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Chapter 6
As we strolled slowly back toward the boat, planning and discussing this, we were
suddenly startled by a loud and unmistakable detonation.
"
"
"
A shell from the U-33!" exclaimed von Schoenvorts.
What can be after signifyin'?" queried Olson.
They are in trouble," I answered for all, "and it's up to us to get back to them.
Drop that carcass," I directed the men carrying the meat, "and follow me!" I set
off at a rapid run in the direction of the harbor.
We ran for the better part of a mile without hearing anything more from the
direction of the harbor, and then I reduced the speed to a walk, for the exercise
was telling on us who had been cooped up for so long in the confined interior of
the U-33. Puffing and panting, we plodded on until within about a mile of the
harbor we came upon a sight that brought us all up standing. We had been
passing through a little heavier timber than was usual to this part of the country,
when we suddenly emerged into an open space in the center of which was such a
band as might have caused the most courageous to pause. It consisted of
upward of five hundred individuals representing several species closely allied to
man. There were anthropoid apes and gorillas--these I had no difficulty in
recognizing; but there were other forms which I had never before seen, and I was
hard put to it to say whether they were ape or man. Some of them resembled the
corpse we had found upon the narrow beach against Caprona's sea-wall, while
others were of a still lower type, more nearly resembling the apes, and yet others
were uncannily manlike, standing there erect, being less hairy and possessing
better shaped heads.
There was one among the lot, evidently the leader of them, who bore a close
resemblance to the so-called Neanderthal man of La Chapelle-aux-Saints. There
was the same short, stocky trunk upon which rested an enormous head
habitually bent forward into the same curvature as the back, the arms shorter
than the legs, and the lower leg considerably shorter than that of modern man,
the knees bent forward and never straightened. This creature and one or two
others who appeared to be of a lower order than he, yet higher than that of the
apes, carried heavy clubs; the others were armed only with giant muscles and
fighting fangs--nature's weapons. All were males, and all were entirely naked; nor
was there upon even the highest among them a sign of ornamentation.
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