Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1896-08-08

could distinguish them they were kneeiing
again. And then they continued Worship
Ing him. without rest intermission. for
the space of three hours.
Most circumStantIal was Elstead'S ac-
count of this astounding city and it's peo-
pie, these people Of perpetual night, who
nave never seen SIN or moon or stars.
green vegetation nor any living, air
fire nor any light but the phosphorescent
light OF Living things. Startling is his
story, it is yet more startling to find that
scientific men of such eminence as Adams
and Jenkins find nothing Incredible in it.
They tell me they see no reason why intel
igent, water-breath.ng, vertebrated crea-
lures Injured to low temperature and
enormous pressure and of such a heavy
structure that neither alive nor dead would
they float, might not live upon the bottom
of the deep sea and. quite unsuspected
by US. descendants like ourselves OF the
great Theriomorpha Of the New Red Sand
stone age. We should be known to them,
however, as strange meteoric creatures
wont to fall catastrophically dead out of
the mysterious blackness of their watery
sky. And not only we ourselves, but our
ships, our metals, our appliances, would
come raining down out of the night. Some
times sinking things would smite down
and crush them. as IL it were the judg-
ment Of some unseen power s5ove. and
sometimes would come things OF the ut
most rarity utility or shapes of inspir-
ing suggestion. One can understand, per-
descent of living man, Il one thinks what
barbaric people might do, to when an en-
haloed shining creature came suddenly out
Of the sky.
At ore time or another Elstead probably
told the officers of the Ptarmigan every
detail of his strange twelve hours in the
abys IS. That he also intended to write
them down is certain. but he never did.
gether the discrepant fragments of his
story from the "reminiscences of Com
manded Simmons, Weybridge. Stevens.
Lindley and the others. We see the thing
darkly in fragmentary glimpses: the huge.
gho stly building. the bowling. chanting peo-
Pile with their dusk chameleon-like head
and family luminous clothing. and Ell
stead with his light turned OF again. vain
ly trying to convey to their minds that
the cord by which the sphere was held was
to be severed. Minute after minute slipped
away, and Elstead. looking at his watch.
was Mortified tc find that he had oxygen
only for two hours more. But the chant
in his honor kept on as remorselessly as IL
it was the marching song of his approach
ing death.
The manner of his release he does not
understand. but to judge by the end Of the
cCrd that hung from the SPHERE it had
been cut through by rubbing against the
edge of the altar. Abruptly the sphere
rolled over and he swept up, out of their
a vacuum would sweep through our own
atmosphere back to its native ether again.
He must have torn out OF their sight
hydrogen but Bile hastcns upward from our
air. strange ascension 1t must have
seemed to them.
The sphere rushed up with even greater
velocity than when weighted with the
lead sinkers 1t had rushed down. 1t
became exceedingly hot. 1t drove up
with the windows uppermost. and he
remembers the torrent of bubbles
frothing against the glass. Every
moment he expected this to fly. Then
suddenly something like huge wheel
seemed to be released in his head, and
the padded compartment began spinning
about him, and he tainted. His next recol-
lection was of his cabin, and of The doc
tors voice.
But that is the substance of the extra
ordinary story that Elstead related in
fragments to the officers of the Ptarmigan
He promised to write it all down at a later
date. His mind was chiefly occupied with
the improvement Of his apparatus, which
was effected at Rio. 1t remains only to
tell that on February 2. 1896. he made his
second descent into the ocean abyss with
the improvements his first experience sue-
gested. What happened we shall prob
ably never know. He never returned. The
Ptarm'gan beat about over the point of
his submersion, seeking him In vain, for
thirteen days. Then she returned to Rio
and the news was telegraphed to his
friends. So the matter remains for the
present. But 1t is hardly probable that no
strange story of these hitherto unsupported
cities Of the deep sea.
(The End.)