Produced by Suzanne Shell, Erica Jacobson, Sandra Brown, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team THE SECOND DELUGE By Garrett P. Serviss 1912 [Illustration: "THEY MEANT TO CARRY THE ARK WITH A RUSH" [Page 106] ] FOREWORD What is here set down is the fruit of long and careful research among disjointed records left by survivors of the terrible events described. The writer wishes frankly to say that, in some instances, he has followed the course which all historians are compelled to take by using his imagination to round out the picture. But he is able conscientiously to declare that in the substance of his narrative, as well as in every detail which is specifically described, he has followed faithfully the accounts of eyewitnesses, or of those who were in a position to know the truth of what they related. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. COSMO VERSÁL II. MOCKING AT FATE III. THE FIRST DROPS OF THE DELUGE IV. THE WORLD SWEPT WITH TERROR V. THE THIRD SIGN VI. SELECTING THE FLOWER OF MANKIND VII. THE WATERS BEGIN TO RISE VIII. STORMING THE ARK IX. THE COMPANY OF THE REPRIEVED X. THE LAST DAY OF NEW YORK XI. "A BILLION FOR A SHARE" XII. THE SUBMERGENCE OF THE OLD WORLD XIII. STRANGE FREAKS OF THE NEBULA XIV. THE ESCAPE OF THE PRESIDENT XV. PROFESSOR PLUDDER'S DEVICE XVI. MUTINY IN THE ARK XVII. THE _JULES VERNE_ XVIII. NAVIGATING OVER DROWNED EUROPE XIX. TO PARIS UNDER THE SEA XX. THE ADVENTURES IN COLORADO XXI. "THE FATHER OF HORROR" XXII. THE TERRIBLE NUCLEUS ARRIVES XXIII. ROBBING THE CROWN OF THE WORLD XXIV. THE FRENCHMAN'S NEW SCHEME XXV. NEW YORK IN HER OCEAN TOMB XXVI. NEW AMERICA ILLUSTRATIONS "THEY MEANT TO CARRY THE ARK WITH A RUSH" "THE GREAT BATTLESHIP ... CRASHED, PROW ON, INTO THE STEEL-RIBBED WALLS" "IT IS A PROPHECY OF THE SECOND DELUGE" "AND THEN THEY FLOATED NEAR THE MONUMENTAL TOMB OF GENERAL GRANT" THE SECOND DELUGE CHAPTER I COSMO VERSÁL An undersized, lean, wizen-faced man, with an immense bald head, as round and smooth and shining as a giant soap-bubble, and a pair of beady black eyes, set close together, so that he resembled a gnome of amazing brain capacity and prodigious power of concentration, sat bent over a writing desk with a huge sheet of cardboard before him, on which he was swiftly drawing geometrical and trigonometrical figures. Compasses, T-squares, rulers, protractors, and ellipsographs obeyed the touch of his fingers as if inspired with life.