03 - Lost Continent (Beyond Thirty) by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Originally published as Beyond Thirty, this gripping novel transports readers to the year 2137, where the haunting shadows of World War I have reshaped the world. In this dystopian future, Europe has spiraled into chaos and barbarism, while the Western Hemisphere remains an isolated sanctuary untouched by devastation. The title, Beyond Thirty, alludes to the mysterious line of longitude that the inhabitants of this sheltered region are strictly forbidden to cross. (Summary from Wikipedia)

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter three of the Lost Continent. This LibriVox recording is
in the public domain. Recording by Lucillifaro. The Lost Continent
by Edgar Rice Burrows, Chapter three, The report of a
gun blasted the silence of a dead devonport with startling abruptness.

(00:21):
It came from the direction of the launch, and in
an instant we three were running for the boat as
fast as our legs would carry us. As we came
in sight of it, we saw Dela cart a hundred
yards inland from the launch, leaning over something which lay
upon the ground. As we called to him, he waved
his cap and, stooping, lifted a small deer for our inspection.

(00:46):
I was about to congratulate him on his trophy, when
we were startled by a horrid, half human, half beastial scream.
A little head and to the right of us. It
seemed to come from a clump of rank and tangled bush,
not far from where Delocourt stood. It was a horrid,
fearsome sound, the like of which never had befallen upon

(01:10):
my ears. Before we looked in the direction from which
it came. The smile had died from Delacourt's lips. Even
at the distance we were from him, I saw his
face go suddenly white, and he quickly threw his rifle
to his shoulder. At the same moment, the thing that

(01:30):
had given tongue to the cry moved from the concealing brushwood,
far enough from us too to see it. Both Taylor
and Snyder gave little gasps of astonishment and dismay. What
is it, sir, asked the latter. The creature stood about

(01:51):
the height of a tall man's waist, and was long
and gaunt and sinuous, with a tawny coat striped with black,
and with white throat and belly. In confirmation, it was
similar to a cat, a huge cat, exaggerated colossal cat,

(02:12):
with fiendish eyes and the most devilish cast of countenance.
As it wrinkled its bristling snout and bared its great
yellow fangs. It was pacing, or rather slinking, straight for Delcart,
who had now leveled his rifle upon it. What is it, sir?

(02:33):
Mumbut Snider again? And then a half forgotten picture from
an old natural history sprang to my mind, and I
recognized in the frightful beast the fearless Tigris of ancient Asia.
Specimens of which had in former centuries been exhibited in

(02:54):
the Western hemisphere. Snyder and Taylor were armed with rifles
and revolvers, while I carried only a revolver. Seizing Snyder's
rifle from his trembling hands, I called to Taylor to
follow me, and together we ran forward, shouting to attract
the beast's attention from delcart until we should all be

(03:16):
quite close enough to attack with the greatest assurance of success.
I cried to Delcarte not to fire until we reached
his side, for I was fearful lest our small caliber,
steel jacketed bullets should, far from killing the beast, tend
merely to enrage it still further. But he misunderstood me,

(03:39):
thinking that I had ordered him to fire. With the
report of his rifle. The tigers stopped short in apparent surprise,
then turned and bit savagely at its shoulder for an instant,
after which it wheeled again toward delcart issuing the most
terrific roars and screams, and launched itself with incredible speed

(04:01):
toward the brave fellow, who now stood his ground, pumping
bullets from his automatic rifle as rapidly as the weapon
would fire. Taylor and I also opened up on the creature,
and as it was broadside to us, it offered a
splendid target. Though for all the impression we appeared to
make upon the great cat, we might as well have

(04:24):
been launching soap bubbles at it straight as a torpedo.
It rushed for del Cart, and as Taylor and I
stumbled on through the tall grass toward our unfortunate comrade,
we saw the tiger rear upon him and crush him
to the earth. Not a backward step had the noble
dell Cart taken two hundred years of peace, had not

(04:49):
sapped the red blood from his courageous line. He went
down beneath that avalanche of bestial savagery, still working his
gun and with his face to toward his antagonist. Even
in the instant that I thought him dead, I could
not help but feel a thrill of pride that he
was one of my men, one of my class, a

(05:11):
Pan American gentleman of birth, and that he had demonstrated
one of the principal contentions of the Army and Navy adherents,
that military training was necessary for the salvation of personal
courage in the Pan American race. Which for generations had
had to face no dangers more grave than those incident

(05:34):
to ordinary life in a highly civilized community, safeguarded by
every means, at the disposal of a perfectly organized and
all powerful government utilizing the best that advanced science could suggest.
As we ran toward Delcarte, both Taylor and I were

(05:55):
struck by the fact that the beasts upon him appeared
not to be mourning him, but lay quiet and motionless
upon its prey. And when we were quite close, and
the muzzles of our guns were at the animal's head,
I saw the explanation of this sudden cessation of hostilities.
Fearless Tigris was dead. One of our bullets, or one

(06:19):
of the last that Delcarte fired, had penetrated the heart,
and the beast had died even as it sprawled forward,
crushing Delcarte to the ground. A moment later, with our assistance,
the man had scrambled from beneath the carcass of his
would be slayer, without a scratch to indicate how close

(06:40):
to death he had been. Delcarte's buoyance was entirely unruffled.
He came from under the tiger with a broad grin
on his handsome face, nor could I perceive that a
muscle trembled, or that his voice showed the least indication
of nervousness or excitement. The termination of the adventure, we

(07:01):
began to speculate upon the explanation of the presence of
this savage brute at large, so great a distance from
its native habitat my readings had taught me that it
was particularly unknown outside of Asia, and that so late
as the twentieth century at least, there had been no

(07:23):
savage beasts outside captivity in England. As we talked, Snyder
joined us, and I returned his riffle to him. Taylor
and del Cart picked up the slain deer, and we
all started down toward the launch, walking slowly. Del Cahart
wanted to fetch the tiger's skin, but I had to

(07:44):
deny him permission since we had no means to properly
cure it. Upon the beach, we skinned the deer and
cut away as much meat as we thought we could
dispose of, and as we were again embarking to continue
up the river for fresh water and fuel, we were
startled by a series of screams from the bushes a
short distance away another fell as tigris, said Taylor, or

(08:08):
a dozen of them supplemented Delcarte, And even as he spoke,
there leaped into sight one after another eight of the beasts,
full grown, magnificent specimens. At the sight of us, they
came charging down like infuriated demons. I saw that three

(08:28):
rifles would be no match for them, and so I
gave the word to put out from shore, hoping that
the tiger, as the ancients called him, could not swim.
Sure enough, they all halted at the beach, pacing back
and forth, uttering fiendish cries and glaring at us in
the most malevolent manner. As we motored away, we presently

(08:52):
heard the calls of similar animals far inland. They seemed
to be answering the cries of their fellows at the
water's enir. And from the wide distribution and great volume
of the sound, we came to the conclusion that enormous
numbers of these beasts must roam the adjacent country. They

(09:14):
have eaten up the inhabitants, murmured Snyder, shuddering, I imagine
you are right. I agreed, for their extreme boldness and
fearlessness in the presence of man would suggest either that
man is entirely unknown to them, or that they are
extremely familiar with him as their natural and most easily

(09:34):
procured prey. But where did they come from? Asked Elkhart.
Could they have traveled here from Asia? I shook my head.
The thing was a puzzle to me. I knew that
it was practically beyond reason to imagine that tigers had
crossed the mountain ranges and rivers and all the great

(09:55):
continent of Europe to travel this far from their native lairs,
and entirely impossible that they should have crossed the English
Channel at all. Yet here they were, and in great numbers.
We continued up the tamar several miles, filled our casks,
and then landed to cook some of our deer steak

(10:16):
and have the first square meal that had fallen to
our lot since the cold water deserted us. But scarce
had we built our fire and prepared the meat for
cooking than Snyder, whose eyes had been constantly roving about
the landscape from the moment that we left the launch,
touched me on the arm and pointed to a clump

(10:38):
of bushes which grew a couple of hundred yards away.
Half concealed behind their screening foliage, I saw the yellow
and black of a big tiger, and as I looked,
the beast stalked majestically toward us. A moment later he
was followed by another and another, and it is needless

(11:00):
to state that we beat a hasty retreat to the launch.
The country was apparently infested by these huge carnivora, for
after three other attempts to land and cook our food,
we were forced to abandon the idea entirely, as each
time we were driven off by hunting tigers. It was

(11:22):
also equally impossible to obtain the necessary ingredients for our
chemical fuel, and as we had very little left aboard,
we determined to step our folding mast and proceed under sail,
hoarding our fuel supply for use in emergencies. I may

(11:42):
say that it was with no regret that we bid
adieu to Tigerland, as we rechristened the Ancient Devon, and
beating out into the channel, turned to the launch's nose
northeast to round bolt Head and continue up the coast
toward the Strait of Dover and the North Sea. I

(12:04):
was determined to reach London as soon as possible. That
we might obtain fresh clothing, meet with cultured people, and
learn from the lips of Englishmen the secrets of the
two centuries since the East had been divorced from the West.
Our first stopping place was the Isle of Wight. We

(12:24):
entered the silent about ten o'clock one morning, and I
must confess that my heart sank as we came close
to shore. No lighthouse was visible, though one was plainly
indicated upon my map. Upon neither shore was sign of
human habitation. We skirted the northern shore of the island
in fruitless search of man, and then at last landed

(12:47):
upon an eastern point where newport should have stood, but
where only weeds and great trees entangled, wild wood rioted,
and not a single man made thing was visible to
the eye. Before landing, I had the men substitute soft
bullets for the steel jacketed projectiles with which their belts

(13:10):
and magazines were filled. Thus equipped, we felt upon more
even terms with the tigers. But there was no sign
of the tigers, and I decided that they must be
confined to the main land. After eating, we set out
in search of fuel, leaving Taylor to guard the launch.

(13:33):
For some reason, I could not trust Snyder alone. I
knew that he looked with disapproval upon my plan to
visit England, and I did not know but what, at
his first opportunity he might desert us, taking the launch
with him, and attempt to return to Pan America. That

(13:54):
he would be fool enough to venture it, I did
not doubt. We had gone on inland for a mile
or more and were passing through a park like wood
when we came suddenly upon the first human beings we
had seen since we sighted the English coast. There were

(14:15):
a score of men in the party, hairy, half naked men.
They were resting in the shade of a great tree.
At the first sight of us, they sprang to their
feet with wild yells, seizing long spears that had lain
beside them as they rested for a matter of fifty yards.
They ran from us as rapidly as they could, and

(14:37):
then they turned and surveyed us for a moment, evidently
emboldened by the scarcity of our numbers, that commenced to
advance upon us, brandishing their spears and shouting horribly. They
were short and muscular of beild, with long hair and beards,
tangled and matted with filth. Their heads, however, were shapely,

(15:02):
and their eyes, though fierce and warlike, were intelligent. Appreciation
of these physical attributes came later, of course, when I
had better opportunity to study the men at close range
and under circumstances less fraught with danger and excitement. At
the moment, I saw, and with unmixed wonder, only a

(15:24):
score of wild savages charging down upon us, where I
had expected to find a community of civilized and enlightened people.
Each of us was armed with rifle, revolver, and cutlass.
But as we stood shoulder to shoulder facing the wild men,

(15:45):
I was loath to give the command to fire upon them,
inflicting death or suffering upon strangers with whom we had
no quarrel, and so I attempted to restrain them for
the moment that we might parley with them. To this end,
I raised my left hand above my head with the
palm toward them, as the most natural gesture indicative of

(16:09):
peaceful intentions, which occurred to me. At the same time,
I called aloud to them that we were friends, though
from their appearance there was nothing to indicate that they
might understand Pan American or ancient English, which are of
course practically identical. At my gesture and words, they ceased

(16:30):
their shouting and came to a halt a few paces
from us. Then, in deep tones, one who was in
advance of the others, and whom I took to be
the chief or leader of the party, replied in a
tongue which, while intelligible to us, was so distorted from
the English language from which it evidently had sprung that

(16:52):
it was with difficulty that we interpreted it. Who are you,
he asked, and from what country? I told him that
we were from pan America. But he only shook his
head and asked where that was. He had never heard
of it, or of the Atlantic Ocean, which I told

(17:12):
him separated his country from mine. It has been two
hundred years, I told him since a pan American visited England. England.
He asked, what is England? Why this is a part
of England? I exclaimed, this is grupited. He assured me,

(17:33):
I know nothing about England, and I have lived here
all my life. It was not until long after that
the derivation of Grubetin occurred to me. Unquestionably, it is
a corruption of Great Britain, A name formerly given to
the large island comprising England, Scotland and Wales. Subsequently, we

(17:56):
heard it pronounced grab Britain and Britain. I then asked
the fellow if he could direct us to Ride or Newport.
But again he shook his head and said that he
never had heard of such countries. And when I asked
him if there were any cities in this country, he

(18:16):
did not know what I meant, never having heard the
word cities. I explained my meanings as best I could
by stating that by city I referred to a place
where many people lived together in houses. Oh, he exclaimed,
you mean a camp. Yes, there are two great camps here,

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East Camp and West Camp. We are from East Camp.
The use of the word camp to describe a collection
of inhabitations naturally suggested war to me, and my next
question was as to whether the war was over and
who had been victorious. No, he replied to this question,

(18:59):
the war is not yet over, but it soon will be,
and it will end as it always does, with the
west Enders running away. We the east Enders are always victorious, no,
I said, seeing that he referred to the petty tribal
wars of his little Island. I mean the Great War,

(19:21):
the war with Germany? Is it ended? And who was victorious?
He shook his head impatiently. I never heard, he said,
of any of these strange countries of which you speak.
It seemed incredible, and yet it was true. These people,

(19:44):
living at the very seat of the Great War knew
nothing of it, though but two centuries had passed since
to our knowledge it had been running in the height
of its Titanic frightfulness. Or about them, and to us
upon the far side of the Atlantic still was a

(20:05):
subject of keen interest. Here was a life long inhabitant
of the Isle of Wight who never had heard of
either Germany or England. I turned to him quite suddenly
with a new question. What people live upon your mainland,
I asked, and pointed in the direction of the Hants Coast.

(20:32):
No one lives there, he replied. Long ago, it is said,
My people dwelt across the waters upon that other land,
but the wild beasts devoured them in such numbers that
finally they were driven here, paddling across upon logs and driftwood.
Nor has any dared returned since, because of the frightful

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creatures which dwell in that horrid country. Do know other
peoples ever come to your cunor in ships? I asked.
He never heard the word ship before and did not
know its meaning. But he assured me that until we came,
he had thought that there were no other peoples in
the world other than the grew Britons, who consist of

(21:17):
the east Enders and the west Enders of the ancient
Isle of Wight. Assured that we were inclined to friendliness.
Our new acquaintances led us to their village, or as
they called it camp. There we found a thousand people,
perhaps dwelling in rude shelters and living upon the fruits

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of the chase and such seafood as is obtainable close
to shore. For they had no boats nor any knowledge
of such things. Their weapons were most primitive, consisting of
rude spears tipped with pieces of metal pounded roughly into shape.

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They had no literature, no religion, and recognized no law
other than the law of might. They produced fire by
striking a bit of flint and still together. But for
the most part they ate their food raw. Marriage is
unknown among them, and while they have the word mother,

(22:20):
they did not know what I meant by father. The
males fired for the favor of the females. They practice
infanticide and kill the aged and physically unfit. The family
consists of the mother and the children, the men dwelling
sometimes in one hut and sometimes in another. Owing to

(22:41):
their bloody jewels, they are always numerically inferior to the women,
so there is shelter for them all. We spent several
hours in the village, where we were objects of the
greatest curiosity. The inhabitants examined our clothing and all our belongings,
and are innumerable questions concerning the strange country from which

(23:04):
we had come and the manner of our coming. I
questioned many of them concerning past historical events, but they
knew nothing beyond the narrow limits of their island and
the savage primitive life they led there. London they had
never heard of, and they assured me that I would

(23:26):
find no human beings upon the mainland. Much saddened by
what I had seen, I took my departure from them,
and the three of us made our way back to
the launch, accompanied by about five hundred men, women, girls
and boys. As we sailed away, after procuring the necessary

(23:46):
ingredients of our chemical fuel. The Grubitans lined the shore
in silent wonder at the strange site of our dainty craft,
dancing over the sparkling waters, and watched us until we
were lost to their site. End of Chapter three.