It must have been a little after
three o'clock in the afternoon
that it happened--the afternoon
of June 3rd, 1916. It seems incredible
that all that I have passed through--all
those weird and terrifying experiences--should
have been encompassed within
so short a span as three brief
months. Rather might I have experienced
a cosmic cycle, with all its
changes and evolutions for that
which I have seen with my own
eyes in this brief interval of
time--things that no other mortal
eye had seen before, glimpses
of a world past, a world dead,
a world so long dead that even
in the lowest Cambrian stratum
no trace of it remains. Fused
with the melting inner crust,
it has passed forever beyond
the ken of man other than in
that lost pocket of the earth
whither fate has borne me and
where my doom is sealed. I am
here and here must remain.
After reading this far, my
interest, which already had been
stimulated by the finding of
the manuscript, was approaching
the boiling-point. I had come
to Greenland for the summer,
on the advice of my physician,
and was slowly being bored to
extinction, as I had thoughtlessly
neglected to bring sufficient
reading-matter. Being an indifferent
fisherman, my enthusiasm for
this form of sport soon waned;
yet in the absence of other forms
of recreation I was now risking
my life in an entirely inadequate
boat off Cape Farewell at the
southernmost extremity of Greenland.
Greenland! As a descriptive
appellation, it is a sorry joke--but
my story has nothing to do with
Greenland, nothing to do with
me; so I shall get through with
the one and the other as rapidly
as possible.
The inadequate boat finally
arrived at a precarious landing,
the natives, waist-deep in the
surf, assisting. I was carried
ashore, and while the evening
meal was being prepared, I wandered
to and fro along the rocky, shattered
shore. Bits of surf-harried beach
clove the worn granite, or whatever
the rocks of Cape Farewell may
be composed of, and as I followed
the ebbing tide down one of these
soft stretches, I saw the thing.
Were one to bump into a Bengal
tiger in the ravine behind the
Bimini Baths, one could be no
more surprised than was I to
see a perfectly good quart thermos
bottle turning and twisting in
the surf of Cape Farewell at
the southern extremity of Greenland.
I rescued it, but I was soaked
above the knees doing it; and
then I sat down in the sand and
opened it, and in the long twilight
read the manuscript, neatly written
and tightly folded, which was
its contents.
You have read the opening paragraph,
and if you are an imaginative
idiot like myself, you will want
to read the rest of it; so I
shall give it to you here, omitting
quotation marks--which are difficult
of remembrance. In two minutes
you will forget me.
My home is in Santa Monica.
I am, or was, junior member of
my father's firm. We are ship-builders.
Of recent years we have specialized
on submarines, which we have
built for Germany, England, France
and the United States. I know
a sub as a mother knows her baby's
face, and have commanded a score
of them on their trial runs.
Yet my inclinations were all
toward aviation. I graduated
under Curtiss, and after a long
siege with my father obtained
his permission to try for the
Lafayette Escadrille. As a stepping-stone
I obtained an appointment in
the American ambulance service
and was on my way to France when
three shrill whistles altered,
in as many seconds, my entire
scheme of life.
I was sitting on deck with
some of the fellows who were
going into the American ambulance
service with me, my Airedale,
Crown Prince Nobbler, asleep
at my feet, when the first blast
of the whistle shattered the
peace and security of the ship.
Ever since entering the U-boat
zone we had been on the lookout
for periscopes, and children
that we were, bemoaning the unkind
fate that was to see us safely
into France on the morrow without
a glimpse of the dread marauders.
We were young; we craved thrills,
and God knows we got them that
day; yet by comparison with that
through which I have since passed
they were as tame as a Punch-and-Judy
show.
I shall never forget the ashy
faces of the passengers as they
stampeded for their life-belts,
though there was no panic. Nobs
rose with a low growl. I rose,
also, and over the ship's side,
I saw not two hundred yards distant
the periscope of a submarine,
while racing toward the liner
the wake of a torpedo was distinctly
visible. We were aboard an American
ship--which, of course, was not
armed. We were entirely defenseless;
yet without warning, we were
being torpedoed.
I stood rigid, spellbound,
watching the white wake of the
torpedo. It struck us on the
starboard side almost amidships.
The vessel rocked as though the
sea beneath it had been uptorn
by a mighty volcano. We were
thrown to the decks, bruised
and stunned, and then above the
ship, carrying with it fragments
of steel and wood and dismembered
human bodies, rose a column of
water hundreds of feet into the
air.
The silence which followed
the detonation of the exploding
torpedo was almost equally horrifying.
It lasted for perhaps two seconds,
to be followed by the screams
and moans of the wounded, the
cursing of the men and the hoarse
commands of the ship's officers.
They were splendid--they and
their crew. Never before had
I been so proud of my nationality
as I was that moment. In all
the chaos which followed the
torpedoing of the liner no officer
or member of the crew lost his
head or showed in the slightest
any degree of panic or fear.
While we were attempting to
lower boats, the submarine emerged
and trained guns on us. The officer
in command ordered us to lower
our flag, but this the captain
of the liner refused to do. The
ship was listing frightfully
to starboard, rendering the port
boats useless, while half the
starboard boats had been demolished
by the explosion. Even while
the passengers were crowding
the starboard rail and scrambling
into the few boats left to us,
the submarine commenced shelling
the ship. I saw one shell burst
in a group of women and children,
and then I turned my head and
covered my eyes.
When I looked again to horror
was added chagrin, for with the
emerging of the U-boat I had
recognized her as a product of
our own shipyard. I knew her
to a rivet. I had superintended
her construction. I had sat in
that very conning-tower and directed
the efforts of the sweating crew
below when first her prow clove
the sunny summer waters of the
Pacific; and now this creature
of my brain and hand had turned
Frankenstein, bent upon pursuing
me to my death.
A second shell exploded upon
the deck. One of the lifeboats,
frightfully overcrowded, swung
at a dangerous angle from its
davits. A fragment of the shell
shattered the bow tackle, and
I saw the women and children
and the men vomited into the
sea beneath, while the boat dangled
stern up for a moment from its
single davit, and at last with
increasing momentum dived into
the midst of the struggling victims
screaming upon the face of the
waters.
Now I saw men spring to the
rail and leap into the ocean.
The deck was tilting to an impossible
angle. Nobs braced himself with
all four feet to keep from slipping
into the scuppers and looked
up into my face with a questioning
whine. I stooped and stroked
his head.
"Come on, boy!" I
cried, and running to the side
of the ship,
dived headforemost over the rail.
When I came up, the first thing
I saw was Nobs swimming about
in a bewildered sort of way a
few yards from me. At sight of
me his ears went flat, and his
lips parted in a characteristic
grin.
The submarine was withdrawing
toward the north, but all the
time it was shelling the open
boats, three of them, loaded
to the gunwales with survivors.
Fortunately the small boats presented
a rather poor target, which,
combined with the bad marksmanship
of the Germans preserved their
occupants from harm; and after
a few minutes a blotch of smoke
appeared upon the eastern horizon
and the U-boat submerged and
disappeared.
All the time the lifeboats
has been pulling away from the
danger of the sinking liner,
and now, though I yelled at the
top of my lungs, they either
did not hear my appeals for help
or else did not dare return to
succor me. Nobs and I had gained
some little distance from the
ship when it rolled completely
over and sank. We were caught
in the suction only enough to
be drawn backward a few yards,
neither of us being carried beneath
the surface. I glanced hurriedly
about for something to which
to cling. My eyes were directed
toward the point at which the
liner had disappeared when there
came from the depths of the ocean
the muffled reverberation of
an explosion, and almost simultaneously
a geyser of water in which were
shattered lifeboats, human bodies,
steam, coal, oil, and the flotsam
of a liner's deck leaped high
above the surface of the sea--a
watery column momentarily marking
the grave of another ship in
this greatest cemetery of the
seas.
When the turbulent waters had
somewhat subsided and the sea
had ceased to spew up wreckage,
I ventured to swim back in search
of something substantial enough
to support my weight and that
of Nobs as well. I had gotten
well over the area of the wreck
when not a half-dozen yards ahead
of me a lifeboat shot bow foremost
out of the ocean almost its entire
length to flop down upon its
keel with a mighty splash. It
must have been carried far below,
held to its mother ship by a
single rope which finally parted
to the enormous strain put upon
it. In no other way can I account
for its having leaped so far
out of the water--a beneficent
circumstance to which I doubtless
owe my life, and that of another
far dearer to me than my own.
I say beneficent circumstance
even in the face of the fact
that a fate far more hideous
confronts us than that which
we escaped that day; for because
of that circumstance I have met
her whom otherwise I never should
have known; I have met and loved
her. At least I have had that
great happiness in life; nor
can Caspak, with all her horrors,
expunge that which has been.
So for the thousandth time
I thank the strange fate which
sent that lifeboat hurtling upward
from the green pit of destruction
to which it had been dragged--sent
it far up above the surface,
emptying its water as it rose
above the waves, and dropping
it upon the surface of the sea,
buoyant and safe.
It did not take me long to
clamber over its side and drag
Nobs in to comparative safety,
and then I glanced around upon
the scene of death and desolation
which surrounded us. The sea
was littered with wreckage among
which floated the pitiful forms
of women and children, buoyed
up by their useless lifebelts.
Some were torn and mangled; others
lay rolling quietly to the motion
of the sea, their countenances
composed and peaceful; others
were set in hideous lines of
agony or horror. Close to the
boat's side floated the figure
of a girl. Her face was turned
upward, held above the surface
by her life-belt, and was framed
in a floating mass of dark and
waving hair. She was very beautiful.
I had never looked upon such
perfect features, such a divine
molding which was at the same
time human-- intensely human.
It was a face filled with character
and strength and femininity--the
face of one who was created to
love and to be loved. The cheeks
were flushed to the hue of life
and health and vitality, and
yet she lay there upon the bosom
of the sea, dead. I felt something
rise in my throat as I looked
down upon that radiant vision,
and I swore that I should live
to avenge her murder.
And then I let my eyes drop
once more to the face upon the
water, and what I saw nearly
tumbled me backward into the
sea, for the eyes in the dead
face had opened; the lips had
parted; and one hand was raised
toward me in a mute appeal for
succor. She lived! She was not
dead! I leaned over the boat's
side and drew her quickly in
to the comparative safety which
God had given me. I removed her
life-belt and my soggy coat and
made a pillow for her head. I
chafed her hands and arms and
feet. I worked over her for an
hour, and at last I was rewarded
by a deep sigh, and again those
great eyes opened and looked
into mine.
At that I was all embarrassment.
I have never been a ladies' man;
at Leland-Stanford I was the
butt of the class because of
my hopeless imbecility in the
presence of a pretty girl; but
the men liked me, nevertheless.
I was rubbing one of her hands
when she opened her eyes, and
I dropped it as though it were
a red-hot rivet. Those eyes took
me in slowly from head to foot;
then they wandered slowly around
the horizon marked by the rising
and falling gunwales of the lifeboat.
They looked at Nobs and softened,
and then came back to me filled
with questioning.
"I--I--" I
stammered, moving away and
stumbling over the next
thwart. The vision smiled wanly.
"Aye-aye, sir!" she
replied faintly, and again
her lips drooped,
and her long lashes swept the
firm, fair texture of her skin.
"I hope that you are feeling
better," I finally managed to
say.
"Do you know," she said after
a moment of silence, "I have
been awake for a long time! But
I did not dare open my eyes.
I thought I must be dead, and
I was afraid to look, for fear
that I should see nothing but
blackness about me. I am afraid
to die! Tell me what happened
after the ship went down. I remember
all that happened before--oh,
but I wish that I might forget
it!" A sob broke her voice. "The
beasts!" she went on after a
moment. "And to think that I
was to have married one of them--a
lieutenant in the Germany navy."
Presently she
resumed as though she had not
ceased speaking. "I
went down and down and down.
I thought I should never cease
to sink. I felt no particular
distress until I suddenly started
upward at ever-increasing velocity;
then my lungs seemed about to
burst, and I must have lost consciousness,
for I remember nothing more until
I opened my eyes after listening
to a torrent of invective against
Germany and Germans. Tell me,
please, all that happened after
the ship sank."
I told her,
then, as well as I could, all
that I had seen--the
submarine shelling the open boats
and all the rest of it. She thought
it marvelous that we should have
been spared in so providential
a manner, and I had a pretty
speech upon my tongue's end,
but lacked the nerve to deliver
it. Nobs had come over and nosed
his muzzle into her lap, and
she stroked his ugly face, and
at last she leaned over and put
her cheek against his forehead.
I have always admired Nobs; but
this was the first time that
it had ever occurred to me that
I might wish to be Nobs. I wondered
how he would take it, for he
is as unused to women as I. But
he took to it as a duck takes
to water. What I lack of being
a ladies' man, Nobs certainly
makes up for as a ladies' dog.
The old scalawag just closed
his eyes and put on one of the
softest "sugar-wouldn't-melt-in-my-mouth" expressions
you ever saw and stood there
taking it and asking for more.
It made me jealous.
"You seem fond of dogs," I
said.
"I am fond of this dog," she
replied.
Whether she meant anything
personal in that reply I did
not know; but I took it as personal
and it made me feel mighty good.
As we drifted about upon that
vast expanse of loneliness it
is not strange that we should
quickly become well acquainted.
Constantly we scanned the horizon
for signs of smoke, venturing
guesses as to our chances of
rescue; but darkness settled,
and the black night enveloped
us without ever the sight of
a speck upon the waters.
We were thirsty, hungry, uncomfortable,
and cold. Our wet garments had
dried but little and I knew that
the girl must be in grave danger
from the exposure to a night
of cold and wet upon the water
in an open boat, without sufficient
clothing and no food. I had managed
to bail all the water out of
the boat with cupped hands, ending
by mopping the balance up with
my handkerchief--a slow and back-breaking
procedure; thus I had made a
comparatively dry place for the
girl to lie down low in the bottom
of the boat, where the sides
would protect her from the night
wind, and when at last she did
so, almost overcome as she was
by weakness and fatigue, I threw
my wet coat over her further
to thwart the chill. But it was
of no avail; as I sat watching
her, the moonlight marking out
the graceful curves of her slender
young body, I saw her shiver.
"Isn't there something I can
do?" I asked. "You can't lie
there chilled through all night.
Can't you suggest something?"
She shook her
head. "We must
grin and bear it," she replied
after a moment.
Nobbler came and lay down on
the thwart beside me, his back
against my leg, and I sat staring
in dumb misery at the girl, knowing
in my heart of hearts that she
might die before morning came,
for what with the shock and exposure,
she had already gone through
enough to kill almost any woman.
And as I gazed down at her, so
small and delicate and helpless,
there was born slowly within
my breast a new emotion. It had
never been there before; now
it will never cease to be there.
It made me almost frantic in
my desire to find some way to
keep warm and cooling lifeblood
in her veins. I was cold myself,
though I had almost forgotten
it until Nobbler moved and I
felt a new sensation of cold
along my leg against which he
had lain, and suddenly realized
that in that one spot I had been
warm. Like a great light came
the understanding of a means
to warm the girl. Immediately
I knelt beside her to put my
scheme into practice when suddenly
I was overwhelmed with embarrassment.
Would she permit it, even if
I could muster the courage to
suggest it? Then I saw her frame
convulse, shudderingly, her muscles
reacting to her rapidly lowering
temperature, and casting prudery
to the winds, I threw myself
down beside her and took her
in my arms, pressing her body
close to mine.
She drew away suddenly, voicing
a little cry of fright, and tried
to push me from her.
"Forgive me," I managed to
stammer. "It is the only way.
You will die of exposure if you
are not warmed, and Nobs and
I are the only means we can command
for furnishing warmth." And I
held her tightly while I called
Nobs and bade him lie down at
her back. The girl didn't struggle
any more when she learned my
purpose; but she gave two or
three little gasps, and then
began to cry softly, burying
her face on my arm, and thus
she fell asleep.
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