The herald., 1894-02-18

the water. Then, / confess, / was
frightened. To draw up diver quickly
from such depth is ordinarily certain
death to him. He must rise slowly and
accustom himself by successive stages to
the change of pressure.
signaled desperately by jerks upon
the rope, and for moment the upward
pull ceased. l collected my senses and
began to rise slowly.
Then the jerking and pulling began
again. l jerked the line impatiently,
but was again lifted rapidly through
the water.
Have they all gone crazy up there?"
said to myself, my own words roaring
in my ears and mixing with the ter
rible ringing and hammering that the
rapid tightening of the pressure was be-
ginning to cause, but meantime l was
somewhat treasured by the fact that
they were giving me air with the pump.
I felt faint and struggled as desper-
ately as I could to prevent my unseen
and unknown enemies from dragging me
upward to suffocation and perhaps
death, but Of course it was in vain.
Then | felt myself jerked sidewiso
and pulled rapidly through the water
laterally as well as upward. Then q
strangely agreeable sensation came over
me. felt as if [ were walking on air,
The hammering in my ears was pitched
at higher and higher key. Then my
senses reeled, and was unconscious.
| do not like to deal in mysteries.
had simply tainted away as the result
of being drawn upward quickly, instead
of regulating my own ascent, and of not
getting enough air. Unlucky for me,
as it seemed when l opened my eyes,
had not parted company with my con-
seriousness for good and all, and that fact
proved that they were getting air to
me. | came to my senses at the sur
face and found myself half out of tho
water, half in it, still in my diving suit.
was being drawn backward through
the water, and through the front win
dow of my helmet l saw the strangest
sight that ever met my eyes.
Not 40 rods away, and blowing to-
ward me, were a great many vessels of
singular construction, having tall sails
that looked to me like the side of an
cutstretched accordion, and upon the
PROV of every boat was painted huge,
staring eye, with black streaks diverg-
ing from it,
The more l looked at these strange
objects the more l became convinced
that they were Chinese junks, such as
had seen a few days before in the Woo
sung river off Shanghai On the for
ward junks | saw several armed men
gesticulating wildly. They were evil
IDENTIFY Cinnamon, and they were greatly
excited.
After watching their movements for
few moments, it occurred to me that
the men were acting as if they did not
like my appearance. If it were pos
sible, l might even have supposed that
they were afraid of me, but the fact
that they were pursuing me at good
rate of speed shut out any such SUPPOSE
ton as that.
AS rose upon crest of a wave, and
at the same instant came into position
almost erect, was astonished to see,
behind these vessels in advance, largo
! neet OF others ike them.
Then the whole situation flashed up
on me. The vessels which were pursu-
ing me were manifestly pirate junks,
which at that time ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
up, seemingly out of nowhere, in the
! Chinese seas. While had been at the
bottom, this feet of pirates had sudden
/ ~ hove in sight around the cape. There
were, in fact, goo or 800 junks.
The people IN our boat, when they
saw the pirates swoop down upon them,
had no course but to take to fight But
what were they to do with me down
there at the bottom? 1t was wonder
they did not cut my lifeline and leave
Inc to my fate. AS the laws of human
conduct go, they would have been JUS
titled in sacrificing my life in order to
save their own.
| / learned all this afterward, when
Cowles told me how he stood at the
gunwale with his revolver in one hand,
| keeping the men off the line, while
with the other hand he now jerked
crafty at the rope to signal me, and
now worked the airpump.
| IuSI, Will ali lulluS az lIlS OdIS tudL
could grasp them, they bore away for
the forts of the Woosung. OF course
they really had no chance to get there.
They were 10 men in a big whaleboat,
with weight Of machinery and gold,
and dragging behind them man from
the bottom of the sea, and they were
chased by a fleet Of pirates, sailing ON a
quartering but very good breeze.
Meantime | was being dragged
through the water on my back. Through
my bit of plate glass I could see the
pirates in advance, who seemed to be
bearing down upon me rapidly.
The more l realized the situation the
more frightened became. Our men
could never row away from those
junks. They would overhaul me first,
and when they had done that the men
in the boat would cut me off. Then l
should drown in moment from the
water rushing into the air pipe and
through the inlet valve into my breast
plate.
own that hoped the boys would do
that very thing-my situation was SO
horrible. And / actually welcomed
little dash of water that got in my
face, though my heart stopped beating
for an instant when felt the water.
But it was only little which l shipped
through the Ol1tlat air valve