“The screen doesn’t show a picture of anything.”
“Robby!” came a voice from the Control Box speaker suddenly. “Robby, can you hear me?”
“It’s Dad!” cried Robby. He spoke into the Control Box. “Dad! I can hear you. I’m with Mr. Lillibulero!”
But Dr. Hoenig’s voice had started talking without waiting from the Control Box.
“Robby, you won’t be able to answer me. I got a distress signal on the Palship Control Board and I’m headed toward itr ight now. I’m broadcasting back on the same wave length inh opes you can hear me. If you can hear me, Robby, hang on.We’re headed right for your distress signal, Palship, whales, and all. Hang on. We’ll be there in a few minutes. I repeat, Robby, if you can hear me, we’ll be there in a few minutes...”
Dr. Hoenig’s voice went on talking from the Control Box. Robby staled at Mr. Lillibulero.
“He must be heading toward Cerberus, not toward us!” said Robby.
“And y’ave no idea where the seal is?” said Mr. Lillibulero.
“Nothing shows on the screen,” said Robby, “not even he water I’d see rushing past the camera eye if he were still just swimming out in the ocean.”
“Can y’signal th’ beast t’return to us here?” said Mr. Lillibulero.
“I can make him turn around and go the other way from the way he’s going,” said Robby, “but I don’t know which way he’s going. Maybe I’d be turning him so he was going away from us, or away from Dad.” He looked at Mr. Lillibulero, feeling scared. “Maybe he isn’t going any way. Maybe a killer whale got him and that’s why I’m not getting any picture on the screen. Maybe the transceiver’s been swallowed by a killer whale, or torn off and sunk down a mile deep in the ocean and Dad’ll never find us.”
“There’s a more likely answer,” said Mr. Lillibulero, “and that’s that yon Waub in his yacht is broadcasting wi’ his own equipment and jamming the signal from Cerberus’s transceiver t’your Control Box. Y’r father’s signal is probably too powerful t’be jammed.”
Robby stared. He had not thought of that.
“In which case,” said Mr. Lillibulero, “y’r father will find the seal, all right, and from where he finds him be pretty well able t’figure out where we are. But I dinna know if he’ll be able t’come in time.”
Mr. Lillibulero unsealed the front Waub magnetic closure of his Outside Suit and reached in through the suit and under the jacket he wore inside. To the surprise of Robby, who had not seen the little man pick them up, Mr. Lillibulero produced the two revolvers he had taken away from Harvey and Dick and kicked into the pool of Robby’s room on the yacht.
“It’s unfortunate,” said Mr. Lillibulero, seeing Robby’s eyes widen at the sight of the guns, “that I do not have my own weapons. But when I leaped from the flyer I threw them away, so that th’ Tropicans would not be able to find me wi’ metal-locating equipment. These are clumsy devices, but sup-pose we see if we canna delay our enemies a bit with them.” Resealing his suit and taking a revolver in each hand, he crept up to the rim of the ice which faced toward their pursuers. Robby came after him.
“Keep y’r head down,” cautioned Mr. Lillibulero.
“Are you going to shoot them?” whispered Robby.
“I’m not in favor of shooting anyone,” said Mr. Lillibulero, sternly, “except in th’ absolute last resort t’protect human life. However—” He peered cautiously over the rim of the ice. There was the sharp crack of a firearm in the distance and ice flew suddenly in a spray from the ice rim about two feet to his left. “Stay well below the edge of the ice, Robertson.However, as I was about t’say, there’s no harm in letting them think I might shoot them a wee bit.”
He raised his head and a revolver barrel over the rim of the ice and fired, then ducked down again. From off in the distance came a startled yell. Mr. Lillibulero chuckled.
“There’s one of them’ll be feeling the coolness of the day,shortly,” he said. “I put a bit of a hole in the helmet of his Outside Suit.”
“I’d like to look,” said Robby.
“Y’ll stay down,” said Mr. Lillibulero sharply, “and that’s an order.” He peered over the rim himself for just a second.“Ah, they’ve stopped t’think things over. I doubt there’s a good pistol shot among them, and they’ll be trying t’decide whether it’s luck or skill that helped me put a hole in that helmet at something over a hundred yards.”
There was a moment of silence. Robby was thinking about his fear that Cerberus’ spirit had been broken. If the yacht was indeed jamming the signals from the seal’s transceiver,anything might have happened. Cerberus, left on his own,had probably stopped swimming out into the ocean where Dr. Hoenig and the Palship could intercept him. He had probably turned back into the pack ice, his lack of natural courage now driving him to look for a place to hide. Once the big seal was among the pack ice, Dr. Hoenig could never possibly find him in time to discover Robby was not with him, and figure out where Robby could be.
Robby was about to share his thoughts with Mr. Lillibulero—not that telling the little man could change anything, but it might make Robby feel better to stop keeping it to himself—but just then, there were a couple more explosive cracks out where the Tropicans were, and more ice flew off the rim of the hiding place of Robby and Mr. Lillibulero.
“Ah,” said Mr. Lillibulero, not the least bit disturbed. “As I suspected, they’ve talked it over and ended up deciding t’believe what they’d like to believe. That m’last shot was luck, not skill. I’ll just cure that notion of theirs.”
He waited a second, then popped up above the ice rim and fired two shots so close together they sounded almost like a single shot.
He ducked back down again. There was the sound of a number of voices exclaiming out among the Tropicans.
“What’d you do?” asked Robby.
“Put holes in a couple more suits, Robertson,” said the little man coolly. “It’ll hold them a while, though not for long, I’m afraid. A couple more holed suits wi’ men inside them unhurt and they’ll get braver.”
Mr. Lillibulero was a true prophet. There was a wait of perhaps fifteen minutes, and then another halfhearted attempt from outside to get close to where Robby and Mr. Lillibulero were hiding. Another example of the little man’s marksmanship, however, put the Tropicans in hasty retreat.
Robby’s spirits began to rise.
“We can just keep chasing them back,” he said. “And—”
“We could indeed,” said Mr. Lillibulero, “if we had a small arsenal of extra ammunition t’hand. As it is, I’ve used up five shots out of the twelve these guns contain between them, and there’s no more t’be had. They’ll have figured that out by this time, and after a few more rushes—”
He had been keeping a watch through one of the notches the shots of the attackers outside had made in the ice rim above them. Now he interrupted himself to bob up once more and fire two more shots.
“Five more rounds to shoot,” said Mr. Lillibulero, “and they’re getting aware of th’ fact I’m not shooting t’hurt them. Now—”
He fired both guns again.
“Aye,” he said, a little grimly. “They’re on to me now.”
“Robby?” squawked the Control Box at Robby’s belt suddenly. “Robby, can you hear me? I’m getting close to where your distress signal is coming from. It seems to be near or inside the pack ice. This is your father, Robby. If you can hear me, hang on. It won’t be long now.”
Robby felt his hopes and his heart go down within him. He had been hoping he was wrong, but now his father’s voice had confirmed his fears. Cerberus had evidently, feeling him-self free of any controls, turned back to hide in the pack ice where his broken spirit and lack of courage had driven him for safety.
“I think Cerberus turned back and hid in the pack ice,” Robby said now. “Dad won’t be able to find him in time.And Dad must be close, too. His voice comes in strong on the Control Box. Can’t we hide under the water, agai
n?”
Mr. Lillibulero fired three times more and threw his guns aside.
“I’m afraid not, Robertson,” he said quietly. “I was aiming t’kill on that last shot, and I missed. But it was not a man I was shooting at, but another leopard seal like y’r Cerberus. They’ve not the courage to come after us themselves, so they’re sending th’ beast.”
“Robby!” cried his father’s voice from the Control Box.“We’re getting close to the pack ice, and I can see some men there on an ice floe. Are you one of them? Wave your arms if you are. Wave your arms.”
Robby started to get to his feet, but Mr. Lillibulero pulled him down.
“We daren’t risk y’r standing up,” said the little man. “It’s not likely they’d want t’kill you. Only m’self. But yon armed men might shoot without stopping t’see if it was you or me they were aiming at.”
“What’ll we do?” cried Robby.
“When the seal comes over the edge there, y’are t’leavehim to me,” said Mr. Lillibulero as quietly as if he were discussing the weather. “And if I tell you t’jump, you close your helmet, dive into the open water here and swim toward th’ edge of the floe. If the Tropicans catch you, you’ll have to surrender to them. But if y’get away there’s a faint chance your father may pick you up out in the sea beyond the floe. Now let’s get back behind the open water.”
They backed up around the edge of the small, water-filled hole in the ice from which they had climbed out of the sea. It was only about six feet wide. They waited.
After a few moments the Control Box spoke again with the voice of Robby’s father, saying he was almost to the floe.The whales of the pod were in his way. They had trailed behind him, but he had overshot, and now he had to comeback through them.
Robby’s hopes bounded up. But, in that moment they heard a slithering sound outside their hiding place, and a second later a snarling face appeared over the rim of ice.
“Get ready, laddie,” said Mr. Lillibulero. This was no Cerberus, but a completely untamed seal driven half-frantic by the commands of the Control Cap fastened to the back of his head. The seal heaved itself hissing over the edge of the ice and tobogganed down toward the little patch of black water that was all that barred his way.
As Robby crouched, ready to dive into the water, a huge, liquid-streaming body shot like a rocket out from beneath its surface, up into the air and landed almost on top of the oncoming beast.
It was another leopard seal. It was Cerberus. And if there ever had been any doubt that his spirit was broken and his courage gone, that doubt was now gone. He had come to their defense and was barring the way of the other seal to them like a knight of old.
“Quick, laddie!” shouted Mr. Lillibulero, as the two fighting seals, wound together like struggling ferrets, rolled in the direction of the two humans. “Up and out of here!”
They scrambled up the opposite side of the rim, just as the floe beneath them suddenly shuddered with a shock like an earthquake. From the top edge of the rim, Robby had one quick glimpse of the Tropicans only about thirty feet away, of the Palship X Two surrounded by curvetting whales coming fast toward the floe, and of two big, official-looking aircraft racing toward them out of the west where McMurdo was.
Then the ice under them shook and crunched again. Fifty feet to one side the ice broke and flew in the air as one of the stabilizer fins of Waub’s yacht poked through and stuck.
No one on top of the ice understood it just then, but what they were watching was the revenge of Blue Mountain Bill. He had finally caught the enemy that had attacked and cut him so badly before, and now he was doing his titanic whale best to batter that enemy to pieces against the ice. It was a day of battles.
Cerberus Winks
Suddenly everything happened at once. The third blow of the great blue whale rammed the crushed and battered yacht halfway up through the ice, where it stuck. The Palship came skidding up to the edge of the floe as the two big aircraft came down to a landing alongside, and green-uniformed International Police ran down the hastily extended landing ramps onto the ice.
Tropicans were boiling out of the part of the battered yacht that projected above the ice. The group that had been chasing Robby and Mr. Lillibulero were battling the police and being subdued by them. Mr. Lillibulero ran to help the police, and the skua with the Control Cap flew screaming overhead as Robby’s father leaped out of the Palship onto the ice with a portable Control Box like Robby’s in his hand.
“Get in the Palship!” he cried to Robby. “Bill’s liable to break up the whole ice floe if I can’t calm him down!”
“But Cerberus—!” cried Robby, waving his own Control Box.
“Who?” shouted his father. Just then, however, Bill of his own accord stopped his assault on the now utterly wrecked yacht and appeared suddenly, curvetting thunderously and evidently with pride in the waves about fifty feet from the ice floe. Robby scrambled down into the cup of ice that had enclosed his and Mr. Lillibulero’s hiding place, followed by his father. But Cerberus was now alone next to the little patch of open water there. It seemed he, too, had won his war.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Tropicans were being taken into custody by the police. The Tropicans might have put up abetter fight if they had been more warmly dressed, but most of them were still barefooted and wearing only the patterned cloth kilt that was their uniform aboard the yacht. Soon they were being herded, shivering, up the landing ramps into the two aircraft, and several policemen came out of what was left of the yacht with Waub in their midst. He had been unable to get out on his own because he was too fat.
Robby was busy introducing his father to Cerberus, and vice versa.
Half an hour later, Robby, his father, Cerberus, and Mr. Lillibulero were once more all together back aboard the Palship, watching one of the big aircraft, now loaded with prisoners,take off. The other was still waiting while a few policemen searched the wrecked yacht to make sure they had everybody safely out of it.
But what about all the penguins and Ross seals and whatever other animals there are wandering around the ice pack with nuclear explosives strapped to them?” Dr. Hoenig was saying.
“Thanks t’the vanity of the man, Waub,” replied Mr. Lillibulero, “the McMurdo detachment of the police think all can be recovered. Y’see, Waub fitted each one not only with the explosive, but with a Control Cap. That was why he attacked Blue Mountain Bill with his yacht, t’draw you both out of the Palship so’s he could steal th’ caps. It gave him a feeling of power t’be able to look at his Control Board and direct his penguins and seals in their wanderings.”
“Ah,” said Robby’s father, “then it’s simply a matter of calling them in through the Control Caps, I should think, and when they come in, taking off both the caps and the explosives.”
“Indeed,” said Mr. Lillibulero. “But it might not have ended so happily at all.”
“You certainly can say that,” said Robby’s father fervently. “Innocent animals, property, and lives could have been taken simply because a man like Waub was determined to make his impossible daydream come true.”
“Doubtless,” said Mr. Lillibulero, “it was only a notion with him at first. But then he started acting as if it might be true, and th’ more involved he got, the bigger excuses he had to make t’justify it. Until finally nothing would do but he must try to change the world to make it fit his own ideas.”
“Well, the authorities will see that he’s straightened out, now,” said Dr. Hoenig. “But it shows what can come of shutting your eyes to true facts rather than give up a belief in something you only happen to wish were true.”
“Indeed,” said Mr. Lillibulero. “I suppose now, y’will be staying with y’r whales?”
“Well, no,” said Robby’s father. “I’d phoned the Research Bureau for somebody to replace me, and as a matter of fact, I’m more or less done with my studies of the whales in this pod anyway. Besides—” He looked over at Robby, who was scratching Cerberus’s rather ample st
omach while the big seal lay sprawled on his back with a blissful look on his face. “We’re going to take Cerberus back to Point Loma and possibly rig up a special cold tank for him, while we make some studies. Do you realize no one’s ever succeeded in making friends with one of these fierce predatory seals before?”
“I do,” said Mr. Lillibulero. “Robertson seems t’have a knack with the beasts.”
“I believe he has,” said Robby’s father, looking sternly at Robby. “Though his talents in other directions remain to be seen.”
“I might mention it was his notion, James,” said Mr. Lillibulero somewhat sternly, himself, “t’send the seal swimming out toward you, broadcasting the distress signal. If it had not been for that, y’would never have found us and brought the police in time.”
“We have to give the seal half the credit, though,” said Robby’s father, “for turning around and swimming back to him.”
“He did it because he likes me,” said Robby, still scratching. Cerberus closed his eyes in an excess of enjoyment.
“A friend in the hand,” observed Mr. Lillibulero, as the two men watched, “is worth two in the bush.”
“Or one in the mind,” said Dr. Hoenig. “I am referring, Robby, in case there is any doubt, to the kraken.”
Robby felt embarrassed.
“I’d rather,” he said awkwardly, “have Cerberus any old day than a kraken.”
Both men smiled. Robby, looking back down in friendship at the big seal, saw Cerberus open one eye, close it, then open it again.
It was exactly as if he winked.
Secrets Under the Caribbean
To Dennis and Barry
Into the Sea
“I’ve got,” said Robby Hoenig, “a feeling . . ."
As he said it, a cold bright shiver of excitement ran through him. It got into his voice. He made himself frown thoughtfully to cover it up. Leaning forward, he looked ahead, out,and down through the windshield of the ducted fan flyer at the Caribbean Sea, far below.
Secrets of the Deep Page 17
