| 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 |
| 1 | 20 | 41 | 61 | 81 |
|
www.freeclassicebooks.com
The creature must have been about the height of a fair sized man; its features
were similar to those of a man; yet had it been a man?
I could not say, for it resembled an ape no more than it did a man. Its large toes
protruded laterally as do those of the semiarboreal peoples of Borneo, the
Philippines and other remote regions where low types still persist. The
countenance might have been that of a cross between Pithecanthropus, the Java
ape-man, and a daughter of the Piltdown race of prehistoric Sussex. A wooden
cudgel lay beside the corpse.
Now this fact set me thinking. There was no wood of any description in sight.
There was nothing about the beach to suggest a wrecked mariner. There was
absolutely nothing about the body to suggest that it might possibly in life have
known a maritime experience. It was the body of a low type of man or a high type
of beast. In neither instance would it have been of a seafaring race. Therefore I
deduced that it was native to Caprona--that it lived inland, and that it had fallen
or been hurled from the cliffs above. Such being the case, Caprona was
inhabitable, if not inhabited, by man; but how to reach the inhabitable interior!
That was the question. A closer view of the cliffs than had been afforded me from
the deck of the U-33 only confirmed my conviction that no mortal man could
scale those perpendicular heights; there was not a finger-hold, not a toe-hold,
upon them. I turned away baffled.
Nobs and I met with no sharks upon our return journey to the submarine. My
report filled everyone with theories and speculations, and with renewed hope and
determination. They all reasoned along the same lines that I had reasoned--the
conclusions were obvious, but not the water. We were now thirstier than ever.
The balance of that day we spent in continuing a minute and fruitless exploration
of the monotonous coast. There was not another break in the frowning cliffs--not
even another minute patch of pebbly beach. As the sun fell, so did our spirits. I
had tried to make advances to the girl again; but she would have none of me, and
so I was not only thirsty but otherwise sad and downhearted. I was glad when
the new day broke the hideous spell of a sleepless night.
The morning's search brought us no shred of hope. Caprona was impregnable--
that was the decision of all; yet we kept on. It must have been about two bells of
the afternoon watch that Bradley called my attention to the branch of a tree, with
leaves upon it, floating on the sea. "It may have been carried down to the ocean
by a river," he suggested.
"Yes," I replied, "it may have; it may have tumbled or been thrown off the top of
one of these cliffs."
3
6
Page
Quick Jump
|