Eleven Possible Cases
Page 4
A THING THAT GLISTENED.
BY FRANK R. STOCKTON.
In the fall of 1888 the steamship _Sunda_, from Southampton, was runningalong the southern coast of Long Island, not many hours from port, whenshe was passed by one of the great British liners, outward bound. Thetide was high, and the course of both vessels was nearer the coast thanis usual--that of the _Sunda_ being inside of the other.
As the two steamers passed each other there was a great waving of hatsand handkerchiefs. Suddenly there was a scream from the _Sunda_. It camefrom Signora Rochita, the prima donna of an opera troupe, which wascoming to America in that ship.
"I have lost my bracelet," she cried in Italian, and then, turning tothe passengers, she repeated the cry in very good English.
The situation was instantly comprehended by every one. It was late inthe afternoon; the captain had given a grand dinner to the passengers,at which the prima donna had appeared in all her glories ofornamentation, and the greatest of these glories, a magnificent diamondbracelet, was gone from the arm with which she had been enthusiasticallywaving her lace handkerchief.
The second officer, who was standing near, dashed into the captain'soffice and quickly reappeared with chart and instruments, and made rapidcalculation of the position of the vessel at the time of the accident,making an allowance for the few minutes that had passed since the firstcry of the signora. After consultation with the captain andrecalculations of the distance from land and some other points, heannounced to the weeping signora that her bracelet lay under a littleblack spot he had made on the chart, and that if she chose to send adiver for it she might get it, for the depth of water at that place wasnot great.
By profession I am a diver, and the next day I was engaged to search forthe diamond bracelet of Signora Rochita. I had a copy of the chart, and,having hired a small schooner with several men who had been myassistants before, and taking with me all the necessary accoutermentsand appliances, I set out for the spot indicated, and by afternoon wewere anchored, we believed, at or very near it. I lost no time indescending. I wore, of course, the usual diver's suit, but I took withme no tools nor any of the implements used by divers when examiningwrecks, but carried in my right hand a brilliant electric lamp connectedwith a powerful battery on the schooner. I held this by an insulatedhandle, in which there were two little knobs, by which I could light orextinguish it.
The bottom was hard and smooth, and lighting my lamp I began to lookabout me. If I approached the bracelet I ought to be able to see itsparkle, but after wandering over considerable space, I saw no sparklesnor anything like a bracelet. Suddenly, however, I saw something whichgreatly interested me. It was a hole in the bottom of the ocean, almostcircular, and at least ten feet in diameter. I was surprised that I hadnot noticed it before, for it lay not far from the stern of our vessel.
Standing near the rocky edge of the aperture, I held out my lamp andlooked down. Not far below I saw the glimmer of what seemed to be thebottom of this subterranean well. I was seized with a desire to explorethis great hole running down under the ordinary bottom of the sea. Isignaled to be lowered, and although my comrades were much surprised atsuch an order, they obeyed, and down I went to the well. The sides ofthis seemed rocky and almost perpendicular, but after descending aboutfifteen feet they receded on every side, and I found myself going downinto a wide cavern, the floor of which I touched in a very short time.
Holding up my lamp, and looking about me, I found myself in a sea cave,some thirty feet in diameter, with a dome-like roof, in which, a littleto one side of the center, was the lower opening of the well. I becamevery much excited; this was just the sort of place into which a braceletor anything else of value might be expected to have the bad luck todrop. I walked about and gazed everywhere, but I found nothing but rocksand water.
I was about to signal to be drawn up, when above me I saw what appearedto be a flash of darkness coming down through the well. With a rush anda swirl it entered the cavern, and in a moment I recognized the factthat a great fish was swooping around and about me. Its movements wereso rapid and irregular, now circling along the outer edge of the floorof the cavern, then mounting above me, until its back seemed to scrapethe roof, that I could not form a correct idea of the size of thecreature. It seemed to me to be at least twenty feet along. I stoodalmost stupefied, keeping my eyes, as far as possible, fixed upon theswiftly moving monster.
Sometimes he came quite near me, when I shuddered in every fiber, andthen he shot away, but ever gliding with powerful undulations of hisbody and tail, around, about, and above me. I did not dare to signal tobe drawn up, for fear that the terrible creature would enter the wellhole with me. Then he would probably touch me, perhaps crush me againstthe wall, but my mind was capable of forming no plans. I only hoped thefish would ascend and disappear by the way he came.
My mind was not in its strongest condition, being much upset by a greattrouble, and I was so frightened that I really did not know what I oughtto do, but I had sense enough left to feel sure that the fish had beenattracted into the cavern by my lamp. Obviously, the right thing to dowas to extinguish it, but the very thought of this nearly drove me intoa frenzy. I could not endure to be left alone with the shark in darknessand water. It was an insane idea, but I felt that, whatever happened, Imust keep my eyes upon him.
Now the great fish began to swoop nearer and nearer to me, and then,suddenly changing its tactics, it receded to the most distant wall ofthe cavern, where, with its head toward me, it remained, for the firsttime, motionless. But this did not continue long. Gently turning over onits side, it opened its great mouth, and in an instant, with a rush, itcame directly at me. My light shone full into its vast mouth, glisteningwith teeth, and there was a violent jerk which nearly threw me from myfeet, and all was blackness. The shark had swallowed my lamp! By raregood fortune, he did not take my hand also.
Now I frantically tugged at my signal rope. Without my lamp I had nothought but a desire to be pulled out of the water, no matter whathappened. In a few minutes I sat, divested of my diving suit, and almostinsensible, upon the deck of the schooner. As soon as I was able to talkI told my astonished comrades what had happened, and while we werediscussing this strange occurrence, one of them, looking over the side,saw slowly rising to the surface the body of a dead shark.
"By George," he cried, "here is the beast. He has been killed by thecurrent from the battery."
We all crowded to the rail and looked down upon the monster. He wasabout ten feet long, and it was plain that he had died for makinghimself the connection between the poles of the battery.
"Well," said the captain pleasantly. "I suppose you are not going downagain?"
"Not I," I replied. "I give up this job."
Then suddenly I cried:
"Come boys, all of you. Make fast to that shark, and get him on board. Iwant him."
Some of the men laughed, but my manner was so earnest that in a momentthey all set about to help me. A small boat was lowered, lines were madefast to the dead fish with block and tackle, and we hauled him on deck.I then got a butcher's knife from the cabin and began to cut him open.
"Look here, Tom!" exclaimed the captain, "that's nonsense. Your lamp'sall smashed to pieces, and if you get it out, it will never be any goodto you."
"I don't care for the lamp," I answered, working away energetically,"but an idea has struck me. It's plain that this creature had a fancyfor shining things. If he swallowed a lamp, there is no reason why heshould not have swallowed anything else that glittered."
"Oho!" cried the captain, "you think he swallowed the bracelet, do you?"
And instantly everybody crowded more closely about me.
I got out the lamp. Its wires were severed as smoothly as if they hadbeen cut by shears. Then I worked on. Suddenly there was a cry fromevery man. Something glimmered in the dark interior of the fish. Igrasped it and drew it out. It was not a bracelet, but a pint bottlewhich glimmered like a glow-worm. With the bottle in my hand, I sat
uponthe deck and gazed at it. I shook it. It shone brighter. A bit of oiledsilk was tied tightly over the cork, and it was plain to see that it waspartly filled with a light colored oil, into which a bit of phosphoroushad been dropped, which, on being agitated, filled the bottle with a dimlight.
But there was something more in the bottle than phosphorus and oil. Icould see a tin tube, corked at each end, and the exposed parts of thecorks spreading enough to prevent the tin from striking the glass. Weall knew that this was one of those bottles containing a communicationof some sort, which are often thrown into the sea, and float about untilthey are picked up. The addition of the oil and phosphorus was intendedto make it visible by night as well as by day, and this was plainly thereason why it had been swallowed by a light-loving shark.
I poured out the oil and extracted the tube. Wiping it carefully, I drewout the corks, and then, from the little tin cylinder, I pulled a halfsheet of note paper, rolled up tightly. I unrolled it, and read thesewords:
Before I jump overboard, I want to let people know that I killed John Polhemus. So I have fixed up this bottle. I hope it may be picked up in time to keep Jim Barker from being hung. I did think of leaving it on the steamer, but I might change my mind about jumping overboard, and I guess this is the best way. The clothes I wore and the hatchet I did it with are under the woodshed, back of Polhemus's house.
HENRY RAMSEY.
I sprang to my feet with a yell. Jim Barker was my brother, now lying inprison under sentence of death for the murder of Polhemus; all thecircumstantial evidence, and there was no other, had been against him.The note was dated eight months back. Oh! cruel fool of a murderer.
The shark was thrown overboard, and we made best speed to port, andbefore the end of the afternoon I had put Ramsey's note into the handsof the lawyer who had charge of my brother's case.
Fortunately he was able to identify the handwriting and signature ofRamsey, a man who had been suspected of the crime, but against whom noevidence could be found. The lawyer was almost as excited as I was bythe contents of this note, and early the next morning we startedtogether for the house of the Polhemus family. There, under thewoodshed, we found carefully buried a bloodstained shirt and vest, andthe hatchet.
My impulse was to fly to my brother, but this my lawyer forbade. Hewould take charge of the affair, and no false hopes must be excited, buthe confidently assured me that my brother was as good as free.
Returning to the city, I thought I might as well make my report toSignora Rochita. The lady was at home and saw me. She showed the mostintense interest in what I told her, and insisted upon every detail ofmy experiences. As I spoke of the shark, and the subterranean cave, shenearly fainted from excitement, and her maid had to bring her smellingsalts. When I had finished, she looked at me steadily for a moment, andthen said:
"I have something to tell you, but I hardly know how to say it. I neverlost my bracelet. I intended to wear it at the captain's dinner, butwhen I went to put it on I found the clasp was broken, and, as I waslate, I hurried to the table without the bracelet, and thought of it nomore until, when we were all waving and cheering, I glanced at my wristand found it was not there. Then, utterly forgetting that I had not putit on, I thought it had gone into the sea. It was only this morningthat, opening what I supposed was the empty box, I saw it. Here it is."
I never saw such gorgeous jewels.
"Madame," said I, "I am glad you thought you lost it, for I have gainedsomething better than all these."
"You are a good man," said she, and then she paid me liberally for myservices. When this business had been finished, she asked:
"Are you married?" I answered that I was not.
"Is there any one you intend to marry?"
"Yes," said I.
"What is her name?" she asked.
"Sarah Jane McElroy."
"Wait a minute," said she, and she retired into another room. Presentlyshe returned and handed me a little box.
"Give this to your ladylove," said she; "when she looks at it, she willnever forget that you are a brave man."
When Sarah Jane opened the box, there was a little pin with a diamondhead, and she gave a scream of delight. But I saw no reason for jumpingor crying out, for after having seen the Signora's bracelet, this stoneseemed like a pea in a bushel of potatoes.
"I don't need anything," she said, "to remind me that you are a braveman. I am going to buy furniture with it."
I laughed, and remarked that "every little helps."
When I sit, with my wife by my side, before the fire in our comfortablehome, and consider that the parlor carpet, and the furniture and thepictures, and the hall and stair carpet, and all the dining-roomfurniture, with the china and the glass and the linen, and all thekitchen utensils, and two bedroom suits on the second story, bothhardwood, and all the furniture and fittings of a very pleasant room fora single man, the third story front, were bought with the pin that thesignora gave to Sarah Jane, I am filled with profound respect for thingsthat glitter. And when I look on the other side of the fire and see Jimsmoking his pipe just as happy as anybody, then I say to myself that, ifthere are people who think that this story is too much out of thecommon, I wish they would step in here and talk to Jim about it. Thereis a fire in his eyes when he tells you how glad he is that it was theshark instead of him, that is very convincing.
A LION AND A LIONESS
BY JOAQUIN MILLER.