vors and listen to the
hurried story of the eleven eventful days since they had set out upon
their expedition to the barrier cliffs. They heard of the deaths of
Tippet and James and of the disappearance of Lieutenant Bradley, and a
new terror settled upon Dinosaur.

Olson, the Irish engineer, with Whitely and Wilson constituted the
remnants of Dinosaur's defenders, and to Brady and Sinclair they
narrated the salient events that had transpired since Bradley and his
party had marched away on September 4th. They told them of the
infamous act of Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts and his German crew who
had stolen the U-33, breaking their parole, and steaming away toward
the subterranean opening through the barrier cliffs that carried the
waters of the inland sea into the open Pacific beyond; and of the
cowardly shelling of the fort.

They told of the disappearance of Miss La Rue in the night of September
11th, and of the departure of Bowen Tyler in search of her, accompanied
only by his Airedale, Nobs. Thus of the original party of eleven
Allies and nine Germans that had constituted the company of the U-33
when she left English waters after her capture by the crew of the
English tug there were but five now to be accounted for at Fort
Dinosaur. Benson, Tippet, James, and one of the Germans were known to
be dead. It was assumed that Bradley, Tyler and the girl had already
succumbed to some of the savage denizens of Caspak, while the fate of
the Germans was equally unknown, though it might readily be believed
that they had made good their escape. They had had ample time to
provision the ship and the refining of the crude oil they had
discovered north of the fort could have insured them an ample supply to
carry them back to Germany.

Chapter 2

When bradley went on guard at midnight, September 14th, his thoughts
were largely occupied with rejoicing that the night was almost spent
without serious mishap and that the morrow would doubtless see them all
safely returned to Fort Dinosaur. The hopefulness of his mood was
tinged with sorrow by recollection of the two members of his party who
lay back there in the savage wilderness and for whom there would never
again be a homecoming.

No premonition of impending ill cast gloom over his anticipations for
the coming day, for Bradley was a man who, while taking every
precaution against possible danger, permitted no gloomy forebodings to
weigh down his spirit. When danger