A Thing That Glistened

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A thing that glistened in the fall of 1888,

the steamship Sunder from Southampton

was running along the southern coast of Long Island,

not many hours from Port.

When she was passed by one of the great British liners

outward bound,

the tide was high and the course of both vessels

was near the coast then as usual,

that of the Sunder being inside of the other.

As the two steamers passed each other,

there was a great waving of hats and handkerchiefs.

Suddenly there was a scream from the Sunder.

It came from Signora Rochita,

the primadonna of an opera troupe,

which was coming to America in that ship.

I have lost my bracelet, she cried in Italian

and then turning to the passengers,

she repeated the cry in very good English.

The situation was instantly comprehended by everyone.

It was late in the afternoon,

the captain had given a grand dinner to the passengers

at which the primadonna had appeared

in all her glories of ornamentation

and the greatest of these glories,

a magnificent diamond bracelet,

was gone from the arm with which she had been

enthusiastically waving her lace handkerchief.

The second officer who was standing near

dashed into the captain's office

and quickly reappeared with charted instruments

and made rapid calculation of the position

of the vessel at the time of the accident,

making an allowance for the few minutes it had passed

since the first cry of the Signora.

After consultation with the captain

and recalculations of the distance from land

and some other points,

he announced to the weeping Signora

that her bracelet lay under a little black spot

he had made on the chart

and that if she chose to send a diver for it,

she might get it for the depth of water at that place

was not great.

By profession, I am a diver

and the next day I was engaged to search

for the diamond bracelet of Signora Rochita.

I had a copy of the chart

and having hired a small schooner

with several men who had been my assistants before

and taking with me all the necessary accoutrements

and appliances, I set out for the spot indicated

and by afternoon we were anchored,

we believed, at or very near it.

I lost no time in descending.

I wore, of course, the usual divers suit

but I took with me no tools

nor any of the implements used by divers

when examining wrecks,

but carried in my right hand a brilliant electric lamp

connected with a powerful battery on the schooner.

I held this by an insulated handle

in which there were two little knobs

by which I could light or extinguish it.

The bottom was hard and smooth

and letting my lamp I began to look about me.

If I approached the bracelet,

I ought to be able to see its sparkle

but after wandering over considerable space,

I saw no sparkles nor anything like a bracelet.

Suddenly, however, I saw something

which greatly interested me.

It was a hole in the bottom of the ocean,

almost circular and at least 10 feet in diameter.

I was surprised that I had not noticed it before

for it lay not far from the stern of our vessel.

Standing near the rocky edge of the aperture,

I held up my lamp and looked down.

Not far below, I saw the glimmer of what seemed to be

the bottom of this subterranean well.

I was seized with a desire to explore this great hole

running down under the ordinary bottom of the sea.

I signaled to be lowered

and although my comrades were much surprised at such an order,

they obeyed and down I went to the well.

The sides of this seemed rocky

and almost perpendicular,

but after descending about 15 feet,

they receded on every side.

And I found myself going down into a wide cavern,

the floor of which I touched in a very short time.

Holding up my lamp and looking about me,

I found myself in a sea cave.

Some 30 feet in diameter with a dome-like roof

in which a little to one side of the center

was the lower opening of the well.

I became very much excited.

This was just a sort of place

into which a bracelet or anything else a value

might be expected to have the bad luck to drop.

I walked about and gazed everywhere,

but I found nothing but rocks and water.

I was about to signal to be drawn up.

When above me I saw what appeared to be

a flash of darkness coming down through the well.

With a rush and a swirl that entered the cavern,

and in a moment I recognized the fact

that a great fish was swooping around and about me.

Its movements were so rapid and irregular,

now circling along the outer edge of the floor of the cavern,

then mounting above me,

until its back seemed to scrape the roof

that I could not form a correct idea

of the size of the creature.

It seemed to me to be at least 20 feet along.

I stood almost stupified,

keeping my eyes as far as possible,

fixed upon the swiftly moving monster.

Sometimes it came quite near me

when I shuttered in every fiber,

and then he shot away,

but ever gliding with powerful undulations

of his body and tail,

around, about, and above me.

I did not dare to signal to be drawn up

for fear that the terrible creature

would enter the well hole with me.

Then he would probably touch me,

perhaps crush me against the wall,

but my mind was capable of forming no plans.

I only hoped the fish would ascend and disappear

by the way he came.

My mind was not in its strongest condition,

being much upset by a great trouble,

and I was so frightened that I really did not know

what I ought to do,

but I had sense enough left to feel sure

that the fish had been attracted

into the cavern by my lamp.

Obviously, the right thing to do was to extinguish it,

but the very thought of this nearly drove me into a frenzy.

I could not endure to be left alone

with the shark in darkness and water.

It was an insane idea,

but I felt that whatever happened,

I must keep my eyes upon him.

Now the great fish began to swoop nearer and nearer to me,

and then suddenly changing its tactics,

it receded to the most distant wall of the cavern,

where, with its head toward me,

it remained for the first time motionless.

But this did not continue long.

Gently turning over on its side,

it opened its great mouth,

and in an instant with a rush,

it came directly at me.

My light shone full into its vast mouth,

listening with teeth,

and there was a violent jerk,

which nearly threw me from my feet,

and always blackness.

The shark had swallowed my lamp.

By rare good fortune,

he did not take my hand also.

Now I frantically tugged in my signal rope.

Without my lamp, I had no thought but a desire

to be pulled out of the water, no matter what happened.

In a few minutes, I sat,

divested of my diving suit,

and almost insensible upon the deck of the schooner.

As soon as I was able to talk,

I told my astonished comrades what had happened,

and while we were discussing this strange occurrence,

one of them, looking over the side,

saw slowly rising to the surface,

the body of a dead shark.

By George, he cried, here is the beast.

He has been killed by the current from the battery.

We all crowded to the rail

and looked down upon the monster.

He was about 10 feet long,

and it was plain that he had died

for making himself the connection

between the poles of the battery.

Well, said the captain pleasantly,

I suppose you are not going down again.

Not I, I replied, I give up this job.

Then suddenly I cried,

come boys, all of you, make fast of that shark

and get him on board, I want him.

Some of the men laughed,

but my man or was so earnest

that in a moment they all said about to help me.

A small boat was lowered,

lines were made fast to the dead fish with block and tackle,

and we hauled him on deck.

I then got a butcher's knife from the cabin

and began to cut him open.

Look here Tom, exclaim the captain, that's nonsense.

Your lamp's all smashed to pieces,

and if you get it out, it'll never be any good to you.

I don't care for the lamp,

I answered, working away energetically,

but an idea has struck me.

It's plain that this creature had a fancy

for shining things.

If he swallowed a lamp,

there is no reason why he should not have swallowed

anything else it glittered.

Oh, cried the captain.

You think he swallowed the bracelet, do you?

And instantly everybody crowded more closely about me.

I got out the lamp.

Its wires were severed as smoothly as if they had been cut

by shears than I worked on.

Suddenly there was a cry from every man,

something glimmered in the dark interior of the fish.

I grasped it and drew it out.

It was not a bracelet,

but a pint bottle which glimmered like a glow worm.

With the bottle in my hand,

I sat upon the deck and gazed at it.

I shook it, it shone brighter.

A bit of oiled silk was tied tightly over the cork,

and it was plain to see that it was partly filled

with a light-colored oil,

into which a bit of phosphorus had been dropped,

which on being agitated,

filled the bottle with a dim light.

But there was something more in the bottle

than phosphorus and oil.

I could see a tin tube corked at each end,

and the exposed parts of the corks,

spreading enough to prevent the tin from striking the glass.

We all knew that this was one of those bottles

containing a communication of some sort,

which are often thrown into the sea,

and float about until they are picked up.

The addition of the oil and phosphorus

was intended to make it visible by night as well as by day,

and this was plainly the reason why it had been swallowed

by a light-loving shark.

I poured out the oil and extracted the tube,

wiping it carefully, I drew out the corks,

and then from the little tin cylinder,

I pulled a half sheet of note paper, rolled up tightly.

I unrolled it, and read these words.

Before I jump overboard,

I want to let people know that I killed John Polhemus,

so I have fixed up this bottle.

I hope it may be picked up in time

to keep Jim Barker from being hung.

I did think of leaving it on the steamer,

but I might change my mind about jumping overboard,

and I guess this is the best way.

The clothes I wore and the hatchet I did it with

are under the woodshed back of Polhemus's house,

Henry Ramsey.

I sprang to my feet with a yell.

Jim Barker was my brother, now lying in prison,

under sentence of death for the murder of Polhemus.

All the circumstantial evidence,

and there was no other, had been against him.

The note was dated eight months back.

Oh, cruel fool of a murderer.

The shark was thrown overboard,

and we made best speed to port.

And before the end of the afternoon,

I had put Ramsey's note into the hands of the lawyer,

who had charge of my brother's case.

Fortunately, he was able to identify

the handwriting and signature of Ramsey,

a man who had been suspected of the crime,

but against whom no evidence could be found.

The lawyer was almost as excited as I was

by the contents of this note.

And early the next morning,

we started together for the house of the Polhemus family.

There, under the woodshed,

we found carefully buried a bloodstained shirt

and vest and the hatchet.

My impulse was to fly to my brother,

but this my lawyer forbade.

He would take charge of the affair,

and no false hopes must be excited,

but he confidently assured me that my brother

was as good as free.

Returning to the city,

I thought I might as well make my report

to Senior Erochita.

The lady was at home and saw me.

She showed the most intense interest in what I told her

and insisted upon every detail of my experiences.

As I spoke with a shark and the subterranean cave,

she nearly fainted from excitement

and her maid had to bring her smelling salts.

When I had finished, she looked at me steadily

for a moment and then said,

I have something to tell you,

but I hardly know how to say it.

I never lost my bracelet.

I intended to wear it at the captain's dinner,

but when I went to put it on,

I found the clasp was broken, and as I was late,

I hurried to the table without the bracelet

and thought of it no more until when we were all waving

and cheering, I glanced at my wrist

and found it was not there.

Then, utterly forgetting that I had not put it on,

I thought it had gone into the sea.

It was only this morning that opening what I supposed

was the empty box I sought.

Here it is, I never saw such gorgeous jewels.

Madam said, I am glad you thought you lost it

for I have gained something better than all these.

You are a good man, said she,

and then she paid me liberally for my services.

When this business had been finished, she asked,

are you married?

I answered that I was not.

Is there anyone you intend to marry?

Yes, said I.

What is her name, she asked?

Sarah Jane McElroy.

Wait a minute, said she, and she retired into another room.

Presently she returned and handed me a little box.

Give this to your lady, love, said she.

When she looks at it, she will never forget

that you are a brave man.

When Sarah Jane opened the box,

there was a little pin with a diamond head,

and she gave a scream of the light,

but I saw no reason for jumping or crying out

for after having seen the senior as bracelet.

This stone seemed like a pea and a bushel of potatoes.

I don't need anything, she said,

to remind me that you are a brave man,

I am going to buy furniture with it.

High laughed and remarked that every little helps.

When I sit with my wife by my side

before the fire in our comfortable home,

and consider that the parlor carpet and the furniture

and the pictures, and the hall and stair carpet,

and all the dining room furniture,

with the china and the glass and the linen

and all the kitchen utensils,

and two bedroom suits on the second story, both hardwood,

and all the furniture and fittings of a very pleasant room

for a single man, the third story front,

were bought with the pin that the senior

are gay to Sarah Jane.

I am filled with profound respect for things at glitter.

And when I look on the other side of the fire

and see Jim smoking his pipe just as happy as anybody,

then I say to myself that if there are people

who think that this story is too much out of the common,

I wish they would step in here and talk to Jim about it.

There is a fire in his eyes when he tells you how glad he is

that it was the shark instead of him,

that is very convincing.

End of a thing that glistened by Frank R. Stockton.