The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1900-10-16

doctor told the tale
There is little in it," he said. ssDi-
rectly l turned the light off the beast
gave up nuzzling the glass and started
driving its sharp nose against the panes
with all the force it could muster.
There was nothing for it but to make
for the surface as fast as possible If
the glass had gone, the pressure of wa
ter from without would have been SO
intense that nothing we could have
done would have prevented the thrush.
And then-by the way, has anybody
got matches? want cigarette. y
But, though the doctor thus made lit
tie of the encounter, the danger had
been really great, and more than one of
the Eureka's crew began to wonder
whether they were destined ever to find
the gold which was to be the reward of
their daring. For, do what they would,
no glimpse Of the Santa Catarina came
to reward their patient search. They
had diligently quartered five square
miles of the sea floor, and, unless they
had overlooked her, she was not there.
That evening, therefore, there was
council held on deck, while the ketch
rode stationary at her sea anchor.
SIT is rather disappointing, the doc
tor owned, "but don't consider the
case by any means hopeless as yet. You
see, that old galleon was wooden ship,
and SO when she left the top Of the sea
she would not of necessity go straight
to the bottom. She would sink good
many fathoms and then would get to
layer of water of sufficient denseness to
prevent her going any farther for
awhile. But, though she would not re-
main suspended for long. for her tim
bers and cargo would soon get thor
oughly sodden, she might very we'll get
into some undercurrent which would
take her along goodness knows how
far
"But," objected Captain Colepepper.
"if there had been any such current
about! we should have noticed it"
"Not necessarily. 1t may be some
subsurface stream, running only few
inches an hour. With our rough obser-
vations we should never notice such a
small disturbance as that. And yet,
given time, it might have shifted the
slowly sinking galleon on good long
distance before she finally settled into
her bed upon the ooze. No, shall not
abandon our search while we have a
single cylinder of oxygen left, and even
then shall not go away because con-
slider it hopeless. .
And SO it was decided that the search
should go on. The Eureka made descent
after descent and each day surveyed as
much Of the ooze bed below as her hand
driven screw would take her over
Besides the two extraordinary perils
which have been mentioned, there were
other and more frequently repeated
| times Of danger. These were the mo-
ments when she was returning to or
dropping from the surface. Then, if
there happened to be anything of a
heavy sea or swell running, the doctor
found himself in no small difficulty. OF
course the tine Of descent was in his
own hands, for, if the weather was bad
when the hour came for the dive, he
could simply wait and let the ketch
| ride to her floating anchor till the sea
moderated. But if blow sprang up
while she was in the black depths below
she was pinned. She was bound to
come to the surface sooner or later, or
her crew would suffocate. But several
times, when they had begun to pump
water out of the ballast tanks and risen
almost the whole distance, they found
that there was dangerous sea running
overhead and were compelled to stay
their hands and let the Eureka balance
in middepth till the weather had inn
proved.
On all occasions but one this maneu-
yer had succeeded, though at the cost OF
IL grievcus waste of the store of COM
pressed oxygen. But on that one day,
after using up three whole cylinders Of
the precious gas and enduring the close
mir OF the hold till its surcharged heavi-
ness nearly choked them, they took to
the pumps again in kind of despera-
ton and crept slowly up to the bolster
GUS surface above.
Heavily waterlogged as she was, the
Eureka would not rise to the seas, but
rolled sluggishly in the trough and al
lowed the heavy waves to make clean
breach over her. The imprisoned treas
ure hunters could hear the cataracts of
green falling overhead like avalanches
of stone Every nail and every rivet of
the vessel was tried to its uttermost
Nothing but her colossal strength
brought her through that fierce ordeal
and when the iron matches were taken
off and the crew got on to the deck the
rigging and launching Of the sea anchor
proved task almost too great for
them. But at last it was done, and the
ketch was slowed round to ride bows on
to the waves.
Then there was leisure to look around,
and the sight which met the eyes was
cruel enough, for the pounding seas
had made sad havoc while the Eureka
had been rolling helpless in their trough
Nine days after the adventure with
the giant eel Dolly made a mistake
which was the cause of giving great
disappointment to the whole crew. This
is how it happened:
|