Omaha daily bee., 1921-08-07
The Internal Machine

mite mental images. To his horror.
that terrifying machine in his head
had started again-beyond his con-
troll.
1t was like being in a darkened
movie hall, where the still whirring
machine could only project fitting
and fragmentary pictures from a
torn film in the intervals Of fire.
cuent "black outs" upon the screen.
But still the machine went on mad
deningly-the more maddening be-
cause somehow the machine was
part of himself. The mental photo
graph of sinking derelict he had
once seen required over and over
again in that patchy sequence-the
hulk sagging in the seas Whlch
lapped over her, higher and imper-
ceptibly higher-the decks aWash.
waves licking the canvas OF her
bridge-and then the silent sudden
engulfment, disappearance.
Were they still afioat, upon the
surface? He dared not give HIM
self the answer. Even though they
had sunk beneath the wave-tops,
he rem membered-all scraps OF ap-
posite knowledge that he had ever
picked up coming to him with a.
memory preternaturally acute-that
great ships like the Gargantuan; II
their bulkheads were closed, did not
drop like a stone to the bottom or
the sea, but remained, swung as 1T
were at an intermediate depth, In a
slow and gradual subsistence as one
compartment after another was
burst into by the pressure of the
water.
Such-he knew twas their po-
sition now. rolling sluggishly faith
oms down-how many. he wonder
ed?-below the surface OF the sea,
sinking gently. ever sinking, down.
down, down in the darkness towards
the bottom. That darkness! The aw-
full of it came upon him suddenly
in renewed access of horror. He
put his hand out in it, invisibly.
That darkness, utterly black, black
er than the blackest night, which
enveloped him and seemed to choke
him as he gasped in his terror
that darkness would never be lifted
again!
1t was black, sitting darkness for
him for all that was left Of his life
darkness, complete, unbreakable,
inexorable, until - until - death
death in that blackness! He shrieked
again and again, purposely, for he
knew there was no hope of rescue,
shrieked stridently in mere blind
escape Of energy from overcharged
nerves.
For an indefinite period Of time.
hideously prolonged, he sat huddled
and gasping, crouching against that
wet wall of his lightless cell. How
long was it since it had happened,
since the engines had fallen silent,
since their relapse into darkness?
1t seemed an eternity, was certainly
many, many hours. Long, long ago
they must have disappeared below
the surface of the sea. He imagined
bulkhead after bulkhead bursting
under q torrent of unillumi2ed
water as they sank deeper and yet
deeper, narrowing and ever narrow
ing the margin Of his life. Pres
emily the last bulkhead would burst,
and then. Or perhaps it
would not burst Perhaps it would
hold, and then, in a few days, as
he used up the limited supply of
air. he would suffocate. In q few
days! He had been here. in this
darkness, days already--days and
days!
Yes, days and days he had been
here and he was suffocating-he
was suffocating now! He felt his
heart, big and humping heavily,
in his breast, swelling as though 1t
would choke him. He tried to rise
to his feet upon that unstable slop-
ing floor, reached for an unbound
support in the blackness, and sank
down again, gasping.
Then, in that pitch blackness, the
ship gave a heavy lurch, lifted once
more as with difficulty. subsided in
long roll that threw him against
the wall. The floor seemed to sink
endlessly beneath him. He clawed
himself partially upright and Shrek
ed, with his last breath. curses
curses-curses-upo Rosa Bauer
mann, upon the "comrades,," upon
that diabolical little German-Jew.