Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-02-03

SOL10"uhI ASHoSuISo ny Tile 1dCI tAdI
they were giving me air with the pump.
felt faint and struggled as desper-
ately as 1 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 1 felt myself jerked sidewise
and pulled rapidly through the water
laterally as well as upward. Then a
strangely agreeable sensation came over
me. l felt as if 1 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-
sciousness 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 the
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 | 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
outstretched 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 l
had seen a few days before in the Woo
sung river off Shanghai. On the for
ward junks l saw several armed men
gesticulating wildly. They were evil
IDENTIFY Cinnamon, and they We're greatly
excited.
After watching their movements for
a few moments, it occurred to me that
the men were acting as if they did not
like my appearance. If it were pos
sibIe, might even have supposed that
they We're 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 l rose upon a crest of a wave, and
at the same instant came into position
almost erect. was astonished to see,
behind these vessels in advance. a large
fleet of others like them.
Then the whole situation flashed up
on me. The vessels which were pursu-
ing me were manifestly pirate junks,
which at that time ACKNOWLEDGMENT
up, seemingly out of nowhere, in the
Chinese seas. While l had been at the
bottom, this fleet of pirates had sudden
ly hove in sight around the cape. There
We're, in fact 200 or 800 junks.
The people IN our boat, when they
saw the pirates swoop down upon them,
had no course but to take to flight. But
what We're they to do with me down
there at the bottom? 1t was a wonder
they did not cut my lifeline and leave
me 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
crafty at the rope to signal me, and
now worked the airpump.
Then, with all hands at the oars that
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 a weight of machinery and gold,
and dragging behind them a man fl ON
the bottom of the sea, and they were
chased by a feet of pirates, sailing on a
quartering but very good breeze.
Meantime l was being dragged
through the water on my back. Through
my bit of plate glass l could see the
pirates in advance, who seemed to be
bearing down upon me rapidly.
The more l realized the situation the
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 pipo and
through the inlet valve into my breast
plate.
l own that l hoped the boys would do
that very thing-my situation was SO
horrible. And l actually welcomed a
little dash of water that l got in my
face, though my heart stopped beating
for an instant when l felt the water.
But it was only little which ! shipped
through the outlet air valve.
When the pirates should have over
hauled me, they would go on after the
boat and the recovered treasure, the
taking up of which they must have
somehow got wind of, though they
knew nothing of diving. 1 hoped from
my heart that the boys had already
thrown the gold though
what should happen after my air pipe
was cut was of very little consequence
to me.
l came upon another full view of the
fleet from the top of the wave. | could
see the pirates looking at me as their
sailing craft steadily overhauled me.
Their black eyes were almost bursting
from their sockets as they looked at
me. 1t occurred to me that they were
frightened at something.
l went under wave again, and the
whole scene was out of sight for two or
three minutes.
When 1 came TO the surface again,
and saw the same thing-pale visaged
Cinnamon and the staring round eyes
painted on the bows of their vessels
bearing down on me-the truth flashed
upon me. The pirates had taken me
for the demon of the ocean, which they
are always fearing and fighting away,
with offerings and lamentations, on
board their junks.
A man in diving suit-especially
fat on his back in the water that way
was a new sight to them. had sim
ply frightened them out of their wits
There was my great, glittering head
of red copper, three times as large as
the head of an ordinary man. In it's
front was big staring eye of plate