October 8, 1916: This is the last entry I shall make uponmy manuscript. When this is done, I shall be through. Though Imay pray that it reaches the haunts of civilized man, my betterjudgment tells me that it will never be perused by other eyesthan mine, and that even though it should, it would be too lateto avail me. I am alone upon the summit of the great cliffoverlooking the broad Pacific. A chill south wind bites at mymarrow, while far below me I can see the tropic foliage of Caspakon the one hand and huge icebergs from the near Antarctic uponthe other. Presently I shall stuff my folded manuscript into thethermos bottle I have carried with me for the purpose since Ileft the fort--Fort Dinosaur we named it--and hurl it far outwardover the cliff-top into the Pacific. What current washes theshore of Caprona I know not; whither my bottle will be borne Icannot even guess; but I have done all that mortal man may do tonotify the world of my whereabouts and the dangers that threatenthose of us who remain alive in Caspak--if there be any otherthan myself.

About the 8th of September I accompanied Olson and vonSchoenvorts to the oil-geyser. Lys came with us, and we took anumber of things which von Schoenvorts wanted for the purposeof erecting a crude refinery. We went up the coast some ten ortwelve miles in the U-33, tying up to shore near the mouth of asmall stream which emptied great volumes of crude oil into thesea--I find it difficult to call this great lake by any other name.Then we disembarked and went inland about five miles, where we cameupon a small lake entirely filled with oil, from the center ofwhich a geyser of oil spouted.

On the edge of the lake we helped von Schoenvorts build hisprimitive refinery. We worked with him for two days until he gotthings fairly well started, and then we returned to Fort Dinosaur,as I feared that Bradley might return and be worried by our absence.The U-33 merely landed those of us that were to return to the fortand then retraced its course toward the oil-well. Olson, Whitely,Wilson, Miss La Rue, and myself disembarked, while von Schoenvortsand his German crew returned to refine the oil. The next dayPlesser and two other Germans came down overland for ammunition.Plesser said they had been attacked by wild men and had exhausteda great deal of ammunition. He also asked permission to get somedried meat and maize, saying that they were so busy with the workof refining that they had no time to hunt. I let him haveeverything he asked for, and never once did a suspicion of theirintentions enter my mind. They returned to the oil-well the sameday, while we continued with the multitudinous duties of camp life.

For three days nothing of moment occurred. Bradley did notreturn; nor did we have any word from von Schoenvorts. In theevening Lys and I went up into one of the bastion towers andlistened to the grim and terrible nightlife of the frightful agesof the past. Once a saber-tooth screamed almost beneath us, andthe girl shrank close against me. As I felt her body againstmine, all the pent love of these three long months shattered thebonds of timidity and conviction, and I swept her up into my armsand covered her face and lips with kisses. She did not struggleto free herself; but instead her dear arms crept up about my neckand drew my own face even closer to hers.

"You love me, Lys?" I cried.

I felt her head nod an affirmative against my breast. "Tell me,Lys," I begged, "tell me in words how much you love me."

Low and sweet and tender came the answer: "I love you beyondall conception."

My heart filled with rapture then, and it fills now as it haseach of the countless times I have recalled those dear words, asit shall fill always until death has claimed me. I may never seeher again; she may not know how I love her--she may question, shemay doubt; but always true and steady, and warm with the fires oflove my heart beats for the girl who said that night: "I love youbeyond all conception."

For a long time we sat there upon the little bench constructed forthe sentry that we had not as yet thought it necessary to post inmore than one of the four towers. We learned to know one anotherbetter in those two brief hours than we had in all the months thathad intervened since we had been thrown together. She told me thatshe had loved me from the first, and that she never had loved vonSchoenvorts, their engagement having been arranged by her aunt forsocial reasons.

That was the happiest evening of my life; nor ever do I expectto experience its like; but at last, as is the way of happiness,it terminated. We descended to the compound, and I walked with Lysto the door of her quarters. There again she kissed me and bademe good night, and then she went in and closed the door.

I went to my own room, and there I sat by the light of one of thecrude candles we had made from the tallow of the beasts we hadkilled, and lived over the events of the evening. At last Iturned in and fell asleep, dreaming happy dreams and planning forthe future, for even in savage Caspak I was bound to make my girlsafe and happy. It was daylight when I awoke. Wilson, who wasacting as cook, was up and astir at his duties in the cook-house.The others slept; but I arose and followed by Nobs went down tothe stream for a plunge. As was our custom, I went armed withboth rifle and revolver; but I stripped and had my swim withoutfurther disturbance than the approach of a large hyena, a numberof which occupied caves in the sand-stone cliffs north of the camp.These brutes are enormous and exceedingly ferocious. I imaginethey correspond with the cave-hyena of prehistoric times.This fellow charged Nobs, whose Capronian experiences had taughthim that discretion is the better part of valor--with the resultthat he dived head foremost into the stream beside me after givingvent to a series of ferocious growls which had no more effect uponHyaena spelaeus than might a sweet smile upon an enraged tusker.Afterward I shot the beast, and Nobs had a feast while I dressed,for he had become quite a raw-meat eater during our numerous huntingexpeditions, upon which we always gave him a portion of the kill.

Whitely and Olson were up and dressed when we returned, and weall sat down to a good breakfast. I could not but wonder at Lys'absence from the table, for she had always been one of theearliest risers in camp; so about nine o'clock, becomingapprehensive lest she might be indisposed, I went to the door ofher room and knocked. I received no response, though I finallypounded with all my strength; then I turned the knob and entered,only to find that she was not there. Her bed had been occupied,and her clothing lay where she had placed it the previous nightupon retiring; but Lys was gone. To say that I was distractedwith terror would be to put it mildly. Though I knew she couldnot be in camp, I searched every square inch of the compound andall the buildings, yet without avail.

It was Whitely who discovered the first clue--a huge human-likefootprint in the soft earth beside the spring, and indications ofa struggle in the mud.

Then I found a tiny handkerchief close to the outer wall.Lys had been stolen! It was all too plain. Some hideous memberof the ape-man tribe had entered the fort and carried her off.While I stood stunned and horrified at the frightful evidencebefore me, there came from the direction of the great lake anincreasing sound that rose to the volume of a shriek. We alllooked up as the noise approached apparently just above us, anda moment later there followed a terrific explosion which hurledus to the ground. When we clambered to our feet, we saw a largesection of the west wall torn and shattered. It was Olson whofirst recovered from his daze sufficiently to guess theexplanation of the phenomenon.

"A shell!" he cried. "And there ain't no shells in Caspakbesides what's on the U-33. The dirty boches are shellin'the fort. Come on!" And he grasped his rifle and started ona run toward the lake. It was over two miles, but we did not pauseuntil the harbor was in view, and still we could not see the lakebecause of the sandstone cliffs which intervened. We ran as fastas we could around the lower end of the harbor, scrambled up thecliffs and at last stood upon their summit in full view of the lake.Far away down the coast, toward the river through which we had cometo reach the lake, we saw upon the surface the outline of the U-33,black smoke vomiting from her funnel.

Von Schoenvorts had succeeded in refining the oil! The cur hadbroken his every pledge and was leaving us there to our fates.He had even shelled the fort as a parting compliment; nor couldanything have been more truly Prussian than this leave-taking ofthe Baron Friedrich von Schoenvorts.

Olson, Whitely, Wilson, and I stood for a moment looking atone another. It seemed incredible that man could be soperfidious--that we had really seen with our own eyes the thingthat we had seen; but when we returned to the fort, the shatteredwall gave us ample evidence that there was no mistake.

Then we began to speculate as to whether it had been an ape-manor a Prussian that had abducted Lys. From what we knew of vonSchoenvorts, we would not have been surprised at anything fromhim; but the footprints by the spring seemed indisputableevidence that one of Caprona's undeveloped men had borne offthe girl I loved.

As soon as I had assured myself that such was the case, I made mypreparations to follow and rescue her. Olson, Whitely, andWilson each wished to accompany me; but I told them that theywere needed here, since with Bradley's party still absent and theGermans gone it was necessary that we conserve our force as faras might be possible.