ahead on the +impenetrable soot. The match died.</p> + +<p>"Why do these blowholes come and go?" he continued. "Why don't they +shoot off burning gas all the time?"</p> + +<p>"Is it a riddle?"</p> + +<p>"Not to me," Ole replied proudly, lavishing two matches on the +invisible stench.</p> + +<p>"I give it up. What's the answer?"</p> + +<p>"The moon."</p> + +<p>She wondered if she could climb out unnoticed by the theorizer. Poor +Ole; his mind must suddenly have given way. She was sorry for him, but +sorrier for herself. A lunatic on top of her other troubles would be +too much.</p> + +<p>"Where are you going?" Ole demanded.</p> + +<p>The flaring match revealed a scared pair of eyes searching his. Edith +had started to climb down.</p> + +<p>"I thought you had gone crazy," she said, climbing back just as the +match expired and burnt Ole's fingers. "But you seem no more insane +than usual. Go on with your theory."</p> + +<p>"The moon does it all. Really it is quite simple when you get the idea. +As a practical seaman I know how the moon raises the tides—they follow +it round the earth. The moon attracts the water. Then a big heap of +water gathers in the middle of the sea, and the bulge follows the moon."</p> + +<p>"I wish I could follow you."</p> + +<p>"When the moon gets so far ahead that the bulge can't keep up the tide +falls. When the bulge sweeps over a place it is high tide there. Anyhow +that's something like it."</p> + +<p>Ole proceeded to elaborate his account by an obscure reference to that +bane of all amateur theorizers, centrifugal force. With the squaring +of the circle and perpetual motion this mystical conception forms the +unholy trinity of the born paradoxer. Not one of them knows what it +means, yet by invoking its magic powers they explain everything from +germs to God. Edith, trying not to listen, felt like a quart of milk in +a cream separator. Centrifugal force was separating her mind from her +body, but which was which she could not have told. Mercifully it did +not last long, and Ole soon reached the practical application of his +moonshine.</p> + +<p>"Now my theory is," he said more rationally, "that there is a vast +tank of oil—perhaps several—under the whole region."</p> + +<p>"Won't Captain Anderson be pleased to hear that? I'm glad somebody will +be happy in all this mess."</p> + +<p>"Not all oil, perhaps. I think it may be floating on salt water."</p> + +<p>"I wish it were carbolic acid."</p> + +<p>"Now when the moon raises a tide on all that oil it rushes through the +underground galleries of this continent and forces up all the collected +gases of twenty-four hours through the blowholes."</p> + +<p>"And somebody is waiting to set a match to it, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"You mean how does it catch fire?"</p> + +<p>For a moment the inventive Ole was badly stumped. Then his chambered +mind gave up its buried reminiscences: all gases when compressed get +hot. Keep on compressing them far enough and they get red hot—if gases +ever do behave in such a revolutionary way.</p> + +<p>"Compression," he answered offhandedly, as if the effort had cost +him no labor. "Compression heats up the gas. When the wave passes it +presses the gas into a small volume next to the roof. That makes it +red hot. Then it escapes through the blowholes. Friction on the sides +makes it hotter still. Of course it catches fire—high up in the air, +high enough so the rush of escaping gas can't blow out the flame. It +couldn't light up, could it, before it reached the air? Then the tide +falls, air has to rush in to fill up the place left by the falling oil +and water, and the flames are sucked down."</p> + +<p>"Tides don't rise and fall every thirteen minutes. Your theory is up +the spout."</p> + +<p>"My theory is irrefutable. Of course tides don't happen every thirteen +minutes. But haven't you ever seen the way the water swings back and +forth, up and down, when you set it going in a long bathtub?"</p> + +<p>"I do bathe occasionally when I'm in civilization. And you may be sure +I shall spend a month in the first real tub I see. Yes, I may even have +time to try your experiment."</p> + +<p>"When the tide rushes into some vast underground cavern, half filling +it, big waves must be set up travelling back and forth, up and down +along the trough. Suppose the wave comes in by a long tunnel into a +vast hole, and has to squeeze out by another tunnel. In trying to +squeeze out all at once the waves will be started at the wall above the +tunnel. And all the time the hole is filling up, compressing the gas +against the roof. Now suppose it takes a wave thirteen minutes to run +the length of the underground tank. Then it will force up the gases at +a particular place once every thirteen minutes.</p> + +<p>"As it passes the place," he went on with enthusiasm that fed upon +itself, "the air will be sucked down again. That explains our first +blowholes. Now for these. The tank under them must be much longer. The +waves therefore take a longer time to pass under. It follows that the +flame jets will burn much longer. Which was to be proved."</p> + +<p>"You have proved also," she pointed out, "that the flame pillars will +be dead for half an eternity. We must wait at least until the next +full moon raises the gas for our torches. And by then we shall be in +Heaven—I hope."</p> + +<p>"No, I think every tide must raise the gas enough to send up a flame. +Of course at full moon the flame will be hotter and last much longer."</p> + +<p>"And where does your blessed salt water come from to float the oil and +gas and raise the tides?"</p> + +<p>"Where all salt water comes from—the sea."</p> + +<p>"These tunnels, or others like them—bigger and longer, of course—must +stretch far out under the floor of the Antarctic ocean."</p> + +<p>He became encyclopaedic, explaining how, gradually weakening under the +pressure and seeping of ages of water, the bottom of things aqueous had +suddenly given way letting the ocean burst down to the subterranean +fires, flooding them and the innumerable tunnels. This, he said, +accounted for everything. The oily stew of prehistoric monsters which +he and the Captain had witnessed was merely the backwash, the jetsam +of the sudden deluge which had drowned out perhaps a dozen of the +interconnected paradises such as the one Edith and he had discovered. +Some day the floor of the unruined one would give way too and there +would be another grand boiling up of monsters somewhere between South +Georgia and Cape Horn. Or the accumulating gas under its rock bottom +might suddenly hurl it skyward at some tide higher than the usual one.</p> + +<p>The origin of these vast tunnels and semitropical paradises in the +frozen continent he was as yet unable to explain. At them his theory +balked, baffled. He doubted now whether the monsters of the stew had +been so recently dead as he and Anderson imagined. Their freshness and +the still uncoagulated blood of the baby devil they had fished up could +be rationally explained on a twenty-four hour immersion in warm oil and +water.</p> + +<p>Theorizing thus freely Ole was happy despite the ever present, all +enveloping, stinking darkness. Edith's respectful silence flattered +him. He outdid himself. Never before had he lectured to an audience +so sympathetically appreciative. During his interminable harangue he +forgot even to strike a match. When finally he did, Edith's eyes were +closed. She was fast asleep.</p> + +<p>Although deeply chagrined Ole considerately let her sleep. Taking out +his pipe he rammed it full of twist. The coarsely cut tobacco refusing +to burn he reached into his pocket for his knife. Only when he was +about to cut up the tobacco in his palm did he remember what he had +done to the blade. In a cold sweat he closed the knife and returned it +to his pocket. A scratch, for all he knew, might be deadlier than the +fangs of a hundred cobras. Any way he would take no chance of a slip in +the dark.</p> + +<p>Refilling his pipe he tried again to smoke. Finally he compromised at +the rate of a match to a puff. It became a continuous performance. The +tobacco in that smoke-fouled atmosphere reeking with an unspeakable +corruption lacked the rich, nutty flavor emphasized by the billboards, +yet it was some consolation. The matches, especially their heads, +tasted even better than the tobacco smoke.</p> + +<p>The devil betrayed him just as he broached the fourth box of matches. +He became aware of a wet, dragging noise. Instantly he had a theory +that made him sick. Those filthy scavengers also had eyes. Not only the +bat birds were by nature lovers of the light. One of those huge foul +brutes, dripping corruption at every move, was wallowing toward Ole's +friendly little beacon in the universal darkness.</p> + +<p>The noise stopped. Then a measured slopping announced that the filthy +monster had paused to lick itself. Having swabbed off its lunch, or +having performed its unseemly toilette, it sighed prodigiously and +rattled the grating armor of its horny scales. Once more there was +silence.</p> + +<p>Presently a hideous rasping proclaimed that the obscenity was +scratching its parasites. Again it sighed heavily, profoundly. The +companionable candle of its quest was perhaps but the disordered +illusion of an overloaded stomach. A long-winded, slobbering belch +automatically begot and confirmed this hypothesis in Ole's paralyzed +brain. He struck no more matches.</p> + +<p>Should he wake Edith? If she made any sound the monster must find them. +On the other hand if she woke suddenly when the beast had crawled +closer, as it might, she would go mad from terror and be unmanageable. +He decided to rouse her as gently as possible.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" she said, and remembered. "Oh—"</p> + +<p>He clapped his hand over her mouth. Again thinking him demented she +struggled violently.</p> + +<p>"Danger," he whispered in her ear. "Be quiet."</p> + +<p>All her muscles tensed, she instantly became still. Then she heard the +dragging shuffle of some ponderous body approaching the airplane. In a +flash she realized what was upon them.</p> + +<p>"Your knife," she whispered.</p> + +<p>He opened the blade. Of what use was this toy against a mailed brute +weighing over a hundred tons? Yet it was his one weapon, and instinct +compelled him to be ready for his feeble best.</p> + +<p>The creature heard their movements. Its lurching drag, bringing with +it a leprosy of smells, quickened. It was abreast of them, on Edith's +side. Was it going past the machine? In the sooty darkness the brute +blundered forward. Its horny side rasped and rocked the plane, all but +upsetting it.</p> + +<p>For some seconds the slow brain of the brute failed to interpret the +unusual sensations. Then it registered, and the foul monster squatted. +The plane tipped sideways. A foot higher and it must capsize.</p> + +<p>The dull brain proving inadequate for its problem, the huge brute +resumed its wallowing progress. Presently, to judge by the sounds, it +turned at right angles to the line of the machine, slewed round on its +belly and squatted. Was its head or its tail toward them? And in which +position could it hear the better? They soon learned.</p> + +<p>One or other of the occupants of the machine moved slightly and +something creaked. For some ten seconds the brute took no notice. Then, +the significance of the noise penetrating its ganglia, the monster +moved slightly forward, directly toward Edith's side of the plane.</p> + +<p>"Quick!" she cried, "the knife! Light!"</p> + +<p>A cold breath, unutterably foul, blasted her own and extinguished Ole's +half handful of matches. But the flare had shown her where to aim. With +her whole body she struck at the brute's eye. The keen eight-inch blade +cut it like jelly. Her hand plunged into the slit, burying the knife.</p> + +<p>No injury to the slow-witted creature's eye alone could account for +the terrible sound which tore the silence of the tunnel to tatters of +screaming agony. The green paste on the blade was indeed a venom. It +had shot along the blood vessels and the optic nerve directly to the +monster's brain.</p> + +<p>Its every nerve was in hell. In its excruciating agony it bounded +furiously about the tunnel, missing the plane by bare yards, and +thundering down from its convulsive leaps in a writhing mass of torment +that shook the very rocks.</p> + +<p>No human being could hear those terrible screams without pity. In the +minute and a half that it lived the wretched thing suffered all the +agonies of all the hells imagined by human beings since the beginning +of the world.</p> + +<p>With a last shivering yell of absolute pain it was dead.</p> + +<p>"Oh my God," Edith gasped, "I did it. Hell, hell, hell!"</p> + +<p>In a paroxysm of sobbing she beat her clenched fists against her ears.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c14">14</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE DEVIL CHICK</h3> + + +<p>Their brother's death agonies had roused the bewildered scavengers in +a bellowing horde. Blundering into one another in the darkness, the +monsters fought and screamed till the roof shook. And the multitude of +reptilian birds, alarmed at the tumult, clattered down the black tunnel +in flapping clouds, screeching their fright or pain where they dashed +their brainless heads against the unseen walls. Their broken bodies, +raining down on the rock floor, flapped convulsively till the maddened +monsters trampled them to smears.</p> + +<p>Twice when a batwinged bird became entangled for a moment in the guy +wires the plane jarred dizzily, and once a bellowing monster lumbering +from its pursuer set the whole machine spinning like a top. Unless the +pillars of fire burst forth soon it would be only a matter of minutes +until the plane was splinters and the bodies of its occupants pulp.</p> + +<p>Above the jarring din they sensed a deeper tremor and a heavier +reverberation. The subterranean waves were buffeting their way through +the labyrinthine corridors beneath the tunnel. In a moment the solid +rock floor heaved like a swell of the sea, the blowholes roared, and +ten thousand pillars of flame burst thundering to the roof.</p> + +<p>Panic-stricken, the huge monsters scuttled for their burrows in the +mountain of corruption. On a vast scale it was the scurrying of a +multitude of beetles when a board is lifted, letting down the sun on +their secret world.</p> + +<p>Blinded by the sudden glare, clouds of the reptilian bat birds crashed +against the walls of the tunnel, breaking heads and wings and necks. +Most horrible of all, hundreds dashed directly into the pillared flames +to be roasted alive and shot to the rock vault, where they exploded. +Their steaming viscera rained upon the floor.</p> + +<p>Before she realized what he was about, Ole had cranked the propeller +and was back in the machine. The impact of the bewildered scavenger had +reversed the plane.</p> + +<p>"The shortest way," Ole shouted, and headed for the shambles.</p> + +<p>Soaring over it, he plunged into the smoke and stench above. They +saw now the cause of the dimmer light above the festering pile. The +blowholes were choked with the huge carcasses which had rolled down +from the vast heap undermined by the feeding of the scavengers. Until +the rushing flames could incinerate these obstructions they must bell +out in roses of fire. Heavy black smoke billowing up from these fierce +crematories filled the narrow channel above the mountain of corruption +with an indescribable foulness.</p> + +<p>Mile after mile they flew down the shallow channel between the +corruption and the rock roof, lighted only by the flickering crimson +reflected from the vault. Would it never end? Twenty miles fell behind +them, twenty-five, and still the obscene bat birds rose at their +approach to circle down to their interrupted banquet when the droning +parvenu had passed.</p> + +<p>The smoke thickened, but became less foul. Like a breath of heaven they +recognized the reek of burning petroleum.</p> + +<p>A cleaner wind cut their faces. Black with soot, the plane shot clear +of the tunnel into the relatively clean night.</p> + +<p>They were still enveloped in billowing smoke, but it was not unclean. +An occasional banner of crimson flame unfurling for a moment at the +bottom of the black sea revealed the source of the conflagration. A +vast lake of oil was burning far down there on the floor of the ruined +crater.</p> + +<p>Rising sharply, they pierced the heaving smoke pall up to the wonder of +sweet air and icy stars.</p> + +<p>The moon had just set. They had emerged into the ruined crater of their +first discovery far west of the line along which they had previously +flown.</p> + +<p>Edith, as a rational being, assumed that Ole would fly straight for +the ship at top speed. He, however, had a nobler intention, and one +which did him great credit. Taking the shortest air line to the jagged +rim against the northern stars he let out the engine, soared over the +wilderness of black rocks, black now as Tophet in the moonless night, +and then, when the dim gray of the icy desolation swam into sight, cut +out the motor.</p> + +<p>"What in the name of sin are you going to do?" Edith demanded.</p> + +<p>"I am going to land on the snowfield beyond these rocks."</p> + +<p>"And what for? Are you crazy?"</p> + +<p>"Not crazy," he replied solemnly, "although the scoffers would call me +so. And why? Because I am thankful."</p> + +<p>"You're raving."</p> + +<p>"This is not the first time I have been scorned and mocked for my +faith. If I can forgive Captain Anderson's blasphemous jeers I can put +up with yours."</p> + +<p>"I haven't jeered at you, and besides I'm not blasphemous. Just now I +wish I were."</p> + +<p>"Whosoever lusteth in his heart after an oath to say it hath committed +the unmentionable sin."</p> + +<p>The plane was running along the snowfield parallel to the outlying mass +of jumbled rocks and about eight hundred yards from the nearest.</p> + +<p>"On my knees," Ole announced as the plane came to rest, "I shall offer +up thanks for our merciful deliverance to God."</p> + +<p>"If you do any such thing in this absurd place I shall box your fat +ears till they sing like all the hosts of Heaven. Don't be a fool. Get +on home to the ship. I'm freezing."</p> + +<p>"I pray that you may not some day long for a lump of ice to cool your +tongue."</p> + +<p>And with that hypocritical intercession he climbed down to the frozen +snow.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Ole," she flung after him, "if you think the Creator is as +big a fool as you are, you are jolly well mistaken. It will serve you +right if you fall down a blowhole. You might at least have the decency +to crank the propeller before you commit suicide."</p> + +<p>But Ole was absorbed in his search for the most uncomfortable square +foot on the Antarctic continent. To offer thanks from a bed of downy +ease would not be treating his audience with due respect.</p> + +<p>Having found what he sought, he knelt down, uncovered his head, and +opened fire. Edith suspected that his extreme humility, voiced in an +unnecessarily loud tone, was aimed at her instead of at Heaven. His +impersonal allusions to hardness of heart, a stiff neck, a disagreeable +temper and an ungrateful disposition were put with remarkable skill. +Although Edith's name, age, sex and color were meticulously omitted +from his oration he yet contrived to give her a severe and exceedingly +long-winded lecture on her numerous shortcomings. Bitterly did she +regret that her aim was like that of any girl. Otherwise she would have +heaved the heavy thermos bottle into his fat, smug face. It was such a +lovely chance to miss; with his eyes closed like a sleeping lobster's +he wouldn't see it coming.</p> + +<p>But common-sense and the Lord were on her side. Ole had overlooked +more than the blowholes. In so astute a theorizer his oversight really +was unpardonable. He should have observed that all the monsters of his +acquaintance were confirmed lovers of a mild temperature. And he should +have reflected that such of the poor brutes as had wandered back to +their ruined home, would naturally gather round the cheerful hearths to +drool over the good old times.</p> + +<p>In short, Ole should have known that these heat-loving, carnivorous +monsters would frequent the vicinity of the blowholes. To be snugly +out of the draughts they would retire between eruptions to their +spacious lairs in the jumble of rocks. When the home fires burned +again they would emerge and gather round the blaze. The spells of +cold between roasts would be excellent sharpeners of the appetite. +Undoubtedly the home-loving beasts were communists, sharing all things. +When a journey from the cheery blowholes to the gloomy banquet halls of +the tunnel seemed long and unattractive, they stayed at home and ate +one another.</p> + +<p>To these simple-minded beasts the thankful Ole was literally a godsend. +Their pious instincts perceived him as manna dropped from Heaven. It +chanced that he had selected his uncomfortable spot opposite one of +the poorer rookeries. For a week all the famished beasts had been of +two sizes only: mere babies just born and therefore still dear to +their ferocious mothers, and huge, agile brutes of approximately equal +fighting abilities. All intermediate sizes had devoted their lives to +the welfare of the community.</p> + +<p>Being of extremely low intelligence, the strapping survivors had not +yet mastered the theory and practice of co-operation. It never entered +their brainless heads that any two of them were more than a match for +an unlucky third. Consequently all starved, whereas two-thirds of +them at any time until the Armageddon between the last gigantic pair +might have wallowed in luxury. Lacking farsighted statesmen they lived +in armed neutrality and hunger until such time as the babies of the +community should develop militarism. But this sporadic sort of uprising +furnished pretty lean pickings.</p> + +<p>Unaware of his grateful audience, Ole prayed vigorously. He thanked +Heaven that the blowholes in his immediate vicinity were not as other +blowholes. These were orderly and quiet, the others roaring furnaces of +the devil. He proceeded to inform headquarters that he had a theory.</p> + +<p>"This chain of blowholes, O Lord, vents the gas of another tunnel. The +oil tank under these is not connected with the tank under the others. +Thus, O Lord, hast thou prepared a safe place in the wilderness that +thy servant may give thanks unto Thee."</p> + +<p>To say the least, Ole lacked neither brazen nerve nor conceit. To +give Edith the full strength of his lecture he continued facing +her. His back, therefore, was toward the rookery. Nevertheless his +remarks carried in all directions unimpaired by distance in that +intensely still air. Staccato echoes from the black rocks repeated his +vainglorious theory. The echoes even improved on his remarks. To Edith, +trying not to listen, it seemed that over there in the rocks there was +a sound of sleepy revelry, a drowsy, incredulous chuckling as it were, +reinforced by subdued squawks. The infernal brood was awake.</p> + +<p>Curiously watching a shadow against the starry sky she saw it move, +black out a dazzling planet, and grow larger. Evidently it was not a +lump of rock. A long neck cautiously raised itself above the black mass +like a periscope. Having sighted its prey, the hungry head was quickly +lowered. The black mass effaced itself on the blacker slope of the +rocks.</p> + +<p>"Look out!" she cried. "It's coming."</p> + +<p>Ignoring the unseemly interruption, Ole theorized louder.</p> + +<p>"You idiot! Crank the propeller—run for it!"</p> + +<p>"The Lord is mindful of his own," Ole responded unctuously, and +proceeded to give thanks for the fact.</p> + +<p>A piercing shriek from Edith brought him to his common sense. One +glance over his shoulder and he was on his feet, running as he had +never run in his fat life. After him like a gigantic ostrich raced +the enormous lizard on its long hind legs, the tail curved up like a +scimitar, and the twenty-foot neck stretched forward to the elastic +limit. No turkey after a hapless grasshopper was ever more eager.</p> + +<p>Ole's seven or eight hundred yard start saved him. He fell into Edith's +lap just as a vicious swish of the monster's tail cut the air under the +machine in two.</p> + +<p>Looking back toward the rocks, they saw the whole black brood boiling +out over the dim gray desolation. As aimlessly as brainless hens they +darted hither and thither over the snowfields, seeking a prey which had +escaped. Far over the black expanse they raced like great scuttling +lizards, and behind some of the huger shadows trailed three or four +tiny dots like pursuing vermin. These were the babies of the brood +following their eager mothers.</p> + +<p>Evidently these creatures were of a breed distinct from any that Edith +and Ole had yet seen alive. On the slaughter beach Ole and Lane had +operated on three roughly similar giants.</p> + +<p>So entranced were the observers with the ludicrous steeple-chase that +they failed to note the familiar thunder preceding a "blow." Before +Edith knew what was happening the plane was bounding and tumbling like +a glass ball in a fountain.</p> + +<p>She came to her senses just in time. As she shot the plane up for a +sixty degree climb the air immediately below them burst with a dull +roar into thousands of blue flame cones. It was a sharp rebuke to +Ole's irreverent conceit. The theory which he had confided to Heaven +evidently was faulty. After all, the oil tank under this region of +blowholes probably was connected with that under the tunnel. The +backwash of the tide under the tunnel was now forcing up the compressed +gas through the secondary chain of vents.</p> + +<p>Looking down, they saw the flame cones descending rapidly. In a +moment they would disappear down the wells. Such, at least, was Ole's +confident prediction. As if to teach him caution in theorizing, the +flames did nothing of the kind. This eruption of gas was not of +precisely the same sort as that first one into which Anderson had +blundered with his party. It was more like the neighboring one under +the tunnel. The flames did not disappear, but lengthening downward to +the blowholes became short pillars of fire. These, however, were on a +much smaller scale, mere conical candles a hundred feet high and from +five to thirty feet thick.</p> + +<p>The home fires were again burning merrily. It was impossible not to +feel a twinge of sympathy for the exiled monsters scurrying over the +icy plain to the friendly fires. Mothers abandoned their trailing young +in the race after their more agile mates to the cheery hearths, and +many a small monster was left squawking piteously in the cold. Around +the invigorating warmth and light of the blowholes sociable groups of +three or four huge lizards squatted in amiable content, their hunger +and its consequent animosities for the moment forgotten. Edith was +touched; Ole wasn't.</p> + +<p>Mother instinct is said to be universal. Those brainless females +hobnobbing with their ferocious mates around the comforting fires while +their babies cried miserably in the cold, disproved the theory. Again +Edith was deeply touched.</p> + +<p>Wheeling back in the starlight, she dipped and circled low above the +forlorn little monsters on the ice. All her dormant mother love awoke +and strode rampant over one particularly shameful case of abandonment. +The isolated little creature, no bigger than a Newfoundland dog, could +not have been more than a few days old. Its ridiculous little tail +was a mere stub, and its grotesquely disproportionate head all but +over-balanced the emaciated body see-sawing on two feeble pins.</p> + +<p>"Ole," she exclaimed, "we must take that darling little devil chick +back to the ship. It is perishing for warmth and its mother."</p> + +<p>"You're not its mother, and I'm blowed if I'll warm it."</p> + +<p>"Oh yes you will. For you are going to catch it."</p> + +<p>"Who is crazy now?"</p> + +<p>"Not I. You will be perfectly safe with the parents away selfishly +enjoying themselves. Besides, you will have a fair start of nearly +three-quarters of a mile if the mother sees your kidnapping. If you +can't outrun her at that distance you're no good. Here we are. Climb +out and fetch the baby. Grab it well up by the neck so it can't bite."</p> + +<p>"I'll be damned if I do."</p> + +<p>"You will be if you don't. Now look here, Ole. Either you get that +chick for me or I make your life miserable forever by telling the +Captain how you ran away from your prayers. You will be famous from +Liverpool to San Francisco and from there to Hong Kong as the grateful +seaman whose able-bodied prayers raised the devil. Get that poor little +beast for me and I swear never to tell a soul what kind of a fool you +looked racing that two-legged reptile."</p> + +<p>It was rank blackmail, and as such succeeded in a continent where there +is not a single lawyer.</p> + +<p>With elaborate but unnecessary caution Ole sneaked up on the squawking +foundling from behind. In its hunger and pathetic loneliness it would +have welcomed him with open mouth. Grabbing its long thin neck with one +hand, he clutched its stubby tail with the other. Then putting forth +all his barrel of strength he started to lug the kicking little monster +toward the airplane.</p> + +<p>Who would have suspected that the puny wretch had such a fight in its +emaciated body? And who would have dreamed from its plaintive squawk +that the little devil had lungs of leather? It bawled for its daddy, +screeched for its big brother, and yelled for its gadding mother. They +came bounding in great hops.</p> + +<p>All things considered, we must conclude with Edith that Ole, not the +abandoned chick, was the attraction.</p> + +<p>Edith's mother love suddenly fell below zero. She implored Ole to +drop the little beast—he was now carrying it bodily by its neck +and tail—and win the race to the propeller. But Ole's Norwegian +perseverance was roused. Having begun the job he would finish it or +bust.</p> + +<p>Only an exceptionally strong man could have duplicated his feat. While +with one hand he cranked the propeller he held the chick by its neck at +arm's length with the other. The little beast had a wicked, raking kick +with its feeble-looking legs. One rip with its claws might have taught +Ole anatomy.</p> + +<p>The bereaved family arrived in time to hear their darling's farewell +wafted from above. It was dangling over the side of the plane, still +kicking. Ole had not relaxed his strangle hold on its neck. With a +deft swing he got it aboard and sat on its stomach. He still did not +trust the chick with its own head. Consequently its last message to its +mother was sufficiently like the skirl of a bagpipe to be distressing.</p> + +<p>"Cuddle it up in the sealskins," Edith directed, "so it won't freeze on +the way home."</p> + +<p>Ole cuddled it. He was careful, however, not to let go of its neck.</p> + +<p>"Won't father be delighted?" Edith resumed. "This is better than a +whole continent of dead ones. I wonder what it eats?"</p> + +<p>"Shall I let go of its neck and find out?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet. Milk, I think is probably the right diet for so tender an +infant. Have we plenty of the canned variety aboard?"</p> + +<p>"About a hundred cases, I suppose. They will last this little devil all +of a week."</p> + +<p>Their way home passed over a region which was new to them, some thirty +miles west of the line which they had flown first. About ten miles +beyond the blowholes they saw far beneath them a strange black lake.</p> + +<p>"That looks interesting," Edith remarked, dipping down, "let's +investigate. We can't be much later than we are already."</p> + +<p>Nearing the surface of the lake they saw that it was in violent motion. +Even by starlight Ole recognized the appearance of those huge bubbles +instantly.</p> + +<p>"Oil!" he shouted.</p> + +<p>Oil was in fact bubbling up from hundreds of gushers at the bottom +of the lake. The theory which Ole spontaneously brought forth was +probably not far from the truth. The underground tides having risen to +the rock roof above them were forcing the crude oil through a chain +of blowholes. At this point some obstruction, possibly a heavy fall +of rock from the roof, jarred loose by the violent earthquakes, had +blocked the passageway damming back the tidal oil. Consequently it now +spouted through the gas vents. The correspondingly slower motion of the +heavy oil as it was forced upward had not generated sufficient friction +to ignite the fluid. Such at any rate was Ole's theory.</p> + +<p>As a first rough guess it may pass. Much further work, however, must +be done before all the scientific puzzles raised by Lane's historic +expedition are finally elucidated.</p> + +<p>The practical question troubling Ole now was whether the oil would +be sucked down with the receding subterranean tide. If so Anderson +might find it difficult to form a stock company. For obviously it +would be one thing to sell shares in a thirty by fifteen mile lake of +oil and quite another to float stock on a dirty hole in the ground. +He comforted himself with the reflection that more oil stock is sold +on one smell of oil than on a thousand gushers. With a practically +unlimited supply of smell in the hole even when empty they might easily +make millionaires of themselves and the entire crew in a month.</p> + +<p>The southern boundary of the lake gave Ole a qualm. On the south the +oil was dammed back by a mere swell in the ice not fifty feet broad on +top and less than twenty feet high. What if this slight wall should +give way before the pressure of the oil? The millions of dollars in +that beautiful lake would rush down the blowholes on the plain beyond. +To the north, on the shore nearer the ship, conditions were more +satisfactory. Here the wall of the long trough—fifteen miles broad +by thirty long—was well over a hundred yards across the top. His +calculations, of course, were only rough estimates based on their time +of flight and their first observation from above that the lake was +about twice as long as it was broad.</p> + +<p>With a thousand fortunes in sight Ole forgot himself. A tentative nip +on his leg reminded him of his infant charge. Once more he grasped it +firmly by the neck.</p> + +<p>The reception of the wanderers was cordial in the extreme. Edith had +expected the very deuce from her father, but she was totally unprepared +for Drake's attack. The devoted John tersely vented a longing to shake +the tar out of her.</p> + +<p>"Try it," Edith suggested. "You might find it profitable."</p> + +<p>"What?" the Captain shouted. "Have you found oil?"</p> + +<p>"Oceans of it."</p> + +<p>The Captain forgave both her and Ole on the spot.</p> + +<p>"Father," said Edith, uncovering the devil chick which till now they +had kept concealed beneath the skins, "I have brought you a little +playmate. Am I forgiven?"</p> + +<p>Ole at that instant loosened his stranglehold on the chick's windpipe. +A whooping squawk greeted the Doctor.</p> + +<p>"Oh you beautiful child!" he exclaimed with wondering reverence. But +whether he was referring to Edith or her peace offering she was unable +to decide.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c15">15</h2> +</div> + +<h3>ANTICIPATIONS</h3> + + +<p>"What do you expect to get out of all this, Doctor?" the Captain asked +curiously.</p> + +<p>They were sitting in the Captain's cabin. Eight days had elapsed since +the advent of the devil chick. Tomorrow the explorers were to begin +their first serious attack on the unknown. Everything was in readiness +for a quick march to the heart of the mystery and for a safe return to +the ship.</p> + +<p>Lane parried the Captain's question.</p> + +<p>"I may have come for my share of the oil stock. I'm a member of the +crew, am I not?"</p> + +<p>"You're no money grubber. Come on, tell us why you came. I've owned up +to everything. A thousand-acre orange grove in California with nothing +to do but boss it drove me into this mess. After twenty years of +whaling you might be just as ready as I am to sell your soul for a pint +of dirty oil. I've had enough of the cold and the stink. Now I want +sunshine and orange blossoms. What do you want? You have all the money +you need. Now just why did you come?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I came to collect all those magnificent specimens we have +stowed away. The lively little devil chick alone is enough to make any +lover of the beautiful happy for life. Perhaps that is what I expect in +return for my money."</p> + +<p>"I don't think so," said the Captain shrewdly.</p> + +<p>"To change the subject for a moment," Lane rejoined after a pause, +"have you any relatives who would miss you if you died?"</p> + +<p>"Not one. Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because we may never see the ship again after tomorrow."</p> + +<p>"If these two," the Captain indicated Edith and Ole, "got through +alive, why can't we? There is dynamite enough between here and the +crater to blow up an army of two-legged reptiles. We shan't be taken by +surprise."</p> + +<p>"It isn't that. Yet if you were to ask me what I anticipate I should +have to put you off. For I don't know myself. Only I have a feeling +that we may blunder into more than we foresee. Don't you feel the same, +Drake?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," he admitted useasily. "That's why I say Edith shouldn't go. Not +on the first attack, anyway. If everything is all right she can come +with us the second time."</p> + +<p>"There may be no second attempt," Edith replied. "I'm coming, John. Now +don't get fussy about it."</p> + +<p>"All this may seem rather old womanish to you, Captain," the Doctor +resumed. "Nevertheless that is how Drake and I feel. We have +collaborated during the past seven or eight evenings and have now a +fairly definite theory."</p> + +<p>"As to feeling nervous," the Captain laughed, "I occasionally have an +attack of nerves myself when I think of all that beautiful oil being +sucked down the blowholes. It may at any time, you know. But you +haven't told us yet why you want to go on."</p> + +<p>"Drake really knows more about what may be ahead of us than I do." He +grew strangely serious. "On the eve of what may be our last peaceful +day on earth I think it only right to tell you everything I suspect. +Drake can speak for himself later.</p> + +<p>"This is no mere naturalist's holiday. The tons of specimens we have +gathered are priceless beyond count, no doubt, compared to the oceans +of oil which you expect to discover. Yet priceless as our collections +are, and rich as your oil fields may prove, both together are not worth +the fraction of a cent when balanced against the true purpose of this +expedition."</p> + +<p>Anderson gaped at him, "What under the sun did you come for?"</p> + +<p>"As I have said, I don't really know. I can only guess. If my +suspicion is right we shall save civilization from a horrible +destruction."</p> + +<p>The Captain looked incredulous. "You're pulling my leg for what Ole and +I did to yours in San Francisco. When did you find out that we are a +gang of anointed crusaders prancing forth to make the world safe for +democracy?"</p> + +<p>"We shall not make it safe for democracy, or for aristocracy, or for +socialism, or for any other pet creed. What we shall make the world +safe for is life itself. I am serious. This is the greatest adventure. +It was on the slaughter beach that I first definitely recognized +something fundamentally evil in all the strange things we have seen +so far. The second definite hint came from that black rock over which +Drake stumbled."</p> + +<p>"The inscriptions on it?" Ole asked sagaciously.</p> + +<p>"No. The rock itself gave the clue. Drake, have you a piece of the one +you chipped yesterday?"</p> + +<p>Drake produced a small fragment of the black rock. Lane handed it to +the Captain.</p> + +<p>"You were trained as a mining engineer, Anderson. Even twenty years of +whales can't have made you forget all the simplest things in elementary +geology. Take a good look at that chunk of rock and tell me what you +think it is. Here's my magnifying glass."</p> + +<p>The Captain studied the fragment long and curiously.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to make a fool of myself," he said at last, handing back +the glass and rock.</p> + +<p>"Go ahead. What is the stuff? I'm not trying to trap you."</p> + +<p>"Well, Doctor, either I have forgotten all I ever knew or that stuff +isn't rock at all."</p> + +<p>"If it isn't rock, what is it?"</p> + +<p>"Manufactured, I should say—some artificial stone, if you like, or a +queer sort of cement."</p> + +<p>"Precisely."</p> + +<p>"Well, what of it?"</p> + +<p>"Doesn't it strike you as remarkable that millions upon millions +of tons of artificial cement, scribbled over with inscriptions, +should exist on a continent that died before America was born? The +inscriptions alone would not be so mysterious. Races without number, I +am convinced, have lived, died and been forgotten since the beginning +of time. The archaean rocks are an unread history. But that any race +should pave vast areas of its dwelling place with an unimaginable mass +of artificial cement as hard as diamond, is a thing for which history +has no parallel. It is unique."</p> + +<p>"You are right," Ole agreed. "No race known ever paved more than ten +acres in one place. The ancient Babylonians—"</p> + +<p>"Shut up, Ole. Go on, Doctor."</p> + +<p>"Well, that is about all. Drake can tell the rest better."</p> + +<p>"But you haven't said yet what made you bite in San Francisco."</p> + +<p>"Your pickled reptile."</p> + +<p>"That won't go. You have just said that all your junk isn't worth half +a cent compared to the real thing you are after."</p> + +<p>"I am after my life's ambition. Does that satisfy you?"</p> + +<p>"Perfectly. What is your life's ambition?"</p> + +<p>The Doctor laughed. "You are a greater sea lawyer than Ole. I may as +well give you the whole story and be done with it. Then Drake can tell +you something worth hearing."</p> + +<p>He paused for a moment, selecting the few facts necessary.</p> + +<p>"It all began," he resumed, "when I was about ten years old. An aunt +gave me for Christmas a copy of that remarkable scientific romance by +Mary Shelley—the wife of the poet—based on the artificial creation of +life."</p> + +<p>"I've read it," Ole interrupted eagerly. "It's a peach. Just like a +nightmare. '<i>Frankenstein</i>' is the name of the book."</p> + +<p>"Most readers with any brains at all enjoy the story. If nothing +else it is imaginative, and that's a great deal in a world of prosy, +oversexed bores. Well, that book determined the course of my life. You +remember, Ole, how the hero of the story creates a living creature out +of chemicals. This creature was no mere amoeba, but a complex, highly +organized, half-human monstrosity.</p> + +<p>"It is nothing against Mrs. Shelley's fascinating tale to state that +today we know definitely that such a thing is impossible. By merely +mixing together chemicals as her hero did it is not feasible to create +a complex, highly organized animal.</p> + +<p>"On the other hand it <i>may</i> be possible to create out of chemicals a +colloid—a sort of jelly or gluelike substance—having some of the +essential properties of living matter. Although thus far no chemist or +biologist has actually done this, it is not a sheer impossibility. If +it could be done, and this is what I wish to emphasize, it would be +an incomparably easier feat than the one which is the basis of Mrs. +Shelley's story.</p> + +<p>"We can see the relative difficulty of the two by an example from +another field. The first savages killed one another by hurling stones +with their bare hands. We destroy one another wholesale by—among +other ingenious and devilish ways—exceedingly complicated machines. +There is a vastly greater gap between a gluelike substance having +some resemblance to living matter, and the simplest organized living +creature, than exists between a lump of stone hurtling through the air +and a torpedo directed by wireless.</p> + +<p>"All this by the way. The significant thing for me in Mrs. Shelley's +book is that it awoke my imagination when I was ten years old. I +determined to become a scientist. The creation of life was to be my +life's ambition. This, I believe, is the greatest adventure.</p> + +<p>"Then later, learning something of science while picking up an +education in odd hours, I saw clearly that I was a million miles from +my goal. And still later, digging deeper into the natural sciences, I +realized that my ambition was a fantastic dream.</p> + +<p>"I saw then, and I see now, that if life is to be created by human +beings using purely artificial means it will not be in our generation, +nor in our century, nor perhaps in the next two centuries. That it will +be done eventually I have not the slightest doubt. But thus far we have +not succeeded even in stating the problem precisely.</p> + +<p>"When we come to know exactly what it is that we are seeking we +shall find it. At present we lack even a definition of life that is +scientific and more than a scholastic jumble of words. Consequently, +although many of us may feel that we know what we are looking for, +few indeed have the training, the ability and the scientific tact to +seek it intelligently. Men who today search for the origin of life +are hopeless cranks in a class with circle squarers and inventors of +perpetual motion.</p> + +<p>"Having realized early that my first ambition was a chimera, I turned +to more natural and far more useful investigations. I do not regret +the time lost in the vain pursuit of unattainable knowledge. It was +not indeed lost, for it was my apprenticeship to true science. Most of +my work since has been in the laws governing the growth and decay of +animals, and, as a by-product, the study of such diseases as depend +upon abnormal growth. I need not bore you with any of this.</p> + +<p>"I said that I abandoned my quest for life. That is not strictly true. +It is impossible to eradicate from the mind the hopes, desires and +fears of childhood and adolescence. Although in maturity I put away all +thought of ever directly attacking the problem of life, my subconscious +habits of thought were unalterably fixed in my youth. My psychology +is what it was and I yet am driven against my will, for the most part +subconsciously, to think incessantly of the problem of life.</p> + +<p>"All my work, I sometimes think, has been aimed at my first ambition. +It frequently gives me a shock to discover that what I am truly +interested in doing is not the artificial duplication of cancerous +growths, but the out and out creation of living cells. It is almost +as if some familiar spirit keeps whispering 'do this, and in spite +of yourself you will find what you are looking for,' and I, not +consciously hearing the whisper do as I am directed. This of course is +merely my own repressed desire taking its revenge.</p> + +<p>"Again I do not regret. For my work has led to at least three positive +facts recognized by competent authorities as contributions of real +value to our knowledge and control of certain diseases.</p> + +<p>"Now, Anderson, you will ask what all this has to do with our +expedition. In one word, everything. But for my repressed ambition you +would never have obtained one cent toward expenses, I am not interested +in oil or in any other form of wealth. I would not walk across this +cabin to make a million dollars. For I have all the money that is good +for myself and Edith. More would be a nuisance. Had you come to me +without that pickled reptile I should have shown you the door at once.</p> + +<p>"You remember how at first I mistook your find for a young specimen of +a known prehistoric animal. It is true that no fossil yet discovered +has both scales and feathers. There is a 'missing link' in the chain +from reptiles to birds no less than in that from anthropoids to men. +But for all that your monster did not at first look wholly anomalous. +It might, in short, have been a natural animal. And that is what I at +first thought it was.</p> + +<p>"Then, while you were talking of your adventures, I began to think. If +you were an ex-zoölogist instead of an ex-mining engineer, I could +make my next point—the crux of the whole story—much clearer.</p> + +<p>"Thinking over your specimen and looking more closely at it, I +recognized that the monster was indeed a monster, a thing never created +and evolved by nature. There were certain astounding differences +between the obvious anatomy of the creature and any conceivable product +of orderly evolution.</p> + +<p>"A frog will not evolve into a horse no matter how much time you give +him. From now to the end of eternity all the descendants of frogs will +retain certain specific peculiarities of structure which will easily +differentiate them from horses. At no point of the story will the two +become confused. It will be possible a million years hence for any +trained scientist to say at a glance that the descendants of our frogs +and of our horses living in his day, or fossilized in the rocks of his +time, never had a common ancestor.</p> + +<p>"And so it was with your monster. At first it might have been a missing +link between the birds and the reptiles. Closer inspection showed that +none of its ancestors were related to reptiles and that none of its +descendants would ever evolve into birds. And it fitted nowhere else +into the scheme of evolution.</p> + +<p>"Nor was it a deformity. A kitten with three eyes is still a young +cat for all its eyes. A man with six fingers on his right hand still +belongs to the family of men. Mere abnormality does not exclude a freak +from the family to which it otherwise would belong. Your queer find, +Anderson, was no deformed reptile, nor was it a freak bird, 'thrust +into the world before its time but half made up.'</p> + +<p>"There remained but one rational conclusion. The thing was no creation +of nature but the result of a conscious attempt to imitate nature. +Either that monster had been created whole and alive by intelligent +beings, or it was the descendant of remote ancestors so created.</p> + +<p>"The first possibility was out of the question. Had the monster been +recently created we should have had another Frankenstein. I know enough +of the present state of biology to be certain that such a complete +creation of a highly complex organism today is impossible.</p> + +<p>"There remained the alternative. Your monster was the descendant of +inconceivably remote ancestors, and those ancestors, incomparably +simpler in structure, had been created by conscious, intelligent beings.</p> + +<p>"Evolution had done the rest. Shaping the initial, simple organism +through millions of years, time and evolution had gradually complicated +its simplicity into a highly developed organism.</p> + +<p>"The first creation probably was a mere speck of living matter, perhaps +a single cell, and this full-blown monster of yours was the slow flower +of ages blooming from that first almost formless seed.</p> + +<p>"Such was my guess while you sat talking of the monsters boiling up in +oil from the floor of the ocean. I decided to chance your veracity and +see for myself.</p> + +<p>"On the slaughter beach, you remember, I pointed out how all those +dead monsters differed radically, in spite of superficial resemblances, +from their nearest types in the fossil beds. The number and arrangement +of one monster's teeth I emphasized as particularly significant. Nature +does not cram one man's mouth full with eighty teeth and give his +neighbor only sixteen. She does nothing by violent jumps that can be +seen by a blind man. Her changes are minute. That is my second point.</p> + +<p>"On that beach another thought disturbed me greatly. All those monsters +gave me the impression of being badly botched jobs. Suppose you were +aiming to create a harmless toad and achieved a deadly rattlesnake. You +wouldn't consider yourself a master of the technique of life, would +you? Well, neither can the beings whose scientific blundering millions +of years ago started the evolution of all those hideous monsters on the +beach.</p> + +<p>"What those misguided experimenters intended to do I don't know. +What they did start, I do know, and I pronounce its fruit an obscene +abomination. Not one of those huge creatures had intelligence above a +worm's and not one of them ever could be of any possible value to the +world. They are merely gigantic feeding, breeding and fighting machines +with just a spark of intelligence—enough to make them exceedingly +dangerous and no more.</p> + +<p>"I suspect that all those huge brutes are, as I have tried to make +clear, the result of minute seeds first created and sown millions of +years ago. Further, I believe that nature, taking the artificially +created seeds, has grown from them, through countless mutations, the +changing shapes whose perfected, dangerous uselessness infests the +secret places of this continent. The beginning was unnatural, the +development and its conclusion are the work of natural laws.</p> + +<p>"Finally I believe that the original creators of those monstrosities +realized when it was too late what they were doing, foresaw its +consequences, became terrified, tried to undo their blundering work +and perished in a war to destroy their own creations. This, however, +belongs to Drake's part of the investigation. He can tell it better +than I.</p> + +<p>"Now last, let me say exactly what I expect to get from this +expedition. I hope from close study of the anatomy, habits and +environment of these strange creatures to rediscover their origin. +See what this implies. If I am successful I shall be able to create +artificially a true living seed of life. Whether or not I shall wish to +do so depends upon what we discover in the next few days.</p> + +<p>"Mind, I am not expecting to make a gigantic lizard out of dead slime +or anything of that fantastic sort. But I do hope to rediscover the +lost secret which started all those monstrosities. A mere speck of +living matter, a single cell visible only under a high power microscope +is all that I shall achieve, if anything. For I am convinced that the +originators of that aborted creation on the beach achieved no more. +One spark starts the forest fire; their invisible specks of artificial +living matter started the self-imposed catastrophe that wiped them out."</p> + +<p>"But Doctor," Ole objected, "if they only made those very small specks +of living matter how were they wiped out? You say it took millions of +years to evolve dangerous animals out of those bad beginnings. The +things were too small, according to you, to bother a flea. If I get +your meaning they were nothing better than pieces of jelly invisible to +the naked eye. How could such things fight anybody?"</p> + +<p>"That is what I hope to find out, definitely and in detail. Drake and I +already have a rational theory."</p> + +<p>"Is it your theory that they were disease germs when first created?"</p> + +<p>"No, Ole, nothing so romantic. As I tried to make plain a robin's egg +will never hatch crocodiles. Nor will a disease germ ever evolve into a +three hundred foot brute with a head and body like a bad dream."</p> + +<p>"Then what is your theory?"</p> + +<p>"On that point, if I understand your question, I have none. Before +indulging in hypotheses on the origin of life I shall find out the +facts."</p> + +<p>"Listen, Doctor. I have a theory. Those things were first created—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, pipe down, Ole." The Captain was back on the job. "Now Drake, let +us have your side of it."</p> + +<p>"It is so late," Drake yawned, "that I shall have to beg off this time. +We start at five in the morning. Good-night, everybody."</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c16">16</h2> +</div> + +<h3>ATTACK</h3> + + +<p>By forced marches the party reached the north shore of the oil lake +early the third morning after leaving the ship. Lane, Anderson, Ole and +Drake had gone by land. Edith was to arrive at the base by air. While +the men marched she flew back and forth to the ship for last minute +supplies which she dropped conveniently near the southern boundary of +the oil lake.</p> + +<p>No detail that might increase the safety of the expedition had been +neglected. Between the ship and the north shore of the lake a chain +of provision caches made starvation impossible no matter what might +happen. The party of five might all have hung onto the plane somehow, +and so have reached their goal more quickly. But for several reasons +they decided to march, carrying with them the essentials of a light +prospecting outfit. Anderson half expected to find indications of oil +by zigzagging slightly across the line of caches. He was nothing if not +optimistic.</p> + +<p>In case of an accident to the ship, Bronson's men had deposited +provisions in caches parallel to the inlet north a distance of forty +miles. As a final measure of safety they had landed every gallon of +petrol, storing it a mile inland in a deep dugout. Even if forced to +flee on foot the expedition would have sufficient provisions. Each +man could pack on his back a sleeping bag and short rations enough +from the northerly caches to last him to the coast. Should no whaling +vessel appear within two weeks to take them off, Edith or Ole was to +fly northeast to the nearest whaling station for help. No member of the +party expected the worst to happen. But Anderson disbelieved in luck, +preferring arduous certainty to easy going chance.</p> + +<p>At this moment the Captain, speechless with cupidity, was gazing over +the thirty-mile expanse of bubbling black oil. With a hundred huge +fortunes before his eyes he was beginning to regret that Ole and +the crew had been promised a share of the profits. More potential +gold bubbled and swirled in that vast bowl than the most ingeniously +dissolute debauchee could squander in fifty lifetimes. Yet the Captain +wished that Ole and the crew were in Halifax. Such is human nature.</p> + +<p>The men were waiting for Edith. She was to transport them and their +packs comfortably one at a time to the south shore of the lake. They +were then to march at once for the blowholes where Edith and Ole had +seen the monsters warming themselves. Lane's objective was the ruined +crater. He and Drake were determined to inspect the black rocks at +first hand. The shattered floor being his ultimate goal, the Doctor +hoped also to penetrate the black smoke at the bottom and search for +further animal remains.</p> + +<p>An immediate assault on the crater would, of course, be suicide. The +famished monsters would consider the party as a trifling hors d'oeuvre +vouchsafed by the generosity of Heaven for the great feast to come.</p> + +<p>How then were the explorers to traverse the region of blowholes, scale +the crater lip, and reach the Doctor's objective? This puzzle had +exercised the wits of the party for the first two days after the return +of Edith and Ole with the devil chick. Between the oil lake and the +black rocks lay the blowholes, and round these the sociable monsters +might gather at just the most embarrassing moment.</p> + +<p>The puzzle had indeed seemed unsolvable. Of all unpracticable beings it +was Drake who solved the problem by a brilliant flash of imagination. +And of all things that might have inspired him it actually was the +last that might occur to a practical man. Who but Drake would have +turned for inspiration to the memory of his sufferings in a dentist's +chair? Having sat for several hours with the glass hook of a long +rubber siphon under his tongue, he now remembered his discomfort with +advantage.</p> + +<p>As a consequence Edith and Ole during the six days following had +transported every foot of hose—fire hose and other—on the ship to the +south shore of the oil lake. All the iron pipe that could be spared +also was taken to the same depot. To both ends of each section of hose +the men had tied heavy iron slugs, and the end of each pipe they bent +into a short L. This inefficient looking junk, a tangle of doubly +weighted hoses and bent pipes, constituted the entire arsenal of the +attacking party. With this alone they must overcome the army of huge +lizards. Otherwise they must turn back, provided they were not eaten +first.</p> + +<p>"There she comes," the Doctor announced, pointing to a tiny speck +against the blue far to the north. "Ole, you fly over the first and +take our packs. Hang them on somehow."</p> + +<p>Ole seemed nervous at the prospect of being left alone with the packs +on the south shore while Edith returned for the next passenger.</p> + +<p>"What if those brutes come out to get warm while the plane is over on +this side?"</p> + +<p>"But you said the blowholes end quite a distance south of the lake," +the Doctor replied. "They won't come several miles from the heat just +to say hello to you."</p> + +<p>"They will if they smell me."</p> + +<p>"Cheer up, Ole," said Drake; "we will see you avenged."</p> + +<p>"Lot of good that will do me. You go over first."</p> + +<p>"I'm not fat enough."</p> + +<p>The dispute was cut short by the landing of Edith.</p> + +<p>"Captain Anderson," she began at once, "Bronson asked me to tell you +that he may be forced to steam down the inlet at any minute. A wave of +warm water came down again early this morning."</p> + +<p>"Boiling?"</p> + +<p>"No, just warm enough to raise a thick fog over the inlet."</p> + +<p>"There is no great danger, I guess. If he has to run he can make it. +And we are safe with all the supplies cached and the plane. What did he +want me to do?"</p> + +<p>"To send back word by me if he is to move at once. If he doesn't hear +from you by night he will stay where he is."</p> + +<p>"What about it, Lane?"</p> + +<p>"I see no immediate danger. There has been no violent earthquake."</p> + +<p>"That's my best judgment too. He is safe enough where he is. All right, +Ole, hop in. Miss Lane will waft you over for lunch."</p> + +<p>"For lunch?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, idiot. Not yours, theirs."</p> + +<p>With a fat groan Ole obeyed orders.</p> + +<p>Arrived at the south shore of the lake they noted with alarm that the +oil had risen since their visit the previous week. The black waves +were crawling slowly up the narrow rise separating the lake from the +chain of blowholes. Should the wall of rock and ice give way under the +steadily increasing pressure, Anderson's fortune would vanish down the +blowholes in a week. The thought that even if the wall held yet a flow +of oil over the top might overspread the plain and catch fire from the +blowholes, setting the entire lake aflame, was anything but reassuring. +Leaving Ole to his dismal theories Edith skimmed back for the next +passenger.</p> + +<p>Shortly after one o'clock the party assembled on the south shore +with their packs, ready for the opening move of their offensive. The +blowholes were still quiescent. This favoring the strategy of the +proposed attack the party decided to take advantage of it immediately.</p> + +<p>Their first question was, who is to bell the cat? More definitely, +which members of the party should risk their lives to carry out Drake's +ingenious plan? The scheme demanded half an hour's work around the +blowholes. The workers, if seen by the reptiles, certainly would be +welcomed by the whole rookery. And no pair of human legs was a match +for the slowest of the huge lizards. Again, if the work party proceeded +on foot by daylight to the blowholes they were sure to be seen. If they +waited till dark the blowholes might flare up just at the wrong time, +and refreshments would enliven an otherwise dull gathering round the +home fires. It was clear that the party must go by airplane.</p> + +<p>The landing on a plain spotted with bottomless wells would be difficult +enough, but the quick escape, if necessary, would be a feat for the +most expert aviator. A landing at night obviously was out of the +question.</p> + +<p>Edith was elected pilot by the simple process of elimination. Who +should be her helper? An active, practical man was needed for the +job. Although Drake pleaded for the honor of carrying his scheme into +effect, he was rejected on the first ballot. His forte was brains, +not beef. Lane followed him on the second. It was between Ole and the +Captain. Anderson being ignorant of aviation, Ole won the honor which +only Drake coveted.</p> + +<p>Having loaded the plane with all the bent pipe and weighted hose it +could lift, Ole took his place behind Edith. They were off.</p> + +<p>In all they made ten trips. Their work, they hoped, had converted a +hundred and eight of the blowholes nearest the ruined crater into +deadly engines of destruction. They had worked unmolested. The rookery +either was asleep or all except the babies were away for the week-end +foraging under the black smoke of the crater.</p> + +<p>"Well, Drake," the Doctor asked, "have you the courage of your +invention?"</p> + +<p>"Absolutely. It would wipe out an army."</p> + +<p>"That may be just the optimism of the inventor. What about it, +Anderson? Do you feel like marching forward to await developments? Or +shall we camp here until after the blow is over?"</p> + +<p>"To stay here would be the sane thing, I suppose. Still, I want to see +the show. I vote for marching."</p> + +<p>"So do I. Unless we sit on him Drake of course won't miss seeing his +idea in action. How about you, Ole?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Lane and I will take care of the plane."</p> + +<p>"All right, go ahead with our packs and wait for us on this side just +before the beginning of the blowholes. If the reptiles see you before +the blow, don't bother about our packs. Leave them and fly due east to +confuse the brutes. Then they won't blunder into us."</p> + +<p>Two hours after sundown Edith heard the far off crunching of the men's +boots in the frozen snow.</p> + +<p>"There they are," she said. "Ole, meet them and show them the way here."</p> + +<p>A hot drink all round from the thermos bottles and a full meal cheered +the tedium of the early watch. Deciding at eleven o'clock that the +blowholes probably would not spout that night, all but the first +watchman turned into their sleeping bags. The temperature being several +degrees above zero they were quite comfortable.</p> + +<p>In the brilliantly clear starlight the black barrier of the crater lip +seemed ominously near. Yet, conscious as they were of what the rocks +hid, all but the sentry slept like stones. The rookery also was fast +asleep or numbed by the cold, for no drowsy squawks floated over the +silence of no man's land.</p> + +<p>It was the calm sleep before battle. Should Drake's strategy prove +inadequate the attackers would not see the sunrise. If on the other +hand Drake's invention was all that he hoped, those huge two-legged +reptiles would never again visit the black ruins of their shattered +paradise. Their next gathering round the cheerful fires would be +their last. They would die happy, poor brutes. Better one last hour +of comfort and then oblivion forever, than the slow death of years of +recurrent cold and increasing starvation. Left to themselves they might +starve and fight and freeze and cling with all their brute instinct to +life for half a century. It was more humane to destroy them outright.</p> + +<p>Midnight passed without a tremor. Anderson relieved Lane. Two o'clock +uneventfully came and went, and Drake relieved Anderson.</p> + +<p>For the first half hour of Drake's watch all remained quiet with the +stillness of a dead world. Then he became aware of a faint stirring +among the infested rocks. Huge creatures not yet awake were moving +uneasily in their sleep. Something had disturbed them.</p> + +<p>In a few moments they might awake fully and scour the plain. For all +Drake or the others knew the creatures might be nocturnal in their +habits, prowling for their food only in the darkest hours of the early +morning. He had not anticipated this. Should the monsters emerge before +the blowholes spouted his strategem was worthless. It took him but a +second to make up his mind. He instantly roused the sleepers.</p> + +<p>"Get out of here at once. They're coming."</p> + +<p>Not stopping to argue the men shook themselves together. They were +still half-dazed by sleep. Drake's news falling on befogged brains +completed their befuddlement. It did not occur to one of them that all +five might easily climb onto the plane and reach safety in ten minutes. +The unpractical Drake, being the only member of the party with all his +wits, of course did not think of anything so simple and obvious.</p> + +<p>"Take your father north ten miles, leave him, and come back for one of +us," he ordered Edith. "Ole, crank up."</p> + +<p>Ole was about to obey when a sleepy chorus of clattering squawks +drifted over the ice of no man's land. It occurred to him that probably +the reptiles had been away from home, foraging, while he and Edith were +preparing the attack that afternoon. This, in Ole's opinion, accounted +for their good luck.</p> + +<p>"If I start the motor," he said in a hoarse whisper, "those brutes will +hear it. In five minutes we shall be smothered."</p> + +<p>"They are awake anyway," Drake whispered back. "If they come out they +will see the plane against the snow."</p> + +<p>Still hesitating Ole regarded Drake curiously in the dark.</p> + +<p>"I can't see your face, String Bean," he said, still whispering +hoarsely, "but I can guess its color. What are you going to do if those +brutes race out before Miss Lane comes back to fetch you? She will take +you next."</p> + +<p>"Don't stand there whispering and shaking like a blasted jelly. Crank +that motor! She could have been there and back by now."</p> + +<p>"All right, General," Ole whispered. "One second. Now before I obey +orders I'll tell you what I'm going to do next. The instant this +propeller hums you'll see me making tracks for the nearest blowhole. If +I beat the brutes to it, I dive. It won't be suicide because there is +no way out. I had rather smash or drown in oil than die the other way. +Take my tip and follow me. I've seen the brutes; you haven't. And I've +had one race. Miss Lane will tell you about it in Heaven. I don't want +another. All right, General, here goes."</p> + +<p>He braced himself to spin the blades.</p> + +<p>"Wait," Lane whispered tensely. "I felt it coming."</p> + +<p>His more sensitive nervous system had detected the true cause of the +reptiles' awakening. Scarcely breathing the others stood rigid in an +agony of hoping. Did the ice sway beneath their feet ever so gently? +Or was it merely the wish rocking their imaginations? Seconds passed +without a recurrence of the sensation. Then, with infinite relief they +heard, miles beneath them and far to the north, the faint, muffled +buffeting of subterranean thunder. The jarring became unmistakable. In +a moment the icebound plain was vibrating like a steel plate beneath +the impact of a trip-hammer.</p> + +<p>Half a mile to the south they heard the swish of air being sucked down +the blowholes. Then while the ice heaved like a wave of the sea, they +saw the black skyline of the ruined paradise boiling with gigantic +shapes that inked out the low stars for an instant and vanished.</p> + +<p>A moment later a thudding in the upper air announced the kindling of +the innumerable flame cones, the ice for twenty miles around leapt into +dull crimson, and they saw the whole herd of gigantic monsters racing +with incredible speed directly toward them.</p> + +<p>Ten minutes would decide whether Drake's invention meant victory +or death. The flame cones descended, hovered a second in mid-air, +lengthened downward with a reverberant roar and became pillars of fire.</p> + +<p>Once more the sociable monsters forgot the miseries of their frozen +existence. Gathering round the comforting flames with ludicrous yet +touching exclamations of delight they surrendered themselves to the +gracious warmth. Around many of the roaring fires a dozen or more +snuggled at a safe distance in rings of blissful enjoyment. Thawing +rapidly in the fierce heat they licked their flanks, rolled over on +their backs and pawed luxuriously at the warm air.</p> + +<p>The sounds of their pleasure, the inarticulate noises of their +gratitude, would have softened the most calloused heart to pity. There +was an appeal in the playful antics of the colossal beasts that was +irresistible. Huge tails that might have buckled steel plates in the +full viciousness of their cut slapped harmlessly against lean sides +whose ribs stuck out like the timbers of an unfinished hull. They were +starving; yet for this hour they frolicked in the enjoyment of their +other great need, heat.</p> + +<p>Their slow brains neither speculated nor dreamed. When once more the +flames vanished into the bowels of the earth they would crawl back to +their frozen caves. Waking or sleeping they would remember nothing of +their transient happiness. Only at the distant thunder of the next +subterranean tide would their instincts urge them to break anew the +iron spell of their misery. Without memory each pain was a miracle, +each pleasure an accident without cause or consequence. Without +consciousness of the past their future was a blank, their existence a +void. With no pleasure remembered they could look forward to none.</p> + +<p>They were damned with life. Would it not be a gentle act of mercy to +bless them with death?</p> + +<p>Watching their happiness the author of their destruction felt no +regret. They would be killed painlessly at the high tide of their +pleasure.</p> + +<p>"Look," he said, pointing to a blowhole where four of the great lizards +basked in the heat. "Those have it already."</p> + +<p>They saw the four huge bodies roll over as if to sleep. The monsters +shuffled on their sides and lay still, their great tails listlessly +curved on the ice, and their long necks resting on one another's +flanks.</p> + +<p>One by one others of the friendly rings fell asleep. Then, in fifteen +minutes, all were locked fast in death.</p> + +<p>Still the cheerful flames thundered up undiminished. The late comers, +the babies of the sleeping monsters, began to arrive. Hopping feebly +they joined their mothers and nestled down in the genial glow. Soon +they too were asleep forever.</p> + +<p>Suddenly the air about the sleepers burst with a dull explosion into a +sheet of fire. The instant flame lived but a second. Only the cheery +fires rustled and glowed above the dead.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c17">17</h2> +</div> + +<h3>AT CLOSE QUARTERS</h3> + + +<p>An hour before sunrise the ice again began to shake. They heard the +returning subterranean wave bursting through the underground corridors. +The pillared flames, struggling an instant, plunged down the blowholes. +Only the morning star shed its chilly ray on the sleeping monsters, +cold now as the barren ice they cumbered. Obliterating the very +memory of their last happiness the passing wave, with a whistling +reverberation, sucked down the warm air about the sleeping forms.</p> + +<p>The party waited until two hours after sunrise before venturing among +the dead. There remained one simple task before proceeding to the +ruined paradise, lest on their return they meet the same fate as the +monsters.</p> + +<p>To save time the men loaded their packs before starting. On the +previous afternoon Edith and Ole had transported four fifty-pound cases +of dynamite from the caches on the south shore of the oil lake. Each of +the men now loaded one of the fifty-pound cases on his back with his +sleeping bag and enough food to last two days, or on short rations, +four. In addition Ole packed a five-foot steel drill and a heavy +sledge-hammer.</p> + +<p>Edith was to have charge of the plane. A landing in the ruined crater +being out of the question she was to circle above the men in their +descent, mark their route, and watch until they emerged from the smoke. +Should they not reappear by dark she was to fly to a safe place, camp, +and return at daylight to watch for them. If they appeared she was +to observe the easiest route up the rocks of the crater side, and by +flying toward it, direct them. But if by noon they did not come out of +the smoke she was to fly straight back to the ship and guide Bronson's +search party.</p> + +<p>The men planned to descend the crater only far enough to learn what +they wished to know, Anderson and Ole whether oil was to be found, Lane +and Drake the appearance of the black cement in situ.</p> + +<p>Edith accompanied the men on foot to the blowholes. Threading their +way between the huge carcasses the party methodically undid Ole's and +Edith's work of the previous afternoon. There being no further use +for the weighted hose and bent pipes they threw the sections down the +blowholes. No echoes rose.</p> + +<p>"How on earth did you ever think of it?" Anderson asked Drake as he +heaved down the last bent pipe.</p> + +<p>"As I told you," Drake answered modestly. "That siphon arrangement +the dentist puts into your mouth to keep it dry while he works gave +me the idea. If we could stick one leg of a pipe bent into a right +angle down a blowhole, laying the other flush along the surface of +the ice, some of the gas being forced up the hole would spray out +over the surrounding ice. From watching those flames the first day +we saw them I knew that the gas ignites only when it meets the air. +The columns of gas caught at the top. The flame only travelled down +the column as the upward pressure of the gas diminished. For this and +other obvious reasons it was clear that the flames did not start down +in the blowholes, at least not until after the pressure had decreased +markedly and the flames were about to be sucked down and extinguished. +A considerable volume of gas therefore would be blown out through the +pipes and hose over the ice before the flames descended low enough to +ignite the mixture of air and gas near the surface.</p> + +<p>"As for the rest I trusted to nature. The gas, I knew from my school +chemistry, must be rich in carbon monoxide. Now carbon monoxide is +deadly in even minute quantities to all animal life. Less than a minute +under that enormous pressure would suffice to spray out enough of the +gas to asphyxiate an army of monsters. Long before it became rich +enough in carbon monoxide to explode the mixture of gas and air would +reach the point fatal to animal life. You saw what happened."</p> + +<p>"The monsters probably did not actually die," Lane added, "until some +time after the flash. The gas they had inhaled took some minutes to do +its work thoroughly."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Edith, sadly regarding the pathetic groups, "I am glad it +was painless. They just fell asleep."</p> + +<p>"I shouldn't have cried if they had kicked a bit," Ole remarked +viciously.</p> + +<p>"I'll never call you unpractical again," Edith said to Drake. "Merely +in putting these poor things out of their misery you have justified +your existence."</p> + +<p>Drake shouldered his heavy pack and strode off after the others.</p> + +<p>"Because a man prefers to use his head instead of his feet like +a baboon," he flung back, "you call him unpractical. You're as +short-sighted as the pick and shovel men in the street."</p> + +<p>"Now don't get a swelled head over your smartness," she called after +him, "or you'll rise and burst like a toy balloon. Good-bye. I'll come +and fetch you when you stub your toe."</p> + +<p>The men fully realized the danger of their undertaking. Although they +probably had exterminated one rookery of the huge monsters there must +be hundreds more infesting the ruined crater. They accordingly chose +a route down the steep side as nearly as possible in line with the +destroyed rookery. The scramble down over the chaotic fragments of +rock alone was no easy undertaking, nor was its safety increased by +the two hundred pounds of dynamite which the men carried. A slip on +the treacherous rocks might set off a private eruption. There was one +comforting thought, however, which gave them courage. Should one of +them stumble and explode his charge neither he nor the rest would ever +know it.</p> + +<p>By noon they had safely descended about a thousand feet. Another +thousand feet would take them down to the rolling black billows. +Already the reek of burning petroleum was acrid in their nostrils. Ole +and the Captain, breathing deeply, filled their lungs with the odor of +wealth.</p> + +<p>"Here you are, Anderson," said the Doctor. "Strike the rock and see the +oil gush forth." They were resting on a ledge of blocks at the base of +a two hundred foot cliff in the face of the crater wall. On either side +of the unbroken expanse of cement great void pockets and tunnels gaped +in the shattered wall of what, before the explosion which destroyed it, +had been a green paradise such as that of Edith's and Ole's discovery. +The whole wall probably was honeycombed with galleries, tunnels and +vast chambers which, until the eruption, had been sealed over by thick +masses of cement. The explanation of these which Lane gave later is +reasonable and probably correct.</p> + +<p>"Where is my oil?" Anderson demanded.</p> + +<p>"Almost anywhere behind those rocks if you go far enough, I should +say. For some time past I have noticed indications. See that stain up +there?" The Captain nodded. "That's oil. It is probably oozing along +a fissure through the rocks. Find the other end of the fissure and you +tap your first oil tank."</p> + +<p>"But you said the other day that oil in this kind of rock—or +cement—is impossible."</p> + +<p>"And I meant it. Since then I have done some thinking. The oil is +seeping through defects in the ruins of this artificial wall. I have +good reasons for supposing that this wall was built ages ago partly to +keep out the raw material that ultimately became oil."</p> + +<p>"How thick is this cement?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't the least idea. It may be a foot or a hundred miles. I +should chance a shot if I were you."</p> + +<p>The Captain was already busy with his dynamite.</p> + +<p>"Better stand aside when you do," Lane advised. "The oil may shoot you +into the middle of eternity."</p> + +<p>Ole's steady swing soon drilled a hole for the stick of dynamite. He +stood back on the ledge a few feet wiping the sweat from his face while +Anderson placed the charge and laid out the three-minute fuse. He moved +forward to watch the Captain just in time. A fifty-ton block of the +black cement hurtled down from the brow of the cliff, shot directly +through the place where he had been standing, ricocheted on the lip of +the ledge and shattered itself to bits all down the steep slope to the +smoke.</p> + +<p>"Who in hell did that?" Ole shouted, white with rage.</p> + +<p>"Not guilty," said Drake, flattening himself against the wall just as +the next huge missile crashed clear of the ledge. Smaller fragments +showered down spattering the ledge with energetic chunks of cement +that stung and bruised the would be dynamiters.</p> + +<p>"I have a theory," the Doctor announced with a wry smile when the +pelting finally ceased. "Pardon me, Ole, for taking it out of your +mouth. There is something alive up there moving about and dislodging +the loose blocks. Of course that first fifty-ton brick may have been +very nicely balanced, needing only a slight push to send it over. The +alternative is that our friend up there weighs two or three hundred +tons. Take your choice."</p> + +<p>"What shall we do?" Anderson asked, going white.</p> + +<p>"Go ahead with our work. If the brute comes down after us we can crawl +along the base of the cliff and get into one of those empty pockets. +The ledge peters out nicely over there to the right. That beast, if it +is the size I estimate, can't get a foothold on anything narrower than +a city highway."</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Drake, "and this ledge right here is just broad enough for +the brute's rump. It will camp here for a week if necessary waiting for +us to come out to dinner."</p> + +<p>"Would you prefer to race it to the bottom? The smoke down there, I +suspect, covers a multitude of prowlers feasting on the dead."</p> + +<p>"It isn't so bad," the Captain said hopefully. "We can set off dynamite +sticks to scare the brute away."</p> + +<p>"Our popgun won't annoy it after the explosions it must have heard in +the neighborhood of this exciting hole," Drake objected. "But your +idea is good. Edith will hear our efforts and bring help."</p> + +<p>"Dessert, you mean," Lane dryly corrected him. "Go ahead, Captain, +touch it off. We might as well find out all there is to be known about +the place if we've got to die in it."</p> + +<p>"If I strike oil," the Captain grimly rejoined, "I'll sell stock to the +devil himself."</p> + +<p>He lit the fuse and followed the others to a safe place against the +wall.</p> + +<p>The explosion flaked off a thick slab of the cement, revealing a deep +pocket, or possibly the entrance to a tunnel, similar to the others in +the face of the cliff. Not a drop of oil issued.</p> + +<p>"Sold." The Captain swore heartily.</p> + +<p>They followed him to the hole. The entrance was just high enough for a +tall man to walk through without bending his neck. Anderson entered. +His feet raised a cloud of greenish gray dust.</p> + +<p>"Empty," he said to those without.</p> + +<p>He was about to continue his disgruntled observations when a cascade of +rubble plunged over the top of the cliff. Not waiting for an invitation +the others joined him in the dark pocket. Their haste raised the +pungent, suffocating greenish gray dust in clouds.</p> + +<p>"It's coming," said the Doctor. "Down the slope to the left as fast as +its tonnage will let it. Our fireworks attracted its attention."</p> + +<p>"I hope it slips and breaks its beastly neck," Drake remarked viciously.</p> + +<p>"Oh," the Doctor replied, "since the big blow-up here it probably has +acquired a sure foot in scrambling about this hole. Most likely it does +all its heavier feeding in Ole's tunnel restaurant, coming out here +merely for exercise and lighter refreshments. We're just in time for +lunch."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe you give a damn whether you live or die," the Captain +snapped.</p> + +<p>"Except for Edith's sake I don't. I would give a great deal to see one +of those brutes alive and at close quarters."</p> + +<p>"You'll shake hands with it in five minutes."</p> + +<p>"If it becomes too sociable I shall take a short cut out of my +troubles. Fit up one of your sticks with a cap and give it about a +ten-second fuse."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean it?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly. If I must die I see neither virtue nor courage in +deliberately choosing a hideous death. I shall not kiss death till hell +stares me in the face."</p> + +<p>The Captain handed him the prepared stick of dynamite.</p> + +<p>"If you go that way," he said, "the rest of us must follow, you know."</p> + +<p>"Not necessarily. This pocket is almost a tunnel, I'm sure. It +certainly is long enough for you to get your packs out of danger of +detonation from my explosion."</p> + +<p>"I'm for the shortcut," said Drake.</p> + +<p>"So am I." It was Anderson.</p> + +<p>"Then I must," said Ole. "In my case it won't be suicide. I do it +against my will."</p> + +<p>Unstrapping his pack he knelt down and prayed, silently. The others +respectfully turned their backs, listening to the crash of falling +rocks heralding the approach of the monster. Anderson began to grow +nervous.</p> + +<p>"We might as well go farther back," he suggested.</p> + +<p>"All right," Lane replied. "You men leave your packs and go clear to +the back of the cave. I'll take three sticks together so as to be sure +of setting off the lot. It will be over before you know anything."</p> + +<p>"What about you?"</p> + +<p>"I'm going to see it. Don't be afraid. I shall take no chance of being +caught before my time."</p> + +<p>Ole rose from his knees. Their gigantic enemy, to judge by the sounds, +was now lumbering its slow way along the ledge. Ole spoke.</p> + +<p>"The Lord has answered."</p> + +<p>"Let us hear what He said." The Captain was sarcastic. He disbelieved +in Ole's private conversations with headquarters. "Most likely it will +be your last message."</p> + +<p>"That beast may be too big to get in through the hole."</p> + +<p>"Then it will sit down outside and wait for us."</p> + +<p>"I see your idea," Drake exclaimed. "When the brute squats we can +tickle its ramp and make it move on. Captain, fit up a punk with a +three-minute fuse."</p> + +<p>Anderson did the quickest job of his life. Fantastic visions of +euthanasia vanished like the fumes of a sickly dream. The men once +more were what nature intended them to be, resourceful, self-reliant, +and instinctively determined to fight to the last breath.</p> + +<p>"I'll never sneer at you again, Ole," the Captain promised solemnly. +"You put guts into us. Take your dynamite clear to the back of the +tunnel—mine too. Hurry! Drake, lug back yours and Lane's."</p> + +<p>Drake and Ole rejoined the others just as the vast bulk of the monster +blacked out the opening. Still lumbering stupidly forward it passed +the entrance. Daylight again entering the pocket the four crept to the +opening.</p> + +<p>Lane peered out. The brainless monster had reached the end of its +path. Further progress along the narrowing ledge being impossible +the brute squatted. In its stupidity it had gone so far that now it +could not turn with safety. A cat in a similar predicament would have +backed instantly. Apparently the solution of its problem was beyond the +monster's infinitesimal intelligence. It just squatted.</p> + +<p>The Doctor was entranced. He saw only the creature's mountainous back, +one enormous hind foot with its fifty-inch talons, and the gross, +forty-foot tail tapering out to a blunt nub. But even this much with +the close view of the monster's irregular ridge of fleshy humps and its +blotched hide—it had no armor of horny scales, merely a thick skin +like an elephant's—rotten with festering colonies of parasites, was a +feast to the eyes. He longed to scrape off a specimen of those living +diseases devouring the monster from the nub of its tail to the limit of +visibility. And he did.</p> + +<p>Emptying his tobacco box he stepped softly through the entrance. Going +noiselessly up to the nearest patch of disease on the brute's tail he +scraped it with the sharp edge of the open box. The huge beast gave no +sign of feeling. Closing the box carefully Lane estimated the distance +to the entrance to the cave. Then with all his force he kicked the +sorest looking spot on the tail and bolted. He regained the cave just +as the tail struck the cliff like a broadside from a battleship.</p> + +<p>"Why the devil did you do that?" Anderson demanded. "Are you crazy?"</p> + +<p>"We planned to make it move on, didn't we?" the Doctor asked innocently.</p> + +<p>"Not that way. But for your damn foolishness we might have got out of +here unnoticed."</p> + +<p>"To tell the truth I wanted to see how long it would take a nervous +impulse to travel the distance from the brute's tail to its head."</p> + +<p>"Well, you saw, confound it. Now you've started the machinery. Go out +and stop it."</p> + +<p>"I have made a most interesting discovery," the Doctor rhapsodized. +"Zoologists have long suspected that the biggest of the prehistoric +monsters had two main nervous centres, one in the head, the other +somewhere in the rear. One paleontologist of note even went so +far as to assert that reptiles roughly like this one could reason +simultaneously à priori and à posteriori. His theory is brilliantly +confirmed. That brainless lout registered my kick in its tail. It would +have taken a week to get the news up in its head."</p> + +<p>"Oh blast your theories!"</p> + +<p>The Captain had good grounds for his impatience. Lane's energetic kick +had solved the monster's problem. The whole stupid mass was slowly +backing. In a few moments the brute's brainless head would be opposite +the entrance.</p> + +<p>"Draw farther back," Lane advised. "It will probably want to look in. +Sort of reverse reflex action, you know. Where the tail went the head +will follow."</p> + +<p>He was right. The last few yards of the bony neck passed, and the flat, +reptilian head blocked the entrance. By tilting it sideways the monster +managed to insinuate its head. The thirty-foot neck followed slowly, +with ample leeway on either side of the entrance.</p> + +<p>Just as they became aware of its heavy, slow breathing the monster saw +them in the dim light. In a flash the lethargy of the brute vanished. +The straining neck, lashing from side to side, cut the air like a whip. +The whole vast bulk of the giant hurled itself furiously against the +jarring cliff in an endeavor to follow the head.</p> + +<p>Great flakes of the black cement crumbled from the rapidly widening +entrance as the balked hunger of the monster rose to a screaming fury.</p> + +<p>Its deafening screeches, like the shrilling of a herd of wild camels, +shook the cave with a terrific din, and its panting breath raised the +gray green dust in stifling clouds.</p> + +<p>It was now or never. While Drake struck matches, Anderson rapidly but +coolly prepared two more sticks of dynamite. Then, watching his chance, +he lit all three fuses at once and deftly rolled the sticks over the +floor of the cave so that one lay in the middle and one at either end +of the arc threshed out by the huge serpent head. He overtook the +others before they reached the end of the cave.</p> + +<p>When the terrific thunder finally ceased, and the men realized that +their two hundreds had not exploded, they stumbled back through the +dark in a daze to the entrance. In their confusion they blundered +directly into the headless stump of neck—gushing blood like a hydrant.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c18">18</h2> +</div> + +<h3>THE ENEMY</h3> + + +<p>They blasted their way out. When the gory job was done they were +scarlet from boots to hair. Crawling out under the smoking shoulders of +the butchered giant they saw Edith circling dangerously near the rocks, +risking herself and the plane in her eagerness to help should her +chance come. They signalled that all was well, and she wheeled farther +from the shattered wall.</p> + +<p>During their long descent Edith had lost sight of the men among the +huge blocks littering the sides of the crater. She rediscovered them a +second after she observed the monster starting to back in response to +her father's kick. With her binoculars she made out her father peering +through the entrance to the cave. Until that moment she had not seen +the monster. From her height it was as inconspicuous as an ant crawling +about among the jumbled blocks. Unless one knew exactly where to look +it was safe from detection.</p> + +<p>Her feelings as she watched the gigantic brute trying to break its way +into the cave may be imagined. The three muffled detonations in rapid +succession, the third of which blew off the monster's head, reassured +her. Someone's brain was still working in that cave. She saw the entire +carcass of the brute bound from the ledge as if in astonished pain. +Descending with a dead slap that echoed round the crater, the massive +body struck the ledge, the enormous hind legs kicked convulsively, the +powerful tail thrashed the flying blocks of cement, and with a last +shudder from shoulder to rump the monster became still. The neck was +not withdrawn. Guessing what had happened Edith sighed her thankfulness +and stood by to help.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Anderson, "is that a day's work? Does anyone want to go +farther down?"</p> + +<p>"Let us go down another hundred feet," Drake proposed. "So far we have +passed only half a dozen blocks showing traces of inscriptions. I +should like if possible to photograph one unbroken record. Ole has a +pocket camera."</p> + +<p>"Very well," the Captain agreed. "You and Ole keep in sight of this +ledge while Lane and I take a look round the cave. There may be an ooze +of oil at the back. Didn't you smell petroleum, Doctor, when we were +waiting for that shot to go off?"</p> + +<p>"I can't say that I did, but then I was so busy waiting. Drake, why +don't you try that other unbroken bluff over to the left? If our theory +is right you should find inscriptions, if anywhere, either on what was +the surface of the cement before the explosion or on a concealed layer +some inches deeper into the cement. If you can find an unbroken stretch +you will have the revised version of the prehistoric fight. What we +want is the original history. Look for a place where only a few inches +of the outer surface have been flaked off by the explosion."</p> + +<p>While Lane and Anderson explored the cave, Drake and Ole descended in +quest of inscriptions. Edith hovered above the climbers like an anxious +robin over her fledglings.</p> + +<p>"That's for you," Ole remarked with a grin.</p> + +<p>"Mind your own business," Drake snapped.</p> + +<p>Reaching the unbroken cliff which Lane had pointed out they found it +blank.</p> + +<p>"There's another over there," Ole observed hopefully, indicating a +smooth vertical expanse about a thousand yards to their left.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but if we go there we shall be out of sight of the ledge."</p> + +<p>"It's safe enough." He glanced up at the circling airplane. "Take my +tip and don't let her see you running away."</p> + +<p>With a muttered comment on Ole's meddlesome stupidity Drake started +over the intervening blocks like an excited crab. His impetuosity was +rewarded.</p> + +<p>"Hurry up with your camera," he shouted. "This is just what we want."</p> + +<p>They regretted keenly that Ole had not packed a hundred pounds of films +instead of his dynamite. Five or six acres of cliff was covered with +representations of monsters in every conceivable posture. Evidently +this was a record of importance.</p> + +<p>Both strata of inscriptions were represented on the cliff. In several +places the impact of the bombarding blocks from the eruption had flaked +off great scales from the outer layer of cement, baring the original +inscriptions. The unscarred surface bore the revised version. After +deliberating they decided to photograph the entire cliff in three +dozen sections—the limit of Ole's films. This seemed better than +concentrating on individual inscriptions. Drake hoped from enlargement +of the three dozen pictures to obtain a complete record of everything +on the cliff.</p> + +<p>Anderson and Lane meanwhile were busy in the cave. To the Captain's +disappointment they found no trace of oil.</p> + +<p>"You have that lake beyond the blowholes," Lane expostulated. "Isn't +that enough?"</p> + +<p>"No. I want to endow a school of whales."</p> + +<p>"For that rotten pun you deserve to lose everything from your shirt to +your soul. Let us get into the fresh air. This vile dust is choking me."</p> + +<p>"It has a mouldy smell, hasn't it?"</p> + +<p>"You're right," the Doctor agreed. "I wonder what it is." His interest +was aroused.</p> + +<p>"Take some out to the daylight and see. These matches were made by the +devil only to burn my fingers."</p> + +<p>Lane scooped up a double handful of the dust and hurried to the +entrance.</p> + +<p>"Spores," he announced excitedly.</p> + +<p>Although he did not recognize it he had met the enemy.</p> + +<p>"I'm no wiser," the Captain remarked.</p> + +<p>"These are masses of seeds from some fern-like plant. Lord! I wish I +had a microscope. Haven't you ever seen the underside of a fern frond?" +The Captain nodded. "Well, all that brown stuff on it is millions of +fern seeds finer than dust."</p> + +<p>"But this stuff is grayish green."</p> + +<p>"That makes it all the more interesting. These are the spores, the life +germs, of some unknown plant. I am sure of it. We must take back all we +can carry. Cram your pockets."</p> + +<p>Lane dived into the cave and set the example. Reluctantly enough +Anderson followed suit.</p> + +<p>"Over by the wall where we haven't trampled the stuff should be a good +place," Lane continued. "Sift it through your fingers and save anything +not finer than dust."</p> + +<p>Presently Lane rose to his feet with an exclamation of delight.</p> + +<p>"Look what I've found!"</p> + +<p>Anderson followed him to the light. The Doctor was lost in the +contemplation of a tiny desiccated frond of some plant that resembled a +fern yet most decidedly was not a fern. The dried foliage, more like a +rank mould than a decent plant, was of hair-like fineness.</p> + +<p>"Where have I seen something like this before?" Lane muttered to +himself. "It was alive. Where the deuce was it?"</p> + +<p>"In Heaven, before you were born," the Captain suggested. He also was +an admirer of Maeterlinck, having read Ole's bedraggled <i>Bluebird</i>.</p> + +<p>"Rot," said the Doctor. He was not an admirer of the romantic Belgian. +"But your suggestion, by the law that action and reaction are equal and +opposite, recalls the place where I did see this plant growing. It was +next door to hell."</p> + +<p>"San Francisco?" the Captain hazarded.</p> + +<p>"No. On that beach of monsters. Ole blew the stomach out of one and in +the process ripped the lining. Some of this plant, as fresh as newly +cut lettuce, dropped out of the rent. I remember now. We planned to +collect some on our way back to the ship. When we returned we were too +heavily loaded to take on more. Also it was getting dark. So we had to +leave it till next day. By morning the oil and slush oozing into the +hole in the ice where the plant lay had made soup of everything. Well, +this more than makes up for our loss. I shall have a chance to settle +whether life remains dormant under the right conditions, practically +indefinitely."</p> + +<p>"Ah, your theory of immortal whales?"</p> + +<p>"The laugh will be on you when I make this greenish dust grow. The +chances are infinity to nothing that the living plant disappeared from +the earth millions of years ago."</p> + +<p>Lane was wrong in his first statement. Less than twenty-four hours +later he found that the laugh was on him. And a nasty, sardonic laugh +it was at that. He spoke from insufficient knowledge.</p> + +<p>Between them he and Drake had reconstructed the history of the perished +race whose records the rigors of the Antarctic solitudes had preserved +unviolated. Drake as decipherer, and Lane as scientist, working +together imagined themselves in possession of all the essential details +of the catastrophe which had swept intelligence from the Earth when the +poles were regions of perpetual summer. In the light of what happened +less than twenty-four hours after Lane's discovery of the greenish +spores, neither he nor Drake is now willing to claim finality for their +conclusions. Before the struggle in which they all but perished, both +were confident of their theory. It explained all the facts in their +possession and it was rational.</p> + +<p>Their desperate fight for life showed them that they had not visualized +one half of the truth. What they had guessed was the obvious part. +Their failure to reconstruct a single less obvious detail has taught +them modesty. Neither Drake nor Lane will now admit that he knows more +than a small fraction of that obliterated history.</p> + +<p>Lane moreover for the present is disinclined to speculate on the +obscure science behind the history. He prefers to leave fundamental +theories and explanations to Ole. And it may be said in passing that +Ole's most ambitious theory has already attracted numerous followers. +His fame, however, is rather mixed. His following is as large as +Lane's is select. For the notorious conservatism of professional +scientists holds them back in following Ole in regions where the more +adventurous layman rushes in whooping.</p> + +<p>Lane had been so absorbed in his greenish spores that he failed to +note the disappearance of Ole and Drake. They came into sight just +as Anderson began to swear. Joining the others they voted it a day's +work, firmly strapped on their packs, and started up the thousand foot +scramble to the skyline. Topping it shortly before sunset they marched +fast and reached the site of their last night's camp before dusk. Edith +joined them presently.</p> + +<p>"Shall we camp here?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"We might as well," Anderson replied. "It is convenient to the crater. +Have you any reason for wishing to go farther back toward the oil lake?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not. You can decide best. The wind seems to be rising. Up on +the three thousand foot level it is blowing half a gale—thirty miles +an hour from the north. Camped here in the open we shall have trouble +with the plane if the current descends during the night."</p> + +<p>"There is only a four or five mile breeze blowing from the southeast +down here at present," the Captain pointed out. "So far as I can see +the weather is exactly what it has been the past nine days."</p> + +<p>"All right. If you are satisfied I am. Only I thought if there is any +danger of the wind rising in the night it would be easier to manage +the plane in the shelter of the south bank of the oil lake."</p> + +<p>"There is no danger, I am sure. This breeze won't go to more than six +miles an hour at any time during the night. Your speaking of the lake +reminds me of something. Will you take Ole and fly to the cache on the +south shore for more matches? He can dig them out."</p> + +<p>"Of course. We shall be back in half an hour."</p> + +<p>"And while you are there," her father begged, "dig up some sort of a +tin can for me. Bring one with a lid. I want to pack these precious +spores safely away."</p> + +<p>"Very well. I shall bring a fresh tin of ship bread and we can have +a real feast. I know how to make a heavenly hoosh with hardtack and +corned beef. You may have the tin."</p> + +<p>"And the rest of you the stew, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"If you go shares on your blessed spores," she laughed, "we'll do +likewise on the banquet."</p> + +<p>When she returned Anderson thankfully emptied his pockets of the +greenish gray mess.</p> + +<p>"Be careful," Lane admonished, hopping about excitedly on the frozen +snow. "You're losing half of the stuff. The breeze carries it off like +smoke."</p> + +<p>The Captain did indeed lose about a pound and three-quarters. Finally +turning his pockets inside out he gave them a thorough dusting in the +breeze. Although Lane was more careful he also lost half a pound to the +wind.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, "I have enough any way." He slapped down the lid. +"With this I should be able to prove whether or not the life principle +can remain indefinitely in abeyance."</p> + +<p>"The great Swedish chemist Arrhenius almost says it can," Ole informed +them. "He has a theory that life originates on planets by the life +seeds from another planet. The seeds drift across empty spaces for ages +till they strike a planet cool enough for life. When the life seeds +drift too close to the sun or some other star the heat destroys them."</p> + +<p>Lane received Arrhenius' famous theory with the silence of disrespect. +He was already familiar with it as a speculation of the well known +physicists Tait and Stewart. To him it had always been the example +par excellence of the incompetence of the average scientist to reason +straight about another man's specialty. The Captain thought he saw the +point.</p> + +<p>"The hen and the egg over again, isn't it? What starts life on the +first planet? How do your precious life seeds begin in the first place?"</p> + +<p>"They're not mine," Ole retorted indignantly. "Arrhenius invented them. +The life came to the first planet from another planet."</p> + +<p>"Exactly," the Captain sneered. "And when the chain is complete you +have perpetual motion. Go and patent it."</p> + +<p>The dispute becoming personal, the pacific Drake intervened.</p> + +<p>"Both of you are right. Ole can't he held responsible for any +foolishness but his own. Nor can you, Captain, be blamed for +criticizing a scientific theory. The ones that I have looked into are +all like that. They assume the egg in order to produce the hen to +explain the egg."</p> + +<p>"And you," the Doctor hotly interposed, "being a bat-eyed archaeologist +are a competent critic of science. You may be able to read prehistoric +picture books but you couldn't tell the difference between evolution +and relativity. Just because you mess about with fossilized opinions +you set yourself up as a judge of modern science."</p> + +<p>"Not at all," Drake retorted. "I only say that my training in +antiquities enables me to tell fresh eggs from Chinese. And if +Arrhenius' perpetual motion theory of the origin of life isn't a +scientific bad egg I have no nose. One doesn't need a brain to test +things as far gone as that."</p> + +<p>"Now you two," said Edith, giving each of them a shake, "eat your hoosh +before it freezes. You can fight afterwards."</p> + +<p>"We won't want to," Drake grinned, "with a gallon of food under our +belts."</p> + +<p>"True," the Doctor agreed. "If those poor monsters over there had +been properly fed they might have made great pets. The struggle for +subsistence ruined their tempers."</p> + +<p>"I wonder if the blowholes will perform tonight?" Edith asked.</p> + +<p>"No," Ole confidently asserted. "By my theory they should not go off +till early tomorrow forenoon."</p> + +<p>"Your theory be blowed," the Captain growled. He was jealous. "You're +always theorizing and always wrong."</p> + +<p>But Ole was right. There was no flareup till nine o'clock the next +morning.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c19">19</h2> +</div> + +<h3>ATTACKED</h3> + + +<p>After the meal they luxuriously crawled into their warm sleeping bags +and lay talking for an hour. Having exterminated the adjacent rookery +of monsters they saw no necessity for setting a watch. The chances of +any adventurous prowlers from the interior of the crater foraging the +icy wilderness were negligible.</p> + +<p>They decided to have a good night's sleep and be fresh in the morning +for a deeper descent into the crater. The day following Edith had +reserved to take her father to the unruined paradise which she and Ole +had discovered. The others were to march to the oil lake and wait there +for Edith to take them across. They were then to return to the ship +for a second attempt to reach the black barrier of Anderson's first +objective. Although they had not yet devised a means for traversing +the dangerous trough of blowholes which they had blundered on in their +first expedition, nevertheless they felt confident that necessity would +stimulate their inventiveness to a safe plan.</p> + +<p>Anderson was more determined than ever to reach his first goal. There +was no doubt that the black rock barrier beyond the trough was the wall +of another vast ruined paradise. Therefore, he argued, there must be +oil in its vicinity. What was true of one hole in the ice, he said, +must be true of another just like it. Lane had considerably modified +his veto of the possibility of finding oil in such a formation. And the +deciding factor in his change of opinion was his discovery that the +black cement was not of natural origin.</p> + +<p>"What do you make of it all, Lane?" the Captain asked from his sleeping +bag.</p> + +<p>"I told you the other day. We have discovered the final product of +an intelligence that vanished from the earth before America was a +continent. That intelligence, I believe, either deliberately or +accidentally solved the problem of life. For some reasons I think it +more probable that the initial discovery was a blunder.</p> + +<p>"The authors of the mistake were impotent to control it. Everything we +have discovered points to their inability to direct their creation. As +I said the other day they realized what they had done only when it was +too late, foresaw its probable consequences, and destroyed their entire +civilization in the attempt to nullify their blunder. That they failed +to carry out their destructive purpose completely is self-evident. Had +they succeeded not one of those dead monsters over there would ever +have come into existence."</p> + +<p>"If they knew enough to create life," Ole objected, "they must have +known how to destroy it."</p> + +<p>"Not necessarily. An idiot with a test tube of the right sort of +germs might start a plague that not all the doctors of the world +could control. And so with this thing. The minute specks of living +matter which they created—I am assuming the process for the sake of +illustration only—multiplied like bacteria. Now what is the last +remedy for a plague infested village? Why, to burn it to the ground. So +possibly those rash experimenters learned. But the seeds of life—again +I am merely guessing—had been scattered broadcast over the country by +the winds.</p> + +<p>"What was to be done? Fire the whole country? That would have been +useless. For it is impossible to bake the soil over thousands of square +miles to a depth of several feet. I am assuming from tangible evidence +that the plague of life had passed so far beyond control that the very +soil was impregnated with its germs.</p> + +<p>"What would they do? What could they do but seal every mile of the +infected soil? No air must reach the life spores. Light must be +excluded. They systematically set about burying the fertility of their +continent under millions of tons of air tight cement."</p> + +<p>"But why should they bring slow starvation on themselves," Edith +objected, "if, as you say, they had not created any dangerous animals +to prey on them, but only the merest beginnings of life?"</p> + +<p>"For one very good reason, my darling angel child. We may assume that +their intelligence was higher than ours. Otherwise they could not have +created life. Knowing enough even to blunder onto the secret of life +they certainly would be competent to decide whether their creation was +in line with orderly, normal evolution. Finding that their artificial +life spores all were but the potential ancestors of abominations to +be evolved to maturity millions of years in the future, they looked +forward to the probable state of the world as a result of their +mistake. They foresaw hell on earth.</p> + +<p>"There was no immediate danger. There was not even the possibility of +slight discomfort for millions upon millions of years. But there was +the absolute certainty at the end of ages of a world that a decent +beast wouldn't live in. They weighed one against the other—the +certainty of continued happiness for their race for a few million years +longer against the equal certainty of hell on earth forever thereafter. +And they decided that their protracted happiness, even their continued +existence, was not worth its deferred cost.</p> + +<p>"I have said that they were intelligent. The deliberate sacrifice +of their own happiness for a future that would never dream of their +existence, proves my assertion. It is your stupid man who has the soul +of a hog. Drake, you go on."</p> + +<p>"Let me first knock the stuffing out of one of Ole's numerous +theories," Drake began. "Then I can go on where the Doctor stopped. +Ole maintains that the intelligent beings—I won't call them human, +for they were too unselfish to deserve the epithet—who depicted all +those acres of fantastic monsters actually saw the creatures whose +outlines they pressed into the wet cement. He contends that the artists +drew from living models. That I flatly deny. I admit that they saw +the models which inspired them. But they saw with the mind's eye +only. Lane, I believe, is right. They actually created nothing more +terrifying to behold than tiny specks of jelly."</p> + +<p>"You must prove your theory," Ole exploded, rising bodily in his +sleeping bag to defend his offspring.</p> + +<p>"It proved itself the first time I saw your precious photographs. Of +all those thousands of different monsters represented in your pictures, +not one was in a posture that by any stretch of the imagination could +be called natural. Every last one of them is drawn in some grotesque +attitude that would set an Apache artist's teeth on edge. There has +been a deliberate and successful attempt to make each posture unnatural +in at least one detail. The variations are not mere conventions. They +are systematic, infinitely various, and exceedingly ingenious.</p> + +<p>"That gave me my first clue. Whatever race designed those inscriptions +had done its best to convey the information that the beasts were in a +definite sense, imaginary. They were not imaginary in the sense that a +fire breathing dragon is fictitious. By the help of half a ton of books +I learned that such creatures were not flesh and bone impossibilities. +They <i>might</i> have come into being if natural evolution had started from +different beginnings. Lane helped me a lot on this. My own first guess +was merely a jump in the dark.</p> + +<p>"Being ideal representations of non-existent but possible creatures, +what could they signify? The answer was immediate: the results of an +elaborate scientific prophecy.</p> + +<p>"Even I, unscientific antiquarian as I am, have heard of those +astronomers who predicted the exact spot in the heavens in which a +planet—Neptune—that no human eye had ever seen, would be found at +a definite time on a certain night. And in spite of Lane's harsh +estimate of my scientific incompetence, I have also admired that +splendid discovery by the Scotch mathematician who foresaw from his +equations our wireless waves and described their behavior a generation +before wireless became practical.</p> + +<p>"Knowing these antiquarian scraps of scientific history I let my +imagination loose. If it is possible for us to predict unseen planets +and foretell in detail great scientific advances, why should not a more +intelligent race beat us at our own game? We predict only physical +things. Why shouldn't Lane, if he had brains enough, predict the future +course of a hen's life from an examination of the unhatched egg?"</p> + +<p>"No reason at all," Lane laughed. "Some day they will do better than +that. You should let your imagination go."</p> + +<p>"It might never come back to earth if I let loose altogether. Well, +I made my working guess. I supposed that the authors of those +inscriptions were predicting the distant evolution of some form of +life. Taking that as a foundation I tried what I could build.</p> + +<p>"You remember my remarking the entire absence of human figures from +the inscriptions. Not one of those thousands of creatures represented +could by any flight of the imagination be considered above brute +intelligence. The artists had taken great trouble to depict in each +instance a savage, almost brainless stupidity.</p> + +<p>"Now I had also noticed immediately the vivid and life-like pictograms +of sanguinary battles. Putting these two facts together, the total +absence of all higher intelligence and the repeated depiction of +terrible conflicts, I reached what seemed an obvious conclusion.</p> + +<p>"The authors of the inscriptions, I inferred, were predicting their +own annihilation by an enemy as yet not fully created. Further they +predicted the subsequent reign of brutal anarchy and unintelligence. +The inscriptions were a forecast of what was to happen in the course +of evolution. Intelligence, they predicted, was to disappear from the +earth. Brute force, nature gone mad, and a chaos of living things were +to rule in the place of dethroned order.</p> + +<p>"So much for the prophecy. Now for the recorded history. Almost at the +first glance I recognized that two distinct periods of art, separated +by a vast interval of time, were represented in the inscriptions. +Between the earlier and the later the technique of pictorial design +had changed fundamentally. The art of both periods is developed almost +to perfection. Nevertheless, ages separate the two schools, and they +belong to the same race. I need not bore you with the evidence. It +is of the same sort as that which enables archaeologists to say at a +glance whether a sculpture is Greek or Egyptian and further to fix its +date relatively to some standard object.</p> + +<p>"Notice now the extraordinary and significant detail. The two periods +of art, although widely separated in time, were of equal brilliance. +During the ages between the first and second there had been no decline. +We have no parallel to this in recorded history. A few centuries, or +at most two or three thousand years, sees the rise to approximate +perfection and the sure descent to mediocrity.</p> + +<p>"This fact puzzled me more than all the other difficulties together, +and it still is baffling although to a lesser degree. I was totally +unable to decide which inscriptions were the earlier. The inscriptions +of both periods depicted struggles and, so far as I could see for +a long time, struggles of almost identical character. What was the +obvious conclusion? The earlier inscriptions prophesied the ghastly +conflict, the later recorded its occurrence. I became convinced that +the forgotten race early foresaw its extinction in the shadowy future, +lived for ages in undiminished vigor anticipating destruction, and +finally was overwhelmed in the height of its power, surviving only long +enough to leave a record of impending and absolute defeat.</p> + +<p>"I then tried on this hypothesis to decide which set of inscriptions +was the earlier. The net result was nil. Either the problem was beyond +me or I had gone stale.</p> + +<p>"The intense scrutiny was not however a dead waste. A suspicion which +had long been germinating in my subconscious mind struggled up to +certainty. One set of inscriptions undoubtedly and possibly the other +also, was in cipher. The actual conflict depicted was merely the symbol +of a deeper war. It was not beast against beast, but beast against +intelligence. Unmistakably the battles of one set of inscriptions were +symbols of a conflict that was not material. What then could have been +its nature?</p> + +<p>"By a process of exclusion I decided that the only rational guess +was a struggle against natural laws. The conflict was not material; +it could not be against spirits. It therefore most probably was +intellect against brute nature, the endless struggle of intelligence to +be master of itself and creator of its own fate. The symbolic set of +inscriptions, I decided, must record the struggles of the long extinct +race to subdue nature. In short the inscription must be a summary of +the more important scientific discoveries and technical achievements of +the race.</p> + +<p>"The next question was, why should they wish to conceal their +scientific knowledge? My answer was immediate. It was also, I am +now convinced, inadequate. The scientific knowledge of the race, I +reasoned, must have been entrusted to a particular cult whose business +it was to increase and apply the store of wisdom. To prevent disasters +this cult by means of hieroglyphics and symbolic language would conceal +from the uninitiated all dangerous discoveries. Only a history of the +severe struggle to master the secrets of life and the material universe +would be recorded, so that later generations of seekers should not +repeat the experiments and encounter the same dangers.</p> + +<p>"It was now natural to ascribe the purely symbolic, or scientific, +writings to the earlier period. The later inscriptions I took to be +a record of the destruction of the race by the creations of its own +science. The ruin which their scientists early predicted overtook them, +and the perishing race left a warning to intelligent life, should such +ever again inhabit the world, not to repeat the uncontrollable blunder +which had destroyed its first perpetrators.</p> + +<p>"This hypothesis received a startling confirmation when we discovered +that lump of black cement with the embedded inscriptions. The interior +inscriptions, those which had been cemented over, belonged to what I +had decided was the earlier period; those on the face of the fragment +to the latter. Evidently the attempt at concealment had been much more +thorough than I dreamed. The race not only disguised their dangerous +scientific knowledge in ambiguous symbolism; it actually buried the +obnoxious wisdom beneath several inches of a cement as hard as diamond.</p> + +<p>"What could have driven them to such drastic caution? Only the +desperate determination to obliterate the last traces of their +scientific knowledge. Any why? Because in the final conflict they had +found its consequences terrible beyond belief.</p> + +<p>"As to the nature of their dangerous knowledge and the aspect of the +monstrous catastrophe which it engendered, I can only follow Lane in +his speculations. That race blundered onto the secret of life. Creating +it, they fashioned the seeds of abominations. This they realized. And +they foresaw that with the lapse of ages evolution would breed from +their beginnings, innocuous enough at the time and for millions of +years to come, a swarming, uncontrollable multitude of monstrosities +without intelligence.</p> + +<p>"Lane has outlined their probable motives in choosing for themselves +wholesale destruction. Until we shall have spent several years on the +inscriptions we can venture no theory as to how they created life."</p> + +<p>"I have a theory!" Ole exploded. He had been suffering for twenty +minutes.</p> + +<p>"Pipe down," the Captain ordered. "Lane, how do you account for all +those dead monsters over there by the blowholes? And for the thousands +on the beach, to say nothing of the half million I saw boiling up from +the bottom of the ocean?"</p> + +<p>"Easily. Those originators of life destroyed their creation, I pointed +out, by burying the fertile soil of their continent under millions of +tons of air-tight cement. A job like that takes time. The longer they +worked at it the slower became their rate of progress. And for a very +simple reason. As the cemented region grew the food supply diminished. +They took care, of course, to cement over the most dangerous places +first, leaving the lighter work for the last few survivors of the race."</p> + +<p>"Now where did they get the rock and other material for making their +untold millions of tons of the hardest cement?"</p> + +<p>"Out of the ground, of course. Mines."</p> + +<p>"Exactly. That crater we were in today is the ruin of one of their +mines. The vast circular depression that Ole and Edith visited is +another. It fortunately is still undestroyed. That black barrier you +are so determined to explore is the ruined floor of another, heaved up +by the explosion of vast quantities of oil and natural gas. How many +more there may be dotted about this frozen continent I hope some day to +discover.</p> + +<p>"Well, as I see it, they mined out those enormous holes to get +material for their cement. The execution of so vast a project as +theirs demanded the highest intelligence and extraordinary engineering +skill. I suspect that they sunk those pits so deep in order to utilize +the internal heat of the earth. In their day, millions of years ago, +the heat at comparatively shallow depths must have been much greater +than it is today in our deepest mines. For the same purpose, and also +perhaps in the search for rarer minerals required in making their +time-outlasting cement, they drove enormous tunnels, galleries and vast +pockets far into the rocks at every stage of their work. We have heard +the tides of oil and water surging along them under our feet.</p> + +<p>"Now for your animals. The race in its prime having cemented all the +most dangerous regions, the diminishing survivors had only to complete +the project by cementing the easier places. Their task was to seal the +mines and subterranean chambers. The mines are these vast holes in this +forsaken wilderness. The one we explored this morning certainly has +been plastered with cement. They did a thorough job. That black wall +must have been yards thick before the gas explosion blew the whole +interior to bits.</p> + +<p>"The first engineers, foreseeing that the last survivors must perish +of starvation before the completion of their work, took the precaution +of making the sides of their mines perpendicular. It was extremely +improbable that every square yard of the floors, walls and roofs of the +open mines and subterranean galleries would be safely cemented over +before the last worker perished. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of acres +of free soil would be left exposed to the light, air and moisture. The +dangerous life seeds polluting these extensive uncemented areas would +live and develop, and with the lapse of ages evolve into abominations. +That is why they made those pits, three miles deep, with perpendicular +walls as smooth as glass. Whatever bred in those mines and galleries +would live and die there. Soil and heat alike eventually becoming +exhausted, the last vestiges of life in the mines and tunnels would +perish. We happen to have arrived before the natural end, which may not +come for millions of years yet.</p> + +<p>"Why don't we find the mighty engines which those great workers must +have used? Those which they left exposed to the air were rust a million +years ago. Stone will outlast iron, and this cement, hard as diamond, +would outlast the finest steel. As for such of their machines as they +used in their tunnels and caves, I confidently expect to find traces, +perhaps even one or two complete engines. For I intend to explore +thoroughly every mile of those subterranean galleries from here to the +South Pole if necessary, and from there to far under the floor of the +Antarctic ocean.</p> + +<p>"I am convinced that the age-long action of heat and water has slowly +widened the tunnels and extended them far out under the ocean. The roof +of one of these, weakening under the same course, gave way, letting in +the ocean. You saw the backwash of oil and dead beasts blown up by the +steam when the returning wave burst through to the subterranean fires. +The monsters, I suspect, came from another such paradise as the one Ole +and Edith discovered. I shouldn't wonder if it turned out to be the +one you are set on visiting.</p> + +<p>"I have also a theory, as Ole might say, concerning the origin of your +oil. These monsters have been living, evolving, multiplying and dying +in the galleries and uncemented mines for millions of years, literally +for ages of geologic time. Their constantly decomposing carcasses are +responsible for the lakes and oceans of oil which, I feel confident, +swing their black tides deep down under this polar ice cap.</p> + +<p>"Now, one last thing, and I shall have done. We've been talking an hour +and it's time we all went to sleep. I am willing to bet my specimens, +including the incomparable devil chick, against your oil lake, that +when we visit the unruined mine the day after tomorrow, Edith and I +shan't find a single inscription on its walls. No other pit besides +the one we explored today, I am convinced, will show the trace of +an inscription. One record, the authors of the inscriptions rightly +surmised, would be sufficient. So why waste their labor in leaving a +score? The first record, the one which they later cemented over, was +inscribed near the beginning of their gigantic labor. They were just +about to cement over the walls of the first vast mine, now grown so +unwieldy as to be unmanageable. They decided to leave a record of the +harsh science which was driving them to suicide.</p> + +<p>"Accordingly as they worked, they pressed into the unset cement the +secret symbolism of their fatal discoveries. This record they intended +as a warning to their successors should intelligence ever again visit +the earth. Thousands of years later, still toiling at their stupendous +task, they realized fully its crushing magnitude and the horror of +the doom which they labored to nullify. While their own end still was +thousands of years in the future they decided to obliterate forever +the record of the knowledge which had driven their race down the long, +slow way to death. Returning to their first mine they cemented over the +dangerous science which was their ruin. Now let us go to sleep."</p> + +<p>"Not yet," Ole expostulated. "You have no theory of how they created +life. Your science comes to a dead halt. Now I have a theory—"</p> + +<p>"Shut up, Ole!" the Captain roared. "We want to sleep."</p> + +<p>"Shut up yourself!" Ole bellowed, struggling to his feet, sleeping +bag and all. "It is always 'shut up Ole.' The rest of you gab all day +and rave all night. I never get a chance to say anything. Now you are +going to listen to me and learn something for once. I have a theory," +he shouted, "and you've got to accept it because it is common-sense and +the only true theory of life."</p> + +<p>They were sound asleep already.</p> + +<p>Ole however was not to be balked. He talked to the bags and, having +delivered himself, joined his audience in slumber.</p> + +<p>Edith was the first to awake. She first noticed an oppressive warmth. +Not yet fully aroused she turned over on her side for a last nap. The +sense of discomfort increased. Her hair, she imagined, had fallen over +her face as she turned. Some strands evidently had got into her mouth.</p> + +<p>Still lazy, she tried to eject the supposed hair with her tongue. +Failing, she used her fingers. The suspected hair having an unusual +feel she held it before her eyes for examination. In the semi-darkness +she saw that it was green. Startled, she looked more attentively. What +she saw was a mass of fern-like foliage of hair-like fineness.</p> + +<p>It was the enemy.</p> + + +<hr class="chap x-ebookmaker-drop"> + +<div class="chapter"> +<h2 class="nobreak" id="c20">20</h2> +</div> + +<h3>DESPERATE</h3> + + +<p>Edith's cries brought the others, unable to get out of their sleeping +bags, struggling to their feet. The mouths of the bags were choked with +thick masses of the hair-like vegetation.</p> + +<p>Freeing their heads from the entangling meshes they stared out over +a dense, matted jungle of green hair five feet high. To the south +numerous vivid mounds marked the thickly overgrown carcasses of +the asphyxiated monsters. To the north stretched a dense mat of +impenetrable vegetation disappearing in a dark green cloud on the +horizon.</p> + +<p>A hundred yards beyond the mounded monsters the tangled green mass +ended abruptly, save for a single band a hundred yards broad reaching +to the base of the black rocks. There the band stopped. It marked the +course which the men had taken across the ice on their return from the +crater.</p> + +<p>Were their ears deceived? They stood motionless, five blunted pillars +festooned with great streamers and wreaths of the rank, fungus like +green weed, listening in fear to the rustling crepitation. The whole +mass was growing audibly.</p> + +<p>Then they noticed a deep green discoloration of the ice on the west +side of the broad band between the blowholes and rocks. The edges of +the band were not sharp, like the edge of a cornfield. The green mass, +tapering down at the boundaries, merged with the ice and snow. The +green tinge on the ice far beyond the limit of growing vegetation was +the dust of innumerable spores blown from the living plants by the East +wind which rose with the dawn.</p> + +<p>Attempting to move they found themselves bound from feet to armpits +by living ropes woven from thousands of growing, hair-like strands. +They fully realized their desperate situation only when Edith with a +frightened cry called attention to the airplane. It had disappeared +beneath a tangled mound of green ropes. Even if they could extricate +the machine it would be impossible to rise. That matted vegetation +would stop a thousand horsepower tractor in less than a hundred yards.</p> + +<p>"It is those infernal spores," the Doctor said quietly. "See how our +track from the rocks to the blowholes is marked by the filthy weeds. +All that started from the dust Anderson and I shed from our boots and +our clothes as we marched. The sea of green rope between us and the +horizon grew up in the night from the spores we lost to the wind. +Evidently this stuff grows very slowly at first, then like a fire, or +we should have noticed it before we went to sleep. So much for theory. +Has anyone a plan for getting out of this? Don't get panicky. Take your +time."</p> + +<p>"We might try to break our way through to the clean ice east of the +band," the Captain suggested, "and march round the stuff."</p> + +<p>"Not much chance of beating it to the ship, I'm afraid. Still, that's +one plan. Any more?"</p> + +<p>There was no response.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Lane, "I suppose it is forward march. Not that I am +particularly anxious to return to civilization with this blunder on +my head. My stupidity has let loose one of the enemies which that +forgotten race gave its life to chain. Having done the asinine thing +I now see how it could have been avoided. Evidently these spores +require cold and moisture in order to grow like this. Possibly a low +temperature actually forces the growth beyond all nature. In the dry, +warm pockets in the cement, sealed from light and moisture, the spores +would lie dormant indefinitely.</p> + +<p>"Probably what we found is the mass of spores from a growth which +started from a few dusted off the bodies of the last workers. When the +vegetation had exhausted the soil and moisture in the pocket it ceased +to grow. In the warmth, I imagine, the growth was slow and natural. The +spores have retained their life all these millions of years, waiting +for a fool like me to broadcast them over the ideal medium for their +luxuriant growth and propagation. Did those dead workers foresee the +ice ages ahead? Did they seal the caves against the escape of this +fiend to its stimulating cold? I don't know. Such is my theory, and it +is my last. Which way, Anderson?"</p> + +<p>"Head northeast. Ole, you're the strongest. Go first till you give in. +We must head off the stuff before it grows over that bay against the +rocks to the left. Then we can climb along the rocks and beat it to +the east—if we can. It is an inch higher than it was when we began +talking."</p> + +<p>Ole made about twenty feet. Panting and sweating he stopped for breath. +He made another two feet and collapsed in the green slush.</p> + +<p>"All right, Ole," the Captain said, taking his place. "Fall behind +while I have a go."</p> + +<p>Anderson gave out at the third yard.</p> + +<p>"Drake, you're next."</p> + +<p>Drake made less than a yard. Lane followed with a yard and a half. +Edith shoved. And so it went until complete exhaustion overtook them +less than a hundred feet from their starting place. By now the green +mass grew high above their heads when they stood erect.</p> + +<p>"I can do no more," Anderson panted. "We might as well give up."</p> + +<p>Saying nothing they flung themselves down on the green mess they had +trampled. Presently Edith got to her feet and beckoned to Drake. He +followed her back along the green tunnel. The hair-like mass at the +farther end was already a foot high. This was a second growth springing +rankly up from the trampled slush of the first.</p> + +<p>"I wish you to know," Edith began when they reached the end, "that I +have always loved you. We shall not get out of here. I feel no shame in +telling you."</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you tell me before?" he said, touched to the heart. "I +never knew you cared that way for me, although I hoped that some day +you might, darling. We shall die here. Let us forget the past and not +think of the cold eternity before us. The present is enough."</p> + +<p>And they spent their priceless moments as only lovers know how. Death +might strangle them before night, certainly before morning. These few +moments were their eternity.</p> + +<p>Years later, it seemed to them, they heard someone ripping through the +young growth in the tunnel. It was Ole.</p> + +<p>"The Doctor sent me to fetch some grub," he apologized guiltily.</p> + +<p>Edith's heart gave a great leap. While there is appetite there is hope. +Her father's head had started working again.</p> + +<p>"Come on," she said to Drake, "we shall be married after all."</p> + +<p>They found Lane and the Captain sitting in silence. Anderson's face +was expressionless. The Doctor glanced up at Edith's happy face, and +a spasm of pain contracted his own. For he had sent Ole to fetch, +not food, but a hundred pounds of dynamite. He had hoped to end the +misery of all of them painlessly and instantaneously without Edith's +foreknowledge.</p> + +<p>"Have you thought of a way out?" she asked hopefully.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said. "But seeing you I haven't the courage to take it."</p> + +<p>She guessed.</p> + +<p>"John and I," she said, laying her hand on Drake's arm, "will go back +again to the end of the tunnel where you can't see us. I'm not afraid."</p> + +<p>"But I am," he said.</p> + +<p>She stood looking down at him, all the love and affection of her past +happy life in her eyes.</p> + +<p>"You needn't be afraid. I never was frightened of the dark."</p> + +<p>Ole joined them, dragging his mossgrown pack. Anderson glared at him.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you do it back there instead of coming here to scare the +girl to death?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to do it. You are. Suicide and murder are against my +religion."</p> + +<p>"Blowing you to hell is the only good thing about this whole business. +Hand me a cap and cut off a three-inch fuse."</p> + +<p>In spite of himself Ole began to fumble. His half-frozen fingers +refused to pick out the cap. Then searching for his knife to cut the +fuse he remembered what had become of it. He looked at Edith.</p> + +<p>"You couldn't fetch my knife, could you?"</p> + +<p>"No, stupid," she laughed. "How could I fly back to the tunnel?"</p> + +<p>"Here," the Captain exclaimed, impatiently brushing him aside, "I'll do +it if you haven't brains enough to use your teeth."</p> + +<p>Drawing out his knife he opened the blade and gave Ole a sour look.</p> + +<p>"I've a good mind to cut your fat throat," he said. "They can't hang +me."</p> + +<p>"Then you will go to hell for sure," Ole asserted with certain +confidence.</p> + +<p>Working in silence Anderson methodically set about his business. Lane +still sat in the green slush, trying not to think of Edith. Presently +he rose to his feet.</p> + +<p>"The blowholes will spout in a moment," he said. "I just felt the +suspicion of a tremor."</p> + +<p>Involuntarily Anderson paused in his work.</p> + +<p>"You're right. Well, we shall add to the general celebration in a +minute or two."</p> + +<p>The violent shaking began and ended with unexpected suddenness, +throwing them down in the slush. A dull thudding in the air announced +the kindling of the flame cones.</p> + +<p>"Gas, oil!" Lane shouted.</p> + +<p>In his excitement he was incapable of giving coherent expression to +the association of ideas which flashed across his memory. The others +started away from him. Even Edith drew back in alarm. Although they +were about to die it seemed a terrible thing that one of their number +should go out of life mad.</p> + +<p>"Don't you remember, Ole?" he continued, barely able to utter the words +for emotion. "The oil from the shale on the beach oozed down into the +hole where that green stuff lay. That plant was the same as this. What +destroyed it? Oil! The whole mass was dissolved, a mess of brown +sludge when we saw it next. Oil is its natural enemy! Those gas flames +made me think of oil. Thank God for memory!"</p> + +<p>They still thought him demented.</p> + +<p>"Nitric acid might as well be its natural enemy," Drake remarked, "for +all the good it will do us. Where are we to get oil?"</p> + +<p>Drake had not yet learned that genius is the gift for making the most +of circumstances.</p> + +<p>"Where?" the Doctor shouted. "From the tank of the airplane of course. +Edith, can you spare two hundred gallons and still have enough petrol +to take us to the south shore of the oil lake?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. It is less than a ten-minute fly. I can spare three hundred +gallons if you need that much and have plenty to fly to the cache by +the ship."</p> + +<p>But Lane had not yet thought that far. Neither his own possible escape +from death nor that of the party had yet come above his horizon. He was +planning a greater deliverance.</p> + +<p>"Break through to the plane, Ole," he ordered, "while I get the can."</p> + +<p>The twelve feet to the oil tank took only half an hour. Hope had +trebled their strength. The first petrol drawn was used to soak the +spores in the can. These were then thrown away in the tunnel and the +can washed clean.</p> + +<p>"Strip that green devil off the plane somehow, the rest of you," Lane +directed, "while I spread the petrol in the tunnel."</p> + +<p>They went at the job like tigers.</p> + +<p>"Look," Lane cried from the tunnel. "See what the soaked spores did."</p> + +<p>Hurrying back they found him standing in a pool of brown muck. Like a +field of dry flax before a fire the eight-foot wall of green hair was +dissolving round the edges of the pool. The almost instantaneous decay +ate like a flame into the impenetrable thicket.</p> + +<p>Lane carefully spread his can of oil against the matted roots along the +left side of the tunnel. When he returned with the second can a band of +brown slush two feet broad marked the destruction wrought by the first.</p> + +<p>Four hours later they had cleared the plane and opened up a straight +alleyway through the matted tangle sufficiently broad and long enough +for the plane to run along and take the air.</p> + +<p>"Hang on all your dynamite," Lane ordered. "I'll bring the can. Leave +everything else."</p> + +<p>Ole and Edith climbed into their places, Drake sat on the back of the +seat clutching Ole round the neck, while Lane and the Captain disposing +themselves on either side of Drake clung to him and to one another. +The load, although considerable, was far below the plane's lifting +capacity. Edith ran it down the long alleyway and lifted from the brown +sludge with thirty feet to spare.</p> + +<p>Their last look at the blowholes showed the green mounds all about them +lit up by the cheery fires.</p> + +<p>Rising to the thousand foot level they saw beneath them a vivid green +band twelve miles broad winding like a river due north toward the oil +lake.</p> + +<p>"That's what the wind did with the spores we lost last night. The stuff +multiplies on itself like compound interest at ten thousand per cent. +Unless we stop its growth now this whole continent will be matted thick +in a month."</p> + +<p>"And then it will blow across the ocean to South America."</p> + +<p>"Not if I can help it. We don't know yet whether it can multiply like +this in a warmer climate. Freezing temperature seems to act on it like +a violent stimulant. For all we know it might be controllable at ten +degrees and perish at fifty. But I'm not going to find out. This plague +will never get farther than that lake. Land near the cache, Edith. We +shall need all the dynamite we have."</p> + +<p>Anderson guessing the Doctor's purpose made no remonstrance. The oil +had risen high in the lake during the night. Six inches more and it +would begin spilling over the south barrier of the lake. But they could +not wait for nature. The green plague river was broadening before their +eyes. In half a day it would have streamed up the intervening three +miles to the oil lake, surrounded it, and swept onto the desolate plain +beyond in its ever swifter rush to the ocean.</p> + +<p>Ole unearthed the pick and began digging furiously into the ice under +the narrowest point of the barrier.</p> + +<p>"How long will it take to fly across the lake, Edith?" Lane asked.</p> + +<p>"Twenty minutes at the most."</p> + +<p>"Then give your shots a twenty-minute fuse," Lane directed. "We shan't +stay to see the show. The oil may catch when the dynamite explodes. +All hands soak themselves in crude oil. We can't risk starting those +infernal spores in a new place."</p> + +<p>Setting the example Lane baled up several canfulls of the black oil and +drenched himself from head to feet. Then he soused the plane. Having +finished he passed the can to Drake and stood watching Anderson at his +work. The Captain was saying nothing in the presence of his tragedy.</p> + +<p>"Look here, Captain," Lane said, "all this is due to my stupidity +alone. I have lost your oil for you. In slight return I shall make you +a present of the finest thousand-acre orange grove in California."</p> + +<p>The proud temptation to refuse gave way to the memory of twenty years +of cold and stink.</p> + +<p>"I accept the sunshine and orange blossoms with all my thanks," the +Captain replied.</p> + +<p>"And while you are about that job," Lane continued, "put this in with +the dynamite too." He handed the Captain his tobacco box containing the +parasites which he had scraped from the monster's tail. "I shall not +take another chance with any of the infernal diseases of the archaean +age," he said.</p> + +<p>Having planted the last charge Anderson soaked his clothing in oil +before lighting all four fuses. He then clambered up on the plane with +the others. They were off as fast as they could fly.</p> + +<p>Twenty minutes passed, twenty-five, and they were well beyond the +north shore of the lake speeding toward the ship.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure those fuses were dry?" Lane shouted above the roar of the +propeller.</p> + +<p>Anderson nodded. They flew another three minutes before hearing in +rapid succession the four dull explosions which announced the release +of the oil flood.</p> + +<p>Nearing the ship they saw Bronson and the men on the ice near the +petrol cache loafing about, exercising the dogs and the now sturdy +devil chick.</p> + +<p>"Out of here at once," Anderson ordered. "Is steam up?"</p> + +<p>"Yes sir."</p> + +<p>"Send four of the men to the petrol cache to fill the tank of the plane +to capacity. Order the rest to get the sledges and their packs in shape +for an immediate march to the coast. Hell's going to break loose."</p> + +<p>Bronson obeyed orders on the run.</p> + +<p>"Now Edith," Anderson continued, "you and Hansen stand by ready to +follow the ship down the channel. If mud comes down and mires us fly +as fast as you can to the nearest whaling station and send help. Ole +will do the navigating. We shall pack to the coast and wait there for +relief."</p> + +<p>"Can I take the devil chick?" she pleaded.</p> + +<p>"That brute? It's as big as a cow."</p> + +<p>"The plane can lift it easily."</p> + +<p>"Nothing doing. But," he added, seeing the tears in her eyes, "we'll +herd the ugly beast along with us to the coast if we have to hike."</p> + +<p>Bronson rejoined them to say that the plane was now ready for a +thousand mile flight.</p> + +<p>"Very well. Get the ship out of here. Have the men ready to leave her +at the first sign of trouble."</p> + +<p>The men were already stowing their effects, including the obstinate +devil chick, aboard the ship.</p> + +<p>Bronson had gone but four steps when the ice leapt into a crimson glow.</p> + +<p>"Get the men on the ice and run for the coast," Anderson shouted.</p> + +<p>The men needed no orders. They were swarming out as fast as they could. +The appalling concussion swept over them just as they reached the ice. +Looking south they saw the roof of the continent hurtling skyward. A +vast gush of red flames surging up overtook the black mass, flattened +along its underside in curling billows of crimson, and for an instant +pressed the millions of tons of suspended rock and cement hard against +the sky. Then it fell.</p> + +<p>The fliers were already headed for the coast. Edith's last vision of +the ship revealed one of the crew tugging desperately at the devil +chick's head in a final attempt to get it ashore again. Failing, the +man abandoned the wretched creature and jumped to save his own life.</p> + +<p>The falling of the suspended rock had set up a choppy land tide of +waves twenty feet high. Like a thunderclap the walls of the inlet met, +parted, and met again. The ship was matches.</p> + +<p>Explosion after explosion rolled the fleeing machine over and over in +the turbulent air like a feather. But it was a well built plane, and +nothing of consequence snapped.</p> + +<p>The fliers, better than the men far behind reeling over the heaving +ice, knew what might come at any instant. The oil which had gushed +over the plain from the lake, to plunge down the flaming blowholes and +generate vast quantities of gas, must still be rushing in a river of +fire toward the subterranean reservoirs beneath the unruined paradise. +That the two chains of underground lakes were connected they had good +grounds for believing.</p> + +<p>Their expectations were realized late that afternoon as they sped +northeast in their flight toward the nearest whaling station. Neither +has any memory of how they weathered the unimaginable tempest of +detonations which shook the upper air from the Antarctic to Rio. The +unruined paradise was ruined.</p> + +<p>Four weeks later the whaling vessel <i>Orion</i> of Boston rescued a party +of stunned and half-starved men shivering on the ice at the mouth of +what had been the inlet. They were unable to give any coherent account +of their experiences. Not a member of the crew had been lost. The +expedition had returned with its life.</p> + + +<hr class="chap"> + + +<p class="ph2">THEY FOUND A LOST WORLD OF WEIRD MONSTERS</p> + + +<p>When a sea captain brought a baby dinosaur to the home of a wealthy, +brilliant scientist, it triggered off an expedition that well deserves +the title of THE GREATEST ADVENTURE. For the trail of that little +creature led straight into the unexplored, quake-shaken Antarctic to +a lost world overrun with the monsters of an evolution gone wild! In +every way a classic of science-fiction, it's breathtaking story-telling +by John Taine back in print at last!</p> + + +<p class="ph2">ACE BOOKS</p> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 79400 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/79400-h/images/cover.jpg b/79400-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b4338a --- /dev/null +++ b/79400-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/79400-h/images/illusc.jpg b/79400-h/images/illusc.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f28d22 --- /dev/null +++ b/79400-h/images/illusc.jpg diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6c72794 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This book, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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