Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-03-20
CHAPTER XNNI

At y good round pace, where open going
"A permitted, the party made way, strils-
ing boldly across country in the probable
direction of the lost aeroplane.
Some marched in silence, thoughtfully;
others sang, as though setting out upon
tho Great Sunken Sea In fishing boats. But
one common purpose ana ambition thrilled
them all.
a man less boldly rcsourccful than Allan
stern must have thought long, and hest
tated, before thus plungins -a;o n desc
lated and unknown territory on such a
hunt.
For to speak truth, the finding Of the
needle in the haystack would havo been as
easy as any hope of ever locating the ma
chine in all those thousands Of square miles
of devastation
But Stern felt no fear. The great need of
the colony made the expedition imperative
his supreme scIf-trust rendered 1t possible.
: From the very beginning of things, back
there In the tower overlooking Madison
forest, he had never even admitted the pos
sibil'ty OF failure in any undertaking. De-
feat lay wholly outside his scheme Of
things. That II could ever be his portion
simply never had occurred to him.
AS they progressed he carefully reviewed
everything in his mind. Plans and equip
ment seemed perfectly adequate, In add-
tion to the impedmcnta already mentioned,
few necessary tools. a supply of cord
age for transporting the machine, and three
bottles of brandy for emergencies had been
Judiciously added to the mems burdens.
Each, in addition, carried small fiat
water-jug, tightly stopped, slung over his
shoulder Allan counted on streams being
plentiful, but he meant to look out even
for the unexpected, too.
lie had wisely taken means to protect
their feet for the long tramp. In spite of
all their opposition he had made them pre-
paro and bind on sandals of goats leather.
Hitherto they had gone barefooted at Settle
ment Cliffs; but now that was no longer
permissible.
The total equipment of each man weighed
not less than one hundred pounds, includ-
ing tools and all No weaklings like the
men Of the twentieth century, could have
stood the gaff marching under such load
but these huge fellows, muscular and 1.-the,
walked off with it as though 1t had been
nero nothing.
Allan himself bore an equal burden. In
addition TO arms and provisions he carried
n powerful blnocular, the spoil of a
wrecked opticians shop in Cincinnati
Underfoot. as the column advanced in
q long lne loose dust and wood d-ashes rose
in clouds The air grew thick and irritat-
ing to the lungs,
Now and then they had to make a detour
round a charred and fallen trunk. or cut
their way and Chamber through a calcined
barricade of twisted limbs and branches
Not infrequently they saw burned bones
of animals or of Anthropoids.
Here and there they even stumbled on
distorted, half-consumed body--a hideous
reminder of the vanquished enemy-the
half-man that had tried to pit itself against
the whole-nan, with inevitable annihiation
as the only possible result.
The distorted attitudes oe some of these
CHASTITY, incredibly ugly carcasses told with
eloquence the terrified vain flight of the
Horde before tho all-consuming storm of
fire, the panic and the anguish of their
extinction.
But Allan only grunted or smiled grlinly
at sight of the horrible little bodies. Pity
he felt no more than for crushed and
hideous copperhead.
The country had been swept clean by the
fire-broom. Not living creature remained
visible Moles there still might be. and
perhaps hares and foxes woodchucks
by chance had taken earth; but even of
these there was no trace. Certainly all
larger breeds had been destroyed.
Where paradise-birds. macaws and para
keets had screamed and fitted, humming-
birds darted with a whir of gauzy wings
serpents wrthed, deer browsed, monkeys
and apes swung chatterng from the Llama
festooned fern trees, now all was silence,
charred ashes, dust--the universal, blank
awfuness Of death.
Naked and ugly the country stretched
away, away to it's black horizon, ridge after
ridge of rolling land stubbled with sparse
limbless trunks and carpeted with cinders
A dead world truly, it ,seemed--how in
flnitely different from the lush green beauty
of the territory south of the New Hope,
region Stern still could make out as
blush blur, far to southwark through his
binoculars
BY night. after having eaten dinner be-
side n turbid bracl<ish pool they had made
more than twenty miles to northwestward
Stern thought scornfully of the distance.