Great Stone of Sardis

by Frank Richard Stockton

  CHAPTER X. "LAKE SHIVER"

  Steadily the Dipsey worked her way northward, and as she moved on hercourse her progress became somewhat slower than it had been at first.This decrease in speed was due partially to extreme caution on the partof Mr. Gibbs, the Master Electrician.

  The attenuated cable, which continually stretched itself out behind thelittle vessel, was of the most recent and improved pattern for deep-seacables. The conducting wires in the centre of it were scarcely thickerthan hairs, while the wires forming the surrounding envelope, althoughthey were so small as to make the whole cable not more than an eighth ofan inch in diameter, were far stronger than the thick submarine cableswhich were used in the early days of ocean telegraphy. These outer wireswere made of the Swedish toughened steel fibre, and in 1939, with one ofthem a little over a sixteenth of an inch in diameter, a freight-ship ofeleven thousand tons had been towed through the Great New Jersey Canal,which had then just been opened, and which connected Philadelphia withthe ocean.

  But notwithstanding his faith in the strength of the cable, Mr. Gibbsfelt more and more, the farther he progressed from the habitable world,the importance of preserving it from accident. He had gone so far thatit would be a grievous thing to be obliged to turn back.

  The Dipsey sailed at a much lower depth than when she had first startedupon her submarine way. After they had become accustomed to the feelingof being surrounded by water, her inmates seemed to feel a greatersense of security when they were well down below all possible disturbinginfluence. When they looked forward in the line of the search-light, orthrough any of the windows in various parts of the vessel, they neversaw anything but water--no fish, nothing floating. They were too farbelow the ice above them to see it, and too far from what might be oneither side of them to catch a glimpse of it. The bottom was deepbelow them, and it was as though they were moving through an aqueousatmosphere.

  They were comfortable, and beginning to be accustomed to theirsurrounding circumstances. The air came in regularly and steadilythrough the electric gills, and when deteriorated air had collected inthe expiration-chamber in the upper part of the vessel, it was forcedout by a great piston, which sent it by a hundred little valves into thesurrounding water. Thus the pure air came in and the refuse air went outjust as if the little Dipsey had been healthfully breathing as it pushedits way through the depths.

  Mrs. Block was gaining flesh. The narrow accommodations, the everlastingelectric light, the sameness of food, and a total absence of incidenthad become quite natural to her, and she had ceased to depend upon thecompanionship of the dust-brush and the almanac to carry her mind backto what she considered the real things of life.

  Sarah had something better now to take her mind back to Sardis andthe people and things on dry land. The engagement and probably earlymarriage of Mr. Clewe and Mrs. Raleigh had made a great impression uponher, and there were days when she never thought of the pole, so busywas she in making plans based upon the future connection of the life ofherself and Sammy and that of Mr. and Mrs. Clewe.

  Sammy and his wife had very good quarters within the boundaries of theworks, but Sarah had never been quite satisfied with them, and whenthe new household of Clewe should be set up, and all the new domesticarrangements should be made, she hoped for better things. Mr. Clewe'slittle cottage would then be vacant, for of course he and his wife wouldnot live in such a place as that, and she thought that she and Sammyshould have it. Hour by hour and day by day she planned the furnishing,the fitting, and the management of this cottage.

  She was determined to have a servant, a woman thoroughly capable ofdoing general house-work; and then there were times when she believedthat if Sammy should succeed in finding the pole his salary would beincreased, and they might be able to afford two servants. Over and overagain did she consider the question whether, in this latter case, thesewomen should both be general house-work servants, or one of them acook and the other a chamber-maid and laundress. There was much to beconsidered on each side. In the latter case more efficient work could beobtained; but in the former, in case one of them should suddenly leave,or go away for a day out, the other could do all the work. It was verypleasant to Mrs. Block to sit in a comfortable arm-chair and gaze thusinto the future. Sometimes she looked up into the water above, andsometimes out into the water ahead, but she could see nothing. But inthe alluring expanse of her fancied future she could see anything whichshe chose to put there.

  Sammy, however, did not increase in flesh; in fact, he grew thinner.Nothing important in regard to the Pole, Rovinski, had occurred, but ofcourse something would occur; otherwise why did the Pole come on boardthe Dipsey? Endless conjectures as to what Rovinski would do when he didanything, and when he would begin to do it, kept the good Samuel awakeduring many hours when he should have been soundly sleeping. He had saidnothing yet to Mr. Gibbs in regard to the matter. Every day he made areport to Roland Clewe about Rovinski, but Clewe's instructions werethat so long as the Pole behaved himself properly there was no reason totrouble the minds of the party on board with fears of rascality onhis part. They had enough to occupy their minds without any disturbinginfluence of that sort.

  Clewe's own opinion on the subject was that Rovinski could do nothingbut act as a spy, and afterwards make dishonest use of the knowledge heshould acquire; but the man had put himself into Clewe's power, andhe could not possibly get away from him until he should return to CapeTariff, and even there it would be difficult. The proper and only thingto do was to keep him in custody as long as possible. When he should bebrought back to a region of law and justice, it might be that the Polecould be prevented, for a time, at least, from using the results of hisknavish observations.

  There was another person on board whose mind was disturbed by Rovinski.This was Mr. Marcy, the Assistant Engineer, an active, energetic fellow,filled with ambition and love of adventure, and one of the most hopefuland cheerful persons on board. He had never heard of Rovinski, and didnot know that there was anybody in the world who was trying tobenefit himself by fraudulent knowledge of Mr. Clewe's discoveries andinventions, but he hated the Pole on his own account.

  The man's countenance was so villainous that it was enough of itself toarouse the dislike of a healthy-minded young fellow such as Marcy;but, moreover, the Pole had habits of sneaking about the vessel, andafterwards retiring to quiet corners, where he would scribble ina pocket notebook. Such conduct as this in a man whose positioncorresponded with that of a common seaman on an ordinary vessel, seemedcontrary to discipline and good conduct, and he mentioned the matter toMr. Gibbs.

  "I suppose the man is writing a letter to his wife," said the latter."You would not want to hinder him from doing that, would you?"

  And to this no good answer could be made.

  The Pole never took notes when Sammy was anywhere where he could seehim, and if Mr. Marcy had reported this conduct to the old man, it islikely that Rovinski would speedily have been deprived of pencils andpaper, and his real character made known to the officers.

  One day it was observed by those who looked out of the window in theupper deck that the water above them was clearer than they usuallysaw it, and when the electric lights in the room immediately under thewindow were turned out it was almost possible to discern objects inthe room. Instantly there was a great stir on board the Dipsey, andobservations soon disclosed the fact that there was nothing above thevessel but water and air.

  At first, like an electric flash, the thought ran through the vesselthat they had reached the open sea which is supposed to surround thepole, but reflection soon showed those who were cool enough to reflectthat if this were the case that sea must be much larger than they hadsupposed, for they were still a long way from the pole. Upon one thing,however, everybody was agreed: they must ascend without loss of time tothe surface of the water above them.

  Up went the Dipsey, and it was not long before the great glass in theupper deck admitted pure light from the outer world. Then the vesselrose boldly and floated upon the
surface of the open sea.

  The hatchways were thrown open, and in a few moments nearly everybodyon board stood upon the upper deck, breathing the outer air andgazing about them in the pure sunlight. The deck was almost flat, andsurrounded by a rail. The flooring was wet, and somewhat slippery, butnobody thought of that; they thought of nothing but the wonderful placein which they found themselves.

  They were in a small lake surrounded by lofty and precipitous icebergs.On every side these glittering crags rose high into the air; nowhere wasthere a break or an opening. They seemed to be in a great icy prison. Itmight be supposed that it would be exhilarating to a party who had longbeen submerged beneath the sea to stand once more in the open air and inthe light of day; but this was not the case. The air they breathed wassharp and cold, and cut into throats and lungs now accustomed to thesofter air within their vessel. Scarcely any of them, hurrying out ofthe warm cabins, had thought of the necessity of heavy wraps, andthe bitter cold of the outer air perceptibly chilled their blood.Involuntarily, even while they were staring about them, they hurried upand down the deck to keep themselves warm.

  The officers puzzled their brains over the peculiar formation of thisice-encompassed lake. It seemed as if a great ice mountain had sunk downfrom the midst of its companions, and had left this awful hole. This,however, was impossible. No law of nature would account for such adisappearance of an ice mountain. Mr. Gibbs thought, under some peculiarcircumstances, a mass of ice might have broken away and floated fromits surroundings, and that afterwards, increased in size, it had floatedback again, and, too large to re-enter the opening it had made, hadclosed up the frozen walls of this lonely lake, accessible only to thosewho should rise up into it from the sea. Suddenly Mrs. Block stopped.

  "What is that?" she cried, pointing to a spot in the icy wall which wasnearest to the vessel. Instantly every eye was turned that way. They sawa very distinct, irregular blotch, surrounded by almost transparent ice.

  Several glasses were now levelled upon this spot, and it was discoveredto be the body of a polar bear, lying naturally upon its side, as ifasleep, and entirely incased in ice.

  "It must have lain down to die, on the surface of the ice," said Mr.Gibbs, "and gradually the ice has formed above it, until it now rests inthat vast funeral casket."

  "How long since he laid down there to die, Mr. Gibbs?" asked Sarah,as she took the glass from her eye. "He looks as natural as if he wasasleep."

  "I cannot say," he answered. "It may have been hundreds, even thousands,of years ago."

  "Oh, horrible!" said Sarah. "All that makes me shiver, and I am sure Idon't need anything to make me do that. I wish we would go down,Sammy; I would like to get out of this awful place, with those dreadfulglitterin' walls that nobody could get up or over, and things lyin'frozen for a thousand years; and, besides, it's so cold!"

  It seemed as if Sarah's words had struck the key-note to the feelingsof the whole company. In the heart of every one arose a strong desire tosink out of this cold, bleak, terrifying open air into the comfortablemotherly arms of the encircling waters. For a few minutes Captain JimHubbell had experienced a sense of satisfaction at finding himself oncemore upon the deck of a vessel floating upon the open sea. He felt thathe was in his element, and that the time had come for him to assumehis proper position as a sailor; but this feeling soon passed, and hedeclared that his spine was like a long icicle.

  "Don't you think we had better go down again?" said Sammy. "I think wehave all seen enough of this, and it isn't anything that any use can bemade of."

  "You are right," said Mr. Gibbs; "let everybody go below."

  But it was not easy for everybody to obey this command. The wet deckswere now covered with a thin surface of ice, and those who had beenstanding still for a few moments found it difficult to release theirshoes from the flooring of the deck, while several of the men slippeddown as they made their way to the forward hatch. As for Sarah Block,she found it impossible to move at all. Her shoes were of a peculiarkind, the soles being formed of thick felt, and these, having beensoaked with water, had frozen firmly to the deck. She tried to make astep and almost fell over.

  "Heavens and earth!" she screamed; "don't let this boat go down andleave me standing outside!"

  Her husband and two men tried to release her, but they could notdisengage her shoes from the deck; so Sammy was obliged to loosen hershoe-strings, and then he and another man lifted her out of her shoesand carried her to the hatchway, whence she very speedily hurried below.

  Everybody was now inside the vessel, the hatches were tightlyclosed, and the Dipsey began to sink. When she had descended tothe comparatively temperate depths of the sea, and her people foundthemselves in her warm and well-lighted compartments, there was ageneral disposition to go about and shake hands with each other. Someof them even sang little snatches of songs, so relieved were they to getdown out of that horrible upper air.

  "Of course I shall never see my shoes again," said Mrs. Block; "and theywere mighty comfortable ones, too. I suppose, when they have been downhere awhile in this water, which must be almost lukewarmish compared towhat it is on top, they will melt loose and float up; and then, Sammy,suppose they lodge on some of that ice and get frozen for a thousandyears! Good gracious! It sets me all of a creep to think of thathappenin' to my shoes, that I have been wearin' every day! Don't youwant a cup of tea?"

  "It's a great pity," thought Sammy to himself, "that it wasn't that Polethat had his feet frozen to the deck. The rest of us might have beenlucky enough not to have noticed him as the boat went down."

  "We ought to get a name for that body of water up there," said Mr.Gibbs, as he was writing out his report of the day's adventures. "Shallwe call it 'Lake Clewe'?"

  "Oh, don't do that!" exclaimed Sammy Block. "Mr. Clewe's too good a manto have his name tacked on to that hole. If you want to name it, whydon't you call it 'Lake Shiver'?"

  "That is a good name," answered Mr. Gibbs; and so it was called.