Pittston Gazette

              4 Oldest Newsoaper in the Wvomine Vallev PITTSTON, LUZERNE COUNTY, PA., FRIDAY, JUNE 9, 1899. KctablUhed 1850. I VOL. XLIXMo.40. ) A Weekly Local and Family Journal. (81.00 a Year ; in Advance. WwMGC*SJ&9N. CBFawCT. ft&fgftfTr. a»® zD: DV utxn «o/tTM®(Ra. tne green gioom spiasnen over tne windows of the conning tower itself and began to deepen in intensity every moment.uouy, yon may witn me. lour eyes are better than mine,„and we must have a sharp lookout." passed out ot sigbt. i3ut tire next instant it had worked itself into the glare again, and then, keeping the light squarely on to it, Guthrie saw to his horror that it was undulating—slowly through the water in the direction of the conning tower. is bow it happened for the undergraduate to take her place at thfe window of the conning tower. Dr. Tring, meanwhile, kept -up a running fire of congratulations. they had leisure to plan once more, there was none of them so bold as to propose to return just then for the rest of the sunken million. The Eureka had sunk quietly down to within a fathom or so of the ooze, and the doctor, who always directed the upward and downward movements of the vesseVliimself, left the conning tower and went down to help the others on the crank. Dolly remained in the conning tower alone. The wheel worked easily. She had the binnacle in front of her and wbb well able to steer a compass course, and as the pace which the hand driven screw gave along the sea floor was slow, and Dolly's brown eyes were very keen, she was easily able to keep a smart lookout at the same time. its slimy covering, had tney laboriously dug out and overhauled. They had found out how she lay, bitten their way through her 'thwart ships and then attacked her fore and aft. Captain Colepepper hurried off to the part of the hold in which the crank apparatus w»s situated, and Guthrie with hint, and before a minute had passed the hand driven screw was revolving and the Eureka had begun her search. The Eureka had commenced her dive. Neptune bad been kind to them bo far, but, now that they had found the door of his treasure chamber, he grew petulant, and in his anger he came very near to adding eight more corpses to the unmonumented graveyard of the ocean. As he looked through the glazed port Guthrie could hardly persuade himself that before bim lay the foundered galleon that they had come so far and labored so heavily to discover. CHAPTER VII. THE WORLD BENEATH THE WATERS. "The treasure room must be under the after cabin floor," had been Dr. Tring's dictum when the work began. "It always lay there I" "Call the doctor, Alan!" cried Dolly in alarm. : As the Eureka began to settle down through the waters the four watchers found that at first their view was a tolerably wide one. The most striking peculiarity which they noticed was that, in place of the atmosphere which they bad just left, they seemed to be looking through an immense mass of bottle green glass. The roof of the conning tower, which was not transparent, prevented them from seeing directly overhead, and as the angle at which they could catch a glimpse of the surface of the ocean above them was leas by several degrees than the critical angle the result was that this surface became to them one swaying, shimmering mirror. The sky above was not visible through it. but objects in the sea below were reflected in strange, distorted forms on its constantly moving surface. JJut the scenery of the outer air and the doings of the world above were not in the thoughts of any of the party at that moment, for in the population of the world of waters through which they were passing there was an absorbing interest. But this search, which Miss Colepepper had thought would be a matter of a few hours, dragged itself on through many weary days of the most irksome toil, and there was yet no sign of the foundered galleon. Guthrie went to the ladfder and sbouttd, and the doctor's lopg legs came tumbling up the steps three at a time. He had pictured to himself a shattered and rotten wreck, which, though eaten by the sea water and broken by the explosion, would still retain a good deal of its old form and appearance. In Dr. Tring's room at 108 Shaftoe street had been, among other things, a volume of old prints which were copies from the sea pictures in the great council chamber of the doges' palace at Venice. Dolly and he had studied these carefully, and from them had obtained a very tolerable notion of the naval architecture of the earlier centuries. He expected, therefore, that the galleon would have some traces remaining of lofty forecastle and aftercastle; that at least one of her great poop lanterns would be left; that she would have, at any rate, one mast standing. He had pictured to himself the size and shape of its heavy "roundtop," and, in fact, though the whole would doubtless be shrouded by a heavy growth of sea shrub and creeper, he had hoped that his imagination, by filling in a few gaps here and there, would still have given him a very fair picture of what the galleon was when she rode in all ber bravery of canvas and bunting over the waves of the surface. So they bored their way sternward and found many more objects of interest, mementos of other days, tiny relics, many of them insignificant, but all, to a student of the past, pregnant with history. Dr. Tring reveled among all these treasures, working over them far into the night. In fact, so keen was his enthusiasm that he could hardly be persuaded to take the rest, which the hard work of each day made imperative. CHAPTER X. But before he arrived the beast*bad gained the ketch's decks, and its great tnakelike head was nuzzling against the glass windowed ports of the conning tower. GUTHRIE FINDS PROFIT IN THE TEMPEST. For the steersman and the lookout in the conning tower there was always the excitement which came from the possibility that the next sweep of the searchlight might reveal the longed for heap of wreckage, but for the workers down in the stuffy hold there was nothing but the dullest of monotony—push and pull, push and pull, day after day, at the arrangement of cranks and levers which turned the screw. Those same cranks and levers no doubt reflected credit on Dr. Tring's inventive ingenuity, but after the first hour of acquaintance with them the members of the Eureka's crew began to lose interest in them and in the end came almost to hate tliem. The sun set big and yellow behind a reef of purple cloud, and the wind, which had been blowing a fresh breeze from the east all day, died away to nothing. The other seven members of the crew had "been grinding stolidly on at the hateful screw shaft for some hour and a half, saying little to one another, and (some of them at least) thinking of little, for the monotony of the never ending work had knocked the spirit out of them. But of a sudden they were electrified into sentient beings again by a cry from above of: "Oh, there she is! There! Atlastl" CHAPTER VI. tone, of which Gntbrie could just distinguish the words, "Plucky to the ends of her fingers; fret herself to death if we did." THE EUREKA TAKES HER FIRST DIVE. The galleon Santa Catarina, with her rich store of gold and silver and jewels and the armor of her defenders and perhaps their bones, too, if the sea had •not dissolved them, lay under the Eureka's keel, and there she had rested, in undisturbed peace, since that long distant day when the Spaniard bad fired bis magazine sooner than trust to the tender mercies of Nicholas I. The company C)' hoard the jiureka leaned over the bulwarks and gazed dcwn into the green depth* of the Atlantic beneath them. A hush of awe fell upon tbem and kept them speechlefes. With one accord tbey peered into the waves as though by the exercise of their will power alone they could pierce those silent depths and compel the sea to disclose its secret to their carious eyes. It was an eerie thought that down there in the ooze, 200 fathoms beneath them, lay the harvest of gold which tbey had come to reap. But it would be a perilous gleaning, and maybe that other reaper, death, would have his innings first and the bones of these eight brave men and women would go to swell the nnmber of those who lie at rest in the wide graveyards of the ocean. It was surely a thought to freeze the speech and make the heart beat fast with fear. "t The task of sifting out the gold and silver from the litter of mud and rotted splinters which the grab had deposited on the Eureka's deck, went on merrily, and most of the workers were far too busy and eager to notice the threatening aspect of the sky. Captain Colepepper, however, was too good a seaman not to have observed the coming danger, and that he was worried and anxious would have been perfectly obvious to the others, if they had & id ?yen for anything else but the pleasant work in which they were engaged. Four times in the space of less than an hour, the captain* left the task of mud grubbing on deckr and went below to the after cabin, and the furrows on his brow when be rejoined the others grew deeper each tinpa After the fourth of theee visits to the cabin he approached Dr. Tring and quietly drew him aside. And to this the doctor replied with an air of relief : "I think you are right. She deserves to come. And I don't believe there's so very much risk after all, at any rate for her." But the store of specie was not found in the after part of the galleon, though they cut their way right through to the sternpost before giving up the hope that it might be there. Their midships section had already told them that it did not lie under the waist, so they drew the only possible conclusion and set to work excavating from the tore part of the vessel* For-a while the work went quickly, for the powder room had evidently been situated forward of the waist, and the charred rubbish gave easily. But farther on the wood, as if hardened by the fire, was the toughest and best preserved they had come across, and many a time the scuttle of the grab got obstinately jammed, and they were forced patiently to grind a way through some sturdy obstruction. And then the captain said his fiddle was in tune now. So tbey started their playing again and rattled through "For He's a Jolly Good fellow " and the "Sola, dlws' March" from "Faust" with an aqionnt of vigor which bore evidence to their pleasure at the decision. No order was given, but the crank stopped dead at the turn, and save for Cain Laversha, who sat in his place unmoved, one and all rushed up the ladder and squeezed into the conning tower. The Eureka was motionless, and ber searchlight was turned full on the object which had caused Dolly's cry. It js said that the strangest thing a diver finds when he first takes to making descents below the sea's surface is the absolute silence amid which he moves. The workers in the Eureka were saved from this Experience. Speech was permitted to them, and for the first few days at least they chatted a good deal as they worked, but in time the numbing grip of deadly monotony took bold of them and seemed to choke their intellects, so that it became their habit to go through with the loathed toil in silence. By daylight next morning all hands were busily engaged in getting the Eureka in trim for the great attempt. The hatches were taken off and boat and scuttle butt passed down below, and then the hatches, which were of sheet iron, were replaced and riveted securely into their places. All the canvas Was unbent and stowed below, the main companion and skylight were unshipped and replaced with iron plates securely bolted down, and the ketch was made tight as a bottle all over. Every preparation for this had been made by shipwrights before she left Bristol, and .the doing of it had absorbed all the available capital, already much bitten into by the purchase of the vessel herself and the necessary stores, some of which, a£ tbey were special inventions of Dr. Tring's, were naturally very costly. It was a wreck, lying over on its starboard bilge, with decks facing away from the Eureka. Fore and main masts were standing. Topmasts had disappeared; mizzenmasts had gone by the board and lay trailing on the port quarters by the rigging. Her sides were gapped with gun ports. Her bottom was still green with rumpled copper sheathing.The captain recognized and pointed out to the others some old acquaintances of the fish shop, but alive and at home they presented a very different appearance from the limp, unpleasant looking masses of flabbTilfese which are vended from a marble slab at so much a pound. Bnthe had forgotten to allow for the corroding power of the brine. Iron naila had dissolved to mere threads, copper had tnrned to a thin green simp, the bard ilex soak timbers and sheathing had rotted to a pulpy slima The whole fabric of the great vessel had disintegrated of ite own weight, reclining where it fell, and the ever precipitating diatom ooze had shroaded its identity almost completely. Save here and there, where some charred beam or plank of the hard Spanish timber projected crookedly like a rotten tree snag, the symmetry ofettfr-jjiound was unbroken. "Bravo, Dotty!" said the doctor. "Whatever we do get now we've to thank you for. D'you know, Guthrie, that this is the third time we have been over this particular piece of ground and that I was on the watch on the other occasions, and mu6t have passed this precious hillock as I did any other inequality of the sea floor?" But at last the seat of the Golconda was reached without their knowing it, and they pumped their way np to the surface with nearly £5,000 worth of bullion lyi»g mixed with the litter of slimy mud and rotten splinters upon their decks. "Doctor," he said in low tones, "come below with me." • u The doctor handed the ingot, which be wa4 cleaning of its coating of mud, to Guthrie and followed his partner. "Hold your din, you great fool I" Dolly commented with some surprise on the fact that the fish did not seem to be in the least shy, as she had natnrally expected that they would, and it was certainly a curious sight to see tbem come flocking up from all parts of the ditftabce, and then, poising themselves motionless near the sinking vessel, look at her with solemn, unwinking eyes. Dolly declared that they made her feel creepy. CHAPTER VIII. THE FJ-NDINU OK THE SANTA CATARINA. The doctor's hand stole on to Dolly's shoulder. The place where they did this work, facetiously called the "engine room," was situated a little abaft 'midships and lay immediately above the keelson. It was dark, for the supply of condensed gases for the oxyhydrogen light was limited, and. as Dr. Tring pointed out, one does not need light to pnsh and pnll at a crank which cannot get oat of position. Moreover, it was the stuffiest place in the ship and. by universal consent, the moat objectionable. Save for the lookout and steersman in the conning tower, all hands were in this engine room when the Eureka was under weigh beneath the surface, though even when the six of them were working their hardest her pace was desperately slow. As soon as be saw the great eel Dr. Tring turned out the lights with a snap and passed down an order to empty the tanks as fast 'as the water could be driven out of them. All hands worked with a will, and very soon the Eureka was leaping surfaceward again in rapid bounds. "Littlegirl," said he, "braceyourself up for a disappointment." "Well, Colepepper," he said when tkey were alone, "what is it!" "It seems an unprofitable looking bunch of filth," observed Captain Colepopper as he stooped to tuck his trousers into the tops of his sea boots. The ketch was floating once more in conventional fashion, riding snugly to her sea anchor. "Look at the glass." "Oh, doctor," cried Dolly, that the Santa Catarina t" "isn't Dr. Tring did so and whistled. "By Jove," he said, "It has gone down, and no mistake!" "Dolly, my dear, I'm very sorry for you. Your smart lookout has done you credit, but this is a little accident that At length Cain Laversha broke the silence. ' "An inch and a quarter in the last 80 minutes," observed the captain, "and it's still falling. We're in for something out of the common." The doctor thought for a moment. "Then, if that is so," he said at length, "we'd better hurry up and get below the surface again before it begins. Now that we've hit upon the spot where the gold lies we can afford to be lavish with our supply of oxygen. We'll just stay down below there till it had blown Itself out." "It'll be powerful dark down there, znr, won't it?" said he. Though outwardly little changed, the Eureka was in her new trim probably the strangest vessel that had ever dropped down Bristol channel. Her hull had been of steel to start with, and of unusually massive construction, and her internal structure had been added to till she was of immense strength and capable of enduring enormous compressive pressure. The engines and boilers with which she had keen originally fitted were taken completely away, and a smaller crew was substituted for the one which she formerly carried, and an ingenious arrangement of cranks bad been fitted to its shaft, so that it could be worked by manual power from the bold. She possessed, also, two large tank partitions, one forward, one abaft, extending from the bow and stern respectively till they met amidships. Each of these was fitted with a valve for admitting the water by which she was to be sunk and was connected also with a powerful force pump, by which this water could be expelled again when she was required to come to the surface. She had, in addition, other special contrivances of the doctor's invention for dealing with the Santa Cats rina when they should find her; but these will be described" later on. Still the sea poured into the tanks, and the ketch went down, down, down I The pftfe green light darkened with every fathom and became first a weird, wintry looking twilight, such as one sees through the deeper blues of a church window on a dark November's day. Then the gloom grew blacker, and finally came the inky darkness of night Of what was occurring on her decks those in the hold did not hear till after the ballast tanks had been freed of water and the iron hatches had been opened once more to the sea breeze. But then they crowded up, and the doctor told the tale. "Eh, but what's this, though?" said Totn Jelly, picking tip a dull, gray disk from the ooze and swilling it gently in a pool of water. "Aye," answered Captain Colepepper shortly, "dark as the grave itself." "And bow far down did 'ee zay we be going, sur ?" "A button," suggested Guthrie. "We've got the pickings of some poor fellow's dunnage sack again." "Two hundred fathoms, more or less." "There is little in it," he said. "Directly I turned the light off the beast gave up nuzzling the glass and Btarted driving its sharp nose against the panes with all the force it oould muster. There was nothing for it but to make for the surface as fast as possible. If the glass had gone, the pressure of water from without would have been bo intense that nothing we oould have done would have prevented the inrush. And then—by the way, has anybody got matches? I want a cigarette." "With due respect, nol" replied Tom. "It's a coin, sir. Look, when I rnb the cankering away I See them two pillars ? It's a dollar. The Spaniards have their goldpieces stamped just the same today. " "Two hundred fathoms," repeated the farmer slowly. "Quarter of a mile that be, very near." And then be shook bis head heavily and relapsed into silence.Dr. Tring scraped a match and applied it to a jet behind his head. It lit with a pale blue flame. Then be turned another stopcock, and after a preliminary swishing noise a thin pencil of flame directed itself on to a small cylinder of lime, which presently began to glow whitely. Then be closed the case in which the apparatus was held, adjusted a lens and removed a cap. A brilliant beam of light streamed forth into the murky waters. "Miss Cclepepper," said the undergraduate, "the very next time we pipe down to dinner I shall crave the honor of proposing your health." Cain Laversha, whose services above the surface had been almost valueless, here fell into the knack at once and professed himself quite contented with bis occupation. It was mcnotonous, and he liked monotony, and there was no brain effort required. The rest toiled because they had to, and tried to keep their spirits up by remembering the golden end which their hopes told them was coming to the weary labor. "Aye," assented the captain, "we might do that if it was going to be an ordinary storm. I've no more fancy than yon have for leaving the Santa Catarina now that we've got onr fingers in her money box at last, but this blow isn't going to be a matter of hours or of days either maybe. It's a regular tornado that we're in for, I tell yon. Look at the sea—dancing up and down like a plate of calf's foot jelly, though there isn't as much wind as would blow a match out I've been in a storm of the kind before, and I know the signs. We shall be precious lucky if we escape with the loss of a spar or two." "Here's another," interposed Henrietta, "and another!" "Doctor," said the captain presently in low, anxious tones, "are you quite sure we can stand the pressure? It will be awful!" "And I'll join you in drinking the toast!" doctor heartily. "But now we won't waste any more time in congratulations. The length of our stay down in this gloomy treasure house is limited. We can't prolong it without danger. So, Guthrie;- away with you below again, lift her a bit with the pumps, give a few turns to the crank shaft till I get her under command again and laid fairly up alongside, and then stand by to work the grab!" "Himmelt Here wass ein vistvuL Unt loog I Zee vat Gain haf pigged op I" "Of couree we cant-" returned Dr. Tring, with an amount of impatience which, as it was quite unusual in him, "Gonld," said Cain stolidly. "I've seed a boss' shoe made from a smaller bar. Znsan Pierce, I'll bay 'ee a Waterbnry watch when I get whoam." showed more plainly than anything else "That," said the doctor, "is a use to which an ordinary oxybydrogen magic lantern has seldom been put Electricity might have been better perhaps, but I could not bit upon a method of producing it satisfactorily. But, thanks to modern commercial enterprise, which supplies oxygen and hydrogen powerfully condensed in light steel cylinders, this form of illumination serves onr purposes very well." / But, though the doctor thus made little of the encounter, the danger had been really great, and more than one of the Eureka's crew began to wonder whether they were destined ever to find the gold which was the reward of their daring. For, do what they would, no glimpse of the Santa Catarina came to reward their patient search. They had diligently quartered five square miles of the sea floor, and, unless they hud overlooked ber, she was not there. That evening, therefore, there was a council held on deck, while the ketch rode stationary at ber mDa an^nor. "Hehl What's this?" squeaked Henrietta, who was slopping about among the mnd scratching away the rnbbish with rapid, eager fingers. "A pig of lead 1 It's heavy enough and about the color. Lend me your knife, Tom. Ah 1 Look I See that gleam T Silver I An ingot of it, Tom, and weighing pretty nearly a hundredweight, I warrant I" could have done that even his nerves " were in a state of tension. He bad not flinched when }he great liner was upon them in the bay of Biscay and death missed them only by inches, but this was different, and for once Dr. Tring showed that he could be moved ad other men. It was not the first spell which came so unkindly. The conditions of working were such that even that was. of course, not pleasant. But then no one expected it to last for long, and so-all endured it cheerfully. But when it came to be day after day and day after day, and when the days lengthened out to weary weeks, the loathing with which they approached the endless toil became so great that even stolid Cain Laversba began to grumble, and when he lifted up bis voice in complaint the case was bad indeed. "Ah, Guthrie, my lad, nhake hands 1" might have happened to any of ua Wrecks are not plentiful down here on the sea floor, and it is natural to steer for the first that one sees, but that is not the one we want." At the word down the young man tumbled, full of eagerness as he had half an hour before been full of lassitude and loathing. He told the tale to the others, and never had work in those gloomy 'tween decks been more cheerfully done. The pumps clanked merrily till the ketch was off the ground again, and then the screw shaft hummed round at such a pace that Dr. Tring was forced to shout down to ease her or he should run the hillock out of sight. And afterward, when the doctor had ranged her up into position and dropped her down on to the sea floor again, the others tumbled briskly forward to the set of cranks which worked the grab, every man of them tingling with excitement For the result of all their weary labors was now to be put to the proof. "Do you mean that we shall have to leave this epot now, when the Spanish gold is almost in our pockets?" "Look here, Colepepper," he said irritably," "we've figured all this out already at 108 Shaftoe street, Bristol, haven't we? So there's' no need to begin to have doubts now. We know exactly what pressure the Eureka can stand, and, according to our calculations. there will be a considerable margin left over for safety even at 200 fathoms. I see no reason to doubt those calculations now. Do you?" "But are you sure, doctor? Hadn't we better go round to the other side of her land make certain before we go away?" "We're getting into the right latitude at last, doctor, I'm thinking." opined the captain, swillfng a bucketful of water over the heap and laying bare a couple more heavy ingots. "You've hit upon the dons' strong box at last." "Yea, doctor, I do. We shall have to set about putting the ketch into sea trim again as fast as we can and then run before the storm wherever it chooses to take ua. If we're lucky and don't go to the bottom, we -can come back here afterward for the rest of the gold. If we're not lucky, we shall be dismasted or worse. A West Indian tornado is the holiest Bort of terror when it fairly breaks loose, and that's what we are going to have before we are a couple of hours older. Your trick of command is over for the present, doctor, I'm afraid, for there will be precious small chance of any more undersurface work for a spell. It's a pity, but there's no help for it, so we'd best be setting about putting the Eureka into shipshape again." Rising from the forward part of her deck was a structure which was intended to serve the purpose of a conning tower, from which her movements below the surface would be controlled. It was a small circular room; lighted by windows of thick plate glass. It could be entered only from below, and contained a steering wheel geared on to the tiller by iron barH passing through water tight packing boxes. From this place it was tbat the Eureka was to be governed in her search along the sea floor for the foundered galleon and its gold. "How deep are we now, doctor?' Dolly asked. The doctor pointed to a thing like a steam gauge with the dial marked off in fathoms. The index had touched 64. and it was still falling. "We've a lot farther to go yet before we fetch up," he answered. The doctor shook his head. "Unfortunately I am quite sure of what I say,-" he went on. "That unlucky craft before us bus not been down 50 years. She has been built this century. The galleon we are after bus very different lines, and. moreover, could not possibly be in anything like such good preservation. I'm very sorry for you, Dolly"— "It is rather disappointing, " the doctor owned, "but I don't consider the case by any means hopeless as yet. Yon see, that old galleon was a wooden ship, and so when she left the top of the sea she won Id not of necessity go straight to the hot turn. She would sink a good many fathoms and then woald get to a layer of water of sufficient denseneaa to prevent her going any farther for awhile. But, though she wonld not remain suspended for long, for her timbers and cargo wonld soon get thoroughly sodden, she might very well get into some undercurrent which wonld take her along goodness knows how far." The work, however, was not without the occasional excitement of unexpected peril Once, when the Eureka wan rising to the surface, bat still far down in the abys&mal depths, something jammed in one of the pumps. Tom Jelly and Hans Spiedernichel, who had gone to man the forward pump, came tumbling aft again with horror written on their facet* and announced what had .occurred. The fear of death came upon every one of the listeners. Even Cain Laversba, whom nothing np to that point bad moved into any expression either of pleasure or of pain, dropped his ham colored face into the hollows The doctor had mounted his eyeglass amid even a deeper ridge and furrow of puckers than usual. He was scrubbing his hands together delightedly. "The air feels queer," remarked Guthrie. J'No, doctor," aajd the captain, don't but—"  "To tell the truth," he said, "I had almost given up hope of getting a single thing after we found the stern empty. Those old archives I took the trouble to hunt up at Madrid expressly mentioned that the treasure rcom was under the great cabin floor. How it got shifted I can't imagine." "But!" interrupted Dr. Tring. "There are no 'buts.' Here, I'll go over the thing with you again." "That," replied the doctor, "is because it is becoming gradually compressed. As the water ballast flows into our tanks 00 the air which filled them before is pushed out and sends up the pressure throughout the rest of the vessel. I might have let it escape overboard, but breathable oxygen is valuable, and I preferred to store it. There are eight of us on board, and, reckoning the consumption per bead at 18 gallons per hour, we shall have enough to last us for 24 hours easily, and more at a pinch." "Don't say any more abont it, doctor. I'm sorry for having hoaxed yon all. So if you'll forgive me for that, please don't say anything more." And the two men began pacing the doqk, the doctor arguing and enforcing bis reasons with energetic gestures and the captain nodding a continuous approval to his friend's words. He did not in reality require to be convinced afresh, but the process was none the less comforting. While the work of getting all these appliances into order was going forward the captain bad caused to be lowered into the water a square of stout canvas stretehed on iron bars and suitably buoyed. The Eureka rode to that at the end of a warp, as a sea anchor. Her drift was slow, but as the doctor did not want her to get to leeward of a certain point no time was to be lost, and the eight members of the crew worked willingly and hard at the business of preparation. This "grab," as its inventor had christened it, deserves a word of description. It was in structure very like those uncouth contrivances yclept "steam navies," which are usually associated with the making of railway cuttings. Attached to the mainmast, as to an upright, was a heavy moving arm, which was capable of complete control from below. At the end of this was a long strut, armed with a large iron scoop, which wonld dig np a load of anything within its reach, swing it And Dr. Tring and'the rest went below again, and Dolly resumed her solitary watch. However, though Captain Colepepper conld not resist the temptation now and again of alluding slyly to the wonderful things which his daughter's eyes did contrive to pick out, it was to the smartness of those same brown eyes that the success with which the toilers' patient efforts were in the end tardily crowned was due. And it came jast in the nick of time. So utterly wearied was every one with the work and sickened with the endless turning of that awful crank that even the two promoters of the enterprise bad almost brought themselves to admit that it must be abandoned. Dolly saved it; at the eleventh hour, it is true, but still in time. Dr. Tring admitted afterward that he doubted whether be conld have held out a single day longer. Once more on the surface and the feeling of loathing might have proved too strong to be resisted. Canvas wonld have been bent and the Eureka's bowsprit pointed away from the hateful spot. "Simple enough," said the captain. "As I figure it out, it was something like this: The lubberly stevedores who stowed her holds sent her to sea in such bad trim that her people coald do noth- The two friends left the cabin and returned to the deck. The gold and silver had by this time all been sorted ont from among the slime, and Tom Jelly and Henrietta were already bnsy with the buckets washing down the mnd fouled decks. Captain Colepepper explained matters to the others and then pnt the wirole crew to the work of setting np the canvas again. It bad to be hurriedly done, for there was no time to be lost, and hardly had the necessary rags of storm sail been set when the tornado broke upon them. of bis bands and groaned aloud. "But," objected Captain Colepepper, "if there had been any such current abont, we should have noticed It" "Alan," said Miss Colepepper presently as she watched the two, "is it a very foolhardy quest this of ours 7 Father seems to be strangely uneasy, and even Dr. Tring isn't quite himself. I don't think I quite realized till now that we really had to take this awful dive." "Zusan Pierce," he moaned, "Zusan Pierce, I be lost to 'ee, an the varm all goes to Abel. This be a tarrible end— tarrible. I vear I shall ha'nt 'ee, Zusan Pierce. I bain't able to die quiet like thikky." "Not necessarily. It may be some subsurface stream, running only a few inches an hour. With our roug'h observations we Bhould never notice such a small disturbance as that And yet, given time, It might have shifted the slowly sinking galleon on a good long distance before she finally settled into her bed upon the ooze. "No, I shall not abandon our search while we have a single cylinder of oxygen left, and even then I shall not go away because I consider it hcpeless." "What about the carbonic acid?" asked Guthrie. "Those flat tins, which you helped me to lay about the bold, are meant to deal with that," replied the doctor. "Carbon dioxide is heavy, you know, and will naturally seek the lowest levels of the vessel. The tins are filled with strong caustic potash solution, and will require nothing morn than an occasional shaking up to them mop up the excess of carbon dioxide." The sun was shimmering on the western horizon by the time the work was complete, and the wind had died away to nothing. The ketch was heaving gently over a long, low ocean swell, which was unruffled by a zephyr and smooth as though it bad been topped with oiL "Hold your din, you great fool!" said Dr. Tring angrily on hearing the tail end of this lament, "and go and put some beef into the break of the pump." round and deposit it upon the deck. All the movements of the machine were arranged so that they could be controlled from the 'tween decks. Guthrie said nothing, but edged a little nearer to the girl and kept his eyes fixed in a kind of fascination on the water beneath. "Something may smash if we put too much force into it," hazarded Guthrie, "and if it does the water will come in." In practice the grab had many drawbacks; but, considering the enormous difficulties under which it was worked, it did its duties very well. It certainly reflected great credit upon its inventor, Dr. Tring. The machine's movements in a medium so dense as sea water is at that level were sufficient to set up small eddies, and, although these had not been calculated upon beforehand, their presence was noticed with pleasure. Under their influence much of the ooze, which the scoop brought up along with the more solid matter, was swept gently from the decks, and in consequence the weight of the cargoes which had to be carried to the surface was considerably lightened. . "It's all down there, I suppose—the gold which is to make us rich," Dolly went on. "Do you know, I've a feeling as though we could see it, and perhaps, too, the dead Spaniards who guard it, if only we stared hard enough. It's a ■illy thought, isn't it?" The first squall came down upon the Eureka with a rush, driving a wave.of white foam before it. The sea had risen rapidly, even before the wind came, running crosswise in several directions at the same time and giving clear evidence by its confused warring of the nature of the tempest which was coming. It was one of the circular storms of the tropics, than which no wind that blows is more destructive. "It it does," replied the doctor in a husky whisper, "it will be quickly over with us. That will be better than staying where we are using up our store of oxygen and then sitting helpless till we choke by slow degrees. Gol" "Everything ready, doctor I" cried Captain Colepepper at last. "All we have to do is to get below, clap on the fore hatch, bolt it into place and then you can set about sinking her as soon as you like." "But won't the oxygen in the air become unduly diluted, and consequently diflicult' to breathe, before long, even if the carbonic acid is removed?" And i*D it was decided that the search should go on. The Enreka made descent after descent and each day surveyed as much of the ooze bed below as her hand driven screw wonld take her over. "Perhaps it is," returned Guthrie; "but, strangely enough, I have just such a feeling myself. Shall we try?" "I've provided for that too. I shall let out a fresh supply of oxygen from the cylinders. Bat oxygen is expensive, and the number of cylinders is limited; so, as soon as breathing becomes at all difficult, I shall take the Eureka up to the surface again and get my supply of wind fresh from there." Guthrie went with the others. They strained and strained at the break of the force pump, heaving it up and down against a pressure upon which their combined might made no impression. But at last something gave way. There was a rash of water. They stopped their efforts and listened. Then, "Hochl" cried Spiedernichel, who was lying with his ear clapped up against the iron plating. "Hoch! It wasa. gegushing out of her!" The doctor screwed up his leathery wrinkles and shivered. "We should be taking a plunge doubly in the dark if Ave started now, Colepepper," said he. "and all bands are a bit tired. Will this calm last till morning, do you think?" Besides the two extraordinary perils which have been mentioned, there were other and luore frequently repeated times of danger. These were the moments when she was returning to or dropping from the surface. Then, if there happened to be anything of a heavy sea or swell running, the doctor found himself in no small difficulty. Of course the time of descent was in his own hands, for, if the weather was bad when the hour came for the dive, he could simply wait and let the kotch ride to her floating anchor till the Bea moderated. But if a blow sprang np while she was in the black depths below she was pinned. She was bound to come to the surface sooner or later, or her crew would suffocate. But several times, when they had begun to pump water out of the ballast tanks and risen almost the whole distance, they found that there was a dangerous sea running overhead and were compelled to stay their hands and let the Eureka balance in middepth till the weather had im- Bnt abont midway through the "watch below" (as they were wont with grim irony to term their period of toil in the bowels of the sea), after they had been down about three hours, there came a quiet hail of "Doctor!" from the conning tower, and the doctor, jnmping from his seat, sprang nimbly np the ladder. Presently the order was passed to stop the crank, and then there was a short hissing as the water entered the ballast tanks and a faint jolt as the ketch grounded on the ooze. "No," retorted Dolly sharply; "we won't! It is silly. We'll go and talk to father and Dr. Tring instead. I want to ask the doctor what we shall see when we go into the depths below. I'll make him draw a picture to us of the world beneath the waters, and after-" ward, when we are down there, we can compare the reality with his prophecies tonight and point out his mistakes. I do so love to score off Dr. Tring," she added with a laugh. "But be is so fearfully exact that I don't often have u chance." The tim? at their disposal had been too short to allow them to get the running tackle of the mainmast set in order. To make sure that its standing rigging was all taut and firmly secured was all that they had been able to da They had managed, however, to set the mizzen and a small jib, and under these Captain Colepepper hoped that she might be able to weather the tornado. It might be, perhaps, that even this small Bail spread would be too much for her. "Eh, but what's this, though T" ing with her. These old galleons were all, as you've told me yourself, flat bottomed and shallow draft vessels, and they'd get her so much down by the stern that forward she'd be about clear of the water and consequently wouldn't look at it unless they'd got the wind dead in over the taffrail. Then, don't you see, being in a sea way, they would not care to break bulk with the general cargo, because if they etarted sticking any out, they mightn't be able to get it back again. But this bullion was like the weight at the end of a steelyard. For its bulk it was the heaviest part of the freight, and the lubbers had jammed it slap up against the sternpost, just where its weight would be most telling.""I can't be sure, doctor, but I should say the breeze will come with the sun." "But," put in Dolly, "wouldn't it be better to stay down as long as we possibly can and finish the thing in one dive ? Surely you would be able to get as many pillar dollars on board in 24 hours as we shall want." ; "Then we'll station a one man watch and all the others can turn in. But we must have the air below as unvitiated as possible; so everybody must sleep on deck. I'll make an exception in your case, Dolly, if you like." There were, as it turned out, many of these journeys to the surface and back again, for the Enreka's people did not by any means hit off the treasure room of the galleon at the first attempt. Under that formless mound, amid which the ruins of the Santa Catarina were heaped, it was impossible to distinguish stem from stern, and for awhile they did not even know bow from broadside. In fact, five journeys forward and back to the surface were necessary before they conld gain even this elementary knowledge, and then many, many more before they brought to daylight the first coin of the coveted treasure. They turned to the pumps again. Relieved of the obstruction, these wqyked freely once mere, and in a very few momenta the Eureka was at the surface."I dare say it would be possible, Dolly," replied the doctor, with a leathery smile, "if we conld only pitch upon the exact spot where they lie. The awkward part of it is, we don't precisely know where they are. You see tlie galleon may not have foundered perpendicularly. She may have been carried along ever so far by a submarine current." "Nothing of the sort, doctor," replied the girl "1 shouldn't think of it. I'm just an ordinary member of the ship's company, remember, and I shall turn in a la belle etoile like the rest." No word had reached the hold yet of what had occurred, but the single great hope which was in each worker's mind made him sanguine. Unable to stand the suspense, Guthrie clambered swiftly up the ladder. Presently Captain Cole pepper and tbe doctor finished their deck pacing and the captain went to tbe helin. The ketch was worked op some two miles to windward of tbe spot where the calculations had said that tbe Santa Catarina lay, and then she waa hove to for the night. What exactly had gone wrong was never found ont for certain, but Dr. Tring conjectured that a fish or some other sea animal bad got pinned in one of tbe valves and so prevented its working. Be that as it may, the danger was a fearful one, %nd, when the Eureka did come to the surface, she lay there for two days before Dr. Tring and the captain could bring themselves to order another descent As soon as the storm was fairly upon them Guthrie was sent to the forward lookout, not that there was any very strong likelihood of their falling in with any other vessel in these latitudes, but Captain Colepepper would take no unnecessary risks, and the awful experience which they bad already had with So the whole crew bivouacked on deck and recruited their energies with sleep ♦ill /Invliirht and then. Kointr below, cast off all connection with the outer air by screwing down tbe fore hatch. Already the valves leading to the two great tanks forward and aft had been opened and tbe sea was pouring into them. The Eureka was riding more sluggishly over the swell than was her wont In a few minutes,she would be diving down to a place where no living man bad ever gone before, and who of -the crew of eight could say that his heart was free from fear at that moment?The doctor was standing by iKUiy, looking out from one of the ports. He turned and saw the yonng man coming through the hatch. "Then tbe Eureka would be treated in tbe same way," suggested Dolly, eagerly, "and so if tbe pair started from the same place on the surface up above, they should arrive at tbe same place on tbe sea floor below." Continued on page fonr. U"o W£r*? 11 after Mr ofth.Gtob.for DH| r.™ f RHEUMATISM,! t be car- H HETJEALGIA and similar Complaint*, I ays find *nd prepared under the Krtngent )M Don GERMAN MEDICAL LAWS,^ order, by eminent phyiioianai^^J ong the ||X) DR. RICHTER'S (mSk W14ANCHOR"^ '.w fPAIN EXPELLERl iepep- I World renowned' Remarkably aoccenfal! 1 u_t Bonly (fennlne w1thTr.de Mark" Anchor,"■ ™ I* IUeW*' "Co., 21a Pearl St., New Vork. ■ dwilled a 31 HIGHEST AWARDS. i ■ 13 Braaoh HovsmD Own Glawworkv M anuer B Mmhm. MmiiiiiMwWM fl of rest, riuiiiK • rata, m uDm Awn, mil trn «• c, 8LICI, M Hvth B.1. HtrMt, I ' H-HOCCa, 4R.rUaa.Bt, well to nnmi, ra. V5JWHJ bile the „„ RICHTtW sprang I MANCHOR" BTOMACEIL W for I i, as it I Q»He|Pmjglajtgt«i»iaefc CompjhM.1 That evening tbe two promoters of tbe enterprise sat on the after skylight, under the stars, and played duets. By tbe terms of tbe agreement Dr. Tring would have the command tomorrow, for be was "commander below the surface." It was tbe end of the captain's teTm of office, therefore, and be did not play second violin once during tbe evpa-_ (ng; be Addled tbe air. Tbe doctor /was content with the secondary position and tooted obligato accompaniments. .Tbey did not mean theirCmnHic to be melan? choly, but unintentionally it was so. If they started "Scots W ha Hae," it verged insensibl v into a minor key and eflded in the "Land o* tbe Leal," and "Home, Sweet Home," which they tried next, Started in a wail and ended an a dirge "Ah, Guthrie, iny lad, shake hands! Pleased to see yon. Miss Colepepper has made up her mind that it's to be a schooner, a big schooner, with a steam lannch in davits so that she can be towed if it falls calm." Yet with what keen interest tbey waded among their slimy hauls may be guessed. Many a page from the history of the past which had long been plncked away from the view of modern man was opened to their eager eyes. In one or another of their trips they bronght to the surface heavy culverins, brass sakers and falconets, the shell bound stock of an arquebus, the bronze holder for a linstock—all archasological treasures over which Dr. Tring gloated as he never gloated over the golden harvest which came later. Captain Colepepper picked up the jeweled hilt of some dandy rapier, whose blade had centuries aijo dissolved in rust. The doctor found a woman's pouncet box of tortoise shell and gold, perfect as the day it left the jeweler's booth. They picked out a score of pewter plates and dishes and then a lot of earthen bowls, and this find told them that they must be in the neighborhood of the caboose. Once they found some old officer's chest, which, owing probably to pretreatnient of the wood, was not injured in the least by the immersion, and had preserved the clothing, books and knick-knacks with which it was crammed in the same condition they had been in when the dead hand shot the key for the last time all those generations ago. "Put there for Safety," suggest Tringf. "Aye, T expect that was about sen ted tbe captain. "Bat the did not intend to make a landfa leaving ber port till she rap river in Spain; bo, if any of tht was stolen in transit, it conldn ried away, and they could alw it by searching the hands. St What'8-his-name just gives ai* and the whole lot is carted i decks and stowed in . the lazaret ward, and as a result the gal.1 into as good trim again as such ing old floating haystack ever co On all occasions but one this maneuver had succeeded, though at the cost of a grievous waste of the store of compressed oxygen. But on that one day, after using up three whole cylinders of the precious gas and enduring the close air of the hold till its surcharged heaviness nearly choked them, they took to the pumps again in a kind of desperation and crept slowly up to the boisterous surface above. proved. And once, too, tbey encountered another submarine peril that none of them bad counted upon. Fish there were in plenty in tbe upper stratum where the daylight penetrated, and. as has already been said, they were by no means shy, but came swimming and shooting around tbe ketch, evidently full of cu riosity to see what tbe strange thing might be which had come into their domain. But in tbe beavv denths below, where the soft gleam which filled tbe upper regions gave place to a coaly blackness, no life whatever was to be leen, and tbe ftbservers in the conning tower had come to believe that the dreary solitudes of tbe ocean floor were utterly untenanted. "That's a very neat piece of argument," replied the doctor; "so neat, in fact, that I won't spoil it by pointing out all tbe several ways in which it would fall through. But I'll just present you with one point gratis. The sea isn't like a grassfield. Yon can't stick a post in it to mark any particular spot. You bave to fix positions which are out of sight of land by observations, and observations at sea are usually more approximate than accurate. We improve as years go on, however, and I have every reason to think that the galleon's position was known as nearly as modern science could work it But you must remember that Nicholas I lived in much more rough and ready days, and though he made landfall directly after sinking the Santa Catarina, and could check bia observations, they can't be expected to be within a mile or a mile and a half of the truth. What we shall have to do is to quarter tbe sea floor systematically, sbovinir the craft along as fast as the screw will make her move, and searching tbe waters on either side of our course as far as this oxyhydrogen light will show through them. Dolly laughed. "I hadn't quite got so far as that, doctor," she said. "But," she added, turning to the undergraduate, "I think it's possible that I may decide to have the yacht after all. There lies the mon- It was a time of breathless excitement, which even Cain Laversha showed that he felt Dolly, Quthrie and the captain were in the conning tower with Dr. Tring looking with anxious eyes through the strongly glazed porta at the deck without, watching it with a feeling almost of awe as iCt neared the oily plain of ocean inch by inch. That their craft bad the power of sinking was beyond a doubt. But could she kise to the !g|f|gfaa^.n SuftWftWtoatfh somewhere; for theory and practice are notorious for disagreeing in matters of naval construction. ey to buy it with, anyway." "Come and have a look at her. The Santa Catarina at last!" said the doctor gleefully. "She isn't in a very good state of preservation as far as her woodwork goes, but 1 don't suppose the specie will be much the worse for the ducking. Where is she? Why, thfe/e, straight in front of yon, in the middle of the circle of light. Miss Colepepper must have had remarkably good eyes to spot such a ruin. Don't you think so now?" Heavily waterlogged as she was, the Eureka would not rise to the seas, but rolled sluggishly in the trough and allowed the heavy waves to make a clean breach over her. The imprisoned treasure hunters could hear the cataracts of green fulling overhead like avalanches of stone. Every nail and every rivet of the vessel was tried to its uttermost. Nothing but her colossal strength brought her through that fierce ordeal*, and when the iron hatches were taken off and the crew got on to the deck the rigging and launching of the sea anchor proved a task almost too great for them. But at last it was done, and the ketch was slewed round to ride bows on to the waves. • "An ingenious explanation, Co per, and probably the right or we'll talk it out more afterward, the present, let's get this filtb away and the valuables stowed hatches, and then, after a spell get ourselves under cover again down after more. It is alwayr get on with your haymaking v sun shines." The younger pair, full of the excitement of .anticipation, could not undeT? stand the others' gloom and were even slightly depressed by it themselves, for there is something peculiarly catching about an apparently causeless melancholy. But presently Quthrie, by following tbe glances of tbe two musicians, Waa able to guess what troubled them. He saw that they were c«nstantly casting furtive looks at Dollf, and after awhile.it dawned upon him that she was the cause of their anxiety. A remark of #the doctor's which the young man heard in the pause while the captain was tightening bis E striag made thia certain. But one day Dolly, who was on the lookout gave a call, and tbe doctor, who was working with tbe others at tbe crank, bade Quthrie go up to tbe conning tower and see what was amiss. "Look there, Alan,"  "right down tbe lantern rays. What is it? I saw it move up out of tbe coze just now. See, it's keeping pace with us i" [ CHAPTER IX. THE HALL OF THK GRAB. With eager hopes, the othen to do the doctor's bidding, bi happened, the £5,000 worth cD nre which lay abont the deck wah all thut they got from the rains of the foundered galleon for many a long day. More and more sluggish grew ber movements over the swell as the weight of water ballast increased, and nearer and nearer did the crests of tbe sullen, oily swells creep to the level of the deck planks. Those brown eyes of Dolly's must indeed have been keen to make out the site where the Santa Catarina was lying, for, with the exception of a slight mound, covered by the omnipresent oose, there was little to distinguish the Spanish treasure ship from the ocean floor on which it rested. ACTIVE SOLICITORS WANTED EVERY*» where for "The Story of the Philippines," by Marat Halstead, commissioned by the Government as Official Historian to the War Department. The book was written in army camps at San Francisco, on the Pacific with Gen. Merritt, in the hospitals at Honolula, in Hong Kong, in the American trenches at Manila, in tne Tngnrgint camps with Aguinaldo, on the deck of tne Olympia with Dewey, and in the roar of battle at the fall of Manila. Bonanza for agents. Brimful of original pictures D en by governn-eat photographers on the 'rot. Large book, prices. Big profits. Freight paid. Credit given. Drop all trashy unofficial war books. Outfit free. Address, F T. Barber, 8*0*1, Star Insurance Building, Chicago, "It seems like a big eel." "It's body is as big round as Cain's!' For that night, the Eureka was driven from her station above the Santa Catarina«and the chance of tbesecopd dip into the hoard of gold, which, after so much patient toil, the adventurers had fonnd at last, was taken from them for the present. When the next morning broke, it was not for wealth, bat for life itself, that they had to straggle, and whan at laat tha waa otcr. aadL "Turn the lantern, Dolly. Yes, like that. Whew I It's twice as long as the ketch." "What an awful animal! I'th going to bear away from it a little." Then there was leisure to look aronnd, and the sight which met the eyes was cruel enough, for the pounding seas bad made sad havoc while the Eureka (tad been rolling helpless in their trough. Then the limit was passed, and tbe first gulp of green water shot over the bow and trickled lazily down aft. Rapidly after that the decks were covered, and the Eureka began to settle down quickly on an even keel. Soon there was to be seen bat the rnain-0tMt witk ita ahiouda ""t w and "Ha, close to bottom now I Look at tbe manometer I Only ten fathoms more, if tbe soundings are correct I Colepepper, will you and Quthrie go off and bear a hand at the crank ? Minutes are precious. I want ber nnder weigh aa soon aa the bottom ia in tight But of the whereabouts of the treasure room they could for a long time form no idea, and, although their hauls gave them many things of interest and some of value, the gold which had lured them all across an ocean to find was nowhere to be seen. Tons and tons of $he fabric of that old sea ruin, and of "If you like, we can put in at one of tbe islands and drop ber there till we jtte ready to go back." "No, no," replied the captain aecidfltUxaa* IIm* adfei jg»s&Ja a few Every drop of blood in the girl's body was tingling with excitement at the discovery which her bright eyes had been the means of making, and with a little flush of uleatture she made way She put over the wheel a couple of spokes, and for a moment tbe great eel waa dropped by the l&ntern raya and Nine days after the adventure with the giant eel Dolly made a mistake which was the cause of giving a great disappointment to the whole crew. This