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Chapter 1
I am forced to admit that even though I had traveled a long distance to place
Bowen Tyler's manuscript in the hands of his father, I was still a trifle skeptical
as to its sincerity, since I could not but recall that it had not been many years
since Bowen had been one of the most notorious practical jokers of his alma
mater. The truth was that as I sat in the Tyler library at Santa Monica I
commenced to feel a trifle foolish and to wish that I had merely forwarded the
manuscript by express instead of bearing it personally, for I confess that I do not
enjoy being laughed at. I have a well-developed sense of humor--when the joke is
not on me.
Mr. Tyler, Sr., was expected almost hourly. The last steamer in from Honolulu
had brought information of the date of the expected sailing of his yacht Toreador,
which was now twenty-four hours overdue. Mr. Tyler's assistant secretary, who
had been left at home, assured me that there was no doubt but that the Toreador
had sailed as promised, since he knew his employer well enough to be positive
that nothing short of an act of God would prevent his doing what he had planned
to do. I was also aware of the fact that the sending apparatus of the Toreador's
wireless equipment was sealed, and that it would only be used in event of dire
necessity. There was, therefore, nothing to do but wait, and we waited.
We discussed the manuscript and hazarded guesses concerning it and the
strange events it narrated. The torpedoing of the liner upon which Bowen J.
Tyler, Jr., had taken passage for France to join the American Ambulance was a
well-known fact, and I had further substantiated by wire to the New York office of
the owners, that a Miss La Rue had been booked for passage. Further, neither
she nor Bowen had been mentioned among the list of survivors; nor had the body
of either of them been recovered.
Their rescue by the English tug was entirely probable; the capture of the enemy
U-33 by the tug's crew was not beyond the range of possibility; and their
adventures during the perilous cruise which the treachery and deceit of Benson
extended until they found themselves in the waters of the far South Pacific with
depleted stores and poisoned water-casks, while bordering upon the fantastic,
appeared logical enough as narrated, event by event, in the manuscript.
Caprona has always been considered a more or less mythical land, though it is
vouched for by an eminent navigator of the eighteenth century; but Bowen's
narrative made it seem very real, however many miles of trackless ocean lay
between us and it. Yes, the narrative had us guessing. We were agreed that it
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