he had never known anything queerer than what happened to a big
steamship he chanced to be on, which ran into an island in a fog.
Everybody on board thought the ship was wrecked, but it had twin
screws, and was going at such a tremendous speed that it turned the
island entirely upside down and sailed over it, and he had heard tell
that even now people sailing over the spot could look down into the
water and see the roots of the trees and the cellars of the houses.

Captain Sanderson now put his pipe back into his mouth, and Captain
Burress took out his pipe.

"I was once in an obelisk-ship," said he, "that used to trade regular
between Egypt and New York, carrying obelisks. We had a big obelisk on
board. The way they ship obelisks is to make a hole in the stern of
the ship, and run the obelisk in, p'inted end foremost; and this
obelisk filled up nearly the whole of that ship from stern to bow. We
was about ten days out, and sailing afore a northeast gale with the
engines at full speed, when suddenly we spied breakers ahead, and our
captain saw we was about to run on a bank. Now if we hadn't had an
obelisk on board we might have sailed over that bank, but the captain
knew that with an obelisk on board we drew too much water for this, and
that we'd be wrecked in about fifty-five seconds if something wasn't
done quick. So he had to do something quick, and this is what he did:
He ordered all steam on, and drove slam-bang on that bank. Just as he
expected, we stopped so suddint that that big obelisk bounced for'ard,
its p'inted end foremost, and went clean through the bow and shot out
into the sea. The minute it did that the vessel was so lightened that
it rose in the water and we then steamed over the bank. There was one
man knocked overboard by the shock when we struck, but as soon as we
missed him we went back after him and we got him all right. You see,
when that obelisk went overboard, its butt-end, which was heaviest,
went down first, and when it touched the bottom it just stood there,
and as it was such a big obelisk there was about five and a half feet
of it stuck out of the water. The man who was knocked overboard he
just swum for that obelisk and he climbed up the hiryglyphics. It was
a mighty fine obelisk, and the Egyptians had cut their hiryglyphics
good and deep, so that the man could get hand and foot hold; and when
we got to him and took him off, he was sitting high and dry on the
p'inted end of th