www.freeclassicebooks.com

Our first stopping place was the Isle of Wight. We entered the Solent about ten

o'clock one morning, and I must confess that my heart sank as we came close to

shore. No lighthouse was visible, though one was plainly indicated upon my

map. Upon neither shore was sign of human habitation. We skirted the northern

shore of the island in fruitless search for man, and then at last landed upon an

eastern point, where Newport should have stood, but where only weeds and great

trees and tangled wild wood rioted, and not a single manmade thing was visible to

the eye.

Before landing, I had the men substitute soft bullets for the steel-jacketed

projectiles with which their belts and magazines were filled. Thus equipped, we

felt upon more even terms with the tigers, but there was no sign of the tigers, and

I decided that they must be confined to the mainland.

After eating, we set out in search of fuel, leaving Taylor to guard the launch. For

some reason I could not trust Snider alone. I knew that he looked with

disapproval upon my plan to visit England, and I did not know but what at his

first opportunity, he might desert us, taking the launch with him, and attempt to

return to Pan-America.

That he would be fool enough to venture it, I did not doubt.

We had gone inland for a mile or more, and were passing through a park-like

wood, when we came suddenly upon the first human beings we had seen since

we sighted the English coast.

There were a score of men in the party. Hairy, half-naked men they were, resting

in the shade of a great tree. At the first sight of us they sprang to their feet with

wild yells, seizing long spears that had lain beside them as they rested.

For a matter of fifty yards they ran from us as rapidly as they could, and then

they turned and surveyed us for a moment. Evidently emboldened by the scarcity

of our numbers, they commenced to advance upon us, brandishing their spears

and shouting horribly.

They were short and muscular of build, with long hair and beards tangled and

matted with filth. Their heads, however, were shapely, and their eyes, though

fierce and warlike, were intelligent.

Appreciation of these physical attributes came later, of course, when I had better

opportunity to study the men at close range and under circumstances less

fraught with danger and excitement. At the moment I saw, and with unmixed

wonder, only a score of wild savages charging down upon us, where I had

expected to find a community of civilized and enlightened people.

The Lost Continent