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I imagine you are right," I agreed, "for their extreme boldness and fearlessness in

the presence of man would suggest either that man is entirely unknown to them,

or that they are extremely familiar with him as their natural and most easily

procured prey."

"But where did they come from?" asked Delcarte. "Could they have traveled here

from Asia?"

I shook my head. The thing was a puzzle to me. I knew that it was practically

beyond reason to imagine that tigers had crossed the mountain ranges and rivers

and all the great continent of Europe to travel this far from their native lairs, and

entirely impossible that they should have crossed the English Channel at all. Yet

here they were, and in great numbers.

We continued up the Tamar several miles, filled our casks, and then landed to

cook some of our deer steak, and have the first square meal that had fallen to our

lot since the Coldwater deserted us. But scarce had we built our fire and

prepared the meat for cooking than Snider, whose eyes had been constantly

roving about the landscape from the moment that we left the launch, touched me

on the arm and pointed to a clump of bushes which grew a couple of hundred

yards away.

Half concealed behind their screening foliage I saw the yellow and black of a big

tiger, and, as I looked, the beast stalked majestically toward us. A moment later,

he was followed by another and another, and it is needless to state that we beat a

hasty retreat to the launch.

The country was apparently infested by these huge Carnivora, for after three

other attempts to land and cook our food we were forced to abandon the idea

entirely, as each time we were driven off by hunting tigers.

It was also equally impossible to obtain the necessary ingredients for our

chemical fuel, and, as we had very little left aboard, we determined to step our

folding mast and proceed under sail, hoarding our fuel supply for use in

emergencies.

I may say that it was with no regret that we bid adieu to Tigerland, as we

rechristened the ancient Devon, and, beating out into the Channel, turned the

launch's nose southeast, to round Bolt Head and continue up the coast toward

the Strait of Dover and the North Sea.

I was determined to reach London as soon as possible, that we might obtain fresh

clothing, meet with cultured people, and learn from the lips of Englishmen the

secrets of the two centuries since the East had been divorced from the West.

The Lost Continent