Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1919-03-07

| SN0ll Judl TUCheus our IdlI anu UIASSS.
AS for me, confess my nerves were
strangely shaken. But l was scarce
ly more than green diver as yet,
whereas Wenry thrilled his listeners
and himself-with well-told tales of
raised treasures and strange subma-
| rine encounters in which, be it known,
he spared himself little of the COM
mendatiOn due to achievements.
Within twelve minutes after Gar
rick went down, the body of ConnorS
had been recovered in a fair state of
preservation. HarkinsOn, an old-tim-
er, too, had after all allowed himself
TO be frightened off the job by some
fool, subaqueous phenomenon whose
phases he had been studying all his
precious life.
Wenry's superstitiOus mind was in
finitely relieved. A semblance of color
came back into his face, and had be
gun to feel less of the anxiety expert
enced by one at work with near
maniac for a companion, when all at
once Garrick startled US with fierce
Iy tugged up" signal. He was mum
bling strange sounds before We got
his helmet off, and when the light fell
on his face it revealed a mask of ter
ror unspeakable His features were
drawn and scanned unbelievably, and
speech had deserted him altogether.
Some awful emotion shook his great
body like an aspen.
1t was two long hours before we
knew his story. All that Parkinson
had seen in the Helena's cabin, Gar
rick, too, had beheld-the same in all
its blood-chilling details.
The affair began to nag my nerves
with vengeance. l would nave
staked my very existence on the grip
of Garrick's big jaw. l almost wished
that | had done so: for Wenry and
| were the only availables now, and
l knew beforehand that Wenry, il
detailed. would refuse to go down. 1t
was a time when one must be a man
or II mouse; when white feather be-
comes a white flag, and a white flag
means the surrendering of a career.
I am a natural coward, but possess
underlying qualities of resolution.
could live without this job, | thought;
and too, l, unlike Garrick, was
blessed with no WOman'S love save
mothers; but her comforts were my
pleasures, her self-denials my heart
aches. | went down!
1 went downtown, down, down
until my cumbr0us feet met the Shiny,
santing deck Of the Inflated Helena.
The water was as clear as might be
at a like depth. Everywhere was
confusion Of wreckage 1t had been d
smashing gale that wrought all this
demolition. | made out the cabin,
half-hidden under a tangled mass of
wreckage, and worked my way to the
debriS-barred door. | avoided the
keen edge of a long knife which some
whim of the storms fury had fixed
firmly in a piece of broken mast. The
edge turned outward, menacing my
lines and | gasped. The mystery of
COnnOrs death was laid bare. His
hose had doubtless caught on the
knife blade; he had tried to haul it
after him, and!
l had to crouch low to pass under
the barrier at the door. The cabin
windows were clear, and in the cell
ing was a huge, spar-tOrn hole which
admitted light. l stood erect inside
the cabin, and! At the opposite
side of the room q second diver in
full dress had risen before me, mo-
tiOnless, but erect with the confident
poise of lie. A nervous, insane curl
osity seized me; Il yearning to know
if the diver that faced me were of
flesh and blood, or-or- something
else. | advanced toward the appari-
ton and then my nerve all but broke.
for it followed my example and came
forward to meet me! | hesitated only
for the space of heartbeat; then
threw myself forward wildly, hands
clutching, but on the greasy, slime
coated floor my feet flew from under
me with the effort, and l crashed
down.
The fall dazed me. l only knew
that my hands, in the instant of my
falling, had slipped over a smooth,
| hard surface exactly where the APP
partition had stood. From the floor
/ strained my eyes upward. The
strange diver had disappeared. | tot
tered to my feet; and then the des-
peration of fright sent my hand to
my Sheath-knife for as | gained my
feet the vanished figure again CON
fronted me. drove the knife with
all nay strength, for | knew that the
mysterious diver was not C0nnOrs.
The knife-pont DETECTED and grazed
an impenetrable, even surface, and the
force of the blow carried me with a
| momentary shock against something
that felt peculiarly like a sleek. en-
ameled panel. My tense nerves went
slack and my knees sWayed weakly
from the sudden relaxation as the
light of understanding broke upon my
CROPPING senses.
THE deuce" I calculated in the
close confinement of my helmet, "a
n-irror!"
E,rI, Epriieh coefaa In,,eae