The Wailing Octopus: A Rick Brant Science-Adventure Story
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CHAPTER XII
Clouds Over Clipper Cay
Rick jerked frantically on the tie rope, four times for danger, then heturned and swam rapidly back the way they had come. At first he feltresistance on the line, then Zircon hurried to catch up. Not until theywere barely within seeing distance of the light did Rick stop, then hetook his belt slate, started the camera for light, and wrote "Bubbles goby thm if we undr. They see."
Zircon held a hand to his head in a sign of chagrin that he hadforgotten, then he wrote, "Hw we gt clos?"
Rick pondered the problem. The bubbles had alarmed him in another way,too. It was possible that the man on the boat could see four sets ofbubbles rising where only two were supposed to be. Yet, he couldn'tescape the feeling that it was important to get a look at what thefrogmen were doing. There was no way out of it. He just had to take achance.
He wrote, "I mak pass hldng brth so no bbls, tak pix. U sty out of rnge& cvr me wth gn."
Rick had just one hope of getting away with it. He had to assume thatthe frogmen would be busy with whatever they were doing in the cave. Ifso, their backs would be to the open sea. At least the chance was worthtaking.
Zircon wrote, "OK bt be crfl."
Rick didn't need the warning. Together, they swam back until they wereclose to the glow of the lights. He hoped that the darkness and breakingsurf above were concealing their bubbles. Finally Zircon halted. Rickunsnapped the line that held him to the scientist, squeezed Zircon'sshoulder, and swam away from the reef toward the open water. He kept hishead turned so he could keep the light in his field of vision.
When he was out far enough he swam upward until he was on a level withthe light, and directly out to sea from it. He inhaled, filling hislungs, then with camera outthrust, he drove directly toward the light.It wasn't hard to hold his breath--not with his heart acting as astopper in his throat.
The light grew clearer. He started the camera and kept moving withpowerful strokes. Then he held his legs still and let inertia carry himin a silent glide. He had to get close--close!
The light grew in intensity, and details grew clearer. He saw thefrogmen, and their backs were to him! Between them, he caught a glimpseof something brassy and round, and he saw the octopus, clinging to thereef to one side of the cave.
He held the camera button as long as he dared. Then when it seemed thathe would glide right into the frogmen, he twisted sideways and bentbackward like a circus acrobat, flippers moving in powerful thrusts. Itwas an excellent underwater imitation of a wingover, the plane maneuverthat reversed direction by diving and turning. He planed downward untilhe touched bottom, then thrust himself with frantic kicks away from thevicinity of the cave.
His lungs were about to burst, he felt, when finally he drew a deepbreath. The gurgling sigh of his bubbles was sheer relief. He keptmoving until he bumped headlong into Hobart Zircon. The scientistreached out and snapped his rope onto Rick's belt, then tugged twice.
Zircon led the way along the reef bottom until they reached the spotwhere, they estimated, Tony and Scotty would be waiting. As they startedfor the surface, Rick switched on the camera and looked at his watch.
They had been under only ten minutes! And he had been waiting for thewarning constriction of air running out!
Zircon broke water and instantly submerged again. He led the way a fewfeet under the surface to where he had seen Tony and Scotty, then ledRick to the top once more.
Tony and Scotty saw them emerge and without a word turned and startedback toward the cottage, pushing their floats. Instead of bothering withthe snorkel, Rick kept the aqualung mouthpiece in place and swam a fewfeet under the surface, guiding himself by the wake of the others. Hewas tired--and relieved.
The group crossed over the reef and swam to the beach in front of thecottage. There they gathered at the water's edge and stripped off theirgear. For long moments no one spoke, then Zircon asked, "See anything,Rick?"
"A little. Enough to get an answer, I think. We haven't discovered a newbreed of octopus, because they were installing something in the cave.Something that makes a noise."
"Do you know that, or do you infer it?" Tony asked.
"I didn't hear the noise, if that's what you mean. But what else couldit be?"
"Too bad," Scotty said. "Now we won't have a new species named after us.Come on, give us the word. How was it?"
Rick said, with complete truth, "I was scared to death."
"And so was I," Zircon admitted. "At first the sensation of completeblackness caused an emotional reaction. Then I began to see that we haddone a rather foolish thing. And I almost got us into trouble byforgetting that we send up a constant stream of bubbles." He told themof his plan to get under the cave, and of Rick's warning.
"We thought of your bubbles," Scotty told them. "I talked it over withTony, and came within an ace of diving after you, although I doubt thatI could have reached bottom and found you. But we watched, and wecouldn't see any bubbles at all. It was too dark, and we were rightwhere the water was breaking."
"My question is, did you get a picture?" Zircon wanted to know.
"I'm sure I did. The camera was going, and it probably saw much morethan I did--since cameras don't get scared. But it won't do us much goodright now. We can't develop the film."
The boys picked up the equipment and carried it to the _Water Witch_.Rick turned off the compressor. He was too tired to wait until all tankswere full. Time enough for that in the morning.
When he and Scotty returned to the cottage, Tony greeted them with cupsof hot chocolate and they sat on the porch and enjoyed them.
"Let's sum up what we know," Zircon invited. "If anyone agrees that weknow anything worth summing."
"I think we do," Rick said, "and I think we ought to get it to SteveAmes. We don't know what he's after, or what kind of gang he's fighting,but we know one of them is here."
"Yes, and we also know that Steve's agency is primarily concerned withprotecting military secrets," Zircon added. "I agree with Rick. We mustget word of these mysterious frogmen to him."
"We discussed that earlier," Tony recalled. "In view of our discussion,it would seem that either Rick or Scotty or both must fly to CharlotteAmalie and tell him personally."
Scotty pointed at the sky. "Have any of you looked up there?"
All of them did. The moon was just rising, and there was enough light tosee heavy cirrus moving high overhead.
"There's a front of some kind moving down on us," Scotty said. "And didyou notice the swells tonight? Long ones. I'm no first-class weatherforecaster, but all the signs are there. We're in for a storm. Thequestion is, how soon will it arrive?"
"He's right," Zircon agreed. "I'm glad you're observant, Scotty.Frankly, I hadn't even bothered looking at the weather. I suppose Ithought it would just continue to be perfect."
Rick stared at the gathering clouds for long moments, then put intowords the thing that had been bothering him.
"You know, there has been a cloud over this vacation almost from themoment we landed at Charlotte Amalie. We didn't want to get involved inanything but diving and exploring, but we got pulled by the ears into ahot case. Steve warned us off that first day. The warning didn't help,because we got dragged back into things when we went swimming, and againat the hotel."
Three faces were turned toward him, listening. He was expressing whatall of them had been thinking, too.
"We thought we'd leave trouble behind when we came here," Rickcontinued, "but it was waiting for us. We didn't look for it, untiltonight."
He drew a deep breath. "Well, from now on we have to become the hunters.Steve Ames doesn't know there's anything strange going on here. We do,and it's up to us to find out what. The goings-on in the octopus cavehave something to do with the case Steve is working on--and what Steveis working on has something important to do with national security."
He smiled grimly. "I know none of you will disagree with this, becauseit's the only thing we can do. Professor Zircon knew it toni
ght when hetried to excuse our looking in on the frogmen as curiosity."
Zircon nodded silently.
"From now on," Rick concluded, "we have to operate as unofficial JANIGagents, until we can get word to Steve Ames so he and his men can takeover."