The Concordia sentinel. (Vidalia, Concordia Parish, La.) 1882-current, 1920-11-13

see our way. We carried air-gunS
which fired class bullets heavily charg-
ed with electricity, which had only to
touch the most powerful animal 20 kill
him. A connecting compartment filled
with water let us into the sea. And
thus equipped, wading on the bottom
of the clear ocean, we killed our game
with ease and without danger.
That hunt was but the first of the
wonders of the cruise. Onward we
rushed, sometime on the surface,
sometimes under the sea. There was
our fight with the immense devil-fish
which once in a huge school enmeShed
wonderful pearl fishery, where Cap
tain Memo showed us mOllusc with
in whose jaws was a pearl weighing
perhaps 500 pounds. Some day he
would return and pluck that treasure,
but not yet-every year was adding TO
it's value. We visited the skeletons Of
long-sunken ships. the corpses of the
drowned crew still clingir.g to the hulls
of some. We hunted in the Papuan
islands where the Nautilus was at
tackled by the native Sayages. An cleo
trio current turned them back shocked
and bowling ere they could climb
aboard.
When one of the crew died Captain
Memo had him buried in a coral glade
in the South Pacific. where was a
cross of red coral that looked like
petrified blood. 1t was a wonderful,
solemn sight to see the pall-bearers
with the dead body on their shoulders,
and all treading so reverentialy the
way from the ship TO the coral Gene
terry, where at the foot Of the cross
the body was inferred and covered up.
All knelt in prayer. Captain Memo
was the last to leave.
"Your dead sleep quietly out of the
reach of sharks" / said when we were
back on the Nautilus.
"Of sharks and men," he replied.
We voyaged under colossal icebergs
to the South Pole and all but persisted
there, escaping from IN icy tomb only
as our last breath of storage air was
exhausted. Wonderful was our passage
from the Red sea into the Mediter-
ranean by means of subterranean
tunnel under the isthmuS. (This was
before the digging Of the Suez canal.)
There we witnessed the transfer of a
million dollars worth of gold ingots
from the Nautilus to the vessel of a
Greek diver.
Whence came this store Of goldi
Later we learned.
In VigO bay, on the Spanish coast
the Nautilus came to rest on bottom
Here in 1902 a fleet OF Spanish gal
Icons were sunk, and here from this
sunken treasure more than a century
and a half later this ruler of the
underseas came and helped himself
whenever it pleased him. Five nun
dred millions were there" said Cap
tain Memo, "but not now. Do you
see now how with these and the other
treasures of my domain 1 could pay
the national debt of France and moi
feel it?'
We had now been six months aboard
the Nautilus. For me, the scientist, II
was a voyage Of ceaseless interest
but not so for COnseil and Ned Land
At their request 1 pleaded with Cap
tain Memo for our liberty.
"You came to my ship without In
vitatiOn. You will now remain here.
was his grim answer.
We had left the aouthern hemi
sphere and were in the waters OF
France and the British islands whel
we were pursued by an armed war
ship. Flying no colOrs, she attacke'
at once. Her cannon shot rebounds
from our iron hull.
Captain Memo, pointing to her, said
ST am the oppressed, and there is m
Oppressor. Through him I have los
country, wife, children, father an
mother. Why should 1 withhold M
vengeanceY
He called out his orders. The Nan
titus sank below the sea. We felt he
rushing forward, felt the shock of he
steel ram piercing the hull of the er
envy. Through the glass panels W
saw her doomed crew crOwding tn
ratlines, clinging to the rails, sirius
Cling in the sea. The Nautilus passe
on.
1 saw captain Memo go to his ROOF
and kneel before the portrait of
woman and two little children. "HO'
long, o Lord, how long!" he cried on
We steamed north, to that part
the Norwegian coast where lies this
dreaded maelstrom which draws int
itself all floating things. The NautilU
. was it an accident?-was drawn II
to the whirlpool. Around and aroun
she whirled. Even her steel hull fe
the strain; we could hear bolts beir
pulled out from her Orders. Tt
long-boat was torn from its place c
deck and hurled like stone into II
whirlpool. l lost consciousness.
When I came to myself, 1 was in
LoffOden fisherman's hut, and Conse
and Ned Land were chafing my hand
So ended our voyage of 200t
: leagues under the sea. What becan
OF Captain Memo and his strani
craft do not know. hope his powe
: full ship conquered the maelstrOI
, even as 1 hope, If he lived, that h
= philosophy and powerful will final
conquered his desire for vengeance.