| Show 41 U U A spilt second later he was sprawling on the deck slippery eels by james J montague HE whistle had blown the gong THE thad had sounded from his post by the gang plank a sailor man had bad repeatedly cried all ashore going ashore and turned away to other duties the captain and his subordinates were on the bridge and the engineer himself presumably stood by the throttle for this was a small liner and required no gold braid on the engine room or costly flotilla of tug boats to swing her out into the str stream earn deep within the belly of ne craft sounded a gong and on deck one felt a slight tremor obviously we were on our way looking toward t the shore I 1 observed a human figure approaching and gesticulating as it approached its occupant wasted no breath in sound but applied himself only to the earlous and obviously important bustness business of joining our vessel before it was everlastingly too late he ran low to the ground only glancing up now and then to note how wide a gap the ship had opened between her and himself there was perhaps four or five fiva feet to clear when he set his right foot on the string piece while the passengers stood gasping the runner slightly colled coiled his figure then opened it swiftly out and took off A split second later he was sprawling on the deck engaged in a violent effort to regain the breath had been knocked out of him by his contact with the deck presently he succeeded in this highly important undertaking and looked up at first tn in trepidation at the bridge afterward curiously at those of us who stood near his alighting place his eye met mine after a second look to make sure he said slowly and painfully always late aint I 1 but this time you at least managed to arrive I 1 said while the spectators having been deprived of the spectacle of a man plunging into the uttermost pst st depths of the harbor had bad begun to walk wa lk slowly away yep said the informal visitor im Im provIn he was indeed for he was a regular member of the crew and that meant a job at least as long p as it required the ship to journey froid new york to savannah and for this young man that was considerable the next day I 1 found him engaged in polishing the brass work and other shining metal trimmings on the boat deck anxious to learn where and how he had occupied himself since we last had foregathered fore gathered on another ship and in another port I 1 inquired of him if it would be too of ships discipline it if lie he dropped in on me in my room during his watch below he said that it could be managed and that night might lie he arrived bearing in a newspaper under his arm a pac package lm ge which it would he bo permissible to open after we passed the ten mile limit 1 having nothing of an any import to tell about himself I 1 asked him to pick up his story from the time I 1 had last seen him almost on the other side of the world I 1 listed my questions in the order of their importance what had become of the whale farming enterprise had he be got any steamship magnate to listen to Us his scheme to have a trout pool and a thicket for grouse shooting on a great liner had he perfected his five fire lap to the mile track so that small motor cars could be raced on ship board during a voyage and and had he kursu pursued 1 ed any further its ills researches into the possible usefulness of electric eels all of em cm was wa flops but aut the eel idea he said and that would of been all right it if id of had sense enough to get out in time an you cant hang that on me very hard for look at all them birds in the stock market who thought a good thing was coln to last forever where chero are they now HOW but what about the eels I 1 in well I 1 was wrong about one thing an that was that you could got get electricity out of electric eels you cant get away from fram the fact that the juice ii i in em cm but gittin it out an makla makin it of commercial use was the trouble about five years ago when I 1 was in the tropics I 1 stepped off the freighter I 1 was servin on without to the bout it an 1 got some boys ashore to show me where these here eels was doln doin their stuff after giggin for lem cm for three weeks I 1 had enough to start an build me a pond so I 1 could get them at work but I 1 aint no engineer an though I 1 fried every way I 1 could think of to get the juice out of them wriggling fish an into a storage battery it no good but I 1 aint no quitter what does a promoter do when a scheme blows up on him I 1 says to myself ile he unloads it onto somebody else I 1 answers back an that was what I 1 started out to do I 1 got a feller who runs P if newspaper down in one of them island towns to do my PrInt lal for me an we sent out circulars about our eel farm an how bow before very long all the machinery in them parts would be run by eel power an when a eel give out which he seldom done you could get enough meat oft off of him to pay all the overhead by an by I 1 got a few bites from people who lived on some of the big islands but most of em wanted to know how they was to tell it these w was as real electric eels I 1 had to sell or j just common eels without no kick into em so I 1 wrote em all that if they would get somebody on my island that they knew an trusted to see a demonstration id prove that my eels was the real mccoy an would supply power as advertised by that thai time it struck me it might be a good plan tc find out something myself anaut them fish before I 1 took a chance on a public exhibition 0 n well wel I 1 I 1 got some ship engineers I 1 an other educated fellers to come an see the rest an to bring compasses along which would point to any place an so prove eels was electrical an blast me if ary eel wade made the least impression on any compass you could rig not even on a magnetized needle flo floatie float atin ln on a crock in a basin of water of course I 1 want to be stuck with a lot of useless eels on my ha hands n ds so I 1 did what anybody else would of done in my place I 1 advertised in newspapers in countries thousands of miles awny away countries where they have no electric power but needed it bad an by an by I 1 began to get letters of inquiry and not only that but letters with money in em I 1 kept up supply in em with information about our plant an how wi was Im provin the breed of eels an how before five years you could send eels all over the world to run little local electrical machinery an the money come in so fast that I 1 figg figuered ered I 1 had my fortune all made an then one day a quiet little feller comes along an asks to see the eels eela work I 1 tried to stall him off but he ha insisted so I 1 took a chance an let him come to to the plant ile he just looked at my stock once an then says what country does this island belong to well I 1 told him what else could I 1 do an the next week a cablegram come to the main office an a bunch of local cops come out an looked me over an give me two days to get out of the place an take my eels with me what do you think of that here I 1 was doln what many a supposed big business man has done an I 1 got kicked practically off the ocean for it an had to go back to work as a deck hand it aint right I 1 tell you no wonder theres so many reds bleds an soviets and things browin up all around us 0 bell syndicate service |
