Minton
The other guards regained control of the prisoner and Nithsdale instructed them to remove him to the terrace while he and Carlatina prepared the bell. Colonel Mervyn’s wound was not severe and he was taken to the infirmary. Carlatina engaged in some comforting small talk with the guests and paid no attention as Deane was dragged out of the room. On the terrace his wrath dissipated rapidly in the frosty morning air leaving him stranded once more on the shoal of his remorse pondering his doleful life and his imminent death. He had never faced a predicament like this before. If Nithsdale succeeded in assembling the vast army that Torty had learned about the madman could conquer the entire world but if he forfeited his life to stop the plot Colonel Mervyn and his outlaw financiers would soon own the American government. Somehow he had to warn the president. Just then Carlatina wrapped up in sumptuous furs announced that the bell was ready. The guards forced him into an adjoining room where an ominous piece of machinery was dangling from a derrick. The old fellow peeped out of a hatch in the round iron apparatus and cordially invited Deane to step aboard.
No. You’ve no right to kill me in some foul iron coffin. I demand a duel!
For a minute Nithsdale looked baffled and sad like a lonely child turned away from a party but then his abominable nature reappeared and he ordered Deane to board the Ocean Belle. Mervyn’s diving bell dropped rapidly to the sea and sank beneath the waves.
It was funny thought Minton hefting the book as if weighing the evidence how the talk of buying political power reminded him of his father’s case against the crooked politicians paid off by the Holloway company. Carlatina seemed to be flirting with betrayal again and the hero despite his shortcomings had almost done in that confounded Colonel. Minton stared at the cover affectionately for a few moments. The engraver had depicted a masked Dandy Deane shielding the lovely Carlatina who is clinging to her ripped frock in a vain attempt to maintain her modesty while a rather sullen Nithsdale commands a pack of stunted semihuman creatures to quit the sewers and attack the hapless pair. Behind them London lies in snarling ruins.
CHAPTER IV Nithsdale’s Escape
The interior of the diving bell was densely carpeted and lined with walnut wainscoting. One of the two sealskin armchairs stood before a control panel covered with dials and gilt knobs. Portholes were built into every bulkhead and when Nithsdale brought up the lights monstrous fish went slinking by. Deane watched the handling of the controls closely knowing that he could never allow Nithsdale to return to the surface and that meant he had better acquaint himself with the workings of the bell. The old gasconade noticed the prisoner’s interest and could not resist boasting while offering up explanations.
Mervyn’s fortune may have made this bell possible but my cannibals will save mankind.
I’m glad said Nithsdale magnanimously that you refused to die among the olive trees overlooking Pompeii for I happen to have a use for a selfish vindictive person like you.
What absurdity could this evil genius have in mind now? thought Deane. The pathetic old fool actually expects me to help him!
What do you want? Very soon we will reach the ocean floor. There is a cavern—
Minton obeying a momentous impulse suddenly flung the novel across the room and stood up. He stepped to the window lightheaded and extended his thin bony arms as tears pickled his eyes. Fumbling enthusiastically succeeded in a window raised enough to struggle through then he was trampling shrubbery. High up in the sky a fat complacent moon sat reflecting second hand sunlight onto the lawn shimmering with dew and noisy with the lament of crickets. The cool air smelled of smoke from a Holloway sugarcane field burned for harvesting the following day. Crying quietly with loneliness the feverish boy fled blindly over the wet grass and into the dark stillness of the green cane field where the rough caresses made his hands bleed but consoled his aching heart.
