Chapter 7
October 8, 1916: This is the last entry I shall make upon mymanuscript. When this is done, I shall be through. Though I may praythat it reaches the haunts of civilized man, my better judgment tellsme that it will never be perused by other eyes than mine, and that eventhough it should, it would be too late to avail me. I am alone uponthe summit of the great cliff overlooking the broad Pacific. A chillsouth wind bites at my marrow, while far below me I can see the tropicfoliage of Caspak on the one hand and huge icebergs from the nearAntarctic upon the other. Presently I shall stuff my folded manuscriptinto the thermos bottle I have carried with me for the purpose since Ileft the fort--Fort Dinosaur we named it--and hurl it far outward overthe cliff-top into the Pacific. What current washes the shore ofCaprona I know not; whither my bottle will be borne I cannot evenguess; but I have done all that mortal man may do to notify the worldof my whereabouts and the dangers that threaten those of us who remainalive in Caspak--if there be any other than myself.
About the 8th of September I accompanied Olson and von Schoenvorts tothe oil-geyser. Lys came with us, and we took a number of things whichvon Schoenvorts wanted for the purpose of erecting a crude refinery.We went up the coast some ten or twelve miles in the U-33, tying up toshore near the mouth of a small stream which emptied great volumes ofcrude oil into the sea--I find it difficult to call this great lake byany other name. Then we disembarked and went inland about five miles,where we came upon a small lake entirely filled with oil, from thecenter of which a geyser of oil spouted.
On the edge of the lake we helped von Schoenvorts build his primitiverefinery. We worked with him for two days until he got things fairlywell started, and then we returned to Fort Dinosaur, as I feared thatBradley might return and be worried by our absence. The U-33 merelylanded those of us that were to return to the fort and then retracedits course toward the oil-well. Olson, Whitely, Wilson, Miss La Rue,and myself disembarked, while von Schoenvorts and his German crewreturned to refine the oil. The next day Plesser and two other Germanscame down overland for ammunition. Plesser said they had been attackedby wild men and had exhausted a great deal of ammunition. He alsoasked permission to get some dried meat and maize, saying that theywere 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 suspicionof their intentions enter my mind. They returned to the oil-well thesame day, while we continued with the multitudinous duties of camp life.
For three days nothing of moment occurred. Bradley did not return; nordid we have any word from von Schoenvorts. In the evening Lys and Iwent up into one of the bastion towers and listened to the grim andterrible nightlife of the frightful ages of the past. Once asaber-tooth screamed almost beneath us, and the girl shrank closeagainst me. As I felt her body against mine, all the pent love ofthese three long months shattered the bonds of timidity and conviction,and I swept her up into my arms and covered her face and lips withkisses. She did not struggle to free herself; but instead her deararms crept up about my neck and drew my own face even closer to hers.
"You love me, Lys?" I cried.
I felt her head nod an affirmative against my breast. "Tell me, Lys,"I begged, "tell me in words how much you love me."
Low and sweet and tender came the answer: "I love you beyond allconception."
My heart filled with rapture then, and it fills now as it has each ofthe countless times I have recalled those dear words, as it shall fillalways until death has claimed me. I may never see her again; she maynot know how I love her--she may question, she may doubt; but alwaystrue and steady, and warm with the fires of love my heart beats for thegirl who said that night: "I love you beyond all conception."
For a long time we sat there upon the little bench constructed for thesentry that we had not as yet thought it necessary to post in more thanone of the four towers. We learned to know one another better in thosetwo brief hours than we had in all the months that had intervened sincewe had been thrown together. She told me that she had loved me fromthe first, and that she never had loved von Schoenvorts, theirengagement having been arranged by her aunt for social reasons.
That was the happiest evening of my life; nor ever do I expect toexperience its like; but at last, as is the way of happiness, itterminated. We descended to the compound, and I walked with Lys to thedoor of her quarters. There again she kissed me and bade me goodnight, 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 crudecandles we had made from the tallow of the beasts we had killed, andlived over the events of the evening. At last I turned in and fellasleep, dreaming happy dreams and planning for the future, for even insavage Caspak I was bound to make my girl safe and happy. It wasdaylight when I awoke. Wilson, who was acting as cook, was up andastir at his duties in the cook-house. The others slept; but I aroseand followed by Nobs went down to the stream for a plunge. As was ourcustom, I went armed with both rifle and revolver; but I stripped andhad my swim without further disturbance than the approach of a largehyena, a number of which occupied caves in the sand-stone cliffs northof the camp. These brutes are enormous and exceedingly ferocious. Iimagine they correspond with the cave-hyena of prehistoric times. Thisfellow charged Nobs, whose Capronian experiences had taught him thatdiscretion is the better part of valor--with the result that he divedhead foremost into the stream beside me after giving vent to a seriesof ferocious growls which had no more effect upon Hyaena spelaeus thanmight a sweet smile upon an enraged tusker. Afterward I shot the beast,and Nobs had a feast while I dressed, for he had become quite araw-meat eater during our numerous hunting expeditions, upon which wealways gave him a portion of the kill.
Whitely and Olson were up and dressed when we returned, and we all satdown to a good breakfast. I could not but wonder at Lys' absence fromthe table, for she had always been one of the earliest risers in camp;so about nine o'clock, becoming apprehensive lest she might beindisposed, I went to the door of her room and knocked. I received noresponse, though I finally pounded with all my strength; then I turnedthe knob and entered, only to find that she was not there. Her bed hadbeen occupied, and her clothing lay where she had placed it theprevious night upon retiring; but Lys was gone. To say that I wasdistracted with terror would be to put it mildly. Though I knew shecould not be in camp, I searched every square inch of the compound andall the buildings, yet without avail.
It was Whitely who discovered the first clue--a huge human-likefootprint in the soft earth beside the spring, and indications of astruggle in the mud.
Then I found a tiny handkerchief close to the outer wall. Lys had beenstolen! It was all too plain. Some hideous member of the ape-mantribe had entered the fort and carried her off. While I stood stunnedand horrified at the frightful evidence before me, there came from thedirection of the great lake an increasing sound that rose to the volumeof a shriek. We all looked up as the noise approached apparently justabove us, and a moment later there followed a terrific explosion whichhurled us to the ground. When we clambered to our feet, we saw a largesection of the west wall torn and shattered. It was Olson who firstrecovered from his daze sufficiently to guess the explanation of thephenomenon.
"A shell!" he cried. "And there ain't no shells in Caspak besideswhat's on the U-33. The dirty boches are shellin' the fort. Come on!"And he grasped his rifle and started on a run toward the lake. It wasover two miles, but we did not pause until the harbor was in view, andstill we could not see the lake because of the sandstone cliffs whichintervened. We ran as fast as we could around the lower end of theharbor, scrambled up the cliffs and at last stood upon their summit infull view of the lake. Far away down the coast, toward the riverthrough which we had come to reach the lake, we saw upon the surfacethe outline of the U-33, black smoke vomiting from her funnel.
Von Schoenvorts had succeeded in refining the oil! The cur had brokenhis every pledge and was leaving us there to our fates. He had e
venshelled the fort as a parting compliment; nor could anything have beenmore truly Prussian than this leave-taking of the Baron Friedrich vonSchoenvorts.
Olson, Whitely, Wilson, and I stood for a moment looking at oneanother. It seemed incredible that man could be so perfidious--that wehad really seen with our own eyes the thing that we had seen; but whenwe returned to the fort, the shattered wall gave us ample evidence thatthere was no mistake.
Then we began to speculate as to whether it had been an ape-man or aPrussian that had abducted Lys. From what we knew of von Schoenvorts,we would not have been surprised at anything from him; but thefootprints by the spring seemed indisputable evidence that one ofCaprona's undeveloped men had borne off the girl I loved.
As soon as I had assured myself that such was the case, I made mypreparations to follow and rescue her. Olson, Whitely, and Wilson eachwished to accompany me; but I told them that they were needed here,since with Bradley's party still absent and the Germans gone it wasnecessary that we conserve our force as far as might be possible.
The Land That Time Forgot Page 7