294 



TlIK AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



October 



upon lij _j V. .Ill u»-;uii. 



"A nuniicnt pasporl and I was terrified 

 at receiving; no response from a secoud 

 or third signal! 



"I i3u]]ed the rope again violently — 

 waited — still no reply. 



•'Great hoaveus! What did it all 

 mean? Had they forgotten me? Wc^e 

 thoy to leave me there at the bottom f 

 the sea wit'i that a^vfl^l crc^vr I ro 

 sooner realized my helplessness than ■ i 

 uncontrollable terror took posssssion 

 me. Surely :hey would not desert ir- ! 

 Surely they had not forgotten me! I 

 pulled madly at the cord once more, a' 

 glancing up perceived that there v s 

 something s'^eadily resisting my efl'o » 

 from the mr.^rliead above. 



' 'Was it some monster v,'ho was play- 

 ing with my rope — some great fish that 

 was holding it in his jaws? In my dea- 

 peratJou I threw my whole weight i 

 it, and — it gave way and fell slovrl' , 

 silently, on the deck at my feet. T'^" 

 ragged, frayed ends, %vhich had beco^'O 

 entangled in the rigging, were in my 

 hands and the upper half of the rop-s 

 had floated away with the tide. 



"I was alone at the bottom ol' the 

 sea, with no means of signaling my dis- 

 tress! The India rubber tube, whicli 

 was my only means of bi'eathing, was 

 yet fast ^o me, but as soon as they 

 should begin to wind in the ropes and 

 tube, on some supposed signal from me, 

 it would snap in two and the waters 

 would come in upon me. 



"My terror grew wilder. I knew the 

 men were close to me — only 30 yards 

 above me — ;vet I must die because I 

 could not reach them. I raved like a 

 madman and tried to tear my armor 

 from me, but its iron i . >- jield me 

 fast. I shouted piteously, uselessly. 



"I fell upon the deck at last, exhaust- 

 ed—in an ominous Stupor — a sullen de- 

 spair — and sank into unconsciousness. 

 When I recovered I was calm — prayer 

 came to n:y lips. 



"I closed my eyas quietly and waited 

 for the death I was powerless to defer; 

 waited for it with my head laid on my 

 arms as I used to sleep in the dear old 

 days at home; waited quietly for its 

 coming, praying God that it might 

 come upon me gently. 



"Was I crazed? Was I mad, or was 

 this a new torture for me in my last 

 moments? I had lain quiet but a mo- 



ment, when 1 startea up in terror, ui- 

 tering a cry, a weak, miserable cry, 

 which died on my lips as I sank again 

 on the deck and closed my eyes to a ter- 

 rible sight before me. 



"I had left the cabin door open and 

 freed the imprisoned dead men. One of 

 the dead sailors had floated up to the 

 deck, and, by some horrible chance, 

 the tide bore him directly toward me. 

 Was I to die surrounded once more by 

 those ghastly sentinels as a death watch: 



"He was borne slowly along on the 

 current, his eyes wide open in an awful 

 stare, his arms outstretched as though 

 to embrace me, welcoming me to the 

 unknown world. I fell prostrate on the 

 deck in my terror, but he floated on 

 slowly, the tide casting him up against 

 me, when he fell at my side. 



"I caught him in my desperation, to 

 fling him from me, but his arms closed 

 tight about me in an iron embrace, and 

 his face was close to mine — the face of 

 old Lott, the diver, who had come down 

 through the waters to save me, and in 

 whose stout arms I was borne up and 

 carried insensible to the boats above. 



" *We saw what was wrong right 

 away,' he said to me afterward, 'when 

 the ragged ends of your rope floated to 

 the surface. There was only one way of 

 reaching you, old fellow, and I can tell 

 you we flew around quick. We had no 

 "bell" to go down to you in, so we 

 just fastened some weights to my feet 

 and ropes to my arms. I took a rubber 

 mouthpiece between my teeth and drop- 

 ped overboard. The water oppressed 

 me fearfully, and I couldn't have stood 

 it more than a few minutes. In that 

 few minutes I found you, caught you in 

 my arms and signaled to them to haul 

 us up pretty quick. It was killing me. ' 



"I took his dear hands in mine, and 

 looked into his good, honest eyes. With 

 a swelling heart I told him, in such 

 words as I could, of my gratitude for 

 his heroic efforts when he came down 

 through the waters at the risk of his 

 own life to save mine. 



"Hettie and I were married a month 

 later." — Chicago Tribune. 



The Dutch In Japan, 1640. 



The Dutchmen were confined within 

 the narrow bounds of their island prison 

 —which, as Kaempfer tells us, was by 

 his own measuring 236 paces long by 82 



