Avon Fantasy Reader No. 9 — page 106: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

athe iT yer et) oe Roe eee ee Pee 4 yYae ba tit de ts Bod don boat. Then the Captain’s voice screamed something in a choking fashion _ above us. The ship lurched’ forward and paused. Then another crash came, and she rocked over towards us; then away from us again. The movement away from us continued, and the round of the vessel’s bottom showed, vague- ly.. There was a smashing of glass above us, and the dim glow of light aboard vanished. Then the vessel fell clean over from us, with a giant splash. A huge wave came at us, out of the night, and half filled the boat. The boat nearly capsized, then righted and presently steadied. “Captain!” shouted the Third Mate. “Captain!” But there came never a sound; only presently, out of all the night, a strange murmuring of waters. “Captain!” he shouted once more; but his voice just went lost and remote into the darkness. “She’s foundered!” I said. “Out oars,” sung out the Third. “Put your backs into it. Don’t stop to bail!” For half an hour we circled the spot slowly. But the strange vessel had indeed foundered and gone down into the mystery of the deep sea, with her mysteries. | : 3 | Finally we put about, and returned to the Alfred Jessop. Now, I want you to realize that what I am telling you is a plain and simple tale of fact. This is no fairy tale, and I’ve not done yet; and I think this yarn should prove to you that some mighty strange things do happen at sea, and always will while the world lasts. It’s the home of all the mysteries; for it’s the one place that is really difficult for humans to investigate. Now just listen:— The Mate had kept the bell going, from time to time, and so we came back pretty quickly, having as we came, a strange repetition of the echoey reduplica- tion of our oar-sounds; but we never spoke a word; for not one of us wanted to hear those beastly echoes again, after what we had just gone through. I think we all had a feeling that there was something a bit hellish abroad that night. : We got aboard, and the Third explained to the Mate what had happened; but he would hardly believe the yarn. However, there was nothing to do, but - wait for daylight; so we were told to keep about the deck, and keep our eyes and ears open. One thing the Mate did showed he was more impressed by our yarn than he would admit. He had all the ships’ lanterns lashed up round the decks, to the sheerpoles; and he never told us to give up either the axes or the cutlass. It was while we were keeping about the decks, that I took the chance to have a look at what I had grabbed. I tell you, what I found, made me nearly forget the Skipper, and all the rummy things that had happened. I had twen- ty-six stones in my pocket and four of them were diamonds, respectively 9, 11, 13% and 17 carats in weight, uncut, that is. I know quite something about _diamonds. I’m not going to tell you how [ learnt what I know; but I would not have taken a thousand pounds for the four, as they lay there, in my hand. There was also a big, dull stone, that looked red inside. I'd have dumped it 104 Comicdooksnco