Mr. Tyler, Sr., was expected almost hourly. The last steamer in from Honolulu had brought information of the date of the expected sailing of his yacht Toreador, which was now twenty-four hours overdue3. Mr. Tyler's assistant secretary, who had been left at home, assured me that there was no doubt but that the Toreador had sailed as promised, since he knew his employer well enough to be positive that nothing short of an act of God would prevent his doing what he had planned to do. I was also aware of the fact that the sending apparatus4 of the Toreador's wireless5 equipment was sealed, and that it would only be used in event of dire6 necessity. There was, therefore, nothing to do but wait, and we waited.
We discussed the manuscript and hazarded guesses concerning it and the strange events it narrated7. The torpedoing8 of the liner upon which Bowen J. Tyler, Jr., had taken passage for France to join the American Ambulance was a well-known fact, and I had further substantiated9 by wire to the New York office of the owners, that a Miss La Rue10 had been booked for passage. Further, neither she nor Bowen had been mentioned among the list of survivors11; nor had the body of either of them been recovered.
Their rescue by the English tug12 was entirely13 probable; the capture of the enemy U-33 by the tug's crew was not beyond the range of possibility; and their adventures during the perilous14 cruise which the treachery and deceit of Benson extended until they found themselves in the waters of the far South Pacific with depleted15 stores and poisoned water-casks, while bordering upon the fantastic, appeared logical enough as narrated, event by event, in the manuscript.
Caprona has always been considered a more or less mythical16 land, though it is vouched17 for by an eminent18 navigator of the eighteenth century; but Bowen's narrative19 made it seem very real, however many miles of trackless ocean lay between us and it. Yes, the narrative had us guessing. We were agreed that it was most improbable; but neither of us could say that anything which it contained was beyond the range of possibility. The weird20 flora21 and fauna22 of Caspak were as possible under the thick, warm atmospheric23 conditions of the super-heated crater24 as they were in the Mesozoic era under almost exactly similar conditions, which were then probably world-wide. The assistant secretary had heard of Caproni and his discoveries, but admitted that he never had taken much stock in the one nor the other. We were agreed that the one statement most difficult of explanation was that which reported the entire absence of human young among the various tribes with which Tyler had had intercourse25. This was the one irreconcilable26 statement of the manuscript. A world of adults! It was impossible.
We speculated upon the probable fate of Bradley and his party of English sailors. Tyler had found the graves of two of them; how many more might have perished! And Miss La Rue—could a young girl long have survived the horrors of Caspak after having been separated from all of her own kind? The assistant secretary wondered if Nobs still was with her, and then we both smiled at this tacit acceptance of the truth of the whole uncanny tale:
"I suppose I'm a fool," remarked the assistant secretary; "but by George, I can't help believing it, and I can see that girl now, with the big Airedale at her side protecting her from the terrors of a million years ago. I can visualize27 the entire scene—the apelike Grimaldi men huddled28 in their filthy29 caves; the huge pterodactyls soaring through the heavy air upon their bat-like wings; the mighty30 dinosaurs31 moving their clumsy hulks beneath the dark shadows of preglacial forests—the dragons which we considered myths until science taught us that they were the true recollections of the first man, handed down through countless32 ages by word of mouth from father to son out of the unrecorded dawn of humanity."
"It is stupendous—if true," I replied. "And to think that possibly they are still there—Tyler and Miss La Rue—surrounded by hideous33 dangers, and that possibly Bradley still lives, and some of his party! I can't help hoping all the time that Bowen and the girl have found the others; the last Bowen knew of them, there were six left, all told—the mate Bradley, the engineer Olson, and Wilson, Whitely, Brady and Sinclair. There might be some hope for them if they could join forces; but separated, I'm afraid they couldn't last long."
"If only they hadn't let the German prisoners capture the U-33! Bowen should have had better judgment34 than to have trusted them at all. The chances are von Schoenvorts succeeded in getting safely back to Kiel and is strutting35 around with an Iron Cross this very minute. With a large supply of oil from the wells they discovered in Caspak, with plenty of water and ample provisions, there is no reason why they couldn't have negotiated the submerged tunnel beneath the barrier cliffs and made good their escape."
"I don't like 'em," said the assistant secretary; "but sometimes you got to hand it to 'em."
"Yes," I growled36, "and there's nothing I'd enjoy more than handing it to them!" And then the telephone-bell rang.
The assistant secretary answered, and as I watched him, I saw his jaw37 drop and his face go white. "My God!" he exclaimed as he hung up the receiver as one in a trance. "It can't be!"
"What?" I asked.
"Mr. Tyler is dead," he answered in a dull voice. "He died at sea, suddenly, yesterday."
The next ten days were occupied in burying Mr. Bowen J. Tyler, Sr., and arranging plans for the succor38 of his son. Mr. Tom Billings, the late Mr. Tyler's secretary, did it all. He is force, energy, initiative and good judgment combined and personified. I never have beheld39 a more dynamic young man. He handled lawyers, courts and executors as a sculptor40 handles his modeling clay. He formed, fashioned and forced them to his will. He had been a classmate of Bowen Tyler at college, and a fraternity brother, and before that he had been an impoverished41 and improvident42 cow-puncher on one of the great Tyler ranches43. Tyler, Sr., had picked him out of thousands of employees and made him; or rather Tyler had given him the opportunity, and then Billings had made himself. Tyler, Jr., as good a judge of men as his father, had taken him into his friendship, and between the two of them they had turned out a man who would have died for a Tyler as quickly as he would have for his flag. Yet there was none of the sycophant44 or fawner in Billings; ordinarily I do not wax enthusiastic about men, but this man Billings comes as close to my conception of what a regular man should be as any I have ever met. I venture to say that before Bowen J. Tyler sent him to college he had never heard the word ethics45, and yet I am equally sure that in all his life he never has transgressed46 a single tenet of the code of ethics of an American gentleman.
Ten days after they brought Mr. Tyler's body off the Toreador, we steamed out into the Pacific in search of Caprona. There were forty in the party, including the master and crew of the Toreador; and Billings the indomitable was in command. We had a long and uninteresting search for Caprona, for the old map upon which the assistant secretary had finally located it was most inaccurate47. When its grim walls finally rose out of the ocean's mists before us, we were so far south that it was a question as to whether we were in the South Pacific or the Antarctic. Bergs were numerous, and it was very cold.
All during the trip Billings had steadfastly48 evaded49 questions as to how we were to enter Caspak after we had found Caprona. Bowen Tyler's manuscript had made it perfectly50 evident to all that the subterranean51 outlet52 of the Caspakian River was the only means of ingress or egress53 to the crater world beyond the impregnable cliffs. Tyler's party had been able to navigate54 this channel because their craft had been a submarine; but the Toreador could as easily have flown over the cliffs as sailed under them. Jimmy Hollis and Colin Short whiled away many an hour inventing schemes for surmounting55 the obstacle presented by the barrier cliffs, and making ridiculous wagers57 as to which one Tom Billings had in mind; but immediately we were all assured that we had raised Caprona, Billings called us together.
"There was no use in talking about these things," he said, "until we found the island. At best it can be but conjecture58 on our part until we have been able to scrutinize59 the coast closely. Each of us has formed a mental picture of the Capronian seacoast from Bowen's manuscript, and it is not likely that any two of these pictures resemble each other, or that any of them resemble the coast as we shall presently find it. I have in view three plans for scaling the cliffs, and the means for carrying out each is in the hold. There is an electric drill with plenty of waterproof60 cable to reach from the ship's dynamos to the cliff-top when the Toreador is anchored at a safe distance from shore, and there is sufficient half-inch iron rod to build a ladder from the base to the top of the cliff. It would be a long, arduous61 and dangerous work to bore the holes and insert the rungs of the ladder from the bottom upward; yet it can be done.
"I also have a life-saving mortar62 with which we might be able to throw a line over the summit of the cliffs; but this plan would necessitate63 one of us climbing to the top with the chances more than even that the line would cut at the summit, or the hooks at the upper end would slip.
"My third plan seems to me the most feasible. You all saw a number of large, heavy boxes lowered into the hold before we sailed. I know you did, because you asked me what they contained and commented upon the large letter 'H' which was painted upon each box. These boxes contain the various parts of a hydro-aeroplane. I purpose assembling this upon the strip of beach described in Bowen's manuscript—the beach where he found the dead body of the apelike man—provided there is sufficient space above high water; otherwise we shall have to assemble it on deck and lower it over the side. After it is assembled, I shall carry tackle and ropes to the cliff-top, and then it will be comparatively simple to hoist64 the search-party and its supplies in safety. Or I can make a sufficient number of trips to land the entire party in the valley beyond the barrier; all will depend, of course, upon what my first reconnaissance reveals."
That afternoon we steamed slowly along the face of Caprona's towering barrier.
"You see now," remarked Billings as we craned our necks to scan the summit thousands of feet above us, "how futile65 it would have been to waste our time in working out details of a plan to surmount56 those." And he jerked his thumb toward the cliffs. "It would take weeks, possibly months, to construct a ladder to the top. I had no conception of their formidable height. Our mortar would not carry a line halfway66 to the crest67 of the lowest point. There is no use discussing any plan other than the hydro-aeroplane. We'll find the beach and get busy."
Late the following morning the lookout68 announced that he could discern surf about a mile ahead; and as we approached, we all saw the line of breakers broken by a long sweep of rolling surf upon a narrow beach. The launch was lowered, and five of us made a landing, getting a good ducking in the ice-cold waters in the doing of it; but we were rewarded by the finding of the clean-picked bones of what might have been the skeleton of a high order of ape or a very low order of man, lying close to the base of the cliff. Billings was satisfied, as were the rest of us, that this was the beach mentioned by Bowen, and we further found that there was ample room to assemble the sea-plane.
Billings, having arrived at a decision, lost no time in acting69, with the result that before mid-afternoon we had landed all the large boxes marked "H" upon the beach, and were busily engaged in opening them. Two days later the plane was assembled and tuned70. We loaded tackles and ropes, water, food and ammunition71 in it, and then we each implored72 Billings to let us be the one to accompany him. But he would take no one. That was Billings; if there was any especially difficult or dangerous work to be done, that one man could do, Billings always did it himself. If he needed assistance, he never called for volunteers—just selected the man or men he considered best qualified73 for the duty. He said that he considered the principles underlying74 all volunteer service fundamentally wrong, and that it seemed to him that calling for volunteers reflected upon the courage and loyalty75 of the entire command.
We rolled the plane down to the water's edge, and Billings mounted the pilot's seat. There was a moment's delay as he assured himself that he had everything necessary. Jimmy Hollis went over his armament and ammunition to see that nothing had been omitted. Besides pistol and rifle, there was the machine-gun mounted in front of him on the plane, and ammunition for all three. Bowen's account of the terrors of Caspak had impressed us all with the necessity for proper means of defense76.
At last all was ready. The motor was started, and we pushed the plane out into the surf. A moment later, and she was skimming seaward. Gently she rose from the surface of the water, executed a wide spiral as she mounted rapidly, circled once far above us and then disappeared over the crest of the cliffs. We all stood silent and expectant, our eyes glued upon the towering summit above us. Hollis, who was now in command, consulted his wrist-watch at frequent intervals77.
"Gad," exclaimed Short, "we ought to be hearing from him pretty soon!"
"Seems like an hour," snapped Short. "What's that? Did you hear that? He's firing! It's the machine-gun! Oh, Lord; and here we are as helpless as a lot of old ladies ten thousand miles away! We can't do a thing. We don't know what's happening. Why didn't he let one of us go with him?"
Yes, it was the machine-gun. We would hear it distinctly for at least a minute. Then came silence. That was two weeks ago. We have had no sign nor signal from Tom Billings since.
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1
skeptical
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| adj.怀疑的，多疑的 | |
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sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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overdue
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| adj.过期的，到期未付的；早该有的，迟到的 | |
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apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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wireless
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| adj.无线的；n.无线电 | |
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dire
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| adj.可怕的，悲惨的，阴惨的，极端的 | |
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narrated
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| v.故事( narrate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8
torpedoing
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| 用爆破筒爆破 | |
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9
substantiated
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| v.用事实支持（某主张、说法等），证明，证实( substantiate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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rue
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| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
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11
survivors
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| 幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 ) | |
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12
tug
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| v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船 | |
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13
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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14
perilous
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| adj.危险的，冒险的 | |
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15
depleted
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| adj. 枯竭的, 废弃的 动词deplete的过去式和过去分词 | |
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16
mythical
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| adj.神话的；虚构的；想像的 | |
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17
vouched
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| v.保证( vouch的过去式和过去分词 )；担保；确定；确定地说 | |
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18
eminent
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| adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的 | |
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narrative
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| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
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20
weird
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| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
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flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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fauna
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| n.(一个地区或时代的)所有动物，动物区系 | |
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23
atmospheric
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| adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的 | |
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24
crater
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| n.火山口，弹坑 | |
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intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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irreconcilable
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| adj.（指人）难和解的，势不两立的 | |
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visualize
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| vt.使看得见，使具体化，想象，设想 | |
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28
huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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filthy
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| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
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30
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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31
dinosaurs
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| n.恐龙( dinosaur的名词复数 )；守旧落伍的人，过时落后的东西 | |
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32
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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34
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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35
strutting
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| 加固，支撑物 | |
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growled
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| v.（动物）发狺狺声， （雷）作隆隆声( growl的过去式和过去分词 )；低声咆哮着说 | |
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jaw
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| n.颚，颌，说教，流言蜚语；v.喋喋不休，教训 | |
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succor
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| n.援助，帮助；v.给予帮助 | |
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beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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40
sculptor
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| n.雕刻家，雕刻家 | |
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41
impoverished
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| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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improvident
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| adj.不顾将来的，不节俭的，无远见的 | |
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ranches
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| 大农场， （兼种果树，养鸡等的）大牧场( ranch的名词复数 ) | |
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sycophant
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| n.马屁精 | |
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45
ethics
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| n.伦理学；伦理观，道德标准 | |
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46
transgressed
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| v.超越( transgress的过去式和过去分词 )；越过；违反；违背 | |
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47
inaccurate
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| adj.错误的，不正确的，不准确的 | |
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48
steadfastly
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| adv.踏实地，不变地；岿然；坚定不渝 | |
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49
evaded
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| 逃避( evade的过去式和过去分词 )； 避开； 回避； 想不出 | |
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50
perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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51
subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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52
outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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53
egress
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| n.出去；出口 | |
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54
navigate
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| v.航行，飞行；导航，领航 | |
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55
surmounting
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| 战胜( surmount的现在分词 )； 克服（困难）； 居于…之上； 在…顶上 | |
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56
surmount
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| vt.克服；置于…顶上 | |
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57
wagers
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| n.赌注，用钱打赌( wager的名词复数 )v.在（某物）上赌钱，打赌( wager的第三人称单数 )；保证，担保 | |
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58
conjecture
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| n./v.推测，猜测 | |
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59
scrutinize
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| n.详细检查，细读 | |
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60
waterproof
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| n.防水材料；adj.防水的；v.使...能防水 | |
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61
arduous
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| adj.艰苦的，费力的，陡峭的 | |
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62
mortar
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| n.灰浆，灰泥；迫击炮；v.把…用灰浆涂接合 | |
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63
necessitate
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| v.使成为必要，需要 | |
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64
hoist
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| n.升高，起重机，推动；v.升起，升高，举起 | |
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65
futile
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| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
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66
halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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67
crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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68
lookout
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| n.注意，前途，瞭望台 | |
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69
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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70
tuned
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| adj.调谐的，已调谐的v.调音( tune的过去式和过去分词 )；调整；（给收音机、电视等）调谐；使协调 | |
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71
ammunition
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| n.军火，弹药 | |
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72
implored
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| 恳求或乞求（某人）( implore的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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73
qualified
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| adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的 | |
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74
underlying
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| adj.在下面的，含蓄的，潜在的 | |
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75
loyalty
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| n.忠诚，忠心 | |
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76
defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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77
intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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78
nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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