Page:Weird Tales Volume 7 Number 1 (1926-01).djvu/61

Rh was removed. A pale, distorted face glared out.

"Conroy!" screamed Burnham, his face ashen. Several of the Chamorran seamen fell to their knees and crossed themselves in fear. "Conroy—in heaven's name!—what has happened? Where"

The exhausted man raised himself with an effort.

"The drag—send it down again. Six more—maybe dead—hurry hurry!"

Then he collapsed upon the deck.

Six times the drag hurtled to the depths below and returned, bearing its astonishing burden of human life. As the last helmet was lifted Nelson's drawn face was visible.

"Just in time," he said feebly. "Tank almost gone outside more than ten hours."

Burnham leaned over to catch the whispered words.

"Outside of what, Nelson?" he questioned gently.

The other man smiled wearily.

"Submarine all dead inside  devilfish "

As he slipped into unconsciousness he carried with him the vision of Vivian Strathmore's dark eyes, blurred with tears

f I hadn't seen you coming up out of the sea, I wouldn't believe the story," said Burnham. "It's the most fantastic thing I've ever heard."

Nelson, recovered from his experience after four days' careful nursing by Vivian Strathmore, smiled amusedly.

"It's almost hard for me to believe," he answered. "It's like a horrible nightmare. I want to forget it, now that the cables are repaired and everything is explained."

He turned and gazed out over the waving coconut palms at Apra Bay, slowly the bay faded from view and before his eyes came a vision, terrible as it was fleeting, in which a giant cuttlefish hovered over a disabled submarine like some malign member of the Forces of Evil. As he turned back the vision vanished under the happy light in Vivian Strathmore's eyes.



