Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1902-09-06
DAILY SHORT STORY
Given UP BY the Sea.
roriginal.l

| This commission is Il scientific body
given more to explorations of the bed
and body of the ocean than of study
| ing the cultivation of fish. Deep sea
soundings are among its Investigations
! and, | confess. were of greater interest
| to me than any others in which we
were engaged. The apparatus IS
dredger let down to the bottom OF the
ocean at the end of piano wire. This
wire is used on account of its strength
and because it presents the least sur
face TO currents. We We're sounding
and dredging in that deep ocean terri
tory off the Canary islands and after
number of depth measurements
turned our attention to dredging. We
had lowered the dredge for the third
time and started to lift it when, after
winding it up a matter of fifty feet,
pressure on the wire was felt. The
machinery was at once stopped lest
the wire should be broken. We low
cred, then raised it, but 1t caught again.
We repeated the process several times,
and at last the dredge must have
swung clear of the obstruction, for
there was no more trouble, the instru-
ment coming safely to the surface.
The dredge used on this occasion
consisted OF pair of scoops which as
soon as the lowest point of the dredge
struck were released from an open po-
sition and closed. scraping up small
portion of the bottom. 1 was in charge
of the work when the instrument was
raised and opened the scoops with the
usual interest as to the nature of the
specimen of the bottom / should find.
What was my establishment to see not
a particle of the mud L expected, but
instead Il hairpin and n gold lOckct,
the latter only slightly furnished. !
opened the case with my penknife, for
it fitted tightly. and out dropped a bit
of thin paper. On one side of the lock-
ct was a daguerreotype of Il man, on
the other n woman.
The only explanation l have ever
been able TO make for the bringing up
of these articles is that the dredge was
lowered through some opening in Il
wreck into n place where the scoops
were closed by striking a surface on
which the article rested.
Now, L am aware that fate or Provi-
dence or whatever we choose to call
the supernatural directing power is
continually working out all sorts of
problems in the most unheard of ways.
What the drawing up of these like
nesses from one of the deepest parts
of the ocean meant I was very curious
to know. looked the locket over care
fully in the hope of finding n name.
but was disappointed. Then took the
bit of paper below and unfolded it.
Though the case had been tightly
,Ia Tln afrrr.a tod
but some parts were comparatively
dry. There was writing on it, some of
the words being as clear as the day
they were written, others hopelessly
blurred; but enough were clear to en-
able me to construct the following:
New York. June %. 1850.
| I have this day married Edgar Guy
Hunt and Elizabeth Carnes Mansfield.
! ANTHONY POTWIN, d. D.
1 was disappointed that the writing
did not tell of some conspiracy, murder
or false Imprisonment that / might be-
come, by its possession, an instrument
Of justice. However, l put the trinket
and the paper in my trunk till l re-
| turned to New York. Then l hunted
for Edgar Guy Hunt and Elizabeth
Carnes Mansfield. l found neither,
for they were both dead. What l did
find was a granddaughter, Elizabeth
Mansfield Hunt, who was making Il
scant living by teaching music. Her
story of the family was that her grand
father, Hunt, the only son of his par
ents, had run away with Elizabeth
Mansfield. After his death Il cousin
claimed a farm in Harlem of which
Hunt was the owner, on the ground
| ho hnnn ,in1
Elizabeth Mansfield Hunt had gone
abroad to study music, but was return
ing to claim her husbands property
when she was wrecked off the Azores.
After all, there was an important
feature to my find. The farm in Har-
lem had grown to be worth more than
$5,000,000, and Elizabeth Mansfield
Hunt was the legal heir. The only evil
dence of the marriage of her grand
mother had gone down off the Azores,
drifted to the Canaries and had been
! fished up by me after it had been i'm
mersed nearly half century.
1t was the most natural thing in the
world that /, a young scientist whose
attachments had produced the legal evil
dence which Miss Hunt so much need
ed, should interest myself in the res
| toration of her fortune. 1 furnished
the means necessary to begin suit
against the owners of the now divided
property, and compromises were made
which footed up total of $1,245, 900,
or about a fourth of the value of the
property. Miss Hunt insisted on divid-
ing what she received with me, but l
declined to accept any portion of it,
telling her that if she would accept me
instead she would make me very hap
by. She agreed to the compromise, and
after we We're married, impressed as
she was with the benefits accruing
from deep sea soundings, she wanted to
fit out an expedition, not for the pur-
pose of studying the bottom of the sea,
but for fishing up evidence that would