"Well, Thompson," asked the superior, "what luck? The others have
all returned. Never saw a thing of Oldwick or his plane. I guess
we shall have to give it up unless you were more successful."
"I was," replied the young officer. "I found the plane."
"No!" ejaculated Colonel Capell. "Where was it? Any sign of Oldwick?"
"It is in the rottenest hole in the ground you ever saw, quite a
bit inland. Narrow gorge. Saw the plane all right but can't reach
it. There was a regular devil of a lion wandering around it. I
landed near the edge of the cliff and was going to climb down and
take a look at the plane. But this fellow hung around for an hour
or more and I finally had to give it up."
"Do you think the lions got Oldwick?" asked the colonel.
"I doubt it," replied Lieutenant Thompson, "from the fact that there
was no indication that the lion had fed anywhere about the plane.
I arose after I found it was impossible to get down around the
plane and reconnoitered up and down the gorge. Several miles to the
south I found a small, wooded valley in the center of which--please
don't think me crazy, sir--is a regular city--streets, buildings,
a central plaza with a lagoon, good-sized buildings with domes and
minarets and all that sort of stuff."
The elder officer looked at the younger compassionately. "You're
all wrought up, Thompson," he said.
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