The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1917-11-24
CHAPTER VIZcontinued.


Donald heard him leap into the tor
pedo room below moment later his
voice came up the funnel. I'm ready
for the lady, sir ~ he called
Donald raised Ida in his arms and
lowered her through the tube.
"After you, sir" said Davies.
'I have assumed command, Davies,
Donald replied.
every well. sir" said the MILDLY quiz
city, and descended. Donald followed
him. AS he jumped for the floor OF
fhe torpedo room. he heard the scrap
ing sound of fippers on the floor above.
But the creaking of the coming tower
door had ceased.
"We're saved!" cried Donald. "Da-
vies, they can't force the coming
tower OF course not. That sound is
one or two of the beasts who have
come down the matches. You closed
fhem?"
:. mo, sir. There wasn't time"
'"Fhen they tried to get through the
coming tower. and hadn't reason
enough to know that they could get
through the hatches" crieds Donald
5oyfulfy.
'sTheir reason won't get them down
the tube. sir, unless they've got bodies
as Slim as ours" said ClOuts. And
i. they feel like-like barrels, SIR" he
added.
Overhead, the scraping continued.
sometimes approaching the tube and
then receding. Presently there came
the sound of commOtiOn. Donald
. inferred that the sea devils had found
the one that he had injured, and that
they were satiating their horrible can
ElibaIiStic instincts. He heard body
dragged this way and that, and a
dreadful rending.
After O while the swishing began
again, and faint tapping of flippers
against the walls, as if the creatures
were endeavoring to explore the in
terror of the snip. Occasionally q
faint, phosphorescent luminosity was
visible at the top of the tube. But the
monsters made no attempt to descend
into the torpedo room. An idea came
= TO Donald.
Davies! Listen to met" he said.
sEThey don't know we're here"
mo, sir 1 was thinking"
THAT they have no sense Of smell.
eyes, sir"
( n'And little hearing At least, that
they distinguish sounds only as vibra-
tions."
I; eyes, sir. And of course their sense
OF sight must be extremely limited.
And so. roughly. that leaves them only
the use of taste and touch, but prob
ably developed far above our own"
"Well beat them, Davies"
"If that's true us they can't hear
Much. I think, If 1 might, sir, I'll play
bit on my mouth organ" said ClOuts.
"Just a low, humming, sir
fright. Clouts." answered Donald.
But simultaneously with the first
notes there came from above a singu-
Iar sound. 1t seemed to be very far
away; it was single. mellow note, the
G of a violin, and exquisitely true. 1t
might have been distant warning
buoy anchored amid the tides.
''What's that. Davies?" asked Don
aid
al don't know, sir. The lighthouse
stopped operating when the war broke
out, aud the buoys were taken up"
Once more the sound was heard
And suddenly Donald knew that he had
heard it before. the same note, though
Infinitely less powerful. 1t was the
sound of the finger on the bowl OF
water within the house in Baltimore
The scraping in the passage ended
Ia q Scurry and did not recur. AL
through the night they crouched in
the torpedo room. watching and sleep
ing by turns, and the silence was bro
ken only by passing word and the DC
casional tunefulness OF Clouts' moutf
organ as he played sally in Our AL
ley"