‘Of course our guest here won’t want anything,’ Skink went on. ‘It’s not good to eat when you’re nervous.’ He played his light in Roger’s face. ‘You are nervous, aren’t you?’
Roger could take no more.
‘Just this nervous,’ he said, and let fly with his fists. Skink, taken by surprise, went down like a ninepin. Roger was on him in an instant, pummelling that smug face.
The two men dragged him off and bashed his head against a tree trunk until he faded out. They left him in an unconscious heap and began their midnight supper.
Chapter 15
Battle of the sea bottom
The Iron Man sank into the hold of the Santa Cruz. Hal, peering through the quartz eyes of the metal monster, was surprised to see that Roger was no longer working where he had seen him last.
Had the boy wearied of his labours and gone exploring?
‘I don’t see Roger,’ Hal telephoned to Captain Ike. ‘Tell Omo to get down here as soon as possible and look for him.’
It was another five minutes before Omo could finish recharging his aqualung and reach the wreck. He systematically searched the hold. Then he went up on deck and explored the two castles. He swam a few yards away from the ship and made a complete circuit around it. Then he rose to the surface and reported to Captain Ike. The captain telephoned Hal.
‘Omo has been all through the wreck and around it. He can’t find your brother.’
‘Haul me up,’ Hal said.
The Iron Man rose, clutching a marble statue of Venus that had perhaps once graced the governor’s garden. The black monster and the white goddess in a fond embrace broke the surface, soared into the air, and came down upon the deck. ‘Let me out,’ Hal ordered. The trapdoor was unbolted and he crawled out, immediately calling for his aqualung and mask.
‘Let’s go down and take another look.’
They explored the wreck thoroughly, looking in every nook and cranny to be sure that a giant octopus had not drawn Roger into its hole, visiting the cross on the chance that Roger might have made a sentimental journey to the scientist’s grave, even penetrating the labyrinth of rocks to the cave since Roger might have gone there to see if it was still being used as a transfer point for stolen treasure.
With heavy hearts they returned to the wreck. In the soft glow of the sea life Hal noticed a black object tied to the top of one of the broken masts. He swam closer. It was a bottle. He tore it loose, signalled to Omo, and they ascended to the Lively Lady.
In feverish haste, Hal knocked off the head of the bottle. Inside was a paper. He fished it out and spread it open under the beam of his torch. Hal recognized Skink’s writing.
hunt:
Your brother is being held for ransom. We demand half a million dollars for his release. We make it easy for you to meet these terms. All you need do is return to Truk and leave the wreck of the Santa Cruz to us. Give us one week to remove the treasure. At the end of that time your brother will be delivered to you, unharmed, at Truk.
S. K. INKHAM
The three sat in stunned silence. Hal’s first impulse was to abandon the wreck and return to Truk. He must let Skink have his way. Anything to save his brother. Captain Ike’s and Omo’s thoughts were running in the same direction.
‘Skink wins,’ the captain said. ‘He’s outsmarted us. I always said he was a sly one. Shall I up anchor and make for Truk?’
‘I don’t see what else we can do,’ Omo said.
But Hal’s mind had taken a new tack. Was he going to let himself be outsmarted by Skink? And how about his job? It was easy for the captain and Omo to talk about sailing away. Their duty was to the ship; but his duty was to the Institute. Dr Blake had been instructed to salvage the cargo of the Santa Cruz and now that Dr Blake was no longer here that responsibility was Hal’s.
‘We have a job here,’ he said, ‘- to bring up that treasure. We can’t let ourselves be scared off by a letter from a pack of bandits.’
‘But how about Roger?’ Omo asked.
‘It’s Roger’s job too. He wouldn’t want us to shirk it just to save his skin. He would be humiliated to think that the whole expedition had been wrecked because of him. I know he wouldn’t want it that way. Let’s get on with our job. They won’t be expecting that, and perhaps we can get a lot of the stuff up before they interfere with us. If they do interfere, we’ll give them a fight that they’ll remember.’
The two divers again descended to the wreck, Omo with his aqualung, Hal operating the Iron Man. They worked energetically and the store of treasure in the hold of the Lively Lady grew steadily.
Yet their nerves were on edge because they knew this could not go on without interruption. Something would happen - what it would be they could hardly guess.
Each time they came up they found Captain Ike a little more anxious about the weather. There was every sign of an approaching storm. The barometer had slid from 30 to 29-3 and was still on the way down. But Hal would not consider stopping the work to run for shelter.
It was about two hours after midnight when, as the Iron Man sank towards the wreck, the searchlights picked up a roundish object that Hal at first took to be a whale. As it came closer he saw that it was one of the Truk submarines.
It seemed to be making straight for him and he called over the telephone, ‘Haul up, quick!’
Before the Iron Man could begin to rise it was struck a terrific blow on the right side by the nose of the submarine. The crash set Hal hurling against the steel wall and a shower of broken instruments fell upon him. He called to Captain Ike but got no answer - the wire had evidently been snapped. The impact started the cable spinning off the winch drum and the Iron Man sank to the bottom. There it settled on its side. The lights had gone out and water was leaking in.
Again there was a tremendous crash as the submarine renewed the attack and Hal was battered and bruised in the steel shell. The submarine’s light cast weird beams through the water as it circled and came down beside the Iron Man.
A trapdoor opened and a figure came out. It swam to the rear port of the Iron Man and seemed to be trying to unbolt it. There was a sudden inrush of water as the trapdoor opened and Hal felt his body contract under the pressure.
He wore no aqualung, since that was not required inside the Iron Man, and would certainly drown if he could not immediately escape to the surface.
He started to crawl out through the trapdoor and was surprised to find somebody helping him. He looked up into a face that he knew was Skink’s, in spite of the fact that it was half covered by mask and mouthpiece. Skink was trying to haul him over to the submarine. Hal, weakened by his battering inside the diving bell, was still strong enough to fight back vigorously.
His first blow knocked the aqualung tube from Skink’s mouth and every time Skink replaced it he knocked it out again. He had no air, and Skink should have none either. They could last for perhaps two minutes, three at the outside - then they would drown together.
Locked in each other’s grip, they wrestled through a grove of elkhorn coral. Hal got his hands around Skink’s neck and choked him until his eyes bulged. Then he threw him upon a bed of fire coral, the most poisonous coral of the sea.
At last he was free and began to shoot towards the surface, but was caught by the leg and hauled down to meet two tough blackguards who immediately jammed him into the escape chamber of the sub and closed the trapdoor.
The water drained away and suddenly he could breathe again. The trapdoor beneath him opened and he dropped into the submarine.
A few moments later the senseless body of Skink dropped beside him. The two other men followed. The chamber was too small for four men, but Skink and Hal, both completely exhausted, were thrown on shelves like sacks of potatoes, while the other two navigated the undersea boat to the island.
Arriving at the beach, the men hoisted Skink’s still unconscious body through the hatch to the deck. The cool air revived him and he was able, with some help, to
swim ash
ore and stagger through the jungle to the bandits’ camp.
‘Well, boss,’ chuckled one of his henchmen, ‘the kid sure gave you a drubbing.’
‘That’s nothing to what I’ll do to him,’ growled Skink. But when he reached camp he was not in condition to do anything to anybody. He dropped in a heap and began scratching himself furiously. Red welts were breaking out all over his body, thanks to the fire coral.
Hal looked about anxiously for his brother. ‘Roger!’ he called. The sickening fear came over him that these devils had already done away with the boy. He drew open the flap of the tent.
Roger lay on the ground trussed up like a chicken, tied hand and foot, a gag in his mouth. But his eyes were open and bright, blinking in the light of the torches. Hal jerked the gag from his mouth.
His lips and tongue were swollen and cramped by the gagging, but he managed to say, ‘Gee, am I glad to see you!’ He noticed that the two men flanking Hal had caught his arms in a firm grip. ‘I see you’ve already met my friends. This is Chubb, and this is Scarface.’
The latter evidently didn’t like the name Roger had given him. ‘I’ll kick that sense of humour out of you/ he snarled, and swung his brawny foot into Roger’s ribs.
Hal wrenched an arm loose and landed a hook to the ruffian’s jaw. At once there was a wild scrimmage in which even Skink came to take part. The three men crushed Hal to the ground, tied him hand and foot, and gagged him. Roger too was gagged. But Skink was not satisfied.
‘I think wrought to finish them both off. Chubb, put some bullets into them.’
‘Now looky here,’ complained Chubb, ‘if you want anything like that done, do it yourself. We’re not looking for any murder rap. We’re apt to get into enough trouble as it is …’
Skink cut him off. ‘I employed you and you’ll do as I say.’
Chubb loomed over him, clenching his fists. ‘Don’t forget we have some say in this thing too, you miserable little shrimp. You couldn’t do without us. We stole the sub for you, didn’t we, and we know how to handle it, thanks to ten years in the sub service.’
‘From which you were dishonourably discharged,’ taunted Skink. ‘You’ve been fired from the navy and you’ve stolen a sub. If you bop off these two chumps how can that put you in any worse than you are already?’
‘Again I ask,’ insisted Chubb, ‘why don’t you do it yourself?’
Skink was about to answer when a swirl of wind swept through the trees with a sound of breaking branches. The tent leaped from the ground, tore itself loose from its guy ropes, and wrapped itself around a palm trunk. Far through the jungle came a booming, droning, shrilling sound as of a great orchestra tuning up.
Scarface stared at the sky. ‘Typhoon!’ he exclaimed.
Palm fronds went sailing among the stars. Heavy coconuts thudded to the ground. A dead tree crashed within a few inches of the spot where Hal and Roger lay.
In the moment’s lull that followed, Skink said, ‘None of us is going to have to do any killing. Mother Nature will do it for us. Leave them right there - Mother will take care of them.’
Chubb looked around in pop-eyed fear. ‘But how about us? This part of the island is low. The sea will flood it.’
The wind came again, louder, stronger.
‘Lucky you have me to think for you,’ cried Skink. ‘Quick - into the sub and submerge.’ He struck off towards the beach. ‘Ten fathoms down we won’t even know there is a storm.’
Hal and Roger watched them go, watched until the last flicker of their torches had been swallowed by the jungle. The trees were tossing in a frenzy. Branches and nuts rained to the ground. Above the scream of the wind came the pound of the surf on the windward shore. That was the worst danger - a rising sea, a drowned island.
Hal hunched himself over to his brother’s side, felt about until he got his fingers on the ropes that bound him. He began picking with his own bound hands at the hard knots.
Chapter 16
The typhoon
A flash of lightning made the clearing as bright as day. When it was gone the night seemed darker than ever. A terrific explosion of thunder rose for a moment above the howl of the wind.
Then came the rain. Not in drops, but in chunks, blocks, tons. It was as if there had been a lake in the sky and the bottom had fallen out of it.
A typhoon does not simply release water from the clouds. U hurls it down angrily as if determined to smash to a pulp everything on the face of the earth. The bombardment beat upon the flesh like a hail of stones.
Hal, his hands tied behind him, made slow work of freeing Roger. The water did not make it any easier to untie the knots. It was well on towards dawn before he succeeded.
Then Roger tore the gags from his brother’s mouth and his own, and went to work on Hal’s wrists. When the ankles too were freed, dawn had definitely arrived.
But what a dawn! One could almost wish for the dark again. The sky was one great boiling mudpot of black clouds, split now and then by neon-bright flashes of lightning.
Near the horizon the black faded into a sickly white and when the sun rose it looked half its usual size and as brown as a Polynesian face.
Most of the trees were broken off part way up. The tall stumps that remained vibrated like tuning forks. Every moment another tree would give up its struggle, there would be a crack like the report of a pistol, and the head of a palm would snap off and sail away. It would probably keep on sailing far out into the ocean. Sometimes instead of sailing horizontally the palm heads would be carried up into the sky and disappear into the black clouds.
The roar of the thunder, the crash of the rain, the scream and shriek of the wind, the breaking of limbs and fall of trees - it was almost more than the ears and nerves could stand.
Hal stood up but was immediately thrown to the earth again by wind and rain. Perhaps if they lay low for a While there would be a lull. Neither spoke - even a shout would not have been heard above that din. They huddled in balls and tried to present as little surface as possible to the storm.
Then came the sea. Hal saw the tongues of water licking over the ground. They looked so innocent, but they meant death. He dipped his finger in one of them and touched his tongue to be sure it was not rain water. It was salt. The ocean was preparing to swallow the island.
They must get to high ground. He signalled to Roger and began to crawl on hands and knees
It was necessary to keep a sharp eye out for coconuts. They no longer fell. They flew sideways as if shot from guns. Branches, sticks, leaves fled furiously past. Now and then a tree would be ripped up bodily by the roots and tear a path for itself straight through the underbrush and out to sea.
The crash of the surf on the beach sent a tremor through the island that could be distinctly felt. Regularly it came, like an overstrong heartbeat.
But suddenly there was an entirely new convulsion. The earth shook in the grip of a violent earthquake accompanied by a roar louder than the voice of the thunder.
Presently the rain stopped. That was a relief. But the wind was hot and now, no longer cooled by the rain, it struck the skin like the heat of a blast furnace when the door is suddenly thrown open.
The tongues of salt water had become rushing creeks. Still keeping their hands on the ground to avoid the full force of the wind, the boys sometimes found it hard to keep their faces above water.
Not all the water was coming across the land. Some was coming up through it. Whether by way of caverns beneath the island, or through the soil itself, the stupendous pressure of the storm forced liquid into solid and made the whole thing half liquid. If one did not drown in the rising sea, there was the danger of sinking in this newly formed quicksand.
Roger seized Hal’s arm and pointed up. A gigantic comber that seemed fifty feet high was roaring towards them. Its curling crest was loaded with bunches of coconuts, branches, brush and whole trees. It was a terrific picture of majesty and power, and its thunder drowned the shriek of the wind.
Hal
yanked Roger towards a tamanu tree, the sturdiest thing that grows on a South Sea island. In feverish haste they clambered up through its great branches. Before they could reach the top the comber struck.
The tree shivered. Huge boulders crashed into the branches and trunk. The logs and trees carried by the
wave caught on the limbs and did not reach the two terrified climbers.
But they could not climb high enough to escape that roaring crest. As it struck them they instinctively closed their eyes, gritted their teeth, held their breath.
The comber plucked them from the tree as if they had been leaves. It pitched them this way and that through the branches and then out to space. It pummelled them with sticks and stones. It carried them high and away over the island and finally flung them, bleeding and almost unconscious, against a mass of branches.
The great wave passed on leaving comparative stillness in its wake. The backwash drained the water from the land. For a few moments it would be almost dry. The super-waves in a typhoon were usually about a quarter of a mile apart.
If they could get to high ground before the next one came along …
‘Now’s our chance. Come on.’
Hal pulled Roger up and they plunged into the wind. On hands and knees they fought it. It was like something solid. They had to bore a hole in it, tunnel through it. On every side it was ripping the island to bits. No wonder the Polynesians called the typhoon, The Wind that Overturns the Land’.
Another earthquake shook the island. This one was worse than the first. It opened cracks in the ground six feet wide and scores of trees weakened by the wind crashed down.
Now they were on rising ground. They climbed a steep hill and when the next comber arrived it washed by below them. They came out on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea.
Hal at once recognized the spot. Down there in the mouth of the bay Dr Blake had died.
The bay was directly in the path of the storm. Through its wide mouth the waves came rolling in, towering higher as they reached the shallows, turning the whole bay into an inferno of clashing waters, finally crashing into the cliff and sending spray two hundred feet high. The boys looked anxiously for the Lively Lady. She was no longer at her customary moorings. They scanned the western sea in vain.
03 Underwater Adventure Page 14
