ought I heard a familiar voice cry out my name. It was Jim's voice.
A roaring curtain of blackness shut down on me.

* * * * *

When I awoke again I was lying in a clean-sheeted hospital bed. Jim
was sitting at the side, staring at me with gloomy eyes.

"Hello, Jim," I gasped weakly. "How did I get here?"

It was touching to see the instantaneous delight on his weathered
countenance.

"So you came to at last, you old son-of-a-gun! Thought you were
cashing in on us for a while. How did you get here? That's just what
I want to know. How in hell _did_ you get here?"

I was still pretty weak. "You pulled me out. What happened?"

"We're still trying to puzzle it out. Wouldn't be surprised if you had
a hand in it, you blighter. We were watching that damned cloud,
worrying ourselves to death. What with the _New York_ going out like a
light, and not hearing anything from you, we were pretty low.

"Then, suddenly, there was a tremendous detonation. The whole cloud
mass collapsed like a pricked bubble, and a bottomless pit yawned
underneath the ocean--and, next thing we knew, our raft was yanked
from under our feet, plunging and bucking in a swirl of waters.

"I just had time to grab hold of a stanchion, when we were sucked down
into a whirlpool such as I never hope to see again. Round and round we
spun, the tumbling waters mountain high above us. I was buried most of
the time in crashing billows; my arms were almost pulled out of their
sockets.

* * * * *

"I never expected to see daylight again," Jim went on. "My hold was
being broken when at last we were spewed out somehow onto a sea that
looked as if a thousand hurricanes were blowing down.

"I managed to get my men together--what was left of them. There were
pitifully few. Later, I heard that our losses were enormous. Over
seventy-five per cent of our rafts on a 50-mile front were lost, and
the enemies' were almost totally wiped out.

"When the mile-high seas had toned down a bit, we saw a huge concrete
ball tossing about like a cork. Couldn't make out what the devil it
was. Then someone noticed a door. We got that open, but there was a
steel one inside. We had to slice it with an oxy-hydrogen flame.
Inside, snug as a bug in a rug, were you.

"Now come on, tell me how in blazes you got in there. If you don't
spill it quick, I'll bust."

I sat up in my excitement. "Don't you see, they were afraid