Victory was nowhere in sight. Alone, I floated upon thebosom of the Thames. In that brief instant I believe that Isuffered more mental anguish than I have crowded into allthe balance of my life before or since. A few hours before,I had been wishing that I might be rid of her, and now thatshe was gone I would have given my life to have her backagain.

Wearily I turned to swim about the spot where she haddisappeared, hoping that she might rise once at least, and Iwould be given the opportunity to save her, and, as Iturned, the water boiled before my face and her head shot upbefore me. I was on the point of striking out to seize her,when a happy smile illumined her features.

"You are not dead!" she cried. "I have been searching thebottom for you. I was sure that the blow she gave you musthave disabled you," and she glanced about for the lioness.

"She has gone?" she asked.

"Dead," I replied.

"The blow you struck her with the thing you call riflestunned her," she explained, "and then I swam in closeenough to get my knife into her heart."

Ah, such a girl! I could not but wonder what one of our ownPan-American women would have done under like circumstances.But then, of course, they have not been trained by sternnecessity to cope with the emergencies and dangers of savageprimeval life.

Along the bank we had just quitted, a score of lions pacedto and fro, growling menacingly. We could not return, andwe struck out for the opposite shore. I am a strongswimmer, and had no doubt as to my ability to cross theriver, but I was not so sure about Victory, so I swam closebehind her, to be ready to give her assistance should sheneed it.

She did not, however, reaching the opposite bank as fresh,apparently, as when she entered the water. Victory is awonder. Each day that we were together brought new proofsof it. Nor was it her courage or vitality only which amazedme. She had a head on those shapely shoulders of hers, anddignity! My, but she could be regal when she chose!

She told me that the lions were fewer upon this side of theriver, but that there were many wolves, running in greatpacks later in the year. Now they were north somewhere, andwe should have little to fear from them, though we mightmeet with a few.

My first concern was to take my weapons apart and dry them,which was rather difficult in the face of the fact thatevery rag about me was drenched. But finally, thanks to thesun and much rubbing, I succeeded, though I had no oil tolubricate them.

We ate some wild berries and roots that Victory found, andthen we set off again down the river, keeping an eye openfor game on one side and the launch on the other, for Ithought that Delcarte, who would be the natural leaderduring my absence, might run up the Thames in search of me.

The balance of that day we sought in vain for game or forthe launch, and when night came we lay down, our stomachsempty, to sleep beneath the stars. We were entirelyunprotected from attack from wild beasts, and for thisreason I remained awake most of the night, on guard. Butnothing approached us, though I could hear the lions roaringacross the river, and once I thought I heard the howl of abeast north of us--it might have been a wolf.

Altogether, it was a most unpleasant night, and I determinedthen that if we were forced to sleep out again that I shouldprovide some sort of shelter which would protect us fromattack while we slept.

Toward morning I dozed, and the sun was well up when Victoryaroused me by gently shaking my shoulder.

"Antelope!" she whispered in my ear, and, as I raised myhead, she pointed up-river. Crawling to my knees, I lookedin the direction she indicated, to see a buck standing upona little knoll some two hundred yards from us. There wasgood cover between the animal and me, and so, though I mighthave hit him at two hundred yards, I preferred to crawlcloser to him and make sure of the meat we both so craved.

I had covered about fifty yards of the distance, and thebeast was still feeding peacefully, so I thought that Iwould make even surer of a hit by going ahead another fiftyyards, when the animal suddenly raised his head and lookedaway, up-river. His whole attitude proclaimed that he wasstartled by something beyond him that I could not see.

Realizing that he might break and run and that I should thenprobably miss him entirely, I raised my rifle to myshoulder. But even as I did so the animal leaped into theair, and simultaneously there was a sound of a shot frombeyond the knoll.

For an instant I was dumbfounded. Had the report come fromdown-river, I should have instantly thought that one of myown men had fired. But coming from up-river it puzzled meconsiderably. Who could there be with firearms in primitiveEngland other than we of the Coldwater?

Victory was directly behind me, and I motioned for her tolie down, as I did, behind the bush from which I had beenupon the point of firing at the antelope. We could see thatthe buck was quite dead, and from our hiding place we waitedto discover the identity of his slayer when the lattershould approach and claim his kill.

We had not long to wait, and when I saw the head andshoulders of a man appear above the crest of the knoll, Isprang to my feet, with a heartfelt cry of joy, for it wasDelcarte.

At the sound of my voice, Delcarte half raised his rifle inreadiness for the attack of an enemy, but a moment later herecognized me, and was coming rapidly to meet us. Behindhim was Snider. They both were astounded to see me upon thenorth bank of the river, and much more so at the sight of mycompanion.

Then I introduced them to Victory, and told them that shewas queen of England. They thought, at first, that I wasjoking. But when I had recounted my adventures and theyrealized that I was in earnest, they believed me.

They told me that they had followed me inshore when I hadnot returned from the hunt, that they had met the men of theelephant country, and had had a short and one-sided battlewith the fellows. And that afterward they had returned tothe launch with a prisoner, from whom they had learned thatI had probably been captured by the men of the lion country.

With the prisoner as a guide they had set off up-river insearch of me, but had been much delayed by motor trouble,and had finally camped after dark a half mile above the spotwhere Victory and I had spent the night. They must havepassed us in the dark, and why I did not hear the sound ofthe propeller I do not know, unless it passed me at a timewhen the lions were making an unusually earsplitting dinupon the opposite side.

Taking the antelope with us, we all returned to the launch,where we found Taylor as delighted to see me alive again asDelcarte had been. I cannot say truthfully that Sniderevinced much enthusiasm at my rescue.

Taylor had found the ingredients for chemical fuel, and thedistilling of them had, with the motor trouble, accountedfor their delay in setting out after me.

The prisoner that Delcarte and Snider had taken was apowerful young fellow from the elephant country.Notwithstanding the fact that they had all assured him tothe contrary, he still could not believe that we would notkill him.

He assured us that his name was Thirty-six, and, as he couldnot count above ten, I am sure that he had no conception ofthe correct meaning of the word, and that it may have beenhanded down to him either from the military number of anancestor who had served in the English ranks during theGreat War, or that originally it was the number of somefamous regiment with which a forbear fought.

Now that we were reunited, we held a council to determinewhat course we should pursue in the immediate future.Snider was still for setting out to sea and returning toPan-America, but the better judgment of Delcarte and Taylorridiculed the suggestion--we should not have lived afortnight.

To remain in England, constantly menaced by wild beasts andmen equally as wild, seemed about as bad. I suggested thatwe cross the Channel and ascertain if we could not discovera more enlightened and civilized people upon the continent.I was sure that some trace of the ancient culture andgreatness of Europe must remain. Germany, probably, wouldbe much as it was during the twentieth century, for, incommon with most Pan-Americans, I was positive that Germanyhad been victorious in the Great War.

Snider demurred at the suggestion. He said that it was badenough to have come this far. He did not want to make itworse by going to the continent. The outcome of it was thatI finally lost my patience, and told him that from then onhe would do what I thought best--that I proposed to assumecommand of the party, and that they might all considerthemselves under my orders, as much so as though we werestill aboard the Coldwater and in Pan-American waters.

Delcarte and Taylor immediately assured me that they had notfor an instant assumed anything different, and that theywere as ready to follow and obey me here as they would beupon the other side of thirty.

Snider said nothing, but he wore a sullen scowl. And Iwished then, as I had before, and as I did to a much greaterextent later, that fate had not decreed that he should havechanced to be a member of the launch's party upon thatmemorable day when last we quitted the Coldwater.

Victory, who was given a voice in our councils, was all forgoing to the continent, or anywhere else, in fact, where shemight see new sights and experience new adventures.

"Afterward we can come back to Grabritin," she said, "and ifBuckingham is not dead and we can catch him away from hismen and kill him, then I can return to my people, and we canall live in peace and happiness."

She spoke of killing Buckingham with no greater concern thanone might evince in the contemplated destruction of a sheep;yet she was neither cruel nor vindictive. In fact, Victoryis a very sweet and womanly woman. But human life is ofsmall account beyond thirty--a legacy from the bloody dayswhen thousands of men perished in the trenches between therising and the setting of a sun, when they laid themlengthwise in these same trenches and sprinkled dirt overthem, when the Germans corded their corpses like wood andset fire to them, when women and children and old men werebutchered, and great passenger ships were torpedoed withoutwarning.

Thirty-six, finally assured that we did not intend slayinghim, was as keen to accompany us as was Victory.

The crossing to the continent was uneventful, its monotonybeing relieved, however, by the childish delight of Victoryand Thirty-six in the novel experience of riding safely uponthe bosom of the water, and of being so far from land.

With the possible exception of Snider, the little partyappeared in the best of spirits, laughing and joking, orinterestedly discussing the possibilities which the futureheld for us: what we should find upon the continent, andwhether the inhabitants would be civilized or barbarianpeoples.

Victory asked me to explain the difference between the two,and when I had tried to do so as clearly as possible, shebroke into a gay little laugh.

"Oh," she cried, "then I am a barbarian!"

I could not but laugh, too, as I admitted that she was,indeed, a barbarian. She was not offended, taking thematter as a huge joke. But some time thereafter she sat insilence, apparently deep in thought. Finally she looked upat me, her strong white teeth gleaming behind her smilinglips.

"Should you take that thing you call 'razor,'" she said,"and cut the hair from the face of Thirty-six, and exchangegarments with him, you would be the barbarian and Thirty-sixthe civilized man. There is no other difference betweenyou, except your weapons. Clothe you in a wolfskin, giveyou a knife and a spear, and set you down in the woods ofGrabritin--of what service would your civilization be toyou?"

Delcarte and Taylor smiled at her reply, but Thirty-six andSnider laughed uproariously. I was not surprised at Thirty-six, but I thought that Snider laughed louder than theoccasion warranted. As a matter of fact, Snider, it seemedto me, was taking advantage of every opportunity, howeverslight, to show insubordination, and I determined then thatat the first real breach of discipline I should take actionthat would remind Snider, ever after, that I was still hiscommanding officer.

I could not help but notice that his eyes were much uponVictory, and I did not like it, for I knew the type of manhe was. But as it would not be necessary ever to leave thegirl alone with him I felt no apprehension for her safety.

After the incident of the discussion of barbarians I thoughtthat Victory's manner toward me changed perceptibly. Sheheld aloof from me, and when Snider took his turn at thewheel, sat beside him, upon the pretext that she wished tolearn how to steer the launch. I wondered if she hadguessed the man's antipathy for me, and was seeking hiscompany solely for the purpose of piquing me.

Snider was, too, taking full advantage of his opportunity.Often he leaned toward the girl to whisper in her ear, andhe laughed much, which was unusual with Snider.

Of course, it was nothing at all to me; yet, for someunaccountable reason, the sight of the two of them sittingthere so close to one another and seeming to be enjoyingeach other's society to such a degree irritated metremendously, and put me in such a bad humor that I took nopleasure whatsoever in the last few hours of the crossing.

We aimed to land near the site of ancient Ostend. But whenwe neared the coast we discovered no indication of any humanhabitations whatever, let alone a city. After we hadlanded, we found the same howling wilderness about us thatwe had discovered on the British Isle. There was noslightest indication that civilized man had ever set a footupon that portion of the continent of Europe.

Although I had feared as much, since our experience inEngland, I could not but own to a feeling of markeddisappointment, and to the gravest fears of the future,which induced a mental depression that was in no waydissipated by the continued familiarity between Victory andSnider.

I was angry with myself that I permitted that matter toaffect me as it had. I did not wish to admit to myself thatI was angry with this uncultured little savage, that it madethe slightest difference to me what she did or what she didnot do, or that I could so lower myself as to feel personalenmity towards a common sailor. And yet, to be honest, Iwas doing both.

Finding nothing to detain us about the spot where Ostendonce had stood, we set out up the coast in search of themouth of the River Rhine, which I purposed ascending insearch of civilized man. It was my intention to explore theRhine as far up as the launch would take us. If we found nocivilization there we would return to the North Sea,continue up the coast to the Elbe, and follow that river andthe canals of Berlin. Here, at least, I was sure that weshould find what we sought--and, if not, then all Europe hadreverted to barbarism.

The weather remained fine, and we made excellent progress,but everywhere along the Rhine we met with the samedisappointment--no sign of civilized man, in fact, no signof man at all.

I was not enjoying the exploration of modern Europe as I hadanticipated--I was unhappy. Victory seemed changed, too. Ihad enjoyed her company at first, but since the trip acrossthe Channel I had held aloof from her.

Her chin was in the air most of the time, and yet I ratherthink that she regretted her friendliness with Snider, for Inoticed that she avoided him entirely. He, on the contrary,emboldened by her former friendliness, sought everyopportunity to be near her. I should have liked nothingbetter than a reasonably good excuse to punch his head; yet,paradoxically, I was ashamed of myself for harboring him anyill will. I realized that there was something the matterwith me, but I did not know what it was.

Matters remained thus for several days, and we continued ourjourney up the Rhine. At Cologne, I had hoped to find somereassuring indications, but there was no Cologne. And asthere had been no other cities along the river up to thatpoint, the devastation was infinitely greater than timealone could have wrought. Great guns, bombs, and mines musthave leveled every building that man had raised, and thennature, unhindered, had covered the ghastly evidence ofhuman depravity with her beauteous mantle of verdure.Splendid trees reared their stately tops where splendidcathedrals once had reared their domes, and sweet wildflowers blossomed in simple serenity in soil that once wasdrenched with human blood.

Nature had reclaimed what man had once stolen from her anddefiled. A herd of zebras grazed where once the Germankaiser may have reviewed his troops. An antelope restedpeacefully in a bed of daisies where, perhaps, two hundredyears ago a big gun belched its terror-laden messages ofdeath, of hate, of destruction against the works of man andGod alike.

We were in need of fresh meat, yet I hesitated to shatterthe quiet and peaceful serenity of the view with the crackof a rifle and the death of one of those beautiful creaturesbefore us. But it had to be done--we must eat. I left thework to Delcarte, however, and in a moment we had twoantelope and the landscape to ourselves.

After eating, we boarded the launch and continued up theriver. For two days we passed through a primevalwilderness. In the afternoon of the second day we landedupon the west bank of the river, and, leaving Snider andThirty-six to guard Victory and the launch, Delcarte,Taylor, and I set out after game.

We tramped away from the river for upwards of an hour beforediscovering anything, and then only a small red deer, whichTaylor brought down with a neat shot of two hundred yards.It was getting too late to proceed farther, so we rigged asling, and the two men carried the deer back toward thelaunch while I walked a hundred yards ahead, in the hope ofbagging something further for our larder.

We had covered about half the distance to the river, when Isuddenly came face to face with a man. He was as primitiveand uncouth in appearance as the Grabritins--a shaggy,unkempt savage, clothed in a shirt of skin cured with thehead on, the latter surmounting his own head to form abonnet, and giving to him a most fearful and ferociousaspect.

The fellow was armed with a long spear and a club, thelatter dangling down his back from a leathern thong abouthis neck. His feet were incased in hide sandals.

At sight of me, he halted for an instant, then turned anddove into the forest, and, though I called reassuringly tohim in English he did not return nor did I again see him.

The sight of the wild man raised my hopes once more thatelsewhere we might find men in a higher state ofcivilization--it was the society of civilized man that Icraved--and so, with a lighter heart, I continued on towardthe river and the launch.

I was still some distance ahead of Delcarte and Taylor, whenI came in sight of the Rhine again. But I came to thewater's edge before I noticed that anything was amiss withthe party we had left there a few hours before.

My first intimation of disaster was the absence of thelaunch from its former moorings. And then, a moment later--I discovered the body of a man lying upon the bank. Runningtoward it, I saw that it was Thirty-six, and as I stoppedand raised the Grabritin's head in my arms, I heard a faintmoan break from his lips. He was not dead, but that he wasbadly injured was all too evident.

Delcarte and Taylor came up a moment later, and the three ofus worked over the fellow, hoping to revive him that hemight tell us what had happened, and what had become of theothers. My first thought was prompted by the sight I hadrecently had of the savage native. The little party hadevidently been surprised, and in the attack Thirty-six hadbeen wounded and the others taken prisoners. The thoughtwas almost like a physical blow in the face--it stunned me.Victory in the hands of these abysmal brutes! It wasfrightful. I almost shook poor Thirty-six in my efforts torevive him.

I explained my theory to the others, and then Delcarteshattered it by a single movement of the hand. He drewaside the lion's skin that covered half of the Grabritin'sbreast, revealing a neat, round hole in Thirty-six's chest--a hole that could have been made by no other weapon than arifle.

"Snider!" I exclaimed. Delcarte nodded. At about the sametime the eyelids of the wounded man fluttered, and raised.He looked up at us, and very slowly the light ofconsciousness returned to his eyes.

"What happened, Thirty-six?" I asked him.

He tried to reply, but the effort caused him to cough,bringing about a hemorrhage of the lungs and again he fellback exhausted. For several long minutes he lay as onedead, then in an almost inaudible whisper he spoke.

"Snider--" He paused, tried to speak again, raised a hand,and pointed down-river. "They--went--back," and then heshuddered convulsively and died.

None of us voiced his belief. But I think they were allalike: Victory and Snider had stolen the launch, anddeserted us.