The Land that Time Forgot, by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Part I.

0:00The New Week OV Pill is now available through Weight Watchers. Powerful GLP1 results in a simple pill at the lowest price available. And with Weight Watchers, you can get doctor support and personalized nutrition programs. See if you qualify at WeightWatchers.com. Adnot reviewed or approved by Novo Nordisk. Spring weekends are all about family, sunshine, and evenings on the patio. Before the barbecue starts, I like to stop by my local total wine and more to pick up a great bourbon, maybe a single barrel I already love, or something new to try with dinner. With so many bottles to choose from, it's easy to discover a favorite or something new for everyone to enjoy. Find what you love and love what you find, only a total wine and more. Curbside, pick up and delivery available in most areas, visit TotalWine.com to learn more. Spirit's not sold in Virginia and North Carolina. Drink responsibly B-21. Chapter one of the land that time forgot. This is a Libra Box recording. All Libra Box recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit

1:00LibraVox.org, recording by Ralph Snellson. The land that time forgot by Edgar Rice Burrows. Chapter one. It must have been a little after three o'clock in the afternoon that it happened, the afternoon of June 3, 1916. It seems incredible that all that I have passed through, all those weird and terrifying experiences, should have been encompassed within so short a span as three brief months. Rather might I have experienced a cosmic cycle with all its changes and evolutions for that which I have seen with my own eyes in this brief interval of time, things that no other mortal I had seen before. Glimpses of a world past, a world dead, a world so long dead that even in the lowest Cambrium stratum, no trace of it remains. Fused with the melting inner crust, it has passed forever beyond the can of man,

2:02other than in that lost pocket of the earth, whether fate has borne me and where my doom is sealed. I am here and here must remain. After reading this far, my interest which already had been stimulated by the finding of the manuscript was approaching the boiling point, I had come to Greenland for the summer on the advice of my physician and was slowly being bored to extinction, as I had thoughtlessly neglected to bring sufficient reading matter. Being an indifferent fisherman, my enthusiasm for this form of sport soon waned, yet in the absence of other forms of recreation, I was now risking my life in an entirely inadequate boat off-cake farewell at the southernmost extremity of Greenland. Greenland, as a descriptive appellation, it is a sorry joke, but my story has nothing to do with Greenland, nothing to do with me, so I shall get through with the one and the other as rapidly as

3:02possible. The inadequate boat finally arrived at a precarious landing, the natives waste deep in the surf assisting. I was carried ashore, and while the evening meal was being prepared, I wandered to and fro along the rocky shattered shore. Bits of surf-herried beach clove the worn granite, or whatever the rocks of Cape Farewell may be composed of, and as I followed the ebbing tide down one of these soft stretches I saw the thing, where one to bump into a bangle tiger in the ravine behind the bimini baths, one could be no more surprised than was I to see a perfectly good quark thermos bottle, turning and twisting in the surf of Cape Farewell at the southern extremity of Greenland. I rescued it, but I was soaked above the knees doing it, and then I sat down in the sand and opened it, and in the long twilight read the manuscript, neatly written and tightly folded, which was its contents. You have read the opening paragraph, and if you are an imaginative idiot

4:09like myself, you will want to read the rest of it, so I shall give it to you here, omitting quotation marks which are difficult of remembrance. In two minutes you will forget me. My home is in Santa Monica. I am, or was, junior member of my father's firm. We are shipbuilders, of recent years we have specialized on submarines which we have built for Germany, England, France, and the United States. I know a sub as a mother knows her baby's face and have commanded a score of them on their trial runs, yet my inclinations were all toward aviation. I graduated under Curtis, and after a long siege with my father, obtained his permission to try for the Lafayette Escradile. As a stepping stone, I obtained an appointment in the American ambulance service, and was on my way to France when three shrill whistles altered in as many seconds

5:09my entire scheme of life. I was sitting on deck with some of the fellows who were going into the American ambulance service with me. My air-dale, crown prince Nobler, asleep at my feet, when the first blast of the whistle shattered the peace and security of the ship. Ever since entering the U-boat zone, we had been on the lookout for periscopes, and children that we were bemoaning the unkind fate that was to see us safely into France on the moral, without a glimpse of the dread marauders. We were young, we craved thrills, and God knows we got them that day, yet by comparison with that through which I have since passed, they were as tame as a punch and duty-show. I shall never forget the ashy faces of the passengers as they stempeded for their life-belts, though there was no panic. Nobs rose with a low growl. I rose also, and over the ship's side I saw not 200 yards distant the periscope of a submarine,

6:15while racing toward the liner the wake of a torpedo was distinctly visible. We were aboard an American ship, which of course was not armed. We were entirely defenseless, yet without warning we were being torpedoed. I stood rigid, spellbound, watching the white wake of the torpedo. It struck us on the starboard side almost amid ships. The vessel rocked as though the sea beneath it had been up torn by a mighty volcano. We were thrown to the decks, bruised and stunned, and then above the ship carrying with it fragments of steel and wood, and dismembered human bodies rose a column of water hundreds of feet into the air. The silence which followed the detonation of the exploding torpedo was almost equally horrifying. It lasted for perhaps two seconds, to be followed by the screams and moans of the wounded, the cursing of the men, and the horse commands of the ship's officers. They were splendid, bay, and their crew.

7:17Never before had I been so proud of my nationality as I was that moment. In all the chaos which followed the torpedoing of the liner, no officer, or member of the crew, lost his head or showed in the slightest any degree of panic or fear. While we were attempting to lure boats, the submarine emerged and trained guns on us. The officer in command ordered us to lure our flag, but this, the captain of the liner, refused to do. The ship was listing frightfully to starboard, rendering the port boats useless, while half the starboard boats had been demolished by the explosion. Even while the passengers were crowding the starboard rail and scrambling into the few boats left to us, the submarine commenced shelling the ship. I saw one shell burst in a group of women and children, and then I turned my head and covered my eyes. When I looked again to horror was added sugar in, for with the emerging of the U-boat I had recognized her as a product of our

8:20own shipyard. I knew her to a rivet. I had superintendent her construction. I had sat in that very conning tower and directed the efforts of the sweating crew below when first her prowl clove the sunny summer waters of the Pacific, and now this creature of my brain and hand had turned Frankenstein bent upon pursuing me to my death. A second shell exploded upon the deck, one of the lifeboats frightfully overcrowded, swung at a dangerous angle from its davids. A fragment of the shell shattered the bow tackle, and I saw the women and children, and the men vomited into the sea beneath, while the boat dangled stern up for a moment from its single david, and at last with increasing momentum dived into the midst of the struggling victims screaming upon the face of the waters. Now I saw men spring to the rail and leap into the ocean. The deck was tilting to an impossible angle. Nobs braced himself with all four feet to keep from slipping into the scuppers,

9:25and looked up into my face with a questioning whine. I stooped and stroked his head. Come on, boy, I cried, and running to the side of the ship dived head foremost over the rail. When I came up the first thing I saw was nobs swimming about in a big, wildered sort of way, a few yards from me. At sight of me his ears went flat, and his lips parted in a characteristic grin. The submarine was withdrawing toward the north, but all the time it was shelling the open boats, three of them loaded to the gunwales with survivors. Fortunately, the small boats presented a rather poor target, which, combined with the bad markmanship of the Germans, preserved their occupants from harm. And after a few minutes a blotch of smoke appeared upon the eastern horizon, and the youboats submerged and disappeared. All the time the lifeboats had been pulling away from the danger of the sinking liner, and now, though I yelled at the top of my lungs, they either did not hear my appeals for help, or else did not dare return to

10:31sucker me. Nobs and I had gained some little distance from the ship, when it rolled completely over and sank. We were caught in the suction only enough to be drawn backward a few yards, neither of us being carried beneath the surface. I glanced hurriedly about for something to which to cling. My eyes were directed toward the point at which the liner had disappeared, when there came from the depths of the ocean the muffled reverberation of an explosion, and almost simultaneously a geyser of water in which were shattered lifeboats, human bodies, steam, coal, oil, and the flotsome of a liner's deck leaped high above the surface of the sea, a watery column momentarily marking the grave of another ship in this greatest cemetery of the seas. When the turbulent waters had somewhat subsided and the sea had ceased to spew up wreckage, I ventured to swim back in search of something substantial enough to support my weight and

11:34bad of nobs as well. I had gotten well over the area of the wreck, when not a half dozen yards ahead of me, a lifeboat shot bow foremost out of the ocean, almost its entire length, to flop down upon its keel with a mighty splash. It must have been carried far below, held to its mothership by a single rope which finally parted to the enormous strain put upon it. In no other way can I account for its having leaped so far out of the water, a beneficient circumstance to which I doubtless all my life and that of another far dearer to me than my own. I say beneficient circumstance even in the face of the fact that a fate far more hideous confronts us than that which we escape that day. For because of that circumstance I have met her whom otherwise I never should have known, I have met and loved her. At least I have had that great happiness in life,

12:34nor can caspect with all her horrors expunge that which has been. So for the thousandth time I thank the strange fate which sent that lifeboat hurtling upward from the green pit of destruction to which it had been dragged, sent it far up above the surface, emptying its water as it rose above the waves and dropping it upon the surface of the sea, buoyant and safe. It did not take me long to clamor over its side and drag knobs in to comparative safety, and then I glanced around upon the scene of death and desolation which surrounded us. The sea was littered with wreckage among which floated the pitiful forms of women and children, buoyed up by their useless life belts. Some were torn and mangled, others lay rolling quietly to the motion of the sea, their countenances composed and peaceful. Others were sat in hideous lines

13:35of agony or horror, close to the boat's side floated the figure of a girl. Her face was turned upward, held above the surface by her life belt, and was framed in a floating mass of dark and waving hair. She was very beautiful. I had never looked upon such perfect features, such a divine molding which was at the same time human, intensely human. It was a face filled with character and strength and femininity, the face of one who was created to love and to be loved. The cheeks were flushed to the hue of life and health and vitality, and yet she lay there upon the bosom of the sea, dead. I felt something rise in my throat as I looked down upon that radiant vision, and I swore that I should live to avenge her murder. And then I let my eyes drop once more to the face upon the water. And what I saw nearly tumbled me backward into the sea

14:40for the eyes in the dead face had opened. The lips had parted, and one hand was raised toward me in a mute appeal for sucker. She lived. She was not dead. I leaned over the boat's side and drew her quickly into the comparative safety which God had given me. I removed her life belt in my soggy coat and made a pillow for her head. I shaved her hands and arms and feet. I worked over her for an hour, and at last I was rewarded by a deep sigh, and again those great eyes opened and looked into my. At that I was all embarrassment. I have never been a ladies-man. At Linden Stanford I was the butt of the class because of my hopeless imbacility in the presence of a pretty girl. But the men liked me nevertheless. I was rubbing one of her hands when she opened her eyes, and I dropped it as though it were a red-hot rivet. Those eyes took me in slowly from head to foot.

15:47Then they wandered slowly around the horizon marked by the rising and falling gunwales of the lifeboat. They looked at knobs and softened, and then came back to me filled with questioning. I stammered, moving away and stumbling over the next thwart. The vision smiled onely. I eyes, sir, she replied faintly, and again her lips drooped, and her long lashes swept the firm fair texture of her skin. I hope that you are feeling better. I finally managed to say. Do you know, she said after a moment of silence, I have been awake for a long time, but I did not dare to open my eyes. I thought I must be dead, and I was afraid to look, for fear that I should see nothing but blackness about me. I'm afraid to die. Tell me what happened after the ship went down. I remember all that happened before. Oh, but I wish that I might forget it.

16:52I saw broke her voice. The bees, she went on after a moment, and to think that I was to have married one of them a lieutenant in the German Navy. Presently she resumed as though she had not seen speaking. I went down and down and down. I thought I should never cease to sink. I felt no particular distress until I suddenly started upward at ever increasing velocity. Then my lungs seemed about to burst, and I must have lost consciousness, for I remember nothing more until I opened my eyes after listening to a torrent of invective against Germany and Germans. Tell me, please, all that happened after the ship sank. I told her then, as well as I could, all that I had seen, the submarine shelling the open boats and all the rest of it. She thought at marvelous that we should have been spared in so providential a manner, and I had a pretty speech upon my tongues

17:55end, but lacked the nerve to deliver it. Nobs had come over and nosed his muzzle into her lap, and she stroked his ugly face, and at last she leaned over and put her cheek against his forehead. I have always admired Nobs, but this was the first time that it had ever occurred to me that I might wish to be Nobs. I wondered how he would take it, for he is as unused to women as I. But he took to it as a duck takes to water. What I lack of being a lady's man, Nobs certainly makes up for as a lady's dog. The old scallywag just closed his eyes, and put on one of the softest sugar wouldn't melt in my mouth, expressions you ever saw, and stood there taking it and asking for more. It made me jealous. You seem fond of dogs, I said. I am fond of this dog, she replied. Whether she met anything personal in that reply, I did not know, but I took it as personal,

18:59and it made me feel mighty good. As we drifted about upon that vast expanse of loneliness, it is not strange that we should quickly become well acquainted. Constantly we scanned the horizon for signs of smoke, venturing guesses as to our chances of rescue. But darkness settled, and the black night enveloped us without ever the sight of a speck upon the waters. We were thirsty, hungry, uncomfortable, and cold. Our wet garments had dried but little, and I knew that the girl must be in grave danger from the exposure to a night of cold and wet upon the water in an open boat, without sufficient clothing and no food. I had managed to bail all the water out of the boat with cupped hands, ending by mopping the balance up with my handkerchief, a slow and back-breaking procedure. Thus I had made a comparatively dry place for the girl to lie

20:00down low in the bottom of the boat, where the sides would protect her from the night wind, and when at last she did so, almost overcome as she was by weakness and fatigue, I threw my wet coat over her further to thwart the chill, but it was of no avail. As I sat watching her, the moonlight marking out the graceful curves of her slender young body, I saw her shiver. Isn't there something I can do, I ask? You can't lie there chill through all night. Can't you suggest something? She shook her head. We must grin and bear it," she replied after a moment. Nobler came and lay down on the thwart beside me, his back against my leg, and I sat staring in the misery at the girl, knowing in my heart of hearts that she might die before morning came, for what with the shock and exposure she had already gone through enough to kill almost any woman.

21:02And as I gazed down at her so small and delicate and helpless, there was born slowly within my breast a new emotion. It had never been there before. Now it will never cease to be there. It made me almost frantic in my desire to find some way to keep warm and cooling lifeblood in her veins. I was cold myself, though I had almost forgotten it until Nobler moved, and I felt a new sensation of cold along my leg against which he had lain, and suddenly realized that in that one spot I had been warm. Like a great light came the understanding of a means to warm the girl. Immediately I knelt beside her to put my scheme into practice when suddenly I was overwhelmed with embarrassment, which she permitted, even if I could muster the courage to suggest it, then I saw her frame convults shudderingly, her muscles reacting to her rapidly lowering temperature, and casting prudery to the winds I threw myself down beside her and took her in my arms,

22:07pressing her body close to mine. She drew away suddenly, voicing a little cry of fright and tried to push me from her. Forgive me, I managed to stammer. It is the only way you will die of exposure if you are not warmed, and Nobler and I are the only means we can command for furnishing warmth. And I held her tightly while I called Nobbs and made him lie down at her back. The girl didn't struggle anymore when she learned my purpose, but she gave two or three little gashs, and then began to cry softly, bearing her face on my arm, and thus she fell asleep. End of chapter 1 Chapter 2 of the Land That Time Forgot This is a LibraVox recording. All LibraVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibraVox.org,

23:12recording by Ralph Snellson. The Land That Time Forgot By Edgar Rice Burrows Chapter 2 Toward morning, I must have dosed, though it seemed to me at the time that I had lain awake for days instead of hours. When I finally opened my eyes, it was daylight, and the girl's hair was in my face, and she was breathing normally. I thanked God for that. She had turned her head during the night, so that as I opened my eyes, I saw her face not an inch from mine. My lips almost touching hers. It was Nobbs who finally awoke her. He got up, stretched, turned around a few times, and lay down again, and the girl opened her eyes and looked into mine. Heres went very wide at first, and then slowly comprehension came to her, and she smiled. You have been very good to me, she said, as I helped her to rise, though if the truth were known,

24:12I was more in need of assistance than she. The circulation all along my left side seemed to be paralyzed entirely. You have been very good to me, and that was the only mention she ever made of it. Yet I know that she was thankful, and that only reserve prevented her from referring to what, to say the least, was an embarrassing situation, however unavoidable. Shortly after daylight, we saw smoke apparently coming straight toward us, and after a time, we made out the squat lines of a tug. One of those fearless exponents of England's supremacy of the sea that towed sailing ships into French and English ports. I stood up on a thwart, and waved my soggy coat above my head. Nob stood upon another, and barked. The girl sat at my feet, straining her eyes toward the deck of the oncoming boat. They see us, she said at last. There is a man answering your signal. She was right. A lump came into my throat, for her sake, rather than for mine.

25:16She was saved, and none too soon. She could not have lived through another night on the channel. She might not have lived through the coming day. The tug came close beside us, and a man on deck threw us a rope. Willing-hands dragged us to the deck. Nob scrambling nimbly aboard without assistance. The rough men were gentle as mothers with the girl. Flying us both with questions, they hustled her to the captain's cabin, and me to the boiler room. They told the girl to take off her wet clothes, and throw them outside the door, that they might be dried, and then to slip into the captain's bunk and get warm. They didn't have to tell me to strip after I once got into the warmth of the boiler room. In a jiffy my clothes hung about where they might dry most quickly, and I myself was absorbing through every pore the welcome heat of this stifling compartment. They brought us hot soup and coffee, and then those who were not on duty sat around,

26:17and helped me down the Kaiser and his brood. As soon as our clothes were dry, they bait us done, as the chances were always more than fair in those waters that we should run into trouble with the enemy, as I was only too well aware. What with the warmth and the feeling of safety for the girl, and the knowledge that a little rest and food would quickly overcome the effects of her experiences of the past dismal hours, I was feeling more content than I had experienced since those three whistleblasts had shattered the peace of my world the previous afternoon. But peace upon the channel has been but a transitory thing since August 1914. It proved itself such that morning, for I had scarce gotten into my dry clothes and taken the girls apparel to the captain's cabin, when an order was shouted down into the engine room for full speed ahead, and an instant later I heard the dull boom of a gun. In a moment I was up on deck to see an enemy submarine about 200 yards

27:21off our port bow. She had signaled us to stop, and our skipper had ignored the order. But now she had her gun trained on us, and the second shot grazed the cabin, warning the belligerent tug captain that it was time to obey. Once again an order went down to the engine room and the tug reduced speed. The U-boat ceased firing and ordered the tug to come about and approach. Our momentum had carried us a little beyond the enemy craft, but we were turning now on the arc with circle that would bring us alongside her. As I stood watching the maneuver and wondering what was to become of us, I felt something touch my elbow, and turned to see the girl standing at my side. She looked up into my face with a roofal expression. They seemed bent on our destruction, she said, and it looks like the same boat that sunk us yesterday. It is, I replied. I know her well. I helped design her and

28:22took her out on her first run. The girl do back from me with a little exclamation of surprise and disappointment. I thought you were an American, she said. I had no idea you were a nor am I, I replied. Americans have been building submarines for all nations for many years. I wish though that we had gone bankrupt, my father and I, before ever we turned out that Frankenstein of a thing. We were approaching the U-boat at half speed now, and I could almost distinguish the features of the man upon her deck. I sat her step to my side and slipped something hard and cold into my hand. I did not have to look at it to know that it was a heavy pistol. Tiger and user was all he said. Our bow was pointed straight toward the U-boat now as I heard word past to the engine for full speed ahead. I instantly grasped the brazenly frontery of the plucky English skipper. He was going to ram 500 tons of U-boat in the face of her trained gun.

29:29I could scarce repress a cheer. At first the Boschus didn't seem to grasp his intention. Evidently they thought they were witnessing an exhibition of poor seamanship, and they yelled their warnings to the town to reduce speed and throw the helm hard to port. We were within fifty feet of them when they awakened to the intentional menace of our maneuver. Their gun crew was off its guard, but they sprang to their peace now and sent a futile shell above our heads. Nobs leaped about and bark furiously. Let them have it," commanded the tug captain, and instantly revolvers and rifles poured bullets upon the deck of the submersible. Two of the gun crew went down. The other trained their peace at the waterline of the oncoming tug. The balance of those on deck replied to our small arms fire, directing their efforts toward the man at our wheel. I hastily pushed the girl down the companionway, leading to the engine room, and then I raised my pistol and fired my first shot

30:30at a Bosch. What happened in the next few seconds happened so quickly that details are rather blurred in my memory. I saw the helmsman lunge forward upon the wheel, pulling the helm around so that the tug sheared off quickly from her course, and I recall realizing that all our efforts were to be in vain. Because of all the men aboard, fate had decreed that this one should fall first to an enemy bullet. I saw the depleted gun crew on the submarine fire their peace, and I felt the shock of impact and heard the loud explosion as the shell struck and exploded in our bow. I saw and realized these things even as I was leaping into the pilot house and grasping the wheel, standing astride the dead body of the helmsman. With all my strength I threw the helm to starboard, but it was too late to affect the purpose of our skipper. The best I did was to scrape alongside the sub. I heard someone shrieking order into the engine room. The boat shuddered and trembled to

31:34the sudden reversing of the engines, and our speed quickly lessened. Then I saw what that mad man of a skipper planned, since his first scheme had gone wrong. With a loud yelled command, he leaped to the slippery deck of the submersible, and at his heels came his hearty crew, eye-spraying from the pilot house and followed, not to be left out in the cold when it came to strafing the bosses. From the engine room companionway came the engineer and stockers, and together we leaped after the balance of the crew and into the hand-to-hand fight that was covering the wet deck with red blood. Beside me came knobs, silent now, and grim. Germans were emerging from the open hatch to take part in the battle on deck. At first the pistols cracked amidst the cursing of the man and the loud commands of the commander and his junior, but presently we were too indiscriminately mixed to make it safe to use our firearms, and the battle resolved itself into a hand-to-hand struggle for possession of the deck.

32:36The sole aim of each office was to hurl one of the opposing force into the sea. I shall never forget the hideous expression upon the face of the Great Prussian, with whom chance confronted me. He lured his head and rushed at me, bellowing like a bull. With a quick side step and ducking low beneath his outstretched arms, I eluded him, and as he turned to come back at me, I landed a blow upon his chin, which sent him spinning toward the edge of the deck. I saw his wild endeavours to regain his equilibrium. I saw him real drunkenly for an instant upon the brink of eternity, and band with a loud scream slip into the sea. At the same instant a pair of giant arms encircled me from behind, and lifted me entirely off my feet. Kick and squirm as I would, I could neither turn toward my antagonist, nor free myself from his maniacal grasp. Relentlessly he was rushing me toward the side of the vessel, and death. There was none to stay him, for each of my companions was

33:42more than occupied by from one to three of the enemy. For an instant I was fearful for myself, and then I saw that, which filled me with a far greater terror for another. My Bosch was bearing me toward the side of the submarine against which the tug was still pounding, but I should be ground to death between the two was lost upon me as I saw the girl standing alone upon the tug's deck, as I saw the stern high in air, and the bow rapidly settling for the final dive, as I saw death from which I could not save her, clutching at the skirts of the woman I now knew all too well that I loved. I had perhaps the fraction of a second longer to live when I heard an angry growl behind us mingle with a cry of pain and rage from the giant who carried me. Instantly he went backward to the deck, and as he did so he threw his arms outwards to save himself, freeing me. I fell heavily upon him, but was upon my feet in the instant. As I arose I cast a single glance at

34:46my opponent. Never again would he menace me or another, for knobs great jaws had closed upon his throat. Then I sprung toward the edge of the deck closest to the girl upon the sinking tug. Jump by cry, jump, and I held out my arms to her, instantly as though with implicit confidence in my ability to save her, she leaped over the side of the tug onto the sloping slippery side of the U-boat. I reached far over to seize her hand, at the same instant the tug pointed its stern straight toward the sky and plunged out of sight. My hand missed the girls by a fraction of an inch, and I saw her slip into the sea. But scarce had she touched the water when I was in after her. The sinking tug drew us far below the surface, but I had seized her of the moment I struck the water, and so we went down together. And together we came up, a few yards from the U-boat. The first thing I heard was knobs barking furiously. Evidently he had missed me and was searching.

35:51A single glance at the vessel's deck assured me that the battle was over, and that we had been victorious, for I saw our survivors holding a handful of the enemy at pistol points, while one by one the rest of the crew was coming out of the craft's interior and lining up on deck with the other prisoners. As I swam toward the submarine with the girl, knobs persistent barking attracted the attention of some of the thugs' crew, so that as soon as we reached the side there were hands to help us aboard. I asked the girl if she was hurt, but she assured me that she was none the worse for this second wedding, nor did she seem to suffer any from shock. I was to learn for myself that this slender and seemingly delicate creature possessed the heart and courage of a warrior. As we joined our own party, I found the thugs' mate, checking up our survivors. There were ten of us left, not including the girl. Our brave skipper was missing, as were eight

36:52others. There had been 19 of us in the attacking party, and we had accounted in one way and another during the battle for sixteen Germans, and had taken nine prisoners, including the commander. His lieutenant had been killed. Not a bad day's work, said Bradley, the mate when he had completed his role. Only losing the skipper, he added, was the worst. He was a fine man, a fine man. Olson, who in spite of his name, was Irish, and in spite of his not being scotch had been the thugs' engineer, were standing with Bradley and me. Yes, he agreed. It's a day's work we are after doing, but what are we going to be doing with it now we got it? We'll run her into the nearest English port, said Bradley, and then we'll all go ashore and get our VCs. He concluded laughing. Oh, you're going to run her? Query, Olson. You can't trust these Dutchmen.

37:53Bradley scratched his head. I guess you're right, he admitted, and I don't know the first thing about his sub. I do, I assured him. I know more about this particular sub than the officer who commanded her. Both men looked at me in astonishment, and then I had to explain all over again as I had explained to the girl. Bradley and Olson were delighted. Immediately I was put in command, and the first thing I did was to go below with Olson and inspect the craft thoroughly for hidden boxes and damage machinery. There were no Germans below, and everything was intact, and in ship-shaped working order. I then ordered all hands below except one man who was to act as lookout. Questioning the Germans, I found that all except the commander were willing to resume their posts and aid in bringing the vessel into an English port. I believe that they were relieved at the prospect of being detained at a comfortable English prison camp for the duration of the war

38:56after the perils and privations through which they had passed. The officer, however, assured me that he would never be a party to the capture of his vessel. There was, therefore, nothing to do but put the man in irons. As we were preparing to put this decision into force, the girl descended from the deck. It was the first time that she or the German officer had seen each other's faces since we had boarded the U-boat. I was assisting the girl down the ladder and still retained a hold upon her arm, possibly after such support was no longer necessary, when she turned and looked squarely into the face of the German. Each boy stood sudden exclamation of surprise and dismay. This, he cried and took a step toward her. The girl's eyes went wide, and slowly filled with a great horror as she shrank back. Then her slender figure stiffened to the erectness of a soldier, and with chin and air, and without a word, she turned her back upon the officer.

39:59Take him away, I directed the two men who guarded him, and put him in irons. When he had gone, the girl raised her eyes to mine. He is the German of whom I spoke, she said. He has barrened on shoe and farts. I merely incline my head. She had loved him. I wondered if, in her heart of heart, she did not love him yet. Immediately, I became insanely jealous. I hated barren, three-drick bonds, four-in-birts, with such uttered intensity that the emotion thrilled me with a species of exaltation. But I didn't have much chance to enjoy my hatred then. For almost immediately, the lookout poked his face over the hatch-way and balled down that there was smoke on the horizon, dead ahead. Immediately, I went on deck to investigate, and Bradley came with me. If she's friendly, he said, we'll speak her. If she's not, we'll sink her air-captain. Yes, Lieutenant, I replied, and it was his turn to smile.

41:01We hoisted the Union Jack, and remained on deck, asking Bradley to go below and assign to each member of the crew his duty, placing one Englishman with a pistol beside each German. Half-speed ahead, I commanded. More rapidly now, we closed the distance between ourselves and the stranger, until I could plainly see the red ensign of the British merchant Erine. My heart swelled with pride at the thought that presently admiring British tarves would be congratulating us upon our notable capture. And just about then, the merchant's steamer must have cited us, where she beared suddenly toward the north, and a moment later, dense volumes of smoke issued from her funnels. Then, staring at zig-zag course, she fled from us as though we had been the bubonic plague. I altered the course of the submarine and set off in chase, but the steamer was faster than we, and soon left us hopelessly astern. With a roofful smile, I directed that our

42:03original course be resumed, and once again we set off toward Mary England. That was three months ago, and we haven't arrived yet, nor is there any likelihood that we ever shall. The steamer we had just cited must have wirelessed a warning for it wasn't half an hour before we saw more smoke on the horizon, and this time the vessel flew the white ensign of the royal navy and carried guns. She didn't veer to the north, or anywhere else, but bore down on us rapidly. I was just preparing to signal her when a flame flashed from her bow, and an instant later the water in front of us was thrown high by the explosion of a shell. Bradley had come on deck, and was standing beside me. About one more of those, and she'll have our range, he said, she doesn't seem to take much stock in our union jock. A second shell passed over us, and then I gave the command to change our direction,

43:03at the same time directing Bradley to go below and give the order to submerge. I passed knobs down to him, and following saw to the closing and fastening of the hatch. It seemed to me that the diving tanks never had filled so slowly. We heard a loud explosion apparently directly above us, the craft trembled to the shock which threw us all to the deck. I expected momentarily to feel the deluge of in-rushing water, but none came. Instead we continued to submerge until the manometer registered forty feet, and then I knew that we were safe. Safe? I almost smiled. I had relieved Olson, who had remained in the tower at my direction, having been a member of one of the early British submarine crews, and therefore having some knowledge of the business. Bradley was at my side. He looked at me quizzically. What the devil are we to do, he asked? The merchant-man will flee us. The war vessel will destroy us.

44:04Neither will believe our colors or give us a chance to explain. We will meet even a worse reception if we go nosing around a British port, mines, nets, and all of it. We can't do it. Let's try it again when this fellow has lost the scent, hired. There must come a ship that will believe us. And try it again we did, only to be almost rammed by a huge freighter. Later we were fired upon by a destroyer, and two merchant-man turned and fled at our approach. For two days we cruised up and down the channel, trying to tell someone who would listen that we were friends, but no one would listen. After our encounter with the first warship I had given instructions that a wireless message be sent out explaining our predicament. But to my chagrin I discovered that both sending and receiving instruments had disappeared. Tell me it's only one place you can go, von Schuhenberg sent word to me, and that is gear. You can't land anywhere else in these waters.

45:09If you wish I will take you there, and I can promise that you will be treated well. There is another place we can go I sent back my reply, and we will before we'll go to Germany. That place is hell. End of chapter 2 Chapter 3 of the land that time forgot This is a Libravox recording. All Libravox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit Libravox.org. Recording by Ralph Snellson. The land that time forgot by Edgar Rice Burles. Chapter 3 Those were anxious days during which I had but little opportunity to associate with this. I had given her the commander's room, Bradley and I taking that of the deck officer,

46:09while Olson and two of our best men occupied the room ordinarily allotted to petty officers. I made knobs bed down in Liss's room for I knew she would feel less alone. Nothing of much moment occurred for a while after we left British waters behind us, we ran steadily along upon the service making good time. The first two boats recited made off as fast as they could go, and the third a huge freighter fired on us, forcing us to submerge. It was after this that our troubles commenced. One of the diesel engines broke down in the morning, and while we were working on it the forward port diving tank commenced to fill. I was on deck at the time and noted the gradual list, guessing at once what was happening I leaped for the hatch and slamming it closed above my head dropped to the central. By this time the craft was going down by the head with a most unpleasant list to port, and I didn't wait to transmit orders to someone else, but ran as fast as I could for the valve

47:13that let the sea into the forward port diving tank. It was wide open to close it and to have the pump started that would empty up where the work of but a minute, but we had had a close call. I knew that the valve had never opened itself. Someone had opened it. Someone who was willing to die himself if he might at the same time encompass the death of all of us. After that I kept a guard basing the length of the narrow craft. We worked upon the engine all that day and night and half the following day. Most of the time we drifted idly upon the surface, but toward noon we sighted smoke, due west, and having found that only enemies inhabited the world for us, I ordered that the other engine be started so that we could move out of the path of the oncoming steamer. The moment the engine started to turn, however there was a grinding sound of tortured steel, and when it had been stopped we found that someone had placed a cold chisel in one of the gears. It was another two days before we were ready to limp a long half

48:19repaired. The night before the repairs were completed, the sentry came to my room and awoke me. He was rather an intelligent fellow of the English middle class in whom I had much confidence. Well, Wilson, I asked, what's the matter now? He raised his finger to his lips and came closer to me. I think I found out who's doing the mischief. He whispered, and nodded his head toward the girl's room. I've seen her sneaking from the crew's room just now. He went on. She'd been in gassing with the bush commander, Benson's seen her in there last night, too, but he never said nothing till I goes on once tonight. Benson's sort of slow in the head, and he never puts two and two together till someone else has made four of it. If the man had come in and struck me suddenly in the face, I could have been no more surprised. Say nothing of this to anyone, I ordered, keep your eyes and ears open, and report every suspicious thing you see or hear.

49:22The man saluted and left me, but for an hour or more I tossed restless upon my hard bunk in an agony of jealousy and fear. Finally I fell into a troubled sleep. It was daylight when I awoke. We were steaming along slowly upon the surface. My orders having been to proceed at half speed until we could take an observation and determine our position. The sky had been overcast all the previous day and all night, but as I stepped into the sin-trail that morning I was delighted to see that the sun was again shining. The spirits of the man seemed improved. Everything seemed propitious. I forgot it once, the cruel misgivings of the past night, as I set to work to take my observations. What a blow awaited me! The sextant and chronometer had both been broken beyond repair, and they had been broken just this very night. They had been broken upon the night that lists had been seen talking with von Schuendorz. I think that it was this last thought which hurt

50:26me the worst. I could look the other disaster in the face with equanimity, but the bald fact that lists might be a traitor appalled me. I called Bradley and Olson on deck and told them what had happened, but for the life of me I couldn't bring myself to repeat what Wilson had reported to me the previous night. In fact, as I had given the matter thought, it seemed incredible that the girl could have passed through my room, in which Bradley and I slept, and then carried on a conversation in the cruise room, in which von Schuendorz was kept without having been seen by more than a single man. Bradley shook his head. I can't make it out, he said. One of those bushes must be pretty clever to come at over us all like this. What they haven't harmed us as much as they think. There are still the extra instruments. It was my turn now to shake a doleful head. There are no extra instruments. I told them. They too have disappeared as did the wireless apparatus.

51:30Both men looked at me in amazement. We still have the compass and the sun, said Olson. They may be after getting the compass some night, but there's too many of us around in the daytime for them to get the sound. It was them that one of the men stuck his head up through the hatchway and seeing me ask permission to come on deck and get a breath of fresh air. I recognized him as Benson, the man who Wilson had said reported having seen lists with von Schuendorz two nights before. I motioned him on deck and then called him to one side, asking if he had seen anything out of the way or unusual during his trick-on-watch the night before. The fellow scratch he's had a moment and said no, and then as though it was an afterthought he told me that he had seen the girl in the cruise room about midnight talking with the German commander. But as there hadn't seemed him to be any harm in that, he hadn't said anything about it. Telling him never to fail to report to me anything in the slightest out of the ordinary routine of the ship, I dismissed him.

52:35Several of the other men now asked permission to come on deck, and soon all but those actually engaged in some necessary duty were standing around smoking and talking, all in the best of spirits. I took advantage of the absence of the man upon the deck to go below for my breakfast, which the court was already preparing upon the electric stole. Less followed by knobs appeared as I entered this in trail. She met me with a pleasant good morning, which I am afraid I replied to in a tone that was rather constrained and surly. Would you breakfast with me? I suddenly asked the girl, determined to commence a probe of my own along the lines which duty demanded. She nodded a sweet acceptance of my invitation, and together we sat down at the little table of the officer's mess. You slept well last night, I asked. All night, she replied, I am a splendid sleeper. Her manner was so straightforward and honest that I could not bring myself to believe in her duplicity.

53:38Yet, thinking to surprise her into a betrayal of her guilt, I blurted out. The chronometer and sextant were both destroyed last night. There is a traitor among us, but she never turned a hair by way of evidencing guilty knowledge of the catastrophe. Who could it have been, she cried? The Germans would be crazy to do it, for their lives are as much at stake as ours. Man are often glad to die for an ideal, an ideal of patriotism perhaps, I replied, and a willingness to martyr themselves includes a willingness to sacrifice others, even those who love them. Women are much the same except that they will go even further than most men. They will sacrifice everything, even honor, for love. I watched her face carefully, as I spoke, and I thought that I detected a very faint flash mounting her cheek. Seeing an opening and an advantage, I sought to follow it up. Take von Schuheunberg's, for instance, I continued. He would doubtless be glad to die and take

54:42us all with him, could he prevent in no other way the falling of his vessel into enemy hands? He would sacrifice anyone, even you, and if you still love him, you might be his ready tool. Do you understand me? She looked at me and why died consternation for a moment, and then she went very white, and rose from her seat. I do, she replied, and turning her back upon me, she walked quickly toward her room. I started to follow, for even believing what I did, I was sorry that I had hurt her. I reached the door to the cruise room just behind her, and in time to see von Schuheunberg's lean forward and whisper something to her as she passed. But she must have guessed that she might be watched for she passed on. That afternoon it clouded over. The wind mounted to a gale, and the sea rose until the craft was wallowing and rolling frightfully. Nearly everyone aboard was sick. The air became foul and oppressive. For twenty-four hours I did not leave my post in the conning tower,

55:46as both Oltsin and Bradley were sick. Finally I found that I must get a little rest, and so I looked about for someone to relieve me. Benson volunteered. He had not been sick, and assured me that he was a former RN man, and had been detailed for submarine duty for over two years. I was glad that it was he, for I had considerable confidence in his loyalty, and so it was with a feeling of security that I went below and lay down. I slept twelve hours straight, and when I awoke and discovered what I had done, I lost no time in getting to the conning tower. There sat Benson as wide awake as could be, and the compass showed that we were heading straight into the west. The storm was still raging, or did it abate its fury until the fourth day. We were all pretty well done up and looked forward to the time when we could go on deck and fill our lungs with fresh air. During the whole four days I had not seen the girl, as she evidently kept closely to her room, and during this time no untoward incident had occurred aboard

56:52the boat, a fact which seemed to strengthen the web of circumstantial evidence about her. For six more days after the storm lesson, we still had fairly rough weather, nor did the sun once show himself during all that time. For the season, it was now the middle of June, the storm was unusual, but being from southern California, I was accustomed to unusual weather. In fact, I have discovered that the world over unusual weather prevails at all times of the year. We kept steadily to our westward course, and as the U-33 was one of the fastest submersibles we had ever turned out, I knew that we must be pretty close to the North American cause. What puzzled me most was the fact that for six days we had not cited a single ship. It seemed remarkable that we could cross the Atlantic almost to the coast of the American continent without glimpsing smoke or sail, and at last I came to the conclusion that we were way off our

57:55course, but whether to the North or to the south of it I could not determine. On the seventh day, the sea lay comparatively calm at early dawn. There was a slight haze upon the ocean, which had cut off our view of the stars, but conditions all pointed toward a clear moral, and I was on deck anxiously awaiting the rising of the sun. My eyes were glued upon the impenetrable mist to stern, for there in the east I should see the first glow of the rising sun that would assure me we were still upon the right course. Gradually the heavens lightened, but a stern I could see no intense or glow that would indicate the rising sun behind the mist, Bradley was standing at my side. Presently he touched my arm. Look, Coctin, he said, and pointed south. I looked and gasped, for there directly to port I saw outline through the haze the red top of the rising sun. Herring to the tower I looked at the

58:55compass, it showed that we were holding steadily upon our westward course, either the sun was rising in the south, or the compass had been tampered with. The conclusion was obvious. I went back to Bradley and told him what I had discovered, and I concluded we can't make another 500 knots without oil. Our provisions are running low, and so is our water. God only knows how far south we have run. There is nothing to do, he replied, other than to alter our course once more toward the west. We must raise land soon, or we shall all be lost. I told him to do so, and then I set to work improvising a crude sextant with which we finally took our bearings in a rough and most unsatisfactory manner, for when the work was done we did not know how far from the truth the result might be. It showed us to be about twenty minutes north and thirty minutes west, nearly twenty five hundred miles off our course. In short, if our reading was anywhere near correct, we must have

1:00:01been traveling do south for six days. Bradley now relieved Benson, for we had arranged our shifts so that the latter, and Olson, now divided the knights, while Bradley and I alternated with one another during the days. I questioned both Olson and Benson closely in the matter of the compass, but each stoutly maintained that no one had tampered with it during his tour of duty. Benson gave me a annoying smile, as much as to say, well, you and I know who did this, yet I could not believe that it was the girl. We kept to our westerly course for several hours, when the lookouts cry announced a sale. I ordered the U-33s course altered, and we bore down upon the stranger, for I had come to a decision which was the result of necessity. We could not lie there in the middle of the Atlantic and starve to death if there was any way out of it. The sailing ship saw us while we were still, along the way off, as was evidenced by her efforts to escape.

1:01:03There was scarcely any wind, however, and her case was hopeless, so when we drew near and signaled her to stop, she came into the wind and lay there with her sails flapping idly. We moved in quite close to her. She was the ballman of Homestad Sweden, with a general cargo from Brazil for Spain. I explained our circumstances to our skipper, and asked for food, water, and oil. But when he found that we were not German, he became very angry and abusive, and started to draw away from us. But I was in no mood for any such business. Turning toward Bradley, who was in the conning tower, I snapped out, gun service on deck, to the diving stations. We had no opportunity for drill, but every man had been posted as to his duties, and the German members of the crew understood that it was obedience or death for them, as each was accompanied by a man with a pistol. Most of them though were only too glad to obey me. Bradley passed the order down into the ship, and a moment later, the gun crew clamored up the

1:02:07narrow ladder, and at my direction trained their peace upon the slow-moving Swede. Fire is shot across her bow, I instructed the gun captain. Accept it from me, it didn't take that Swede long to see the error of his way, and get the red and white penance signifying, I understand to the mast-ed. Once again, the sails flat tidily, and then I ordered him to lure a bolt and come after me. With Olson and a couple of Englishman, I boarded the ship, and from her cargo selected what we needed. Oil, provisions, and water. I gave the master of the ballman a receipt for what we took, together with an affidavit signed by Bradley Olson and I myself, stating briefly how we had come into possession of the U-33, and the urgency of our need for what we took. We addressed both to any British agent with the request that the owners of the ballman be reimbursed, but whether or not they were, I do not know. Note, late in July 1916, an item in the shipping news mentioned a

1:03:12Swedish-sating vessel, ballman, raided Genera, to Barcelona, sunk by a German raider sometime in June. A single survivor in an open bolt was picked up off the Cape Verdi Islands in a dying condition. He expired without giving any details. With water, food, and oil aboard, we felt that we had obtained a new lease of life. Now, too, we knew definitely where we were, and I determined to make for Georgetown, British Genera, but I was destined to again suffer bitter disappointment. Six of us of the loyal crew had come on deck either to serve the gun, or board the Swede during our set-two with her, and now, one by one, we descended the ladder into the central. I was the last to come, and when I reached the bottom, I found myself looking into the muzzle of a pistol in the hands of Baron Friedrich Bonn-Jürgenbords. I saw all my men lined up at one side with the remaining eight Germans standing guard over them. I couldn't imagine how it had happened,

1:04:17but it had. Later, I learned that they had first overpowered Benson, who was asleep in his bunk, and taken his pistol from him, and then had found it an easy matter to disarm the cook and the remaining two Englishmen below. After that, it had been comparatively simple to stand at the foot of the ladder, and arrest each individual as he descended. The first thing Bonn-Jürgenbords did was to send for me, and announce that, as a pirate, I was to be shot early the next morning. Then he explained that the U-33 would cruise in these waters for a tie, sinking neutral, and enemy shipping indiscriminately, and looking for one of the German raiders that was supposed to be in these parts. He didn't shoot me the next morning as he had promised, and it has never been clear to me why he postponed the execution of my sentence. Instead, he kept me iron just as he had been. Then he kicked Bradley out of my room and took it all to himself. We cruised for a

1:05:18long time, sinking many vessels, all but one by gunfire, but we did not come across a German raider. I was surprised to note that Bonn-Jürgenbords often permitted Benson to take command, but I reconciled this by the fact that Benson appeared to know more of the duties of a submarine than did any of the Stuart Germans. Once or twice lists past me, but for the most part she kept to her room. The first time she hesitated does though she wished to speak to me, but I did not raise my head, and finally she passed on. Then one day came the word that we were about to round the horn, and that Bonn-Jürgenbords had taken it into his full head to cruise up along the Pacific coast of North America, and prey upon all sorts and conditions of merchant-man. I had put the fiat of God into Kaiser into them, he said. The very first day we entered the South Pacific we had an adventure. It turned out to be quite the most exciting adventure I had ever encountered.

1:06:22It fell about this way. About eight bells of the forenoon watch I heard a hail from the deck, and presently the footsteps of the entire ship's company from the mount of noise I heard at the ladder. Someone yelled back to those who had not yet reached the level of the deck. It's the raider, the German raider, Gire. I saw that we had reached the end of our rope. Below all was quiet, not a man remained. A door opened at the end of the narrow hull, and presently knobs came trotting up to me. He licked my face and rolled over on his back, reaching for me with his big awkward pause. Then other footsteps sounded, approaching me. I knew who they were, and I looked straight down at the flooring. The girl was coming almost at a run. She was at my side immediately. Here she cried, quick, and she slipped something into my hand. It was a key, the key to my irons. At my side she also laid a pistol, and then she went on into the central. As she passed me,

1:07:25I saw that she carried another pistol for herself. It did not take me long to liberate myself, and then I was at her side. How can I thank you, I started, but she shut me up with a word. Do not thank me, she said, Goldie. I do not care to hear your thanks, or any other expression from you. Do not stand there looking at me. I have given you a chance to do something. Now do it. The last was a preemptory command that made me jump. Glancing up, I saw that the tower was empty, and I lost no time in clamoring up, looking about me. About a hundred yards off lay a small swift cruiser raider, and above her floated the German man of war's flag. A boat had just been lowered, and I could see it moving toward us, filled with officers and men. The cruiser lay dead ahead. My, I thought, what a wonderful tarp. I stopped even thinking, so surprised, and shocked, was I, by the boldness of my imagery. The girl was just below me. I looked down on her

1:08:29wistfully. Could I trust her? Why would she release me at this moment? I must. I must. There was no other way. I dropped back below. Ask Oltsin to step down here, please, I request it, and don't let anyone see you ask him. She looked at me with a puzzled expression on her face, for the bear abstraction was second, and then she turned and went up blatter. A moment later, Oltsin returned, and the girl followed him. Quick, I whispered to the big Irishman, and made for the bow compartment where the torpedo tubes are built into the boat. Here, too, were the torpedoes. The girl accompanied us, and when she saw the thing I had in mind, she stepped forward and led a hand to the swinging of the great cylinder of death and destruction into the mouth of its tube. With oil and main strength we shoved the torpedo home and shut the tube. Then I ran back to the conning tower, praying in my heart of hearts that the U-33 had not swung her bow away from the prey.

1:09:31No, thank God. Never could aim have been through her. I signaled back to Oltsin. Let her go, the U-33 trembled from stem to stern as the torpedoes shot from its tube. I saw the white wake leap from her bow straight toward the enemy cruiser. A chorus of horsey elves arose from the deck of our own craft. I saw the officer stand suddenly erect in the boat that was approaching us, and I heard loud cries and curses from the raider. Then I turned my attention to my own business. Most of the men on the submarine's deck were standing in paralyzed fascination, staring at the torpedo. Bradley happened to be looking toward the conning tower in Somie. I sprang on deck and ran toward him. QUICK! I whispered, while they are stunned, we must overcome them. A German was standing near Bradley just in front of him. The Englishman struck the fellow a frantic blow up on the neck, and at the same time snatched his pistol from its holster. Bunchu and Bortz had recovered from his first surprise quickly, and had turned toward the main hatch

1:10:36to investigate. I covered him with my revolver, and at the same instant the torpedo struck the raider, the terrific explosion drowning the Germans command to his man. Bradley was now running from one to another of our man, and though some of the Germans saw and heard him, they seemed too stunned for action. Olsen was below, so that there were only nine of us against eight Germans, for the man Bradley had struck still lay upon the deck. Only two of us were armed, but the hearts seemed to have gone out of the bushes, and they put up but half-hearted resistance. Bunchu and Bortz was the worst. He was fairly frenzied with rage and chagrin, and he came charging for me like a mad bull, and as he came he discharged his pistol. If he'd stopped long enough to take aim, he might have gotten me, but his pace made him wild, so that not a shot touched me, and then we clinched and went to the deck. This left two pistols, which two of my men were quick to appropriate. The Baron was no match for me and a hand-hand

1:11:40encounter, and I soon had him pinned to the deck, and the life almost choked out of him. A half-hour later things had quieted down, and all was much the same as before the prisoners had revolted. Only we kept a much closer watch on von Schuhenbortz. The gire had sunk while we were still baffling upon our deck, and afterward we had drawn away toward the north, leaving the survivors to the attention of the single boat, which had been making its way toward us, when Oltsin launched the torpedo. I suppose the poor devils never reached land, and if they did, they most probably perished on that cold and unhospitable shore, but I couldn't permit them aboard the U-33. We had all the Germans we could take care of. That evening the girl asked permission to go on deck. She said that she felt the effects of long confinement below, and I readily granted her request. I could not understand her, and I craved an opportunity to talk with her again in an

1:12:42effort to fathom her, and her intentions, and so I made it a point to follow her up the ladder. It was a clear, cold, beautiful night. The sea was calm except for the white water at our bow, and the two long radiating swells running far off into the distance upon either hand a stern, forming a great V, which our propellers filled with choppy waves. Benson was in the tower. We were bound for San Diego, and all looked well. Less stood with a heavy blanket wrapped around her slender figure, and as I approached her she half turned toward me to see who it was. When she recognized me she immediately turned away. I want to thank you, I said, for your bravery and loyalty, you were magnificent. I am sorry that you had reason before to think that I doubted you. You did doubt me, she replied, in a level, voice. You practically accused me of aiding Baron Bonshuonvorks. I can never forgive you. There was a great deal of finality in both her

1:13:46words and tone. I could not believe it, I said, and yet two of my men reported having seen you in conversation with Bonshuonvorks late at night upon two separate occasions. After each of which some great damage was found on us in the morning, I didn't want to doubt you, but I carried all the responsibility of the lies of these men, of the safety of the ship, of your life and mine. I had to watch you, and I had to put you on your guard against a repetition of your madness. She was looking at me now with those great eyes of her very wide and round. Who told you that I spoke with Baron Bonshuonvorks at night, or any other time, she asked? I cannot tell you this. I replied, but it came to me from two different sources. Then two men have lied, she asserted, without heed. I have not spoken to Baron Bonshuonvorks other than in your presence when first we came aboard the U-33, and please, when you address me,

1:14:49remember that to others than my intimates, I am Miss LaRue. Did you ever get slapped in the face when you least expected it? No, well then you do not know how I felt at that moment. I could feel the hot red flesh surging up my neck across my cheeks over my ears, clear to my scalp, and it made me love her all the more. It made me swear inwardly a thousand solimals that I would win her. End of chapter three. Ugh, I barely got any sleep last night. What? Why? I spent hours fighting with AI, all because I was trying to make a website. It started out okay, but then I got stuck just trying to change one button. Okay, okay, relax. Just try Wix Harmony. What's that? It's Wix's new website builder. Let's you switch back and forth between AI tools and hands-on editing anytime. So I'm not just prompting and praying. Nope, just try it for free at Wix.com

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