James Vaneyke, the President of the Columbian Scientific Society, has decided he must visit an inaccessible mountain plain. Its walls are too sheer, too slippery for ascent. To whom can he turn? Frank Reade, of course. Inventor of countless airships. They''ll just fly over and land on the flat mountain expanse, and explore its mysteries.

Unfortunately, he timed his letter poorly, and Frank was just finishing his next land vehicle. It's called the Electric Trap, and this time we don't get a lavish description or even a grudging one.

They get to the mountain range, and Frank might be thinking that the airship was the way to go:

Well, a fearsome primate shows up in the night, and attacks Pomp; Barney hits it on the head with a steel rod and kills it. That's the first piece of excitement. The next morning, Frank surveys the situation again:

No kidding. They make it up, of course, and discover a Lost World, populated by giants they call the Greeks and the Romans. And there are barbarians. And giant elk. And cities! After a week among the marvels, Frank asks Dr. Vaneyke if he'd like to turn his face homeward, and the head of the Columbian Scientific Society says yes, "my work is done." Quick study, I guess.

Towards the end you wonder how the Trap will be destroyed; no conveyance ever survives the story. Some barbarians carjack it and being barbarians, don't know what the buttons do. They press one of hte shiny knobs, and it careen right off the edge of the cliff.

Whew! Otherwise we might have to use it again.