scaled them. Near the summit I came
upon a huge cavern. It is the abode of some mighty winged creature of
the Triassic--or rather it was. Now it is mine. I slew the thing and
took its abode. I reached the summit and looked out upon the broad
gray terrible Pacific of the far-southern winter. It was cold up
there. It is cold here today; yet here I sit watching, watching,
watching for the thing I know will never come--for a sail.

Chapter 10

Once a day I descend to the base of the cliff and hunt, and fill my
stomach with water from a clear cold spring. I have three gourds which
I fill with water and take back to my cave against the long nights. I
have fashioned a spear and a bow and arrow, that I may conserve my
ammunition, which is running low. My clothes are worn to shreds.
Tomorrow I shall discard them for leopard-skins which I have tanned and
sewn into a garment strong and warm. It is cold up here. I have a
fire burning and I sit bent over it while I write; but I am safe here.
No other living creature ventures to the chill summit of the barrier
cliffs. I am safe, and I am alone with my sorrows and my remembered
joys--but without hope. It is said that hope springs eternal in the
human breast; but there is none in mine.

I am about done. Presently I shall fold these pages and push them into
my thermos bottle. I shall cork it and screw the cap tight, and then I
shall hurl it as far out into the sea as my strength will permit. The
wind is off-shore; the tide is running out; perhaps it will be carried
into one of those numerous ocean-currents which sweep perpetually from
pole to pole and from continent to continent, to be deposited at last
upon some inhabited shore. If fate is kind and this does happen, then,
for God's sake, come and get me!

It was a week ago that I wrote the preceding paragraph, which I thought
would end the written record of my life upon Caprona. I had paused to
put a new point on my quill and stir the crude ink (which I made by
crushing a black variety of berry and mixing it with water) before
attaching my signature, when faintly from the valley far below came an
unmistakable sound which brought me to my feet, trembling with
excitement, to peer eagerly downward from my dizzy ledge. How full of
meaning that sound was to me you may guess when I tell you that it was
the report of a firearm! For a moment my gaze traversed the landscape
beneath until it was caught and held by four f