Seed of the Arctic Ice
Page 5
blubber-man went on drawing. He sketched a second suit, similar inall respects, and looked up at the torpooner, inquiringly, it seemed.
Ken nodded rapidly. He tapped the drawings, then his suit; nodded again."The idea's over!" he told himself. "Now I'll make a move towards thatcorridor to show them that I want to go, and if--"
But before he could stir, the leader of the blubber-men, with one quickgesture, summoned two creatures from the innermost circle. Swiftly theyplaced themselves alongside Kenneth Torrance, lifted him and bore himforward, right across the cavern to another of the passageway-entrances.
It was so sudden that for a moment Ken could not think clearly. What hadhappened? Were they releasing him? Or was he still to be kept aprisoner? No doubt the latter. And he had been so sure that he wascommunicating with the blubber-man's brain!
His lips pressed tight in a hard white line. It was a tough blow totake.
"Well, that's that," he said. "It was all imagination."
He did not know that his drawings _had_ signified something to theleader of the herd--that each had mistaken the meaning of the other. Nordid he have any inkling of the greatest surprise of all that now layjust before him.
* * * * *
The surprise lay in another cavern.
A quick turn through a cleft-like entrance brought them into it. Theroom was only a fraction of the size of the central meeting place, andits light, from but several of the light-fish, was dim and vague, barelyenabling Ken to see what looked like a pile of rocks in the chamber,heaping upwards. The ceiling was flat and strangely blurred, a ripplingveil. As he wondered what caused this, his guards lifted him rapidlytowards it, up alongside the rocks.
Not only towards it, but through it! His head-casque pierced through;rivulets of water gurgled off it--and he realized that the blurred veilhe had seen was the top plane of the water, which only filledthree-quarters of the cavern.
Surprise left him breathless. At first he could see nothing, could onlyfeel that his shoulders were above water. Then he was pushed slowlyupward until he rested almost completely above the surface. How did thecavern come to be but part-filled with water? he wondered. And was thisdim emptiness around him air? Could he breathe it?
Then he was vaguely aware of a presence on the top of the rock heap. Hesensed rather than heard a stir of movement. Then suddenly a ray oflight stabbed through the darkness and impinged on hishead-casque--white, electric, man-made light!
And there came to his ears, muffled by the suit and distorted by echoes,a call that sounded like his own name!
"Ken! Is it you, Ken?"
Bewildered, he motioned the blinding light to one side. It turned upwardand backward, and in its glare a face suddenly appeared out of thedarkness.
"Good God!" Kenneth Torrance cried.
It was a pale, drawn face, stubbled with beard, and its eyes were wild.
It was the face of Chanley Beddoes, the lost second torpooner of the_Narwhal_.
* * * * *
Ken stared, his body rigid. Chan Beddoes! The dead brought back! So itat first seemed. And here, in a cavern of the blubber-men!
He pulled himself further up on the rock pile, unfastened the clasps onhis helmet and took it off--for Beddoes wore none, and that meant thespace was filled with breathable air.
"Chan!" he said. "And we were sure you were dead!"
A high-pitched, hysterical voice cried in answer!
"It's you, Ken! They got you too! Oh, but it's good to see you! It'sbeen so lonely, so dark.... You are there, Ken? I'm not just dreamingagain?"
Ken realized that the other's nerves were shot, and he replied gently:
"You're not dreaming, Chan. I'm here with you now. Steady. Take it easy.Lord, this air--it's pretty foul, but it smells good to me, and it'llsave our units. How ever do they get it down here?" He asked thequestion in hope of steadying Beddoes; giving his mind somethingdefinite to occupy it.
A soft ripple sounded just then; looking round, Ken saw that his twoguards had slipped back beneath the water, leaving them alone.
Chan Beddoes' helmet was off, but the rest of his body was still clad ina sea-suit. He half squatted on the rocks, his face raised and peeringat the first torpooner fearfully, as if afraid he would disappear assuddenly as he had come. The beam of light came from a hand-flash heldin his hand. Scattered around were pieces of whitish meat--fish--and theair was sickening with its smell. Ten feet above was the chamber's domedceiling, from which water kept dripping to the slimy rocks below.
"Air?" repeated Beddoes, stupidly. His mind was obviously affected."They fetch it from the surface with seal-hide bags, and release it.They change it often. All over the caverns. They have to breathe, too. Ithink they sleep in rooms like this." His voice rose with hysteria."Ken, they're seals and yet they're human! Human, down here! They havearms and legs and they breathe air, like whales--and they've kept mehere for weeks, years--I don't know! They're devils! It's been so darkand cold and--and--" He began to cough painfully.
"I know," Ken told him sympathetically. "Steady, man. How did you gethere? How did they catch you?"
* * * * *
Beddoes' eyes wandered. He sucked his lips.
"I can't remember," he said. "No. Yes! We left the _Narwhal_, both ofus, chasing those killers. They broke up and we went after differentones, and I lost sight of you.
"I chased mine for a long time, and when I fired I only wounded him. Hewent like hell, and I after him. After half an hour I was ready to giveup; I couldn't get close enough. God! Ready to return! To the submarine!To life!"
His voice broke, and he paused until he was able to go on.
"Then I saw another shape ahead of the whale. A queer looking thing--oneof these human seals, though I didn't know it then. It seemed to befleeing from the killer, just as the killer was from me. There wassomething big and dark ahead--a shadow, I thought, and kept my eyes onthe whale. And the next second my torpoon crashed and I was knockedcold.
"It's a deliberate scheme," he went on at a tangent. "The seal thingsget a killer chasing them and lead it towards the traps they've got inthe sides of these hillocks. They dart in and the whale follows; thenbars drop over the entrance and they've got the killer trapped. They eatthem."
"But how does the blubber-man get out?" Ken asked.
Beddoes scowled. "Oh, they're clever enough! A passage runs off thetrap, big enough for the seal thing, but not for a killer.... Well, mytorp had gone into the trap and was stuck in one of the walls. When Icame to I reversed my engines full, but I couldn't get free. The impacthad ruined my radio.
"Through the after peep-holes I could make out the killer in the trapwith me, lashing around like mad. The bars over the entrance werewide-spaced enough to let the torp squeeze through--but I couldn't getloose.
"As I lay there, wondering what to do, I saw some more of thoseblubber-men in the corridor raising the bars. They had long spears andknives--and in ten minutes that killer was dead and the place black withits blood.
"Well, I thought I saw my chance. I got into my sea-suit, thinking Imaybe could dig the torp free and escape before the damned fish caughtme. I climbed out the port and was hacking at the mud bank with mycrowbar when a rope slipped over my head and they had me."
Ken nodded. "They got me in the same way," he said.
"And gave you the once-over in the big room," Chan declared. "You'll getplenty more of that."
For most of the man's narrative his tone and manner had been saneenough, but now again he broke out wildly.
"And I've been here for days! Weeks! And nothing but fish to eat, andwhale meat, and pieces of ice brought for me to drink, and the darknessand the fish smell! God, it's driven me crazy! I can't stand it anylonger, Ken, and I won't. I've got to get out right away or kill myself.I've got to!"
Ken gripped his shoulders and shook. "Steady!" he said sharply. "Getcontrol over yourself!"
"Steady!" Beddoes gasped. "You don'
t know how long I've kept control!Waiting and hoping, for a chance. One little chance to escape!"
"Why haven't you tried before? Don't they leave you alone here?"
Chanley Beddoes laughed harshly. "Just because you can't see them, youthink that? Hell, no! Put on your helmet. Look down--down under thewater--and you'll see a guard at the entrance. There's always onethere--with a spear. And every now and then he comes up, to see what I'mdoing. But no matter; now that you're here we can make a break. You'vestill got your crowbar; they took mine away. I've only had my flash towork with."
In spite of his awful experience and intolerable predicament, Ken