Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-06-13

luminous glass, and l passed through a tangle of seaweeds that shone with an oily luster. And so I drove down into the sea, and the stars went out one by one and the moon grew greener and darker and the seaweed became q lumin- GUS purple red. It was all very faint and mysterious and everything seemed to quiver. And all the while could hear the wheels of the bathchair creaking and the footsteps of people going by and a man with bell crying coals.
 "Ikept sinking down deeper and deep CT into the water. It became inly black about inc, not a ray from above came down into that darkness, and the phos- phorescent things grew brighter and brighter. The snaky branches of the deeper weeds flickered like the flames of spirit lamps, but after time there were no more weeds. The fishes came staring and gaping toward mo and into me and through me. 1 never imagined such fishes before. They had lines of fire along the sides of them, as though they had been outlined with n luminous pencil And there was n ghastly thing swim ming backward with lot of twining arms.
 And then saw, coming very slowly toward me through the gloom, hay mass of light that resolved itself as it drew nearer into multitudes of fishes, struggling and darting round something that drifted. drove on straight toward it, and presently I saw ill the midst of the tumult, and by the light of the fish, a bit of splintered spar looming over me and a dark hull tilting over and some glowing phosphOrescent forms that were shaken and writhed as the fish bit at them. Then it was began to try to at tract Widgery's attention. A horror came upon me. Ugh! I should have driven right into those hal. caten- things. If your sister had not come 1! They had great holes in them, Bellows, and-Lever mind. But it was ghastly '" For three weeks Davidson rcmail!ed in this singular state, seeing what at the time we imagined was an altogether phantasmal world, and stone blind to the world around him. Then, one Tues day, when called, met old Davidson in the passage. He can see his thumb!" the old gentleman said, in perfect transport. He was struggling into his overcoat. ''He can see his thumb Bel lowsv' he said, with the tears in his eyes. ''The lad will be all right yet. "
 I rushed ill to Davidson. He was hold ing up little book before his face and looking at it and laughing in weak kind of way.
 Its amazing said he. There's n kind of patch come thero." He pointed with his finger. I'm on the rocks, as usual, and the pCng .ins nro staggering | and Tapping about uS usual, and there's been whale showing every now and | then. but t's got tou dark now to make | him out. But put something there, and | I see it--I do sec it. It's very dim and | broken ln places, but I see it all the same, like a faint Spccter of itself. | found it cut this morning while they were dressing me It's like hole ill | this internal phantom world Just put your hand by mine. No-not there Ah, yes! 1 see it. The base of your thumb and bit of cuff It looks like the ghost of bit of your handstirking out of the | darkliug sky. Just hy il there's group | of stars like Il cross coming out. At first he Was unfcignedly 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 quccrly in terested i'll it. He wanted particularly | to go down into the deep sea again, and would spend half his time wandering | about the lower town, trying to find the water logged wreck he had seen drifting | The glare of real daylight very soon i'm pressed him so vividly as to blot out ev- erything of his shadowy world, but in the nighttime, in a darkened room, he could still see the white splashed rocks of the island and the clumsy penguinS stagger- ing to and fro. But even these grew l fainter and fainter. and at last, soon aft. CT he married my sister, he saw them for the last time.
 And now to tell of the queercst thing of all. About two years after his cure dined with tho Davidsons, and after dinner man named Atkins called in He is a lieutenant ill the royal navy, anC l pleasant, talkative man. He was or | friendly terms with my brother in law
 and was soon on friendly terms witt me. It came out that he was engaged tt Davidson cousin and incidentally h,
 took out a kind of pocket photograph case to show us new rendering of hi
 fiancee. And, by the way" said he
 there's the old Fulmar. :"
 Davidson looked at it casually. Thcl
 suddenly his face lit up "Good hcav
 ens !" said he. "Icould almost swear"- "What?" said Atkins.
 I I .l, ,l,s I. (
 Don't sec how you can have. Sh
 hasn't been out uf the South scis for si!
 years, and before them
 | But. began Davidson, and then
 "YeS. That's the ship I dreamed uf
 I'm sure that's tho ship I dreamed of
 She was standing off an island tha
 swarmCd with penguinS and she fired
 gun"
 "Good Lorl!' said Atkins. "Hoy
 the deuce could you dream that?"
 And then, bit by bit. it came ont tha
 on the very day Davidson was seized H
 M. $. Fulmar had actually been off
 little rock to the south of Antipodcs is
 land. A boat had landed overnight t
 get penguins' eggs, had been delayed
 and thunderstorm drifting up tn
 boat s crew had waited until the morn
 ing before rejoining the ship. Atkin
 had been one of them, and he corrobol
 ated, word for word, the description
 Davidson had given of the island an
 the boat. There is not the slightes
 doubt ill any of our minds that David
 son had really seen the place. In som
 unaccountable way, while he move
 hither and thither in London, his sigh
 moved hither and thither in manne
 that corresponded about this distant is
 land. How is absolutely mystery.
 That completes the remarkable stor
 of Davidson s eyes. It's perhaps the bes