r Frank had been caught and dragged down.

"Still, I ordered the men, cook, steward, and all, to remain on the
poop and--the galley being forward--to expect no hot meals, as we could
subsist for a time on the cold, canned food in the storeroom and
lazaret.

"Because of an early friction between the men and the second mate, the
mild-mannered and peace-loving skipper had forbidden the crew to wear
sheath knives; but in this exigency I overruled the edict. While the
professor went down into his flooded room to doctor his ankle and
attend to his instruments, I raided the slop chest, and armed every man
of us with a sheath knife and belt; for while we could not see the
creature, we could feel it--and a knife is better than a gun in a
hand-to-hand fight.

"Then we sat around, waiting, while the sky grew muddier, the sun
darker, and the northern horizon lighter with a reddish glow that was
better than the sun. It was the Java earthquake, but we did not know it
for a long time.

"Soon the professor appeared and announced that his instruments were in
good condition, and stowed high on shelves above the water.

"'I must resensitize my plates, however,' he said. 'Der salt water has
spoiled them; but mine camera merely needs to dry out; und mine
telescope, und mine static machine und Leyden jars--why, der water did
not touch them.'

"'Well,' I answered. 'That's all right. But what good are they in the
face of this emergency? Are you thinking of photographing anything
now?'

"'Perhaps. I haf been thinking some.'

"'Have you thought out what that creature is--forward, there?'

"'Partly. It is some creature thrown up from der bottom of der sea, und
washed on board by der wave. Light, like wave motion, ends at a certain
depth, you know; und we have over twelve thousand feet beneath us. At
that depth dere is absolute darkness, but we know that creatures live
down dere, und fight, und eat, und die.'

"'But what of it? Why can't we see that thing?'

"'Because, in der ages that haf passed in its evolution from der
original moneron, it has never been exposed to light--I mean visible
light, der light that contains der seven colors of der spectrum. Hence
it may not respond to der three properties of visible light--reflection,
which would give it a color of some kind; absorption, which would make
it appear black; or refraction, which, in der absence of der other two,
would distort things seen through it. For it would be transpare