Show I I IN N THE ABYSS 1 i By H. H G. G Wells Welts t C Continued from last week eek I was a strange vert ani ani- IT mal Its Its dark purple head was dimly dimly dimly dim dim- ly suggestive of a 0 chameleon leon but It had such a high forehead and such a brain case as no reptile ever displayed before the vertical pitch of Its face ave It a most extraordinary resemblance to a human being Two large and protruding eyes projected projected projected pro pro- from sockets in chameleon fashion and it had a broad reptilian mouth with horny lips beneath its lit little little little lit lit- tle nostrils In the position of ot the ears were two huge gill gUl covers and out of ot these floated a branching tree of ot coralline filaments almost like the treelike gills that very young rays and sharks possess But the humanity of ot the face was not the most extraordinary thing about th the creature It was a biped its al almost almost almost al- al most globular body was poised on a tripod of two legs and a long thick tail tall and its fore limbs which grotesquely caricatured the human hand much as a frogs frog's do carried along along a along long shaft of bone tipped with copper The he color of ot the creature was variegated varie vane gated its Us head hands and legs were purple but Its skin which hung loosely loosely loosely loose loose- ly upon it even as clothes might Ight do was a phosphorescent gray And It stood there blinded by the light At last the unknown creature of the abyss blinked Its eyes open and shading shading shad shad- ing them with its disengaged shad I hand opened Its mouth and gave vent to a shouting noise articulate almost as aa I speech might be that penetrated even the steel case and padded Jacket of ot the I sphere How a shouting may my be accomplished accomplished accomplished ac ac- ac- ac without lungs Elstead does not profess to explain It then moved sideways out of ot the glare Into the mystery mystery mystery mys mys- tery of ot shadow that bordered It on either side and Elstead felt rather than saw that it it was coming toward him Fancying the light had attra attracted ted it he turned the switch that cut off the cur cur- rent In another moment something soft dabbed upon the steel and the globe swayed Then the shouting was repeated and It seemed to him that a a. distant echo answer answered d It The dabbing rec recurred and the globe swayed and ground against the spindle over which the wire was rolled Presently he saw very faint taint and re remote remote remote re- re mote other phosphorescent quasi- quasi human forms hurrying toward him Hardly knowing what he did he felt about in his swaying prison for the stud of the exterior electric light and came by accident against his own small glow lamp In Its padded recess The sphere twisted and then threw him down he heard shouts like hike shouts of surprise and when he rose to his feet he be saw two pairs of stalked eyes peering into the lower window and re reflecting reflecting re- re fleeting his light In another moment hands were dabbing dabbing dabbing dab dab- bing vigorously at his steel casing and there was a sound horr horrible ble enough in his position of the metal protection of the clockwork being vigorously hammered hammered ham ham- That Indeed sent his heart Into his mouth for If jf these strange creatures succeeded in stopping that his release would never occur Scarcely Scarce Scarce- ly by had he thought as much when he felt the sphere sway violently and the floor of It press hard against his feet He turned off the small glow lamp that lit the Interior and amI sent the ray of ot the large light In the separate compartment compartment com corn out into the water Suddenly Sudden Sudden- ly hy he lie saw that the manlike creatures had disappeared and a couple of fish chasing each other dropped suddenly by the window He thought at once that these strange denizens of ot the deep sea had broken the wire rope rope and that he be had escaped He drove up faster and faster fast fast- er and then stopped with a Jerk and sent him flying against the padde-l padde roof of ot his prison For half hal a n minute perhaps he was too astonished to think think Then he felt fel that the sphere was as spinning slowly and rocking and it I seemed to him that It was also aso b being d drawn n th through ugh eter It I occurred red to him that he would see more if he turned the lamp off oft and allowed his Ills eyes to grow accustomed to the profound profound profound pro pro- found obscurity In this he was wise After some minutes th the velvety blackness became a translucent blackness and then far faraway faraway faraway away and as faint as the tle t e zodiacal light bight of ot an English summer evening he saw shapes moving below He judg judged d these creatures had detached his cable and were towing him along the sea bot bot- tom torn And then he saw something faint and remote across the undulations of ot the submarine plain a broad horizon of pale luminosity that extended this way and that way as far as the range of his little window permitted him to see To this he was being towed as a ab b balloon loon might be towed by men out of the open country into a town He approached approached ap ap- ap- ap preached It I very slowly and very slowly the dim irradiation was gathered gathered gathered gath gath- ered into more mor definite shapes It I was nearly 5 o'clock before he came over this luminous area and by that time he could make out an arrangement ar ar- ar- ar t suggestive of ot streets and houses grouped about a vast roofless erection that was grotesquely suggestive suggestive tive of ot a rained abbey It was spread Out like hike a map below him The houses were all al roofless of walls and their substance being as he afterward afterward after after- ward saw of ot phosphorescent phosphoresce t bones gave the place an appearance as If ft It were built buit of drowned moonshine Among the Inner caves of the place waving trees of stretched th their r tentacles and tall tl slender glassy sponges shot like shining minarets and lilies of filmy light out of the general glow of the ci city In the open spaces of ot the place he could see a stirring movement as of crowds of people Then slowly they pulled him down clown and as they did so the details of ot the place crept slowly upon his apprehension sion He lie saw that the courses of ot the cloudy buildings were marked out with wih beaded lines of round objects and then he perceived perceivEd that at several points be below below below be- be low him in broad broad open spaces were forms like like- the incrusted shapes of ships Slowly and surely he was drawn down and the forms below him became brighter clearer were more more distinct He was being pulled down he perceived perceived perceived per per- toward the large building In the center of the town and he could catch a glimpse ever ver and again of the multitudinous multitudinous multitudinous mul mul- forms that were lugging at athis his cord Then the walls wals of the great building rose about him And such walls wals they were of ot waterlogged waterlogged water water- logged wood and twisted wire rope and iron spars spar and copper and the bones I and skulls of ot dead men The skulls ran In curious zigzag lines a and d spirals and fantastic curves curve over the building and In and out of their eye sockets and over the whole surface of the place lurked and played a multitude of silvery sivery little fish fishes S. S And now he was at such a level that he could see these strange people of the abyss plainly once more To his astonishment he perceived that they were prostrating themselves before him all al save one dr dressed as It seemed In a robe of ot scales and cover covered d with a luminous diadem who vho stood with his reptilian mouth opening and and shutting as though he lie led the chanting chant- chant mg ing of the worshipers They continued worshiping him hini without rest or Intermission for the space of ot three hours Most circumstantial was Elstead's account of this astounding city an anis and Its is people these people of ot perpetual night who have never seen sun or moon or stars green vegetation nor any living air breathing creatures creatures who know nothing of fire nor any light but the phosphorescent light of ot living things Startling as Is his story it Is yet more startling to find that scientific men of such eminence as Adams and Jenkins find nothing incredible in it It They tell tel me the they see no reason wh why intelligent water breathing verte verte- creatures inured to a low temperature temperature tem tem- and enormous pressure and I I of such a a a- heavy structure th that t neither alive alve nor dead would they float might not live jive Jve up upon n the bottom of the deep sea and quite quie unsuspected by U us I descendants like ourselves of ot the great of the new red sandstone sandstone sandstone sand sand- stone age We Ve should be known to them however however however how how- ever as strange meteoric cr creatures went to fall fal catastrophically dead out of the mysterious blackness of ot their watery water sky And not only we ourselves ourselves ourselves our our- selves but our ships our metals our appliances would come raining down out of the night Sometimes sinking things would smite down and crush them as if i It i were the judgment of some unseen power above and sometimes sometimes some some- times would come things of the utmost rarity or ot utility or shapes of inspiring suggestion One can understand perhaps perhaps perhaps per per- haps something of their behavior at atthe atthe atthe the descent of a living man It if one thinks what a barbaric people might do to whom an shining creature creature crea crea- ture tune came suddenly out gut of ot the sky At one time or another Elstead probably probably probably ably told the officers of ot the Ptarmigan every detail of his strange twelve hours in the abyss That he also Intended to write them hem down Is certain but he never did and so unhappily we have to piece together the discrepant fragments of the story from the reminiscences of Commander SImmons Simmons Simmons Sim Sim- mons Weybridge Stevens LIndley Lindley and the others S S S SWe We see the thing darkly In In fragmentary fragmentary fragmentary frag frag- glimpses the glimpses the the huge ghostly building the bowing chanting people with wih their dark heads and faintly luminous forms and El ElstEad Elstead Elstead El- El stead with wih his light turned on again vainly trying to convey to their minds that the cord by which the sphere was held was to be severed Minute after minute slipped away and Elstead looking at his watch was horrified to find that he had oxygen only for four hours more But the chant In his honor kept on as remorselessly as if It was the marching song of his approaching approaching approaching ap ap- ap- ap death The manner of his release he does not understand but to Judge by the end of cord that hung from the sphere it had been cut through by rubbing rubbing- against the edge of the altar Abruptly Abrupt Abrupt- ly by the sphere rolled over and he swept up out of their world as an ethereal creature clothed In a vacuum would sweep through our own ow atmosphere back to Its native ether a again aln He must have torn out of their as a hydrogen hydrogen hy hy- drogen bubble hast hastens ns upward from our air air A strange ascension It must have seemed to them The sphere rushed up with even greater velocity than when wh-n wh weighed With Wih the lead sinkers it I had rushed down It I became exceedingly hot I It drove up with wih the windows uppermost and he remembers the torrent torrEnt of ot bubbles bubbles bub bob bles bios frothing against the glass Every moment he expected this to fly Then Thep suddenly something like a huge wheel seemed to be released In his head the thet t padded added compartment began spinning pinning about him and he fainted His Ills next recollection was of ot his cabin calIn and of the doctors doctor's doctors doctors' voice But that is the substance of ot the extraordinary extraordinary ex ex- story stor that Elstead related In fragments to the officers of the Ptarmigan He lie promised to write It I all al down at a later date His mind was was chiefly occupied with wih the Improvement Improve ment of his apparatus which was ef effected effected ef- ef at Rio Io It remains only to tell that on February 2 1896 he made his second descent into tho tl ocean abyss with the improvements his first experience sug sug- What happened we shall probably probably ably never know He lie le never ne returned The Ptarmigan beat about over ve tho the point of his seeking him himIn himin himin in Y vain in for thirteen days Then Thep she returned to Rio and the tho news was telegraphed to his friends So the matter mater remains for tie tle present But it is hardly probable that any further attempt will wm be s e made to verify his i strange story of ot these hitherto uns unsuspected s s- cities of the deep sea I Copyright by Edward 4 Arnold |