The Washington times., 1917-08-25
HCTAN NER The Man Fish ,
A Strange Story of Mystery and
Fdndticism

4 soldiers who were resting and talk
ing, Severac had q crushing surprise
He heard one of them say:
''ru bet you a litre OF beer that we
won't hnd the sacred grotto before
night"
It was going from hell into heaven
for Severac! They had not taken
Moisette away after all
"Ah, I have them! have themr'
he Erowlsd with a CLEAN Of madness
in his eyes.
He continued his springing, silent
march.
At last he stopped.
Before him lay q pile OF rocks, as
yet unsxplored by the soldiers.
1t was there.
TIE secret Deer.
Seversc looked about hlm-no
soldiers in sight-alone up there the
sentinel was visible. but he was look
ing to the east.
Severac knelt, scratched aside the
gravel and uncovered a little irregu-
lar cube OF rough stone, no different
from any large piece OF gravel. He
pressed hard with both hands upon
the uneven cube.
At the end of thirty seconds two
large blocks of stone separated. one
I0o bcNNNNh @-S
q narrow, dark crevice.
Already Severac had covered over
the little cubical spring with gravel
once more. He jumped down and the
rocks closed over his head.
Five minutes later the two great blocks
separated and Severac reappeared In the
liEht, ashen hued. his hair In disorder,
his Hps and his whole body trembling.
The grottoes had been blown up.
He had seen II Immediately.
Having cross the subterranean pas
sage leading first to q magazine OF
explosives and to a former labora-
tory occupying the upper floor OF the
grottoes, he had seen nothing abnor-
NAL.
Then he went toward the stairway
leading to the lower floor of the grot-
toes at the level OF the sea-to that
apartment arranged around the little
subterranean lake, to the rooms occu-
pied by Moisette.
But midway OF the stair Severac
was stopped by some wreckage.
Frightened and surprised, he stud
fed Il by the light OF en- electric lamp
taken from the upper magazine and
lighted there.
He was able TO slip through q
crevice and to go farther down He
arrived, letting himself fall in q
hole in a demolished room, at once
recognized as Moisette's.
But what a room it had become!
The walls were fallen in and
cracked, the hangings burned, the fur
niture wrecked-and everywhere was
that same teI1tale odor!
Then part of the truth was plain 20
Severac The grotto had been blown
up by dynamite.
''MoIsette! ,Moisette! buried, crushed,
dead"
The thought of his daughter Vera
had not once occurred to him-he was
obessed with a new determination 20
find Moisette.
He ran up to the outer air, his
mind on fire. Letting the great
blocks come together, the mysterious
entrance was closed, and he sprang
along without any effort at conceal
ment toward the creek of Canlep,
with instinct alone as his guide.
The soldiers were methodically
securing Cape Creus, SO they lay 10
the west and south OF Poig. The
creek OF Canlep lies to the northeast,
so that Severac reached 1t without
meeting any one.
There he saw the same terrible
mass OF debris. the same chaos which
Hictaner had encountered. He sat on
rock by the edge of the sea and
looked, with burning tears, at the
demolished cliff.
What the man was suffering Is in
expressible, and when he rose his
white face had the rigidity OF marble.
What new resolve was enabling him
to survive the downfall? Perhaps a
determination to die, to go down into
the grottoes and to bury himself
alive in self-wrought catRclysm.
(TO BE COntinued In Tomorrow
Sunday AfteraOOn TImeA.)