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Show THE PAYSONIAN. PAYSON, UTAH -- WAR BABIES,rFROM BELGIUM rci'ijiiiiiiiiiiixciiifflaiiiffiiiiM! Writer Tells Pathetic Story of Two Youngsters Lost in Throng of Refugees From Stricken Land. In Pierre Lotis book, this pathetic Dabies : story e We Deep Sea Peril is AYar, war about n train full of refugees had just entered the railway station ofone of our southern towns. Lost in that mournful One evening a Rel-gia- throng were two quite young children, bolding each other tightly by the hand, two little boys, evidently ."wo little brothers. The elder, five years of age, perhaps, was protecting lie younger whose age may hate been three. No one claimed them; no one knew them. Their clothes acre neat, and they wore warm little woolen stockings. So overwhelmed were they with weariness ii'.d want of sleep that they did nut jon cry. Scarcely could they stand eg! ight. They could not answer the questions that were put to them, but above all they refused to let go of ach other ; that they would not do. At last the big, elder brother realized the responsibilities of his character of protector; he summoned up to speak to the lady who strength was bending down to him. Madame, he said, in a very 6mall, beseeching voice, already half asleep, Madame, is anyone going to put us to bed? For the moment this was the only wish they were capable of forming; all that they looked for from the mercy of mankind was that someone would be so good as to put them to bed. They went to sleep at once, still holding bands and nestling close to each other. And these poor little Belgian children, sleeping Bide by side, made me think of two nestlings, astray. 9 CAVALRYS LAST DAYS SEEN Army Leaders Accept Conclusion That Work of Horsemen Can Now Be Done Better by Airplane. The new army being raised by the United States will contain no cavalry, the general staff has decreed, according to the Kansas City Star. The conclusion of the French army leaders that everything that cavalry ever did can now be done better by airplanes is accepted. And thus passes another of the glamours of war. No more shall tho flying plumes of a Murats cuirassiers have a place on the field of battle; no more shall a Jeb Stuarts daredevil ride cut off the supplies of an army; no more shall a Sheridans hard riders lay waste a Shenandoah. From the French word for horseman came our word chivalry, but with the coming of the airplanes, chivalry has taken to the sky. As Will Irwin says, it is the fliers in thi war who do the deeds that used to be associated with the foaming steeds of the cavalry. The Chevalier Bayards now guide winged engines of death through the clouds instead of spurring chargers into the tumult of battle. For the rest modern war is a thin of trenches, barbed wire entangh inents, mud and nauseous gases. WHAT HURT THE WORST. Patient Well, now von can me gas ? Dentist dear sir. jriv The tooth is out, m Patient Yes; but its paying that hurts. tl; fee GOING SLOW. Going to economize on a coot of the war? Sure thing. How? Im going to try and econom on fines. SURE ENOUGH. The doctor says Im eating t much sweet stuff. Says sugar maki you lazy. Think it does? Loaf sugar might. THIS AGE WE LIVE IN. Mistress I want to kill a coupl of chickens for dinner. Chauffeur Yes, mum, which cai shall I do it with ? i ... S j I I Fair Are Less Nervous. people and those with IJTjgray or blue eyes have sounder nerv-Ipu- s systems than those of dark com v$jlexion8 or dark eyes, In the opinion t$f the members of the British army !tnedIeal board, which Is investigating of shock from exploding shells And similar nervous complaints In the .military hospitals. Histories of thou- Bands of cases are being tabulated and Fair-skinne- d compand. and In the conning tower Donald sat with his eyes fust on the mirror. The engines stopped, S The submas The single boat Ten feet below the surface the F53 rine glided In. a fTht-rplunged on toward the monarch of the seemed empty. No! sea. woman aboard, and a man pulling The sound of the guns was vastly wildly upon one our. Donald took in the situation Instantlouder under the waves. A single shot, sent heme, would smash through the ly. He turned to Ids uid, Davies, a thin plates us If they were of paper. little, keen-facemiddy vwho wus makBut Donald knew that it was the su- ing his first voyage in coiamuniT of preme moment when danger must lie men. Tow us, or run for ,Fuir Island ! ignored, lie seemed to sense the ship, the crew, as a single entity, devoted he Then, flinging off his coat, to a single purpose. He alined ids he leaped. A few strokes carried hint to the bow directly Into his enemys port flunk. Se was less than a mile away. whirling bout. And now he realized At that dlstunce it seemed a mlruile that he hud known all along that the that her shells failed to strike home. Down in the torpedo room three men bore a torpedo from the rack and placed It In the stings. They swung it forwurd into the breech of the tube. One man at the pump rapidly filled the breech chamber with tlie compressed air that was to send the missile upon its eourse. Donald, in the conning tower, still held the cruiser within the mirror. He saw the smoke coil from her guns, he heard their dull reverberation, and knew that at any moment tlie blinded F55 might be sent staggering tc her death through the wake of her wash. But he was animated by the single-minde- d purpose which inspired all and made the steel and human mechanism a bolt forged for deuth. Clouts, at the wheel, did not allow the little craft to deviate a hairs breadth from her course. Stand by ! The hiss of the oxygen apparatus dominated all other sounds. At her speed the missile left the launching tube with a heavy thud, and the ship quivered as she shook herself free. There Was a Woman Aboard and a And Donald knew that his shot had Man Pulling Wildly at One Oar. gone home. The whir grew less, but all listened girl in it was Ida, miruculously saved until the end of the mile-lon- g Journey. out of the great company of those who On board the enemy ship everyone hud died. His heart beat a pean of could see the air bubbles that came up Joy ; at the sight of her his love awakfrom the speeding missile and Its ened, and he knew that this was no white, foaming wake. There was no transient passion, but an enduring one. time to maneuver the giant ship. They But just as he reached the boat he prayed they could do no more that saw the sailor at the our stagger blindthe torpedo might not have been shot ly toward the edge. It seemed as If he true; that It might deviate from its were being dragged overboard against imminent path. will! He whirled Ills arms and I Ids It came on inexorably. The firing plunged Into the deep with a hoarse became wilder. The gunners, ab- cry that rang out farubove the waters. sorbed as they were in their task, seemed permeated with the contagious CHAPTER V. terror caused by that white, rippling The Sea of Jelly. pencil line that wus extending toward their ship. He sank4ike a stone. No glimpse of The missile struck the battle cruiser him could be had. No rescue was posamidships, blowing out a section of sible. her hull, a single water-tigh-t Donald clung to the edge of the compartment. The cruiser hardly staggered boat and scrambled In. lie saw the from the blow. amazed recognition flame out on Idas The torpedo had struck glancing, face. He knew then that she loved and missed the full force of Its deliv- him, and his Impulse to seize her in ery. The wound was In itself too his arms was Almost ungovernable. But at the same Instant, looking small to sink or even badly cripple the great ship; a triumph of shipbuilding, past her Into the sea, he experienced and calculated to withstand Just such the same Illusion that had beset him within tlie house in Baltimore, and an Impact. Unfortunately for her, the maximum again outside it that of a womans of the shock was received beneath the misty form outlined "upon the water! Donald made a cup of his hands. powder room, adjacent to the ammuDavies, fling out a rope! he nition chamber, whose doors were open at that moment for the removal baw led. But tlie .submarine was some disof the shells by the ammunitance away, and In a moment a wall tion hoist. The shock was followed by an Infi- of fog came down, blotting her out. Ida Kennedy watched Donald 'with nite suspense. Perhaps It lasted for two seconds. The cruiser drove approval. She had always liked him; through the waves like some sea mon- shaken as she was now, his advent ster that had received a deadly thrust seemed the work of Providence. She had questioned her heart before she unscathed. Then, with a detonation that was sailed, for she had known that her heard from Sumburgh to Sutherland, future was of her own choosing, she went sky-hig- h In tumbling ruin. whether it was to be spent with him Donald, within the conning tower, saw or no. Donald continued to call loudly, but a blur frost the mirror of the perithe F55 was drifting In the mist and scope. Another second passed. Then the quite Invisible. It was In fear of this F55 went reeling under the terrific sudden happening that Donald had force of the explosion. She spun told Davies to make for Fair island round under the waves and thrilled as if he eould'not get a rope to the boat. Fair island, less than six miles if she herself faced disruption. s The cleared her diving away, was the secret rendezvous p and biplane were tanks. She rose, nose upward, scent- where the to the and await F55, the former to restern her the followed, ing air; she lay awash in the water once more. plenish her fuel supply, the latter to The hatches were removed. accompany her back to the mother Not a vestige of the cruiser was to ship. Donald picked up a pair of oars be seen. She had sunk in less than from the bottom. He realized that he three minutes. of would have to pull toward Fulr island But hard by, not a mile to port, a pillar of smoke, lit ulone us soon as he got an inkling of up by flame, curled out of the Beotia's its direction, with the chance of being hatches. Deeming her the submarine's picked up by the submarine when the fog cleared. But it was approaching decoy, the cruisers gunners had sundown, and the probabilities of their with shells from the two spending the night in the boat seemed guns at the bow. She seemed to stagger through the strong. He sat with the oars In the s. smoke that wreathed her. She was As he allowed one to drift dying by fire and water, too, and the twin elements, in their eternal conflict, through the water he discovered, to recked nothing of her human freight. his surprise, that it was apparently And Ida was there Ida, doomed to plunged Into a inass of some jellylike He dipped Ills hand Into perish, If she were not already dead, substance. it and scooped some of it up. unless help speedily came Donald took the helm. The water was apparently curdled, The F55 rushed through the waves in the di- like thickened milk, and on both sides rection of fhe Claude liner, which list- of the boat, which rolled In it heavily ed hard to starboard. Two boats hud und high in the viscous medium. As he withdrew the oar Donuld had already been launched, ajiil bobbed the sensation of pulling it from beridiculously beside her; others high up In the air, impotent, tween the clinging fingers of a child. because the list prevented their being lie looked down. It occurred to him lowered, and dushed themselves to that he might have got the blade enpieces against the hull as they swung tangled In some marine growth; byt from the shattered davits. tlie water was clear, almost black, and As the F55 drew near the ocean of the same strange, Jellylike consistseemed to open. Silently, softly, the ency everywhere. Then, to his amazement, he realized convexity of the hull slipped down and was lost to view as the sun's edge that the boat was moving! It was not like the pull of a tow-lingoes Into the horizon. A swirl and which Is a sequence of crescendo eddy in the sea, and nothing remained except the two boats and some tiny, and diminuendo, of sturts and Jerks, doll-lik- e figures that bobbed in the as the rope grows tight and sluck alwater. ternately. It was a constant Impulse. A gasp of horror went up lrom the It was an intelligent Impulse. throats of the seamen, clustered upon It was beginning to grow dark, und the deck of the F55, as the swirl to row seemed useless until the fog sucked down tlie bout that wus tlie dispersed. It wus impossible to gauge neurer to the maelstrom of the wreck. tie- direetion. Besides, to pull agulnst It sucked down with all Its living that force would have been arduous, freight, and spewed it forth Into the and to pull with it might have led to air again, end on empty. unexpected difficulties. Donuld backed wuter In experiment. VICTOR ROUSSEAU A COPYRIGHT BY W G CHAPMAH i.iiii!iiiiainii!ii!.ii!i!;;i!ii!!!!!m!iiiiii:fi:iiiiniiiii!iniimB:;imHB!iBBaa ..i u.rc tne hum of the electric motors dominated all other sounds, but gradually it became blended with a medley of noNes. Flaring his ear a 'moment against the plating of the hull, Donald could hear a steady though faint pounding, ywhlch came, not from within, but from the bearings of (he distant warship, transmitted un- der water. Somewhere, too, Donald fancied that a destivyer was speeding toward them, for there was a faint anil almost imperceptible whird machinery. ring, as of Mixed with the throb of the screws there came the sound of their suction. At times the seas, breaking over the periscope, obscured his vision. Sometimes, too, the cruiser shifted outside her arc; then the periscope motor started anew, and slowly she would swing hack, growing more discernible. ho understood Relow, the men, that an enemy ship was near, waited in suppressed excitenent. Well have to try her at a mile, Clouts, said Donald to the lookout. He carried only three 'torpedoes. He would have liked to close in and make sure of his prey, hut a sloit at almost the extreme range seemed preferable to hazarding the vessel und the lives of his crew. Aye, sir! answered Sam Clouts. Clouts was a man of about forty with bland, humoryears, hook-noseous blue eyes, and a square Jaw under When off a square, bristling beard. duty he was perpetually playing a mouth-orgaand Donald could Rot help smiling to see his hand stealing covetously toward his pocket even now. The German could hardly have been more than a mile away when she suddenly changed her course to westward. Donald had been approaching her head on, with the object of maneuvering, when within striking distance, to send a torpedo amidships. The new course of the vessel was a bittervdisappolnt-rnen- t to him. Donald realized that she was nearing the Shetlands and endeavoring to make the passage between mainland and Fair island. That was the most hazardous part of her joruney. Once beyond the straits, she would be free iu the open Atluntic. He gave the order to rise. The tanks we e blown, the rudders and diving planes adjusted; the F55 begun to mount upward. A green trans-lucenc- y appeared. The electric lights went out. The hatches were opened. A gust of fresh air drove the stale atmosphere away. The petrol motors took up the task of the electric ones. Donald ordered full speed. The vessel drove high through the waves, achieving 12 knots. A shadow edged the misty horizon. It was Suinburgh head, the extreme southerly point of the Shetlands. Here the cruiser wus due to turn. Smoke to port, sir! said Clouts. The German had evidently seen it at the same time, for her speed began to diminish. This meant that she was steering cautiously to gain the ghelter of Suinburgh, behind Which she might lie unobserved for observation. If it was an English battle cruiser that was approaching, the ship would be hard put to it to escape. It was not likely that the oncoming ship had sighted her smoke through the increasing haze. Donald drove hard for the main channel. He knew that he could catch the German now, and he was ready to take chances of discovery. Meanwhile, Inch by inch, the stranger came up out of the sea. At first Donald believed she was a British battle cruiser. This hope was soon dispelled, however, when her funnels showed three black stacks, ringed with white, the color of the Claude line, and the heavy hull, built for freight, not speed. His heart began to thump heavily. For the Beotia was one of the Claude lines ships, and the approaching vessel looked very much like the overdue Beotia. And Ida was aboard her, and already well within range of the enemys guns ! The two ships had sighted each other. Donald saw the Beotia diminish to a thread line as she turned and ran, prow on, toward the Orkneys. A spurt of flame broke from the Germans bow. A coil of cloud followed it. A few seconds later the boom of the discharge echoed across the water, and a pillar of spray shot up near the Beotias bow. The battleship turned toward her prey. And Donald's chance had come. Tlie Beotia had no Intention of surThe German, following rendering. her, perceived the lurking danger, and at once his guns were trained on the submarine. The F53 (lipped at the bow. A shell hooted over her, and a second, falling shorter, deluged the submersible with wuter. But the F53 wus stern down Her periscope shot ami Inking. through the waves, the only target, high-sitee- i y s d 45-kn- h bilge-pqmp- oil-shi- three-quarte- rs h row-lock- j 1 j e, - Instantly!he felt the force increase. It was tail effortless, persistent push, stronger .tliuu his own powers, and Donald realized that he could not resist It. Suddenly h felt a stinging sensation on the back of his hand. He pulled lu the oar. Five small, red spots had sprung out on his wrist, and the flesh seemed to have been cupped. Donald clapped his other hand down on It, and encountered something dummy and cool, which seemed to slip away. It was like the flipper of a little seal, or, again, like the hand of a child or monkey. At the same instant Ida screamed. Donald saw that she 'seemed to be struggling with some Invisible adversary. The bout was tipping dangerously. Donald flung his weight over, and he heard the thud of a soft body agulnst the bottom. The tjfing whatever It was was la ;.. the boat! Donuld leaped forward and clasped Ida ubout the waist. She writhed In the clutch of the monster, and there was a look of Intense horror upon her face. She seemed to be lifted bodily toward the water. Donald felt the slippery fingers of the Invisible being elude his grasp. His hands moved up and down over a smooth, blubbery body. Aud then he knew what It was. It was such a creature as he had seen in the glass tunk In Mastermuns house, but larger and more powerful He saw the rays deflected from the creatures body, dancing In prismatic colors upon the edge of Its leathery hide. He saw It dimly, as one sees the full moon In the arms of the new. And, glaring Into his eyes, were the two eyes, seemingly poised In the air, two pupils of the size of currants, and animated by a diabolical Intelligence. The sun dipped down, and In an Instant the fog, only partly dispersed, closed in again. And as Donald watched, he saw the pupils slowly dilute In the dim light until they became as large as saucers. The stony glure between the unwinking lids, which fringed them like a shadow, the monstrous expansion of the pupils sent the blood through Donald's heart In ley Jets. Then, regaining courage, he dashed his fist Into the monsters face, and the struggle began. He felt the Impact of his knuckles on flesh, and it gave him new heart. At least he was fighting a thing of flesh qpd blood, and not a demon. Ida lay swooning across the seat, where the monster had dropped her as It turned to face Its new adversary. Aud iu the rocking boat Donald fought for his own life and that of the girl he loved. For the first time he understood that Mastermana story was not the dream of a disordered brain, but the experience of one who had striven to warn a skeptical world. And afterward he understood why the boat had spun so dizzily long after the vortex created by the sinking of the Beotia had subsided. Even then the swarm of monsters must have discovered their prey. Perhaps it was the plankton in the water, the Jeliyllke Infusion on which they fed, that had brought them there ; perhaps the presence of drowning men. Perhaps they had brought the plunkton with them, equipped for some dreadful Journey. Donald tried to lock his arms about the slimy thing, but he could get no firm grasp of it. And each touch of the flippers drew the blood to the surface of his skin by suction, bringing out rows of reddening spots that stung. He was lighting a devil fish with the Intelligence of a man, armed with Invisibility, creating overwhelming horror by its presence alone. He felt his strength falling him. He was dragged toward the edge of the rocking boat. ' He stumbled and felL He felt him-,seheld fast; he felt his ribs were compressed In a stinging vise. . But as he fell his hand grasped one of the oars. Donald snatched It up and, with a last effort of desperation, freed himself for an Instant. He raised the oar and seat the sharp edge of the blade crashing forward. He heard the sound ns of a torn balloon. The squirming flippers uncoiled. The boat tipped to the edge and righted itself. A splash followed. Donald sank down upon the seat. Then gradually a milky cloud began ,to diffuse itself upon the face of the waters, till It acquired the shape of a dwarflike body, supine upon the waves, with the short limbs, terminating In the webbed hands, budding at obtuse angles to- - the trunk. Donald sprang toward Ida, to shield her from the sight of It He knew thut if she awoke and looked she would go mad. But she lay unconscious across the seat and did not stir. The boat stopped. There was a confused splashing In the water. The dead was rent asunder under Donald's horrified eyes ; torn limb from limb by that abominable swarm. A mottled, pinkish Ichor spread Itself upon the face of the sea. Donald plunged In his oars and begun to pull with all his might, driving the heavy boat through the water. The plankton gave place to clean ocean again. The sun had set, and it was growing dark; with the fall of night a gentle wind came up that began to the fog. Through the drifting mist wraiths appeured a Jutting cape that reared Itself toward the spangled clouds. Donald pulled for an hour. Then he fell forward over his oars. He was Incapable of another stroke, but he believed that he had left the sea devils behind. He cast his eyes along the horizon. lf sea-bea- There was no algo of the F55. Ha turned toward Ida. s cnt over her her eyes opened. She looked at him Intently and The horrors of that day seemedsighed. temporarily to have benumbed her mind and robbed her of memory. And Donald did what he had never dared to do before. He raised her In bis arms and kissed her. I love you, dear, he said. If we come out of this as we shall I want you alwuys. Will you have me, Ida?" She raised her lips to his for answer. And In the happiness of that moment, which atoned for all that they hud endured. Donald perceived that the boat had begun to move again. The respite had been of brief duration. Incredibly pertinacious, and cruel beyond belief, the hamsters had once more taken up the chase. But in the unbuman forms were minds as shrewd as his, organizing them for one supreme purpose, the elemental one of food. They were swimming beside the boat. Donald could see the agitated churnings of the water. Were they pushing or pulling? Taking the oar In his hand, Donald went to the bow and drove It down Into the sea. But he struck only the Jeliyllke medium In which the boat was traveling. He went to the stern, stepping over the body of the girl, who had into unconsciousness. This time, as he thrust, there was a scurry among the waves, and he felt the yielding, blubbery form, and the same sensation of a burst balloon. The boat stopped. Donald thrust out furiously, feeling always the contact with slippery flesh. The monsters were pushing ths boat, not pulling It. And gradually there followed the snine stupendous Incarnation Into visible being, the shadowg shape that grew and crystullized Into the milky, opalescent body. He beard the school precipitate themselves upon their prey, and saw It rent and dismembered before hla eyes. Through the Increasing darkness their pupils glared aa tha monsters strove together. Donald went back to where Ida lay and placed her In the bottom of the boat, her head against a thwart They were moving awlftly. Suddenly the boat began to tilt upward at the bow. Donald heard the scraping of the flippers against the stern. Then, as If a heavy dog had scrambled In, the boat tipped high Into the air and righted Itself. Another of the monsters had gained entrance Donald seized the oar and brought It down upon the beasts head. The oar splintered; he heard the cracking of bone, and a splash followed. The edge of the boat was dragged beneath the waves. It filled and overturned. Donald found hlmaelf struggling to save Ida in the aea of Jelly that sucked him down. Somehow he caught her and dragged himself to the keel. He shouted, and the brutes scurried away, leaping and falling with resounding splashes, like sharks at play. Donald felt Idas arms seek his neck' She turned to him Instinctively, not as her rescuer alone, but as her lover. He filled his lungs and shouted. To his amazement he beard an answering shout. He strained hla eyes through the darkness. Surely that was a human cry t He shouted again, and the answer came once more; and there was no longer any doubt. The conning tower of the F55 came drifting out of the night. She ran awash, with hatches off, and Daviea whs standing on the deck among a group of sailors. Where are you? he shouted. ! Here Donald cried. Beveraa engines, Davies I Coming aboard! The engines stopped and the submarine grazed the sides of the overturned boat. Donald grasped Ida la 1 st dls-slpu- te Donald Qraapsd Ida In Hla Arma and Clamberad an Deok. his arms and clambered to the deck. And Donald found himself shaking a mans hand as If he were his brother, instead of merely Sam Clouts, able seaman In the navy, trying to keep his hands from straying toward his mouth organ. We were trying to make Fair Island when we spotted you, sir, said Davies. I thought we'd pick you up In the morning when the fog cleared. Its been hard work making anywhere. Theres something the matter with the sea. How, Davies? Were only able to mske a knot and a half, sir. It Isn't tho engines. At least there doesn't seem to he on 6th page) ed |
