Edgar Rice Burroughs

The Lost Continent Edgar Rice Burroughs

What could it mean? I had left Alvarez in command. He was my most loyal subordinate. It wasabsolutely beyond the pale of possibility that Alvarez should desert me. No, there was some otherexplanation. Something occurred to place my second officer, Porfirio Johnson, in command. I wassure of it but why speculate? The futility of conjecture was only too palpable. The Coldwater hadabandoned us in midocean. Doubtless none of us would survive to know why. The young man at the wheel of the power boat had turned her nose about as it became evidentthat the ship intended passing over us, and now he still held her in futile pursuit of the Coldwater."Bring her about, Snider," I directed, "and hold her due east. We can't catch the Coldwater, andwe can't cross the Atlantic in this. Our only hope lies in making the nearest land, which, unless I ammistaken, is the Scilly Islands, off the southwest coast of England. Ever heard of England, Snider?""There's a part of the United States of North America that used to be known to the ancients asNew England," he replied. "Is that where you mean, sir?""No, Snider," I replied. "The England I refer to was an island off the continent of Europe. It wasthe seat of a very powerful kingdom that flourished over two hundred years ago. A part of theUnited States of North America and all of the Federated States of Canada once belonged to thisancient England.""Europe," breathed one of the men, his voice tense with excitement. "My grandfather used to tellme stories of the world beyond thirty. He had been a great student, and he had read much fromforbidden books.""In which I resemble your grandfather," I said, "for I, too, have read more even than navalofficers are supposed to read, and, as you men know, we are permitted a greater latitude in the studyof geography and history than men of other professions.