Herland | Page 9

make reprisals."

"They can locate that last stopping place easy enough, and
I've made a sort of chart of that lake and cliff and waterfall."

"Yes, but how will they get up?" asked Jeff.

"Same way we do, of course. If three valuable American
citizens are lost up there, they will follow somehow--to say
nothing of the glittering attractions of that fair land--let's
call it
`Feminisia,'" he broke off.

"You're right, Terry. Once the story gets out, the river
will
crawl with expeditions and the airships rise like a swarm of

mosquitoes."
I laughed as I thought of it. "We've made a great mistake not
to let
Mr. Yellow Press in on this. Save us! What headlines!"

"Not much!" said Terry grimly. "This is our party. We're
going to find that place alone."

"What are you going to do with it when you do find it--if
you do?" Jeff asked mildly.

Jeff was a tender soul. I think he thought that country--if
there was one--was just blossoming with roses and babies and
canaries and tidies, and all that sort of thing.

And Terry, in his secret heart, had visions of a sort of
sublimated summer resort--just Girls and Girls and Girls--and
that he was going to be--well, Terry was popular among women
even
when there were other men around, and it's not to be wondered
at that he had pleasant dreams of what might happen. I could
see
it in his eyes as he lay there, looking at the long blue rollers
slipping by, and fingering that impressive mustache of his.

But I thought--then--that I could form a far clearer idea
of
what was before us than either of them.

"You're all off, boys," I insisted. "If there is such a
place--and
there does seem some foundation for believing it--you'll find
it's
built on a sort of matriarchal principle, that's all. The men
have
a separate cult of their own, less socially developed than the
women, and make them an annual visit--a sort of wedding call.
This is a condition known to have existed--here's just a
survival.
They've got some peculiarly isolated valley or tableland up
there,
and their primeval customs have survived. That's all there
is to it."

"How about the boys?" Jeff asked.

"Oh, the men take them away as soon as they are five or
six, you see."

"And how about this danger theory all our guides were so
sure of?"

"Danger enough, Terry, and we'll have to be mighty careful.
Women of that stage of culture are quite able to defend themselves

and have no welcome for unseasonable visitors."

We talked and talked.

And with all my airs of sociological superiority I was no
nearer than any of them.

I t was funny though, in the light of what we did find, those
extremely clear ideas of ours as to what a country of women
would be like. It was no use to tell ourselves and one another
that
all this was idle speculation. We were