The Moon Pool

! All

n the side of his berth as I ent

What are you flying from, man?

dead. Edith, Stanton, Thora-dead-or worse. And Edith in the Moon Pool-with them-dr

d open h

white as pearl. This whiteness was sharply defined against the healthy ti

ssed the glowing end of the cigarette into the ribbon of white flesh. He did not flinch nor wa

placed my fingers upon the band

is shirt

lieve my story. Goodwin, I tell you again that my wife is dead-or worse-I

d down the

ake my Edith?" he cried in utter bitterness. "Are t

sita

there?" His wild

at last through my astonishment to make answer. "If

e aside im

Or against the science of whatever devils that made i

ort he rega

galithic cities and harbours of Ponape and Lele, of Kusaie, of Ruk and Hogolu, and a sco

photographs," I said. "They call it, don

on, "is Christian's chart of Metalanim harbour and the

," I

lights that raise the Dweller in the Pool, and the altar and shrine of the

Moon Pool?" I repeat

aw," said Throck

Throckmartin drew another deep breath of relief, and drawing aside a curtain peered out into the

heir intersecting canals and lagoons about twelve square miles. Who built them? None knows. When were they built? Ages befor

ter-front is faced with a terrace of those basalt blocks which stand out six feet above the shallow canals that meander between them. On the islets behind these walls ar

m harbour for three miles and look down upon the tops of similar

their enigmatic walls peering through the dense growths of mangroves

ava, in Papua, and in the Ladrones had set my mind upon this Pacific lost land. Just as the Azores are believed to be the last high peaks of Atlantis, so hints came to me steadily that Ponape and Lele and their basalt bulwarked islets

ese ruins I might find th

rk. After the honeymoon we prepared for the expedition. Stanton was as enthusia

er my force. Their beliefs are gloomy, these Ponapeans. They people their swamps, their forests, their mountains, and shores, with malignant

, at last, were tempted made what I thought then merely a superstitious proviso that they were to be a

that are called Nan-Tauach, the 'place of frowning walls.' And at the silence of my men I recalled what Christian had written of this place; of how he had come upon its 'ancient platforms and tetragonal enclosures of stonework; its wonder of tortuous alleyways and

ent for a

soon gave up that idea. The natives were panic-stricken-threatened to turn back

, but far enough away from it to satisfy our men. There was an excellent camping-place and a sp

ungen Gesellschaft Erdkunde Berlin, xxvii (1901); J. S. Kubary, Ethnographische Beitrage zur Kentniss des Karolin