The Rice belt journal. (Welsh, Calcasieu Parish, La.) 1900-19??, 1909-08-20
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| ers. The great WingleSS terror picked
her up into the air before her engines
could be stopped, and with her screw
beating the atmosphere like the nut
tering fins Of fish captured by a
marauding eagle, sailed off with her
| into the blue above.
Once more they tried the effect OK
gunnery, when the Katori was threat
ened but it was futile, and, reading
| their doom, they waited their turn. IL
was not long in coming; for now by
twos and threes they were torn from
the ocean and lifted alOft. The col
| liers were the last to SuCcumb, ana
their crews, realizing that the hulls
| alone would come in contact with tne
| implacable demons above, ran scream
| ing below decks to continue their sup
plications to the deaf gods who had
deserted them.
From the thick glass of his port the
admiral looked down upon his con-
quered foemen and watched the pre-.
cision with which his orders were be-.
| ing obeyed. Each time a victim was
seized he shouted: "Threes done her
work." or Good boy, Seven! You've
got him." and SO on enumerating each
| success.
Some movement on the deck of the
ito close at hand arrested his atten.
| tion His br0ws came together again
in a fierce scowl. Stand by the mag.
net levers, Miss Norma" he com.
manded, because of these fellows be.
low mean to show the least resistance
whatever, we'll drop 'em!"
She had been standing serenely in
her hood, her head thrown back, revel.
ing in the glories of triumph. When
the fate of the battle had hung upon
| her performance, and when her own
life was threatened, she had thrown
herself body and soul into the fray.
wide eyed, unresistant, and without a
tremOr; but now, at the thought of be.
ing the eXecutiOner of perhaps thou
sand men, her face blanched, her
limbs trembled, and her hands forgot
their task and clasped together in i'm
ploration. She was the woman again,
ready to plead for the lives of those
she had conquered.
MY God. You wouldn't do that,
would you?" she said.
The old gladiator of the sea turned
upon her fiercely. DO it? Do it? I'd
drop them to he'll as quick as would
to the bottom of the Pacific if they
show fight" he responded. We're
out here to teach a lesson, and they
deserve all that's coming to 'em! War
is no child's game" he concluded grim.
ly, and the first ship that wants
trouble goes down like a thunder.
bolt"
AS if to emphasize his remark, he
sprang to the signal box and issued
this sanguinary order to every radio.
plane in the fleet, while Norma, faint
and sick at heart, shut her teeth and
with look of inexpressible pain
turned back to her levers.
But she was spared this dreadful
work. The Japanese officers and men
had learned the absolute futility of re-
sistance, and doubted the efficacy of
appeal! Their one hope for life now
rested in the humanity and leniency
of those who held them in thrall.
1t took no long chain of reasoning
to conclude that an enemy who could
pluck them from the seas and without
visible effort lift them more than a
mile high could as readily release his
hold and send them to destruction
with meteorlike speed. Even were it
possible to destroy those monsters
which clutched them, to do so would
be standardization.
They were ignored, cut off from
those above, and divorced from the
waters beneath as if they were crea.
lures OF no Importance, to be treated
like mere troublesome insects, exter.
minated or spared as their captor's
whim might dictate. The glory of an
easy conquest in the Philippines. the
boastings which had followed the sub.
jugation of Hawaii, the pomp and cir.
cumstance of previous conquests-all
were obliterated. all erased from the
scroll of valorous deeds by an action
which had lasted less than an hour
And now, like beaten legionartes
chained to the victor's car, they were
being carried away toward the rising
sun and an unknown fate.
(TO BE CONTINUED)