s
persuaded him to be a doctor instead. He was a good one, for his age,
but his real interest was in what he loved to call "the wonders of
science."

As for me, sociology's my major. You have to back that up with a lot of
other sciences, of course. I'm interested in them all.

Terry was strong on facts--geography and meteorology and those; Jeff
could beat him any time on biology, and I didn't care what it was they
talked about, so long as it connected with human life, somehow. There
are few things that don't.

We three had a chance to join a big scientific expedition. They needed
a doctor, and that gave Jeff an excuse for dropping his just opening
practice; they needed Terry's experience, his machine, and his money;
and as for me, I got in through Terry's influence.

The expedition was up among the thousand tributaries and enormous
hinterland of a great river, up where the maps had to be made, savage
dialects studied, and all manner of strange flora and fauna expected.

But this story is not about that expedition. That was only the merest
starter for ours.

My interest was first roused by talk among our guides. I'm quick at
languages, know a good many, and pick them up readily. What with that
and a really good interpreter we took with us, I made out quite a few
legends and folk myths of these scattered tribes.

And as we got farther and farther upstream, in a dark tangle of rivers,
lakes, morasses, and dense forests, with here and there an unexpected
long spur running out from the big mountains beyond, I noticed that more
and more of these savages had a story about a strange and terrible Woman
Land in the high distance.

"Up yonder," "Over there," "Way up"--was all the direction they could
offer, but their legends all agreed on the main point--that there was
this strange country where no men lived--only women and girl children.

None of them had ever seen it. It was dangerous, deadly, they said, for
any man to go there. But there were tales of long ago, when some brave
investigator had seen it--a Big Country, Big Houses, Plenty People--All
Women.

Had no one else gone? Yes--a good many--but they never came back. It was
no place for men--of that they seemed sure.

I told the boys about these stories, and they laughed at them. Naturally
I did myself. I knew the stuff that savage dreams are made of.

But when we had reached our farthest point, just the day before we all
had to turn around and start for home