d up the side of the _Charleston_ to her deck,
they saw a spectacle the like of which had never before been seen on
Earth. Although they had been prepared for the horror to some extent
by the story of the boys, the sight on the _Charleston_ exceeded their
description to such a degree that, for the moment, the men were
rendered speechless.

The deck of the _Charleston_ was a shambles--a scene of sudden,
chilling death. All about were strewn gray, lifeless bodies. Death had
overtaken the crew in the midst of their duties, suddenly, without
warning, it seemed. Bodies strewn about--yet nowhere was there sign of
decay! Bodies, lifeless for days, or weeks--yet intact!

The men were fearfully impressed by the strangely grotesque positions
of the corpses. With a few exceptions, they lay on the deck in
abnormal, twisted masses of gray covered flesh. Somehow, they seemed
flattened, as though they had been soft, jellylike, and had flowed,
had settled, flat against the deck. Some were no more than three
inches thick, and had spread out to such an extent that they looked
like fantastic caricatures of human bodies. That unnatural change in
their structure, and the ghastly, dead-gray color of their skins gave
the corpses a horrifying, utterly repulsive appearance that made the
flesh of the men crawl.

The bodies had a strangely soft aspect, as though they were still
jellylike. One of the men, bolder than the rest, touched a body--and
withdrew his hand in revulsion and surprise. For the ugly mass was
cold, and as hard as bone: the tissues of the flesh seemingly replaced
by a solid, bony substance. Later investigation revealed that all the
dead on the _Charleston_ had assumed a similar, bonelike solidity.

When the men left the freighter to report the tragedy to the proper
authorities, their faces were blanched, and their nerves badly shaken.
Yet their horror was nothing when compared with what it would have
been, had they known what was to follow.

* * * * *

Rapidly the story of the_ Charleston_ spread. By means of the press,
over the radio, even by word of mouth, the story of the horror on the
freighter was given publicity. All over the United States and Canada
it spread, and from thence to the rest of the world. Eagerly was the
story accepted: here, at last, was the explanation of the sea
disasters! And then, more than ever before, was the Atlantic ocean
shunned.

The bodies of the seamen on t