THE DOOM
"Nothing remained but to search for his body. I was sure they had killedhim and taken the chest. I had little expectation of finding him, dead oralive. None after I saw the stream of lava pouring into the sea. One saveshis own life by instinct, I suppose. There I was. I had to live. It didnot matter much, but I continued to do it by various shifts. That last dayon the headland the fumes nearly got me. You may have noted the ratherexcited scrawl in the back of the ledger? Yes, I thought I was gone thattime. But I got to the cave. It was low tide. Then the earthquake, and Iwas walled in.... Mr. Barnett's very accurate explosives--Slade'sinsistence--your risking your lives as you did, mites on the crust of ared-hot cheese--I hope you know how I feel about it all. One can't thank aman properly for the life....
"Oh, the pirates. Necessarily it must be a matter of theory, but I thinkwe have it right. Slade and I built it up. For what it's worth, here itis. Let me see: you sighted the glow on the night of the 2d. Next day camethe deserted ship. It must have puzzled you outrageously."
"It did," said Captain Parkinson, drily.
"Not an easy problem, even with all the data at hand. You, of course, hadnone. On Slade's showing, Handy Solomon and his worthy associates thoughtthey had a chest full of riches when they got the doctor's treasure;believed they owned the machinery for making diamonds or gold or what-notof ready-to-hand wealth. It's fair to assume a certain eagerness on theirpart. Disturbed weather keeps them busy until they're well out from theisland. Then to the chest. Opening it isn't so easy: I had the key, youknow." He brought a curious and delicately wrought skeleton from hispocket. "Tipped with platinum," he observed. "Rather a gem of a key, Ithink. You see, there must have been some action, even through thekeyhole, or he wouldn't have used a metal of this kind. But the crew wasrich in certain qualities, it seems, which I failed, stupidly, torecognise in my acquaintance with them. Both Pulz and Perdosa appear tohave been handy men where locks were concerned. First Pulz sneaks down andhas his turn at the chest. He gets it open. Small profit for him in that:the next we know of him he is scandalising Handy Solomon by having a fiton the deck."
"That is what I couldn't figure out to save my life," said Slade eagerly.
"If you recollect, I told you of the Professor's plunge in the coldspring, in a sort of paroxysm, one day," said Darrow. "That was thephysiological action of the celestium. At other times, I have seen himcome out and deliberately roll in the creek, head under. Once he explainedthat the medium he worked in caused a kind of uncontrollable longing forwater; something having none of the qualities of burning or thirst, but anirresistible temporary mania. It worried him a good deal; he didn'tunderstand it. That, then, was what ailed Pulz. When he opened the chestthere was, as I surmise, a trifling quantity of this stuff lying in theinner lid. It wasn't the celestium itself, as I imagine, but a sort of by-product with the physiological and radiant effects of the real thing, andit had been set there on guard, a discouragement to the spirit ofinvestigation, as it were. So, when the top was lifted, our littleguardian gets in its work, producing the light phenomenon that so puzzledSlade, and inspiring Pulz with a passion for the rolling wave, which isonly interrupted by Handy Solomon's tackling him. As he fled he must havepulled down the cover."
"He did," said Slade. "I heard the clang. But I saw the radiance on theclouds. And the whole thickness of a solid oak deck was in between the skyand the chest."
"Oh, a little thing like an oak deck wouldn't interrupt the kind of raysthe doctor used. He had his own method of screening, you understand.However, this inconsiderable guardian affair must have used itself up,which true celestium wouldn't have done. So when Perdosa sets his geniusfor lock-picking to the task, the inner box, full of the genuine article,has no warning sign-post, so to speak. Everything's peaceful until theyraise the compound-filled hollow layer of the inner cover, which serves tointerrupt the action. Then comes the general exit and the superiorfireworks."
"That's when the rays ran through the ship," said Slade. "It seemed tofollow the deck-lines."
"The stuff had a strange affinity for tar," said Darrow. "I told you ofthe circle of fire about Professor Schermerhorn's waist the day he gave mesuch a scare. That was the celestium working on the tarred rope he worefor a belt. It made a livid circle on his skin. Did I tell you of hisexperiments with pitch? It doesn't matter. Where was I?"
"At the place where we all jumped," said Slade.
"Oh, yes. And you dove into the small boat, trying to reach the water."
"Wait a bit," said Barnett. "If that was the exhibition of radiance wesaw, it died out in a few minutes. How was that? Did they close the chestbefore they ran?"
"Probably not," replied Darrow. "Slade spoke of Pulz taking to the maintopand being shaken out by the sudden shock of a wave. That may have been avolcanic billow. Whatever it was, it undoubtedly heeled the shipsufficiently to bring down both lids, which were rather delicatelybalanced."
"Yes, for Billy Edwards found the chest closed and locked," said Barnett.
"Of course; it was a spring lock. You sent Mr. Edwards and his men aboard.No such experts as Pulz or Perdosa were in your crew. Consequently it tooklonger to get the chest open. When at length the lid was raised, there wasa repetition of the tragedy. Mr. Edwards and his men leaped. Probably theywere paralysed almost before they struck the water. Your bos'n, whom Sladepicked up, was the only one who had time even to grab a life preserverbefore the impulse toward water became irresistible. There was no elementof fright, you understand: no desertion of their post. They were draggedas by the sweep of a tornado." Darrow spoke direct to Captain Parkinson."If there is any feeling among you other than sorrow for their death, itis unjust and unworthy."
"Thank you, Mr. Darrow," returned the captain quietly.
"We found the chest closed again when the empty ship came back," observedBarnett.
"Being masterless, the schooner began to yaw," continued Darrow. "Thefirst time she came about would have heeled her enough to shut the chest.Now came the turn of your other men."
"Ives and McGuire," said the Captain, as Darrow paused.
"The glow came again that night, and the next day we picked up Slade,"said Barnett.
"You know what the glow meant for your companions," said Darrow.
"But the ship. The Laughing Lass, man. She's vanished. No one has seenher since."
"You are wrong there," said Darrow. "I have seen her."
In a common impulse the little circle leaned to him.
"Yes, I have seen her. I wish I had not. Let me bring my story back to thecave on the island. After the volcanic gases had driven me to the refuge,I sat near the mouth of the cave looking out into the darkness. That wasthe night of the 7th, the night you saw the last glow. It was very dark,except for occasional bursts of fire from the crater. Judge of myincredulous amazement when, in an access of this illumination, I sawplainly a schooner hardly a mile off shore, coming in under bare poles."
"Under bare poles?" cried Slade.
"The halliards must have disintegrated from some slow action of thecelestium. It could be destructive: terrifically destructive. You shalljudge. There was the schooner, naked as your hand. Possibly I might havethought it a hallucination but for what came after. Darkness fell again. Isupposed then that Handy Solomon's crew were managing--or mismanaging--theLaughing Lass without the aid of their leader, whom I had satisfactorilyburied. I hoped they would come ashore on the rocks. Yes I wasvengeful ... then.
"Of a sudden there sprang from the darkness a ship of light. You have allseen those great electric effects at expositions. Someone touches abutton ... you know. It was like that. Only that the piercingly brilliantjewelled wonder of a ship was set in the midst of a swirl of vari-colouredradiance such as I can't begin to describe. You saw it from a distance.Imagine what it was, coming close upon you that way--dead on, out of thenight. A living glory, a living terror...."
His voice sank. With a shaking hand he fumbled amid his cigarette papers.
"It came on. A human figure, glowing like a diamond ablaze, leaped outfrom it; another shot down from the foremast. I don't know how many I sawgo. It was like a theatric effect, unreal, unconvincing, incredible. Theend fitted it."
Darrow's eye roved. It fell upon a quaintly modelled ship, hung above thedoor.
"What's that?" he cried.
"Fool thing some Malay gave me," grunted Trendon. "Pretended to begrateful because I cut his foot off. No good. Go on with the story."
"No good? You don't care what happens to it?"
"Meant to heave it overboard before now," growled the other.
Someone handed it down to Darrow.
"If I had something to hold enough water," muttered he, "I'd like to floatit. I'd like to see for myself how it worked out. I'd like to see thatdevil-work in action."
He spoke feverishly.
"Boy, fill the portable rubber tub in Mr. Forsythe's cabin and bring ithere," ordered the captain.
"That will do." said Darrow, recovering himself.
He floated the model in the tub.
"Now, I don't know how this will come out," he said. "Nor do I know whythe Laughing Lass met her fate under Ives and McGuire, and not before.Perhaps the chest lay open longer ... long enough, anyway. We'll try it."
From his pocket he took a curious small phial.
"Is that what Dr. Schermerhorn gave you?" asked Slade.
"Yes," said Darrow. He set it carefully inside the little model andslipped a lever. Slade quietly turned down the light.
A faint glow shot up. It grew bright and eddied in lovely, variantcolours. As if set to a powder train, it ran through the ship. The palefaces of the spectators shone ghastly in its radiance. From someone bursta sudden gasp.
"There is not enough for danger," said Darrow, quietly.
"As a point of interest," grunted Trendon.
Everyone looked at his outstretched hand. A little pocket compass lay inthe palm. The needle spun madly, projecting blue, vivid sparklings.
"My God!" cried Slade, and covered his eyes for a moment.
He snatched away his hands as a suppressed cry went up from the others.
"As I expected," said Darrow quietly.
The little craft opened out; it disintegrated. All that radiance dissolvedand with its going the substance upon which it shaped itself vanished. Thelast glow showed a formless pulp, spreading upon the water.
"So passed the Laughing Lass," said Darrow solemnly.
"And the chest is at the bottom of the sea," said Barnett.
"Good place for it," muttered Trendon.
"In all probability it closed as the ship dissolved around it," saidDarrow. "Otherwise we should see the effects in the water."
"It might be recovered," cried Slade, excitedly.
"Could you chart it, Darrow? Think of the possibilities--"
"Let it lie," said the captain. "Has it not cost enough? Let it lie."
The water in the tub fumed and sparkled faintly and was still. Darknessfell, except where Darrow's cigarette point glowed and faded.
THE END.
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