Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 72, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 March 1915 — Page 2

Slaves of the Sea

By CLAY CHAMBERLAIN

(Copyright. The Frank A. Mu nee y Co.) Within the battered, eweltering con-ning-tower of B-23, Lieutenant Barton and his ensign. Rolf, marshaled the utmost of their nautical skill against the onslaught of the elements, while they strove at the wheel with united brawn to keep the rolling, pitching boat head-on to the seas. All that day, from the great heart of the desert, the sirocco had pulsed feverishly across the Mediterranean. No word had passed between the stocky, swart-visaged commander and his lithe-bodied, blond-haired aid since the periscope-staff had snapped by the board in the first crunch of the raven* ing wind Then Roll had roared above the pounding of the combers against the thick-glassed ports. “She’ll never stand the kick of this sea. We’d "better sink her now or we’ll have to swim.” “Orders.” Barton had snapped in reply ’“To the Dardanelles! Report to the captain of the Victory by the 15th. Noon!* That’s tomorrow; and we’re going through if the Gnomes don’t crack." So they had struggled on grimly—muscles writhing under the strain and knuckles outstanding from knotted fists hard as the spokes which they gripped. At the same time, behind them, Frank Marsh, an aged boatswain, swung the lever that played the searchlight, unceasingly to and fro — and while he toiled, he sweated —and prayed. Down below, behind a stepped, steel door, the engineer. Jack Corrigan, straightened up from the stinking cylinders, and as he mopped his fat, red sac swore. These four men made up the roster of thia latest acquisition to the British Mediterranean fleet B-23 was a new type of submarine, built for a special purpose. Should the need arise, her duty was to fathom out the location of planted explosives in the deep murk of harborbottoms and then to render their controlling wires useless through the action of the sulphuric acid which she carried and which could be discharged hot from the huge platinum syringe built into her bow. Seemingly opportunity had come with the departure of the Balkan agents from the futile London conference Foi it was at the very moment when the allied armies began to tear down the web of diplomacy spun across the Turks’ musty corner of Europe that B-23 had been detached from the sest of the flotilla at Gibraltar add nunied away on her secret mission. No one aboard yet knew the purpose of the trip. Barton's instructions —direct from the admiralty —were merely to reach the superdreadnaught Victory, at the Mediterranean end of the Dardanelles, not later than the hour mentioned and to have his arrival wirelessed at once to London,, He had further to deliver a packet—then lockpd in his strongbox below —the official red seal of which still remained unbroken. Though Barton was bent upon carrying out these instructions, the elements were not It was after B-23 had passed Cape Mataplan and, plowing desperately against the overwhelming forces, had worked well into the tanglements of the archipelago, that her flood-gate suddenly gave way. With a series of thundering glubs, like the filling of some giant bottle, the water surged into the jacket Simultaneously a head-seam opened, swamping the forward trimming-tank, and' before either helmsman could reach the planing lever of the horizontal rudder or throw the control of the balapce-weight, the submarine dug her snout into the waves and went plunging beneath the surface like a frightened narwhal Frantically, Rolf jerked at the dangling bell-cord, while Barton leaped toward the ladder from the hatch to the room below. The drive of the engines ceased when the boat’s propellers sliced into the air, but her own momentum thrust her onward. And when gravity clutched at the logging head, she dove in a short, swift arc, coming, an instant later, to a grinding scraping stop which shook Barton from the rungs of the ladder and sent Rolf reeling against the lookout-port. Barton leaped to his feet, and before rushing to inspect the damaged task wrenched open the door of the engine-room. i_"£l '****»God’s sake!” he shouted to Corrigan, “quick! Get that gate shut and • the pumps going! And the weight as far aft as it will go! Flood that rear trimming4ank, too! Tilt her up. Bornehow!” i Loosened by{ the hammering seas, - the automatic Jbolts had allowed the gate to slip. f Corrigan switched on the engines closed it ‘ again in a moment — where he held It by wedging the gears. But a single glance told Barton that the rent forward could «ot be repaired igiiifep- water. As he hurried back, he jjlf-jj** sight of the balance-weight

rumbling toward the stem. Like the UJmming-tankß. the long, metal trough with Its heavy load was used to alter the boat’s keel-angle “What’s that you’ve got there for weight?" he called to the engineer, as the eofflnlike box crawled up its slanting track “Bath’ery pistes,” answered Corrigan, “two hundbred av thim cum aboard the day av our startin’, wtd no room fer stowin’. So I chucked the ofrun in the say. They’re hlvier, anyway; an’ lib a folne savin' av space” He turned his attention again to the big, sloshing triple-pump, and Barton watched at the gauge until It showed that the jacket had been re-emptied. Still the boat did not rise or level itself. “Better give her the reverse!” the lieutenant ordered. “Easy at first! We must have rammed the mud pretty deep to stick like this.” As the big gas engines increased the speed of their exploding rataplan, Rolf came tumbling doWn from the tower followed by the boatswain, whose thin, twitching features matched the chalklike color of his hair. “There’s A hulk sunk dead ahead,” the ensign announced. Though it did not tremble, his voice was constrained. "We’ve poked half oUr length through her rotten side. The arc won’t throw over twenty feet down here, and I just made her out on the fringe of the light.” At his words all looked toward the spinning shaft. And when the submarine failed to yield—though the pull of the screw shook every bolt In her frame, the realization of the fearful possibilities of their situation, in turn, left each man shaking. "Caught God my wife, poor Mary!" fell piteously from the boat swain’s lips. Barton flashed him a look from his deep, black eyes, as if searching the old man's soul, and as he clicked an order, his Jaws set square. “Go get me the reading for depth!” he said; and Marsh walked away, convulsing In an assort to regain his selfcontrol. Corrigan stooped to close the oilfeed —absently; for in his mind was limned the picture of the girl on the banks of Shannon for whom he had lived since the mother died —tya daughter, Aileen, blue-eyed as he, but with gold alloying his coppery hair and health-gldw ton&d to beauty. He roused from his Introspection only at the falling of a dislodged wrench which struck the floor with a deep-toned clang that went tolling In ominous echo from wall to wall of the steel-lined room. Somewhat startled at finding himself alone when he looked up, he turned and followed Barton and Rolf Into the outer chamber. Here the boatswain met them. "What is It?" asked the lieutenant “Sixty-seven feet, sir,” Marsh reported—his voice barely audible. # * • • * Before morning several further attempts were made to dislodge the submarine, but an anchor fluke had hooked into the wreckage and driven through the chain-hole so firmly that the trials were fruitless —and worse. Ftor the pent-up exhaust from the engines Boon made that compartment Insufferable, and each time the air-tight

“Poked Half Our Length Through the Rotted Side.”

door was opened a noxious, stifling odor swept into the outer room. “It’s no use,” said Barton at last, “shut them off, Corrigan! They’re only eating up air—and that means hours of life now! ” s All the lights oh the direct circuit, went. out when the motors stopped, leaving the interior shrouded in gloom save for one small battery-incandes-cent which shed its feeble, saffron Illumination over a table in the center of the living room. Sleep was unconsidered; it was not to be thought of there, and could come to the men only when exhaustion dragged them down. “It’s getting bad In here already,” said Barton, as he noted the rapidity of their Inhalations. ‘Tin afraid we’ll have to start the air. Stand two-hour watches while it lasts. Corrigan, you take the first turn." As the engineer made his way slowly toward the corner where the little brass controller of the air-valve protraded from the wall beside the clockfaced gauge that recorded the pressure in the priceless cylinder of air, Barton

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

straightened his sagging shoulders resolutely, and raising his gaze to the eye-level of the other men. searched them keenly, without faltering, as if to sum in swift appraisal the measure of their weakness and their strength. “It would be useless for me to make light of the conditions confronting us,” he said at length. His voice was pitched low, devoid of Inflection, and so complete was his self-restraint, lacking even In the slightest betrayal of sympathy or emotion. It was more like the perfunctory droning of some Jurist repeating the ritual of a mandatory sentence; yet none the less clearly It carried to the limits of the chamber. “Our very closeness to our destination means a scarcity of merchantmen In these waters. And we are much too far down, anyway, to be seen from the surface, even if the periscope was not gone. The only possible manner I can conceive in which to attract attention is to keep the propellers going. But a sea making as it did laßt night won’t calm Itself In a day; so the commotion we might kick up wouldn’t have much chance. “Remotely, we might work loose. It’s almost a Ijppeless possibility; but it’s here, with life. Every five minutes those engines work shortens that life an hour. For one, lam loath to surrender a second. We’ve failed in our mission. What it was I don’t know; but I’m going to find that packet, and if It’s In there I’ll find out. It might not be too late to serve so long as a chance of escape remains. “I can’t assure you of myself that there Is the millionth part of a single opportunity for us to win back our freedom: but for the sake of the ones we care for, I want to cling to that fraction. If anyone feels differently, speak out!” There was no audible response, although the boatswain’s lips moved silently, as they had continued to do since the reference to his wife. Possibly he was praying again. Barton stood waiting a moment; then, nodding appreciation of the wordless assent, he sat down at the table. From beneath it he drew forth the flat, metal box. There was no sound In the room while he turned through the papers noiselessly, save at several-minute intervals the release of the air-valve which hissed sharply as If some fabled serpent In the black sea outside were voicing anger at Its inability to reach the men within. The lieutenant presently found the packet, and for a matter of seconds his eyes countered the forbidding stare of the lurid seal. Then he split the wrapper lengthwise, and as he bent over the closely typed contents, Rolf Instinctively edged nearer. Suddenly Barton’s arms began to tremble upon their resting elbows; his hands gripped at the paper spasmodically, and it fell In a crumpled heap when the lieutenant pushed backward, staggering to his feet gaspingly, as tt the air already had failed. Rolf snatched up the sheet, smoothing it upon the table top. Marsh crowded behind him while he read, and Corrigan stretched at arm-length away from his post. Shorn of salutation, impertinent detail, and subscription, the message ran as follows: “Certain interests at Constantinople demand protection, and it is Imperative that the Victory and Dauntless reach that port. They will be ordered through Marmora on the 30th. The Dardanelles are knpwn to be heavily mined. Secret advices from the Intelligence bureau are that mines will be fired under pretense of accident if attempt Is made to pass. Inadvisable at present to recognize this information officially. B-23 will act under your orders. Instruct Lieutenant Barton to explore Immediate waters carefully, charting a course through the strait which will avoid all difficulties.” He concluded the missive aloud, half hysterically, and looked at the Others. For an appreciable Interval no one moved. “May the saints save thim whin they’re going through,” murmured Corrigan at length, and awaking to his neglected duty, he roused the others from the spell by a prolonged twist of the valve-lever. , It was nearing the close of the first benighted day of confinement when Rolf succeeded In relighting the electric beacon in the forepeak of the con-ning-tower by wiring up several storage batteries in series. The feeble current did not produce a light of very great penetration, but the ensign, nevertheless, climbed aloft to the little circular room In the hope that it might help him to discover just why the submarine would not move. As he peered through the forward port, the glance of the ensign fell unexpectedly upon a cylindrical object barely piercing the lighted area below on the starboard side. Pausing only to confirm hia impressionT he descended the ladder In haste. Marsh and Corrigan, where they sat, had sunk to their first troubled slumber. Barton stood at the air-valve. Exchanging places with the lieuten-ant,-Rolf motioned him above. And when the later presently returned, his added solemnity of visage did not need his corroborating words: “It’s a mine, unquestionably but not a contact affair, for I made out wires coiled 1 around the top,” be said. “They’ve dropped them pretty far ont, or we made more westing than I thought There’s nothing can be done about it though, from our position; so you’d better turn to and try for a bit of sleep. Don't fret the others by mentioning it” The four men were awake together as the second day came to an end.

Marsh huddled In a chair beside the table, feverishly scratching at a pad with the stub of a pencil. Already his skin, stretched tightly over his protruding cheek-bones, held something of the dulling glosß of timestained parchment As he wrote, he kept speaking his own dictation in a half-audible whisper. “Better save your strength,” Barton cautioned, after observing him silently for some momenta Marsh slumped in his chair, his sparse arms tight at his sides, touching the floor with his finger tipß which still outstretched rigidly as when they had dropped the pad and pencil at Barton’s implied command. The lieutenant, at the table, tapped with a paper-knife; then laid it aside with an annoyed look of self-reproof. Rolf 'sat on the edge of a bunk — his normally full lips drawn to a grayblue line, his starting eyes fixed in a stare that seemed plumbing infinity. Corrigan was at the valve. He stood with back to the others, his head so far bowed forward upon his breast that the rolls of fat at the nape of his neck pressed flat, and the cords showed ivory-white beneath the skin. Now and again his body heaved and a ponderous sigh welled from within to blend sonorously with the seethe of the liberated air. ' Presently he began to hum softly under his breath: “There’s a sunny spot In Ireland —” “This is awful,” he said, “awful! My God, isn’t there anything we can do? Can’t we send up a bottle —or something?” “Nothing,” Barton replied with apparent effort. "The torpedoes!” Marsh leaped to his feet, his face fairly contorting in his excitement. "They’ll tear up the surface when they explode,” he wailed. Barton glanced at Rolf. Neither had spoken of that other instrument of destruction outside almost brushing the hull* The ensign still looked away. He could not speak to dash the old man’s hopes. “I’m afraid it wouldn’t do,” the lieutenant shook his head reluctantly. “The hulk is close aboard, and that’s where they’d go off. We might chance them splitting her in pieces before they did us, If she were all. I’d thought of It But we lay within five feet of a mine-plant. The concussion—no, we can’t do that.” As those in the last death-watch, tolling ofT with quickened heart beats the seconds before the black-capped march to eternity, the men passed the next afternoon. There was a brief relief from tension, while they ate from theplentiful store in the food-locker/and occasionally one or another stepped to the big water-tank to drink. Otherwise attention centered on the passage of time. The hands of the ship^clock moved forward, and as remorselessly, the hand on the dial toiled in the other direction —pointing nearer and nearer, like the index finger of Fate, to the little zero that meant annihilation. From moment to moment, the hissing of the valve became almost sensibly fainter. Their days of living in the small, unventilated compartment had so fouled the atmosphere that the men breathed pantingly, open-mouthed, in great, whistling gulps. In their purpled, swollen veins and their jaundiced eyes and yellow skin, the effect of the toxic carbons in the air was only too apparent. Barton sat at the table —the log outspread before him —painfully, ye,t painstakingly, inscribing the record. His own message had been written a farewell to life and to her for whom he most cherished it. When at length he raised his eyes from the page, they wavered ever so slightly as he addressed the old boatswain. “What shall I say, Marsh?” The words came palpitatingly as he struggled for breath. “I’d better have it now —in time.” The boatswain was at the valve controlling the lever with fingers agitated as the indicator itself. His throat muscles gripped spasmodically at the question, and he seemed about to fall. When he turned, his eyes held .a look of longing so unutterable, yet withal so hopeless, that Rolf and Corrigan with common impulse glanced away, and Barton clenched his fist until the penholder snapped in two. “Tell Mary," Marsh lingered falteringly over the name, “say I didn’t think the old cottage at home was good enough for her; so I’m going to get a better one promised us yonder. TeU her I’ll keep it waiting, as she did for me, and that I’ll try not to mind her not coming for a while. The old man’s voice failed, and he pressed his face against the wall to hide his feelings. The broken holder shook in the writing and paused a long moment at the end, while Barton summoned the reserve of his stoic will to help him at hfs task. Ere the lieutenant looked toward him, Corrigan’s full-fleshed face had sagged lumpily, till his eyes seemed drawn and misshapen. Rolfs eyes, as he swayed on Oft edge of a bunk, again held that uncanny impression of illimitability. With his underjaw driven forward, so that the teeth clasped his upper lip and deep hollows showed before his ears,"he seemed lost in the mazes of some intricate problem. As Corrigan started to speak the ensign rose to his feet. “We sha’nt die!” he interrupted in a whisper which literally ‘snarled tb»x>ngh the room. Then his voice climbed in a raucous crescendo to the volume of a shriek, “We sha’n’t die!" He stood like some young Roman

orator spellbound by the eloquence of his own thought. v raj? “Great God. I have it!” He spoke with the awesome deliberation of a seer from the depths of* his trance. "We can make air.” And at the words he crumpled limply to the floor. Barton was by his side Instantly, shaking him roughly, savagely, while he fought back a hope that he dared not trust. “What do you mean, Dick? Come —speak? Make air? Man, are you mad?” he cried as he tugged at the prostrate form with all his failing strength. “Yes! Air-—oxygen Use!” the ensign muttered. He sat up unsteadily. “At the academy—remember? The acid and the batteries! We decomposed water. There’s enough in the tank till we raise the pressure—then we’ll get oceans of It” He swung his arms above his head —dramatically—a bit wildly, while Barton himself almost collapsed as his mind flew back to his training-school chemistry and the experiment of long before. Electrolysis—thrusting the ends of two current-charged wires Into water, salt or fresh, tinctured weakly with sulphuric acid, beyond question, would separate the liquid into the oxygen and hydrogen of which it is composed. One part of the first to two of the latter would be the proportion; and a single cubic foot of the water would produce 2,000 feet of the gas. For an instant thought of the fatal effect of pure oxygen struck the lieutenant cold. ■> To make it respirable In the air It is diluted with three times its volume of nitrogen. Then he reflected that hydrogen is also inert and harmless to breathe and its ratio would be sufficiently large. Corrigan’s act In substituting lead-oxid battery plates for the iron weights of the balance-trough now appealed to him as nothing short of providential. “Unbelievable!” he cried as he began to gather together all the glass Leyden-jars they had; “yet—thank God —so true —so true!” Their reprieve was barely in time; and the lieutenant and Rolf went at the preparations feverishly, while Marsh and Corrigan watched dumbly, scarcely comprehending the vital sweep of events. And when at last the first tiny bubbles began to rise through the water like the effervescence of some Jovian wine, no Ponce de Leon arrived at his quested Fountain of Youth could have matched the wild cry which sprang from the lips of Barton and Rolf. For to them it was life, spelled in 65-foot letters that reached to the top of the sea. A box of caustic soda used for corroding parts, was found; and Its contents scattered about the room served to absorb much of the carbonic gas. As the pressure rose a further means of disposal was recalled by Rolf. The balance-trough was filled with water, and it gradually became charged with the gas. At the end of a week the barograph showed that It would be safe to open a port to get In touch with the world above. Whep no bottles were found in the medicine chest of a size to be reasonably seen on the waves, and when the other men failed to make any of the empty food-cans floating tight, It was Corrigan who hit upon the expedient of using the oiled-silk cases in which the torpedoes were wrapped. They spread out the folds of these with their breath and securely tied the ends. Barton put down their position as he had figured it, noting the possibility of error in longitude, and making mention of the hulk —the location of which he /thought ’sfould probably, be known. The several slips of paper were placed in the bags, of which there were four; and three of (them were released at brief intervals. The men were now in total darkness. The single light inside had really been extinguished to conserve the battery-power. Their fourteenth day of imprisonment came; and still the men had received no intimation of any effort to rescue them. They could not know that the frail silk bag# had burst at the surface and had sunk again, carrying their messages with them. But such a possibility occurred to Rolf when the last of the casings was about to be released. It was then that Corrigan volunteered to go up in its plfcce. • But be encountered another shock when Barton explained that for all practical purposes they were shut in a caisson —and told him of the dangerous “bends” which must attend a too rapid return to the air. Only when the batteries would fail, and as a final resort, was it his purpose to have them all risk the trip together, Had he known that the Victory •swung at anchor barely a thousand yards away he might have altered his Instructions. Hope for B-23 .had long been abandoned, and already the nation had formally honored her “dead” —when the fourth bag left the little tower. At Rolfs suggestion all the gas had been forced from it except just enough to carry it up. Regardless of the lost mine-scout the dreadnaughts had been ordered to rim the strait They were to start the trip which held so much rumored hazard the next day, and had sent 'their hydroplanes aloft in the vain hope that human vision from their height, like birds, could find the hidden mines. So when the pilot of the machine from the Victory saw an oviform yellow ohject pop from the Woe sea beneath him, as a pit might be squeezed

from a plum, it was not strange that be betrayed his astonishment by alallowing the hydroplane to side-slip dangerously. It is enough that it jumped lightly away from the water and came sailing Jauntily toward the aviator just as he recovered the machine’s equilibrium and his own presence of mind. Puncturing the bag quickly with a pistol shot, he volplaned quickly to the water. And thereafter recovering the floating silk and reading the paper —he remained, hovering over the spot, as closely as he could judge, whence the small balloon had sent a launch to his assistance. And within another hour the powerboat was again putting out from the battleship with diving equipment and a man to go below. Marsh was on duty in the conningtower, where for days the men had set a watch, when there came a faint, yet persistent click. He had dozed momentarily; and at first It seemed part of Mb dream He had returned to his rose-bowered cottage and stood gently knocking at its door, so that Mary should not be too greatly shocked with surprise. But

The Lieutenant Presently Found the Packet.

the reiteration of the sound aroused him; and he turned to meet the nodding Cyclopean eye of the diving helmet peering in at Mm through the port. He shouted to Barton, and they soon had the man inside. It was decided that all could use the apparatus, if a rope were attached to the leaded feet to drag It down after each trift, Marsh was the first to go up, the diver remaining to show the others how to adjust the suit When the helmet was removed from the boatswain in the boat above one of its crew fainted at sight of the seeming death, apparition Incased In the raiment of the man they had sent below. The diver himself followed; then Corrigan. For the passage of the lines the big port had to be kept open continuously;* and as each man left air also lurched out until the submarine began to ship water dangerously. Already it gurgled deeply in the hold —with great spheres of gas surging upward life a fountain. And at thiß moment — unthought of before by minds almost hysterically excited —it came to Rolf and Barton as they faced each other in the tower that only one of , them could use the suit. For it was impossible to secure it in place without another person’s help. True to the tradition of the service. Barton stepped aside. But youth, which before had cried aloud for life, now, in the supremacy of its courage, rose indifferently to it. “You’ve no right to decide it all alone,” Rolf said. “And I cast my vote for her. You first!” . Barton yielded; and the enßign closed him into the cumbersome apparel. The top of the ladder was aN rehdy awash as Rolf gave the helmet a final twist. He pushed the lieutenant out thi'oqgh the port-hole, and, filling his lungs from the exhausted air. kicked after him. On the bridge of the battleship the commander watched through powerful glasses; and as man after man rolled oyer the gunwale into the launch the grey-whiskered old sea-dog grumbled a hard-learned text from Ms Sundayschool boyhood: “And the sea gave up the dead which were In it; and they were judged every man according to his works.” “By God! I’d make ’em all admirals —if I had this Judgin’!” he and the reward of his generous impulse came next day when the mine-firing rumor proved to be false. The first word that flew from the aerials of tl*e Victory held the whole earth a moment gasping; but the first word that fell from the lips of the rescued men was— to each —a beloved name, except the ensign, who was dragged into the launch Insensible to pain.:.,. Once more —aboard the battleship —he faced death and refought the fight And when, at last his heart throbbed through to triumph, It had gained what such a heart deserved to hold. For of all the queenly company which was visioned in Ms delirium only one came back irith him to the realm of consciousness; and in that hour when be opened his eyes he, too. whispered • woman’s beloved name!