The Washington times., 1912-03-12

minute the great vessel seemed to have
been driven to the bottom of the sea-.
But for the peculiar construction of the
shelter of the bridge it's occupants would
have been drowned at their posts. AS
It was they were soaked as if they had
been plunged overheard. lmpenetrable
darkness surrounded them.
But the buOyant vessel shook itself.
rolled from side to side, and rose with
staggering motion until II seemed to be
poised on the summit Of a watery noun
tain. Immediately the CGSplete dark
ness passed the awful dOwLJOur ceased,
although the rain still fell in torrents,
and the Ark began to glide downward
with sickening velocity, as II 1t were
sliding down liquid slope.
1t was a considerable time before the
two men, clnging to the supports OF the
bridge, were able to maintain their
equilibrium sufficiently to render 1t pos
sible to utter few connected words.
AS soon as he could speak with reason
able comfort COsmo exclaimed:
Now | see what it IS that causes the
pillows; but it is a phenomenon that l
should never have anticipated. 1t is all
due to the nebula. Evidently there are
Irregularities of some kind in its COnst-
tuition which cause the formation of al
most solid masses of water in the at
mosphere-suspended lakes. as 1t were
which then plunge down in body as II
hundred thousand Niagaras were
pouring together from the sky.
raise stupendous waves, which sweep off
in every direction, and that explains the
billows that we have encountered
well, this rebular navigation beats
all my experience" said Captain Arms,
wiping the water out of his eyes. II
was struck by a waterspout once in the
Indian ocean, and thought that that
capped the climax; but 1t was only a
catspaw to this. Give me clear offing
end | don't care how much wind blows,
but blow me II | want to get under any
more lakes in the sky"
"We'l have to take whatever comes"
returned CosmO; but l don't think
there is much danger of running direct
~ into this one. Now that we know
what they are we can, perhaps, detect
them long enough in advance to steer
out of their way. Anyhow, we've got a
good vessel under our feet. Anything
but an ark of leVium would have gone
under for good, and If l had not covered
the vessel with the dome there would
have been no chance for soul in her
AS a matter of fact, the Ark did not
encounter any more of the columns OF
descending water; but the frequent bill
| lows that were met showed that they
were Careering over the race or the sea
| in every direction.
| But there was another trouble OF a
different nature. The absence of sun
! and stars deprived them of the ordi-
| nary means of discovering their place.
They could only make rough guess as
| to the direction in which they were go
| ing The compasses gave them consid-
! cradle assistance, and they had perfect
| ell chronometers; but these latter could
| be Of no use without celestial obserVa-
| tons of some kind.
= At length Cosmo devised a means OF
/ obtaining observations that were of SUI
fcicnt value to partially serve their
| purpose. He found that while the disk
| of the sun was completely hidden in the
watery sky, yet 1t was possible to de-
| termine its location by means OF the
varying intensity of the light.
| Where the sun was, concentrate
glow appeared. shading gradually off on
all sides. with infinite pains Cosmo
| assisted by the experience of the cap
tain, succeeded in determining the cen
ter of maximum illumination, and, as
| suming that to represent the true place
of the sun, they got something In the
nature of observations for altitude and
a2imuth, and Captain Arms even DIRE"
on his chart summer lines to deter