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Her expression altered a trifle. A slight frown contracted her brow. The

expression of apprehension deepened.

Take off your cap," she said, and when, to humor her strange request, I did as

she bid, she appeared relieved. Then she edged to one side and leaned over

seemingly to peer behind me. I turned quickly to see what she discovered, but

finding nothing, wheeled about to see that her expression was once more altered.

"You are not from there?" and she pointed toward the east. It was a half

question. "You are not from across the water there?"

"No," I assured her. "I am from Pan-America, far away to the west. Have you ever

heard of Pan-America?"

She shook her head in negation. "I do not care where you are from," she

explained, "if you are not from there, and I am sure you are not, for the men from

there have horns and tails."

It was with difficulty that I restrained a smile.

Who are the men from there?" I asked.

They are bad men," she replied. "Some of my people do not believe that there are

such creatures. But we have a legend--a very old, old legend, that once the men

from there came across to Grabritin. They came upon the water, and under the

water, and even in the air. They came in great numbers, so that they rolled

across the land like a great gray fog. They brought with them thunder and

lightning and smoke that killed, and they fell upon us and slew our people by the

thousands and the hundreds of thousands. But at last we drove them back to

the water's edge, back into the sea, where many were drowned. Some escaped,

and these our people followed--men, women, and even children, we followed them

back. That is all. The legend says our people never returned. Maybe they were

all killed. Maybe they are still there. But this, also, is in the legend, that as we

drove the men back across the water they swore that they would return, and that

when they left our shores they would leave no human being alive behind them. I

was afraid that you were from there."

"By what name were these men called?" I asked.

We call them only the 'men from there,'" she replied, pointing toward the east. "I

have never heard that they had another name."

In the light of what I knew of ancient history, it was not difficult for me to guess

the nationality of those she described simply as "the men from over there." But

what utter and appalling devastation the Great War must have wrought to have

The Lost Continent