The ship began to move - very slowly. It circled the jeep, looking at it from every angle. It seemed to be undecided whether to swallow it or not. But it apparently gave up the idea. Glass bubbles were not its favourite dish. Again it came to a halt and just lay, looking.
A stream of small sea bits kept flowing into the creature’s mouth. Evidently there was quite a lot of suction there - like the suction of a vacuum cleaner.
Roger swam around to examine this cavernous mouth. It was quite as big as a telephone booth. Since there were no teeth, Roger felt safe. And since the monster appeared to have a habit of keeping its mouth open, why shouldn’t he explore this cave more completely?
He felt the suction and allowed it to carry him in. This was a new sensation - sitting on the inside of a fish. That story about Jonah inside the great fish, possibly it was true after all. Though how Jonah stayed alive without breathing was a mystery. Roger, inhaling from his aqualung, had no such difficulty. He was quite comfortable; and he could leave the great open mouth whenever he chose. It was like being in a submarine with an open hatch.
He could see Hal madly gesturing him to come out. But why should he come out just yet? He was enjoying this strange experience.
He was considerably surprised when the mouth began to close. The monster had evidently come to the conclusion that it had a big enough mouthful. Roger tried to get out before the jaws came shut but it was impossible.
With the mouth closed, the cave was as dark as a pocket. Still Roger was not frightened. Hal had said that the whale shark was not vicious like other sharks.
But someone was frightened, and that was Hal. He swam to the shark’s head and began to beat on its mouth with the handle of his knife. He might as well have beaten a stone wall. To the shark, his blows were like love pats. It did not even flick its tail which stood out behind like the rudder of a great ship.
Suppose the monster swam away with Roger still imprisoned? After he had used up the last air in bis scuba tank, he would die.
Hal inserted the blade of his knife between the shark’s lips and tried to prise them open. They did not budge.
In the meantime, Roger’s eyes had grown accustomed to the darkness of his prison. The place was not as dark as a pocket after all. There was a very faint glimmer of light, possibly a phosphorescence from the tissues of the monster’s mouth. No, it was not quite like that. It was more like daylight, but very faint. The boy told himself it was probably just his imagination. There couldn’t be any daylight inside a fish’s mouth.
Roger grinned when he thought how worried his brother must be. Why should he worry? There was nothing to worry about. He, Roger, was sitting there as snug as a bug in a rug. He hadn’t a care in the world.
He thought differently when his air suddenly gave out. He sucked hard but got nothing. But there was a reserve supply. He flipped a switch and turned it on. It was a relief to be able to breathe again, but he knew the reserve was timed to last only five minutes.
So he had better open the door and get out. He tried, but the door was locked. He put his shoulders against the upper jaw and his feet against the lower and strained to force them apart. The only result was that he breathed faster and at this rate would exhaust his air supply in less than five minutes.
He sat down again to think things over. There was still that faint light even though the lips were firmly closed. He tried to find its source. It didn’t come from the roof of the mouth nor from the floor. It seemed to come from the sides. And there it appeared to be in ridges, like the bars in a jail window. What could make these vertical streaks of light?
He ran his hand along the side of the mouth.
He found strips like the strings of a harp - or perhaps they were more like rubber bands, for they stretched. Each one when pressed aside let in more light, then closed again as his fingers left it. There seemed to be about five of them.
Gills! They must be gills. Every fish had them - must have them or quit breathing. They were part of the mechanism that enabled the fish to extract oxygen from the water. Scientists were already working on the problem of supplying man with artificial gills so that he could breathe like a fish below the sea. Perhaps ten, a hundred, a thousand years from now man could live and breathe underwater without an aqualung.
The question suddenly occurred to the boy, why hadn’t the big fish swallowed him. There was probably room for half a dozen like him in that big stomach. Perhaps the fish was already full of food and was holding him in reserve until it was hungry. Or perhaps he tasted bad. Possibly the whale shark preferred shrimp and those other even smaller animal and plant organisms that floated everywhere. Anyhow he was glad he was unpopular.
He thought again about the gills. He remembered a report made by James Dugan, a famous diver who had worked for years with Cousteau. Dugan knew a fifty-year-old native of the Palau Islands who had been engulfed by a grouper. He made his escape through the gills.
A grouper, though a large fish, was small compared with the whale shark, and if a man could get out through a grouper’s gills it should be possible through the gills of this monster. He would try it. Otherwise he was sure to die within a few minutes.
He pressed the elastic gills apart and stuck his head out. He saw his brother’s foot; the rest of him was on the other side of the fish trying to open the mouth.
Even with death so close, Roger’s mischievous mind suggested that he play a trick on his brother. He might as well have some fun during his last three minutes.
He squeezed out between the rubbery gills. Keeping the fish between him and Hal, he swam to the jeep and crawled inside. He didn’t need the scuba tank now. He took out the mouthpiece, removed the mask, and breathed deeply. He grinned with satisfaction, and settled himself comfortably to watch his brother.
Hal had brought out a hammer and was beating the closed lips. The big fish seemed to enjoy it. It appeared to wag its tail like a dog. Hal got a piece of stone-hard coral from a ledge and vigorously scratched the hide near the mouth. The only result was that the coral suffered more than the hide. The sandpaper armour of the fish pulverized the rock and a shower of coral fragments drifted down through the water.
He resorted to gentler tactics. He stroked the monster under the chin as he had seen Roger do. The big dog accepted this petting without opening its mouth one crack.
A cloud of little nothings drifted past the shark’s nose. The monster opened its great mouth wide and the cloud was sucked in. Hal could see clear to the back of the cavern and there was nothing there. The fish must have swallowed Roger, tank and all.
Hal swam below and attacked the living submarine with his knife. His brother was probably dead, Hal thought, but perhaps he could at least get his body and give it decent burial. Otherwise, the gastric juices would soon digest the flesh and nothing would be left but the skeleton to ride the seas in this living tomb.
Hal had thought of the laser to kill the fish. But a beam of sufficient power to kill such a monster would certainly kill Roger too - if he were still alive. And he was probably as dead as a doornail already.
The skin on the belly was softer than any other part of the hide but the knife, used with all the power of Hal’s strong arm, did not even scratch into it. He knew that he was only dulling his knife.
The big shark had had about enough of this tomfoolery. With a sweep of its great tail it swam away.
Hal swam back to the jeep, determined to turn on all power and pursue that shark to the ends of the Pacific if necessary. He crawled up into the jeep. He turned and saw Roger, sitting at ease and chewing a sea biscuit.
‘How did you get here?’ Hal demanded.
‘Oh, I got tired of it out there so I came in. Where were you?’
‘Never mind where I was. But wait until we get back to the house and I’ll spank you within an inch of your life.’
Chapter 15
The avalanche
The strangest job yet for the young naturalists was to hunt for water underwater.<
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Dr Dick called them to his office. ‘We’ve had an accident,’ he said. ‘The desalting plant that turns salt water into fresh for drinking has broken down. We can’t possibly bring in enough water by ship to supply the town. We’re appealing to you to do something about it.’
‘Why us?’ Hal asked. ‘What can we do?’
‘We picked on you because you are the food men. You have been very successful in showing how the sea can supply more food than it ever has in the past. We believe you can make the sea produce fresh drinking water.’
Hal laughed. ‘Do you think we are magicians? We found ways to get more food from the sea because it was right there waiting to be taken. But there’s no fresh water in the ocean.’
‘That’s where you’re wrong,’ Dr Dick said. There are places where springs of fresh water come up through the sea floor. In the Hawaiian Islands divers discovered water twelve degrees colder than the water around it. They tasted it and found it was fresh. They drank it, and there was no taste of salt. It was pouring up through the sea bottom. In the Mediterranean the town of Cassis near Marseilles ran short of water. Scientists discovered good water welling up from the sea bottom at the base of a cliff. Rain water that fell on the top of the cliff was soaking down to the bottom where it struck a layer of hard rock and was forced to come up into the sea. The water was piped to the town and Cassis never again suffered a water shortage. We have a cliff right here, the precipice of the Great Barrier Reef. It is made of porous coral, and rain that falls on top of it must sink far down. Possibly it comes up again somewhere near the foot of the cliff. I suggest you explore a bit and see if you can find it.’
Hal’s eyes glowed with excitement. ‘It’s a marvellous idea,’ he said. ‘Not just for this town, but all over the world.’
‘You catch on quickly,’ said Dr Dick. ‘You can see what it would do for many dry parts of the world if they could get a constant flow of sweet water pouring in from the sea. Right here, Australia is a good example. Much of the land is desert. Crops won’t grow. The soil is all right, but too dry. It needs water. Not salt water - that would ruin the soil. Salt water turned into fresh would be too expensive to use for irrigation. But fresh water piped from the sea could turn bare wastes into rich gardens and farms. There would be no cost except for the pipe. No pumps would be necessary, no costly desalting plants. Think what could happen in the Sahara, the Kalahari Desert, the Gobi, the American deserts. Of course all that is a long way off, but you would be one of the pioneers in something that could be mighty important in the future.’
With their glass jeep anchored near the precipice, Hal and Roger went out on this fantastic search for fresh water in salt water. Foot by foot they explored the sea bottom at the base of the cliff. They stopped now and then, removed their mouthpieces, and tasted the water. It was bitter with salt.
They were about to go home for lunch when they heard a rumbling sound above. They looked up to see a great avalanche of rocks and coral blocks pouring down the face of the cliff. It was heading straight for them and there was very little time to get out of the way. You cannot move rapidly underwater, especially at such a depth where the water is thick and heavy, and makes going slow.
For a moment they froze with surprise and fright. Then Hal seized Roger’s arm and pulled him into a cave in the cliff.
The landslide thundered down in front of the cave. It could do them no harm now - so they thought. The cave entrance was only four feet high and protected them perfectly.
But the rocks piled up until the opening was completely closed. Their—place of refuge suddenly became a prison. The rumbling stopped. Now they could dig their way out.
But they had nothing to dig with. With their bare hands they tried to push away the great chunks of coral, some as big as their glass jeep. The sharp coral edges cut into their hands and they could feel the sticky blood that oozed out. They hoped the coral was dead - living coral could be very poisonous.
They shivered with cold. Why was this water so much colder than the water outside?
They must get out soon; their air was running low. Ten or fifteen minutes more and they would suffocate like drowned kittens. They went at the rocks again with new vigour. The harder they worked the faster they used up their air.
It was like battling against a stone wall. Except that a wall wouldn’t have all these knives to bloody the hands.
They stopped to rest for a moment. But when they were not working they got colder. Here they were in the tropical coral sea and the chill of this water was a mystery.
It was Roger this time who guessed the answer to the mystery. He remembered what Dr Dick had said about the low temperature of spring water.
He took out his mouthpiece and tasted the water. It was fresh.
In the pitch dark cave he searched for and found his brother’s arm. He gave it a tug. Hal brushed his hand away. Roger felt for Hal’s mouthpiece and yanked it out of his mouth.
Hal could not help gulping water and one gulp was enough to tell him that they had found what they had been looking for. Now he was conscious of an upward pressure under his feet. That must be the fresh water welling up from beneath. The pressure was powerful, like the force of water from a fire hydrant.
He felt as if he were going down from a two-hundred-foot level to three hundred or perhaps four hundred feet. This must be because the water pouring in was unable to get out and pressed harder against the body just as it would at a hundred or more feet lower down.
This couldn’t go on. Either the incoming flood would be choked to a standstill or, if it were stronger than the dam, the dam must break.
He let the pressure build up a little further. Then he fished around for Roger’s hands, found them, and placed them against one of the biggest chunks of coral that blocked the opening.
Roger got the idea. Both boys pressed with all their strength. Their push combined with the pressure of the incoming spring water was enough to move the block about half an inch. A crack was opened and a little light filtered in.
Again they pushed and the big mass suddenly fell out, leaving a large enough gap so that they could crawl through to freedom.
What had caused the avalanche? They peered up the face of the cliff. They could not quite see the top because it was above the surface. But there was a moving shadow up there that might be the shadow of a man. There was no way to guess who it could be.
They returned to the jeep and drove at once to the office of Dr Dick.
‘We found a spring,’ Hal reported. ‘It’s good and strong and perfectly fresh. It’s in a cave at the base of the reef.’
‘Wonderful,’ exclaimed Dr Dick. He turned to the telephone. ‘I’ll get the chief engineer and you can guide him to the spot. He and his crew will pipe the water into town and connect it up with our water system so every house will be supplied. I don’t know whether you realize what a big thing this is. It means that from now on we won’t need the desalting plant and that will save a lot of money. But it means a lot more than that. The Great Barrier Reef is one thousand two hundred and fifty miles long and if there is a good spring here there must be hundreds more, enough to bring millions of acres of the wastelands of Australia into cultivation - and the same thing can be done elsewhere in the world. Did you have any difficulty in finding it?’
‘Well, yes. We had a little brush with an avalanche. But without the avalanche we probably wouldn’t have discovered the spring. We crawled into this cave to escape the landslide. Then Roger discovered that the water was fresh.’
Dr Dick looked puzzled. ‘Landslide? Coral formations aren’t in the habit of sliding. It must have come down from the top. There’s a lot of loose stuff on top of the reef, but I don’t see how it could fall - unless someone pushed it over the edge. But who could possibly have done that? Surely there isn’t anybody in Undersea City who’d want to bury you.’
Now was the chance to tattle to Dr Dick about two men who might like very much to bury them. But suppose neither o
f those men was guilty. To cast suspicion on Oscar Roach would not be fair. It might lose him his job. And if they mentioned Kaggs, they would have to tell why he had it in for them - because they knew too much about his prison record and his murders. If it was true that he had reformed he deserved a chance to make good.
The chief engineer arrived. They jeeped him to the cave.
When he came back to the jeep, he said, ‘You must have had a rough time of it. Bad luck to be caught in there - you could have died like rats in a trap. The spring is great. Enough water to supply half a dozen towns the size of Undersea City. You were lucky to find it.’
‘You used the right word,’ Hal said. ‘Lucky. And if we hadn’t had the bad luck we wouldn’t have had the good luck.’
They returned to town and let the chief out at his office. Jeeping down Main Street, they caught sight of Oscar Roach just entering the hotel where he had his dishwashing job. Arriving home, they found Kaggs sitting in the living-room reading his Bible. He looked up, and seemed surprised. ‘Didn’t expect you back so soon,’ he said.
Chapter 16
Bottom of the world
The telephone rang. Dr Dick’s voice was excited.
‘We’re planning something pretty special,’ he said. ‘Thought you might be interested. Can you come over?’
They swam down Barracuda and round the corner into Research Street to Dick’s office.
‘We want to do some exploring for minerals farther down,’ he said. ‘Would you like to go clear to the bottom of the deepest hole on earth?’
The proposition was so startling that the boys could only look at him with popping eyes.
‘We’ve hired Deepboat,’ Dr Dick explained. ‘You know, the bathyscaph something like the Trieste that carried Jacques Piccard and Lt Don Walsh to the deepest hole in the deepest ocean.’
‘You mean the Challenger Deep?’ asked Hal.
11 Diving Adventure Page 9
