"What do you expect to get out of all this, Doctor?" the Captain asked
curiously.
They were sitting in the Captain's cabin. Eight days had elapsed since
the advent of the devil chick. Tomorrow the explorers were to begin
their first serious attack on the unknown. Everything was in readiness
for a quick march to the heart of the mystery and for a safe return to
the ship.
Lane parried the Captain's question.
"I may have come for my share of the oil stock. I'm a member of the
crew, am I not?"
"You're no money grubber. Come on, tell us why you came. I've owned up
to everything. A thousand-acre orange grove in California with nothing
to do but boss it drove me into this mess. After twenty years of
whaling you might be just as ready as I am to sell your soul for a pint
of dirty oil. I've had enough of the cold and the stink. Now I want
sunshine and orange blossoms. What do you want? You have all the money
you need. Now just why did you come?"
"Perhaps I came to collect all those magnificent specimens we have
stowed away. The lively little devil chick alone is enough to make any
lover of the beautiful happy for life. Perhaps that is what I expect in
return for my money."
"I don't think so," said the Captain shrewdly.
"To change the subject for a moment," Lane rejoined after a pause,
"have you any relatives who would miss you if you died?"
"Not one. Why?"
"Because we may never see the ship again after tomorrow."
"If these two," the Captain indicated Edith and Ole, "got through
alive, why can't we? There is dynamite enough between here and the
crater to blow up an army of two-legged reptiles. We shan't be taken by
surprise."
"It isn't that. Yet if you were to ask me what I anticipate I should
have to put you off. For I don't know myself. Only I have a feeling
that we may blunder into more than we foresee. Don't you feel the same,
Drake?"
"Yes," he admitted useasily. "That's why I say Edith shouldn't go. Not
on the first attack, anyway. If everything is all right she can come
with us the second time."
"There may be no second attempt," Edith replied. "I'm coming, John. Now
don't get fussy about it."
"All this may seem rather old womanish to you, Captain," the Doctor
resumed. "Nevertheless that is how Drake and I feel. We have
collaborated during the past seven or eight evenings and have now a
fairly definite theory."
"As to feeling nervous," the Captain laughed, "I occasionally have an
attack of nerves myself when I think of all that beautiful oil being
sucked down the blowholes. It may at any time, you know. But you
haven't told us yet why you want to go on."
"Drake really knows more about what may be ahead of us than I do." He
grew strangely serious. "On the eve of what may be our last peaceful
day on earth I think it only right to tell you everything I suspect.
Drake can speak for himself later.
"This is no mere naturalist's holiday. The tons of specimens we have
gathered are priceless beyond count, no doubt, compared to the oceans
of oil which you expect to discover. Yet priceless as our collections
are, and rich as your oil fields may prove, both together are not worth
the fraction of a cent when balanced against the true purpose of this
expedition."