Williams news., 1918-01-24
CHAPTER l.
The Mad Sea-Captain.

The Mad Sea-Capraln.
 Lieutenant Donald Paget, emerging from the navy office in Washington in a state of high exuberance at having received command of a submarine, col lided violently with tall, elderly man of singular aspect.
 The stranger was dressed in quasi nautical costume of his own devising resembling nothing known to any navy in the world. His iron-gray beard swept down to his waist, giving him the aspect of a notwithstanding Noah and just then he was very angry indeed, for, standing stock-still at the entrance of the building, he shook his enormous fist at one of the porterS, whose black and highly shocked ex- pression indicated his unhappy frame of mind at this breach of decorum.
 "Confound you, sirl' exclaimed the lieutenant angrily as he recoiled from his impact upon the sturdy figure on which the collision had made no more impression than if he had fallen against the Washington monument. seWhy don't you look"
 Then, catching sight of the long beard-'Why, Captain Masterman !'' he exclaimed.
 sDonald Paget!' cried the elderly man, grasping him by the hand. "Ex- cuse my being upset, but these jacks in-office will be the death of the repub- lie one of these days. I have just been trying to see the secretary on matter affecting not only America-in which case his indifference would not surprise me-but the entire human race. What do you suppose they told me?'
 q am inclined to think that you got no further than the porter, captain" replied the lieutenant.
 Right, siri'' exclaimed Masterman, beginning to grow angry again. "And if I were not a man of superhuman patience, combined with inexhaustible tact, singular clarity of mind, and te- uacfty of purpose-in fact, an obsti- nate old mule-I should let the human race go hang!"
 Lieutenant Paget took the irate old man by the arm. q wouldn't do that, captain,' he said, smiling. "Come and tell me all about it, and let us see whether we cannot devise some means of saving the race. You see, now that the navy department is so busy on ac- count of the war, perhaps a little leni- ency with it's shortcomings might be in order, eh?'
 "The war? What war;" demanded Masterman.
 'Why, our few words with the Ger mans, Masterman."
 Whats that? War with the Ger mans? You don't mean to tell me we o&
 "Do you mean to say you don't know that America and Germany are at war?" demanded Paget incredu- lously.
 "No, sir! And, what's more, it doesn't interest me. How the deuce should know all the gossip and frivo1- ities of the day when I only returned to the capital yesterday?"
 "But, my dear captain-gossip and frivolities !" exclaimed the lieutenant. Surely you have seen newspapers, or heard people talking about it?''
 q tell you haven't seen or heard anything! I've got more important things to think about. Anyhow, it will have to be stopped at once,' said Mas terman, half turning. "Pll have to go back and see the secretary immedi- ately.''
 However, he suffered his companion to lead him out of the building and along the street, while the lieutenant, firmly convinced that his old friend was mad, held him by the arm tightly and listened to the captains disjointed mutterings in the hope of discovering the nature of his delusion.
 Donald Paget had known Captain Jonathan Masterman when he was at Annapolis, where the old man, who had once been a quartermaster in the navy, held subsidiary position on the instructors staff. The acquaintance had continued intermittently. Master man had risen in life until he obtained the command of a ship fitted out, part ly by private subscription, partly with the aid of a government subsidy, for the purpose of deep-sea exploration.
 In this and subsequent expeditions he had made a name for himself by the remarkable nature of his discov- cries. He had discovered the prolon- gation of the submarine spur of the continental shelf, extending from the Norwegian coast toward the Faroes; he had invented an improved net for scooping up the larger denizens of the ocean depths; and then he had nulli- fled all the personal appreciation and fame which he had acquired during his various voyages by asserting that mammalian life existed on the sea