Sioux County pioneer. (Fort Yates, Sioux County, N.D.) 1914-1929, 1915-03-12

Of his own thought.
Great God. have it," He spoke
with the awcsome deliberation of a
seer from the depths of his trance.
I'VE can make air" And at the words
he crumpled Imply to the floor.
Barton was by his side instantly,
shaking him roughly. savagely, while
he fought back hope that he dared
not trust.
What do you mean, Dick? Come
speak! Make air? Man, are you
made he cried as he tugged at the
PROSTATE form with all his failing
strength.
Yes! Air oxygen - life!" the
ensign muttercd. He sat up I'M
steadily. AT the academy-remem-
Der? The acid and the batteries. We
decomposcd water. There's enough in
the tank till we raise the pressure
then Well get oceans of it."
He swung his arms above his head
-dramatically-a bit wildly, while
Barton himself almost collapsed as his
mind flew back to his training school
chemistry and the experiment of long
before.
lectrolysis- thrustin., the ends OF
two currcnt-charged wires into water
salt or fresh, tinctured weakly with
sulphuric acid, beyond question, would
separate the liquid into the oxygen
and hydrogen of which it is composed
IN vt nf tn ty< cf 1o
latter would be the proportion; and
a single cubic foot of the water would
produce 1000 feet OF the gas.
For an instant thought of the fatal
effect of pure oxygen struck the lieu
tenant cold.
To make it respirable in the air 1t is
diluted with three times its volume Of
nitrogen. Then he reflected that hy-
drogen is also inert and harmless to
breathe and its ratio would be suffi-
GENTLY large. Corrigan's act in sub
shutting lead-oxid battery plates for
the iron weights of the balance-trough
now appealed to him as nothing short
Of providential.
"Unbelievable!" he cried as he be-
gan to gather together all the glass
Leyden-jars they had; ''yet-thank
God-so truc-so true!"
Their reprieve was barely in time;
and the lieutenant and Rolf went at
the preparations feverishly, while
Marsh and Corrigan watched dumbly
scarcely comprehcnding the vital
sweep of events.
And when at last the first tiny bub-
bles began to rise through the water
like the effervescence Of some Jovian
wine, no Ponce de Leon arrived at his
quested Fountain of Youth could have
matched the wild Cry which sprang
from the lips OF Barton and Rolf. For
to them it was life, spelled in G5-foot
letters that reached to the top of the
sea.
A box of caustic soda used for cor
roding parts, was found; and its con-
tents scattered about the room served
to absorb much of the carbonic gas.
AS the pressure rose further means
of disposal was recalled by Rolf. The
balance-trough was filled with water,
and it gradually became charged with
the gas. At the end Of Il week the
Paragraph showed that it would be
safe to open a port to get in touch
with the world above.
When no bottles were found in the
medicine chest of a size to be reason.
ably seen on the waves, and when the
other men failed to make any of the
empty food-cans floating tight, it was
Corrigan who hit upon the eXpedient
of using the oiled-sillk cases in which
the torpedoes We're wrapped.
They spread out the folds Of these
with their breath and securely tied
the ends. Barton put down their po-
sition as he had figured it, noting the
possibility of error in longitude, and
making mention of the hulk-the To-
cation of which he thought would
probably be known.
The several slips of paper were
placed in the bags, of which there
were four; and three of them were
released at brief intervals.
The men were now in total dark
ness. The single light inside had
really been extinguished to conserve
the battery-power.
Their fourteenth day of imprison-
ment came; and still the men had re-
ceived no intimation of any effort to
rescue them. They could not know
that the frail silk bags had burst at
the surface and had sunk again, carry
ing their messages with them. But such
a possibility occurred to Rolf when
the last of the castings was about to
be released.
1t was then that Corrigan volun-
teered to go up in it's place.
But he encountered another shock
when Barton explained that for all
practical purposes they We're shut in
caisson-and told him of the dan
gerous bends" which must attend
too rapid return to the air. Only
when the batteries would fail, and as
final resort. was 1t his purpose to
have them all risk the trip together.