The evening world. Newspaper, May 13, 1914, Page 19

HE MAN, swearing at inter- vals, told me. it's Goorge the Greek,” “Will you let me ” (Blank), “It was the ‘helmet and corselet — Parratt of the Dawn wa to buy one, and George had a second-hand one in his windoy, cheap—They're smashing the floor now—why didn't I think of that? Let me go.” (impolite expressions.) “Well, if you won't” (Tmpoliteness continued), “Parratt was looking at @, to decide if he'd go in and buy it to-morrow—it was only nine pounds, & new one's fourteen, and Par- Xs thought he would, and he looked Qt it loge, and he saw a rivet in ue hel and he knew the rivet, bsg put it there himself—Ob!" (very impolite remarks), “they've got Bim frog’s-marched and they're go- ing to throw him—Don't hit me, I'll finish—And the corselet was the one they buried with Mo, the Papuan ‘who got drowned the other day, and the beast had dug him up and cut Bim out of it, to make the price of at Mo owed him. So when all the beard that” (Will you let me @o? they're taking bim to the jetty!), “they came and made a row.” He bit « new litany off at the com- mencemént, as I released him, and made for the jetty at a run. I saw them'ewing the yelling Greek out over the water and let him go with a eplash. He could swim all right and @ ducking was likely to do him good, eo I didn’t trouble to interfere, es- pecially as I caw that the men had about aatiated their anger. I went back to the Marquis, who was staring Dlankly at the whole proceeding, and told Bim what I had heard. “Admirable, excellent!” he said. “What we tried to do, and have not Gone, "they are ‘wrecking the shop of the Greek on account of. My friend, I eee that you and I are certainly Diack-watches.” “No, Marky, no fear. We'll keep what we know about ourselves to ourselves, but there's not,a man !n the fleet would call you or me black- guard for what we've tried to do.” “and for why” “Betause,” I said, “this is a pearl- ing fiéet. And in a pearling fleet you may, do anything you like, sacrilege, robbery, piracy or murder, for pearl, if it's only big enough. No ene would think any the leas of you ly, though they might have to tend thew did if there were too py auth .ities about As for a nénd like old Mo's—why, you might dig up the whole of the cem tery’ without upsetting any one's stomach or conscience. “But divera'don't like being hacked out 6f their dresses when they die in them, which they do pretty often, to gratify the meanness of a mean Uttle cur like George, That the cas¢, Marky. Anyhow, you and I have no cause to quarrel with it, for it’s shown us that we were on & ‘wrong scent after all, If the Greek AY ct had‘found auch a thing as a diamond under the gorselet—and, mind you, he mado mincemeat of old Mo, get- ting Bim out of it—he'd never have taken the risk he did in showing off the pear gecond-hand.” “Then,” demanded the Marquis, ” got to find out “That's what we’ yet," I anid. CHAPTER IV. The Fight at Twelve Fathoms. RT was no use. I threw down my pen, tossed my untin- iahed@ letters on the floor vand went out with murder my teart: The mail was due in a sy'@r two, and I had neglected all y,felatives and friends for so long jat they must have had every rea- on for thinking me dead, But not " &@ Word could I write. There was a native singing on the beach below the hotel; the day was bot and windless and one could hear every sound. No one who has ever lived in Papua will want to be told why'd could not go on with my mail, For the benefit of those who have not, I may explain that of all mad- dening sounds ever invented by the malice or ingenuity of man, Papuan @olo singing i# @ long way the worst. . idle Papuan native (and a The choral singing 1s nolsy and nét ‘very musical, bit it tacks the brain. destroying texture of the ts always idie unless some one is mak- Kim’ work) acems’ able to pass away half a day, at any time, chant- ing his own autoblography, and the history. of his immediate friends, in « long-drawn nasal howl that holds one, note till you feel the very sub- stance of your brain giving way un- der its hideous boring—and then takes a sudden gimlet twist, On this “occasion the singer was invisible, down on the beach. ‘Yah-yah aaaaanaanaah-yah, yah- yah aaaaaah, yah-ah, yah-ah!" burdt forth another preliminary yell, 1 halted for # minute to locate the sound. The singer took breath, and went on in @ tone that bored through one's ears exactly as a dentist's drill bores when it is coming down on the herve of a tooth. The wortls were distinguishable now, in spite of the chanting manner. I caught a sen- tence as I drew near. “Aaaaa-yah, Mo is dead, Mo ts dead and-buried, and his spirit walks about and bites men as they leep. Aaanaaah-yah! “Aaaaa-yah, ah-yah, yah, Mo, the great sorcerer, did not take his charm. Ah-yah, ah-yah, he took it before, and he did not die. Aaseaa! when he did not take it he died. “Aaah, aaaaah, ah-yah, the brother of Mo will not die; the brother of Mo will take it. Aaaaah! Aaaah! Aanah!” 1 wondered whether any one besides myself had heard him, and whether, if any one had, the chant had con- veyed any special meaning. Had any one the clue save myself and the Marquis? Had George the Greek—who had dug Mo out of his Brave to get his diving dress? Im- Possible. Still, I might as well stop the singing; it was certainly irritat- ing, and the Kiwal had no right to be annoying the town in the middle of the day, almost opposite the hotel. I went down to the beach and shouted to him to stop. He seemed to understand English well enough, and he did stop, though with an amazed and injured air. I noted that he was a boy I had not seen before; probably a diver, though he did not seem to be on duty. He was loafing on the sand, with a big opened cocoa- nut beside him, and he looked ex- tremely comfortable and lazy. “Why aren't yom out with the boats™ T asked. him about his song; very few Pi uans, tio matter how well you may know them, will ‘tell you anything about their chants, and I was, as I @ay, a stranger to this boy. “Me sick,” he said, with a grin. I never saw @ sturdier specimen of a malingerer. “You no sick, you too much fright,’ T sald. “Yes, me fright,” he agreed. “All @ time too much fright, long that puri-puri man (sorcerer) he die. I no want to die finisb all same. Me sick, more better.” “You rascal,” I said, “what boat do you belong to?” “Gertrude,” he answered, turning the cocoanut up on bis face, and drinking loudly. “Brother belong Mo, Kata-Kata boy, stop along Gertrude? Man he got too much big ear?” I asked, making signs about my own ears. “What-name that word? I no savvy," sald the savage, looking at me with cunningly narrowed ey I saw it was no use trying to pu» him, so I left. As I came out into the street I saw George the Greek in front of me, walking rather aslant, as if he had just come up from the Neighborhood of the beach himself. He did not look behind, but walked quickly on, and disappeared inside the ruins of bis store. I thought there was nothing in it; yet, somehow, I would rather not have seen him there, I went hack to the Marquis over- joyed with my discovery. “This is good,” said the Marquis. "I can take heart again; I was be- ginning to fear that we had lost that wonderful-wicked valuable. Still, the shorn lamb must not halloo till it 1s out of the window. What will we do?” “Well, it seems so simple,” said I, “that 1 can hardly believe it. But from what I see all we have to do is to catch Mo's brother when he com back to-night, get him in a quiet place, offer him a pound or two for the stone and take it right off. A diver who's been with the * Thurs- day Island fleet, even if it was some years ago, wtil know the value of money." “What will you offer?” anked the uis, “urlo price,” I said, “From ten shillings to a couple of pounds. If he seems very much attached to tt M apring fivo pounds more. One must- be careful not to give so much that the other white men would hear of {it and get thinking. Otherwise | see no trouble.” wa IN THE NONE TEE A APE EN Lr WORL om I dtd mot crusstion: i) NEXT WEER’S COMPLETE EVENING NOVEL It seems too good to be true,” a2! the Marquis thoughtfully. Unfortunately it was. When the Gertrude got in that eve- ning I was on the jetty looking out for her. So was the Marquis; #0 was George the Greek. He never glanced at either of us, and seemed to be quite absorbed in cutting up some ®ingularly villainous looking tobacco, But when the lugger had run along- side the jetty and boys were com- ing off he attached himself to the bat-eared man and followed bim down the street. We followed also, perplexed. “Do you think he knows?” whis- pered the Marquis. “He can't,” I said. “I should guess that he thinks we're trying to do it- elt pearl buying. Tho result's the’ game, however. He'll probably stick to us. He did, He loafed along in the rear of the bat-eared man until the two reached the temporary shed put up for the native divers to sleep in. Then he sat down on the ground outside the shed, stuffed his pipe full of the ugly tobacco, and coolly began to smoke. “He's prepared for all night,” I said. “Let's leave him, He knows nothing really, or he wouldn't tag round after us like this. For two pins I'd give him a hammering’— We went and left him, atill smoking. I slept badly that night on account of @ touch of fever. In consequence 1 was late up noxt morning, and the Marquis, who was always en early riser, was dressed and out of doors when I awoke. I was just preparing to rlee when he came into my room and sat down on the bed, his pink face curiously pale. “Flint, my Flint!" he said. me a brandy. I am shook." I gave it to him and asked what was the matter. He drank quickly and looked round the room before replying, “It is too much, this,” he whispered. “It's not too much—I only gave you 4 couple of fingers,” I said. “Not that—the bat man, I mean. Flint, god of my gods, he is walking up and down the main street on this minute, with the stone slung.round hie neck, ke @ locket!’ “And nothing on it fbdéfajmea— if you can . exclaim under your breath, “There is but @ small native case of weaved grass, and see you, he has Jeft the end that it almost shows out ~-one can see the entire shape of it!" “Why didn't you buy it right there?” I demanded, jumping out of bed and beginning to fing op my clothes with all possible haste, A New Guinea native walking down the main street of Samaral, in broad day, with the second largest diamond of modern times eluns round his neci It was indeed a nice aituation. “My Flint, it was impossible. The Greek, he was looking out of his window all the time. “Oh, hang the Greek! It's better the news of the stone should get out —once we've got it—than that It should be knocking loose round Sa- marat like that,” I declared, “It's true that If we let the folks here get wind of it we shall have to sleep on it in turns and keep sort of watch @nc watch all the time till the boat comes, and after that the real fun will only be beginning, But any- thing's better than losing it, Why, that confounded Greek may suspect already what we are after, Come “Give on.” I counted out a handful of sov- ereigns, put them in my pocket and started off. The bat-eared man was nowhere to be seen, “He's gone to breakfast before they start,” I said, turning back toward the native quarters. Just as plainly as if he were before my eyes I could see the little Papuan, with his woolly head and cramped, crooked figure, striding along with the price of a kingdom a-swing about his greasy neck, In a rude locket of grass—the treasure that would assuredly glitter in the crown of a queen or shine upon the turban of some rich Indian rajah, within a few brief months. For, whether the Marquis and I ae- cured it or whether we did not, the destiny of the Sorcerer's Stone was fixed by this time. It had passed too near civilization to escape. Its track of blood and terror—the track of every great diamond—was opening out before it. What bad the Marquis said in Kata-Kata: “First blood for the diamond. wonder who shall be the next?” The next had been the sorcerer bim- self. And the next afier that’ ** ¢ The man was not in the quarters; none of the boys was there. The re- maine of their meal were scattered about the ground. It seemed that for some reason or other the boats were going early to-day. “The jetty, and look sharp!” I sald. We looked as sharp as we could, but the Gertrude wus off before we got half-way down the street. Others of the fleet preceded her; one remained behind, “Com on, Marky," I said. “We'll go with the fleet to-day, We're curious to eee the pearling, you know.” “Ll have seen it many confounded times in other countries, and | am quite fatigued of it,” declared the Marquis, “Always one geta some ugly shells, and one does not find no pearla, they tell one foolish stories, and there is gin, and one goes home.” “Well, you're going to see it some I said. The captain of the Dawn was will- ing to take us out for a consideration, He was a long time getting away from the jetty, and 1 grew more im- patient every minute, for there was the Gertrude far*ahead, and gradu- ally drawing out of sight, while we atill delayed. By the time the Dawn had spread her dirty sails to the breeze the other lugger had dimin- ished to « speck. The Marquis and I sat side by side on the hatch, watching Sariba and the Basilisk open out into emerald and the tall blue iow up on the far We did not talk; we were 190 anxious. When you difficult and coat matter, reading for six cents a week. by the foremost living authors, Are You Going Away for the Summer? out of town for the summer you may find it is to provide yourself with the right sort of reading Why send to the city for novels at $1.25 or $1.50 each or buy them at a fancy price in some country store? You can supply yourseif with the best, most delightful summer By subscribing to The Evening World for the summer months you will secure a complete novel each week. Not some old book a country dealer has not heen able to sell, but the finest up-to-date fiction Bear this in mind, not only for yourself but for any of your friends who expect to spend the summer in the country. We cast anchor in @ wide plain of blue water, with the Gertrude not very far away. She was anchored also, and I saw by the jadder and the trailing air-tube that her diver was down, Looking closer, @ second air-tube appeared, “Why, she has two down,” 1 said. “She got a new diver this morn- ing,” remarked the captain of the Dawn. “George the Greek. ‘ He's broke, and has to work. I wish I'd got him myself; he's a rare fine diver The Marquis and I looked at each on @ long, windless swell like watered ilk; the sappy, luscious green of the island forests rose up beyond the sea; in the near foreground the Gertrude, with stern pointed toward us, showed two. gray spider-threads dropping down into the water. At the ends of those two threads, far down among the coral and the sponges and the beds of weed and shell, crept all along at the bottom of the sea two men, one with the ransom of a king hung round his neck, the other. © ¢ © What was-the other doing? T did not mean to be very long finding out. “Run us up as close to the Gertrude as you can, without interfering, wald. The captain worked « little nearer. “That's he sald. “And now I’m going to send my diver down. You and his lordship can see everything beautiful. It's not too deep here; since that Mo got finished off with diver’s paralysis the other day we've shifted to shallower his isn't more than twelve “Your diver isn't going down just yet,” I sald, bending down to un- lace my boots. “I'm going. I want to have @ look at things.” be loss to me,” sald the oap- tain sourly, “Are you prepared to make it good?” “Certainly,” said the Marqut seemed to understand the affairs. “We will pay you what fe the value of the ebell that your diver should bring up.” “And what about the pearis?” de- manded the captain. “Ob, come off it!" I sald. “How many pearis bas the whole fleet got since It went to work here?" ncommon few, and bad at that," admitted the captain gloomily. “And what there is, no doubt the Malays and Japs poach for the most part.” “Had any stealing?” I asked. I was getting myself into the divers heavy suit of woollen underwear now as quickly as I could. ri “You've been down before, haven't your” “Yeu. (1 dia not think it neces. sary to say that my experiences had been confined to @ single trip, made in shallow water, for two or three minutes, over at Thursday, and that 1 had not liked it a little bit.) “About that stealing, now?" “Well, I reckon the Greek has some idea of the kind, by the way he was keepin’ round after that Papunn diver, followin’ hins along the street and watchin’ him like a cat watches a mouse." “And do you think the Papuan has been stealing?” 1 had got into the woollens now, and the tender, a Malay, came forward to help me into the dress itself. “Naw! Papuans aren't no peal stealers, They'll steal food, or clothes, or tools, but pearis—they haven't no use for them, and they're not sharp enough to smuggle and sell them.” 1 had learned almost as much as 1 wanted uow. The rest, though [ did not hear tt from Joe Gilbert till later, I will tell here. The Greek hi shadowed" the Papuan down to the boat, on which both were engaged. He had got close ta during the run out, and tried to examine the curio bag that the Papuan carried round his neck, Most of the natives disitked and distrusted the Greek, and Mo's brother wi not likely to feel any kindness toward the white man who had dug up and maltreated the body of his only relative, He drow away and refused to let the Greek put @ finger on hie bi The Greek pretended that he had been only jesting and let him alone ull they arrived over the pearling HE PRINCE AND BETTY By P. G. WODEHOUS Grounds, Then the two descended together from opposite sides of the vessel. When we came up they had been alone in the depths of the sea for over an hour. Our captain avted the length of time the divers had been under, and talked self-righteously about tho care- lenpness of “Good Joe Gilbert.” “He had them down long before we was in aij sald our skipper. “Bring along that corselet, Tanjong. Give me @ wrench. 1 see to things myself on my ship, I do.” (He began screwing me into my dreas by means of the wrench, talking all the time.) “And look at them tenders of Gil- bert's—pre-tenders, I call them. Are they watching the air tubes proper, or are they not?” I really did not know enough to say. ‘The captain went on: “Now I'll tend you myself, and you'll be as sate “’ as if you was in the hotel in Sama: drinkin’ a long beer. You know the signals?” “I know one pull on the signal line ie ‘pull mo up,’ and I know how to work the taps tn the helmot. 1 Feckon that's enough.” ‘They were Putting on my lead-soled boots now and hanging a buge locket of lead round my neck. I can not express how I hated the idea of going down. And the Marquis, sitting on the hatch, his large pink face standing out like @ harvest moon againat the heaving sea, was whistling—of all tunes on earth—the Dead March in “Saul.” By thie 1 gueased that his eombre. "If you could choose some other tune I'd be obliged to you." “It was not on the cause of you that I whiatied ft,” he replied, gloom- ily. “It is on the cause of myself, who cannot make thia journey, be- cause I am too large that any diver dress can take me in.” “Well, one of us has got to go,” 1 eald, knotting the life-line rousd my waist. The captain had moved off to inapect the working of the pump. “And of a truth!” cried the Mar- quis, “the pitcher that goee to the Well lp soonest mended!” Tanjong now cathe with the front glass to screw up my helmet, | looked round at the Gertrude once more, Still the two spider threads dangled down her counter, acrons the littered, dangerous deck, with ‘its careleas tendera and the empty. heav- ing ewell of the silent sea. “They've been down too tong— captain, “Maybe something's got them. I near forgot to tell you: you keep your eyes skinned for clams, down below there. « “Clams?” “Yes—you don't need to worry about sharks: we baven't seen one, not for days; and as for diamond- fish, if they came along and get a hold of your air-tube, it's no use you or any one worryin’, But them clams, they are dangerous, ‘There's some proper big ones, and if you put your foot in one”"-— “I can guess,” I said; tor f knew something of the terrible gtaft’ tril @acna of these Southern seas, “I'm ready: screw up.” The Marquis had of course waited for this moment to make a. speech— when I could not possibig hear bim, being shat into my metaf @hell like lobster into its carapace--and e rushed forward to aclae and press my hand, as I stepped over the alde of the lugger to the ladder below, He spoke eloquently and I judged imprudentiy; gnd tears rose in his eyes. I cut slfMrt the scene by slide ing my feet off the ladder and let- ting myself go. I feared the effect of such a depth as seventy feet of water on an-inex- perlenced diver like myself, but I need not have been uneasy. The skipper of the Dawn was not minded to have an accident and he let me down very siowly. | saw the green full of silver air bubbles rush- ing up and past the window of my helmet for what seemed quite a long while—though it could not have been more than a minute or two before my lead soled boots came down Ughtly @ dancer's sandal on the crumbilng coral at tha bottom. This was the real thing and not like my amateur experiment at Thursday. 1 bewan to feel interested and to for- get the ebrinking fear that all new divers experience in leaving the Ifent and life of the world above and trust- ing themselves, encased in benumbing metal and rubber, to tke choking depths of the sea. My ears were very Painful and my lungs worked badly; my arms and legs seemed to move with @ deltberati@n of their own and the curious change In the conditions of gravity made me feel like a large ork doll Kut I could make my way about, and {t was almont as light as on the surface. 1 could see the tiny blue and emerald and violet buds on the coral and the eyen of the painted parrot-fish, and every blade and frond of the tall green seaweeds that waved about as T moved by. The whole Author of “* scene was so wonderfully beautiful that I almost forgot the grim errand that had brought me down into the midst of it. Coral beds, when you see them from the surface on a calm day, are like &@ gardon of flowers below the water. Been from beneath the ocean itself, they take on the hues of actual Jewels: the huge fans and mush- rooms and ferns of the reef glow with ighta of emerald, sapphire and ame thyat; the sun that falls through the water makes magical fires of gold and green. Fish come gently past the windows of your helmet, hurrying Rot at all, and look in with their cold eyes as they go by; their bodies shine with all the colors of a painted butterfly, and they make broken little rainbows in the water as they move. You are walking on the coral: it away like over-baked bis- cults under your boots and keeps you slipping and staggering, and you must keep e sharp lookout over those ugly Indigo-colored gulfs that open In ite sufface tere and there, for coral reefs shelter many a dangerous guest. All this T saw, treading with the long, soft pace of the diver at the bottom’ of the sea, breathing short with the weight of the seventy feet above me, and trying not to think about the Invisible nalls that kept boring Into my ears. I had taken my bearings when I dropped down from the lugger, and I could see her now ike &@ shadowy whale basking on the surface. A good way ahead I could dimly discern another, shadow—that of Gertrude. So far. hot a sign of her divers. I trad on, balancing with my bands like an acrobat as I passed the edges of deep crovasses in the cora watohing carefully for the serrated double edge that marks the presence of the formidable dacna gigua— the huge shell that most people have seen in museums, from three to six OF seven feet long, and as heavy as the great stone basin of a fountain in ® park. Small ones I saw’ every- where; bigger ones, a foot or two in Jength, now and then, But none of the giants was to be seen, T must have been down ‘fully ten minutes and was beginning to feel the effects of my submersion, in certain giddiness of the head and numbness of the limbs, when 1 saw something a good way in front of me that was not rock, nor coral, nor fish. What It was I could not tell, for tt was in rapid motion and agitated the water so much that one could only ee something waving and bending about. I took a good grip of my axe and went on faster. He it what it might, | hau got to have a look at It. The water seemed to clear us [ drew nearer, and then | begun to run as one runa at the bottom of the sea, sprawling and waving and halt swimming, working arma and lesa together, For now I saw. There were two divers a little way ahead, at- tached apiderwise to their ship by long threads of life-line and air-tube, and they were fighting, I floundered up close to them and they never saw me; hear me they could not, for ve ‘were all isolated in our motat shetle one from the other, It wan awful to see them struggling and reeling and gripping at each other--there ut the bottom of the sea, where a tangled life-line or a nipped air-tube meant certain death. The silence—tho muffled, stified ai lence of the deep—made the horror more horrible yet. It was like @ struggle of lost souls among the shades, T made my way as clone ue 1 dared, keeping my lifeline and alr tube weil vut of the way, and snatched at the arm of the nearest diver, But jn the unfamiliar medium of the water I missed, and the fight went on, the two dark monsters with their round Metal heads and hideous huge glass eyes dodging, alipping, striking. I @aw now with @ thrill of borror that both were using their knives, or try- ing to, They had an immense advantage over ine in being accustomed to the water; they moved easily where could hardly stir for fear of losing my balance, Something, however, had to be done, { flung myself for- ward anyhow and made another snatch at the reeling figares. Crunch went the coral under my feet and I went down right into the bleck cre- vane. 1 caught my signal line and hauled ae I fell, They were doing their duty upon the Dawn; my tender answered with @ sturdy haul that seni ewinging toward the T aignalied “Lower,” and they let me down. But the sawing had carried me a little way from the ecene of the fight. With @ horrible fear thumping at my heart I flapped and stumbled for- ward Uvough the wavering green. 1 was too late, ‘The biggest diver had got one home at last. As I came up he sheathed his knife tn the dreas of the other and ripped It up; out came a fearful rush of silvery air, and tho wretched crea- ture, drowning, kicked and strug- sled, and snatched wildly at bie By Beatrice Grimshaw == Tether of “WHEN RED GODS CALL?” ate = CALL,” Bie. signal-line, which I now saw had been cut. , The other man drove his hand into the wap in the dress, tore out « small brown object dangling on a string and Jumped backward out of the way of hia grasping, struggiing victim, In the jump he fell and instantly the water vibrated to an tron clang that struck my helmet like a shot. He was caught in something; he fought terribly to be loose; from his im Prisoned arm spread out « sudden | cloud of brilliant red, 4 “Sharks! Blood brings sharks!” was the thought that beat upon my brain as I flapped forward to give him help. Dulled as my senses were. by the pressure of ‘he sea, what I saw nearly drove me out of my mind with horror. A tridacna had got him. © It was set in @ hole of the coral, ite two fearful zigsag etges lying almost even with the surrounding level. It had been gaping open until the diver fell back upon it, and the clang that, .) had struck upon my helmet was the sound of its ponderous shells, each © some quarter ton in weight, slam- ming shut. ‘The arm of the diver had been snapped and crushed be- tween the edges; even as I looked, he fell back, the inst rag of flesh tearing “sway. The tridacna bad nipped off the limb fike a carrot. By this time | was so dased aad iddy with my submersion that I scarcely knew what I was about, and the horror of the two deaths before my eyes did not ‘overcome me as it might have done had I been able to feel anything clearly. 1 knew the small man must be drowned; help, 1 caught at the bigger man’s, signal Nne, knotted it together, and tugxed furtously. Up on the Ge: trude they felt it and began to haul. The two black monsters, with thelr gleaming ey went slowly up toward the shadow of the boat, looe and limp as they rose. of my mind kept saying to I looked fearfully round and round, The green wavering water was clear of all lurge shadows; no living torpedo, snout down, darted between me and the daylight. At my feet the serrated jaws of the terrible, clam jutted slightly up trom she coral” cleft in which it lay; they were cloned Ike @ vise, and an end of mbattered bone protruded trom the middle, I have always wondered that I was able to think an Quickly and as clearly as J did, there at the bottom of the sea, with my mind dazed by unaccustomed pressure and shaken by the horrible tragedy that had just paased before my eyes. But 1 was quite certain of what [ had to do. It was the Greek’s right arm that hat been severed, « The diamond, in ita casing of was in bis hand as he fell, a pen sand to one that diamond was in- side the tridacna. I had got to get it out, und quickly—tor two reasons ~frat, I could not stay down much jonger, and secondly, nothing but a miracle could have kept the sharks away ao long, with the bleod ‘n the wate: ioe, The tridacna had been open when came up. It would probably open in, us the morsel It had caught scarcely in accordance with ite ordinary food. When {t opened, I ust be ready with an ax, and etriire deep us pousible into the yielding > flesh, in the hope of hitting the greet Muscle that controlled the swinging of the valves, Should I mise that, I stood to lose the diamond, the ax. 4nd not Impousibiy myself, for those Slant shells as taey closed ntight arab me as they had the Greek. Well, 1 must hope not to miss, t poled the ax, and waited. {t must have been several minutes before any movement took place in the tridecn: ¢ at last I saw the least possi saping between the rowd of tight-clinched scallops, The Shells moved apart, slowly, alawly. Something gieamed between thelr separating edges — something that shot out rays of blue and green. Was it the diamond? No! It was the tridacna {tself, Much as I had heard of these crea- tures, I had never heard anything of their beauty, and when I first saw It it almost stunned me. From out the gates of those gigantic shells, as they opened more and more, came pouring |){ forth the “mantle” of the fish, rising high above the marble edges of the shell and trembling away tn a cloud ,~ of glory several feet beyond, All the colors of @ peacock flaunting im the sun were there: purples, violets, gold and green and blue, and, over all, the iridescent hase of the water, breaking into crumbled rainbows upon thie miracle of unknown, unseen beauty, I fairly gasped, it was s0 wonderful. Then, remembering myseif, I bent as near the shell ax I dared and lovked. for the ghastly relic it had seized, There was nothing to be seen but the guensed that the other was roe | orgeous mantle itself, The murder. ous hand and its booty had altke disappeared, I waited for a moment to collest myself, felt the blade of the ax to seo that it was keen, poised tt, and swung, (To Be Continued.) l The Book on the Stands Will Cost You $1.28 — === You Get It for @ Cents ==