Evening Republican, Volume 22, Number 108, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1919 — The DEEP SEA PERIL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The DEEP SEA PERIL

by VICTOR ROUSSEAU

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This is a weird story of a pseudo-scientific character that concerns the discoveries of an eccentric Americah naval officer, the faith of a young lieutenant in the soundness of his elder’s mind, evidence of the existence of a strange race of undersea beings, amazing adventure during a submarine voyage, and a strong love Interest. It Is one of the weirdest tales put out since the days of Jules terne. Our readers will find it a most gripping story. THE EDITOR.

CHAPTER I. —l— Mad Sea-Captain. Lieutenant Donald Paget, emerging tjrfwn the navy office in Washington in a state of high exuberance at having received command of a submarine, collided violently with a tall, elderly man of angular aspect. The stranger was dressed in a quasinautical costume of his own devising, resembling nothing known to any na> y in the world. His iron-gray beard swept down to his waist, giving him the aspect of a twentieth-century Noah: arid just then tn* 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 expression indicated his unhappy frame of mind at this breach of decorum. “Coniound you, sir!” 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 ■gainst the Washington monument. “Why don’t you 100k —* Then catching sight of the long beard— “ Why, Captain Masterman!” be exclaimed. “Donald Paget!” cried the elderly man, grasping him .by the hand. “Excuse my being upset, but these jacks-in-office will be the death of the republic one of these days. I have just been trying to see the secretary on a 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?" “I am inclined to think that you got ' no further than the porter, captain,” replied the lieutenant. “Right, sir!” 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 tenacity of purpose —in fact, an obstinate old mule —I should let the huriian race go hang!" Lieutenant Paget took the.irate old man by the arm. “I 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 "»f saving the race. You see, now that «he navy department Is so busy on account of the war. perhaps a little leniency with its shortcomings might be tn order, eh?" “The war? What war?”- demanded Masterman. “Why, our few words with the Germans, Masterman,’’ “What’s that? War with the Germans? Yon don’t mean to tell me we are at war with Germany?” “Do you mean to say you don’t know that America and Germany are at war?” demanded Paget incredulously. 1 . “No, sir! And, what’s more, it doesn’t interest me. How the deuce should I know all the gossip and frivolities of the day when I only returned i to the capital yesterday?” “But, my dear captain—gossip and frivolities!" exclaimed the lieutenant. 1 “Surely you have seen newspapers, or ; beard, people talking about it?*> “I tell you I 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. “I’ll have to go back and see the secretary immediately." However, he suffered his companion ! to lead him out of the building and : along the street, while the lieutenant, I firmly „ convinced that his old friend was mad, held 1 him by the arm tightly and listened to the captain’s 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 a subsidiary position on the Instructors’ staff. The acquaintance had continued intermittently. Masterman had risen in life until he obtained the command of a ship fitted out, partly by private subscription, partly with the aid of a government subsidy, for the purpose of deep-sea explorationin this and subsequent expeditions he had made a name for himself by the remarkable nature of his discoveries. He had discovered the prolongation of the submarine spur of the continental shelf, extending from the Norwegian coast toward the Faroes; fie bad invented an ( improved net for scooping up the larger denizens of the ocean depths; and then he had nullified all the personal appreciation and fiuue which he had acquired during his various voyages by asserting that Mammalian life existed on the sea

tloor, and by championing the cause of the sea serpent. That was the end of Captain Masterman’s activities so far as the government was concerned. In a final interview the secretary of the navy had said to him: “Persorially I believe in you, Masterman. But it isn’t the discoveries that count, it’s getting the scientific world to believe in them. I believe in the sea serpent, myself, because I’ve seen "three of them; but I wouldn’t dare to admit it, even in my club smoking rwm, and we can’t get you another subsidy. —■ The secretary’s confession duly appeared in a newspaper article, and the cartoonist illustrated it with a drawing showing him as a sea serpent with three heads. In the course of his explanation, Masterman consigned the entire staff of the navy department to that place where brimstone is unmollified with molasses. That ended the secretary’s career, and it would have ended Masterman’s if his had not been ended already. After that the old man became known as a“bore who buttonholed public men and tried to induce them to subscribe to the fitting out of a new deep-sea exploration expedition. For years he haunted the lobbies of the capitol and the clubs, growing more dogged and obstinate and vituperative as he met with dlsappointinent after disappointment. Then, when his case seemed hopeless, he had succeeded In interesting an American millionaire, with whose aid he had fitted out an expedition to the Shetlands and Faroes, from which he had apparently just returned. Lieu-

tenant Paget gathered from his rambling words that lie had lost his ship, and had returned, the sole survivor, in one of the ship’s boats, which he had rowed for several hundred miles across the stormy waters of the North Atlantic. “But I brought my specimen home with me, lad!” he exclaimed, clutching at his companion’s arm. “Think of that, lad! She didn’t want to eat. They don't eat after they’re mature, Donald. That simplified matters considerable. And so I brought her, and I got her safe to my home. Donald —” The old man’s voice failed him. He began muttering to himself absently again. No doubt his terrible experience had unhinged his brain. Lieutenant Paget had always known Mastering to be a natural eccentric, but never pefore had he talked like this about the safety of humanity, and some awful and imminent danger which only he could avert. The lieutenant could see that the old man’s cheeks were sunken; his eyes were wild, and under his long coat the faded blue uniform was shrunken and stained with sea water. Lieutenant Paget felt well disposed toward the whole world, just then. He had been summoned home from service wijth the Atlantic fleet to receive his commission as commander of the' F 55. And Miss Ida Kennedy, the daughter of the American consul general in London, whom he had met there the year before, had written him that she was sailing in company with her aunt by the Beotia for New York. At such a time, when his professional and personal interests were being served so well by fortune. Paget felt that fate had played a wretched trick upon Masterman, whose lifework had utterly failed of recognition owing to his defects of temperament. Though he was sure that the old sea captain was crazed, he admired him as a dar- ' « ■’ - ' - , '• ", '' O

Ing seaman and an original genius of a high order. “My dear lieutenant,’l am extremely glad to have met you. Nothing could have been more fortunate,” said Masterman. recovering his equanimity with a suddenness that surprised his friend. “Can you find the time to come into my club and have a little chat with me? It’s the Inventors, but they call it the ‘March Hares,’ I believe, because of some of the queer characters there, in fact, between ourselves, I believe that I am the only member who is entirely sane. I joined It for professional reasons—that is to say, we have an organization and a magazine, for the purpose of getting into touch with people who are interested in our projects. But it’s queer company, Paget, for a coirimon-sense man like myself, with no nonsense about him." “A little trying, I can imagine,” Masterman," said Paget diplomatically. “Trying, sir? It’s a confounded bore to listen to them! For instance, there’s Brum, who has Just been refused a patent for his eighth perpetualmotion machine. And Halfield, our president—he had to resign from three other clubs because he insists that Shakespeare was really James I. “Yes. it’s a queer world, lieutenant; and the oddest thing of all is that when one has something of the utmost importance to the human race to make public, not a single man will take the least interest in it. I can’t induce a single member to listen to me. However, we live and let live; and, as I said, the organization helps. But can you dine with me?” “I’ve nothing particular to do this evening—for the first time in years.’’ “Then do- come in and have dinner with me,” said the old man eagerly. “I won’t pretend that I’m not going to try and enlist your aid to save the human race in spite of those benighted, besotted, blind-as-a-bat blastoderms in the admiralty office, because I am. But I believe that Providence has sent you to me, and if I can’t make you believe me, at least I don’t want it said that Jonathan Roderick Masterman went down into his grave without warning the human race of what, was coming. . “Sir, if the public knew a tithe of what I know, they would make peace with France —Germany? Thank you) —and arm themselves against the most relentless enemy that ever threatened mankind. Sir, you will yet live to see old Jonathan Roderick Masterson’s statue in gold, standing in front of the capitol.” Paget, now quite convinced that his old friend was raving mad. followed him into a queer little building, apparently a combination of club arid hotel. The smoking room, which was situated on the ground floor immediately behind the clerk’s desk, was crowded with members, all talking at once at the top of their voices. As the captain paused to enter his guest’s name in the book, Paget looked in through the drifting smoke clouds. A dozen men had the floor, and were gesticulating furiously. Captain Masterman, having entered his guest’s name, touched him upon the arm. “They’re all mad, my lad, said the old man, surveying the assemblage with a look of pity. “No doubt you wonder how I can associate my name with theirs. If it wasn’t for our magazine, in which our articles appear, and our excellerit organization, I couldn’t bring myself to it.” “Who edits the magazine?” inquired Donald. “That was a matter of some difficulty,” replied Masterman. “It proved Impossible to find a member sufficiently broad-minded to consider the others and allow them space, and nobody would accept my own offer to become the editor, simply out of professional antagonism. Each wanted to utilize the entire available space for his own crazy ideas. So we drew lots for it. Fortunately. I won the editorship last month. Here is a copy,” he added, picking up an attractive little publication that lay on the clerk's desk. “But I am not going to talk to you in the smoking room,” continued Masterman, “for that atmosphere would prejudice you against believing what I am going to say. And I must convince you, my dear boy, because those lunatics are utterly beyond the bounds of reason, and much is at stake. A cataclysm is impending which will inevitably destroy humanity unless we devote our common energies to the maintenance of our lives, our liberties and our civilization.’ 1

Captain Masterman explains to Lieutenant Paget his theory of the existence of a strange race, the existence of whose species, he asserts, menaces the human family.

(TO BE CONTINUED.)

“What’s That? War With the Germans?”