The People That Time Forgot
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Chapter I
I am forced to admit that even though I had traveled a long
distance to place Bowen Tyler's manuscript in the hands of his
father, I was still a trifle skeptical as to its sincerity,
since I could not but recall that it had not been many years
since Bowen had been one of the most notorious practical jokers
of his alma mater. The truth was that as I sat in the Tyler
library at Santa Monica I commenced to feel a trifle foolish
and to wish that I had merely forwarded the manuscript by
express instead of bearing it personally, for I confess that I
do not enjoy being laughed at. I have a well-developed sense
of humor--when the joke is not on me.
Mr. Tyler, Sr., was expected almost hourly. The last steamer
in from Honolulu had brought information of the date of the
expected sailing of his yacht Toreador, which was now
twenty-four hours overdue. Mr. Tyler's assistant secretary,
who had been left at home, assured me that there was no doubt
but that the Toreador had sailed as promised, since he knew
his employer well enough to be positive that nothing short of
an act of God would prevent his doing what he had planned to do.
I was also aware of the fact that the sending apparatus of
the Toreador's wireless equipment was sealed, and that it
would only be used in event of dire necessity. There was,
therefore, nothing to do but wait, and we waited.
We discussed the manuscript and hazarded guesses concerning it
and the strange events it narrated. The torpedoing of the
liner upon which Bowen J. Tyler, Jr., had taken passage for
France to join the American Ambulance was a well-known fact,
and I had further substantiated by wire to the New York office
of the owners, that a Miss La Rue had been booked for passage.
Further, neither she nor Bowen had been mentioned among the list
of survivors; nor had the body of either of them been recovered.
Their rescue by the English tug was entirely probable; the
capture of the enemy U-33 by the tug's crew was not beyond
the range of possibility; and their adventures during the
perilous cruise which the treachery and deceit of Benson
extended until they found themselves in the waters of the far
South Pacific with depleted stores and poisoned water-casks,
