Caprona has always been considered a more or less mythical land,
though it is vouched for by an eminent navigator of the eighteenth
century; but Bowen's narrative made it seem very real, however many
miles of trackless ocean lay between us and it. Yes, the narrative
had us guessing. We were agreed that it was most improbable; but
neither of us could say that anything which it contained was beyond
the range of possibility. The weird flora and fauna of Caspak were
as possible under the thick, warm atmospheric conditions of the
super-heated crater as they were in the Mesozoic era under almost
exactly similar conditions, which were then probably world-wide.
The assistant secretary had heard of Caproni and his discoveries,
but admitted that he never had taken much stock in the one nor the
other. We were agreed that the one statement most difficult of
explanation was that which reported the entire absence of human
young among the various tribes which Tyler had had intercourse.
This was the one irreconcilable statement of the manuscript. A
world of adults! It was impossible.

We speculated upon the probable fate of Bradley and his party of
English sailors. Tyler had found the graves of two of them; how
many more might have perished! And Miss La Rue--could a young
girl long have survived the horrors of Caspak after having been
separated from all of her own kind? The assistant secretary wondered
if Nobs still was with her, and then we both smiled at this tacit
acceptance of the truth of the whole uncanny tale:

"I suppose I'm a fool," remarked the assistant secretary; "but by
George, I can't help believing it, and I can see that girl now,
with the big Airedale at her side protecting her from the terrors
of a million years ago. I can visualize the entire scene--the apelike