St. Paul daily globe., 1895-06-02

a jump up in the sky and grew green
and dim, and fish, family glowing,
came darting around me-and things
| that seemed made of luminous glass,
/ and l passed through tangle of sea-
weeds that shone with an oily luster
| And so 1 drove down into the sea, and
| the stars went out one by one, and the
moon grew greener and darker and
| the seaweed became a luminous pur-
pie red. 1t was all very faint and mys-
! terious and everything seemed to
culver. And all the while 1 could hear
! the wheels of the bathchair creaking
and the footsteps of people going by
| and a man with a. bell crying Goals.
II kept sinking down deeper and
deeper into the water. 1t became inky
black about me, not a ray from above
(! came down into that darkness, and
| the phosphorescent things grew bright
er and brighter. The snaky branches
of the deeper weeds fiickared like the
flames of spirit lamps, but after a time
there were no weeds. The fishes came
staring and gaping toward me and into
me and through me. I never imagined
such fishes before. They had lines of
fire along the sides of them, as though
they had been outlined with a luminous
pencil. And there was a CHASTITY thing
swimming backward with a lot of twin
ing arms. And then | saw, coming
very slowly toward me through the
gloom, a hazy mass of light that. re-
solved itself as it drew nearer into
multitudes of fishes, struggling and
dart!ng round something that drifted.
l drove straight on toward it, and pres
emily l saw in the midst of the tumult
and by the light of the fish, bit of.
splintered spar looming over me, and a
dark hull fitting over, and some glow
ing phosphorescent forms that were
shaken and writhed as the fish bit at
them. Then it was 1 began to try to
attract Widgerys attention. A hor
ror came upon me. Ugh! | should
have driven right into those half-eaten
things. If your sister had not come!
They had great holes in them, Bellows,
and Never mind. But it was
ghastly!'
".
For three weeks Davidson remained
in this singular state, seeing what at
the time we imag gined was an altogeth-
er phantasmal world, and stone blind
to the world around him. Then, one
Tuesday, when 1 called, L met old Da-
wilson in the passage. He can see
his thumbi" the old gentleman said,
in perfect transport. He was strug-
Cling into his overcoat. He can see
his thumb, Bellows" he said, with the
tears in his eyes. 1.-The lad will be all
right yet"
l rushed in to Davidson. He was
holding up little book before his face
and looking at it and laughing in a
weak kind of way.
Its amazing" said he. There's
kind of patch come there" He pointed
with his finger. I'm on the rocks, as
usual, and the penguins are stagger-
ing and Tapping about as usual, and
there's been whale showing every
now and then, but it's got too dark
now to make him out. But put some
thing there, and 1 see it-I do see it.
It's very dim and broken in places,
but I see it all the same, like a faint
specter of itself. I found it out this
morning while they were dressing me.
It's like a, hole in this internal phantom
world. Just put your hand by mine.
No-not there. Ali Yes! I see it. The
base of your thumb and bit of cuff
1t looks like the ghost of a bit of
your hand sticking out of the darkling
sky. Just by it there's group of stars
like a. cross coming out"
At first he was unfeignedly glad and
seemed only too anxious to complete
his cure by taking exercise and tonics.
But as that odd island of his began to
fade away from him he became queerly
interested in 1t. He wanted particu-
larly to go down into the deep sea
again, and would spend half his time
wandering about the lower town, try
ing to find the Water-logged wreck he
had seen drifting. The glare of real
daylight very soon impressed him so
vividly as to blot out everything of
his shadowy world, but of a night
time, in darkened room, he could still
see the white-splashed rocks of the
island and the clumsy penguins stag
gering to and fro. But even these
grew fainter and fainter, and, at last,
soon after he married my sister, he saw
them for the last time.
v.
And now to tell the queerest thing
Of all. About two years after his cure
[ dined with the Davidsons, and after
dinner a man named Atkins called in.
He is a lieutenant in the royal navy,
and pleasant, talkatiye man. He was
on friendly terms with my brother-in-
law and was soon on friendly terms
with me. 1t came out that he was en-
gagged to Davidson's cousin and incl
dentally took out a kind of pocket
photograph case to show us new rem
dering of his fancee. "And, by the
bye" said he. "here's the old Fulmar''
Davidson looked at it casually Then
suddenly his face lit up. Good heay-
ens?' said he. Il could almost
swear -"
"What?' said Atkins.
"That I had seen that ship before"
Don't see how you can have She
hasn't been out of the South Seas for
six years, and before then -
But" began Davidson, and then:
"Yes; that's the ship l dreamt of.
I'm sure that's the ship dreamt of.
She was standing off an island that
swarmed with penguins and she fired
a gun"
"Good Lordi" said Atkins. How
the deuce could you dream that?''
And then, bit by bit, it came out