Grimaldi men huddled in their filthy caves; the huge pterodactyls
soaring through the heavy air upon their bat-like wings; the mighty
dinosaurs moving their clumsy hulks beneath the dark shadows of
preglacial forests--the dragons which we considered myths until
science taught us that they were the true recollections of the
first man, handed down through countless ages by word of mouth from
father to son out of the unrecorded dawn of humanity."

"It is stupendous--if true," I replied. "And to think that possibly
they are still there--Tyler and Miss La Rue--surrounded by hideous
dangers, and that possibly Bradley still lives, and some of his
party! I can't help hoping all the time that Bowen and the girl
have found the others; the last Bowen knew of them, there were six
left, all told--the mate Bradley, the engineer Olson, and Wilson,
Whitely, Brady and Sinclair. There might be some hope for them
if they could join forces; but separated, I'm afraid they couldn't
last long."

"If only they hadn't let the German prisoners capture the U-33!
Bowen should have had better judgment than to have trusted them at
all. The chances are von Schoenvorts succeeded in getting safely
back to Kiel and is strutting around with an Iron Cross this very
minute. With a large supply of oil from the wells they discovered
in Caspak, with plenty of water and ample provisions, there is
no reason why they couldn't have negotiated the submerged tunnel
beneath the barrier cliffs and made good their escape."

"I don't like 'em," said the assistant secretary; "but sometimes
you got to hand it to 'em."