 CHAPTER V. THE STAKES WE HAD THAT NIGHT, AND THEY WERE FINE, AND THE FOLLOWING MORNING WE TASTED THE BROTH. It seemed odd to be eating a creature that should, by all the laws of paleontology, have been extinct for several million years. It gave one a feeling of newness that was almost embarrassing, although it didn't seem to embarrass our appetites. Olson ate until I thought he would burst. The girl ate with us that night at the little officer's mess just back of the torpedo compartment. The narrow table was unfolded, the forced tools were set out, and for the first time in days we sat down to eat, and for the first time in weeks we had something to eat other than the monotony of the short rations of an impoverished U-bolt. Nob sat between the girl and me, and was fed with morsels of the Plesiosaurus steak, at the risk of forever contaminating his manners. He looked at me sheepishly all the time, for he knew that no well-bred dog should eat at table, but the poor fellow was so wasted from improper food that I couldn't enjoy my own meal had he been denied an immediate share in it, and anyway Liss wanted to feed him, so there you are. Liss was coldly polite to me, and sweetly gracious to Bradley and Olson. She wasn't of the gushing type, I knew, so I didn't expect much from her, and was duly grateful for the few morsels of attention she threw upon the floor to me. We had a pleasant meal, with only one unfortunate occurrence, when Olson suggested that possibly the creature we were eating was the same one that ate the German. It was some time before we could persuade the girl to continue her meal, but at last Bradley prevailed upon her, pointing out that we had come upstream nearly forty miles since the Bosch had been seized, and that during that time we had seen literally thousands of these denizens of the river, indicating that the chances were very remote that this was the same the CSR. And anyway, he concluded, it was only a scheme of Mr. Olson's to get all the stakes for himself. We discussed the future and ventured opinions as to what lay before us, but we could only theorize at best, for none of us knew. If the whole land was infested by these and similar horrid monsters, life would be impossible upon it, and we decided that we would only search long enough to find and take aboard fresh water and such meat and fruits as might be safely procurable, and then retrace our way between the cliffs to the open sea. And so at last we turned into our narrow bunks, hopeful, happy, and at peace with ourselves, our lives, and our God, to awaken the following morning refreshed and still optimistic. We had an easy time getting away, as we learned later, because the Saurians do not commence to feed until late in the morning. From noon to midnight their curve of activity is at its height. While from dawn to about nine o'clock it is lost. As a matter of fact we didn't see one of them all the time we were getting under way, though I had the cannon raised to the deck and manned against an assault. I hoped, but I was none too sure, that shells might discourage them. The trees were full of monkeys of all sizes and shades, and once we thought we saw a man-like creature watching us from the depth of the forest. Shortly after we resumed our course upstream we saw the mouth of another and smaller river emptying into the main channel from the south, that is up on our right, and almost immediately after we came upon a large island five or six miles in length, and at fifty miles there was a still larger river than the last coming in from the northwest, the course of the main stream having now changed to northeast by southwest. The water was quite free from reptiles, and the vegetation upon the banks of the river had altered to more open and park-like with eucalyptus and acacia mingled with a scattering of tree ferns as though two distinct periods of geologic time had overlapped and merged. The grass too was less flowering, though there were still gorgeous patches mottling the greensward, and lastly the fauna was less multitudinous. Six or seven miles farther and the river widened considerably before us opened an expanse of water to the farther horizon, and then we sailed out upon an inland sea so large that only a shoreline upon our side was visible to us. The waters all about us were alive with life. There were still a few reptiles, but there were fish by the thousands, by the millions. The water of the inland sea was very warm, almost hot, and the atmosphere was hot and heavy above it. It seemed strange that beyond the buttressed walls of Caprona, icebergs floated, and the south wind was biting, for only a gentle breeze moved across the face of these living waters, and that was damp and warm. Gradually we commenced to divest ourselves of our clothing, retaining only sufficient for modesty, but the sun was not hot. It was more the heat of a steam room than of an oven. We coasted up the shore of the lake in a northwesterly direction, sounding all the time. We found the lake deep and the bottom rocky and steeply shelving toward the center, and once when I moved straight out from shore to take other soundings we could find no bottom whatsoever. In open spaces along the shore we caught occasional glimpses of the distant cliffs, and here they appeared only a trifle less precipitous than those which bound Caprona on the seaward side. My theory is that in a far distant era Caprona was a mighty mountain. Perhaps the world's mightiest volcanic action blew off the entire crest, blew thousands of feet of the mountain upward and outward and on to the surrounding continent, leaving a great crater, and then possibly the continent sank as ancient continents have been known to do, leaving only the summit of Caprona above the sea. The encircling walls, the central lake, the hot springs which feed the lake, all point to a conclusion, and the fauna and the flora bear indisputable evidence that Caprona was once part of some great land mass. As we cruised up along the coast the landscape continued a more or less open forest, with here and there a small plain where we saw animals grazing. With my glass I could make out a species of large red deer, semantelope, and what appeared to be a species of horse, and once I saw the shaggy form of what might have been a monstrous bison. Here was game a plenty. There seemed little danger of starving upon Caprona. The game, however, seemed wary. For the instant the animals discovered us they threw up their heads and tails and went cavorting off, those farther inland following the example of the others, until all were lost in the mazes of the distant forest. Only the great shaggy ox stood his ground. With Lord Head he watched us until we had passed, and then continued feeding. About twenty miles up the coast from the mouth of the river we encountered low cliffs of sandstone, broken and tortured evidence of the great upheaval which entorned Caprona asunder in the past, intermingling upon a common level the rot formations of widely separated eras, fusing some and leaving others untouched. We ran along beside them for a matter of ten miles, arriving off a broad cleft which led into what appeared to be another lake. As we were in search of pure water we did not wish to overlook any portion of the coast, and so after sounding and finding that we had ample depth I ran the U-33 between headlands into as pretty a landlocked harbor as sailor men could care to see, with good water right up to within a few yards of the shore. As we cruised slowly along, two of the bosses again saw what they believed to be a man, or man-like creature, watching us from a fringe of trees a hundred yards inland, and shortly after we discovered the mouth with small stream emptying into the bay. It was the first stream we had found since leaving the river, and I at once made preparations to test its water. To land it would be necessary to run the U-33 close into the shore, at least as close as we could, for even these waters were infested, though not so thickly, by savage reptiles. I ordered sufficient water led into the diving tanks to lure us about a foot, and then I ran the bow slowly toward the shore, confident that should we run aground we still had sufficient lifting force to free us when the water should be pumped out of the tanks. But the bow nosed its way gently into the reeds and touched the shore with the keel still clear. My men were all armed now with both rifles and pistols, each having plenty of ammunition. I ordered one of the Germans ashore with a line, and sent two of my own men to guard him, for from what little we had seen of Caprona or Caspac, as we learned later to call the interior, we realized that any instant some new and terrible danger might confront us. The line was made fast to a small tree, and at the same time I had the stern anchor dropped. As soon as the Bosch and his guard were aboard again, I called all hands on deck, including von Schuenwurtz, and there I explained to them that the time had come for us to enter into some sort of an agreement among ourselves that would relieve us of the annoyance and embarrassment of being divided into two antagonistic parts, prisoners and captors. I told them that it was obvious our very existence depended upon our unity of action, that we were to all intent and purpose entering a new world as far from the seat and causes of our own world war as if millions of miles of space and eons of time separated us from our past lives and habitations. There is no reason why we should carry our racial and political hatreds into Caprona, I insisted. The Germans among us might kill all the English, or the English might kill the last German, without affecting in the slightest degree either the outcome of even the smallest skirmish upon the Western Front, or the opinion of a single individual in any deligerent or neutral country. I therefore put the issue squarely to you all. Shall we bury our animosities and work together, with and for one another, while we remain upon Caprona, or must we continue thus divided and but half armed, possibly until death has claimed the last of us? And let me tell you, if you have not already realized it, the chances are a thousand to one that not one of us ever will see the outside world again. We are safe now in the matter of food and water. We could provision the U-33 for a long cruise, but we are practically out of fuel. And without fuel, we cannot hope to reach the ocean, as only a submarine can pass through the barrier cliffs. What is your answer? I turned toward Bon Schoenbartz. He eyed me in that disagreeable way of his and demanded to know in case they accepted my suggestion what their status would be in event of our finding a way to escape with the U-33. I replied that I felt that if we had all worked loyally together, we should leave Caprona upon a common footing. And to that end, I suggested that should the remote possibility of our escape in the submarine develop into reality, we should then immediately make for the nearest neutral port and give ourselves into the hands of the authorities, when we should all probably be in turn for the duration of the war. To my surprise he agreed that this was fair and told me that they would accept my conditions and that I could depend upon their loyalty to the common cause. I thanked him and then addressed each one of his men individually and each gave me his word that he would abide by all that I had outlined. It was further understood that we were to act as a military organization under military rules and discipline. I, as commander, with Bradley as my first lieutenant and Oltsin as my second in command of the Englishman, while Bon Schwundwurz was to act as an additional second lieutenant and have charge of his own men. The four of us were to constitute a military court under which men might be tried and sentenced to punishment for infraction of military rules and discipline, even to the passing of the death sentence. I then had arms and ammunition issued to the Germans and leaving Bradley and five men to guard the U-33, the balance of us went ashore. The first thing we did was to taste the water of the little stream, which to our delight we found sweet, pure and cold. This stream was entirely free from dangerous reptiles, because, as I later discovered, they became immediately dormant when subjected to a much lower temperature than 70 degrees Fahrenheit. They disliked cold water, and keep as far away from it as possible. There were countless brook trout here, and deep holes that invited us to bathe, and along the bank of the stream were trees bearing a close resemblance to ash and beech and oak. Their characteristics evidently induced by the lower temperature of the air above the cold water, and by the fact that their roots were watered by the water from the stream rather than from the warm springs which we afterward found in such abundance elsewhere. Our first concern was to fill the water tanks of the U-33 with fresh water, and that having been accomplished we set out to hunt for game and explore inland for a short distance. Olson, von Schoendor, two Englishmen and two Germans accompanied me, leaving ten to guard the ship and the girl. I had intended leaving knobs behind, but he got away and joined me and was so happy over it that I hadn't the heart to send him back. We followed the stream upward through a beautiful country for about five miles, and then came upon its source in a little bolder, strewn clearing. From among the rocks bubbled fully twenty ice-cold springs. North of the clearing rose sandstone cliffs to a height of some fifty to seventy-five feet, with tall trees growing at their base and almost concealing them from our view. To the west the country was flat and sparsely wooded, and here it was that we saw our first game, a large red deer. It was grazing away from us and had not seen us when one of my men called my attention to it. Motioning for silence and having the rest of the party lie down, I crept toward the quarry, accompanied only by Whitely. We got within a hundred yards of the deer when he suddenly raised his ampered head and pricked up his great ears. We both fired at once and had the satisfaction of seeing the buck drop. Then we ran forward to finish him with our knives. The deer lay in a small open space close to a clump of acacias, and we had advanced within several yards of our kill when we both halted suddenly and simultaneously. Whitely looked at me and I looked at Whitely, and then we both looked back in the direction of the deer. Blimey! he said. What is it, sir? It looks to me, Whitely, like an error, I said. Some assistant god who had been creating elephants must have been temporarily transferred to the lizard department. I wouldn't sigh that, sir, said Whitely. It sounds blasphemous. It is more blasphemous than that thing which is swiping our meat, I replied, for whatever the thing was it had leaped upon our deer and was devouring it in great mouthfuls, which it swallowed without mastication. The creature appeared to be a great lizard at least ten feet high, with a huge, powerful tail, as long as its torso, mighty hind legs, and short forelegs. When it had advanced from the wood it hopped much after the fashion of a kangaroo, using its hind feet and tail to propel it, and when it stood erect it sat upon its tail. Its head was long and thick with a blunt muzzle, and the opening of the jaws ran back to a point behind the eyes, and the jaws were armed with long, sharp teeth. The scaly body was covered with black and yellow spots about a foot-in diameter and irregular in contour. These spots were outlined in red, with edgings about an inch wide. The underside of the chest, body and tail, were a greenish white. What sight! We pot the blooming bird, sir, suggested Whitely. I told him to wait until I gave the word. Then we would fire simultaneously. He at the heart and I at the spine. At the heart, sir? Yes, sir, he replied, and raised his piece to his shoulder. Our shots rang out together. The thing raised its head and looked about until its eyes rested upon us. Then it gave vent to a most appalling hiss that rose to the crescendo of a terrific shriek and came for us. Beat it Whitely, I cried as I turned around. We were about a quarter of a mile from the rest of our party and in full sight of them as they lay in the tall grass watching us. That they saw all that had happened was evidenced by the fact that they now rose and ran toward us and at their head leaped knobs. The creature in our rear was gaining on us rapidly when knobs flew past me like a meteor and rushed straight for the frightful reptile. I tried to recall him, but he would pay no attention to me, and as I couldn't see him sacrificed, I too stopped and faced the monster. The creature appeared to be more impressed with knobs than by us and our firearms, for it stopped as the air dale dashed at it growling and struck at him viciously with its powerful jaws. Nobs, though, was lightning by comparison with the slow-thinking beast and dodged his opponent's thrust with ease. Then he raced to the rear of the tremendous thing and seized it by the tail. There, knobs made the error of his life. Within that mottled organ were the muscles of a titan, the force of a dozen mighty catapults, and the owner of the tail was fully aware of the possibilities which it contained. With a single flip of the tip it sent poor knobs sailing through the air a hundred feet above the ground straight back into the clump of vacations from which the beast had leaped upon our kill. And then the grotesque thing sank lifeless to the ground. Olson and von Schoenburtz came up a minute later with their men. Then we all cautiously approached the still form upon the ground. The creature was quite dead, and an examination resulted in disclosing the fact that Whitley's bullet had pierced its heart and mine had severed the spinal cord. But why didn't it die instantly, I exclaimed? Because, said von Schoenburtz in his disagreeable way, the beast had so large and its nervous organization of so low a caliber that it took all this time for the intelligence of death to reach and be impressed upon the minute brain. The thing was dead when your bullet struck it, but it did not know it for several seconds, possibly a minute. If I am not mistaken, it is an allosaurus of the upper Jurassic, remains of which have been found in central Wyoming in the suburbs of New York. An Irishman by the name of Brady Grinde, I afterward learned that he had served three years on the traffic squad of the Chicago police force. I had been calling knobs in the meantime, and was about to set out in search of him, fearing to tell the truth to do so, lest I find him mangled and dead among the trees of the Acacia Grove. When he suddenly emerged from among the bowls, his ears flattened his tail between his legs, and his body screwed into a supple and ass. He was unharmed except for minor bruises, but he was the most chastened dog I have ever seen. We gathered up what was left of the red deer after skinning and cleaning it, and set out upon our return journey toward the U-bolt. On the way, Olson, von Schoenburtz and I discussed the needs of our immediate future, and we were unanimous in placing foremost the necessity of a permanent camp on shore. The interior of a U-bolt is about as impossible and uncomfortable and abiding place, as one can well imagine, and in this warm climate and in warm water it was almost unendurable. So we decided to construct a palisaded camp. End of Chapter 5. Chapter 6 of The Land That Time Forgot. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org, recording by Ralph Snelson. The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Chapter 6. As we strolled slowly back toward the boat, planning and discussing this, we were suddenly startled by a loud and unmistakable detonation. A shell from the U-33, exclaimed von Schoenburtz, what can be after signifier, queried Olson? There in trouble I answered for all. And it's up to us to get back to them. Drop that carcass, I directed the men, carrying the meat, and follow me. I set off at a rapid run in the direction of the harbor. We ran for the better part of a mile without hearing anything more from the direction of the harbor. And then I reduced the speed to a walk, for the exercise was telling on us who had been cooped up for so long in the confined interior of the U-33. Puffing and panting we plotted on until within about a mile of the harbor we came upon a site that brought us all upstanding. We had been passing through a little heavier timber than was usual to this part of the country, when we suddenly emerged into an open space in the center of which was such a band as might have caused the most courageous to pause. It consisted of upward of 500 individuals representing several species closely allied to man. There were anthropoid apes and gorillas. These I had no difficulty in recognizing, but there were other forms which I had never before seen, and I was hard put to it to say whether they were ape or man. Some of them resembled the corpse we had found upon the narrow beach against Capronus Sea Wall, while others were of a still lower type, more nearly resembling the apes. And yet others were uncannily manlike, standing there erect, being less hairy, and possessing better shaped heads. There was one among the lot, evidently the leader of them, who bore a close resemblance to the so-called Neanderthal man of La Chapelle O'Shawns. There was the same short stocky trunk, upon which rested an enormous head habitually bent forward into the same curvature as the back. The arms shorter than the legs and the lower leg considerably shorter than that of modern man. The knees bent forward and never straightened. This creature and one or two others who appeared to be of a lower order than he, yet higher than that of the apes, carried heavy clubs. The others were armed only with giant muscles and fighting fangs, nature's weapons. All were males and all were entirely naked, nor was there upon even the highest among them a sign of ornamentation. At sight of us they turned with bared fangs and low growls to confront us. I did not wish to fire among them unless it became absolutely necessary, and so I started to lead my party around them. But the instant that the Neanderthal man guessed my intention, he evidently attributed it to cowardice upon our part, and with a wild cry he leaped toward us, waving his cudgel above his head. The others followed him, and in a minute we should have been overwhelmed. I gave the order to fire, and at the first volley six of them went down, including the Neanderthal man. The others hesitated a moment, and then broke for the trees, some running nimbly among the branches, while others lost themselves to us between the bowls. Both von Schoenwurtz and I noticed that at least two of the higher man-like types took to the trees quite as nimbly as the apes, while others that more nearly approached man in carriage and appearance sought safety upon the ground with the gorillas. An examination disclosed that five of our erstwhile opponents were dead, and the sixth, the Neanderthal man, was but slightly wounded, a bullet having glanced from his thick skull stunning him. We decided to take him with us to camp, and by means of belts we managed to secure his hands behind his back, and place a leash around his neck before he regained consciousness. We then retraced our steps for our meat, being convinced by our own experience that those aboard the U-33 had been able to frighten off this party with a single shell, but when we came to where we had left the deer it had disappeared. On the return journey Whiteley and I preceded the rest of the party by about a hundred yards in the hope of getting another shot at something edible, for we were all greatly disgusted and disappointed by the loss of our venison. Whiteley and I advanced very cautiously, and not having the whole party with us, we fared better than on the journey out, bagging too large antelope, not a half mile from the harbor. So with our game and our prisoner we made a cheerful return to the boat, where we found that all were safe. On the shore, a little north of where we lay, there were the corpses of twenty of the wild creatures who had attacked Bradley and his party in our absence, and the rest of whom we had met and scattered a few minutes later. We felt that we had taught these wild eight men a lesson, and that because of it we would be safer in the future, at least safer from them, but we decided not to abate our carefulness one bit, feeling that this new world was filled with terrors still unknown to us, nor were we wrong. The following morning we commenced work upon our camp, Bradley, Olson, Bun, Schu and Boertz, Miss LaRue and I having sat up half the night discussing the matter and drawing plans. We set the men at work, felling trees, selecting for the purpose Jara, a hard, weather-resisting timber which grew in profusion nearby. Half the men labored while the other half stood guard, alternating each hour with an hour off at noon. Olson directed this work. Bradley, Bun, Schu and Boertz and I, with Miss LaRue's help, staked out the various buildings and the outer wall. When the day was done, we had quite an array of logs nicely notched and ready for our building operations on the moral, and we were all tired, for after the buildings had been staked out, we all fell in and helped with the logging, all but Bun, Schu and Boertz. He, being a Prussian and a gentleman, couldn't stoop to such menial labor in the presence of his men, and I didn't see fit to ask it of him, as the work was purely voluntary upon our part. He spent the afternoon shaping a swagger stick from the branch of a Jara and talking with Miss LaRue, who had sufficiently unbent toward him to notice his existence. We saw nothing of the wild man of the previous day, and only once were we menaced by any of the strange denizens of Caprona, when some frightful nightmare of the sky swooped down upon us, only to be driven off by a fuselade of bullets. The thing appeared to be some variety of pterodactyl, and what, with its enormous size and ferocious aspect, was most awe-inspiring. There was another incident, too, which to me, at least, was far more unpleasant than the sudden onslaught of the prehistoric reptile. Two of the men, both Germans, were stripping a felled tree of its branches. Bun Schu and Boertz had completed his swagger stick, and he and I were passing close to where the two were. One of them threw to his rear a small branch that he had just chopped off, and as misfortune would have it, it struck Bun Schu and Boertz across the face. It couldn't have hurt him, for it didn't leave a mark. But he flew into a terrific rage, shouting, HOKTUN! in a loud voice. The sailor immediately straightened up, faced his officer, clicked his heels together and saluted, PING! roared the Baron and struck the fellow across the face, breaking his nose. I grabbed Bun Schu and Boertz's arm and jerked him away before he could strike again, if such had been his intention, and then he raised his little stick to strike me, but before it descended the muzzle of my pistol was against his belly, and he must have seen in my eyes that nothing would suit me better than an excuse to pull the trigger. Like all his kind and all other bullies, Bun Schu and Boertz was a coward at heart, and so he dropped his hand to his side and started to turn away. But I pulled him back, and there before his men I told him that such a thing must never again occur, that no man was to be struck or otherwise punished other than in due process of the laws that we had made and the court that we had established. All the time the sailor stood rigidly at attention, nor could I tell from his expression whether he most resented the blow his officer had struck him or my interference in the gospel of the Kaiser breed. Nor did he move until I said to him, Plesser, you may return to your quarters and dress your wound. Then he saluted and marched stiffly off toward the U-33. Just before dusk we moved out into the bay a hundred yards from shore and dropped anchor, for I felt that we should be safer there than elsewhere. I also detailed men to stand watch during the night, and appointed Oltson, officer of the watch for the entire night, telling him to bring his blankets on deck and get what rest he could. At dinner we tasted our first roast Caprona antelope, and we had a mass of greens that the cook had found growing along the stream. All during the meal Bon Schoenbords was silent and surly. After dinner we all went on deck and watched the unfamiliar scenes of a Capronian night, that is all but Bon Schoenbords. There was less to see than to hear. From the great inland lake behind us came the hissing and the screaming of countless sorens. Above us we heard the flap of giant wings, while from the shore rose the multitudinous voices of a tropical jungle, of a warm, damp atmosphere such as must have enveloped the entire earth during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. But here were intermingled the voices of later eras, the scream of the panther, the roar of the lion, the baying of wolves and a thunderous growling which we could attribute to nothing earthly, but which one day we were to connect with the most fearsome of ancient creatures. One by one the others went to their rooms, until the girl and I were left alone together, for I had permitted the watch to go below for a few minutes, knowing that I would be on deck. Miss LaRue was very quiet, though she replied graciously enough to whatever I had to say that required reply. I asked her if she did not feel well. Yes, she said, but I am depressed by the awfulness of it all. I feel of so little consequence, so small and helpless in the face of all these myriad manifestations of life stripped to the bone of its savagery and brutality. I realize as never before how cheap and valueless a thing is life. Life seemed a joke, a cruel grim joke. You are a laughable incident or a terrifying one, as you happen to be less powerful or more powerful than some other form of life which crosses your path. But as a rule you are of no moment whatsoever to anything but yourself. You are a comic little figure hopping from the cradle to the grave. Yes, that is our trouble. We take ourselves too seriously. But Caprona should be a sure cure for that. She paused and laughed. You have evolved a beautiful philosophy, I said. It fills such a longing in the human breast. It is full, it is satisfying, it is an oblin. What wondrous strides toward perfection the human race might have made if the first man had evolved it and it had persisted until now as the creed of humanity. I don't like irony, she said. It indicates a small soul. What other sort of soul then would you expect from a comic little figure hopping from the cradle to the grave, I inquired? And what difference does it make anyway, what you like and what you don't like? You are here for but an instant and you mustn't take yourself too seriously. She looked up at me with a smile. I imagined that I am frightened and blue, she said. And I know that I am very, very homesick and lonely. There was almost a sob in her voice as she concluded. It was the first time that she had spoken thus to me. Involuntarily I laid my hand upon hers where it rested on the rail. I know how difficult your position is, I said. But don't feel that you are alone. There is, is one here who, who would do anything in the world for you, I ended lamely. She did not withdraw her hand and she looked up into my face with tears on her cheeks and I read in her eyes the thanks her lips could not voice. Then she looked away across the weird moonlit landscape and side. Evidently her newfound philosophy had tumbled about her ears, for she was seemingly taking herself seriously. I wanted to take her in my arms and tell her how I loved her, and had taken her hand from the rail and started to draw her toward me when Olson came blundering up on deck with his bedding. The following morning we started building operations in earnest and things progressed finally. The Neanderthal man was something of a care for we had to keep him in our arms all the time and he was mighty savage when approached. But after a time he became more docile. And then we tried to discover if he had a language. Liz spent a great deal of time talking to him and trying to draw him out. But for a long while she was unsuccessful. It took us three weeks to build all the houses which we constructed close by a cold spring some two miles from the harbor. We changed our plans of trifle when it came to building the palisade. For we found a rotted cliff nearby where we could get all the flat building stone we needed. And so we constructed a stone wall entirely around the buildings. It was in the form of a square with bastions and towers at each corner which would permit an inflating fire along any side of the fort and was about 135 feet square on the outside with walls three feet thick at the bottom and about a foot and a half wide at the top and 15 feet high. It took a long time to build that wall and we all turned in and helped except von Schuwenbords who by the way had not spoken to me except in the line of official business since our encounter. A condition of arm neutrality which suited me to a T. We have just finished it. The last touch is being put on today. I quit about a week ago and commenced working on this chronicle for our strange adventures which will account for any minor errors in chronology which may have crept in. There was so much material that I may have made some mistakes but I think they are but minor and few. I see in reading over the last few pages that I neglected to state that Lis finally discovered that the Neanderthal man possessed the language. She had learned to speak it and so have I to some extent. It was he, his name he says is Am or Om who told us that this country is called Caspac. When we asked him how far it extended he waved both arms about his head in an all including gesture which took in apparently the entire universe. He is more tractable now and we are going to release him for he is the shortest that he will not permit his fellows to harm us. He calls us Galus and says that in a short time he will be a Galus. It is not quite clear to us what he means. He says that there are many Galus north of us and that as soon as he becomes one he will go and live with them. Om went out to hunt with us yesterday and was much impressed by the ease with which our rifles brought down antelopes and deer. We have been living upon the fat of the land, Om having shown us the edible fruits, tubers, and herbs, and twice a week we go out after fresh meat. A certain proportion of this we dry and store away, for we do not know what may come. Our drying process is really smoking. We have also dried a large quantity of two varieties of cereal which grow wild a few miles south of us. One of these is a giant Indian maize, a lofty perennial often fifty and sixty feet in height, with ears the size of a man's body and kernels as large as your fist. We have had to construct a second storehouse for the great quantity of this that we have gathered. September 3, 1916. Three months ago today the torpedo from the U-33 started me from the peaceful deck of the American liner upon the strange voyage which has ended here in Kaspack. We have settled down to an acceptance of our fate, for all are convinced that none of us will ever see the outer world again. Om's repeated assertions that there are human beings like ourselves in Kaspack have roused the men to a keen desire for exploration. I sent out one party last week under Bradley. Om, who is now free to go and come as he wishes, accompanied them. They marched about twenty-five miles due west, encountering many terrible beasts and reptiles and not a few man-like creatures whom Om sent away. Here is Bradley's report of the expedition. Marched fifteen miles the first day, camping on the bank of a large stream which runs southward. Game was plentiful, and we saw several varieties which we had not before encountered in Kaspack. Just before making camp we were charged by an enormous woolly rhinoceros, which pleasure dropped with a perfect shot. We had rhinoceros staked for supper. Om called the thing Attis. It was almost a continuous battle from the time we left the fort until we arrived at camp. The mind of man can scarce conceive the plethora of carnivorous life in this lost world, and their prey, of course, is even more abundant. The second day we marched about ten miles to the foot of the cliffs, passed through dense forests close to the base of the cliffs. Saw man-like creatures and a low order of ape in one band, and some of the men swore that there was a white man among them. They were inclined to attack us at first, but a bolly from our rifles caused them to change their minds. We scaled the cliffs as far as we could, but near the top they are absolutely perpendicular, without any sufficient cleft or protuberance to give hand or foothold. All were disappointed, for we hungered for a view of the ocean and the outside world. We even had a hope that we might see and attract the attention of a passing ship. Our exploration has determined one thing which will probably be of little value to us and never heard of beyond Caprona's walls. This crater was once entirely filled with water. Indisputable evidence of this is on the face of the cliffs. Our return journey occupied two days and was as filled with adventure as usual. We are all becoming accustomed to adventure. It is beginning to pawl on us. We suffered no casualties and there was no illness. I had to smile as I read Bradley's report. In those four days he had doubtless pass through more adventures than in African big-game hunter experiences in a lifetime, and yet he covered it all in a few lines. Yes, we are becoming accustomed to adventure. Not a day passes that one or more of us does not face death at least once. Aum taught us a few things that have proved profitable and saved us much ammunition, which it is useless to expend except for food or in the last recourse of self-preservation. Now, when we are attacked by large flying reptiles, we run beneath spreading trees. When land carnivorous threaten us, we climb into trees and we have learned not to fire at any of the dinosaurs unless we can keep out of their reach for at least two minutes after hitting them in the brain, or spine, or five minutes after puncturing their hearts. It takes them so long to die. To hit them elsewhere is worse than useless, for they do not seem to notice it and we had discovered that such shots do not kill or even disable them. September 7, 1916. Much has happened since I last wrote. Bradley is away again on another exploration expedition to the cliffs. He expects to be gone several weeks, and to follow along their base in search of a point where they may be scaled. He took Sinclair, Brady, James, and Tippet with him. Aum has disappeared. He has been gone about three days, but the most startling thing I have on record is that Bonchouin-Vortz and Oltson, while out hunting the other day, discovered oil about fifteen miles north of us, beyond the sandstone cliffs. Oltson says there is a geyser of oil there, and Bonchouin-Vortz is making preparations to refine it. If he succeeds, we shall have the means for leaving Casspac and returning to our own world. I can scarce believe the truth of it. We are all elated to the seventh heaven of bliss. Pray God, we shall not be disappointed. I have tried on several occasions to broach the subject of my love to this, but she will not listen. CHAPTER VII. OF THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Ralph Nelson. THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT. By Edgar Rice Burroughs. CHAPTER VII. OCTOBER VIII. 1916. This is the last entry I shall make upon my manuscript. When this is done, I shall be through. Though I may pray that it reaches the haunts of civilized man, my better judgment tells me that it will never be perused by other eyes than mine. And that even though it should, it would be too late to avail me. I am alone upon the summit of the great cliff overlooking the broad Pacific. A chill south wind bites at my marrow. While far below me I can see the tropic foliage of Casspac on the one hand and huge icebergs from the nearer Antarctic upon the other. Presently I shall stuff my folded manuscript into the thermos bottle I have carried with me for the purpose since I left the Fort, Fort Dinosaur we named it, and hurl it far outward over the cliff-top into the Pacific. What current washes the shore of Caprona I know not. Whether my bottle will be born I cannot even guess. But I have done all that mortal man may do to notify the world of my whereabouts and the dangers that threaten those of us who remain alive in Casspac, if there be any other than myself. About the 8th of September I accompanied Olson and Bon Chouenvarch to the oil geyser. Liss came with us, and we took a number of things which Bon Chouenvarch wanted for the purpose of erecting a crude refinery. We went up the coast some ten or twelve miles in the U-33, tying up to shore near the mouth of a small stream which emptied great volumes of crude oil into the sea. I find it difficult to call this great lake by any other name. Then we disembarked and went inland about five miles, where we came upon a small lake entirely filled with oil, from the center of which a geyser of oil spouted. On the edge of the lake we helped Bon Chouenvarch build his primitive refinery. We worked with him for two days until he got things fairly well started, and then we returned to Fort Dinosaur, as I feared that Bradley might return and be worried by our absence. The U-33 merely landed those of us that were to return to the fort, and then retraced its course toward the oil well. Olson, Whitely, Wilson, Miss LaRue, and myself disembarked, while Bon Chouenvarch and his German crew returned to refine the oil. The next day Plesser and two other Germans came down Overland for ammunition. Plesser said they had been attacked by wild men, and had exhausted a great deal of ammunition. He also asked permission to get some dried meat and maize, saying that they were so busy with the work of refining that they had no time to hunt. I let him have everything he asked for, and never once did a suspicion of their intentions enter my mind. They returned to the oil well the same day, while we continued with the multitudinous duties of camp life. For three days nothing of moment occurred. Bradley did not return, nor did we have any word from Bon Chouenvarch. In the evening Liss and I went up into one of the Bastion Towers and listened to the grim and terrible nightlife of the frightful ages of the past. Once a saber tooth screamed almost beneath us, and the girl shrank close against me. As I felt her body against mine, all the pent love of these three long months shattered the bonds of timidity and conviction, and I swept her up into my arms and covered her face and lips with kisses. She did not struggle to free herself, but instead her dear arms crept up about my neck and drew my own face even closer to hers. You love me, Liss? I cried. I fell her head nod in affirmative against my breast. Tell me, Liss, I begged. Tell me in words how much you love me. Low and sweet and tender came the answer. I love you beyond all conception. My heart filled with rapture then, and it fills now as it has each of the countless times I have recalled those dear words, as it shall fill always until death has claimed me. I may never see her again. She may not know how I love her. She may question, she may doubt, but always true and steady and warm with the fires of love my heart beats for the girl who said that night, I love you beyond all conception. For a long time we sat there upon the little bench, constructed for the sentry that we had not as yet thought it necessary to post in more than one of the four towers. We learned to know one another better in those two brief hours than we had in all the months that had intervened since we had been thrown together. She told me that she had loved me from the first, and that she never had loved von Schuhenvarts, their engagement having been arranged by her aunt for social reasons. That was the happiest evening of my life, nor ever do I expect to experience its like, but at last, as is the way of happiness, it terminated. We descended to the compound, and I walked with less to the door of her quarters. There again she kissed me and made me good night, and then she went in and closed the door. I went to my own room, and there I sat by the light of one of the crude candles we had made from the tallow of the beast we had killed, and lived over the events of the evening. At last I turned in and fell asleep, dreaming happy dreams and planning for the future. For even in savage castback I was bound to make my girl safe and happy. It was daylight when I awoke. Wilson, who was acting as cook, was up and to stir at his duties in the cookhouse. The others slept, but I arose and followed by knobs went down to the stream for a plunge. As was our custom I went armed with both rifle and revolver, but I stripped and had my swim without further disturbance than the approach of a large hyena, a number of which occupied caves in the sandstone cliffs north of the camp. These brutes are enormous and exceedingly ferocious. I imagine they correspond with the cave hyena of prehistoric times. This fellow charged knobs, whose capronian experiences had taught him that discretion is the better part of valor, with the result that he dived head foremost into the stream beside me after giving vent to a series of ferocious growls which had no more effect upon hyena spalaeus than Midas' sweet smile upon an enraged tusker. Afterward I shot the beast, and knobs had a feast while I dressed, for he had become quite a raw meat-eater during our numerous hunting expeditions, upon which we always gave him a portion of the kill. Whiteley and Olson were up and dressed when we returned, and we all sat down to a good breakfast. I could not but wonder at this is absence from the table, for she had always been one of the earliest risers in camp, so about nine o'clock, becoming apprehensive, lest she might be indisposed, I went to the door of her room and knocked. I received no response, though I finally pounded with all my strength. Then I turned the knob and entered, only to find that she was not there. Her bed had been occupied, and her clothing lay where she had placed it the previous night upon retiring, but Liss was gone. To say that I was distracted with terror would be to put it mildly, though I knew she could not be in camp, I searched every square inch of the compound and all the buildings, yet without a veil. It was Whiteley who discovered the first clue, a huge human-like footprint in the soft earth beside the spring, and indications of a struggle in the mud. Then I found a tiny handkerchief close to the outer wall. Liss had been stolen. It was all too plain. Some hideous member of the eight-man tribe had entered the fort and carried her off. While I stood stunned and horrified at the frightful evidence before me, there came from the direction of the Great Lake an increasing sound that rose to the volume of a shriek. We all looked up as the noise approached apparently just above us, and a moment later there followed a terrific explosion which hurled us to the ground. When we clambered to our feet we saw a large section of the west wall torn and shattered. It was Olson who first recovered from his days sufficiently to guess the explanation of the phenomenon. A shell, he cried, and there ain't no shells in Caspar beside what's on the U-33, the dirty bushes of shell in the fort. Come on! And he grasped his rifle and started on a run toward the lake. It was over two miles, but we did not pause until the harbour was in view, and still we could not see the lake because of the sandstone cliffs which intervened. We ran as fast as we could round the lower end of the harbour, scrambled up the cliffs, and at last stood upon their summit in full view of the lake. Far away down the coast, toward the river through which we had come to reach the lake, we saw upon the surface the outline of the U-33 black smoke vomiting from her fennel. Bon Chouinverts had succeeded in refining the oil. The kerr had broken his every pledge and was leaving us there to our fates. He had even shelled the fort as a parting compliment, nor could anything have been more truly prussian than this leave-taking of the barren Friedrich Bon Chouinverts. Olson whitely wilson and I stood for a moment, looking at one another. It seemed incredible that man could be so perfidious that we had really seen with our own eyes the thing that we had seen, but when we returned to the fort the shattered wall gave us ample evidence that there was no mistake. Then we began to speculate as to whether it had been an ape man or a prussian that had abducted Liss. From what we knew of Bon Chouinverts we would not have been surprised at anything from him, but the footprints by the spring seemed indisputable evidence that one of Capron's undeveloped men had borne off the girl I loved. As soon as I had assured myself that such was the case I made my preparations to follow and rescue her. Olson whitely and wilson each wished to accompany me, but I told them that they were needed here, since with Bradley's party still absent and the Germans gone it was necessary that we conserve our force as far as might be possible. As a sad leave taking, as in silence I shook hands with each of the three remaining men, even poor knobs appeared dejected as we quit the compound and set out upon the well-marked spore of the abductor. Not once did I turn my eyes backward toward Fort Dinosaur. I have not looked upon it since, nor in all likelihood shall I ever look upon it again. The trail led northwest until it reached the western end of the sandstone cliffs to the north of the fort. There it ran into a well-defined path which wound northward into a country we had not yet explored. It was a beautiful, gently rolling country, broken by occasional outcroppings of sandstone and by patches of dense forest relieved by open park-like stretches and broad meadows, where ungrazed countless herbivorous animals, red deer, aurochs, an infinite variety of antelope, and at least three distinct species of horse, the latter ranging in size from a creature about as large as knobs to a magnificent animal fourteen to sixteen hands high. These creatures fed together in perfect amity, nor did they show any great indications of terror when knobs and I approached. They moved out of our way and kept their eyes upon us until we had passed, and then they resumed their feeding. The path led straight across the clearing into another forest, lying upon the verge of which I saw a bit of white. It appeared to stand out in marked contrast and incongruity to all its surrounding, and when I stopped to examine it I found that it was a small strip of muslin, part of the hem of a garment. At once I was all excitement, for I knew that it was a sign left by Liss that she had been carried this way. It was a tiny bit torn from the hem of the undergarment that she wore in lieu of the night robes she had lost with the sinking of the liner. Crushing the bit of fabric to my lips, I pressed on even more rapidly than before, because I now knew that I was upon the right trail, and that up to this point, at least, Liss still had lived. I made over twenty miles that day, for I was now hardened to fatigue and accustomed to long hikes, having spent considerable time hunting and exploring in the immediate vicinity of camp. A dozen times that day was my life threatened by fearsome creatures of the earth or sky, though I could not but note that the farther north I traveled the fewer were the great dinosaurs, though they still persisted in lesser numbers. On the other hand the quantity of ruminants and the variety and frequency of carnivorous animals increased. Each square mile of castback harbored its terrors. At intervals along the way I found bits of muslin, and often they reassured me when otherwise I should have been doubtful of the trail to take where too crossed or where there were forts as occurred at several points. And so, as night was drawing on, I came to the southern end of a line of cliffs loftier than any I had seen before, and as I approached them there was wafted to my nostrils the pungent aroma of wood smoke. What could it mean? There could to my mind be but a single solution. Man abided close by, a higher order of man than we had yet seen, other than Aum than Neanderthal man. I wondered again, as I had so many times that day, if it had not been Aum who stole this. Cautiously I approached the flank of the cliffs where they terminated in an abrupt escarpment as though some all-powerful hand had broken off a great section of rock and set it upon the surface of the earth. It was now quite dark, and as I crept around the edge of the cliff I saw, at a little distance, a great fire around which were many figures, apparently human figures, cautioning Nob's decilence, and he had learned many lessons in the value of obedience since we had entered Taspac. I slunk forward, taking advantage of whatever cover I could find, until, from behind a bush, I could distinctly see the creatures assembled by the fire. They were human, and yet not human. I should say that they were a little higher in the scale of evolution than Aum, possibly occupying a place of evolution between that, the Neanderthal man, and what is known as the Grimaldi race. Their features were distinctly negroid, though their skins were white. A considerable portion of both torso and limbs were covered with short hair, and their physical proportions were in many aspects ape-like, though not so much so as were Aum's. They carried themselves in a more erect position, although their arms were considerably longer than those of the Neanderthal man. As I watched them I saw that they possessed a language, that they had knowledge of fire, and that they carried besides the wooden club of Aum a thing which resembled a crude stone hatchet. Evidently they were very low in the scale of humanity, but they were a step upward from those I had previously seen in Taspac. But what interested me most was the slender figure of a dainty girl, clad only in a thin bit of muslin which scarce covered her knees, a bit of muslin torn and ragged about the lower him. It was Liss, and she was alive, and so far as I could see unharmed. A huge brute with thick lips and prognathous jaws stood at her shoulder. He was talking loudly and gesticulating wildly. I was close enough to hear his words, which were similar to the language of Aum, though much fuller, for there were many words I could not understand. However, I caught the gist of what he was saying, which in effect was that he had found and captured this galou, that she was his, and that he defied anyone to question his right of possession. It appeared to me, as I afterward learned, was the fact, that I was witnessing the most primitive of marriage ceremonies. The assembled members of the tribe looked on and listened in a sort of dull and perfunctory apathy, for the speaker was by far the mightiest of the clan. There seemed no one to dispute his claims when he said, or rather shouted, instantorian tones, I am Tha. This is my she, who wishes her more than Tha. I do, I said in the language of Aum, and I stepped out into the firelight before them. Liss gave a little cry of joy and started toward me, but Tha grasped her arm and dragged her back. Who are you, shriek Tha? I kill, I kill. The she is mine, I replied, and I have come to claim her. I kill if you do not let her come to me. And I raised my pistol to a level with his heart. Of course the creature had no conception of the purpose of the strange little implement which I was poking toward him, with a sound that was half human and half the growl of a wild beast. He sprang toward me. I aimed at his heart and fired, and as he sprawled headlong to the ground, the others of his tribe overcome by fright at the report of the pistol, scattered toward the cliffs, while Liss without stretched arms ran toward me. As I crushed her to me there arose from the black night behind us, and then to our right and to our left a series of frightful screams and shrieks, bellowings, roars, and growls. It was the nightlife of this jungle world coming into its own, the huge carnivorous nocturnal beast which make the nights of Caspac hideous. A shattering sob ran through Liss's figure. Oh, God! she cried, give me the strength to endure for his sake. I saw that she was upon the verge of a breakdown, after all that she must have passed through of fear and horror that day, and I tried to quiet and reassure her as best I might. But even to me the future looked most unpromising, for what chance of life had we against the frightful hunters of the night who even now were prowling closer to us? Now I turned to see what had become of the tribe, and in the fitful glare of the fire I perceived that the face of the cliff was pitted with large holes into which the man things were clamoring. Come, I said to Liss, we must follow them. We cannot last a half hour out here. We must find a cave. Already we could see the blazing green eyes of the hungry carnivorous. I seized a brand from the fire and hurled it out into the night, and there came back an answering chorus of savage and rageful protest. But the eyes vanished for a short time. Selecting a burning branch for each of us, we advanced toward the cliffs, where we were met by angry threats. They will kill us, said Liss. We may as well keep on in search of another refuge. They will not kill us, so surely as will those others out there, I replied. I'm going to seek shelter in one of these caves, nor will the man things prevent. And I kept on in the direction of the cliff's base. A huge creature stood upon a ledge and brandished his stone hatchet. Come, and I will kill you and take the she, he boasted. You saw how sa fared when he would have kept my she, I replied in his own tongue. Thus will you fare, and all your fellows, if you do not permit us to come in peace among you out of the dangers of the night. Go north, he screamed. Go north among the gallows, and we will not harm you. Someday will we be gallows. But now we are not. You do not belong among us. Go away, or we will kill you. The she may remain if she is afraid, and we will keep her. But the he must depart. The he won't depart, I replied, and approached still nearer. Rough and narrow ledges formed by nature gave access to the upper caves. A man might scale them if unhampered and unhindered, but to clammer upward in the face of a belligerent tribe of half men, and with a girl to assist, was beyond my capability. I do not fear you, screamed the creature. You were close to star, but I am far above you. You cannot harm me as you harmed saw. Go away. I placed a foot upon the lowest ledge and clambered upward, reaching down and pulling list to my side. Already I felt safer. Soon we would be out of danger of the beast, again closing in upon us. The man above us raised his stone hatchet above his head and leaped lightly down to meet us. His position above me gave him a great advantage, or at least so he probably thought, for he came with every show of confidence. I hated to do it, but there seemed no other way, and so I shot him down as I had shot down saw. You see, I cried to his fellows, that I can kill you wherever you may be. A long way off I can kill you as well as I can kill you nearby. Let us come among you in peace. I will not harm you if you do not harm us. We will take a cave high up. Speak. Come, then, said one, if you will not harm us, you may come. Take saw's hole which lies above you. The creature showed us the mouth of a black cave, but he kept at a distance while he did it, and lists followed me as I crawled in to explore. I had matches with me, and in the light of one I found a small cavern with a flat roof and floor which followed the cleavage of the strata. Pieces of the roof had fallen at some long distant date, as was evidenced by the depth of the filth and rubble in which they were embedded. Even a superficial examination revealed the fact that nothing had ever been attempted that might have improved the livability of the cavern, nor should I judge had it ever been cleaned out. With considerable difficulty I loosened some of the larger pieces of broken rock which littered the floor and placed them as a barrier before the doorway. It was too dark to do more than this. I then gave less a piece of dried meat, and sitting inside the entrance we dined as must have some of our ancient forebears at the dawning of the age of man, while far below the open diapason of the savage night rose weird and horrifying to our ears. In the light of the great fire still burning we could see huge, skulking forms and in the blackered background countless flaming eyes. List shattered, and I put my arm around her and drew her to me, and thus we sat throughout the hot night. She told me of her abduction and of the fright she had undergone, and together we thanked God that she had come through unharmed, because the great brute had dared not pause along the danger-infested way. She said that they had but just reached the cliffs when I arrived, for on several occasions her captor had been forced to take to the trees with her to escape the clutches of some hungry cave lion or saber-toothed tiger, and that twice they had been obliged to remain for considerable periods before the beasts had retired. Nobs by dint of much scrambling and one or two narrow escapes from death had managed to follow us up the cliff, and was now curled between me and the doorway, having devoured a piece of the dried meat which he seemed to relish immensely. He was the first to fall asleep, but I imagine we must have followed suit soon, for we were both tired. I had laid aside my ammunition belt and rifle, though both were close beside me, but my pistol I kept in my lap beneath my hand. However we were not disturbed during the night, and when I awoke the sun was shining on the treetops in the distance. This is head had drooped to my breast, and my arm was still about her. Shortly afterward Liz awoke, and for a moment she could not seem to comprehend her situation. She looked at me and then turned and glanced at my arm about her, and then she seemed quite suddenly to realize the scantiness of her apparel and drew away, covering her face with her palms and blushing furiously. I drew her back toward me and kissed her, and then she threw her arms about my neck, and wept softly and mute surrender to the inevitable. It was an hour later before the tribe began to stir about. We watched them from our apartment, as Liz called it. Neither men nor women wore any sort of clothing or ornaments, and they all seemed to be about of an age, nor were there any babies or children among them. This was to us the strangest and most inexplicable of facts, but it recalled to us that though we had seen many of the lesser developed wild people of Caspac, we had never yet seen a child, or an old man or woman. After a while they became less suspicious of us and then quite friendly in their brutish way. They picked at the fabric of our clothing which seemed to interest them, and examined my rifle and pistol and the ammunition in the belt around my waist. I showed them the thermos bottle, and when I poured a little water from it they were delighted, thinking that it was a spring which I carried about with me, a never-failing source of water supply. One thing we both noticed among their other characteristics. They never laughed nor smiled, and then we remembered that Aum had never done so either. I asked them if they knew Aum, but they said they did not. One of them said, back there we may have known him, and he jerked his head to the south. You came from back there, I asked. He looked at me in surprise. We all come from there, he said. After a while we go there, and this time he jerked his head toward the north. Be galloos, he concluded. Many times now had we heard this reference to becoming galloos. Aum had spoken of it many times. Listen I decided that it was a sort of original religious conviction as much a part of them as their instinct for self-preservation, a primal acceptance of a hereafter and a holier state. It was a brilliant theory, but it was all wrong. I know it now, and how far we were from guessing the wonderful, the miraculous, the gigantic truth, which even yet I may only guess at, the thing that sets Kaspack apart from all the rest of the world, far more definitely than her isolated geographical position or her impregnable barrier of giant cliffs. If I could live to return to civilization, I should have meat for the clergy and the laymen to chew upon for years, and for the evolutionists too. After breakfast the men set out to hunt, while the women went to a large pool of warm water covered with a green scum and filled with billions of tadpoles. They waited in to where the water was about a foot deep and lay down in the mud. They remained there from one to two hours and then returned to the cliff. While we were with them we saw this same thing repeated every morning, but though we asked them why they did it we could get no reply, which was intelligible to us. All about safe in way of explanation was the single word atta. They tried to get less to go in with them and could not understand why she refused. After the first day I went hunting with the men, leaving my pistol and knobs with less, but she never had to use them, for no reptile or beast ever approached the pool while the women were there, nor so far as we know at other times. There was no spore of wild beast in the sock mud along the banks, and the water certainly didn't look fit to drink. This tribe lived largely upon the smaller animals which they bowled over with their stone hatchets after making a wide circle about their query and driving it so that it had to pass close to one of their number. The little horses and the smaller antelope they secured in sufficient numbers to support life, and they also ate numerous varieties of fruits and vegetables. They never brought in more than sufficient food for their immediate needs, but why bother? The food problem of Caspac is not one to cause worry to her inhabitants. The fourth day Lis told me that she thought she fell equal to attempting the return journey on the moral, and so I set out for the hunt in high spirits, for I was anxious to return to the fort and learn if Bradley and his party had returned and what had been the result of his expedition. I also wanted to relieve their minds as to Lis and myself, as I knew that they must have already given us up for dead. It was a cloudy day, though warm, as it always is in Caspac. It seemed odd to realize that just a few miles away winter lay upon the storm-tossed ocean and that snow might be falling all about Caprona, but no snow could ever penetrate the damp, hot atmosphere of the great crater. We had to go quite a bit farther than usual before we could surround a little bunch of antelope, and as I was helping drive them I saw a fine red deer a couple of hundred yards behind me. He must have been asleep in the long grass, for I saw him rise and look about him in a bewildered way, and then I raised my gun and let him have it. He dropped, and I ran forward to finish him with the long, thin knife, which one of the men had given me. But just as I reached him, he staggered to his feet and ran on for another two hundred yards when I dropped him again. Once more was this repeated before I was able to reach him and cut his throat. Then I looked around for my companions as I wanted them to come and carry the meat-home, but I could see nothing of them. I called a few times and waited, but there was no response and no one came. At last I became disgusted and cutting off all the meat that I could conveniently carry, I set off in the direction of the cliffs. I must have gone about a mile before the truth dawned upon me. I was lost, hopelessly lost. The entire sky was still completely blotted out by dense clouds, nor was there any landmark visible by which I might have taken my bearings. I went on in the direction I thought was south, but which I now imagine must have been about due north, without detecting a single familiar object. In a dense wood I suddenly stumbled upon a thing which at first filled me with hope, and later with the most utter despair and dejection. It was a little mound of new-turned-earth sprinkled with flowers long since withered, and at one end was a flat slab of sandstone stuck in the ground. It was a grave, and it meant for me that I had at last stumbled into a country inhabited by human beings. I would find them. They would direct me to the cliffs. Perhaps they would accompany me and take us back with them to their abodes, to the abodes of men and women like ourselves. My hopes and my imagination ran riot in the few yards I had to cover to reach that lonely grave and stoop that I might read the rude characters scratched upon the simple headstone. This is what I read. Here lies John Tippett, Englishman, killed by Tyrannosaurus, 10 September, AD 1916, R. I. P. Tippett. It seemed incredible. Tippett lying here in this gloomy wood. Tippett dead. He had been a good man, but the personal loss was not what affected me. It was the fact that this silent grave gave evidence that Bradley had come this far upon his expedition, and that he too probably was lost, for it was not our intention that he should be long gone. If I had stumbled upon the grave of one of the party, was it not within reason to believe that the bones of the others lay scattered somewhere near? End of Chapter 8. Chapter 9 Of The Land That Time Forgot This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Ralph Snelson. The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs Chapter 9 As I stood looking down upon that sad and lonely mound, wrapped in the most dismal of reflections and premonitions, I was suddenly seized from behind and thrown to earth. As I fell a warm body fell on top of me, and hands grasped my arms and legs. When I could look up I saw a number of giant fingers pinioning me down, while others stood about surveying me. Here again was a new type of man, a higher type than the primitive tribe I had just quitted. They were a taller people, too, with better shapes, skulls, and more intelligent faces. There were less of the eight characteristics about their features and less of the negroid, too. They carried weapons, stone-shot spears, stone knives and hatchets, and they wore ornaments and breech claws, the former of feathers worn in their hair, and the latter made of a single snakeskin, cured with the head on, the head depending to their knees. Of course I did not take in all these details upon the instant of my capture, for I was busy with other matters. Three of the warriors were sitting upon me, trying to hold me down by main strength and awkwardness, and they were having their hands full in the doing, I can tell you. I don't like to appear conceited, but I may as well admit that I am proud of my strength and the science that I have acquired and developed in the directing of it. That and my horsemanship I always have been proud of. And now that day, all the long hours that I had put into careful study, practice, and training brought me in two or three minutes a full return upon my investment. Californians had a rule or familiar with jujitsu, and I especially had made a study of it for several years, both at school and in the gym of the Los Angeles Athletic Club, while recently I had had in my employ a Japanese who was a wonder at the art. It took me just about 30 seconds to break the elbow of one of my assailants, trip another and send him stumbling backward among his fellows, and throw the third completely over my head in such a way that when he fell his neck was broken. In the instant that the others of the party stood in mute and inactive surprise, I unsung my rifle, which carelessly I had been carrying across my back, and when they charged as I felt they would, I put a bullet in the forehead of one of them. This stopped them all, temporarily, not the death of their fellow, but the report of the rifle, the first they had ever heard. Before they were ready to attack me again, one of them spoke in a commanding tone to his fellows, and in a language similar but still more comprehensive than that of the tribe to the south, as theirs was more complete than alms. He commanded them to stand back, and then he advanced and addressed me. He asked me who I was, from whence I came, and what my intentions were. I replied that I was a stranger in Caspak, that I was lost, and that my only desire was to find my way back to my companions. He asked where they were, and I told him toward the south somewhere, using the Caspakian phrase which literally translated means toward the beginning. His surprise showed upon his face before he voiced it in words. There are no galous there, he said. I tell you, I said angrily, that I am from another country, far from Caspak, far beyond the high cliffs. I do not know who the galous may be. I have never seen them. This is the farthest north I have been. Look at me. Look at my clothing and my weapons. Have you ever seen a galou or any other creature in Caspak who possessed such things? He had to admit that he had not, and also that he was much interested in me, my rifle, and the way I had handled his three warriors. Finally he became half convinced that I was telling him the truth, and offered to aid me if I would show him how I had thrown the man over my head, and also make him a present of the Bang Spear, as he called it. I refused to give him my rifle, but promised to show him the trick he wished to learn if he would guide me in the right direction. He told me that he would do so tomorrow, that it was too late today, and that I might come to their village and spend the night with them. I was low to lose so much time, but the fellow was obdurate, and so I accompanied them. The two dead men they left where they had fallen, nor gave them a second glance. Thus cheap is life upon Caspak. These people also were cave dwellers, but their cave showed the result of a higher intelligence that brought them a step nearer to civilized man than the tribe next toward the beginning. The interiors of their caverns were clear to rubbish, though still far from clean, and they had pallets of dried grasses covered with the skins of leopard, lynx, and bear, while before the entrances were barriers of stone and small, rudely circular stone ovens. The walls of the cavern, to which I was conducted, were covered with drawings scratched upon the sandstone. There were the outlines of the giant red deer, of mammoths, of tigers, and other beasts. Here, as in the last tribe, there were no children, or any old people. The men of this tribe had two names, or rather names of two syllables, and their language contained words of two syllables, whereas in the tribe of Sa, the words were all of a single syllable, with the exception of a very few like Attis and Gallus. The chief's name was Tojo, and his household consisted of seven females and himself. These women were much more comely, or rather less hideous than those of Sa's people. One of them, even, was almost pretty, being less hairy and having a rather nice skin, with high coloring. They were all much interested in me, and examined my clothing and equipment carefully, handling and feeling and smelling of each article. I learned from them that their people were known as Bandlu, or Spearmen. Sa's race was called Stolu, Hatchetmen. Below these, in the scale of evolution, came the Bolu, or Clubmen, and then the Allus, who had no weapons and no language. In that word I recognized what to me seemed the most remarkable discovery I had made upon Caprona. For unless it were mere coincidence, I had come upon a word that had been handed down from the beginning of spoken language upon earth, had been handed down for millions of years, perhaps, with little change. It was the sole remaining thread of the ancient woof of a dawning culture which had been woven when Caprona was a fiery mount upon a great land mass, teeming with life. It linked the unfathomable, then, to the eternal now, and yet it may have been pure coincidence. My better judgment tells me that it is coincidence that, in Kasbach, the term for speechless man, is Allus, and in the outer world of our own day it is Allus. The comely woman of whom I spoke was called Sota, and she took such a lively interest in me that Tojo finally objected to her attentions, emphasizing his displeasure by knocking her down and kicking her into a corner of the cavern. I leaped between them while he was still kicking her, and obtaining a quick hold upon him, dragged him screaming with pain from the cave. Then I made him promise not to hurt the she again upon pain of worse punishment. Sota gave me a grateful look, but Tojo and the balance of his women were sullen and ominous. Later in the evening Sota confided to me that she was soon to leave the tribe. Sota soon to be Krolu, she confided in a low whisper. I asked her what a Krolu might be, and she tried to explain, but I do not yet know if I understood her. From her gestures I deduced that the Krolus were a people who were armed with bows and arrows, had vessels in which to cook their food, and huts of some sort in which they lived, and were accompanied by animals. It was all very fragmentary and vague, but the idea seemed to be that the Krolus were a more advanced people than the Bandloos. I pondered a long time upon all that I had heard before sleep came to me. I tried to find some connection between these various races that would explain the universal hope which each of them harbored that someday they would become Krolus. Sota had given me a suggestion, but the resulting idea was so weird that I could scarce even entertain it. Yet it coincided with arms expressed hope, with the various steps in evolution I had noted in the several tribes I had encountered, and with the range of type represented in each tribe. For example, among the Bandloo were such types as Sota, who seemed to me to be the highest in the scale of evolution, and Tojo, who was just the shade nearer the ape, while there were others who had flatter noses, more prognathous faces and hairier bodies. The question puzzled me. Possibly in the outer world the answer to it is locked in the bosom of the Sphinx. Who knows? I do not. Thinking the thoughts of a lunatic or a dope fiend I fell asleep, and when I awoke my hands and feet were securely tied, and my weapons had been taken from me. How they did it without awakening me I cannot tell you. It was humiliating, but it was true. Tojo stood above me. The early light of morning was dimly filtering into the cave. Tell me, he demanded, how to throw a man over my head and break his neck, for I am going to kill you, and I wish to know this thing before you die. Of all the ingenuous declarations I have ever heard, this one caught the proverbial bun. It struck me as so funny, that even in the face of death I laughed. Death, I may remark here, had, however, lost much of his terror for me. I had become a disciple of Lissa's fleeting philosophy of the valuelessness of human life. I realized that she was quite right, that we were but comic figures hopping from the cradle to the grave, of interest to practically no other created thing than ourselves and our few intimates. Behind Tojo stood Sota. She raised one hand with the palm toward me, the caspacchian equivalent of a negative shake of the head. Let me think about it, I parried, and Tojo said that he would wait until night. He would give me a day to think it over. Then he left, and the women left, the men for the hunt and the women, as I later learned from Sota, for the warm pool where they immersed their bodies as did the she's of the solo. Atta explained Sota when I questioned her as to the purpose of this metutinal rite, but that was later. I must have lain there bound and uncomfortable for two or three hours when at last Sota entered the cave. She carried a sharp knife, mine, in fact, and with it she cut my bonds. Come, she said, Sota will go with you back to the gallows. It is time that Sota left the band glued. Together we will go to the Krolu, and after that the gallows. Tojo will kill you tonight. He will kill Sota if he knows that Sota aided you. We will go together. I will go with you to Krolu, I replied, but then I must return to my own people toward the beginning. You cannot go back, she said. It is forbidden. They would kill you. Thus far have you come. There is no returning. But I must return, I insisted. My people are there. I must return and lead them in this direction. She insisted and I insisted, but at last we compromised. I was to escort her as far as the country of the Krolu, and then I was to go back after my own people and lead them north into a land where the dangers were fewer and the people less murderous. She brought me all my belongings that had been filts from me, rifle, ammunition, knife, and thermos bottle, and then hand in hand we descended the cliff and set off toward the north. For three days we continued upon our way until we arrived outside a village of thatched huts, just at dusk. Sota said that she would enter alone. I must not be seen if I did not intend to remain, as it was forbidden that one should return and live after having advanced this far. So she left me. She was a dear girl and a staunch and true comrade, more like a man than a woman. In her simple barbaric way she was both refined and chaste. She had been the wife of Tojo. Among the Krolu she would find another mate after the manner of the strange, caspacian world. But she told me very frankly that whenever I returned she would leave her mate and come to me, as she preferred me above all others. I was becoming a lady's man after a lifetime of bashfulness. At the outskirts of the village I left her without even seeing the sort of people who inhabited it, and set off through the growing darkness toward the south. On the third day I made a detour westward to avoid the country of the Bandlu, as I did not care to be detained by a meeting with Tojo. On the sixth day I came to the cliffs of the Stolu, and my heart beat fast as I approached them, for here was less. Soon I would hold her tight and my arms again. Soon her warm lips would merge with mine. I felt sure that she was still safe among the hatchet people, and I was already picturing the joy and the love-light in her eyes when she should see me once more as I emerged from the last clump of trees, and almost ran toward the cliffs. It was late in the morning. The women must have returned from the pool. Yet, as I drew near, I saw no sign of life, whatever. They have remained longer, I thought, but when I was quite close to the base of the cliffs I saw that which dashed my hopes and my happiness to earth. Strune along the ground were a score of mute and horrible suggestions of what had taken place during my absence. Bones picked clean of flesh, the bones of man-like creatures, the bones of many of the tribe of Stolu, nor in any cave was their sign of life. Closely I examined the ghastly remains, fearful each instant that I should find the dainty skull that would shatter my happiness for life. But though I searched diligently, picking up every one of the twenty odd skulls, I found none that was the skull of a creature but slightly removed from the ape. Hope then still lived. For another three days I searched north and south. East and west were the hatchet men of Caspak, but never a trace of them did I find. It was raining most of the time now, and the weather was as near cold as it ever seems to get on Caprona. At last I gave up the search and set off toward Fort Dinosaur. For a week, a week filled with the terrors and dangers of a primeval world, I pushed on in the direction I thought was south. The sun never shone. The rain scarcely ever ceased falling. The beasts I met with were fewer in number but infinitely more terrible in temper. Yet I lived on until there came to me the realization that I was hopelessly lost, that a year of sunshine would not again give me my bearings. And while I was cast down by this terrifying knowledge, the knowledge that I never again could find lists, I stumbled upon another grave, the grave of William James, with its little crude headstone and its scrawled characters recording that he had died upon the 13th of September, killed by a saber-tooth tiger. I think that I almost gave up then. Never in my life have I felt more hopeless or helpless or alone. I was lost. I could not find my friends. I did not even know that they still lived. In fact, I could not bring myself to believe that they did. I was sure that Liss was dead. I wanted myself to die. And yet I clung to life, useless and hopeless and harrowing a thing as it had become. I clung to life because some ancient reptilian forebear had clung to life and transmitted to me, through the ages, the most powerful motive that guided his minute brain, the motive of self-preservation. At last I came to the Great Barrier Cliffs. And after three days of mad effort, of maniacal effort, I scaled them. I built crude ladders. I wed sticks in narrow fissures. I chopped toe-holds and finger-holds with my long knife. But at last I scaled them. Near the summit I came upon a huge cavern. It is the abode of some mighty winged creature of the Triassic, or rather it was. Now it is mine. I slew the thing and took it's abode. I reached the summit and looked out upon the broad gray terrible pacific of the far southern winter. It was cold up there. It is cold here today. Yet here I sit watching, watching, watching for the thing I know will never come, for a sale. End of Chapter 9 Chapter 10 of The Land That Time Forgot This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Ralph Snelson. The Land That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Chapter 10 Once a day I descend to the base of the cliff and hunt, and fill my stomach with water from a clear cold spring. I have three gourds which I fill with water and take back to my cave against the long nights. I have fashioned a spear and a bow and arrow that I may conserve my ammunition which is running low. My clothes are worn to shreds. Tomorrow I shall discard them for leopard skins which I have tanned and sewn into a garment strong and warm. It is cold up here. I have a fire burning and I sit bent over it while I write, but I am safe here. No other living creature ventures to the chill summit of the barrier cliffs. I am safe and I am alone with my sorrows and my remembered joys, but without hope. It is said that hope springs eternal in the human breast, but there is none in mine. I am about done. Presently I shall fold these pages and push them into my thermos bottle. I shall cork it and screw the cap tight, and then I shall hurl it as far out into the sea as my strength will permit. The wind is offshore. The tide is running out. Perhaps it will be carried into one of those numerous ocean currents which sweep perpetually from pole to pole and from continent to continent, to be deposited at last upon some inhabited shore. If fate is kind and this does happen, then for God's sake come and get me. It was a week ago that I wrote the preceding paragraph which I thought would end the written record of my life upon Caprona. I had paused to put a new point on my quill and stir the crude ink which I made by crushing a black variety of berry and mixing it with water before attaching my signature, when faintly from the valley far below came an unmistakable sound which brought me to my feet, trembling with excitement to peer eagerly downward from my dizzy ledge. How full of meaning that sound was to me you may guess when I tell you that it was the report of a firearm. For a moment my gaze traversed the landscape beneath until it was caught and held by four figures near the base of the cliff, a human figure held at bay by three hyenodons, those ferocious and bloodthirsty wild dogs of the Eocene, a fourth beast lay dead or dying nearby. I couldn't be sure, looking down from above as I was, but yet I trembled like a leaf in the intuitive belief that it was Lys, and my judgment served to confirm my wild desire, for whoever it was carried only a pistol, and thus had Lys been armed. The first wave of sudden joy which surged through me was short-lived in the face of the swift following conviction that the one who fought below was already doomed. Luck and only luck it must have been which had permitted that first shot to lay low one of the savage creatures, for even such a heavy weapon as my pistol is entirely inadequate against even the lesser carnivora of Caspac. In a moment the three would charge, a futile shot would but tend more greatly to enrage the one at chance to hit, and then the three would drag down the little human figure and tear it to pieces. And maybe it was Lys, my heart stood still at the thought, but mind and muscle responded to the quick decision I was forced to make. There was but a single hope, a single chance, and I took it. I raised my rifle to my shoulder and took careful aim. It was a long shot, a dangerous shot, for unless one is accustomed to it shooting from a considerable altitude is most deceptive work. There is, though, something about marksmanship which is quite beyond all scientific laws. Upon no other theory can I explain my marksmanship of that moment. Three times my rifle spoke three quick short syllables of death. I did not take conscious aim, and yet at each report a beast crumpled in its tracks. From my ledge to the base of the cliff is a matter of several thousand feet of dangerous climbing, yet I venture to say that the first ape, from whose loins my line has descended, never could have equaled the speed with which I literally dropped down the face of that rugged escarpment. The last two hundred feet is over a steep incline of loose rubble to the valley bottom, and I had just reached the top of this when there arose to my ears an agonized cry, Born, born, quick, my love, quick! I had been too much occupied with the dangers of the descent to glance down toward the valley, but that cry which told me that it was indeed less, and that she was again in danger, brought my eyes quickly upon her in time to see a hairy, burly, brute Caesar, and start off at a run toward the nearby wood. From rot to rot, shammy-like, I leap downward toward the valley in pursuit of Lys and her hideous abductor. He was heavier than I by many pounds, and so weighted by the burden he carried that I easily overtook him, and at last he turned snarling to face me. It was coal of the tribe of Sa, the hatchet man. He recognized me, and with a low growl he threw Lys aside and came for me. Thus she is mine, he cried, I kill, I kill! I had had to discard my rifle before I commenced the rapid descent of the cliff so that now I was armed only with a hunting knife, and this I whipped from its scabbard as coal leaped toward me. He was a mighty beast, mightily muscled, and the urge that has made males fight since the dawn of life on earth filled him with the bloodlust and the thirst to slay. But not one whit less did it fill me with the same primal passions. Two abysmal beasts sprang at each other's throats that day beneath the shadow of the earth's oldest cliffs, the man of now and the man-thing of the earliest forgotten then, imbued by the same deathless passion that has come down unchanged through all the epochs, periods, and eras of time from the beginning, and which shall continue to the incalculable end, woman, the imperishable alpha and omega of life. Coal closed and sought my jugular with his teeth. He seemed to forget the hatchet dangling by its rx hide thong at his hip, as I forgot for the moment the dagger in my hand, and I doubt not but that Coal would easily have bested me in an encounter of that sort had not Liz's voice awakened within my momentarily reverted brain, the skill and cunning of reasoning man. Bo'en! she cried, your knife, your knife! It was enough. It recalled me from the forgotten eon to which my brain had flown and left me once again a modern man battling with a clumsy, unskilled brute. No longer did my jaws snap at the hairy throat before me, but instead my knife sought and found a space between two ribs over the savage heart. Coal voiced a single horrid scream, stiffened spasmodically, and sank to the earth. And Liz threw herself into my arms. All the fears and sorrows of the past were wiped away, and once again I was the happiest of men. With some misgivings I shortly afterward cast my eyes upward toward the precarious ledge which ran before my cave, for it seemed to me quite beyond all reason to expect a dainty modern bell to assay the perils of that frightful climb. I asked her if she thought she could brave the assent, and she laughed gaily in my face. Watch! she cried, and ran eagerly toward the base of the cliff. Like a squirrel she clamored swiftly aloft so that I was forced to exert myself to keep pace with her. At first she frightened me, but presently I was aware that she was quite as safe here as was I. When we finally came to my ledge and I again held her in my arms, she recalled to my mind that for several weeks she had been living the life of a cave girl with the tribe of hatchet men. They had been driven from their former caves by another tribe which had slain many and carried off quite half the females, and the new cliffs to which they had flown had proven far higher and more precipitous so that she had become, through necessity, a most-practiced climber. She told me of Coe's desire for her, since all his females had been stolen, and of how her life had been a constant nightmare of terror as she sought by night and by day to elude the great brute. For a time knobs had been all the protection she required, but one day he disappeared, nor has she seen him since. She believes that he was deliberately made away with, and so do I, for we both are sure that he never would have deserted her. With her means of protection gone, Liss was now at the mercy of the hatchet man, nor was it many hours before he had caught her at the base of the cliff and seized her, but as he bore her triumphantly aloft toward his cave she had managed to break loose and escape him. For three days he had pursued me, she said, through this horrible world, how I have passed through in safety I cannot guess, nor how I have always managed to out-distance him, yet I have done it, until just as you discovered me, fate was kind to us, Bowen. I nodded my head in assent and crushed her to me, and then we talked and planned, as I cooked antelope steaks over my fire, and we came to the conclusion that there was no hope of rescue, that she and I were doomed to live and die upon Caprona. Well, it might be worse, I would rather live here always with Liss than to live elsewhere without her, and she, dear girl, says the same of me. But I am afraid of this life for her. It is a hard, fierce, dangerous life, and I shall pray always that we shall be rescued from it, for her sake. That night the clouds broke, and the moon shone down upon our little ledge, and there, hand in hand, we turned our faces toward heaven, and plighted our trough, beneath the eyes of God. No human agency could have married us more sacredly than we, or wed. We are man and wife, and we are content. If God wills it, we shall live out our lives here. If he wills otherwise, then this manuscript, which I shall now consign to the inscrutable forces of the sea, shall fall into friendly hands. However, we are each without hope, and so we say good-bye in this our last message to the world beyond the barrier cliffs. Signed, Buon J. Tyler Jr. List LaRue Tyler. End of Chapter 10. End of The Land That Time Forgot, by Edgar Rice Burroughs