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01 - Lost Continent (Beyond Thirty) by Edgar Rice Burroughs · Lost Continent (Beyond Thirty)

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Speaker 1: Chapter one of the Lost Continent. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Recording
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Speaker 1: by Lucy Lefaro. The Lost Continent by Edgar Rice Burroughs,
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Speaker 1: Chapter one. Since earliest childhood, I have been strangely fascinated
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Speaker 1: by the mystery surrounding the history of the last days
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Speaker 1: of twentieth century Europe. My interest is keenness, perhaps not
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Speaker 1: so much in relation to known facts as to speculation
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Speaker 1: upon the unknowable of the two centuries that have rolled
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Speaker 1: by since human intercourse between the Western and Eastern hemispheres ceased.
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Speaker 1: The mystery of Europe's state following the termination of the
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Speaker 1: Great War, provided, of course, that the war had been terminated.
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Speaker 1: From out of the meganess of our censored histories, we
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Speaker 1: learned that, for fifteen years, after the cessation of diplomatic
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Speaker 1: relations between the United States of North America and the
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Speaker 1: beligerent nations of the Old World, news of more or
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Speaker 1: less doubtful authenticity filtered from time to time into the
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Speaker 1: Western hemisphere from the Eastern. Then came the fruition of
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Speaker 1: that historic propaganda, which is best described by its own slogan,
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Speaker 1: the East for the East, the West for the West,
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Speaker 1: and or further intercourse was stopped by statute. Even prior
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Speaker 1: to this Transaceanic commerce had practically ceased, owing to the
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Speaker 1: perils and hazards of the mind strewn waters of both
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Speaker 1: the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Just when submarine activities ended
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Speaker 1: we do not know. But the last vessel of this
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Speaker 1: type cited by the Pan American merchantmen was the huge
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Speaker 1: Q one thirty eight, which discharged twenty nine torpedoes at
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Speaker 1: a Brazilian tank steamer off the Bermudas in the fall
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Speaker 1: of nineteen seventy two. A heavy sea and the excellent
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Speaker 1: seamanship of the master of the Brazilian permitted the Pan
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Speaker 1: American to escape and report this last of a long
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Speaker 1: series of outrages upon our commerce. God alone knows how
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Speaker 1: many hundreds of our ancient ships fell prey to the
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Speaker 1: roving steel sharks of blood frenzied Europe. Countless were the
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Speaker 1: vessels and men that passed over our eastern and western horizons,
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Speaker 1: never to return. But whether they met their fates before
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Speaker 1: the belching tubes of submarines or among the aimlessly drifting
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Speaker 1: mine fields, no man lived to tell. And then came
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Speaker 1: the Great pan American Federation, which linked the Western Hemisphere
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Speaker 1: from pole to pole under a single flag, which joined
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Speaker 1: the navies of the New World into the mightiest fighting
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Speaker 1: force that ever sailed the Seven Seas, the greatest argument
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Speaker 1: for peace the world had ever known. Since that day,
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Speaker 1: peace had rained from the western shores of the Azores
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Speaker 1: to the western shores of the Hawaiian Islands. Nor has
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Speaker 1: any man of either hemisphere dared cross thirty d W
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Speaker 1: or a hundred seventy five d w from thirty d
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Speaker 1: to one hundred seventy five d is ours from thirty
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Speaker 1: d to one hundred seventy five d is Peace, prosperity,
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Speaker 1: and happiness. Beyond was the great unknown. Even the geographies
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Speaker 1: of my boyhood showed nothing beyond. We were taught of
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Speaker 1: nothing beyond. Speculation was discouraged. For two hundred years. The
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Speaker 1: Eastern Hemisphere had been wiped from the maps and histories
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Speaker 1: of pan America. Its mention in fiction even was forbidden.
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Speaker 1: Our ships of peace patrol thirty and one hundred seventy
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Speaker 1: five What ships from beyond? They have warned? Only the
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Speaker 1: secret archives of government show, but a naval officer myself,
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Speaker 1: I have gathered from the traditions of the service, that
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Speaker 1: it has been fully two hundred years since smoke or
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Speaker 1: sail has been sighted east of thirty D or west
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Speaker 1: of a hundred and seventy five D. The fate of
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Speaker 1: the relinquished provinces which lay beyond the deadlines, we could
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Speaker 1: only speculate upon that they were taken by the military
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Speaker 1: power which arose so suddenly in China after the fall
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Speaker 1: of the Republic, and which arrested Manchuria and Korea from
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Speaker 1: Russia and Japan, and also absorbed the Philippines, is quite
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Speaker 1: within the range of possibility. It was the commander of
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Speaker 1: a Chinese man of war who received a copy of
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Speaker 1: the Edict of nineteen seventy two from the hand of
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Speaker 1: my illustrious ancestor, Admiral turk And one hundred seventy five,
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Speaker 1: two hundred and six years ago, and from the yellow
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Speaker 1: pages of the Admiral's diary, I learned that the fate
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Speaker 1: of the Philippines was even then presaged by these Chinese
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Speaker 1: naval officers. Yes, for over two hundred years, no man
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Speaker 1: crossed thirty D two one hundred and seventy five D,
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Speaker 1: and lived to tell his story, not until chance drew
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Speaker 1: me across and back again, and public opinion, revolting at
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Speaker 1: last against the drastic regulations of our long dead forebears,
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Speaker 1: demanded that my story be given to the world, and
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Speaker 1: that the narrow interdict which commanded peace, prosperity and happiness
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Speaker 1: to halt at thirty d and one hundred and seventy
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Speaker 1: five D be removed forever. I am glad that it
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Speaker 1: was given to me to be an instrument in the
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Speaker 1: hands of Providence for the uplifting of benighted Europe and
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Speaker 1: the amelioration of the suffering, degradation and abysmal ignorance in
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Speaker 1: which I found her. I shall not live to see
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Speaker 1: the complete regeneration of the savage hordes of the Eastern hemisphere.
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Speaker 1: That is a work which will require many generations, perhaps ages,
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Speaker 1: so complete has been their reversion to savagery. But I
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Speaker 1: know that the work has been started, and I am
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Speaker 1: proud of the share in it which my generous countrymen
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Speaker 1: have placed in my hands. The government already possesses a
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Speaker 1: complete official report of my adventures beyond thirty in the
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Speaker 1: narrative I purpose telling my story in a less formal
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Speaker 1: and I hope a more entertaining style. Though being only
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Speaker 1: a naval officer, and without claim to the slightest literary ability,
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Speaker 1: I shall most certainly fall far short of the possibilities
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Speaker 1: which are inherent in my subject. That I have passed
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Speaker 1: through the most wondrous adventures that have befallen a civilized
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Speaker 1: man during the past two centuries encourages me in the
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Speaker 1: belief that, however ill, the telling, the facts themself will
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Speaker 1: command your interests to the final page. Beyond thirty, Romance, adventure,
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Speaker 1: strange peoples, fearsome beasts, all the excitement and scurry of
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Speaker 1: the lives of the twentieth century ancients that have been
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Speaker 1: denied us in these dull days of peace and prosaic prosperity.
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Speaker 1: All all lay beyond thirty, the invisible barrier between the
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Speaker 1: stupid commercial present and the carefree, barbarous past. What boy
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Speaker 1: has not sighed for the good old days of wars,
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Speaker 1: revolutions and riots. How I used to pore over the
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Speaker 1: chronicles of those old days, those dear old days when
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Speaker 1: workmen went armed to their labors, when they fell upon
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Speaker 1: one another with gun and bomb and dagger, and the
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Speaker 1: streets ran red with blood. Ah. But those were the
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Speaker 1: times when life was worth the living, when a man
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Speaker 1: who went out by night knew not at which dark
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Speaker 1: corner a footpad might leap upon and slay him. When
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Speaker 1: wild beasts roamed the forests and the jungles, and there
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Speaker 1: were savage men and countries yet unexplored. Now in all
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Speaker 1: the western hemisphere dwells no man who may not find
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Speaker 1: a schoolhouse within walking distance of his home, or at
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Speaker 1: least within flying distance. The wildest beast that roams our
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Speaker 1: waste places lairs in the frozen North or the frozen South,
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Speaker 1: within a government reserve, where the curious may view him
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Speaker 1: and feed him bread crusts from the hand with perfect impunity.
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Speaker 1: But beyond thirty and I have gone there and come back,
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Speaker 1: And now you may go there. For no longer is
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Speaker 1: it high treason, punishable by disgrace or death to cross
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Speaker 1: thirty D or one hundred and seventy five D. My
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Speaker 1: name is Jefferson Turk. I am a lieutenant in the Navy,
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Speaker 1: in the Great Pan American Navy, the only navy which
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Speaker 1: now exists in all the world. I was born in
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Speaker 1: Arizona in the United States of North America, in the
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Speaker 1: year of Our Lord twenty one sixteen. Therefore I am
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Speaker 1: twenty one years old. In early boyhood, I tired of
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Speaker 1: the teeming cities and overcrowded rural districts of Arizona. Every
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Speaker 1: generation of Turks for over two centuries has been represented
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Speaker 1: in the Navy. The Navy called to me, as did
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Speaker 1: the free, wide, unpeopled spaces of the Mighty Ocean, and
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Speaker 1: so I joined the Navy, coming up from the ranks
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Speaker 1: as we all must, learning our craft as we advance.
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Speaker 1: My promotion was rapid, for my family seems to inherit
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Speaker 1: naval law. We are born officers, and I reserve to
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Speaker 1: myself no special credit for an early advancement in the service.
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Speaker 1: At twenty I found myself a lieutenant in command of
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Speaker 1: the aero submarine cold Water of the s S ninety
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Speaker 1: six class. The cold Water was one of the first
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Speaker 1: of the air and underwater craft which have been so
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Speaker 1: greatly improved since its launching, and was possessed of innumerable
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Speaker 1: weaknesses which fortunately have been eliminated in more recent vessels
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Speaker 1: of similar type. Even when I took command, she was
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Speaker 1: fit only for the junk pile. But the world old
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Speaker 1: parsimony of government retained her in active service and sent
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Speaker 1: two hundred men to sea in her, with myself a
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Speaker 1: mere boy, in command of her, to patrol thirty from
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Speaker 1: Iceland to the Azores. Much of my service had been
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Speaker 1: spent aboard the great merchantmen of war, these other utility
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Speaker 1: naval vessels that have transformed the navies of old, which
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Speaker 1: burdened the peoples with taxes for their support, into the
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Speaker 1: present day fleets of self supporting ships that find ample
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Speaker 1: time for target practice and gundril while they bear freight
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Speaker 1: and the mails from the continents to the far scattered
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Speaker 1: island of Pan America. This change in service was most
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Speaker 1: welcome to me, especially as it brought with it coveted
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Speaker 1: responsibilities of soule command, and I was prone to overlook
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Speaker 1: the deficiencies of the cold Water in the natural pride
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Speaker 1: I felt in my first ship. The cold Water was
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Speaker 1: fully equipped for two months patrolling, the ordinary length of
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Speaker 1: assignment to this service, and a month had already passed
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Speaker 1: its monotony entirely unrelieved by sight of another craft. When
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Speaker 1: the first of our misfortunes befell, we had been riding
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Speaker 1: out a storm in an altitude of about three thousand feet.
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Speaker 1: All night we had hovered above the tossing billows of
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Speaker 1: the moonlight clouds, the detonation of the thunder, and the
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Speaker 1: glare of lightning through an occasional rift in the vaporous
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Speaker 1: war proclaimed the continued fury of the tempest upon the
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Speaker 1: surface of the sea, but we, far above it all
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Speaker 1: rode in comparative ease upon the upper gale. With the
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Speaker 1: coming of dawn, the clouds beneath us became a glorious
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Speaker 1: sea of gold and silver, soft and beautiful, but they
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Speaker 1: could not deceive us as to the blackness and the
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Speaker 1: terrors of the storm lashed ocean which they hid. I
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Speaker 1: was at breakfast when my chief engineer entered and saluted.
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Speaker 1: His face was grave, and I thought he was even
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Speaker 1: a trifle paler than usual. Well, I asked. He drew
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Speaker 1: the back of his forefinger nervously across his brow, in
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Speaker 1: a gesture that was habitual with him in moments of
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Speaker 1: mental stress. The gravitation screen generators, Sir, he said, Number
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Speaker 1: one went to the bad about an hour and a
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Speaker 1: half ago. We have been working upon it steadily since,
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Speaker 1: but I have to report, sir, that it is beyond repair.
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Speaker 1: Number two will keep us supplied, I answered, In the meantime,
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Speaker 1: we will send a wireless for relief. But that is
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Speaker 1: the trouble, sir, he went, Number two has stopped. I
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Speaker 1: knew it would come, Sir. I made a report on
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Speaker 1: these generators three years ago. I advise then that they
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Speaker 1: both be scrapped. Their principle is entirely wrong. They're done for,
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Speaker 1: and with a grim smile, I shall at least have
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Speaker 1: the satisfaction of knowing my report was accurate. Have we
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Speaker 1: sufficient reserve screened to permit us to make land or
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Speaker 1: at least meet our relief half way? I asked, no, sir,
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Speaker 1: he replied gravely, we are thinking now. Have you anything
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Speaker 1: further to report? I asked, no, sir, he said, very good,
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Speaker 1: I replied, and as I dismissed him, I rang for
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Speaker 1: my wireless operator. When he appeared, I gave him a
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Speaker 1: message to the Secretary of the Navy, to whom all
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Speaker 1: vessels in service on the and one hundred seventy five
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Speaker 1: report direct. I explained our predicament and stated that with
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Speaker 1: what screening force remained, I should continue in the air
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Speaker 1: making as rapid headway towards Saint John's as possible, and
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Speaker 1: that when we were forced to take to the water,
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Speaker 1: I should continue in the same direction. The accident occurred
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Speaker 1: directly over thirty D and about fifty two d N.
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Speaker 1: The surface wind was blowing a tempest from the west.
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Speaker 1: To attempt to ride out such a storm upon the
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Speaker 1: surface seemed suicidal, for the cold water was not designed
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Speaker 1: for surface navigation except under fair weather conditions. Submerged or
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Speaker 1: in the air, she was tractable enough in any sort
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Speaker 1: of weather when under control, but without her screen generators
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Speaker 1: she was almost helpless, since she could not fly and
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Speaker 1: if submerged, could not rise to the surface. All these
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Speaker 1: defects have been remedied in later models, but the knowledge
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Speaker 1: did not help us any that day, aboard the slowly
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Speaker 1: settling cold water, with an angry sea roaring beneath a
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Speaker 1: tempest raging out of the west, and thirty D only
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Speaker 1: a few knots astern to cross thirty or one hundred
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Speaker 1: seventy five has been, as you know, the direst calamity
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Speaker 1: that could befall a naval commander. Court martial and degradation
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Speaker 1: follow swiftly, unless as is often the case, the unfortunate
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Speaker 1: man takes his own life before this unjust and heartless
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Speaker 1: regulation can hold him up to public scorn. There has
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Speaker 1: been in the past no excuse, no circumstance that could
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Speaker 1: palliate the offense. He was in command, and he took
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Speaker 1: his ship across thirty that was sufficient. It might not
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Speaker 1: have been in any way his fault, as in the
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Speaker 1: case of the cold water it could not possibly have
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Speaker 1: been justly charged to my account that the gravitation screen
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Speaker 1: generators were worthless. But well I knew that should chance
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Speaker 1: have it that we were blown across thirty to day,
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Speaker 1: as we might easily be before the terrific west wind,
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Speaker 1: that we could hear howling below us, the responsibility would
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Speaker 1: fall upon my shoulders. In a way, the regulation was
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Speaker 1: a good one, for it certainly accomplished that for which
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Speaker 1: it was intended. We all fought shy of thirty D
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Speaker 1: on the east and one hundred seventy five D on
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Speaker 1: the west, and though we had to skirt them pretty close,
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Speaker 1: nothing but an act of God ever drew one of
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Speaker 1: us across. You all are familiar with the naval tradition
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Speaker 1: that a good officer who sense proximity to either line,
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Speaker 1: and for my part, I am firmly convinced of the
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Speaker 1: truth of this, as I am that the compass finds
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Speaker 1: the north. With that recourse to tedious processes of reasoning,
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Speaker 1: Old Admiral Sanchez was wont to maintain that he could
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Speaker 1: smell thirty, and the men of the first ship in
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Speaker 1: which I sailed claimed that Coburn, the navigating officer, knew
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Speaker 1: by name every wave along thirty, from sixty d N
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Speaker 1: to sixty d S. However, I'd hate to vouch for this. Well.
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Speaker 1: To get back to my narrative, we kept on dropping
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Speaker 1: slowly toward the surface the while we bucked the west wind,
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Speaker 1: clawing away from thirty as fast as we could. I
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Speaker 1: was on the bridge, and as we dropped from the
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Speaker 1: brilliant sunlight into the dense vapor of clouds, and on
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Speaker 1: down through them to the wild, dark storm strata beneath,
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Speaker 1: it seemed that my spirits dropped with the falling ship,
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Speaker 1: and the buoyancy of hope ran low in sympathy. The
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Speaker 1: waves were running to tremendous heights, and the cold water
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Speaker 1: was not designed to meet such waves head on. Her
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Speaker 1: elements were the blue ether far above the raging storm
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Speaker 1: or the greater depths of ocean, which no storm could ruffle.
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Speaker 1: As I stood speculating upon our chances once we settled
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Speaker 1: into the frightful maelstrom beneath us, and at the same
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Speaker 1: time mentally computing the hours which must elapse before aid
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Speaker 1: could reach us. The wireless operator clambered up the ladder
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Speaker 1: to the bridge, and, disheveled and breathless, stood before me
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Speaker 1: at salute. It needed but a glance at him to
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Speaker 1: assure me that something was amiss. What now, I asked
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Speaker 1: the wireless sir. He cried, my God, Sir, I cannot
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Speaker 1: but the emergency outfit, I asked. I have tried everything, Sir,
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Speaker 1: I have exhausted every resource we cannot send. And he
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Speaker 1: drew himself up and saluted again. I dismissed him with
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Speaker 1: a few kind words, for I knew that it was
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Speaker 1: through no fault of his that the mechanism was antiquated
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Speaker 1: and worthless. In common with the balance of the Cold
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Speaker 1: Water's equipment. There was no finer operator in Pan America
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Speaker 1: than he. The failure of the wireless did not appear
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Speaker 1: as momentous to me as to him, which is not unnatural,
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Speaker 1: since it is but human to feel that when our
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Speaker 1: own little cog slips, the entire universe must necessarily be
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Speaker 1: put out of gear. I knew that if this storm
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Speaker 1: were destined to blow us across thirty or send us
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Speaker 1: to the bottom of the ocean, no help could reach
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Speaker 1: us in time time to prevent it. I had ordered
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Speaker 1: the message sent solely because regulations required it, and not
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Speaker 1: with any particular hope that we could benefit by it.
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Speaker 1: In our present extremity, I had little time to dwell
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Speaker 1: upon the coincidence of this simultaneous failure of the wireless
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Speaker 1: and the buoyancy generators, since very shortly after the cold
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Speaker 1: water had dropped so low over the waters that all
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Speaker 1: my attention was necessarily centered upon the delicate business of
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Speaker 1: settling upon the waves without breaking my ship's back. With
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Speaker 1: our buoyancy generators in commission, it would have been a
22:41
Speaker 1: simple thing to enter the water, Since then it would
22:45
Speaker 1: have been but a trifling matter of a forty five
22:48
Speaker 1: degree dive into the base of a huge wave. We
22:52
Speaker 1: should have cut into the water like a hot knife
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Speaker 1: through butter, and have been totally submerged with scarce Ajar,
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Speaker 1: I have done it a thousand times, but I did
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Speaker 1: not dare submerge the cold water for fear that it
23:05
Speaker 1: would remain submerged to the end of time, a condition
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Speaker 1: far from conducive to the longevity of commander or crew.
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Speaker 1: Most of my officers were older men than I. John Alvarez,
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Speaker 1: my first officer, is twenty years my senior. He stood
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Speaker 1: at my side on the bridge as the ship glided
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Speaker 1: closer and closer to those stupendous waves. He watched my
23:30
Speaker 1: every move, but he was by far too fine an
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Speaker 1: officer and gentlemen to embarrass me by either comment or suggestion.
23:40
Speaker 1: When I saw that we soon would touch, I ordered
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Speaker 1: the ship brought around broadside to the wind, and there
23:47
Speaker 1: we hovered a moment until a huge wave reached up
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Speaker 1: and seized us upon its crest. And then I gave
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Speaker 1: the order that suddenly reversed the screening force and led
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Speaker 1: us into the ocean. Down into the trough, we went,
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Speaker 1: wallowing like the carcass of a dead whale, and then
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Speaker 1: began the fight with rudder and propellers to force the
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Speaker 1: cold water back into the teeth of the gale and
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Speaker 1: drive her on and on farther and farther from relentless
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Speaker 1: thirty I think that we should have succeeded, even though
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Speaker 1: the ship was wrecked from stem to stern by the
24:29
Speaker 1: terrific buffetings she received, and though she were half submerged,
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Speaker 1: the greater part of the time had no further accident
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Speaker 1: befallen us. We were making headway, though slowly, and it
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Speaker 1: began to look as though we were going to pull through.
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Speaker 1: Alvarez never left my side, though I all but ordered
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Speaker 1: him below for much needed rest. My second officer, Porphyrio Johnson,
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Speaker 1: was also often on the bridge. He was a good officer,
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Speaker 1: but a man for whom I had conceived a rather
25:03
Speaker 1: unreasoning aversion almost at the first moment of meeting him,
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Speaker 1: an aversion which was not lessened by the knowledge which
25:11
Speaker 1: I subsequently gained that he looked upon my rapid promotion
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Speaker 1: with jealousy. He was ten years my senior, both in
25:19
Speaker 1: years and service, and I rather think he could never
25:23
Speaker 1: forget the fact that he had been an officer when
25:26
Speaker 1: I was a green apprentice. As it became more and
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Speaker 1: more apparent that the cold water under my seamanship was
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Speaker 1: weathering the tempest and giving promise of pulling through safely,
25:39
Speaker 1: I could have sworn that I perceived a shade of
25:42
Speaker 1: annoyance and disappointment growing upon his dark countenance. He left
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Speaker 1: the bridge finally and went below. I do not know
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Speaker 1: that he is directly responsible for what followed so shortly after,
25:56
Speaker 1: but I have always had my suspicions, and Alvarez is
26:00
Speaker 1: even more prone to place the blame upon him than I.
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Speaker 1: It was about six bells of the forenoon watch that
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Speaker 1: Johnson returned to the bridge after an absence of some
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Speaker 1: thirty minutes. He seemed nervous and ill at ease, a
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Speaker 1: fact which made little impression on me at the time,
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Speaker 1: but which both Alvarez and I recalled subsequently. Not three
26:23
Speaker 1: minutes after his reappearance at my side, the cold water
26:26
Speaker 1: suddenly commenced to lose headway. I seized the telephone at
26:30
Speaker 1: my elbow, pressing upon the button which would call the
26:34
Speaker 1: chief engineer to the instrument in the bows of the ship,
26:38
Speaker 1: only to find him already at the receiver attempting to
26:41
Speaker 1: reach me. Numbers one, two and five engines have broken down, sir,
26:47
Speaker 1: he called, Shall we force the remaining three? We can
26:50
Speaker 1: do nothing else, I bellowed into the transmitter. They won't
26:55
Speaker 1: stand the gas, sir, he returned, Can you suggest a
26:58
Speaker 1: better plan? I asked, No, sir, he replied, then give
27:04
Speaker 1: them the gaff, Lieutenant, I shouted back, and hung up
27:07
Speaker 1: the receiver. For twenty minutes, the cold water bucked the
27:12
Speaker 1: Great Seas with her three engines. I doubt if she
27:15
Speaker 1: advanced a foot, but it was enough to keep her
27:19
Speaker 1: nose in the wind, and at least we were not
27:22
Speaker 1: drifting toward thirty. Johnson and Alvarez were at my side when,
27:28
Speaker 1: without warning, the bough swung swiftly around and the ship
27:33
Speaker 1: fell into the trough of the sea. The other three
27:37
Speaker 1: have gone, I said, and I happened to be looking
27:41
Speaker 1: at Johnson as I spoke. Was it the shadow of
27:44
Speaker 1: a satisfied smither crossed his thin lips? I do not know,
27:49
Speaker 1: but at least he did not weep. You always have
27:53
Speaker 1: been curious, sir, about the great unknown beyond thirty, he said,
27:59
Speaker 1: you are in a good way to have your curiosity satisfied.
28:04
Speaker 1: And then I could not mistake the slight sneer that
28:07
Speaker 1: curved his upper lip. There must have been a trace
28:11
Speaker 1: of disrespect in his tone or manner, which escaped me,
28:16
Speaker 1: for Alvarez turned upon him like a flash. When Lieutenant
28:21
Speaker 1: Turk crosses thirty, he said, we shall all cross with him,
28:26
Speaker 1: and God help the officer or the man who reproaches him.
28:30
Speaker 1: I shall not be a party to high treason, snapped Johnson.
28:34
Speaker 1: The regulations are explicit, and if the cold water crosses thirty,
28:39
Speaker 1: it devolves upon you to place Lieutenant Turk under arrest
28:44
Speaker 1: and immediately exert every endeavor to bring the ship back
28:48
Speaker 1: into Pan American waters. I shall not know, replied Alvarez,
28:54
Speaker 1: that the cold water passes thirty, nor shall any other
28:59
Speaker 1: man aboard know it. And with his words, he drew
29:03
Speaker 1: a revolver from his pocket, and before either I or
29:08
Speaker 1: Johnson could prevent it, had put a bullet into every
29:12
Speaker 1: instrument upon the bridge, ruining them beyond repair. And then
29:18
Speaker 1: he saluted me and strode from the bridge, a martyr
29:23
Speaker 1: to loyalty and friendship. For the no man might know
29:27
Speaker 1: that Lieutenant Jefferson Turk had taken his ship across thirty.
29:31
Speaker 1: Every man aboard would know that the first officer had
29:34
Speaker 1: committed a crime that was punishable by both degradation and death.
29:40
Speaker 1: Johnson turned and eyed me narrowly, shall I place him
29:45
Speaker 1: under arrest? He asked. You shall not, I replied, nor
29:50
Speaker 1: shall any one else. You become a party to his crime,
29:55
Speaker 1: he cried angrily. You may go below, mister Johnson, I said,
30:00
Speaker 1: and attend to the work of unpacking the extra instruments
30:04
Speaker 1: and having them properly set upon the bridge. He saluted
30:09
Speaker 1: and left me, And for some time I stood gazing
30:13
Speaker 1: out upon the angry waters, my mind filled with unhappy
30:17
Speaker 1: reflections upon the unjust fate that had overtaken me, and
30:21
Speaker 1: the sorrow and disgrace that I had unwittingly brought down
30:25
Speaker 1: upon my house. I rejoiced that I should leave neither
30:29
Speaker 1: wife nor child to bear the burden of my shame
30:32
Speaker 1: throughout their lives. As I thought upon my misfortune, I
30:37
Speaker 1: considered more clearly than ever before, the unrighteousness of the
30:41
Speaker 1: regulation which was to prove my doom, and in the
30:45
Speaker 1: natural revolt against its injustice, my anger rose, and there
30:50
Speaker 1: mounted within me a feeling which I imagined must have
30:54
Speaker 1: paralleled that spirit that once was prevalent among the ancients
30:58
Speaker 1: called anarchy. For the first time in my life, I
31:03
Speaker 1: found my sentiments arraying themselves against custom, tradition, and even government.
31:11
Speaker 1: The wave of rebellion swept over me in an instant,
31:15
Speaker 1: beginning with an heretical doubt as to the sanctity of
31:19
Speaker 1: the established order of things, that fetish which has ruled
31:25
Speaker 1: Pan Americans for two centuries, and which is based upon
31:30
Speaker 1: a blind faith in the infallibility of the precience of
31:33
Speaker 1: the long dead framers of the Articles of Pan American Federation,
31:39
Speaker 1: and ending in an adamantine determination to defend my honor
31:43
Speaker 1: and my life to the last stitch against the blind
31:47
Speaker 1: and senseless regulation which assumed the synonymity of misfortune and treason.
31:55
Speaker 1: I would replace the destroyed instruments upon the bridge. Every
31:59
Speaker 1: officer and man should know when we crossed thirty. But
32:03
Speaker 1: then I should assert the spirit which dominated me. I
32:07
Speaker 1: should resist arrest and insist upon bringing my ship back
32:12
Speaker 1: across the dead line, remaining at my post until we
32:16
Speaker 1: had reached New York. Then I should make a full report,
32:21
Speaker 1: and with it a demand upon public opinion that the
32:25
Speaker 1: dead lines be wiped forever from the seas. I knew
32:29
Speaker 1: that I was right. I knew that no more loyal
32:33
Speaker 1: officer wore the uniform of the Navy. I knew that
32:37
Speaker 1: I was a good officer and sailor, and I didn't
32:40
Speaker 1: propose submitting to degradation and discharge, because a lot of
32:44
Speaker 1: old preglacial fossils had declared over two hundred years before
32:49
Speaker 1: that no man should cross thirty. Even while these thoughts
32:54
Speaker 1: were passing through my mind, I was busy with the
32:56
Speaker 1: details of my duties. I had seen to it that
33:00
Speaker 1: a sea anchor was rigged, And even now the men
33:04
Speaker 1: had completed their task, and the cold water was swinging
33:07
Speaker 1: round rapidly, her nose pointing once more into the wind,
33:12
Speaker 1: and the frightful rolling consequent upon her wallowing in the
33:15
Speaker 1: trough was happily diminishing. It was then that Johnson came
33:21
Speaker 1: hurrying to the bridge. One of his eyes was swollen
33:25
Speaker 1: and already darkening, and his lip was cut and bleeding.
33:30
Speaker 1: Without even the formality of a salute, he burst upon me,
33:34
Speaker 1: white with fury. Lieutenant Avarez attacked me. He cried, I
33:40
Speaker 1: demand that he be placed under arrest. I found him
33:44
Speaker 1: in the act of destroying the reserved instruments, and when
33:47
Speaker 1: I would have interfered to protect them, he fell upon
33:50
Speaker 1: me and beat me. I demand that you arrest him.
33:55
Speaker 1: You forget yourself, mister Johnson, I said, you are not
33:59
Speaker 1: in command of mine. I deplore the action of Lieutenant Alvarez,
34:04
Speaker 1: but I cannot expunge from my mind the loyalty and
34:08
Speaker 1: self sacrificing friendship which has prompted him to his acts.
34:13
Speaker 1: Were I you, sir, I should profit by the example
34:17
Speaker 1: he has set. Further, Mister Johnson, I intend retaining command
34:22
Speaker 1: of the ship even though she crosses thirty, and I
34:28
Speaker 1: shall demand implicit obedience from every officer and man aboard
34:34
Speaker 1: until I am properly relieved from duty by a superior
34:38
Speaker 1: officer in the port of New York. You mean to
34:42
Speaker 1: say that you will cross thirty without submitting to arrest,
34:45
Speaker 1: he almost shouted. I do, sir, I replied, and now
34:50
Speaker 1: you may go below, And when again you find it
34:53
Speaker 1: necessary to address me, you will please be so good
34:57
Speaker 1: as to bear in mind the fact that I am
35:00
Speaker 1: York commanding officer and as such entitled to our salute.
35:06
Speaker 1: He flushed, hesitated a moment, and then, saluting, turned upon
35:11
Speaker 1: his heel and left the bridge. Shortly after Alvarez appeared.
35:18
Speaker 1: He was pale and seemed to have aged ten years
35:21
Speaker 1: in the few brief minutes since I last had seen him. Saluting,
35:26
Speaker 1: he told me very simply what he had done, and
35:29
Speaker 1: asked that I place him under arrest. I put my
35:33
Speaker 1: hand on his shoulder, and I guessed that my voice
35:36
Speaker 1: trembled a trifle, as while reproving him for his act,
35:40
Speaker 1: I made it plain to him that my gratitude was
35:43
Speaker 1: no less potent a force than his loyalty to me.
35:47
Speaker 1: Then it was that I outlined to him my purpose
35:51
Speaker 1: to defy the regulation that had raised the dead lines,
35:54
Speaker 1: and to take my ship back to New York myself.
35:58
Speaker 1: I did not ask him to show share the responsibility
36:01
Speaker 1: with me. I merely stated that I should refuse to
36:05
Speaker 1: submit to arrest, and that I should demand of him
36:10
Speaker 1: and every other officer and man implicit obedience to my
36:15
Speaker 1: every command until we docked at home. His face brightened
36:22
Speaker 1: at my words, and he assured me that I would
36:25
Speaker 1: find him as ready to acknowledge my command upon the
36:29
Speaker 1: wrong side of thirty as upon the right, an assurance
36:34
Speaker 1: which I hastened to tell him I did not need.
36:38
Speaker 1: The storm continued to rage for three days, and as
36:42
Speaker 1: far as the wind scarce varied a point during all
36:46
Speaker 1: that time, I knew that we must be far beyond thirty,
36:50
Speaker 1: drifting rapidly east by south. All this time it had
36:56
Speaker 1: been impossible to work upon the damaged engines all the
37:00
Speaker 1: gravity screen generators, but we had a full set of
37:04
Speaker 1: instruments upon the bridge. For Alvarez, after discovering my intentions,
37:09
Speaker 1: had fetched the reserve instruments from his own cabin, where
37:13
Speaker 1: he had hidden them. Those which Johnson had seen him
37:17
Speaker 1: destroy had been a third set, which only Alvarez had
37:22
Speaker 1: known was aboard the cold water. We waited impatiently for
37:27
Speaker 1: the sun that we might determine our exact location, and
37:32
Speaker 1: upon the fourth day our vigil was rewarded a few
37:35
Speaker 1: minutes before noon. Every officer and man aboard was tense
37:40
Speaker 1: with nervous excitement as we awaited the result of the reading.
37:46
Speaker 1: The crew had known almost as soon as I that
37:49
Speaker 1: we were doomed to cross thirty and I am inclined
37:52
Speaker 1: to believe that every man jack of them was tickled
37:56
Speaker 1: to death, for the spirits of adventure and romance still
37:59
Speaker 1: live in the hearts of men of the twenty second century,
38:03
Speaker 1: even though there be little for them to feed upon.
38:07
Speaker 1: Between thirty and one hundred seventy five, their men carried
38:12
Speaker 1: none of the burdens of responsibility. They might cross thirty
38:16
Speaker 1: with impunity, and doubtless they would return to be heroes
38:20
Speaker 1: at home. But how different the homecoming of their commanding officer.
38:26
Speaker 1: The wind had dropped to a steady blow still from
38:30
Speaker 1: west by north, and the sea had gone down. Correspondingly,
38:34
Speaker 1: The crew, with the exception of those whose duty kept
38:37
Speaker 1: them below, were ranged on deck below the bridge. When
38:42
Speaker 1: our position was definitely fixed, I personally announced it to
38:47
Speaker 1: the eager waiting men men, I said, stepping forward to
38:52
Speaker 1: the handrail and looking down into their upturned, bronzed faces.
38:57
Speaker 1: You are anxiously awaiting information as to the ship's position.
39:02
Speaker 1: It has been determined at latitude fifty degrees seven minutes
39:06
Speaker 1: north longitude twenty degrees sixteen minutes west. I paused, and
39:13
Speaker 1: a buzz of animated comment ran through the massed men
39:17
Speaker 1: beneath me. Beyond thirty. But there will be no change
39:23
Speaker 1: in commanding offices, in routine or in discipline until after
39:30
Speaker 1: we have docked again in New York. As I ceased
39:34
Speaker 1: speaking and stepped back from the rail, there was a
39:38
Speaker 1: roar of applause from the deck such as I never
39:41
Speaker 1: before had heard aboard a ship of peace. It recalled
39:45
Speaker 1: to my mind tales that I had read of the
39:48
Speaker 1: good old days, when naval vessels were built to fight,
39:52
Speaker 1: when ships of peace had been man of war, and
39:56
Speaker 1: guns had flashed in other than futile target practice, and
40:00
Speaker 1: decks had run red with blood. With the subsistence of
40:06
Speaker 1: the sea, we were able to go to work upon
40:09
Speaker 1: the damaged engines to some effect, and I also set
40:13
Speaker 1: men to examine the gravitation screen generators, with a view
40:17
Speaker 1: to putting them in working order, should it prove not
40:21
Speaker 1: beyond our resources. For two weeks we labored at the engines,
40:27
Speaker 1: which indisputably showed evidence of having been tampered with. I
40:31
Speaker 1: appointed a board to investigate and report upon the disaster,
40:37
Speaker 1: but it accomplished nothing other than to convince me that
40:40
Speaker 1: there were several officers upon it who were in full
40:43
Speaker 1: sympathy with Johnson, for though no charges had been preferred
40:48
Speaker 1: against him, the board went out of its way specifically
40:53
Speaker 1: to exonerate him in its findings. All this time we
40:58
Speaker 1: were drifting almost due east. The work upon the engines
41:02
Speaker 1: had progressed to such an extent that within a few
41:06
Speaker 1: hours we might expect to be able to proceed under
41:09
Speaker 1: our own power westward in the direction of Pan American waters.
41:15
Speaker 1: To relieve the monotony, I had taken to fishing, and
41:19
Speaker 1: early that morning I had departed from the cold water
41:22
Speaker 1: in one of the boats. On such an excursion, A
41:26
Speaker 1: gentle west wind was blowing, the sea shimmered in the sunlight.
41:32
Speaker 1: A cloudless sky can appeared the west for our sport.
41:37
Speaker 1: As I had made it a point, never voluntarily to
41:40
Speaker 1: make an inch toward the east that I could avoid,
41:43
Speaker 1: at least, they should not be able to charge me
41:46
Speaker 1: with a wilful violation of the dead line's regulation. I
41:51
Speaker 1: had with me only the boat's ordinary complement of men
41:55
Speaker 1: three and all, and more than enough to handle any
41:58
Speaker 1: small power boat. I had not asked any of my
42:02
Speaker 1: officers to accompany me, as I wished to be alone,
42:06
Speaker 1: and very glad I am now that I had not.
42:09
Speaker 1: My only regret is that, in view of what befell us,
42:13
Speaker 1: it had been necessary to bring the three brave fellows
42:17
Speaker 1: who manned the boat. Our fishing, which proved excellent, carried
42:23
Speaker 1: us so far to the west that we no longer
42:26
Speaker 1: could see the cold water. The day wore on until
42:30
Speaker 1: at last, about mid afternoon, I gave the order to
42:34
Speaker 1: return to the ship. We had proceeded but a short
42:37
Speaker 1: distance toward the east, when one of the men gave
42:41
Speaker 1: an exclamation of excitement at the same time pointing eastward.
42:47
Speaker 1: We all looked on in the direction he had indicated,
42:51
Speaker 1: and there, a short distance above the horizon, we saw
42:55
Speaker 1: the outlines of the cold water silhouetted against the sky.
42:59
Speaker 1: They repaired the engines and the generators, both, exclaimed one
43:04
Speaker 1: of the men. It seemed impossible, but yet it had
43:09
Speaker 1: evidently been done. Only that morning, Lieutenant Johnson had told
43:13
Speaker 1: me that he feared that it would be impossible to
43:16
Speaker 1: repair the generators. I had put him in charge of
43:20
Speaker 1: this work, since he always had been accounted one of
43:23
Speaker 1: the best gravitation screen men in the Navy. He had
43:28
Speaker 1: invented several of the improvements that are incorporated in the
43:31
Speaker 1: later models of these generators, and I am convinced that
43:35
Speaker 1: he knows more concerning both the theory and the practice
43:39
Speaker 1: of screening gravitation than any living pan American. At the
43:44
Speaker 1: sight of the cold water, once more under control, the
43:48
Speaker 1: three men burst into a glad cheer. But for some
43:53
Speaker 1: reason which I could not then account, I was strangely
43:57
Speaker 1: overcome by a premonition of personal misas fortune. It was
44:02
Speaker 1: not that I now anticipated an early return to pan
44:05
Speaker 1: America and a board of inquiry, for I had rather
44:10
Speaker 1: looked forward to the fight that must follow my return. No,
44:15
Speaker 1: there was something else, something indefinable and vague, that cast
44:21
Speaker 1: a strange gloom upon me. As I saw my ship
44:25
Speaker 1: rising farther above the water and making straight in our direction,
44:31
Speaker 1: I was not long in ascertaining a possible explanation of
44:35
Speaker 1: my depression, For though we were plainly visible from the
44:40
Speaker 1: bridge of the Arrow Submarine and to the hundreds of
44:44
Speaker 1: men who swarmed her deck, the ship passed directly above us,
44:49
Speaker 1: not five hundred feet from the water, and sped directly westward.
44:56
Speaker 1: We all shouted, and I fired my pistol to attract
45:00
Speaker 1: their attention, though I knew full well that all who
45:03
Speaker 1: cared to have observed us. But the ship moved steadily away,
45:11
Speaker 1: growing smaller and smaller to our view, until at last
45:18
Speaker 1: she passed completely out of sight. End of Chapter one