The Land That Time Forgot

f June 3rd, 1916. It seems incredible that all that I have passed through-all those weird and te

ortal eye had seen before, glimpses of a world past, a world dead, a world so long dead that even in the lowest Cambrian stratum no trace of it remains. Fused with the melting inner

vice 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 f

story has nothing to do with Greenland, nothing to do with me; so I

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. Were one to bump into a Bengal tiger in the ravine behind the Bimini Baths, one could be no more surprised than was I to see a perfectly good quart thermos bottle

f, you will want to read the rest of it; so I shall give it to you here, omitting q

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 Curtiss, and after a long siege with my father obtained his permissi

ce 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 morrow w

also, and over the ship's side, I saw not two hundred yards distant the periscope of a submarine, while racing toward the liner the wake of a torpedo was dis

ed as though the sea beneath it had been uptorn by a mighty volcano. We were thrown to the decks, bruised and stunned, and then above t

e wounded, the cursing of the men and the hoarse commands of the ship's officers. They were splendid-they and their crew. Never before had I been so proud of my nationality as I

p 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

o a rivet. I had superintended her construction. I had sat in that very conning-tower and directed the efforts of the sweating crew below when first her

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 mom

ossible angle. Nobs braced himself with all four feet to keep from slipping into the scu

When I came up, the first thing I saw was Nobs swimming about in a bewildered sort of way a fe

survivors. Fortunately the small boats presented a rather poor target, which, combined with the bad marksmanship of the Germans preserved th

nk. 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 muffle

p down upon its keel with a mighty splash. It must have been carried far below, held to its mother ship 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 beneficent circumstance to which I doubtless owe my life, and that of another far dearer to me than my own. I s

he green pit of destruction to which it had been dragged-sent it far up above the surface, emptying

countenances composed and peaceful; others were set in hideous lines of 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 hu

d toward me in a mute appeal for succor. She lived! She was not dead! I leaned over the boat's side and drew her quickly in to the comparative safety which God had given me. I removed her life-belt and my so

e 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;

y and stumbling over the next

gain her lips drooped, and her long lashes

feeling better," I fi

fear that I should see nothing but blackness about me. I am afraid to die! Tell me what happened after the ship went down. I remember all that happened before-oh, but I wish

ress 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 noth

ed 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

fond of do

f this dog,"

at reply I did not know; but I took it as

acquainted. Constantly we scanned the horizon for signs of smoke, venturing guesses as to our chances of res

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 down low in the bottom of the boat, where the sides would protect her from the night

d. "You can't lie there chilled through

ust grin and bear it," sh

een 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 the cooling lifeblood in her veins. I was cold myself, though I had almost forgotten it until Nobbler 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

ing a little cry of fright,

ommand for furnishing warmth." And I held her tightly while I called Nobs and bade him lie down at her back. The girl didn't struggle any more when