OCR Text |
Show THE PAYSONIAN, PAYSOX, UTAH SIX PACE , iiiiT,h rii Hitnlndmiitliiti ill1, MASTERMAN EXPLAINS TO LIEUTENANT PAGET HIS THEORY REGARDING THE STRANGE RACE. Deep Sea Peril oi at "T '"!' a.tpv,. TJ states are well treated Germans interned in the united :- 1- . Naval Lieutenant Donald Puget, Just given command of a old friend and distinguished though submarine, meets at Washington an somewhat eccentric scientist, Captain Mastermau. Masterinan has Just him a member of returned from an exploring expedition, bringing with he whose of asserts, menaces existence species, the the strange race, the human family. qKtiii!.ftwantriV'impvir i ' Slates soldiers by the Germans oar With the capture of .h-- ; " ' natlons f(ir ,h,r decent treat- government began to arrange were taken to p.t ' ment and tllttt 0 utMr' ! " interned In this are who ,,, subjects " Germany know iilu-- t rn t in goes to prove that alien UIZ country are treated. The a,., t0 complain. It shows enemies under restraint In Aim it.,i "wu ir-n:;U' Timv m t pn--' stution for until! grants ; as',ood ;u food und ,s r ts ever, and t ,e left is the .me who is 1,11 seen are men be lodging, ,a''U ,mlr fl,r of .harmd mill the care 1 aim.-enien- nofrtvus7. , 1 VICTOR ROUSSEAU Now you've studied at Good. school what Ive only read in books, cuprKioui by w a cuapmah hut jou know that there was a time wlien the seas were warm, steaming baths, and tiie steam formed clouds, so that the sun had never been situ. I Continued. CHAPTER Before the sun appeared, tiie world 2 was just diffused light and darkness. Puget nodded, and resigned himself Theres an answer to your Bible critto his friends guidance. bewiio ics say Genesis is all wrong, "We'll have a little dinner first, before made was We have an excel cause it says light said the captain. t lie sun. Light did exist, before the lent eln f here, and, between ourselves, dreamed of, so fur as man is was sun I have eaten nothing hut ship's biscuit concerned. for t in past three weeks. And afterYoure right, sir, answered Donwe our have when cigars ald, who like most sailors, was a reward, got alight. I'll take you into the cardrooin, man. which is ne'A-- in use, and give you my ligious And tlien," continued Masterinan, message to the World. It is embodied Tiie w hat docs the record tell us? more fully in my manuscript, which I ttmt have life were creatures moving shall hand you before you go. And mid the great sen monsters, Le-now let us forget that melancholy ex- made, and hltj kind, und the fowls ialhaii hibition of human folly and fall to. of the air. And afterward the earth Pleased with his phrase, be led the monsters, and creeping tilings. And way into the dining room, where he man not till the last. Now dont tell did full Justice to an excellent meal. me, lieutenant, that the man who After dinner the two lit their ci- wrote the story of the creation wasnt gars, and the captain led the way out an scientist. of the dining room across a small hail Well, sir, at last the day came when and into tin' cardrooin, a little, de- the waters had cooled, the clouds serted place, through the opposite opened, and the sun streamed through. door of which they could see the !y Unit time the ocean vvusnt so smoking room and hear the noisy cries pleasant n place to live in us formerly, of the members. especially, as the climatic zones were Mastermau closed it, and the sound ippearing. No doubt there was a rush subsided to a distant rumble. to the equator on the part of the surThe curd room was built But the ocean beds face monsters. sound-proof- , he explained, were still warm from the hot rocks, except In tiie case of voices and tiie heat down there was good for usual timbre. several thousand, or hundred thouQuite so," said Donald. sand years yet. The old sea captain hesitated queor-ly- , So some of the .sea creatures retried the chairs, and at last mained in the depths, and others prestretched' himself out in u comfortable ferred to busk on the rocks in the sunone before the fire, inviting Donald light. Thou their gills began to be to lie seated opposite him. replaced by lungs, or else they hud You're my only hope now, my lad, gills ns well as lungs, or an Intermehe said in un even voice. 'Ive sailed diate apparatus. on niy lust voyage, Donald. Im going Certain 'Common today, captain. to die. lizards develop cither lungs or gills, according to the medium in which CHAPTER II. they live. "Well, sir, as I understand It, the In the March Hares' Club. first organisms tlmt came out on land T hope nut, captain, uuswered were armor plated, like the crabs and Donald. spiny fossil fishes. Their hones were Im afraid there isnt any doubt of on the outside, to protect them against It," answered Mastermau. Its an being eaten. But after u while the old organic trouble, likely to carry me progressive ones turned themselves inoff at any time, ami progressive in side out. Those that didu-t- , remained character. Before I left for the Shot-land- like tiie turtles and degenerated. The the doctor gave me n year. rest found that it was easier to escape That was ten months ugo, and my their enemies by using their bones as experiences haven't lengthened the props and developing speed. exNow, lieutenant, suppose men had respite. You've followed deep-se- a ploration, haven't you? developed that wuy in the depths of A little, answered Donald. We the sea. Suppose you had a race of Americans seem to have taken the men who had discovered, not neces--aril- y lead since the days of the Challenger." turning themselves Inside out, Yes, Yankees have done good like us, although they might have done Put Ive got so, but other means to avoid being work," said Mastermau. them all beaten now. Nobody will eaten say invisibility." bother his head about the earlier disThere I can refute you, answered coveries after the next few weeks. Donald. Man lias developed from an You've heard about the known forms extinct ape, an ancestor of his cousof deep-seins, tiie four anthropoids, supposedly life, havent you?" Without waiting for a reply, he be- a cliimpanzeelike creature with the gan to apeak about the strange or- structure of a gibbon, from which he ganisms tlmt lmd been dredged from obtained his erect posture. Your sea the ocean bottom, so that Donald saw creatures would have had to go forms. tiie whole picture In Mastcrmans through the lemur-ap- e brain. lie saw the eyeless fishes that But let us suppose a man who dehad abandoned tiie effort to see, and veloped off the line," persisted fishes with eyes as large us dinner A manlike organism with plates, with which they caught the webbed feet something like a man-seu- l. How about mermen? Do you gleams of phosphorescence that betokened the pursuit of wandering sea believe there is anything in that There were fishes that story? scavengers. I hardly think so, captain. carried their own lures In the form of luminous tentacles. "How about the old legends of the In the abysmal depths, in a realm Cyelopses?" A myth, Masterman. Besides, the of perpetual night, these organisms of an luferno Cyclops kept cattle and lived upon slaughter, perpetuated preying upon eucli other, roving on land." But they ate men, lieutenant. Howtheir insatiable quest for food. Masterinan leaned forward and ever, let us call our men of the sea Grant that there might Imaginary. spoke emphatically. When they are brought up up be sueli creatures, though. You'll adthrough three miles of wuter they mit that, with life so hard under the explode mostly, Donald," he wild. If ocean, they'd have developed more they didn't well, I've seen tilings that cunning along certain lines than the would make a stout man faint, my human race. And they wouldnt know much about pity or love, or anything lud. conexcept how to find their food. ns mind shuddered his Paget I'll grant that," answered Donald, ceived tiie picture that the old capif we accept the hypothesis that such tain pulnted. lie saw the glaut monsters of the abyss lurking nuioug the creatures exist." Good I But a piu there, my lud. yellow, curuivorous lilies that bend ns we were saying, after thouNow, and sway In league-longardens, catching the plankton, the lloaLlug or sands of years the lieut at the bottom drifting organic life of the sea, that of tiie sea would disappear by Its difcomes down like finest meal from fusion through the oceans everyabove, but always ready for larger where. Tiie depths would grow too cold for them. It's bitter cold in the prey. Its murder eutlironed, Donald," water at 81 to 82 degrees Fahrenheit. "There isnt love said Mastermau. Wouldnt the time Koine when they, not even maternal love. Nor pity, too, would feel the imymlse to migrate either. Suppose our world were like into the sun?" No, Mastermau. Their breathing thatr I know what you're going to say, He was watching Donald keenly us You're going to tell me lieutenant. he spoke. We take life os we find It, Lieu- that, even if they could breathe air, tenant Paget answered. But, thunk they couldnt live when the pressure heaven, life lias Its compensations, of those miles of ocean was removed. But suppose nature bus been busy which make It worth tiie living. He was thluklng of Ida Kennedy as preparing for the change during thousands of years, while she has been he spoke. But once our life was like that, modifying their gills into lungs, as Aud weve she worked on tiie brontosaurs. Thats persisted Mastermau. risen above It Dont tell me there how nature works quietly, softly, seIsnt a God when weve done that cretly, till shes ready to luunch her Just as the beautiful birds evolved out thunderbolt. You know, of of vicious reptiles. Suppose a second human swarm, course, our ancestors were sea crea- mun'8 poor cousins. Is getting ready tures. Thats why the specific grav- to overrun the earth, and put down ity of the human body is about the man from his throne. Suppose the aame as that of salt water. We were puny swarms of monkey-men- , white, made to live In the sea. We come yellow and black, that crawl upon the face of the globe and Imagine themfrom fishes. You believe that?" selves Its owners, are going to be ob- "Yea, science tells us so. A s, a Mas-ternm- u. g Jiterated, not from Mars or Venus, but out of the earths own vitals ! Captain Masterman sat bolt upright as he spoke; lie looked like some old prophet spelling out the doom of man. The Intense earnestness in his words shook Xagets incredulity for a moment, and left him sick with horror. Suppose that civilization, every-ihin- g which has gone to make up the life we know family love, books, monuments, parliaments, ships all of it is to be at the mercy of this merciless horde, and that we are going to fight harder than we have fought since the days when we held our own Whod think against the saber-tooth- ! or care then whether he was an Englishman or u Dutchman ; whod trouble whether his friends were white men, negroes,. Hottentots or Chinese, so long as they were human? Wouldnt that make for the brotherhood of man, Donald? Wouldnt we set all our convicts free? Wouldnt kings shake bands with anarchists and college professors with coal heavers? Wouldnt class and race vanish like dreams wlien the nights over? And maybe thats what Gods working for, lieu- tenant ! But the impossibility, Masterman! Granting the incredible supposition that these deep-se- u organisms exist, find coild live under a pressure enormously Increased, aud breathe Were supposing that, lieutenant. IIow could they survve the strugNAVAL CLUB ESTABLISHED FOR OUR SEA FIGHTERS ABROAD gle for existence in an unnatural element?" Lieutenant, man has existed since .... yeeel a.iMivo tertiary times, but he never learned Jto s"' v.W.issWkv. A v V to fly till 11)08. He never went up In a balloon until a hundred and fifty years ago. Our imaginations cant rise to the realization of wliat this generation has done, but our descendants will look on us as demigods, and the Wright brothers will become myths, like that chap that invented cooking, Irom Itom ? Prometheus." Yes, sir. Well, then, after living for thousands of years at tiie bottom of five miles of air, an ocean of oxygen and nitrogen, weve found out how to get up on top of It They are living at the bottom of an ocean of oxygen and hydrogen. Suppose they learned to fly, too! You can see what theyd do. Some of their scouts, who had gone on ahead, would discover that the dry land was teeming with food. Food In such quantities as these hungry monsters had never dreamed about Food la solid chunks, Instead of dissolved particles of plankton, varied with an occasional cannibal dinner. And light by which to capture it sunlight I No more hunting down their prey with phosphorescent torches I At first theyd nibble the grass and leaves of the trees. But theyd find that cellulose Is pretty indigestible stuff. Then oue of them wmuld discover a dead bird or rabbit, and another that sheep and cattle make good eating, and then " Then man ! muttered Donald, gripping the arms of his chair. The Connrrrel qh puau iHFcmvnoif madman's picture had become dreadfully real to him. Interior and exterior views of a I'nited States Naval Mens club located abroad. Here die men get up their own Other bodies would follow the scouts, Donald. They wouldnt be acts, or it they miss tiie strenuous exercise of the warship there are horses, punching bags, rowing machines and other quite adapted to dry land at first. apparatus to keep them In trim till their leaves are up. Theyd make their way along the river beds. Theyd swarm up the Hudson, the Rhine, the Severn, the MisQUEEN MARIE OF ROUMANIA Thats wliat we did, and REMOVING WOUNDED ITALIANS IN MOUNTAINS sissippi. even today we havent got very far from the river banks. Well, theyd rest and recuperate, eating the fish they found, until the supply became exhausted. Then vice, Good Lord! gasped Donald, And then the reaction came. Of course Masterman was raving mad, the maddest member of the March Hares club. What a fool he had been to let the old fellows dlsnml prophecies get on Ills nerves! ne leaned forward and placed his hand on Masterman's knee. Did you go to the navy office with the Idea of telling that to the secretary?" he asked. I did, sir, answered Masterman. Then, If I may say so without giving offense, It Is a mercy that you failed to secure an interview with him," said Donald. Why, Masterman er you know how hard It is to convince anyone of the truth of anything a little out of the ordinary." lie was feeling his way carefully now, to avoid hurting the old fellow. Why, Masterman, if you were to make such a suggestion as that at the navy office, they'd shut you up as a as not quite right, he said. cvf The inevitable villain ef the piece makes his appearance in the next installment ITO BE CONTINUED.) Like Dog In Manger. Bout all de experience some men gits wif happiness," said UDcle Eben, is tryin' to spoil It foh somebody else. Optimletlo Thought A woman who has never bees has never been young, Queen Marie of Uoutnania, noted beauty ami idolized by her poop photographed in Paris with her youi est i Mill. Princess F.linnn. Even u r Tliis photograph just received in tt.js , . ties under which the Itnlian tinny fought the Jf Gorizla front. The wounded HMlun soldier is "" ll,? mm,v'T talr, peak position to the dressing station heiow Mng 'I'!1 a Woun- !,v uuul "t a cable railway. . prttty , t" the stress f war relief work the qtie "tithes the long journey from It. "mimi to Paris to see her childn "ho are slaying In the French enpl ""til tin ir home is once more wrest from German hands. |