Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 91, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 July 1908 — THE VANISHING FLEETS [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

THE VANISHING FLEETS

By ROY NORTON

ILLUSTRATED BY A. WEIL

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Norma, who had not been informed of this part of the project, gave a start of protest, foreseeing that she, too, would have to share in this isolation., and become an exile until the experiments were concluded. Her father turned a questioning look toward her, and then reached oyer and patted her hand in sympathy. The president was steadily summing up the situation. “The navy department will attend to purchasing supplies, including machinery and ertide metals necessary for the first -work, while Dr. Roberts •Will place his orders for apparatus, and all will be consigned to the collier Penobscot, which will transport them to the chosen spot. The gunboat Harper will accompany her, and will be she first boat to be experimented upon and equipped with the new plates. Rear Admiral Brockton will be assigned to her command for the present. These two ships will sail from New York harbor, together with a email transport which will carry such engineer* and mechanics as the navy department may select for a Work of this Importance. Communication will be maintained by such means as seem best to Admiral Brockton, and more men and supplies will be dispatched from time to time as required. It Is needless to say that the entire experimental work, the casting of the plates, and the general supervision of everything, will be under the direction of Dr. Roberts.” “And his assistant,” the inventor again interjected. The secretary of the navy, obeying a suggestion from the chair, read off a long list of figures, explaining theni as he w«nt, and concluding with an unqualified Indorsement of the plan. So infactious was his blunt enthusiasm and confidence,, that those whe at Arst had hesitated at the Irregularity of the procedure found themselves won over, and bound with complete unanimity into a Coterie which was to assume responsibility for a war. And thus was the issue accepted. The eanLy hours of the morning Were upon-them as they dispersed, but Norma, resting back In the corner of the cab which conveyed her homeward, did not share the elation of her father, who was already building workshops, conducting new experiments and equipping a navy. Yesterday she had looked forward to confiding the story of their great success to Guy Hiyier; for In the preceding month, when she and her father had been trembling on the very edge of a great discovery in unknown fields, she had given no Intimation of their work or their prospects, planning this surprise, and now, by the rigid embargo of silence thrust upon her, her dream was dissipated. To her the production of the radioactive metal had meant a goal; but now that it was reached and she was anxious to satisfy a heart hunger, she had been given another task, and was to undergo more silence and repression and another siege of work In a world of figures, of test tubes and retorts, a slave to the lamp of science and her father’s success. Not even the knowledge that she was sacrificing herself on the altar of duty to country, whose protection and welfare were burdens that she must share, palliated the bitterness of holding love aloof. And In this light the triumphs of, invention seemed hollow and thq night filled with dreariness. There were no more regular meetings of those who conspired for the national good; but it was a season of terrific activity, and February was yet young when there sailed away from New York harbor one night a gunboat, a collier and a small transport, whose destinations were unknown, and which slipped their moorings in silence and passed down the bay with scarcely a sound to annoqpce their departure. On board the gunboat were men accustomed to unquestioning obedience, and on th* transport was a little army of skilled mechanics and engineers who had been called from their usual occupation by Imperative orders and requested to tell none but their families that they might b* absent for *everal months. There was not a man aboard any of the craft who h/td not taken a pledge of absolute secrecy. The collier, black and massive, was loaded almost beyond her carrying capacity, and even on her decks were piled lumber and great sheets of corrugated iron, bearing evidence of full holds below. And all this cargo had the history of rushed work behind it Strange pieces of machinery, sections of engines, powerful dynamos, and unheard of apparatus wer* stowed away with cases of chemicals, and th* mines of the north, the west and the south had contributed crude metals or partially smelted ores to the assortment. Driven by expert minds and masters ot *»ecutlve work, an army of men in different walks of life had given their Ingenuity and effort toward something of which they knew not. and the* the result their Xboes had poured out upon a wharf, been swallowed up by

the cavernous holds of a collier, and were now being carried out Into the broad reaehes of the Atlantic, with destination unknown. A general order had been Issued and made public, that, Inasmuch as the poaching of Cuban fishermen on American grounds round lower Florida and the keys demanded attention, the gunboat Penobscot . had been detailed to; patrol those waters. In the United States this attracted no attention; but the swarthy fishermen of the tropics took warning and no longer steered their smacks to the forbidden waters, shrugging their shoulders in impotent wrath. Rumor had It that the transport was carrying mechanics and laborers to the Philippines, where a new drydock was to be constructed, and the collier was generally supposed by men of the waterfront to be laden with materials for this work. And so, despite the momentous significance of the sailing of these three ships, the world remained in ignorance, paid little heed, or forgot. Those voyagers who were In the secret looked forward with eagerness , to the task before them, realizing to ■ the full that on them depended much. ■ Apd of these was Norma, who leaned ; over the stern rail of the Penobscot as It dropped down the harbor, : watched the lights of the city grow ! dim In" the’ distance, saw the great, silent statue of liberty rear Itself against the sky, and felt the first free i swell lift and sway the defck beneath her feet. Her departure had not been pleasant. There on the land behind was the man whom she seemed doomed forever to hold at arm’s length. She had parted from him with the announce- • ment that her father was compelled to . go south for a time, and had insisted ; on her accompanying him. For long? A ll , that could be but conjee- i ture; perhaps for two or three months. Was he ill? No, not exactly; but he was going away and needed her. Yes, she would write occasionally from Miami, Fla.; but not often, because her charge would demand her time. And so, answering arid evading, filled with yearning, and yet debarred from giving confidence, she had bidden him good-by and come to this: Sailing away in the night with all the furtiveness and mystery which enshrouded pirate ships of old bent On plunder and rapine. The days of the voyage were much alike; filled with work. Down In the cabins the engineers and machinists drew hasty plana of buildings, then marked spots where machines were to have floor space, drew diagrams for transmission of power, and consulted charts showing the depths of water round their prospective shipyard. They had trot even time to watch th* devious course In and out among the islands which finarked their entry to the scene of toll. When the pulsations of the screw stopped and the ship ceased her vibrations, they were still at their several tasks, and were disturbed when the anchor chains went rumbling through their hawser pipes. Like an army of ants, drilled and acclimated, they swarmed out upon the land, the sappers clearing the way, the carpenters donning their aprons and grasping their tools while piles of lumber, kegs of bolts and nails, and mountains of Iron sheathing accumulated upon the beach. And then, as the ringing of a multitude of hammera and the steady biting song of the safcs filled the air with sou*ds of Industry, great cases of machinery swung up from the holds, floated dizzily to the bulwarks, and went slowly down to the lighters. A city of tents sprang up as by necromancy, with gutters to carry off the rains, and sewers to prevent disease. Camp surgeons accustomed to sanitation superintended these outposts, paying as much attention to the spreading of a mosquito net to keep away the dread stygomla, as to tautening the canvas roofs and clearing the grounds. All available means of a resourceful nation had been gathered together as an expert driver seizes the reins of a four-in-hand and guides his horses along a known road to a given destination, and ail with the regularity which would distinguish the work had it been the most unimportant action of every day Industry. Norma, having no part In this task 1 of construction, wandered Idly up and down the decks or round the clearing throughout the day; and as she watched she saw the birth of a miniature city, saw the heaps of material on the beach dissipated, saw tall steel smoke stacks poke their summits up- ' ward supported by splder-like cables, 1 saw shining, corrugated roofs spread themselves protectlngly over floors 1 whereon machinery was already being ’placed, and wondered at the accom- 1 pllsbment The sun went down, losing itself 1 among the keys and waters of the ! farther west, before a bugle gave a | quick Imperative summons and the 1 toilers dropped their tools for the evening meal. Many of the officers, some of them grimy and stained with work, their linen no longer Immaculate, and their hair unkempt, came aboard the gunboat for dinner. They ate hurriedly like men In the field, and one by one, with scant apology to their fellow diners, disappeared. Norma was almost the last to leave the cabin and appear on deck, which to her surprise was vacant. Even as sh* glanced along its deserted length ther* came a whistle from the shore. Darkness had descended abruptly and piled its blackness over th* islands and the seas of the tropic*. The palm tre** and shrubbery out to th* west were silhouetted against th* laat faint light of day, and from the swamps of th* island cam* th* cries of ndght fowl, th* wMr and chirruping note* of !n*«ot Hf*.

and the~ monotonous croaking of frogs. Swinging here and there In erratic circles, like falrfes of the Jungle carrying lighted lanterns, went the fireflies cn aimless Jonrneylngs, not a few but many thousands of them, as If Irk a wild dance of curiosity, looking through the njght to learn what manner iStWhinfes these were that had come upon them so suddenly, ripped away their forests and built strange mansions In their solitude i. It was i not this, however, that chained her attention. High up over this mushroom city where all had been silent and darkening when she went below, now gleamed myriad lights strung as by a genii of the Jump while others rested from their toll. White, flaring streaks of brilliance thrust spearlike rays Into the gloom, lllumlnW.

atlng below them the creation of a day. From the distance came the steady hum of steam driven dynamos, telling with monotonous Insistence I that there would be no cessation until | the last spike was driven, the last machine set and the last belting hung. Into this spot of the night begay to come black figures answering the call of the siren. On a sudden, as if by preconcerted signal, the echoes again awoke to the clang of hammers on steel and the hum of voices in command. Like weird pygmies doomed to twist their thews in never-ending effort, she saw them resume their uncompleted task, exerting themselves unceasingly for Its accomplishment. A launch which had come alongside on some errand was sputtering spasmodically at the foot of the ladder below as If Impatient to be off. She boarded it, and In a few minutes a smart young naval officer stepped Into the stern, gave a curt order, and they raced away toward th* shore. “Ah, good evening, Miss Roberts," he said, suddenly spying her. “Looking for your father, who went ashore awhile ago, I presume? I’m going right in his direction, and will be glad to guide you.” He seemed too busy for further conversation, and almost before the boat had come to a stop sprang to the shingle and offered his hand. Through steadily working groups of men, past unfinished buildings, and over lighted floors where machinists wrought with levers and wrenches, they went to the far side of the camp. Here were officers with coats cast off and sleeves rolled up, and laborers in overalls Intent on setting a huge blast furnace; and In the very heart of this activity, besmirched with dirt, his hat discarded and his shirt thrown open, she found her father. Not even he with all his weight of years could resist this terrific call of energy. She stood and watched for a few minutes while he, the master spirit of the group, directed the work. It seemed to have passed Its critical point, and after some final Instructions to the engineer in charge he straightened up and looked round. "Hello, here’s the assistant,” he said, walking toward her and looking fondly Into her eyes. She besought him to rest, and her appeals were seconded by those of the officers who feared for the physical strength of this man on whom so much depended, and who would have guarded him as a precious Jewel of untold worth. He protested at first, and then, like one waking from a dream and suddenly conscious of a great weariness, made no objection when the rear admiral, who now looked like a workman, put his hat upon his head and tendered him his coat He permitted them to throw it over his shoulders, and finally, with a look of infinite satisfaction at the growing structure before him, took his daughter’s arm and tramped away. He was an old man again, yielding the tribute of age to th* toll of youth. They boarded the boat and sought their cabins; but even as they retired there came to them through th* open portholes, like a lullaby, the sounds of unremitting labor Intermingled with the lap of waves on the coral beach. The first cfeatlv* step toward .a national victory and supremacy had been taken in a day, even while the war cloud across western seas was gathering strength for Its overcast; and, waiting, wondering, and expectant, th* world was unaware. ;(To b* continued.)

Grtat Cases of Machinery Swung Up from the Holds.