The Lost Continent | Page 9

have aged ten years in the few brief minutes since I last
had seen him. Saluting, he told me very simply what he had done, and
asked that I place him under arrest.
I put my hand on his shoulder, and I guess that my voice trembled a
trifle as, while reproving him for his act, I made it plain to him that my
gratitude was no less potent a force than his loyalty to me. Then it was
that I outlined to him my purpose to defy the regulation that had raised
the dead lines, and to take my ship back to New York myself.
I did not ask him to share the responsibility with me. I merely stated
that I should refuse to submit to arrest, and that I should demand of him
and every other officer and man implicit obedience to my every
command until we docked at home.
His face brightened at my words, and he assured me that I would find
him as ready to acknowledge my command upon the wrong side of
thirty as upon the right, an assurance which I hastened to tell him I did
not need.
The storm continued to rage for three days, and as far as the wind
scarce varied a point during all that time, I knew that we must be far
beyond thirty, drifting rapidly east by south. All this time it had been
impossible to work upon the damaged engines or the gravity-screen
generators; but we had a full set of instruments upon the bridge, for
Alvarez, after discovering my intentions, had fetched the reserve
instruments from his own cabin, where he had hidden them. Those
which Johnson had seen him destroy had been a third set which only
Alvarez had known was aboard the Coldwater.

We waited impatiently for the sun, that we might determine our exact
location, and upon the fourth day our vigil was rewarded a few minutes
before noon.
Every officer and man aboard was tense with nervous excitement as we
awaited the result of the reading. The crew had known almost as soon
as I that we were doomed to cross thirty, and I am inclined to believe
that every man jack of them was tickled to death, for the spirits of
adventure and romance still live in the hearts of men of the
twenty-second century, even though there be little for them to feed
upon between thirty and one hundred seventy-five.
The men carried none of the burdens of responsibility. They might
cross thirty with impunity, and doubtless they would return to be heroes
at home; but how different the home- coming of their commanding
officer!
The wind had dropped to a steady blow, still from west by north, and
the sea had gone down correspondingly. The crew, with the exception
of those whose duties kept them below, were ranged on deck below the
bridge. When our position was definitely fixed I personally announced
it to the eager, waiting men.
"Men," I said, stepping forward to the handrail and looking down into
their upturned, bronzed faces, "you are anxiously awaiting information
as to the ship's position. It has been determined at latitude fifty degrees
seven minutes north, longitude twenty degrees sixteen minutes west."
I paused and a buzz of animated comment ran through the massed men
beneath me. "Beyond thirty. But there will be no change in
commanding officers, in routine or in discipline, until after we have
docked again in New York."
As I ceased speaking and stepped back from the rail there was a roar of
applause from the deck such as I never before had heard aboard a ship
of peace. It recalled to my mind tales that I had read of the good old
days when naval vessels were built to fight, when ships of peace had
been man-of-war, and guns had flashed in other than futile target

practice, and decks had run red with blood.
With the subsistence of the sea, we were able to go to work upon the
damaged engines to some effect, and I also set men to examining the
gravitation-screen generators with a view to putting them in working
order should it prove not beyond our resources.
For two weeks we labored at the engines, which indisputably showed
evidence of having been tampered with. I appointed a board to
investigate and report upon the disaster. But it accomplished nothing
other than to convince me that there were several officers upon it who
were in full sympathy with Johnson, for, though no charges had been
preferred against him, the board went out of its way specifically to
exonerate him in its findings.
All this time we were drifting almost due east. The work upon the
engines had progressed to such an extent that within