The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1914-07-10

years before, no had landed In
America to recover his stolen lands,
dropped from his mind. He felt the
dawning of that peace which he had
craved. at last. He set his face reso-
lutely toward the old world and free
dom-freedom both from that inces-
SAINT pursuit which had been hound
ing him by night and by day and
from the passions In his own heart.
Although the maps had taught him
the approximate site Of the cable. 1t
was no slight task to discover 1t be-
meath that wilderness Of waters on
whose breast his water-logged craft
tossed like a cork on a pool. His
graphing iron hung from the center
of the boat, through an aperture re-
sembling that made Tor centerboard.
Once he had caught the cable, turn
of the disconnected gyroscope would
drag 1t up and catch the loop of 1t
against the steel guard which was to
hold it in place until Haynes was
ready to dive down into the depths
below. At nightfall he began his
search, but it was bright morning be-
fore his iron fastened upon the stout
coil, and only the pull of the gyro-
scope sufficed to drag that monstrous
serpent, green with marine growths,
from it's resting place through fathoms
of waters. When at last he had Sc
cured it to the wheel he crept into his
cage, fastening it from the inside. He
donned his divers dress and oxygen
helmet, touched the stop of the gyro-
scope and, with whirl, the waters
rose and covered him. The boat
dragged down at first, rose when her
plunging freight parted from her, and
floated, bottom up, and empty, upon
the bay.
The gyroscope had caught the cable
true. The submarine car rolled, struck
her nose into the mud, and tried to
stay there, but the wheel held-it
could not choose but hold when the
top drove onward-and he was away
under the sea, travelling upon the line
stretched out upon that Shiny bed
formed by the slow death of millions
of marine organisms. Haynes
breathed comfortably enough, al
though his eardrums rang. He looked
out through the tiny window. Slowly
the light faded, the green Translucent
cy of the water surrounded him; then
that too disappeared and black, i'm
penetrable night enshrouded him, as
black as that primeval night before
LII of
monstrous furnace for the first time
over the rim of the world. He could
hear nothing; but, even If the vessel
had not been sound-proof, he could
have heard nothing, for there was no
sound in those depths. Soon he was
approaching the region where the con-
tinental shelf of land slopes into the
intellectually deep abyss. Now lumi-
nous patches flashed and fitted past
him. Huge globes of fire followed
and watched him through the window.
These were the great, luminous eyes
own lamps, with which to hunt their
prey, chasing them in a world of per-
petual darkness. The pressure on his
ears increased. He felt the oxygen
bag. 1t was still full and the flow
was not interrupted. Yet an uncon-
trollable desire for sleep crept over
him, and the chill of the surrounding
waters communicated itself to his
tired limbs and deprived them of SEN
sation. He would sleep till the jour-
ney was ended; he settled himself for
rest; his eyes closed.
The cable officer whose cottage,
built on a rock at the edge of the
land, adjoined the cabIe station, felt
shock which threw him from his
chair. The walls quivered, cloud of
plaster fell from the roof. Picking
himself up, he rushed outside to
learn what had happened. His first
thought was that there had been a
landslide; his second that this was
an earthquake.
When he looked into the machine
house from which the cable issued
he saw that everything was wrecked.
In the twisted tangle of machinery
were the still whirring fragments Of
a wheel. And over all was a singular
plate of metal, seventeen feet long
and some two inches in thickness,
smooth as though it had been made
to form the top of billiard table.
1t was impossible to say Of what it
was composed. From the fact that
iron entered largely into it's compost
ton the theory was subsequently ad-
vanced that this was meteor, which,
mysteriously fiattened, had fallen into
the engine house.
Yet, since the roof was intact. ii
must have come through the small
aperture in the floor by which the
cable descended. Scientists then pro.
pounded the theory that the meteor.
falling at tangent to the earth, and
skimming its circumference for many
thousand miles, until f1attened by at.
mospheric friction, had plunged into
the machine house at that angle of
half degree. The pieces of the
wheel did not fit into this theory, so
they ignored them.
This exhibit, which was a nine
days wonder at that time, was soon
forgotten. 1t rests now in the Tech.
nical Museum In Dublin, and Is chief
ly of interest as being the hardest
substance known. The compression
to which it was subjected during it's
passage through space must have
been intellectually strong, the cata.
logue says. Nobody knows that this
metallic slab forms the sarcophagus
of man, whose mortal remains lie
fmDrisoned in those two fnches