JAY FIGHTS FOR HIS LIFE
"Weddigen helping himself to the diamonds!"
Could it be possible that this fellow was a submarine pickpocket who
was playing his own little game? Was he a pirate of the deep who
pretended to be working for others and all the time seeking covertly
to appropriate reclaimed treasure solely for himself? Certainly it
appeared so to Jay Thacker as he stood watching the dramatic scene.
The diver determined to see it through without making the other
acquainted with the fact that he was being watched. Very quickly
Weddigen was working, seemingly on the theory that Jay might arrive on
the scene any moment, and that he must lose no time.
Jay noted that Weddigen was slipping something like tiny pebbles into
the tiny pocket of his diving suit, letting them in very slowly and
patting them down to make sure the currents would not wash them out.
"Diamonds!" gasped Jay, remembering instantly that part of the
treasure to be reclaimed from the _Dominion_ was to be diamonds.
The Brighton youth determined to see it through. Crouching back against
the side of the areaway he brushed the eyes of his helmet the better to
see. Now Weddigen was buttoning over a flap on the pocket!
Between flashes of light Jay could see that the man was working now on
the chest. First he battered shut the lid again as best he could. Next
he took a coil of chain from his belt and lashed it around the strong
box. Then he picked up a long slim crowbar that he had brought along
as a push-pole and began to work the chest across the floor of the
compartment. He could only move it a few inches at a time because of
its weight and the pressure of the water. Slowly but surely, though, he
pushed the thing along in front of him.
"He's coming right toward me with it and I might as well make known my
presence," reasoned Jay.
He was on the point of flashing on his own light when Weddigen stopped,
tossed the crowbar aside and knelt again over the treasure box. For a
time he fumbled in the dark while Jay stood wondering what was going
on. Again a flash of light, and in that instant the Brighton youth saw
that the other diver was making fast on his salvage lines. Beyond a
doubt his plan was to send the treasure chest aloft now that he had
worked it close to the door of the areaway where it might be yanked up
the companionway and thence up through the depths to the deck of the
_Nemo_.
"Going to send the rest of the diamonds up and try to get away with
what he has already helped himself to," thought Jay as the daring
scheme of his fellow diver was now revealed. But Jay had seen all
and was determined so soon as he got back on the _Nemo_ to compel an
opening of that cunning little pocket on the side of Weddigen's diving
suit.
But now a real danger confronted the Brighton youth. Suppose Weddigen
gave the signal for the diamond chest to be raised away? Deckmen aboard
the _Nemo_, when the signal was given, would haul away with all their
vigor, eager to perform their part in the salvage of the much desired
treasure.
Crouched in the areaway outside the cabin Jay would be directly in the
line of the treasure chest as it was yanked away. Suppose that iron
box came his way? Perhaps it might crash full into his life lines? One
swift blow might sever his air hose and leave him helpless against the
inrushing water? Or suppose it cut off his signal lines, leaving him
powerless to ask for a lift off the ocean bed?
There was only one thing to do, and that was to get out of there as
quickly as possible. Weddigen would not signal for the strong box to be
hoisted away until he, too, was out of harm's way; and Jay, now that
he had been an eye-witness to the theft, was determined not to let the
other know he had seen the theft until they were back on the _Nemo_
again.
As quickly as possible he shuffled along the areaway and began climbing
the steps toward the deck of the _Dominion_. He was just in time, too,
for a glimmer of light behind him indicated that Weddigen was following
close behind. Rather than reveal his presence Jay fumbled along in the
darkness, climbing the steps without resorting to the use of his flash.
Once on deck he turned sharply aft and moved away from the companionway
leading below. In his anxiety to make haste he momentarily let go the
state room door by which he had steadied himself and in that instant
his feet flew from under him. The slimy deck would have been hard
enough walking had the _Dominion_ lay on an even keel; but with the
pitch to port the half-rotted flooring was difficult walking for the
most experienced and careful diver.
As he felt himself going the unfortunate youth grabbed for his life
lines for the purpose of signaling the "emergency"; but in the swirl
of water he was pitched headlong, the added weight of his own diving
accoutrements bearing him along like a leaf in a windstorm. Clear
across the wide slanting deck of the _Dominion_ he was hurled until he
brought up hard against the rotted deck rail.
Like a drowning man grasping for a straw Jay reached out to clutch the
iron post outlined directly in front of him; but as he grabbed its
top knob he felt the whole structure rend and twist, its fastenings
loosened by the rust of a prolonged submergence. The impact of the
young diver's body wrenched it loose and in a moment Jay was hurtled
overboard from the inclined deck of the _Dominion_ and enmeshed in a
tangle of the collapsed deck railing.
It had all happened so quickly the dazed youth was unable to figure out
where he was and what really had happened.
"What a pretty pickle I'm in," was all he could gasp, as he sought to
tear himself free from his incumbrances.
And then, to his utter consternation, he found that his air and signal
lines had become all entangled in the demolished railing! Sprawling on
his back in the soft sand that undulated in a wavy crest against the
side of the _Dominion_ he struggled in vain to tear himself free and
get to his feet. But, weighed down by his equipment, tired out by his
long stay under water and imprisoned in the débris of the _Dominion_,
he found his strength fast slipping.
"I've got to get hold of that emergency line," he said to himself,
gritting his teeth and thrashing the water above his head for a hold on
the precious life line. Eventually he found it and tugged with all his
might, awaiting the welcome pull that would lift him out of the depths.
But no welcome pull came. The life lines were caught in the débris! And
now he found himself breathing with difficulty. The air lines, too, had
been fouled! The air supply was virtually cut off altogether, and the
young diver breathing only the air contained within his diving armor!
"Looks as though I was up against it unless I can work these lines
free," the thought flashed through his brain with unrelenting reality.
Now, indeed, was he fighting for life against the very fates!
With the desperation born of madness Jay battled to free himself.
Caught like a fly in a great spider's web, he knew every moment was
precious. Unless those air lines were freed or he got a signal to the
surface he was doomed.
Seizing the life lines above his helmet he drew them tight in his hands
and followed them along until he came to the first entanglement of iron
piping. For a moment the impediment thwarted him, and then he tore it
free of the hose lines. But still no relief.
By now his brain was reeling and he could feel the blood vessels
standing out on his forehead. A sense of suffocation pressed his heart
and lungs and he found his breath coming in short wheezy gasps.
"Can it be that I'm lost!" he cried half aloud, the sound of his voice
flooding his own ears like the wail of a siren.
But this was a time for self-control if he was to escape at all the
perilous plight into which he had fallen. By sheer force of will he
calmed himself and set about again to free himself. Taking the air
lines as before he followed them to another point of contact with the
débris and slipped down to his knees as he tugged at another joint of
the tubing.
Fate, however, was hard and cruel. Try as he did, battling with all
his strength and praying fervently as he worked, he was unable to move
the obstacle. His fingers felt numb and weak; they refused to respond
to his will. Even his legs seemed paralyzed. And again that horrible
clutching at the throat and lungs!
"I----guess----I----can't----"
His voice trailed off into a whisper and his brain swam until a
panorama of mythical scenes and figures flitted before his fancy.
Still clutching the lines of hose that refused him life he reeled and
stretched himself helplessly on the floor of the ocean. Dreamily he
thought of home, of Brighton, of the service he had lately left. Now he
was with the fleet vainly tugging to fasten an obdurate mine in place
with other jackies of Uncle Sam's mighty war fleet.
"Now we've got the haughty Germans," he screamed in his delirium. All
the while he was gasping and gurgling as his shoulders heaved and his
lungs were convulsed in the agony of suffocation. Life was slipping
fast away, and life was sweet to this youth who had dared death for his
country and come through unscathed in the two years' campaign in the
North Sea. By the irony of fate he had lived through all the period
of the war only to come home to an untimely death like this while
searching for lost treasure!
Now he was floating free in the ocean, a great filmy light suffusing
the whole of the green sea, a myriad of soft-clad figures dancing
before his glazed eyes, the murmur of some cathedral orchestra
intermingled with the song of the sea. Out, out, out through the vast
unknown recesses of the sea he drifted, propelled along by some unseen
force....
* * * * *
"Something wrong down there!" Dick Monaghan, standing guard over the
life lines of his chum aboard the _Nemo_, sensed the danger of his old
Brighton pal. No signal of any kind had come up to him from the depths,
and yet he seemed to realize, for some strange reason, that a mishap of
some kind had befallen Jay.
"What's that?" called out Captain Austin as he hurried forward to where
Dick held the lines over the side of the _Nemo_.
"I had a hunch of some kind that Jay was in trouble," explained Dick.
"I've been trying for the last two or three minutes to get some kind
of an answering signal from below, but I can't seem to get him. And
there's been such a tugging on the lift lines at times. I don't quite
understand it."
"Pump working all right?" asked the captain.
"So far as we can tell, although it seems to have slowed up somewhat,"
Dick replied, somewhat agitated.
Just then a shout arose from aft the _Nemo_. The deckmen were hauling
something over the side and yelling their heads off with delight.
"Look, a great iron treasure chest," they chorused, as the attention
of Captain Austin and Dick was diverted for a moment from the possible
plight of Jay Thacker.
True enough, for as they exulted, the iron box containing diamonds that
Weddigen had reclaimed from the captain's cabin of the _Dominion_ came
over the side, dripping with sediment and seaweed, but firmly held in
an encircling chain band.
"Hurrah! Hurrah! we have landed some of the lost cargo." The crew were
rejoicing over the big find of the morning, hardly able to contain
themselves over the knowledge that a handsome chest of "swag" had been
ferreted from its submarine hiding place, and that they would get a
fine fat bonus out of the big "divvy."
"Weddigen on his way up," called out the officer in charge of the
operations aft.
Only for a moment were Captain Austin and Dick Monaghan deterred from
the subject that engrossed their minds. What had become of Jay Thacker?
"Haul him up as fast as you can," the captain commanded.
Jumping to their work, the forward crew began tugging away at the steel
cables with which Jay had been suspended. But pull as hard as they
could they could not budge the lost diver.
"Quick, men, uncover that deck winch," he ordered, now thoroughly
alarmed.
In short order it was made ready for service and the steel cables
supporting Jay affixed. A word of command from Captain Austin and the
power was turned on. For an instant the cables wound faithfully, and
then brought up taut. Something had to give; either the cables had
to part, or the contained weight at the sea bottom torn free of its
holdings. More power was turned on. A violent tug, and then the winch
began winding steadily again!
"Thank God! it's Jay," murmured Dick a minute or so later as the
helmeted figure appeared through the haze of the sea green. But the
arms and lower limbs hung limp, and portions of the _Dominion's_ deck
rail still clung to the suspension cables.
"Hurry, men, there; haul him on deck and pull that armor off," Austin
directed.
As the form of Jay was drawn on deck Dick and several assistants tried
to stand him on his feet, only to see him crumple and fall like a man
of straw. One glance through the eye ports showed closed lids. A twist
of the thumb screw and then the helmet was raised.
"Jay! Jay! Speak to me," implored Dick, bending over his chum.