Amazing Stories, Vol. 2, No. 1 — page 66: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Seed Ain What Went Before HE teller of this story discovers a quart / thermos bottle turning and twisting in the _ surf off a small island on Cape Farewell at the southern extremity of Greenland. He rescues it and finds that it contains a manuscript, neatly written and tightly folded, which tells the following story: A young American, with his Airedale, Nobs, while floating on a raft, apparently the lone survivors of a ship torpedoed by a German submarine, discovers a beautiful young girl, seemingly dead, floating on. the sea. He rescues her, she returns to conscious- ness, and later they are both picked up by an Eng- lish vessel. The ship sinks, but the crew, together with the two passengers, gain control of the sub- marine and the Germans. Benson, who later confesses himself a traitor to the group, manipulates the compass so that they swerve far from their intended course and finally find themselves near an island, which they decide must be Caprona. On account of its tremendous cliffs, they cannot gain access to the interior. They discover a subterranean river, submerge and pass through it into an interior sea, where monstrous prehistoric Saurian reptiles are plentiful and dan- gerous in the warmer waters. On landing, they meet with a band of beings re- sembling the Neanderthal man, who are scared off by the firing rifle. One is captured. They soon learn his language and find him helpful while they are building their camp. Oil is discovered and the Germans start refining it. Later they surreptitiously return to the sub- marine and start for home with the oil, leaving the others stranded on the island. Ahm, the Neanderthal man, tells of the “evolu- tion” of his people—a process of graduation, where- by each one leaves his tribe and goes to the next one higher in the stage of development, “when the call comes.” He too, expects some day to become a Galu—the highest stage, most nearly approximating the civilized man. One morning, while six of the men are out hunting, Ahm kidnaps Lys and takes her unith him as his “she.” Tyler starts out in search of her and comes upon another higher type Caspak tribe, in heated discussion about the pos- session of the “she.” He fights to get her and is able to make some arrangement whereby he and Lys can stay there safely for a time. While Tyler is out hunting, he gets lost, comes upon two tombstones marking the graves of two of his six companions and meets with many dangers from the wild beasts of Caspak. He finds his way again, only to return to a devastated country, strewn with the dead bodies of Caspakian men and women, killed in battle. He finds a hiding place on the cliffs, where he expects to stay alone until help comes. He hears a shot and sees Lys below. He rushes to her rescue, overcomes her pursuer and takes Lys to his cave. Thus ends Tyler’s manuscript. BOOK II tells in exciting detail, the story of a rescue party from California, headed by Thomas Billings, which comes to the island in a steam yacht. They have an airplane and Billings ascends over the cliffs in it to investigate. He crashes his plane among the trees, and so beeomes a foot wanderer, out of reach of his companions. He saves Ajor, a beautiful Galu girl, from a bear, and they travel to- gether, having many exciting adventures, being made captives and escaping, until finally Billings and Ajor with Nobs, whom he finds among the Kro-lu, or archers, ride toward the Galu country on a horse, which when pursued slips and throws Bil- lings and Ajor into a quagmire. As the enemy ap- proaches, Jor, the leader of the Galu country, and Ajor’s father, comes with his warriors and with Billings’ companions, who have managed to scale the rocks after many days of continuous labor. Tyler and Lys are also with them. They all go back to the Galu country, where they exchange stories of their experiences and then all the white people go back to America—all except Billings, who decides to stay with Ajor on the island. Thus ends the second book, BOOK III OUT OF TIME’S ABYSS The Tale of Bradley ta=mtt1S is the tale of Bradley after he left 09]| Fort Dinosaur upon the west coast of Mas been) the great lake that is in the center of Wissel the island. MASE} pon the fourth day of September, 1916, he set out with four companions, Sinclair, Brady, James, and Tippet, to search along the base of the barrier cliffs for a point at which they might be scaled. : ‘ Through the heavy Caspakian air, beneath the swollen sun, the five men marched northwest from Fort Dinosaur, now waist-deep in lush, jungle grasses starred with myriad gorgeous blooms, now across open meadow-land and parklike expanses and 65 again plunging into dense forests of eucalyptus and acacia and giant arboreous ferns with feathered fronds waving gently a hundred feet above their heads. About them upon the ground, among the trees and in the air over them moved and swung and soared the countless forms of Caspak’s teeming life. Always were they menaced by some frightful thing and seldom were their rifles cool, yet even in the brief time they had dwelt upon Caprona they had become callous to danger, so that they swung along laughing and chatting like soldiers on a summer hike. “This reminds me of South Clark Street,” re: Gomichbooks