The Lost Warship Read online

  CHAPTER VII

  The Attack

  At dusk a drum began to boom in the temple of the Ogrum. The sun wasjust on the edge of the horizon. It hung in the sky as if it hesitatedto take the plunge below the rim of the world. Crouched hidden on themountainside as near the city as he dared take his men, Craig could seethe Ogrum, at the signal of the drum, start hurrying toward the templeas if they were eagerly anticipating the hellish sacrifice soon to takeplace.

  To one side, beyond the notch in the mountains, was the swamp where thedinosaurs fed. Already the sound of the great beasts fighting andscreaming could be heard.

  All day long the Americans had remained in hiding near the city.Fortunately none of the Ogrum had ventured to climb the mountain. Craighad spent the day mercilessly rehearsing his men in the part they wereto play until they were perfect in their parts, or as perfect as theycould become in the short time available. The whole plan of attackdepended on split-second timing. If everything worked right, ifeverybody did his job at the proper time, there was a chance that theattack would be successful. If anything went wrong--Craig preferred notto think about that. Around him, he could feel a tenseness creep overhis men as the zero hour approached.

  The Ogrum, as if driven by the quickening beat of the drum, disappearedwithin the temple.

  The sun, making up its mind at last, plunged below the line of the sky.

  Zero hour!

  Craig could not see them but he knew that men had leaped from hiding andwere running toward the projecting wing of the temple that formed theplane hangar. His fingers gripped the stock of the tommy-gun so tightlythe knuckles showed white. They had to get that hangar, first. Theplanes had to be destroyed. Several times during the day he had seenplanes take off. All had returned by night.

  The vultures were in their nest.

  Boom, boom-boom, BOOM, boom.

  Craig almost sobbed at the sound. Grenades exploding! Grenades flunginto the hangar by the attacking group. Grenades blasting among themystery planes of the Ogrum!

  Boom, boom, boom-boom-boom! Grenades exploding like a chain of giantfirecrackers. In the hot darkness Craig caught glimpses of flashes oflight as the grenades detonated.

  Boom, boom, boom, boom-boom!

  The flat sullen thuds echoed up the side of the mountain. From thedarkness where the sailors crouched a low cheer arose. The men there inthe night knew the meaning of those explosions.

  Craig held his breath, waiting. The attack was on. Now, no matter whathappened, it was too late to withdraw. Now it was kill or be killed,fight or be struck down, destroy or be destroyed. With the knowledge ofthe savage sacrifice about to take place within the temple, there was noquestion of the urge of the men to destroy. The Ogrum were beyond themeaning of mercy. Blast them, mow them down, kill them, destroy themutterly!

  Craig waited. Tommy-guns chattered in the darkness. Grenades thundered.Then he saw what he had been waiting for. A tongue of flame licked outof the hangar.

  Fire in the nest of the vultures!

  The flames grew in violence.

  "Withdraw!" Craig said huskily. "Get back. Draw them away with you."

  He was talking to himself. The men attacking the hangar could not hearhim. Their retreat was the next phase of the attack. Retreat and drawthe Ogrum after them.

  * * * * *

  They began to retreat. Flames were roaring from the hangar. It wasconstructed of stone and the walls would not burn. Leaping tongues offire poured out of the open door.

  For a few minutes after the attack began, the drum-beat continued fromthe temple. The instant the first explosion had sounded, the drum-beathad faltered. Then it had caught itself and continued. But the continuedexplosions were unsteadying the hand of the drummer.

  The drum stopped beating. The Ogrum poured from the temple. The moon hadnot yet risen. The burning hangar provided the only illumination. By itslight, Craig could see streams of startled beast-men rushing from everyentrance.

  For a few minutes, they milled in confusion. Something had happened thatwas not on their schedule. They did not in the least understand theexplosions they had heard and they could not grasp what had happened totheir hangar.

  Eventually they seemed to understand that they had been attacked andthat the enemy was retreating. Stabbing flashes of fire from thesub-machine guns showed where the enemy was retreating.

  Angry Ogrum charged the enemy.

  Simultaneously, across the city, puffs of light began to appear. Spotsof dancing illumination leaped from thatched hut to thatched hut,leaving behind them bright knots of light.

  The knots of light grew. They spread. The spots of dancing illuminationran on ahead of them, leaving new knots of light.

  On the far side of the city the sky grew bright.

  Masses of Ogrum, bewildered by this new spectacle, paused in confusion.Their city was on fire. They did not understand it. They began to hurrytoward the fire.

  "Phases one and two of the attack are now complete," Craig said to hiswaiting men. "The third phase begins. Come on. It's our turn now."

  The attack on the hangar, the subsequent retreat, and the firing of thecity had been carried out perfectly. On the far side of the city thetorch squad was still firing the thatched huts. This squad was beginningto withdraw also, pulling the Ogrum after them.

  "The attack is a success!" Craig thought exultantly. "We've burned theirplanes and set their city on fire. Before they know what has happened,we will have rescued the prisoners. We've won!" The thought was burningin his mind. "We've won! Stinky and Margy and the lads from the Idahowill be free again!"

  With him at their head, the sailors formed a wedge that drove straightat that part of the temple where the prisoners were held. To effect arescue, they would have to enter the heart of the big building.

  The old Roman phalanx, that fearsome mass of men that struck such terrorto the hearts of the barbarians, must have looked something like thewedge of men that drove through the Ogrum city. The Romans were armedwith spears, swords and shields whereas the sailors carried tommy-gunsand grenades, but the effect was the same--a hard-driving body of menthat stops at nothing.

  The Ogrum were not expecting this charge. They were busy trying to putout the fires raging in their city. Meeting no organized opposition ofany kind, and smashing down the Ogrum who accidentally got in their way,the sailors drove straight to the temple--and into it! Like a perfectlytrained team executing a long-practiced maneuver, a strong rear guardslipped into place at the entrance. Craig, driving into the temple, wasnot going to leave his rear unprotected, to leave his line of retreatopen to the chance of being cut.

  * * * * *

  In the vast arena there was a handful of yellow-clad guards surroundingthe pool of boiling lava. All the other Ogrum had left the temple.

  "Blast them!" Craig grimly ordered.

  Machine guns thundered in what was probably the first temple of the sunever built on earth! Hot lead screamed down at the guards around thelava pool. When the sailors saw the human, bound, ready to be offered asa living sacrifice to the hideous white beast that was always hungry,the priests of the temple lost what little chance they ever had of beingtaken alive.

  The sacrifice had been prepared. The sailors had arrived at the lastpossible moment.

  Two minutes after the sailors had entered the temple, there was not ayellow-clad priest left alive in the vast open arena in the center ofthe building. Craig was knocking bars from the cage where the prisonerswere penned. Captain Stinky Higgins was standing behind those bars.Margy Sharp was standing beside the captain. Higgins had a strange lookon his face.

  "By the Lord, Craig--" was all he said when the bars went down. Craigfelt his knuckles pop as the captain shook his hand.

  The girl's face was paste white but she had her nerves under control."Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" she said, looking at Craig. Then, assilently as a falling shadow, she collapsed.

  "No, no, she's all rig
ht," Higgins said, in answer to Craig's franticquestions. "She has only fainted. She--all of us--have been throughhell. Those damned beasts came in here and grabbed one of the men. Wewatched them--get ready to toss him into that pool of lava. Craig, howdid you get here?"

  Captain Higgins was dazed. Behind him the captives were pouring out oftheir prison cell.

  "No time to talk," Craig said hastily. "We've got to get the hell out ofhere. Each of us brought an extra gun and as many grenades as we couldcarry. We'll have to fight our way back to the mountains--"

  Already the sailors were tossing guns to their comrades who had beenheld prisoner. The look on the men's faces as they eagerly grabbed theweapons boded no good for any Ogrum who tried to stop them fromescaping. Meanwhile Craig and Higgins revived Margy Sharp. The man whohad been prepared for the Ogrum sacrifice was released.

  "Everybody out!" Craig yelled.

  In a long line the sailors trotted toward the passage through the templethat led to the exit. Once outside, they would reform their phalanx andfight their way through any opposition that might develop. No sound hadcome from the rear-guard they had left at the exit, proving that theOgrum had not yet discovered that their prisoners had been released.

  "We've won!" Craig said huskily. "We've tricked those devils and beatenthem to the punch."

  "You've worked a miracle," Captain Higgins said. "If we were back home,you would get a Congressional Medal for this."

  "Thanks!" the big man grinned. Then the grin vanished from his face."What's that?" he said sharply.

  From the passage ahead of them came the metallic rattle of machine gunfire.

  "It's the rear guard at the exit!" a sailor said. "They're shooting atsomething."

  * * * * *

  Craig ordered the file to halt and he and Higgins slipped forward to theexit. Through the hole that served as a doorway came a dull glow oflight. The guard had taken refuge in the passage itself. An ensign camestumbling down the passage.

  "It's a trap!" he shouted. "The whole place is surrounded. There arethousands of Ogrum out there. They deliberately let us enter the temple,then they closed up behind us."

  "Impossible!" Craig whispered.

  "So help me, it's the truth," the ensign insisted. "They deliberatelytrapped us. They must have known all along what we were going to try.They let us try it. We're caught, like rats in a trap."

  There was no mistaking the implication of the man's words. Although hedidn't say it, his tone indicated that Craig had led them into the worstpossible booby-trap.

  The machine guns were still firing. Dimly audible from outside came achorus of shouting--the battle cries of the Ogrum. Craig slipped forwardto the entrance, looked out. His heart climbed up into his throat.

  The temple was completely surrounded. Or, as far as he could see, it wassurrounded. From the number of Ogrum he could see in front, he did notdoubt that the whole structure was circled. The Ogrum had stoppedfighting the fires. It became apparent that they had never made any realeffort to fight them but had only pretended to extinguish the blazes,meanwhile waiting for Craig to lead his group into the temple.

  It _was_ a trap.

  But how had the Ogrum been able to set such a trap? Had they known allthe time of the presence of the humans on the mountain above them? Theyhad known something. Otherwise they would not have been able to set thetrap. How had they learned of the attack? How had they known the exactway the attack would come?

  "Yah!" a voice shrilled from outside. "How do you like it now, you bigfat-head?"

  Voronoff's voice! Voronoff was out there! Craig's first dazed thoughtwas that Voronoff's presence outside, among the Ogrum, was impossible.He tried to remember when he had last seen the man. He hadn't seenVoronoff all day! Voronoff had not been a member of his group but he hadassumed the man had attached himself to some other group!

  Voronoff had not attached himself to some other group. Voronoff had comesecretly to the Ogrum. It was Voronoff who, as far as he knew them, hadrevealed the plans of the attack to the Ogrum. Voronoff was a traitor!

  "You wouldn't believe me when I said you were just getting us allkilled!" Voronoff exulted. "I wasn't going to get myself killed with youfools. I told the Ogrum what you were planning. They're going to make mea chief."

  In a flash Craig saw why phase one and phase two of the attack had goneoff so smoothly. The Ogrum had permitted the smashing of the hangar.What were a few planes? They could build more. What were a few grasshuts? They could erect a thousand others. The destruction of the planesand the burning of part of their city was a small price to pay if theycould trap all the remaining men of the Idaho.

  Craig cursed himself. He had not thought of the possibility of anyoneturning traitor. He should have thought of it. Back there in thelife-boat, while he was asleep, someone had stolen water. Voronoff wasthe only person who would have stooped to steal water when water meantlife, and the only person clever enough to accuse Craig of the crime he,himself, had committed.

  "I should have choked that dog to death!" Craig said bitterly. "I shouldhave thrown him to the sharks."

  Captain Higgins had come forward and sized up the situation. "No usecrying over spilt milk," he said to Craig. "I don't blame you for notthinking of a traitor and I think no one else will blame you. Thequestion is, what are we going to do?"

  "What do you want?" Craig shouted.

  "The Ogrum demand unconditional surrender!" the answer came. "They say,if you will surrender, that half of you will have to be offered to thegods, but that the lives of the rest will be spared. Who shall besacrificed and who shall be spared will be determined by lot. If youdon't surrender all of you will be taken prisoner and offered assacrifices. You have five minutes to meet our demands."

  * * * * *

  Voronoff's voice went into silence. Craig, tommy-gun ready, strained tosee the man. Voronoff was hidden. He was not likely to offer himself asa target.

  "What are you going to do?" Captain Higgins asked. Tactfully, sinceCraig had planned and executed the rescue attempt, Higgins was making noeffort to exert his own authority. "If I understand correctly, theyoffer half of us a chance to live, if we surrender."

  "I don't believe they will keep any promise they make," Craig saidslowly. "I think they are trying to trick us into surrendering. HoweverI might be wrong. I am willing to put it to a vote. What do you say:Shall we surrender or shall we fight?"

  The narrow passage was full of sailors who had overheard everything thathad been said. There was a moment of silence. Then a gruff voicegrowled.

  "I say fight!"

  A chorus instantly answered the first voice.

  "Fight the devils!"

  "They won't ever give us a chance if we surrender."

  "Fight our way out of here."

  Captain Higgins listened. "They're good boys," he said, a suspiciousquaver in his voice.

  "All right," Craig said. "We fight. This temple is almost a fortress. Inhere, we can hold them off indefinitely. They don't have artillery, sothey can't blast us out, and their planes have been destroyed, so theycan't bomb us. We'll hold here until we have a chance to escape."

  In the back of his mind was the thought that they _did_ have a chance toescape. After all, phase four of the attack had not yet gone intooperation. Phase four was due to start any minute now.

  "To the roof!" he ordered.

  By the time the five minutes of grace were up everybody was on the flatroof of the temple. The moon was just rising. It looked like a giganticconflagration on the horizon.

  "Time is up!" Voronoff yelled, from some place of concealment. "What didyou decide."

  "We decided you could go to hell!" Craig answered. "If you want us,you've got to come and get us."

  Hiding around the temple thousands of the Ogrum could be vaguelyglimpsed. Captain Higgins surveyed the scene. "We command all approachesto the building," he said. "If they try to charge us, it will beslaughter. We've still got a chanc
e, Craig."

  "You're damned right we have!" the big man answered.

  "Except," the captain continued thoughtfully, "for ammunition, food, andwater, we're all right."

  "If we're not out of here by the time our ammunition runs out, we'llnever escape," Craig answered. "However, we'll be out of here in anhour."

  "I hope you know what you're talking about," was Higgins' only comment.

  The Ogrum were making no attempt to attack. Craig circled the roof ofthe temple, seeing that sub-machine guns covered all approaches. A wind,moving from the direction of the swamp, brought with it the sound of thedinosaurs. The scene was like a setting from some fantastic movie--afull moon burning like a huge fire on the horizon, incredible beastsscreaming in the night, a group of embattled humans on the roof of atemple as old as time.

  "We've got them!" Craig thought. "They can't get to us and they don'tdare attack. If they wait an hour--"

  * * * * *

  In some hidden spot outside the temple something went _plunk_. The soundwas not sharp enough to be called an explosion. It was a plunk, like arock falling in a rain barrel.

  A small round object arched slowly through the air and hit on the roofof the temple. It also went _plunk_. No explosion. Just a _plunk_. Acloud of white smoke puffed out.

  "What the devil is that?" Craig thought uncertainly. "Are they throwinggrenades at us? Was the first grenade a dud?"

  He started toward the grenade. A whiff of the smoke stung his nostrils,sent a warning bell clattering wildly in his brain.

  "Gas!" he yelled. "They're throwing gas grenades at us. Stay away fromthat smoke."

  The Ogrum had attacked the Idaho with their sleeping gas! The guards inthe temple had carried sacks of what Craig had thought were ordinarygrenades. They had been gas grenades!

  _Plunk_ went the projector outside the temple. _Plunk_ went the grenadethat struck on the roof.

  _Plunk, plunk, plunk_--A shower of grenades came over. Gas swirled overthe roof of the temple.

  "Knock out those projectors!" Craig shouted. He leaped to the wall ofthe temple, began firing. All around him other guns were letting go. Upto now it had been necessary to conserve ammunition as much as possible.If the projectors were not knocked out, no amount of ammunition would dothe humans any good.

  The rattle of sub-machine guns was a continuous tumult of sound. Firesstill burned in the city and the air was becoming heavy with smoke. Allaround the temple the Ogrum were lurking. They were not venturing intothe open. Now and then they could be glimpsed darting from shelter toshelter.

  _Plunk--plunk--plunk--_

  More gas grenades hit on the roof.

  Somewhere near him Craig heard a man choke and gasp for breath.Everywhere, even above the rattle of the machine guns, he could hear mencoughing. Something stung his lungs and he coughed himself. The machinegun fire began to thin out as choking men dropped their guns. Craigfound himself firing blindly, searching for the hidden projectors. Theplunk of the gas grenades was loud in his ears.

  "Tough luck," a thin voice said near him.

  He looked around and saw Margy Sharp. The girl was holding ahandkerchief over her nose and was trying to keep from breathing. Shewas swaying.

  "I feel like I want to go to sleep," she whispered.

  The gas was getting to her. It was getting to others, too. Many of thesailors had fallen. Some of them were trying to drag themselves back tothe edge of the roof, trying to lift guns with hands that no longer hadthe strength for the task.

  "We fought a good fight," Margy Sharp whispered. "Too bad we lost."

  "We haven't lost yet," Craig gritted.

  He was lying and he knew it. His only hope was phase four of the attackplan. Unless phase four went into operation within the space of minutes,they were doomed. "What the hell has happened to Michaelson?" hethought.

  _Plunk, plunk, plunk_, went the grenades.

  Had the scientist failed? Had something happened to Michaelson?

  * * * * *

  The night was hideous with the yells of the Ogrum. Sensing victory, theywere screaming with delight. Meanwhile, all over the roof of the temple,more of the gas grenades were exploding. The wind, which had quickenedto a stiff breeze, swept much of the gas away. But not all of it. Onewhiff of it and a man lost half his efficiency. Three whiffs and he wasasleep.

  A man in an officer's uniform crawled to Craig's feet, looked up at him.It was Captain Higgins.

  "I--I guess this is it," the captain said.

  "I guess so," Craig said miserably. The gas stung his lungs again and hecoughed. Slowly, a little at a time, he could feel a deadly lassitudestealing over him. A weight was tugging at his knees, trying to forcehis legs to buckle. More than anything else in the world, he wanted tolie down and go to sleep. He fought against the impulse. From thisthreatened sleep a man would awaken all right--in the prison pen of theOgrum, there to wait his turn to become a sacrifice to the sun.

  Two or three machine guns--no more--were still firing, holding off theOgrum horde. When those guns stopped--

  The flames of the burning city danced in the night. The air was heavywith smoke. The screams of the dinosaurs were louder, as if the greatbeasts were excited by the conflagration in the city of the Ogrum. Craigwas vaguely aware that only two guns were firing. In spite of all hisefforts to resist the impulse, he sank to his knees. The grenadescontinued to plunk on the roof. Only one gun was firing. Beside him,Craig saw that Margy Sharp had gone quietly to sleep. She looked like alittle girl who is all tired out with play and has decided to lie downand take a nap.

  _Boom-boom! Boom-boom-boom!_

  Five thudding explosions came through the night. They did not come fromthe temple, or near it. They were at least half a mile away.

  The sound lifted Craig to his feet.

  "Michaelson!" he screamed. He tried to look in the direction from whichthe sound of the explosions had come. The smoke was too heavy. He couldnot see.

  "Michaelson--" his voice was a whisper. "For God's sake, hurry!"

  There was no answer. Craig waited. No more explosions came. He sank tohis knees, fighting against the impulse to sleep. He was dimly awarethat the screams of the Ogrum had died into abrupt silence. No moregrenades were plunking on the roof. He wondered if the Ogrum werepreparing to charge the temple, to strike down all who had strength leftto oppose them. He lifted himself up, looked over the edge.

  The Ogrum were no longer watching the temple. They were staring in thedirection of the explosions. They had come out into the open. He couldsee little groups of them nervously looking in the other direction.

  * * * * *

  Dimly, in the distance, he heard the beginning thunder of sound. It wassomething like the vague roar of a starting avalanche, a rumble, amutter, a dim murmur growing louder. The smoke was too thick for him tosee what was happening.

  The murmur grew in volume. It became as loud as the roar of a tornado.The Ogrum stared toward it, trying to understand what it was. They weregetting nervous, now. A few of them had started to run.

  Something came through the smoke. It came in a lumbering gallop, a hugeand terribly frightened beast. It saw the fires in front of it.Screaming it tried to turn back. The pressure of the horde behindcarried it along.

  A confused mass of dark bodies poured into the city. There were hundredsof them, thousands of them. Scared to the point of madness their onethought was how to escape. The smallest of them weighed more than twotons.

  Craig, fighting against the effect of the gas, sobbed in sudden relief.

  "Michaelson," he whispered. "You got there in time. You did it! You didit--"

  Phase four of the attack plan had come into operation. Phase four calledfor Guru and the scientist to go around the edges of the vast swamp andset it on fire. Part of the swamp foliage would not burn under anycircumstances. But great areas of dry reeds would burn like tinder.

  The dinosaurs wo
uld run from the fires. The blazes would be set so thegreat monsters would have to flee toward the city. At the proper moment,the wall the Ogrum had built to keep them from the city would be blownup.

  The dinosaurs would stampede across the city.

  Craig remembered reading of the stampede of the long-horn cattle in theearly days of the American west. Thousands of cattle, running madly,shook the earth with the thunder of their hooves, destroyed everythingthat stood in their way.

  Not cattle, but dinosaurs, were stampeding across the city of the Ogrum.

  Too late, the Ogrum saw them coming. They tried to run. The great beaststrampled them into muck. Huts, struck by the maddened animals, flew topieces. Many of them, blinded, not knowing where they were going, raninto the temple. The great building shuddered at each impact. Voronoff,caught somewhere in that wild stampede, must have known too late that hehad deserted too soon, before he knew the complete plan of attack.Either he did not know of phase four or the Ogrum had not believed himwhen he told them about it.

  The great beast trampled them into the muck]

  For hours, it seemed to Craig, the screams of the Ogrum echoed throughthe city. The screams were drowned in the earth-shaking thunder of thestampede. The herd of dinosaurs crossed the city, turned and swept alongthe edge of the bay. By the time the last of them had passed through,the only building left standing in the whole area was the temple.Everything else had been smashed flat. Smouldering fires were risingagain in the wreckage of the huts. What the dinosaurs had started, fireswould finish.

  When the last of the beasts had gone, Michaelson, his squad of sailors,and Guru came hurrying through the darkness. Guru was accompanied bydozens of his people, hastily recruited for the task of firing theswamp. Craig yelled at them.

  "Come up here and stand guard!" he shouted. "I'm going to take a nap."

  CHAPTER VIII

  The End of Adventure

  Craig stood at the rail of the ship.

  The sun was setting and the long shadows of dusk reached across theworld. Michaelson stood beside Craig. As usual, the scientist wasexcited.

  "The Ogrum presented a strange case of warped development," he said. "Doyou know what they were?"

  "Devils," Craig grunted. He was not much interested in what thescientist was saying.

  "Chemists!" Michaelson said triumphantly. "Through some freak, naturedeveloped a type of life that had the mentality to become excellentchemists but with little or no ability in any other line. The acid theyused on the Idaho, the gas they had developed, everything points to theconclusion that they were chemists. From what was left of their hangar,their planes were made of plastics--not a piece of metal in them. Eventhe ruined motors looked as though they were made of plastics. TheOgrum knew nothing of the wheel, the arch, or of architecture, yet theywere almost perfect chemists."

  The scientist sounded very pleased with himself for having made thisdiscovery. "If you had not destroyed their temple, we might have foundout more about them," he said accusingly.

  On the dawn of the next day the systematic destruction of the entirecity had been carried out. Hundreds of grenades had been planted in thetemple and it had been demolished.

  "Survival," Craig said. "We've got to live in this world and it's notbig enough to hold us and the Ogrum. Certainly I destroyed their city.Some of them probably managed to escape alive. I'm not going to leaveany rat's nest where they can get together again."

  "Well, you were right about it," the scientist said. "The only thing is,I would have liked to know more about them."

  "I know enough about them to last me a life-time," Craig said bitterly."Oh, hello." The last was spoken to the girl who had emerged from belowand had come to the rail.

  "Good evening," she answered. She said nothing more but stood at therail and stared into the gathering dusk. Craig was silent too.

  "I should have liked to know how they worked those silent plane motors,"Michaelson said.

  "Huh? What did you say?" Craig asked.

  "You weren't listening," the scientist accused. He adjusted his glassesand looked along the rail to where Margy Sharp was standing. "Ah. Isee," he said.

  "You see what?" Craig challenged, grinning.

  "I see that my presence not only is no longer necessary but is notwanted." The scientist smiled and walked away.

  * * * * *

  Dusk came down. Craig was never quite sure how it happened but somehowhe and the girl found themselves closer together. "Margy," he said,"about the water, in the life-boat--"

  "Oh, that," the girl said. "If you're worried about that, I've beentalking to Mrs. Miller. She was awake most of the night the waterdisappeared. She says she isn't certain but she thought she saw somebodycrawl forward and help himself while you were asleep."

  Craig sighed. All the time he had known he hadn't taken the water. Theimportant thing was for Margy to know it.

  "Look," said Craig, gesturing toward the shore-line, "out there is a newworld, new lands, new places, all waiting to be explored. It's all ours,every foot of it, to be explored--"

  "Ours?" the girl questioned, and her voice was very low.

  "Yes," Craig said. "What I mean is--Margy--Well, you once said we weretwo of a kind--and--"

  "I think," the girl said calmly, "that Captain Higgins has the authorityto make us _one_ of a kind, if that is what you are trying to say."

  "That," Craig shouted, "is exactly what I am trying to say."

  * * * * *

  The dusk deepened into darkness. They were very close together now.Saying nothing, they looked toward shore, toward that vast, strange newland where no human foot had ever trod. It was in Craig's mind that thisstrange adventure in time was almost over. Then, as he thought of thenew worlds that his sons and grandsons would have the privilege ofexploring, the thought came that adventure is never over--it is alwaysjust beginning.

  THE END