ere
we were. I noticed one of those Chesapeake "Bug Eyes" lighting
just to leeward of us, and, as I opened the conning tower hatch,
called to the men aboard to find out where we were. As soon as I
did so, he turned his boat around and made straight for the
beach. I thought he was rather discourteous. He ran his boat up
on that beach and never stopped; the last I saw of him was when
he jumped ashore and started to run inland as hard as he and his
helper could go. Finally I learned we were just above the mouth
of the York or Rappahannock River and I found a sort of inland
harbour back of it. I decided to put up there for the night. Then
learning that there was a store nearby, we called after dark for
more provisions and I noticed a large crowd there. We got what we
wanted, and stepped outside the door. He asked us where we were
from. "We are down here in the submarine boat, _Argonaut_, making
an experimental trip down the bay." He then commenced to laugh.
"That explains it," he said; "just before nightfall, Captain
So-and-So and his mate came running up here to the store just as
hard as they could, and both dropped down exhausted, and when we
were able to get anything out of them, they told a very strange
story. That's why all these people are here." This is the story
the storekeeper told me: "The men were out dredging and all at
once they noticed a buoy with a red flag on it, and that buoy was
going against the tide, and they could not understand it. It came
up alongside, and they heard a 'puff, puff,' something like a
locomotive puffing, and then they smelt sulphur." (The "puff,
puff" was the exhaust of our engine and those fumes were what
they thought was sulphur.) "Just then the thing rose up out of
the water, then the smokestack appeared, and then the devil came
right out of that smokestack."

In the January, 1899, issue of _McClure's Magazine_ there appeared a
profusely illustrated article entitled "Voyaging under the Sea." The
first part of it, "The Submarine Boat _Argonaut_ and her
Achievements," was written by Simon Lake himself. In it he quotes
as follows from the log book of the _Argonaut_ under date of July
28, 1898.

Submerged at 8.20 A. M. in about thirty feet of water.
Temperature in living compartment, eighty-three degrees
Fahrenheit. Compass bea