diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32029-8.txt | 1745 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32029-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 33236 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32029-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 87181 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32029-h/32029-h.htm | 1949 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32029-h/images/illus.jpg | bin | 0 -> 52892 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32029.txt | 1745 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 32029.zip | bin | 0 -> 33218 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
10 files changed, 5455 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/32029-8.txt b/32029-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f8f04c6 --- /dev/null +++ b/32029-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1745 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Seed of the Arctic Ice, by H. G. Winter + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Seed of the Arctic Ice + +Author: H. G. Winter + +Release Date: April 17, 2010 [EBook #32029] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEED OF THE ARCTIC ICE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Seed of the Arctic Ice + + By H. G. Winter + +[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Stories +February 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the +U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] + +[Sidenote: Killer whales and seal-creatures tangle Ken Torrance in an +amazing adventure under the ice-roofed arctic sea.] + + +Sleepily the lookout stared at the scope-screen before him, wishing for +something that would break the monotony of the scene it pictured: the +schools of ghostly fish fleeting by, the occasional shafts of pale +sunlight filtering down through breaks in the ice-floes above, the long +snaky ropes of underwater growth. None of this was conducive to +wakefulness; nor did the half-speed drone of the electric engines aft +and the snores of some distant sleeper help him. The four other men on +duty in the submarine--the helmsman; the second mate, whose watch it +was; the quartermaster and the second engineer--might not have been +present, so motionless and silent were they. + +The lookout man stifled another yawn and glanced at a clock to see how +much more time remained of his trick. Then suddenly something on the +screen brought him to alert attention. He blinked at it; stared +hard--and thrilled. + +Far ahead, caught for an instant by the submarine _Narwhal's+ +light-beams, a number of sleek bodies moved through the foggy murk, with +a flash of white bellies and an easy graceful thrust of flukes. + +The watcher's hands cupped his mouth; he turned and sang out: + +"K-i-i-ll-ers! I see killers!" + +The cry rang in every corner, and immediately there was a feverish +response. Rubbing their eyes, men appeared as if from nowhere and jumped +to posts; with a clang, the telegraph under the second mate's hand went +over to full speed; Captain Streight rolled heavily out of his bunk, +flipped his feet mechanically into sea-boots and came stamping forward. +First Torpooner Kenneth Torrance, as he sat up and stretched, heard the +usual crisp question: + +"Where away?" + +"Five points off sta'b'd bow, sir; quarter-mile away; swimming slow." + +"How large a school?" + +"Couldn't say, sir. Looks around a dozen." + +"Whew!" whistled Ken Torrance. "That's a strike!" He pulled on a sweater +and strode forward to the scope-screen to see for himself, even as +Captain Streight, all at once testy with eagerness, bawled: + +"Sta'b'd five! Torpoon ready, Mister Torrance! Mister Torr--oh, here you +are. Take a look." + + * * * * * + +Never in the two years of experience which had brought him to the +important post of first torpooner had Ken failed to thrill at the sight +which now met his eyes. Directly ahead, now that the _Narwhal's_ bow was +turned in pursuit, but veering slowly to port, swam a pack of the twenty +to thirty-foot dolphins which are called "killer whales," their bodies +so close-pressed that they seemed to be an undulating wave of black, +occasionally sliced with white as the fluke-thrusts brought their +bellies into view. Their speed through the shadowed, gloomy water was +equal to the submarine's; when alarmed, it would almost double. + +"Three more of 'em will fill our tanks," grunted Streight, his chunky +face almost glowing. He bit on a plug of tobacco, his eyes never moving +from the screen. "Now, if only we hadn't lost Beddoes.... Y' think you +can bag three, Mister Torrance?" + +"Well, if three'll fill our tanks--sure!" grinned Ken. + +The other's eyebrows twitched suddenly. "They're speeding up!" he +shouted, and then: "That torpoon ready, there? Good." His voice lowered +again as Ken pulled his belt a notch tighter and snatched a last glimpse +of the fish before leaving. "I want you to try for three, son," he said +soberly: "but--be careful. Don't take fool chances, and keep alert. +Remember Beddoes." + +Ken nodded and walked to the torpoon catapult, hearing Streight's +familiar send-off echoed by the men of the crew who were nearby: + +"Good hunting!" + + * * * * * + +The idea of an underwater craft for the pursuit of killer +whales--tremendously valuable since the discovery of valuable medicinal +qualities in their oil--had been scoffed at by the majority of the +Alaska Whaling Company's officials at the time of its suggestion, but +the _Narwhal_ after her first two months of service had decisively +proved her worth. She was not restricted to the open seas, now swept +almost clean of the highly prized killers; she could follow them to +their last refuge, right beneath the floe-edges of the Arctic Circle; +and as a result she could bring back more oil than any four surface +whalers. + +With a cruising radius of twenty-five hundred miles, she stayed out from +the base until her torpoons had accounted for anywhere from sixty to +eighty killers. One by one these sea-animals would be taken to the +surface and there cut up and boiled down, until her tanks were full of +the precious blubber oil. Ever farther she pressed in her quest for the +fish schools, dipping for leagues into a silent sea that for ages had +been known only to the whale and the seal and their kindred; a sea +always dark and mysterious beneath its sheath of ice. + +The inner catapult door closed behind Kenneth Torrance, and he slid into +his torpoon. Twelve feet long, and resembling in miniature a dirigible, +was this weapon that made practical an underwater whaling craft. The +tapered stern bore long directional rudders, which curved round the +squat high-speed propeller: its smooth flanks of burnished steel were +marked only by the lines of the entrance port, which the torpooner now +drew tight and locked. Twin eyes of light-beam projectors were set in +the bow, which was cut also by a vision-plate of fused quartz and the +nitro-shell gun's tube, successor to the gun-cast harpoon. + +Ken lay full-length in the padded body compartment, his feet resting on +the controlling bars of the directional planes, hands on the torpoon's +engine levers. A harness was buckled all around him, to keep him in +place. His gray eyes, level and sober, peered through the vision-plate +at the outer catapult door. + +Suddenly a spot of red light glowed in it; the door quivered, swung out. +A black tide swirled into the chamber. There came the hiss of released +air-pressure, and the slim undersea steed rocketed out into the exterior +gloom, her light-beams flashing on and propeller settling into a blur of +speed as she was flung. + + * * * * * + +Ken turned on her full twenty-four knots, zoomed above the dark bulk of +the slower mother ship, whose light-beams flashed across him for a +second, and then straightened out in a long, slight-angled dive after +the great black bodies ahead. + +Aware that some strange enemy was on their track, the killers had become +panicky and were darting away at their full speed, which was only +slightly under that of the torpoon's humming motors, and which at times +even surpassed it. Ken saw that it looked like a long chase, and settled +his lean body as comfortably as he could. + +His mind was not concentrated on the task ahead, for the first part was +mere routine and he could follow his quarry almost mechanically. And so, +as his steel shell drove through the ever-shadowed, icy sea, he began to +think about the disappearance of Chan Beddoes, the _Narwhal's_ second +torpooner. + +Dead, now Beddoes; it was a week since he had set out on the chase from +which he had never returned. Ken could only conjecture as to what had +stricken him down. There were countless possibilities: perhaps a blow +from a dying killer whale's flukes bursting his torpoon's seams; perhaps +a crash into underwater ice. Whatever it was, it had been sudden, for +not even a faint radioed S.O.S. had trembled into the ear-phones of the +_Narwhal's_ radio-man. For two days they had held hopes that the second +torpooner still lived, as the sea-suit stored in each torp contained +air-units sufficient for thirty-six hours. But a whole week's passing +told them that that vast stretch of glacial sea was now Chan Beddoes' +grave. + +Ken's reflections brought an urge to get the present job over with as +quickly as possible. He squeezed another ounce of speed from the +torpoon, taxing it to the limit and setting up a slight vibration; then +he fondled the nitro-shell gun's trigger and studied the huge fish +bodies ahead. + +"Seems as if they're going to run forever," he muttered indignantly. +"We'll be to the Pole if they keep it up!" + + * * * * * + +Already the _Narwhal_ was miles behind. Through the torp's vision-plate +a scene of ever increasing mystery and gloom met his gaze. The killers' +course had brought them beneath a wide sheet of ice, apparently, for +there were no more columns of pale sunlight piercing through. The +quarter-light monotone was unbroken, save by deeper drifts of shadow, +and as he drummed through it the torpooner wondered at its lifelessness. +He discerned no more of the ghostly fish-schools that usually abounded. +Some enemy possibly had driven them from the region; but not the whale +he was pursuing, for they scorned such fare. + +He was scanning the surrounding murk apprehensively, when, of a sudden, +his brain and body tensed. + +Off to one side, far to the right, he thought he had glimpsed a figure. +It was hanging motionless, level with him; and at first it looked like a +seal. But the flippers seemed longer than a seal's; moreover, no seal +would be anywhere near a pack of killer whales; nor did they poise in an +upright position. It couldn't be a seal, he told himself. What, then? +Was it only imagination that made it appear faintly human-shaped? + +He strove to catch it again with staring eyes, but it was gone, leaving +only a jumbled impression of something fantastic in his mind, and the +next instant the whole thing was forgotten in the movements of the +killer school, now only a few hundred yards ahead. + +They suddenly began a great sweeping curve to the right, a typical +maneuver before standing for attack or breaking up. At once Ken swerved +to starboard and drove the torpoon's nose for an advance point on the +circle the fish were describing. His move swallowed the distance between +them; the sleek, thick-blubbered bodies swept close by his vision-plate, +their rush tossing the torp slightly. Twelve of them went past in a +blur, and then came the thirteenth, the invariable straggler of a +school. The thin light-beams pencilled through the darkness, outlining +the rushing black shape; Ken gripped the gun's trigger and jockeyed the +torp up a trifle in the seconds remaining, always keeping the sights +dead set on the vital spot twelve inches behind the whale's little eye. + +When only fifteen feet separated them he squeezed the trigger and at +once zoomed up and away to get clear of the killer's start of pain and, +if the shot were true, its following death flurry. + +The shell slid deep into the rich outer blubber; and, wheeling, Ken +watched the mighty mammal quiver in its forward rush. This was merely +the reaction from the pain of the shell's entrance; the nitro had not as +yet exploded. + +Now it did. The projectiles carried but a small charge, in order not to +rip too much the buoyant lungs and so cause the body to sink, but the +killer trembled like a jelly from the shock. The heart was reached; its +razor-sharp flukes thrashing and tooth-lined jaws clicking, the killer +wheeled with incredible speed in its death flurry. A minute later the +body shuddered a last time, then drifted slowly over, showing the white +belly. It began a gentle rise up toward the ceiling of ice. + +"One!" grinned Ken Torrance. He noted his position on the torpoon's +dials and gave it to the _Narwhal_ by radio. They would then follow and +pick up the whale. + +"I'll have the second in ten minutes," he promised confidently. "Signing +off!" + +Again the torp darted after its prey. + +He found it easy, this time, to overhaul them. Not many minutes had +elapsed before he again caught sight of their rhythmically thrusting +flukes and the flash of white under-sides. Unaware that one of their +fellows had been left a lifeless carcass by the steel fish again nearing +them, they had reduced their speed somewhat. + +Ken angled down a hundred feet into the deeper shadows, not wanting to +apprise them of his presence. He continued at that level until the belly +of the rearmost whale rolled white above him; then he veered off to the +left, rising as he did so, in order to bring his assault to bear +directly on the killer's flanks. + +He swung back and streaked in for the kill. It looked like an easy one. + +But he was never more mistaken in his life. For, as luck had it, he had +chosen a tartar, a fighting fish--literally the "killer" which its kind +had been named. + + * * * * * + +The torpooner knew what he was in for as soon as he fired his first +shell. Its aim was bad, and instead of sinking into the flesh it merely +ripped across the whale's back, leaving a ragged, ugly scar. + +An ordinary whale would have been scared into panic by the wound and +doubled its speed in an effort to get away; but Ken Torrance saw this +one wheel its six-foot snout around viciously until its beady little +eyes settled on the torpoon. + +"I'll be damned!" he muttered. "He's turning to fight. All right, come +ahead!" + +He veered about and fired another shot that missed its mark by feet, but +creased the whale's flukes. At once this terrible weapon lashed +titanically up and down, and thirty feet of berserk killer came curving +towards the lone man inside his shell of steel. Ken tensed himself for +combat. He would have to keep a good distance from the fish and fire +until he got it, as a square smash from its flukes might crumple the +torp like an egg-shell. + +[Illustration: _Thirty feet of berserk killer came curving towards the +lone man_.] + +But his foe gave him no chance. Crazy with pain and anger, it swept up +and nipped his dive for the bottom with a fluke-blow that tumbled the +torpoon over and dazed its pilot. Before he could get straightened out +it was on him again, catching him up into a wild whirlpool, butting the +shell and flashing round to get its flukes into position. With a wrench, +Ken jammed the rudder over, shoved his accelerator flat, and got free +just as the tail thrashed down. He was breathing hard and sweating as he +banked around--to see once more the whale, its wicked jaws wide open, +charging directly at him. + +For a moment he was unable to move. Such a mode of attack was totally +unexpected, and the sight held him fascinated. He could see the very +wrinkles of the monster's skin as it rushed in, with shadowy flukes +thrusting behind; could see the lines of dagger-like teeth, the +cavernous maw and gullet. And then all vision was blotted out as the +jaws closed around the torpoon's nose. + +Ken did not wait for those jaws to crunch shut. He gripped the +nitro-shell gun's trigger and squeezed it back. + +The weapon hissed, flung its shell. He reversed his engines to try and +tear free. Seconds dragged by with no result. Then he felt a mighty +jolt; his harness broke; and he was pitched into the torp's engine +controls. + +That was all he knew, save for a vague feeling of falling, falling over +and over, which was ended when a second bone-shaking shock brought +complete oblivion.... + + * * * * * + +It was darkness that met his eyes when they opened, the eery darkness of +the floor of the Polar Sea. + +Darkness! Half-conscious as he was, he started in surprise. He looked +for the torp's shaded control board-lights, but could not find them. +Bewildered, he wondered what had happened, and then remembered the +whale. In its flurry it had smashed him down. + +Pain was thumping his forehead where he had struck the control levers; +with a groan he twisted his body around and felt for his hand-flash. At +any rate, there was no water inside the body compartment. The seams had +resisted the blow. But why were there no lights? + +He found his hand-flash, and its beam showed him the reason. Playing it +on the small water-tight door which separated the main compartment from +that in which the machinery was contained, he looked through its fused +quartz peep-hole. He gaped in consternation. + +There was, after all, a leak in the torpoon's shell, and a bad one. The +machinery compartment was full of water. + +"Gosh!" he muttered. "That means no light, no radio--no power! Guess I'm +stranded!" + +He considered the situation. It was not serious, for he had been in +touch with the _Narwhal_ after bagging the first whale and had given his +position. The submarine would proceed to the kill immediately; then, +after a while, not hearing from him, they would scour the neighborhood, +just as they had hunted for Chan Beddoes when he did not return. + +But they'd find him, Ken told himself--and soon. He had no idea how long +he had lain unconscious, but probably by now the mother ship had already +hooked onto the first whale; maybe she was already hunting for him. + +"Well, I'd better get out and be ready to signal to 'em with the flash," +he reflected. "They may miss me here in the mud." + + * * * * * + +Taking his sea-suit from a long narrow locker, he drew the stiff-woven +fabric over his body, turned the air-units on, clamped the face-shield +shut, and then, gripping his hand-flash, slowly opened the port in the +shell's side. + +A weird figure he was, fit for the mysterious gloom into which he came. +With casque of steel and lead-weighted feet, staring face-shield and +metal belt, and equipped with a knife and two or three emergency tools, +the sea-suit transformed him into a clumsy, grotesque giant. He sloshed +into the muddy sea bottom, stumbling at first from the heavy water +resistance and hardly able to see anything. The torpoon itself was a +hazy blur at a short distance, but up above the light was better, being +almost bright next to the ice ceiling. He adjusted the air pressure +inside his suit, floating his feet off the bottom. A few clumsy +armstrokes and he went drifting gently upward. + +Knowing that the "bends"--bubbles of air in a diver's veins--come from +too rapidly changing pressures when rising, he made his ascent +carefully. Up twenty feet, then a pause; twenty feet more and another +pause. So he rose some ninety feet, and finally arrived at the underside +of the ice floe. + +Here he found the water a pale blue-green, increasing, at the limit of +his vision, to impenetrable black. Nearby was a great dark blur which he +recognized as the killer whale that had struck him down. It bobbed +lifelessly against the smooth, light ceiling of ice. Slowly, he swam +over towards it. + +There was no mark of the havoc his last shot must have wreaked inside. +He examined the body with interest, fingering the two inch-long teeth, +which even the mighty sperm whale fears and flees from. + +"Pretty wicked," he said aloud, just for the companionship of his voice. +"And there's a lot of oil in this brute. Streight'll be glad to get him. +Maybe he won't need a third to fill the tanks." + +Thought of his captain made him look up and around, hoping to see the +_Narwhal's_ light-beams come threading through the distant murk. He did +not see them, but what he did see caused his mouth to drop open, and his +veins to chill with a cold that was not that of the sea nor the ice +above. + +"Good Lord!" he whispered. "That thing--again!" + +Like a specter from the deep, some hundred feet away was a form, +seal-like in appearance, yet not wholly seal. It poised there +motionless, apparently looking straight at him. + +Fear came over Ken as he studied it. Its body was perhaps ten feet long, +and sleek and fat under a brown-colored hide. But its flippers were not +those of a seal; they were too long and slender, especially the hind +ones. They unquestionably bore a remote resemblance to human arms and +legs. + +"Yet it can't be anything but some kind of seal," Ken whispered to +himself. "It must be!" + +But then, too, it did not have the ordinary seal's bullet head, set +squat between smoothly tapering shoulders, but rather something bulbous, +half like that of a man, in spite of the layers of fat that stream-lined +from it to the broad shoulders. It did have, however, two large, staring +eyes, and slitted holes inches below them for nostrils--which showed +that it breathed air and was therefore warm-blooded. + +Quite motionless, each stared at the other, while minutes passed. Then +the creature moved slowly up and forward, impelled by a graceful and +hardly perceptible roll of its queer flippers. Very gradually it came +towards Kenneth Torrance; and he, peering with fear-tinged curiosity at +the animal's bold advance, saw two creases of fat that must have been +lips slide open in the smooth brown face, baring strong, pointed teeth. + +Not knowing whether it was an attack or merely inquisitiveness, he +unsheathed his knife. At this the figure stopped and poised motionless +again, perhaps fifty feet away, and after a moment turned its sleek head +first to the left and then to the right. Automatically, Ken gazed around +likewise. He drew in his breath with a sharp hiss. + +Like shadows, additional figures had appeared in the distant murk. +Silently they had come; he could see eleven--twelve--even more. He was +surrounded! No longer doubting their purpose, he gripped his knife +firmly. He knew he could never get down to the torpoon in time. + +And then the circle began to close. + +There was little he could do to resist them, he realized, for what he +had seen of their movements told him that they were swift, effortless +swimmers. But he braced himself as best he could against the dead whale, +to protect his back. He would at least go down fighting. + +As their spectral shapes slid slowly closer he noted something that had +escaped his eyes before. Four or five of them were holding dim objects +in their arm-like flippers. Spears, he made them out to be, rudely +fashioned from bone. And others held dark-colored loops, which they were +slowly forming into nooses. + +"They're intelligent, all right," Ken muttered. "Spears--of whalebone, I +guess. And ropes--probably seaweed. Weapons! Good Lord, what kind of +seals are these?" + +Easily, gracefully, the silent circle drew in to perhaps twenty feet of +him, where they paused again, hanging motionless at regular intervals in +the eery, wavering half-light. Ken licked his lips nervously. Then the +one whom he had seen first moved its head slightly, in what was +apparently a signal. And in a concerted movement, so bewilderingly rapid +that his eyes could not hold them, they rushed him. + +He had expected speed, but not speed such as this. He had barely swung +his knife-arm up when the wave engulfed him. + +Doubling, curving shapes looped around him; blubbery bodies pressed +against him; eyes flashed by in streaks of brown; he knew that he was +being tumbled and tossed and that his knife and hand-flash had fallen +under the shock of the attack. And then there was a sharper sensation. +As he struggled to break free, taut cords trussed his legs and arms like +any captive animal's. + +The stream of moving bodies slowed in movement and fell back from a +breathless, dazed Kenneth Torrance. He then got his first clear view +since the assault was unleashed. + +He was upright, many feet away from the killer whale's carcass, his arms +bound strongly to his sides with seaweed-rope, his legs locked close +together. To one side he glimpsed several of the creatures fastening +other rope strands to the whale's flukes. When they had finished, with +smoothly thrusting flippers they began to haul the carcass forward, and +he felt himself move feet first in the same direction. + +He forced a wry smile to his lips. "A swell fight I put up!" he grunted. +"Hold 'em off! Yeah--I bet I held 'em for a full tenth of a second." + + * * * * * + +He still could hardly believe what had so rapidly befallen him. It was +difficult to credit eyes that showed him creatures whose bodies were +mainly seal-like, and yet whose weapons and co-ördinated movements spoke +for human intelligence. But they were certainly real. At his feet he +could feel the pressure of a guard's flippers against him. + +He was towed in this fashion for some distance when the pressure of the +flippers suddenly tightened and he was pulled into a deep-angled swoop +toward the sea-bottom below. Previously he had seen his captors' amazing +speed, but now he felt it. Down and down he went, and at last, when it +seemed he must crash into the sea floor, his momentum was quickly +checked, and he found himself standing in the mud, from which position, +lacking support from his guard, he drifted to a horizontal one, face up. +And there, lying helpless on the bottom, he saw the reason for the +sudden dive. Far to the right, piercing faintly through the murk, were +two faint interweaving beams of white that preceded a slowly moving dark +bulk. + +The _Narwhal_! Wild hopes of rescue coursed through him. + +Dimly, as he watched the beams, he was aware of the rest of the +creatures dropping down, guiding between them the whale's carcass. Then +a firm pressure was applied to his side, and he was rolled over, face +down in the mud. Unable any longer to see his ship, his momentary vision +of rescue vanished. + +"Hopeless, I guess," he muttered despairingly. The darkness on the +sea-floor was too thick, the wavering shadows too deceptive. And his +hand-flash and knife were gone--probably knocked from his grasp during +the struggle, he thought. + +He realized that the seal-like animals were lying low until the +submarine passed, its size having awed them. The color of the bodies +blended perfectly with the gloom, as did that of his own sea-suit. His +bonds prevented him from making even the slightest movement to attract +attention. + +Torturing thoughts raced through the torpooner's brain. He saw, in his +mind's eye, straight above, a hazy bulk, with shimmering columns of +white angling from its nose. His imagination pictured for him the warm, +well-lit interior, and the bunks--the coffee steaming on the fire, the +men at their posts and Streight's anxious, beefy face. He saw it all as +plainly as if he were inside, cracking jokes with one of the engineers. + + * * * * * + +The minutes passed. The _Narwhal_ must now be gone. Ken's cheek muscles +stood out as he pressed his teeth together. "Well, go on!" he exploded +in impotent rage. "What are you waiting for? Kill me! Eat me if you're +going to!" And he cursed the silent forms around him till his ears hurt +from the reverberation. + +After the _Narwhal_ had vanished in the gloom, the torpooner's captors +lifted him from the bottom and propelled him leisurely forward again, +the slight, graceful roll of their flippers slipping them along +smoothly. + +A dull hopelessness came over him. No longer could he hope that his +submarine would find him. Only one thing was certain, and that was that +death would soon come. For even if his captors did not kill him at once, +he had but thirty-six hours before his air-units would be exhausted. +Certainly, having captured him, the seal-creatures would not release +him. And it was too much to expect them to realize that his sea-unit was +only an artificial covering which enabled him to live underwater, and +not his own flesh and blood. + +And as for the chance of breaking loose--the idea was laughable. His +speed was snail-like in comparison with theirs. Even if he did manage +somehow to get away, what good would it do? How could he, a puny, +helpless mite, ever hope to locate the _Narwhal_ in this vast sweep of +Arctic sea? His torpoon was wrecked, and he had no means of +communication. + +His situation was quite hopeless. + + * * * * * + +Far ahead, a dark shape grew in the foggy murk, and as they neared, +spread upwards and outwards. They angled up and up; the sea-floor was +higher there. Ken, peering as best he could, made out that the +mountainous, looming bulk was the face of a giant underwater mound, +whose uneven formation indicated that it was the result of some +long-past upheaval. It was the first of a rolling series of such +hillocks, six or seven in all, stretching back into the gloom. Their +rounded peaks reached to within a few feet of the water's ice-sheathed +surface. Surely the creatures' home was among these mounds. + +He was skirted round the base of the first hillock and caught a glimpse +of something in its face which was apparently of his captors' +construction. It was a hole, dark, mysterious, perhaps fifteen feet in +diameter, and barring it were three great gray stakes, reaching from top +to bottom. Behind the stakes, Ken got a jumbled impression of a body, +large and sleek, of black streaked with white, that moved restlessly +back and forth in the hole and occasionally seemed to lash out in anger. +He wondered what it was. Before long, he knew. + +The party of seal-creatures stopped before the second of the row of +hillocks. In its face, too, was a hole--a well of blackness--but with no +stakes across it. He twisted his head back and saw the carcass of the +killer whale he had slain being guided up to the entrance and shoved +through. Then, from the upper rim of the hole, three stakes similar to +the others he had seen slid down and barred it. + +"Storehouses!" he muttered. "Storehouses, I'll bet anything. And killer +whales are their food. They keep 'em in the holes until they're needed. +But I'll swear it was a live whale I saw in the first one--and how in +the dickens could they capture a mighty killer with their dinky spears +and ropes?" + +There he had to leave the question, for its answer implied greater +intelligence in the creatures than he would admit. + +Intelligence--in seals! + +And now he was guided smoothly forward to the third hillock, where the +leaders of the group glided through a V-shaped cleft in its face. His +guards brought him along behind. + +A wry smile twisted Kenneth Torrance's lips. To him, the cleft was more +than an entranceway. To him it signified the beginning of the hopeless, +lonely end of his life.... + + * * * * * + +The cleft led into a corridor, and the corridor was softly illuminated +with a peculiar light whose source he could not discover. It served to +show him a passageway that was wide rather than tall, and gouged from +the firm, clayey soil by blunt tools that had left uneven marks. +Straight ahead it led, and, as they continued, the mysterious +illumination brightened, until suddenly, rounding a turn, its source +appeared. + +Like will-o'-the-wisps, a score of arrows of light flashed softly into +view down the corridor. They were of delicate green and orange and +yellow, glowing and luminous, and hovering like humming birds between +floor and ceiling. Ken looked at them in some alarm until his nearer +approach showed him what they were, and then he exclaimed in amazement: + +"Why--they're fish! Living electric bulbs!" + +A school of slender, ten-inch fish they were, each one a radiant, +shimmering, lacey-finned gem of orange or green or yellow. In concert +they shot to the ceiling over the party of seal-creatures, who still +swam impassively ahead, paying no attention to them, and from there +scattered in quick darts in all directions, showering the cortege with +washes of spectral luminosity. Then the corridor crooked again, and with +one simultaneous movement they were gone. And the scene that lay +revealed before Kenneth Torrance took his breath from him. + +In the passageway he had seen a score of the living jewels; now he +beheld hundreds. He peered up at a shimmering sheet of brilliance, +composed of hundreds of the slender refulgent fish, all swimming in slow +rotation. Below them was a large cavern, which he guessed had been +created by hollowing out one of the underwater hillocks. The sides were +rounded, and pitted with holes that represented other passageways, +showing dark against the luminosity from above. And streaming out from +these dark holes of corridors came dozens of the seal-creatures, +gathering in response to some unheard, unseen signal that had called +them to witness the strange captive their fellows had brought in.... + + * * * * * + +Ken's guards gripped him more firmly and he was guided forward and +downward to the smooth black floor of soil. + +Scores of large, placid eyes stared at him from the slowly undulating, +brown-skinned bodies packed close about him. The sight was so weird, so +beyond his imagination, that he laughed a little hysterically. + +"Dreaming!" he said. "Dreaming! But what a dream!" + +Silently, a space cleared in the center of the horde. His bonds were +taken away, the guards released his arms and he righted himself and +stood there on braced legs, the object of a concerted gaze. + +This, the torpooner felt, was the crucial period. Something was about to +be decided. If it looked bad he would make a wild--and of course, +futile--break for freedom, and die quickly when they punctured his suit. +But meanwhile he would stick things out. Anything might happen in that +fantastic convocation. + +There came a stir in the tiers of brown bodies. An aisle cleared, and +down it a single seal-creature glided slowly towards Ken +Torrance--undoubtedly the leader of the herd, ruler of the underwater +labyrinth. + +Gracefully the creature glided up to the lone human, and when only a +foot away extended one of its long upper flippers so that its webbed +edge rested on his sea-suit's casque. And its placid brown eyes hung +close to the face-shield and gazed through inquisitively, intelligently! +Intelligently! No longer did Kenneth Torrance doubt that. As he held +absolutely motionless under the close-searching scrutiny, his brain rang +with the conviction that this creature, this thing of blubbery body and +long, webbed flipper-arms and legs--this brown-skinned denizen of the +Arctic underseas was, with all its fellows, related to him, a man of the +upper world. + +Men they were; or, rather, blubber-men! + + * * * * * + +Previously he had marveled at something suggestively human-like in their +appearance; now he recognized human intelligence in his observer's +peering brown eyes and questing movements of the flipper over his head +casque and suit. Warm red blood flowed in its blubber-sheathed body; an +intelligent brain lay in the fat round head. And why not? + +Whales, ages ago, were land mammals, animals that walked on the soil of +the dim, early world. They had taken to the seas in quest of food, had +stayed there and never returned; and Nature had guarded their bodies +against the cold and great depths by giving them layer upon layer of +oily blubber. The ancestors of these creatures before him might well +have lived on the soil, walked and run as he did; then, when the ice +came, taken to the sea and made a new home for themselves. + +They had enticed the splendent light-fish into their caverns to give +illumination. Intelligence almost human. A brain not as highly developed +as man's, but a human brain! + +Ken Torrance had been almost apathetic toward his eventual fate, but +suddenly, now, a great hope came to him--and twin with it, on its heels, +came fear. If, or since, this creature inspecting him had an +intelligent, human brain, in some way he might be able to correspond +with it. He might be able to show that his real body was inside the +sea-suit; that he had to have air; that he would die if he were kept +underwater, that he could not survive as a prisoner. These creatures +appeared to be friendly; seemed to wish him no harm. If he could show +them that he was a man of the upper world, they might let him go. + +If he could do it! He had to make known to the herd leader that he +breathed air, and that he'd die if they didn't release him at once. On +that depended life and death. + +Ken trembled as he cast about for some way of putting over his idea, and +then the plan came. Smiling through his face-shield at the brown eyes so +close, he drew back slowly and took out a short steel crowbar from the +belt at his waist. He bent over and made a line on the soft floor. + +All eyes watched him; every creature held motionless, apparently +interested, eager to understand. Under his suit-clad figure the crowbar +traced a rude outline of a man in a sea-suit. The torpooner pointed to +the drawing and then fingered his suit, repeating the gesture several +times. Then he drew another figure in the soil, this one intended to +represent him without the sea-suit. It was not as bulky; the features +were sharper and thinner. Ken pointed to the twin dots standing for +eyes, then tapped his face-shield; he did this again and again. + +For a moment the leader did not move; but then he slid forward and +stared through the shield. Rapidly Ken opened and closed his eyes, and +pointed again to the dots on the drawing's face. + +"Eyes! Eyes!" he said excitedly, voicing the thought his brain was +making. "Eyes--inside the suit! The suit's not me; I'm inside! Eyes!" He +waited for a reaction, tense and strained. The blubber-man reached out +one flipper-arm and took the steel bar from his hand. + +A thrill ran through him as the creature dipped its body down and began +to draw in the soil. Laboriously, crudely, he outlined another sea-suit, +and on the circle representing the face-shield marked two dots--eyes. + +"He's getting it!" Ken cried. + +The blubber-man went on drawing. He sketched a second suit, similar in +all 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 that +corridor to show them that I want to go, and if--" + +But before he could stir, the leader of the blubber-men, with one quick +gesture, summoned two creatures from the innermost circle. Swiftly they +placed themselves alongside Kenneth Torrance, lifted him and bore him +forward, right across the cavern to another of the passageway-entrances. + +It was so sudden that for a moment Ken could not think clearly. What had +happened? Were they releasing him? Or was he still to be kept a +prisoner? No doubt the latter. And he had been so sure that he was +communicating with the blubber-man's brain! + +His lips pressed tight in a hard white line. It was a tough blow to +take. + +"Well, that's that," he said. "It was all imagination." + +He did not know that his drawings _had_ signified something to the +leader of the herd--that each had mistaken the meaning of the other. Nor +did he have any inkling of the greatest surprise of all that now lay +just before him. + + * * * * * + +The surprise lay in another cavern. + +A quick turn through a cleft-like entrance brought them into it. The +room was only a fraction of the size of the central meeting place, and +its light, from but several of the light-fish, was dim and vague, barely +enabling Ken to see what looked like a pile of rocks in the chamber, +heaping upwards. The ceiling was flat and strangely blurred, a rippling +veil. As he wondered what caused this, his guards lifted him rapidly +towards 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 veil +he had seen was the top plane of the water, which only filled +three-quarters of the cavern. + +Surprise left him breathless. At first he could see nothing, could only +feel that his shoulders were above water. Then he was pushed slowly +upward until he rested almost completely above the surface. How did the +cavern come to be but part-filled with water? he wondered. And was this +dim emptiness around him air? Could he breathe it? + +Then he was vaguely aware of a presence on the top of the rock heap. He +sensed rather than heard a stir of movement. Then suddenly a ray of +light stabbed through the darkness and impinged on his +head-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 upward +and backward, and in its glare a face suddenly appeared out of the +darkness. + +"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 it +at first seemed. And here, in a cavern of the blubber-men! + +He pulled himself further up on the rock pile, unfastened the clasps on +his helmet and took it off--for Beddoes wore none, and that meant the +space 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's +been so lonely, so dark.... You are there, Ken? I'm not just dreaming +again?" + +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'll +save our units. How ever do they get it down here?" He asked the +question in hope of steadying Beddoes; giving his mind something +definite to occupy it. + +A soft ripple sounded just then; looking round, Ken saw that his two +guards had slipped back beneath the water, leaving them alone. + +Chan Beddoes' helmet was off, but the rest of his body was still clad in +a sea-suit. He half squatted on the rocks, his face raised and peering +at the first torpooner fearfully, as if afraid he would disappear as +suddenly as he had come. The beam of light came from a hand-flash held +in his hand. Scattered around were pieces of whitish meat--fish--and the +air was sickening with its smell. Ten feet above was the chamber's domed +ceiling, 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. I +think they sleep in rooms like this." His voice rose with hysteria. +"Ken, they're seals and yet they're human! Human, down here! They have +arms and legs and they breathe air, like whales--and they've kept me +here for weeks, years--I don't know! They're devils! It's been so dark +and cold and--and--" He began to cough painfully. + +"I know," Ken told him sympathetically. "Steady, man. How did you get +here? 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 of +us, chasing those killers. They broke up and we went after different +ones, and I lost sight of you. + +"I chased mine for a long time, and when I fired I only wounded him. He +went like hell, and I after him. After half an hour I was ready to give +up; 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--one +of these human seals, though I didn't know it then. It seemed to be +fleeing from the killer, just as the killer was from me. There was +something big and dark ahead--a shadow, I thought, and kept my eyes on +the whale. And the next second my torpoon crashed and I was knocked +cold. + +"It's a deliberate scheme," he went on at a tangent. "The seal things +get a killer chasing them and lead it towards the traps they've got in +the sides of these hillocks. They dart in and the whale follows; then +bars drop over the entrance and they've got the killer trapped. They eat +them." + +"But how does the blubber-man get out?" Ken asked. + +Beddoes scowled. "Oh, they're clever enough! A passage runs off the +trap, big enough for the seal thing, but not for a killer.... Well, my +torp had gone into the trap and was stuck in one of the walls. When I +came to I reversed my engines full, but I couldn't get free. The impact +had ruined my radio. + +"Through the after peep-holes I could make out the killer in the trap +with me, lashing around like mad. The bars over the entrance were +wide-spaced enough to let the torp squeeze through--but I couldn't get +loose. + +"As I lay there, wondering what to do, I saw some more of those +blubber-men in the corridor raising the bars. They had long spears and +knives--and in ten minutes that killer was dead and the place black with +its blood. + +"Well, I thought I saw my chance. I got into my sea-suit, thinking I +maybe could dig the torp free and escape before the damned fish caught +me. I climbed out the port and was hacking at the mud bank with my +crowbar 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 get +plenty more of that." + +For most of the man's narrative his tone and manner had been sane +enough, but now again he broke out wildly. + +"And I've been here for days! Weeks! And nothing but fish to eat, and +whale meat, and pieces of ice brought for me to drink, and the darkness +and the fish smell! God, it's driven me crazy! I can't stand it any +longer, 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. "Get +control 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, you +think that? Hell, no! Put on your helmet. Look down--down under the +water--and you'll see a guard at the entrance. There's always one +there--with a spear. And every now and then he comes up, to see what I'm +doing. But no matter; now that you're here we can make a break. You've +still got your crowbar; they took mine away. I've only had my flash to +work with." + +In spite of his awful experience and intolerable predicament, Ken was +getting drowsy. He had been through much; he had been short on sleep +when he had started out. Nevertheless, he forced himself to consider +their situation. Since the blubber-men had kept Chan Beddoes a prisoner, +they would no doubt keep him one likewise. It did not mean immediate +death from suffocation, for there was air of a kind here; and food was +brought. But--imprisonment! + +All around him was damp darkness; the rocks they lay on were jagged and +slime coated all over and there were little pools of water here and +there. Gloom; awful water beneath; slimy rocks to lie on; raw whale meat +to eat; stench of rotting fish. Imprisonment! Weeks of this! Suddenly he +felt deep admiration for Beddoes in having clung to sanity so long. + +"Yes," he said slowly, "we've got to get out. But with that guard on +duty.... What's your plan?" + +The other coughed long, then began: + +"It all depends on whether they've moved my torpoon from the trap where +it stuck. You didn't see it anywhere? Well, it's got to be still in the +trap, and we've got to get to it. It'll carry both of us. The whale that +led me into the trap is dead, and we can finish prying the torp loose +with your crowbar." + +Ken nodded. "But the guard?" + +Chanley Beddoes said harshly: "I'm going to kill it!" + +Ken looked at him. His pale, drawn face was contorted; his hands +clenched and unclenched. He repeated: + +"Yes, kill it! I've a score to settle with these devils, anyway. I'll +take him unawares. One blow'll do it, if it's placed right. Then, down +the corridor and to the trap. I think I remember the way." + +Ken thought it out, and shook his head. + +"What's the matter?" Beddoes asked. + +"We'd better not," he said "Not yet. And never, if we can help it." + +"Why not?" Beddoes cried in great surprise. + +"Don't you see? They haven't really harmed us. They're friendly. Yes, +they've kept you prisoner and they'll keep me, too--but probably they +don't think that's any terrible hardship for us. And they don't realize +how much we want to get free." + +"What will we do then?" Beddoes broke in impatiently. + +"When I see the leader again I've got to get it over that we want to be +released. It's a better risk than killing this guard, anyway. They're +disposed to be friendly; but if you killed one there'd be the devil to +pay." Ken paused, and his eyes closed. He said wearily: + +"But, I'm dog tired; no sleep for twenty hours. Let me sleep an hour or +two; my head'll be much clearer and we'll talk it over." + +Chanley Beddoes said nothing. Ken yawned and stretched his body as +comfortably as he could on the slime-coated rocks. Dazed from the rush +of amazing events his eyelids closed at once, and soon his breathing +settled into a regular beat. + + * * * * * + +Perhaps half an hour later, a shape moved in the dank gloom of the +underwater cavern. The top plane of water rippled softly; little +wavelets eddied against the rocks and whispered as the shape slipped +down underneath. Then there was silence, no movement; and the water +again calmed into a black sheet, smooth as glass. For minutes it stayed +so, while Ken's deep, regular breathing stirred the air. + +Then suddenly the water's calm was broken. Through its rippling waves +the shape reappeared, rivulets streaming from it. Quickly hauling itself +up on the rocks, it clambered towards the sleeper. For a moment it +paused; then its helmet swung back, revealing Chan's tense, pale face. A +hand reached out and gripped the sleeper's arm. A voice called: + +"Ken! Wake up! Hurry!" + +Even as the words reverberated in the close bowl, the black mirror of +water stirred once more. Something pierced through and drifted idly on +the surface. It was a large brown-skinned shape, apparently lifeless. + +"Ken!" called Chan anxiously again. + +The first torpooner stirred. Out of the depths of slumber he mumbled: + +"What's the matter?" + +"We've got to shove off right now! Quick! Put on your helmet!" + +Kenneth Torrance sat up and peered through half-open eyes. He saw before +him the face of Chanley Beddoes, wild and excited. In one hand he held +the steel crowbar. And behind, on the surface of the water, floated the +motionless body of a blubber-man, its head beaten in, streamers of red +trailing from it. + +Ken said sharply: + +"You killed him? After what I told you? You fool!" + +"Yes, I killed him!" Beddoes answered brazenly. "What of it?" + +Ken said nothing for a moment. Bitter reproach trembled on his tongue, +but he did not speak the words, for Chan's mind was all too clearly on +the thin line this side of insanity. He only said: + +"Well, you've forced the issue, and we've got to leave immediately. It +may mean our death, but let's forget it. Now--how much of your air-units +is left?" + +"About two hours. I lost a lot through a leak." + +Ken took half of his own store of the little cells from his helmet. +"I'll share mine. That'll give us both sixteen hours all told--in case +we don't find your torpoon. You're sure they killed the whale in that +trap? And you know the way?" + +"I think so," said Beddoes excitedly. "You follow me." + +"All right. On helmets, then." + +The clasps were fastened down, cutting them off from spoken +communication with each other. Ken took the hand-flash and crowbar and +stuck them in his own belt, and both clumsy, grotesque figures splashed +into the water, vanished beneath its surface and ducked under the +shadowy body of the dead blubber-man. + +Below, in the dim quarter-light, Ken peered out of the entrance to the +cell chamber. The corridor seemed safe, there being only the distant +colored streaks of light-fish, and occasionally even these disappeared, +leaving heaped shadows in the darkened water. He nodded to Beddoes and +boldly they began their flight. + +Their progress was nerve-rackingly slow, in spite of their utmost +exertions. The water that retarded them at times contained unsuspected +currents that destroyed their equilibrium and sent them stroking madly +with both hands to regain it. Far different, this, than the swift, +effortless swimming of the blubber-men. Their weighted feet stumbled +often on the floor of the passage, and several times they lost balance +and fell towards the sides. Each time that this happened Ken was struck +with the fear of ripping the fabric of his sea-suit. And all the time +there was the apprehension of imminent discovery. + +At last he saw Beddoes wave an arm and enter a dim cleft a few feet +ahead in the left side of the wall. In turn he floundered through--and +just in time. From around a bend in the corridor shortly ahead there +came two blubber-men. In only a few seconds they would pass the niche +the two humans had entered. Crowbar ready, Ken flattened himself against +the sidewall, pulling his companion back with him. They waited. + + * * * * * + +The seal-men passed by--two sleek, blubbery shapes, flipper-arms and +legs weaving gracefully, bodies rolling slightly, eyes apparently +directed ahead. Close! + +They had escaped that time, but there was a disturbing thought in Ken's +mind and in Beddoes' too, perhaps--as they resumed their slow-motion +flight down the second corridor. "What if those two were going to visit +us in the cell-chamber? Once they see the dead guard, hell sure will +start to pop!" + +For a period that seemed to be measured in hours they fought their way +forward through the retarding pressure of the water. The corridor +described a long curve. They were on the last stretch--and still no +pursuit! + +"If only the torp's there!" Ken kept exclaiming in his thoughts. "Just +that!" + +"If only the torp's there!..." Had they come the right way? He had to +trust that to the memory of Beddoes. Beddoes, whose mind had clearly +been affected by his seven-day nightmare.... He shook his head. He dared +not doubt. + +They increased their pace a little. Imagination stimulated their weary +muscles. The _Narwhal_! Men of their own kind! Sun and air! Life again! +Ken could have shouted when he saw his partner stop and gesture +excitedly before a dark spot in the wall. It could be nothing but the +entrance to a trap. + +He pressed forward, flicking on his flash and making sure by the +water-waved beam it threw. But Beddoes was attending to some sight down +the corridor; and suddenly he pointed in fright. The first torpooner +looked in the indicated direction and saw what was meant. + +Approaching was a wave of menacing brown-skinned bodies, streaming +swiftly through the passage several abreast. Their escape had been +discovered. The blubber-men were coming. + +At once Ken acted, pushing Chan into the narrow opening and scrambling +after himself. They wormed along for several feet, till they emerged in +a large dark chamber at the far end of which was a big circular entrance +barred by three great pale stakes. They were certainly in a whale trap. + +Rapidly Ken played his flash around, looking for the torp, but it was +nowhere visible. To one side was an out-jutting rock with a niche +beneath it. It was a promising place and he stumbled his way there, +followed by the other. + +It was then that a most peculiar feeling came over him, a feeling that +was instantly a surge of panic. Something else was in the trap! His +flash arced around and up, and what lay revealed in its ray caused cold +shivers to run down the backs of the two men. + +Above them, just over the three-toothed outer entrance, hung a black, +sleek body, white-striped. Head-on it was, and motionless, eyeing them. +A killer whale--alive!--and poised for a lunge! + +It barred the way to the outer entrance. They could not retrace their +steps; already the round brown head of a blubber-men showed in the inner +entrance. They were trapped, front and rear, and confronted by the +deadliest animal in the sea. + +A second they watched it, frozen immobile; then the whale's great body +curved and its flukes went up, and by purest instinct the men dove for +the niche at their feet. Head to head, they arrived in it, and just in +time, for the great jaws of the killer barely missed their snap. + +As the monster curved past, the swirling water of its passage nearly +dislodged the torpooners, and they made haste to jam themselves into the +crevice as tightly as they dared for the safety of their suits. + +The whale whipped around in a narrow circle and returned. Its pointed +teeth gleamed as it snapped shut its jaws and muzzled its hard, wicked +snout into Ken's ribs. Again it circled and streaked for the niche; and, +helpless, Kenneth Torrance lay there as the beast tried to slide its +head into it. He felt more of the terrifying nuzzling of the snout. But +the creature could not dislodge him. + +"Can't bring his teeth to bear," he muttered with a certain relief. +"Niche isn't high enough. We're safe, I guess, for a couple of minutes. +Unless the blubber-men come in and kill him like they did the one Chan +followed last week." + + * * * * * + +For several minutes the sea-beast continued its frantic attempt to reach +the two humans, and then its attacks became desultory. During one +respite Ken managed to get up his flashlight and send its beam out over +the floor--and what he discovered was the essence of irony. Directly +opposite, on the floor by the wall, lay a familiar long slim shape, its +stern tipped by rudder-planes and propeller, its metal flanks gleaming +in the white ray. The torpoon. And utterly useless--a heartbreaking +jest--unless they could reach it. + +But a slight hope grew in the men at its discovery. They had come to the +right trap, after all. Probably the whale had dislodged the shell from +the wall with fluke-blows--possibly, too, the blows had sprung its seams +and opened the engine-compartment to water.... + +Ken occupied himself with the problem of how to get to it. It held their +only hope. But with all his racking his brains he could think of no way +but to make a rush for it. If he could get inside, the torp, lying flat +on the ground, would be reasonably safe from the killer until he could +get it running. + +Through the face-shields, he met his companion's eyes. The same decision +had come to both. + +There was a tiny space of muddy floor between them. Kent doused it with +light from the flash. In the mud, with a forefinger he slowly traced +these words one at a time, rubbing each one out to make room for the +next: + +"I get torp. Kill whale with gun. Only way. I go. I senior. If fail, you +try." + +He looked at the other inquiringly. Vigorously, Chanley Beddoes shook +his head. + +He smoothed over the last word Ken had marked and in its place, in the +same fashion, began: + +"No. Draw lots. Only fair." + +Yes, it was fair, and Ken knew it. He wrote: + +"How?" + +The second torpooner scrabbled around with his fingers. Presently he +unearthed something, and apparently satisfied showed them to Ken. They +were two pebbles, of different sizes. Beddoes pointed to the larger. He +wrote: + +"Large makes attempt." + +Again Ken nodded. He marked: + +"Other try keep killer's attention." + +From time to time a long sleek body slid down to them and edged back and +forth, striving its best to dislodge them with its blunt shout. After +each failure it would return to a position just over the outer entrance. +At the proper moment Chanley Beddoes jumbled the pebbles in his cupped +hands and laid two fists down on the pad. + +Unhesitatingly, Ken placed a finger on the left one. + +Beddoes turned and opened it. It was the smaller pebble. + + * * * * * + +Close as was his face-shield to Beddoes', Ken could not see what his +reaction was. Ken stretched forth his hand and clumsily touched his +companion's shoulder. + +"Good hunting!" he said; but Chan never heard that.... + +The marked man peered out into the trap. The killer was circling slowly. +In the escape hole, the faces of three or four blubber-men were dimly +visible. They seemed to be watching with interest. + +There came a good moment when the killer paused at the three bars of its +cell, its head turned in exactly the opposite direction from the two +torpooners. Beddoes seized the opportunity at once. Almost before Ken +knew it, he had rolled out of the niche. + +Quickly he worked to his feet and started pushing for his goal. The +whale had not seen him. Arms and legs straining, he floundered slowly +ahead. He nearly made it. + +But the killer, restlessly turning, saw him--and Kenneth Torrance winced +and cried out. + +The black monster struck. With horrible, beautiful grace it curved down. +Its snout caught Chanley Beddoes square in the side and butted him up +and around, and both disappeared in a swirl of water into the inky +shadows of the trap's ceiling. + +Ken closed his eyes. He knew what was happening. He could not move. But +it came to him, as he lay there sick with horror, that he would never +have a better chance than now, while the killer was occupied. + +Recklessly he forced himself out of the niche. Up above there was +commotion, a whirlpool of churning water. The current helped him: he got +caught in it and was swept sprawling right over to the torpoon's side. + +He clutched at the port, expecting each instant the tear of monster +fangs; but he made the interior and clicked shut the port. No matter the +water that had come into the main compartment with his entrance. He +pulled the starter over, and heard the familiar drone of electric +engines, safe inside their water-tight division. He felt no relief at +this. There was only the same sick horror. + +He raised the torpoon a little. There was one thing to do. Perhaps it +was mad to try to destroy that killer whale in so narrow a space, but he +was going to attempt it. It would not be so bad to join Chan, if he +failed.... + +A terrific blow struck the stern of the torpoon and spun it around +dizzily. Ken made out the killer lifting its flukes for a second blow. +Quickly he sped the torp ahead, and turned as best he could. Flashing on +his powerful bow-beam, he found the killer to his left, slightly above. +Carefully he maneuvered into firing position: then coldly, with deadly +accuracy, he centered the sights of his nitro-shell gun on the vital +spot behind the eyes. He pressed the trigger: again, and yet again. The +projectiles hurtled out. + +The monster started; its beady eyes settled on the torpoon; with a lunge +it darted forward, jaws gaping wide. And as it came another shell sped +true into the tooth-rimmed mouth. + +It halted then, and doubled in the water. Shock after shock shook the +torpoon as the shells exploded in the whale. For a little while the +sea-beast flurried, and once or twice the torp shivered from chance +fluke-blows. But then at last came peace. The body rolled over, showing +its white belly, and drifted towards the trap's ceiling.... + +The brown-skinned heads had disappeared from the inner entrance. Kenneth +Torrance glanced in that direction for a last time, then looked sadly +around. + +"So long, Chan," he murmured. "So long." + +The torpoon squeezed through the bars of the outer entrance and sped +forth into the open sea. + + * * * * * + +So it was that, perhaps an hour later, the light-beams of the whaling +submarine _Narwhal_, doggedly scouring the region where last her first +torpooner had been heard from, fell across a slim shape of steel that +was beating its way at full speed through the foggy murk of the Arctic +sea. + +Right up to the _Narwhal_ she came, swerving at the last moment and +hovering outside the starboard torpoon catapult; while, aboard the +submarine, an officer whose voice quivered with excitement roused +Captain Henry Streight from his bunk, and the men off duty gathered +around the inner catapult entrance-port. + +Quickly the outer port swung open. And the lone torpoon slid in--slid +home. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seed of the Arctic Ice, by H. G. Winter + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEED OF THE ARCTIC ICE *** + +***** This file should be named 32029-8.txt or 32029-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/0/2/32029/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/32029-8.zip b/32029-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f101d5b --- /dev/null +++ b/32029-8.zip diff --git a/32029-h.zip b/32029-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c0f8c7 --- /dev/null +++ b/32029-h.zip diff --git a/32029-h/32029-h.htm b/32029-h/32029-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e69a70 --- /dev/null +++ b/32029-h/32029-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1949 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<!-- $Id: header.txt 236 2009-12-07 18:57:00Z vlsimpson $ --> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Seed Of The Arctic Ice, by H. G. Winter. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> + +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +table { + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; +} + +.pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; +} /* page numbers */ + +.linenum { + position: absolute; + top: auto; + left: 4%; +} /* poetry number */ + +.blockquot { + margin-left: 5%; + margin-right: 10%; +} + +.sidenote { + width: 20%; + padding-bottom: .5em; + padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; + padding-right: .5em; + margin-left: 1em; + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; + color: black; + background: #eeeeee; + border: dashed 1px; +} + +.bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + +.bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + +.bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + +.br {border-right: solid 2px;} + +.bbox {border: solid 2px;} + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + +.u {text-decoration: underline;} + +.caption {font-weight: bold;} + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 1em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +.figright { + float: right; + clear: right; + margin-left: 1em; + margin-bottom: + 1em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-right: 0; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + +/* Footnotes */ +.footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + +.footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + +.footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + +.fnanchor { + vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: + none; +} + +/* Poetry */ +.poem { + margin-left:10%; + margin-right:10%; + text-align: left; +} + +.poem br {display: none;} + +.poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + +.poem span.i0 { + display: block; + margin-left: 0em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i2 { + display: block; + margin-left: 2em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + +.poem span.i4 { + display: block; + margin-left: 4em; + padding-left: 3em; + text-indent: -3em; +} + + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Seed of the Arctic Ice, by H. G. Winter + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Seed of the Arctic Ice + +Author: H. G. Winter + +Release Date: April 17, 2010 [EBook #32029] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEED OF THE ARCTIC ICE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + + +<h1>Seed of the Arctic Ice</h1> + +<h2>By H. G. Winter</h2> + +<p>[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Stories +February 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the +U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.]</p> + +<div class="sidenote">Killer whales and seal-creatures tangle Ken Torrance in an +amazing adventure under the ice-roofed arctic sea.</div> + + +<p>Sleepily the lookout stared at the scope-screen before him, wishing for +something that would break the monotony of the scene it pictured: the +schools of ghostly fish fleeting by, the occasional shafts of pale +sunlight filtering down through breaks in the ice-floes above, the long +snaky ropes of underwater growth. None of this was conducive to +wakefulness; nor did the half-speed drone of the electric engines aft +and the snores of some distant sleeper help him. The four other men on +duty in the submarine—the helmsman; the second mate, whose watch it +was; the quartermaster and the second engineer—might not have been +present, so motionless and silent were they.</p> + +<p>The lookout man stifled another yawn and glanced at a clock to see how +much more time remained of his trick. Then suddenly something on the +screen brought him to alert attention. He blinked at it; stared +hard—and thrilled.</p> + +<p>Far ahead, caught for an instant by the submarine <i>Narwhal's</i> +light-beams, a number of sleek bodies moved through the foggy murk, with +a flash of white bellies and an easy graceful thrust of flukes.</p> + +<p>The watcher's hands cupped his mouth; he turned and sang out:</p> + +<p>"K-i-i-ll-ers! I see killers!"</p> + +<p>The cry rang in every corner, and immediately there was a feverish +response. Rubbing their eyes, men appeared as if from nowhere and jumped +to posts; with a clang, the telegraph under the second mate's hand went +over to full speed; Captain Streight rolled heavily out of his bunk, +flipped his feet mechanically into sea-boots and came stamping forward. +First Torpooner Kenneth Torrance, as he sat up and stretched, heard the +usual crisp question:</p> + +<p>"Where away?"</p> + +<p>"Five points off sta'b'd bow, sir; quarter-mile away; swimming slow."</p> + +<p>"How large a school?"</p> + +<p>"Couldn't say, sir. Looks around a dozen."</p> + +<p>"Whew!" whistled Ken Torrance. "That's a strike!" He pulled on a sweater +and strode forward to the scope-screen to see for himself, even as +Captain Streight, all at once testy with eagerness, bawled:</p> + +<p>"Sta'b'd five! Torpoon ready, Mister Torrance! Mister Torr—oh, here you +are. Take a look."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Never in the two years of experience which had brought him to the +important post of first torpooner had Ken failed to thrill at the sight +which now met his eyes. Directly ahead, now that the <i>Narwhal's</i> bow was +turned in pursuit, but veering slowly to port, swam a pack of the twenty +to thirty-foot dolphins which are called "killer whales," their bodies +so close-pressed that they seemed to be an undulating wave of black, +occasionally sliced with white as the fluke-thrusts brought their +bellies into view. Their speed through the shadowed, gloomy water was +equal to the submarine's; when alarmed, it would almost double.</p> + +<p>"Three more of 'em will fill our tanks," grunted Streight, his chunky +face almost glowing. He bit on a plug of tobacco, his eyes never moving +from the screen. "Now, if only we hadn't lost Beddoes.... Y' think you +can bag three, Mister Torrance?"</p> + +<p>"Well, if three'll fill our tanks—sure!" grinned Ken.</p> + +<p>The other's eyebrows twitched suddenly. "They're speeding up!" he +shouted, and then: "That torpoon ready, there? Good." His voice lowered +again as Ken pulled his belt a notch tighter and snatched a last glimpse +of the fish before leaving. "I want you to try for three, son," he said +soberly: "but—be careful. Don't take fool chances, and keep alert. +Remember Beddoes."</p> + +<p>Ken nodded and walked to the torpoon catapult, hearing Streight's +familiar send-off echoed by the men of the crew who were nearby:</p> + +<p>"Good hunting!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The idea of an underwater craft for the pursuit of killer +whales—tremendously valuable since the discovery of valuable medicinal +qualities in their oil—had been scoffed at by the majority of the +Alaska Whaling Company's officials at the time of its suggestion, but +the <i>Narwhal</i> after her first two months of service had decisively +proved her worth. She was not restricted to the open seas, now swept +almost clean of the highly prized killers; she could follow them to +their last refuge, right beneath the floe-edges of the Arctic Circle; +and as a result she could bring back more oil than any four surface +whalers.</p> + +<p>With a cruising radius of twenty-five hundred miles, she stayed out from +the base until her torpoons had accounted for anywhere from sixty to +eighty killers. One by one these sea-animals would be taken to the +surface and there cut up and boiled down, until her tanks were full of +the precious blubber oil. Ever farther she pressed in her quest for the +fish schools, dipping for leagues into a silent sea that for ages had +been known only to the whale and the seal and their kindred; a sea +always dark and mysterious beneath its sheath of ice.</p> + +<p>The inner catapult door closed behind Kenneth Torrance, and he slid into +his torpoon. Twelve feet long, and resembling in miniature a dirigible, +was this weapon that made practical an underwater whaling craft. The +tapered stern bore long directional rudders, which curved round the +squat high-speed propeller: its smooth flanks of burnished steel were +marked only by the lines of the entrance port, which the torpooner now +drew tight and locked. Twin eyes of light-beam projectors were set in +the bow, which was cut also by a vision-plate of fused quartz and the +nitro-shell gun's tube, successor to the gun-cast harpoon.</p> + +<p>Ken lay full-length in the padded body compartment, his feet resting on +the controlling bars of the directional planes, hands on the torpoon's +engine levers. A harness was buckled all around him, to keep him in +place. His gray eyes, level and sober, peered through the vision-plate +at the outer catapult door.</p> + +<p>Suddenly a spot of red light glowed in it; the door quivered, swung out. +A black tide swirled into the chamber. There came the hiss of released +air-pressure, and the slim undersea steed rocketed out into the exterior +gloom, her light-beams flashing on and propeller settling into a blur of +speed as she was flung.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Ken turned on her full twenty-four knots, zoomed above the dark bulk of +the slower mother ship, whose light-beams flashed across him for a +second, and then straightened out in a long, slight-angled dive after +the great black bodies ahead.</p> + +<p>Aware that some strange enemy was on their track, the killers had become +panicky and were darting away at their full speed, which was only +slightly under that of the torpoon's humming motors, and which at times +even surpassed it. Ken saw that it looked like a long chase, and settled +his lean body as comfortably as he could.</p> + +<p>His mind was not concentrated on the task ahead, for the first part was +mere routine and he could follow his quarry almost mechanically. And so, +as his steel shell drove through the ever-shadowed, icy sea, he began to +think about the disappearance of Chan Beddoes, the <i>Narwhal's</i> second +torpooner.</p> + +<p>Dead, now Beddoes; it was a week since he had set out on the chase from +which he had never returned. Ken could only conjecture as to what had +stricken him down. There were countless possibilities: perhaps a blow +from a dying killer whale's flukes bursting his torpoon's seams; perhaps +a crash into underwater ice. Whatever it was, it had been sudden, for +not even a faint radioed S.O.S. had trembled into the ear-phones of the +<i>Narwhal's</i> radio-man. For two days they had held hopes that the second +torpooner still lived, as the sea-suit stored in each torp contained +air-units sufficient for thirty-six hours. But a whole week's passing +told them that that vast stretch of glacial sea was now Chan Beddoes' +grave.</p> + +<p>Ken's reflections brought an urge to get the present job over with as +quickly as possible. He squeezed another ounce of speed from the +torpoon, taxing it to the limit and setting up a slight vibration; then +he fondled the nitro-shell gun's trigger and studied the huge fish +bodies ahead.</p> + +<p>"Seems as if they're going to run forever," he muttered indignantly. +"We'll be to the Pole if they keep it up!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Already the <i>Narwhal</i> was miles behind. Through the torp's vision-plate +a scene of ever increasing mystery and gloom met his gaze. The killers' +course had brought them beneath a wide sheet of ice, apparently, for +there were no more columns of pale sunlight piercing through. The +quarter-light monotone was unbroken, save by deeper drifts of shadow, +and as he drummed through it the torpooner wondered at its lifelessness. +He discerned no more of the ghostly fish-schools that usually abounded. +Some enemy possibly had driven them from the region; but not the whale +he was pursuing, for they scorned such fare.</p> + +<p>He was scanning the surrounding murk apprehensively, when, of a sudden, +his brain and body tensed.</p> + +<p>Off to one side, far to the right, he thought he had glimpsed a figure. +It was hanging motionless, level with him; and at first it looked like a +seal. But the flippers seemed longer than a seal's; moreover, no seal +would be anywhere near a pack of killer whales; nor did they poise in an +upright position. It couldn't be a seal, he told himself. What, then? +Was it only imagination that made it appear faintly human-shaped?</p> + +<p>He strove to catch it again with staring eyes, but it was gone, leaving +only a jumbled impression of something fantastic in his mind, and the +next instant the whole thing was forgotten in the movements of the +killer school, now only a few hundred yards ahead.</p> + +<p>They suddenly began a great sweeping curve to the right, a typical +maneuver before standing for attack or breaking up. At once Ken swerved +to starboard and drove the torpoon's nose for an advance point on the +circle the fish were describing. His move swallowed the distance between +them; the sleek, thick-blubbered bodies swept close by his vision-plate, +their rush tossing the torp slightly. Twelve of them went past in a +blur, and then came the thirteenth, the invariable straggler of a +school. The thin light-beams pencilled through the darkness, outlining +the rushing black shape; Ken gripped the gun's trigger and jockeyed the +torp up a trifle in the seconds remaining, always keeping the sights +dead set on the vital spot twelve inches behind the whale's little eye.</p> + +<p>When only fifteen feet separated them he squeezed the trigger and at +once zoomed up and away to get clear of the killer's start of pain and, +if the shot were true, its following death flurry.</p> + +<p>The shell slid deep into the rich outer blubber; and, wheeling, Ken +watched the mighty mammal quiver in its forward rush. This was merely +the reaction from the pain of the shell's entrance; the nitro had not as +yet exploded.</p> + +<p>Now it did. The projectiles carried but a small charge, in order not to +rip too much the buoyant lungs and so cause the body to sink, but the +killer trembled like a jelly from the shock. The heart was reached; its +razor-sharp flukes thrashing and tooth-lined jaws clicking, the killer +wheeled with incredible speed in its death flurry. A minute later the +body shuddered a last time, then drifted slowly over, showing the white +belly. It began a gentle rise up toward the ceiling of ice.</p> + +<p>"One!" grinned Ken Torrance. He noted his position on the torpoon's +dials and gave it to the <i>Narwhal</i> by radio. They would then follow and +pick up the whale.</p> + +<p>"I'll have the second in ten minutes," he promised confidently. "Signing +off!"</p> + +<p>Again the torp darted after its prey.</p> + +<p>He found it easy, this time, to overhaul them. Not many minutes had +elapsed before he again caught sight of their rhythmically thrusting +flukes and the flash of white under-sides. Unaware that one of their +fellows had been left a lifeless carcass by the steel fish again nearing +them, they had reduced their speed somewhat.</p> + +<p>Ken angled down a hundred feet into the deeper shadows, not wanting to +apprise them of his presence. He continued at that level until the belly +of the rearmost whale rolled white above him; then he veered off to the +left, rising as he did so, in order to bring his assault to bear +directly on the killer's flanks.</p> + +<p>He swung back and streaked in for the kill. It looked like an easy one.</p> + +<p>But he was never more mistaken in his life. For, as luck had it, he had +chosen a tartar, a fighting fish—literally the "killer" which its kind +had been named.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The torpooner knew what he was in for as soon as he fired his first +shell. Its aim was bad, and instead of sinking into the flesh it merely +ripped across the whale's back, leaving a ragged, ugly scar.</p> + +<p>An ordinary whale would have been scared into panic by the wound and +doubled its speed in an effort to get away; but Ken Torrance saw this +one wheel its six-foot snout around viciously until its beady little +eyes settled on the torpoon.</p> + +<p>"I'll be damned!" he muttered. "He's turning to fight. All right, come +ahead!"</p> + +<p>He veered about and fired another shot that missed its mark by feet, but +creased the whale's flukes. At once this terrible weapon lashed +titanically up and down, and thirty feet of berserk killer came curving +towards the lone man inside his shell of steel. Ken tensed himself for +combat. He would have to keep a good distance from the fish and fire +until he got it, as a square smash from its flukes might crumple the +torp like an egg-shell.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<h3><i>Thirty feet of berserk killer came curving towards the +lone man</i>.</h3> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<p>But his foe gave him no chance. Crazy with pain and anger, it swept up +and nipped his dive for the bottom with a fluke-blow that tumbled the +torpoon over and dazed its pilot. Before he could get straightened out +it was on him again, catching him up into a wild whirlpool, butting the +shell and flashing round to get its flukes into position. With a wrench, +Ken jammed the rudder over, shoved his accelerator flat, and got free +just as the tail thrashed down. He was breathing hard and sweating as he +banked around—to see once more the whale, its wicked jaws wide open, +charging directly at him.</p> + +<p>For a moment he was unable to move. Such a mode of attack was totally +unexpected, and the sight held him fascinated. He could see the very +wrinkles of the monster's skin as it rushed in, with shadowy flukes +thrusting behind; could see the lines of dagger-like teeth, the +cavernous maw and gullet. And then all vision was blotted out as the +jaws closed around the torpoon's nose.</p> + +<p>Ken did not wait for those jaws to crunch shut. He gripped the +nitro-shell gun's trigger and squeezed it back.</p> + +<p>The weapon hissed, flung its shell. He reversed his engines to try and +tear free. Seconds dragged by with no result. Then he felt a mighty +jolt; his harness broke; and he was pitched into the torp's engine +controls.</p> + +<p>That was all he knew, save for a vague feeling of falling, falling over +and over, which was ended when a second bone-shaking shock brought +complete oblivion....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>It was darkness that met his eyes when they opened, the eery darkness of +the floor of the Polar Sea.</p> + +<p>Darkness! Half-conscious as he was, he started in surprise. He looked +for the torp's shaded control board-lights, but could not find them. +Bewildered, he wondered what had happened, and then remembered the +whale. In its flurry it had smashed him down.</p> + +<p>Pain was thumping his forehead where he had struck the control levers; +with a groan he twisted his body around and felt for his hand-flash. At +any rate, there was no water inside the body compartment. The seams had +resisted the blow. But why were there no lights?</p> + +<p>He found his hand-flash, and its beam showed him the reason. Playing it +on the small water-tight door which separated the main compartment from +that in which the machinery was contained, he looked through its fused +quartz peep-hole. He gaped in consternation.</p> + +<p>There was, after all, a leak in the torpoon's shell, and a bad one. The +machinery compartment was full of water.</p> + +<p>"Gosh!" he muttered. "That means no light, no radio—no power! Guess I'm +stranded!"</p> + +<p>He considered the situation. It was not serious, for he had been in +touch with the <i>Narwhal</i> after bagging the first whale and had given his +position. The submarine would proceed to the kill immediately; then, +after a while, not hearing from him, they would scour the neighborhood, +just as they had hunted for Chan Beddoes when he did not return.</p> + +<p>But they'd find him, Ken told himself—and soon. He had no idea how long +he had lain unconscious, but probably by now the mother ship had already +hooked onto the first whale; maybe she was already hunting for him.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'd better get out and be ready to signal to 'em with the flash," +he reflected. "They may miss me here in the mud."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Taking his sea-suit from a long narrow locker, he drew the stiff-woven +fabric over his body, turned the air-units on, clamped the face-shield +shut, and then, gripping his hand-flash, slowly opened the port in the +shell's side.</p> + +<p>A weird figure he was, fit for the mysterious gloom into which he came. +With casque of steel and lead-weighted feet, staring face-shield and +metal belt, and equipped with a knife and two or three emergency tools, +the sea-suit transformed him into a clumsy, grotesque giant. He sloshed +into the muddy sea bottom, stumbling at first from the heavy water +resistance and hardly able to see anything. The torpoon itself was a +hazy blur at a short distance, but up above the light was better, being +almost bright next to the ice ceiling. He adjusted the air pressure +inside his suit, floating his feet off the bottom. A few clumsy +armstrokes and he went drifting gently upward.</p> + +<p>Knowing that the "bends"—bubbles of air in a diver's veins—come from +too rapidly changing pressures when rising, he made his ascent +carefully. Up twenty feet, then a pause; twenty feet more and another +pause. So he rose some ninety feet, and finally arrived at the underside +of the ice floe.</p> + +<p>Here he found the water a pale blue-green, increasing, at the limit of +his vision, to impenetrable black. Nearby was a great dark blur which he +recognized as the killer whale that had struck him down. It bobbed +lifelessly against the smooth, light ceiling of ice. Slowly, he swam +over towards it.</p> + +<p>There was no mark of the havoc his last shot must have wreaked inside. +He examined the body with interest, fingering the two inch-long teeth, +which even the mighty sperm whale fears and flees from.</p> + +<p>"Pretty wicked," he said aloud, just for the companionship of his voice. +"And there's a lot of oil in this brute. Streight'll be glad to get him. +Maybe he won't need a third to fill the tanks."</p> + +<p>Thought of his captain made him look up and around, hoping to see the +<i>Narwhal's</i> light-beams come threading through the distant murk. He did +not see them, but what he did see caused his mouth to drop open, and his +veins to chill with a cold that was not that of the sea nor the ice +above.</p> + +<p>"Good Lord!" he whispered. "That thing—again!"</p> + +<p>Like a specter from the deep, some hundred feet away was a form, +seal-like in appearance, yet not wholly seal. It poised there +motionless, apparently looking straight at him.</p> + +<p>Fear came over Ken as he studied it. Its body was perhaps ten feet long, +and sleek and fat under a brown-colored hide. But its flippers were not +those of a seal; they were too long and slender, especially the hind +ones. They unquestionably bore a remote resemblance to human arms and +legs.</p> + +<p>"Yet it can't be anything but some kind of seal," Ken whispered to +himself. "It must be!"</p> + +<p>But then, too, it did not have the ordinary seal's bullet head, set +squat between smoothly tapering shoulders, but rather something bulbous, +half like that of a man, in spite of the layers of fat that stream-lined +from it to the broad shoulders. It did have, however, two large, staring +eyes, and slitted holes inches below them for nostrils—which showed +that it breathed air and was therefore warm-blooded.</p> + +<p>Quite motionless, each stared at the other, while minutes passed. Then +the creature moved slowly up and forward, impelled by a graceful and +hardly perceptible roll of its queer flippers. Very gradually it came +towards Kenneth Torrance; and he, peering with fear-tinged curiosity at +the animal's bold advance, saw two creases of fat that must have been +lips slide open in the smooth brown face, baring strong, pointed teeth.</p> + +<p>Not knowing whether it was an attack or merely inquisitiveness, he +unsheathed his knife. At this the figure stopped and poised motionless +again, perhaps fifty feet away, and after a moment turned its sleek head +first to the left and then to the right. Automatically, Ken gazed around +likewise. He drew in his breath with a sharp hiss.</p> + +<p>Like shadows, additional figures had appeared in the distant murk. +Silently they had come; he could see eleven—twelve—even more. He was +surrounded! No longer doubting their purpose, he gripped his knife +firmly. He knew he could never get down to the torpoon in time.</p> + +<p>And then the circle began to close.</p> + +<p>There was little he could do to resist them, he realized, for what he +had seen of their movements told him that they were swift, effortless +swimmers. But he braced himself as best he could against the dead whale, +to protect his back. He would at least go down fighting.</p> + +<p>As their spectral shapes slid slowly closer he noted something that had +escaped his eyes before. Four or five of them were holding dim objects +in their arm-like flippers. Spears, he made them out to be, rudely +fashioned from bone. And others held dark-colored loops, which they were +slowly forming into nooses.</p> + +<p>"They're intelligent, all right," Ken muttered. "Spears—of whalebone, I +guess. And ropes—probably seaweed. Weapons! Good Lord, what kind of +seals are these?"</p> + +<p>Easily, gracefully, the silent circle drew in to perhaps twenty feet of +him, where they paused again, hanging motionless at regular intervals in +the eery, wavering half-light. Ken licked his lips nervously. Then the +one whom he had seen first moved its head slightly, in what was +apparently a signal. And in a concerted movement, so bewilderingly rapid +that his eyes could not hold them, they rushed him.</p> + +<p>He had expected speed, but not speed such as this. He had barely swung +his knife-arm up when the wave engulfed him.</p> + +<p>Doubling, curving shapes looped around him; blubbery bodies pressed +against him; eyes flashed by in streaks of brown; he knew that he was +being tumbled and tossed and that his knife and hand-flash had fallen +under the shock of the attack. And then there was a sharper sensation. +As he struggled to break free, taut cords trussed his legs and arms like +any captive animal's.</p> + +<p>The stream of moving bodies slowed in movement and fell back from a +breathless, dazed Kenneth Torrance. He then got his first clear view +since the assault was unleashed.</p> + +<p>He was upright, many feet away from the killer whale's carcass, his arms +bound strongly to his sides with seaweed-rope, his legs locked close +together. To one side he glimpsed several of the creatures fastening +other rope strands to the whale's flukes. When they had finished, with +smoothly thrusting flippers they began to haul the carcass forward, and +he felt himself move feet first in the same direction.</p> + +<p>He forced a wry smile to his lips. "A swell fight I put up!" he grunted. +"Hold 'em off! Yeah—I bet I held 'em for a full tenth of a second."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>He still could hardly believe what had so rapidly befallen him. It was +difficult to credit eyes that showed him creatures whose bodies were +mainly seal-like, and yet whose weapons and co-ördinated movements spoke +for human intelligence. But they were certainly real. At his feet he +could feel the pressure of a guard's flippers against him.</p> + +<p>He was towed in this fashion for some distance when the pressure of the +flippers suddenly tightened and he was pulled into a deep-angled swoop +toward the sea-bottom below. Previously he had seen his captors' amazing +speed, but now he felt it. Down and down he went, and at last, when it +seemed he must crash into the sea floor, his momentum was quickly +checked, and he found himself standing in the mud, from which position, +lacking support from his guard, he drifted to a horizontal one, face up. +And there, lying helpless on the bottom, he saw the reason for the +sudden dive. Far to the right, piercing faintly through the murk, were +two faint interweaving beams of white that preceded a slowly moving dark +bulk.</p> + +<p>The <i>Narwhal</i>! Wild hopes of rescue coursed through him.</p> + +<p>Dimly, as he watched the beams, he was aware of the rest of the +creatures dropping down, guiding between them the whale's carcass. Then +a firm pressure was applied to his side, and he was rolled over, face +down in the mud. Unable any longer to see his ship, his momentary vision +of rescue vanished.</p> + +<p>"Hopeless, I guess," he muttered despairingly. The darkness on the +sea-floor was too thick, the wavering shadows too deceptive. And his +hand-flash and knife were gone—probably knocked from his grasp during +the struggle, he thought.</p> + +<p>He realized that the seal-like animals were lying low until the +submarine passed, its size having awed them. The color of the bodies +blended perfectly with the gloom, as did that of his own sea-suit. His +bonds prevented him from making even the slightest movement to attract +attention.</p> + +<p>Torturing thoughts raced through the torpooner's brain. He saw, in his +mind's eye, straight above, a hazy bulk, with shimmering columns of +white angling from its nose. His imagination pictured for him the warm, +well-lit interior, and the bunks—the coffee steaming on the fire, the +men at their posts and Streight's anxious, beefy face. He saw it all as +plainly as if he were inside, cracking jokes with one of the engineers.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The minutes passed. The <i>Narwhal</i> must now be gone. Ken's cheek muscles +stood out as he pressed his teeth together. "Well, go on!" he exploded +in impotent rage. "What are you waiting for? Kill me! Eat me if you're +going to!" And he cursed the silent forms around him till his ears hurt +from the reverberation.</p> + +<p>After the <i>Narwhal</i> had vanished in the gloom, the torpooner's captors +lifted him from the bottom and propelled him leisurely forward again, +the slight, graceful roll of their flippers slipping them along +smoothly.</p> + +<p>A dull hopelessness came over him. No longer could he hope that his +submarine would find him. Only one thing was certain, and that was that +death would soon come. For even if his captors did not kill him at once, +he had but thirty-six hours before his air-units would be exhausted. +Certainly, having captured him, the seal-creatures would not release +him. And it was too much to expect them to realize that his sea-unit was +only an artificial covering which enabled him to live underwater, and +not his own flesh and blood.</p> + +<p>And as for the chance of breaking loose—the idea was laughable. His +speed was snail-like in comparison with theirs. Even if he did manage +somehow to get away, what good would it do? How could he, a puny, +helpless mite, ever hope to locate the <i>Narwhal</i> in this vast sweep of +Arctic sea? His torpoon was wrecked, and he had no means of +communication.</p> + +<p>His situation was quite hopeless.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Far ahead, a dark shape grew in the foggy murk, and as they neared, +spread upwards and outwards. They angled up and up; the sea-floor was +higher there. Ken, peering as best he could, made out that the +mountainous, looming bulk was the face of a giant underwater mound, +whose uneven formation indicated that it was the result of some +long-past upheaval. It was the first of a rolling series of such +hillocks, six or seven in all, stretching back into the gloom. Their +rounded peaks reached to within a few feet of the water's ice-sheathed +surface. Surely the creatures' home was among these mounds.</p> + +<p>He was skirted round the base of the first hillock and caught a glimpse +of something in its face which was apparently of his captors' +construction. It was a hole, dark, mysterious, perhaps fifteen feet in +diameter, and barring it were three great gray stakes, reaching from top +to bottom. Behind the stakes, Ken got a jumbled impression of a body, +large and sleek, of black streaked with white, that moved restlessly +back and forth in the hole and occasionally seemed to lash out in anger. +He wondered what it was. Before long, he knew.</p> + +<p>The party of seal-creatures stopped before the second of the row of +hillocks. In its face, too, was a hole—a well of blackness—but with no +stakes across it. He twisted his head back and saw the carcass of the +killer whale he had slain being guided up to the entrance and shoved +through. Then, from the upper rim of the hole, three stakes similar to +the others he had seen slid down and barred it.</p> + +<p>"Storehouses!" he muttered. "Storehouses, I'll bet anything. And killer +whales are their food. They keep 'em in the holes until they're needed. +But I'll swear it was a live whale I saw in the first one—and how in +the dickens could they capture a mighty killer with their dinky spears +and ropes?"</p> + +<p>There he had to leave the question, for its answer implied greater +intelligence in the creatures than he would admit.</p> + +<p>Intelligence—in seals!</p> + +<p>And now he was guided smoothly forward to the third hillock, where the +leaders of the group glided through a V-shaped cleft in its face. His +guards brought him along behind.</p> + +<p>A wry smile twisted Kenneth Torrance's lips. To him, the cleft was more +than an entranceway. To him it signified the beginning of the hopeless, +lonely end of his life....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The cleft led into a corridor, and the corridor was softly illuminated +with a peculiar light whose source he could not discover. It served to +show him a passageway that was wide rather than tall, and gouged from +the firm, clayey soil by blunt tools that had left uneven marks. +Straight ahead it led, and, as they continued, the mysterious +illumination brightened, until suddenly, rounding a turn, its source +appeared.</p> + +<p>Like will-o'-the-wisps, a score of arrows of light flashed softly into +view down the corridor. They were of delicate green and orange and +yellow, glowing and luminous, and hovering like humming birds between +floor and ceiling. Ken looked at them in some alarm until his nearer +approach showed him what they were, and then he exclaimed in amazement:</p> + +<p>"Why—they're fish! Living electric bulbs!"</p> + +<p>A school of slender, ten-inch fish they were, each one a radiant, +shimmering, lacey-finned gem of orange or green or yellow. In concert +they shot to the ceiling over the party of seal-creatures, who still +swam impassively ahead, paying no attention to them, and from there +scattered in quick darts in all directions, showering the cortege with +washes of spectral luminosity. Then the corridor crooked again, and with +one simultaneous movement they were gone. And the scene that lay +revealed before Kenneth Torrance took his breath from him.</p> + +<p>In the passageway he had seen a score of the living jewels; now he +beheld hundreds. He peered up at a shimmering sheet of brilliance, +composed of hundreds of the slender refulgent fish, all swimming in slow +rotation. Below them was a large cavern, which he guessed had been +created by hollowing out one of the underwater hillocks. The sides were +rounded, and pitted with holes that represented other passageways, +showing dark against the luminosity from above. And streaming out from +these dark holes of corridors came dozens of the seal-creatures, +gathering in response to some unheard, unseen signal that had called +them to witness the strange captive their fellows had brought in....</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Ken's guards gripped him more firmly and he was guided forward and +downward to the smooth black floor of soil.</p> + +<p>Scores of large, placid eyes stared at him from the slowly undulating, +brown-skinned bodies packed close about him. The sight was so weird, so +beyond his imagination, that he laughed a little hysterically.</p> + +<p>"Dreaming!" he said. "Dreaming! But what a dream!"</p> + +<p>Silently, a space cleared in the center of the horde. His bonds were +taken away, the guards released his arms and he righted himself and +stood there on braced legs, the object of a concerted gaze.</p> + +<p>This, the torpooner felt, was the crucial period. Something was about to +be decided. If it looked bad he would make a wild—and of course, +futile—break for freedom, and die quickly when they punctured his suit. +But meanwhile he would stick things out. Anything might happen in that +fantastic convocation.</p> + +<p>There came a stir in the tiers of brown bodies. An aisle cleared, and +down it a single seal-creature glided slowly towards Ken +Torrance—undoubtedly the leader of the herd, ruler of the underwater +labyrinth.</p> + +<p>Gracefully the creature glided up to the lone human, and when only a +foot away extended one of its long upper flippers so that its webbed +edge rested on his sea-suit's casque. And its placid brown eyes hung +close to the face-shield and gazed through inquisitively, intelligently! +Intelligently! No longer did Kenneth Torrance doubt that. As he held +absolutely motionless under the close-searching scrutiny, his brain rang +with the conviction that this creature, this thing of blubbery body and +long, webbed flipper-arms and legs—this brown-skinned denizen of the +Arctic underseas was, with all its fellows, related to him, a man of the +upper world.</p> + +<p>Men they were; or, rather, blubber-men!</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Previously he had marveled at something suggestively human-like in their +appearance; now he recognized human intelligence in his observer's +peering brown eyes and questing movements of the flipper over his head +casque and suit. Warm red blood flowed in its blubber-sheathed body; an +intelligent brain lay in the fat round head. And why not?</p> + +<p>Whales, ages ago, were land mammals, animals that walked on the soil of +the dim, early world. They had taken to the seas in quest of food, had +stayed there and never returned; and Nature had guarded their bodies +against the cold and great depths by giving them layer upon layer of +oily blubber. The ancestors of these creatures before him might well +have lived on the soil, walked and run as he did; then, when the ice +came, taken to the sea and made a new home for themselves.</p> + +<p>They had enticed the splendent light-fish into their caverns to give +illumination. Intelligence almost human. A brain not as highly developed +as man's, but a human brain!</p> + +<p>Ken Torrance had been almost apathetic toward his eventual fate, but +suddenly, now, a great hope came to him—and twin with it, on its heels, +came fear. If, or since, this creature inspecting him had an +intelligent, human brain, in some way he might be able to correspond +with it. He might be able to show that his real body was inside the +sea-suit; that he had to have air; that he would die if he were kept +underwater, that he could not survive as a prisoner. These creatures +appeared to be friendly; seemed to wish him no harm. If he could show +them that he was a man of the upper world, they might let him go.</p> + +<p>If he could do it! He had to make known to the herd leader that he +breathed air, and that he'd die if they didn't release him at once. On +that depended life and death.</p> + +<p>Ken trembled as he cast about for some way of putting over his idea, and +then the plan came. Smiling through his face-shield at the brown eyes so +close, he drew back slowly and took out a short steel crowbar from the +belt at his waist. He bent over and made a line on the soft floor.</p> + +<p>All eyes watched him; every creature held motionless, apparently +interested, eager to understand. Under his suit-clad figure the crowbar +traced a rude outline of a man in a sea-suit. The torpooner pointed to +the drawing and then fingered his suit, repeating the gesture several +times. Then he drew another figure in the soil, this one intended to +represent him without the sea-suit. It was not as bulky; the features +were sharper and thinner. Ken pointed to the twin dots standing for +eyes, then tapped his face-shield; he did this again and again.</p> + +<p>For a moment the leader did not move; but then he slid forward and +stared through the shield. Rapidly Ken opened and closed his eyes, and +pointed again to the dots on the drawing's face.</p> + +<p>"Eyes! Eyes!" he said excitedly, voicing the thought his brain was +making. "Eyes—inside the suit! The suit's not me; I'm inside! Eyes!" He +waited for a reaction, tense and strained. The blubber-man reached out +one flipper-arm and took the steel bar from his hand.</p> + +<p>A thrill ran through him as the creature dipped its body down and began +to draw in the soil. Laboriously, crudely, he outlined another sea-suit, +and on the circle representing the face-shield marked two dots—eyes.</p> + +<p>"He's getting it!" Ken cried.</p> + +<p>The blubber-man went on drawing. He sketched a second suit, similar in +all respects, and looked up at the torpooner, inquiringly, it seemed.</p> + +<p>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 that +corridor to show them that I want to go, and if—"</p> + +<p>But before he could stir, the leader of the blubber-men, with one quick +gesture, summoned two creatures from the innermost circle. Swiftly they +placed themselves alongside Kenneth Torrance, lifted him and bore him +forward, right across the cavern to another of the passageway-entrances.</p> + +<p>It was so sudden that for a moment Ken could not think clearly. What had +happened? Were they releasing him? Or was he still to be kept a +prisoner? No doubt the latter. And he had been so sure that he was +communicating with the blubber-man's brain!</p> + +<p>His lips pressed tight in a hard white line. It was a tough blow to +take.</p> + +<p>"Well, that's that," he said. "It was all imagination."</p> + +<p>He did not know that his drawings <i>had</i> signified something to the +leader of the herd—that each had mistaken the meaning of the other. Nor +did he have any inkling of the greatest surprise of all that now lay +just before him.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The surprise lay in another cavern.</p> + +<p>A quick turn through a cleft-like entrance brought them into it. The +room was only a fraction of the size of the central meeting place, and +its light, from but several of the light-fish, was dim and vague, barely +enabling Ken to see what looked like a pile of rocks in the chamber, +heaping upwards. The ceiling was flat and strangely blurred, a rippling +veil. As he wondered what caused this, his guards lifted him rapidly +towards it, up alongside the rocks.</p> + +<p>Not only towards it, but through it! His head-casque pierced through; +rivulets of water gurgled off it—and he realized that the blurred veil +he had seen was the top plane of the water, which only filled +three-quarters of the cavern.</p> + +<p>Surprise left him breathless. At first he could see nothing, could only +feel that his shoulders were above water. Then he was pushed slowly +upward until he rested almost completely above the surface. How did the +cavern come to be but part-filled with water? he wondered. And was this +dim emptiness around him air? Could he breathe it?</p> + +<p>Then he was vaguely aware of a presence on the top of the rock heap. He +sensed rather than heard a stir of movement. Then suddenly a ray of +light stabbed through the darkness and impinged on his +head-casque—white, electric, man-made light!</p> + +<p>And there came to his ears, muffled by the suit and distorted by echoes, +a call that sounded like his own name!</p> + +<p>"Ken! Is it you, Ken?"</p> + +<p>Bewildered, he motioned the blinding light to one side. It turned upward +and backward, and in its glare a face suddenly appeared out of the +darkness.</p> + +<p>"Good God!" Kenneth Torrance cried.</p> + +<p>It was a pale, drawn face, stubbled with beard, and its eyes were wild.</p> + +<p>It was the face of Chanley Beddoes, the lost second torpooner of the +<i>Narwhal</i>.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Ken stared, his body rigid. Chan Beddoes! The dead brought back! So it +at first seemed. And here, in a cavern of the blubber-men!</p> + +<p>He pulled himself further up on the rock pile, unfastened the clasps on +his helmet and took it off—for Beddoes wore none, and that meant the +space was filled with breathable air.</p> + +<p>"Chan!" he said. "And we were sure you were dead!"</p> + +<p>A high-pitched, hysterical voice cried in answer!</p> + +<p>"It's you, Ken! They got you too! Oh, but it's good to see you! It's +been so lonely, so dark.... You are there, Ken? I'm not just dreaming +again?"</p> + +<p>Ken realized that the other's nerves were shot, and he replied gently:</p> + +<p>"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'll +save our units. How ever do they get it down here?" He asked the +question in hope of steadying Beddoes; giving his mind something +definite to occupy it.</p> + +<p>A soft ripple sounded just then; looking round, Ken saw that his two +guards had slipped back beneath the water, leaving them alone.</p> + +<p>Chan Beddoes' helmet was off, but the rest of his body was still clad in +a sea-suit. He half squatted on the rocks, his face raised and peering +at the first torpooner fearfully, as if afraid he would disappear as +suddenly as he had come. The beam of light came from a hand-flash held +in his hand. Scattered around were pieces of whitish meat—fish—and the +air was sickening with its smell. Ten feet above was the chamber's domed +ceiling, from which water kept dripping to the slimy rocks below.</p> + +<p>"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. I +think they sleep in rooms like this." His voice rose with hysteria. +"Ken, they're seals and yet they're human! Human, down here! They have +arms and legs and they breathe air, like whales—and they've kept me +here for weeks, years—I don't know! They're devils! It's been so dark +and cold and—and—" He began to cough painfully.</p> + +<p>"I know," Ken told him sympathetically. "Steady, man. How did you get +here? How did they catch you?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Beddoes' eyes wandered. He sucked his lips.</p> + +<p>"I can't remember," he said. "No. Yes! We left the <i>Narwhal</i>, both of +us, chasing those killers. They broke up and we went after different +ones, and I lost sight of you.</p> + +<p>"I chased mine for a long time, and when I fired I only wounded him. He +went like hell, and I after him. After half an hour I was ready to give +up; I couldn't get close enough. God! Ready to return! To the submarine! +To life!"</p> + +<p>His voice broke, and he paused until he was able to go on.</p> + +<p>"Then I saw another shape ahead of the whale. A queer looking thing—one +of these human seals, though I didn't know it then. It seemed to be +fleeing from the killer, just as the killer was from me. There was +something big and dark ahead—a shadow, I thought, and kept my eyes on +the whale. And the next second my torpoon crashed and I was knocked +cold.</p> + +<p>"It's a deliberate scheme," he went on at a tangent. "The seal things +get a killer chasing them and lead it towards the traps they've got in +the sides of these hillocks. They dart in and the whale follows; then +bars drop over the entrance and they've got the killer trapped. They eat +them."</p> + +<p>"But how does the blubber-man get out?" Ken asked.</p> + +<p>Beddoes scowled. "Oh, they're clever enough! A passage runs off the +trap, big enough for the seal thing, but not for a killer.... Well, my +torp had gone into the trap and was stuck in one of the walls. When I +came to I reversed my engines full, but I couldn't get free. The impact +had ruined my radio.</p> + +<p>"Through the after peep-holes I could make out the killer in the trap +with me, lashing around like mad. The bars over the entrance were +wide-spaced enough to let the torp squeeze through—but I couldn't get +loose.</p> + +<p>"As I lay there, wondering what to do, I saw some more of those +blubber-men in the corridor raising the bars. They had long spears and +knives—and in ten minutes that killer was dead and the place black with +its blood.</p> + +<p>"Well, I thought I saw my chance. I got into my sea-suit, thinking I +maybe could dig the torp free and escape before the damned fish caught +me. I climbed out the port and was hacking at the mud bank with my +crowbar when a rope slipped over my head and they had me."</p> + +<p>Ken nodded. "They got me in the same way," he said.</p> + +<p>"And gave you the once-over in the big room," Chan declared. "You'll get +plenty more of that."</p> + +<p>For most of the man's narrative his tone and manner had been sane +enough, but now again he broke out wildly.</p> + +<p>"And I've been here for days! Weeks! And nothing but fish to eat, and +whale meat, and pieces of ice brought for me to drink, and the darkness +and the fish smell! God, it's driven me crazy! I can't stand it any +longer, Ken, and I won't. I've got to get out right away or kill myself. +I've got to!"</p> + +<p>Ken gripped his shoulders and shook. "Steady!" he said sharply. "Get +control over yourself!"</p> + +<p>"Steady!" Beddoes gasped. "You don't know how long I've kept control! +Waiting and hoping, for a chance. One little chance to escape!"</p> + +<p>"Why haven't you tried before? Don't they leave you alone here?"</p> + +<p>Chanley Beddoes laughed harshly. "Just because you can't see them, you +think that? Hell, no! Put on your helmet. Look down—down under the +water—and you'll see a guard at the entrance. There's always one +there—with a spear. And every now and then he comes up, to see what I'm +doing. But no matter; now that you're here we can make a break. You've +still got your crowbar; they took mine away. I've only had my flash to +work with."</p> + +<p>In spite of his awful experience and intolerable predicament, Ken was +getting drowsy. He had been through much; he had been short on sleep +when he had started out. Nevertheless, he forced himself to consider +their situation. Since the blubber-men had kept Chan Beddoes a prisoner, +they would no doubt keep him one likewise. It did not mean immediate +death from suffocation, for there was air of a kind here; and food was +brought. But—imprisonment!</p> + +<p>All around him was damp darkness; the rocks they lay on were jagged and +slime coated all over and there were little pools of water here and +there. Gloom; awful water beneath; slimy rocks to lie on; raw whale meat +to eat; stench of rotting fish. Imprisonment! Weeks of this! Suddenly he +felt deep admiration for Beddoes in having clung to sanity so long.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said slowly, "we've got to get out. But with that guard on +duty.... What's your plan?"</p> + +<p>The other coughed long, then began:</p> + +<p>"It all depends on whether they've moved my torpoon from the trap where +it stuck. You didn't see it anywhere? Well, it's got to be still in the +trap, and we've got to get to it. It'll carry both of us. The whale that +led me into the trap is dead, and we can finish prying the torp loose +with your crowbar."</p> + +<p>Ken nodded. "But the guard?"</p> + +<p>Chanley Beddoes said harshly: "I'm going to kill it!"</p> + +<p>Ken looked at him. His pale, drawn face was contorted; his hands +clenched and unclenched. He repeated:</p> + +<p>"Yes, kill it! I've a score to settle with these devils, anyway. I'll +take him unawares. One blow'll do it, if it's placed right. Then, down +the corridor and to the trap. I think I remember the way."</p> + +<p>Ken thought it out, and shook his head.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" Beddoes asked.</p> + +<p>"We'd better not," he said "Not yet. And never, if we can help it."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" Beddoes cried in great surprise.</p> + +<p>"Don't you see? They haven't really harmed us. They're friendly. Yes, +they've kept you prisoner and they'll keep me, too—but probably they +don't think that's any terrible hardship for us. And they don't realize +how much we want to get free."</p> + +<p>"What will we do then?" Beddoes broke in impatiently.</p> + +<p>"When I see the leader again I've got to get it over that we want to be +released. It's a better risk than killing this guard, anyway. They're +disposed to be friendly; but if you killed one there'd be the devil to +pay." Ken paused, and his eyes closed. He said wearily:</p> + +<p>"But, I'm dog tired; no sleep for twenty hours. Let me sleep an hour or +two; my head'll be much clearer and we'll talk it over."</p> + +<p>Chanley Beddoes said nothing. Ken yawned and stretched his body as +comfortably as he could on the slime-coated rocks. Dazed from the rush +of amazing events his eyelids closed at once, and soon his breathing +settled into a regular beat.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Perhaps half an hour later, a shape moved in the dank gloom of the +underwater cavern. The top plane of water rippled softly; little +wavelets eddied against the rocks and whispered as the shape slipped +down underneath. Then there was silence, no movement; and the water +again calmed into a black sheet, smooth as glass. For minutes it stayed +so, while Ken's deep, regular breathing stirred the air.</p> + +<p>Then suddenly the water's calm was broken. Through its rippling waves +the shape reappeared, rivulets streaming from it. Quickly hauling itself +up on the rocks, it clambered towards the sleeper. For a moment it +paused; then its helmet swung back, revealing Chan's tense, pale face. A +hand reached out and gripped the sleeper's arm. A voice called:</p> + +<p>"Ken! Wake up! Hurry!"</p> + +<p>Even as the words reverberated in the close bowl, the black mirror of +water stirred once more. Something pierced through and drifted idly on +the surface. It was a large brown-skinned shape, apparently lifeless.</p> + +<p>"Ken!" called Chan anxiously again.</p> + +<p>The first torpooner stirred. Out of the depths of slumber he mumbled:</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?"</p> + +<p>"We've got to shove off right now! Quick! Put on your helmet!"</p> + +<p>Kenneth Torrance sat up and peered through half-open eyes. He saw before +him the face of Chanley Beddoes, wild and excited. In one hand he held +the steel crowbar. And behind, on the surface of the water, floated the +motionless body of a blubber-man, its head beaten in, streamers of red +trailing from it.</p> + +<p>Ken said sharply:</p> + +<p>"You killed him? After what I told you? You fool!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I killed him!" Beddoes answered brazenly. "What of it?"</p> + +<p>Ken said nothing for a moment. Bitter reproach trembled on his tongue, +but he did not speak the words, for Chan's mind was all too clearly on +the thin line this side of insanity. He only said:</p> + +<p>"Well, you've forced the issue, and we've got to leave immediately. It +may mean our death, but let's forget it. Now—how much of your air-units +is left?"</p> + +<p>"About two hours. I lost a lot through a leak."</p> + +<p>Ken took half of his own store of the little cells from his helmet. +"I'll share mine. That'll give us both sixteen hours all told—in case +we don't find your torpoon. You're sure they killed the whale in that +trap? And you know the way?"</p> + +<p>"I think so," said Beddoes excitedly. "You follow me."</p> + +<p>"All right. On helmets, then."</p> + +<p>The clasps were fastened down, cutting them off from spoken +communication with each other. Ken took the hand-flash and crowbar and +stuck them in his own belt, and both clumsy, grotesque figures splashed +into the water, vanished beneath its surface and ducked under the +shadowy body of the dead blubber-man.</p> + +<p>Below, in the dim quarter-light, Ken peered out of the entrance to the +cell chamber. The corridor seemed safe, there being only the distant +colored streaks of light-fish, and occasionally even these disappeared, +leaving heaped shadows in the darkened water. He nodded to Beddoes and +boldly they began their flight.</p> + +<p>Their progress was nerve-rackingly slow, in spite of their utmost +exertions. The water that retarded them at times contained unsuspected +currents that destroyed their equilibrium and sent them stroking madly +with both hands to regain it. Far different, this, than the swift, +effortless swimming of the blubber-men. Their weighted feet stumbled +often on the floor of the passage, and several times they lost balance +and fell towards the sides. Each time that this happened Ken was struck +with the fear of ripping the fabric of his sea-suit. And all the time +there was the apprehension of imminent discovery.</p> + +<p>At last he saw Beddoes wave an arm and enter a dim cleft a few feet +ahead in the left side of the wall. In turn he floundered through—and +just in time. From around a bend in the corridor shortly ahead there +came two blubber-men. In only a few seconds they would pass the niche +the two humans had entered. Crowbar ready, Ken flattened himself against +the sidewall, pulling his companion back with him. They waited.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>The seal-men passed by—two sleek, blubbery shapes, flipper-arms and +legs weaving gracefully, bodies rolling slightly, eyes apparently +directed ahead. Close!</p> + +<p>They had escaped that time, but there was a disturbing thought in Ken's +mind and in Beddoes' too, perhaps—as they resumed their slow-motion +flight down the second corridor. "What if those two were going to visit +us in the cell-chamber? Once they see the dead guard, hell sure will +start to pop!"</p> + +<p>For a period that seemed to be measured in hours they fought their way +forward through the retarding pressure of the water. The corridor +described a long curve. They were on the last stretch—and still no +pursuit!</p> + +<p>"If only the torp's there!" Ken kept exclaiming in his thoughts. "Just +that!"</p> + +<p>"If only the torp's there!..." Had they come the right way? He had to +trust that to the memory of Beddoes. Beddoes, whose mind had clearly +been affected by his seven-day nightmare.... He shook his head. He dared +not doubt.</p> + +<p>They increased their pace a little. Imagination stimulated their weary +muscles. The <i>Narwhal</i>! Men of their own kind! Sun and air! Life again! +Ken could have shouted when he saw his partner stop and gesture +excitedly before a dark spot in the wall. It could be nothing but the +entrance to a trap.</p> + +<p>He pressed forward, flicking on his flash and making sure by the +water-waved beam it threw. But Beddoes was attending to some sight down +the corridor; and suddenly he pointed in fright. The first torpooner +looked in the indicated direction and saw what was meant.</p> + +<p>Approaching was a wave of menacing brown-skinned bodies, streaming +swiftly through the passage several abreast. Their escape had been +discovered. The blubber-men were coming.</p> + +<p>At once Ken acted, pushing Chan into the narrow opening and scrambling +after himself. They wormed along for several feet, till they emerged in +a large dark chamber at the far end of which was a big circular entrance +barred by three great pale stakes. They were certainly in a whale trap.</p> + +<p>Rapidly Ken played his flash around, looking for the torp, but it was +nowhere visible. To one side was an out-jutting rock with a niche +beneath it. It was a promising place and he stumbled his way there, +followed by the other.</p> + +<p>It was then that a most peculiar feeling came over him, a feeling that +was instantly a surge of panic. Something else was in the trap! His +flash arced around and up, and what lay revealed in its ray caused cold +shivers to run down the backs of the two men.</p> + +<p>Above them, just over the three-toothed outer entrance, hung a black, +sleek body, white-striped. Head-on it was, and motionless, eyeing them. +A killer whale—alive!—and poised for a lunge!</p> + +<p>It barred the way to the outer entrance. They could not retrace their +steps; already the round brown head of a blubber-men showed in the inner +entrance. They were trapped, front and rear, and confronted by the +deadliest animal in the sea.</p> + +<p>A second they watched it, frozen immobile; then the whale's great body +curved and its flukes went up, and by purest instinct the men dove for +the niche at their feet. Head to head, they arrived in it, and just in +time, for the great jaws of the killer barely missed their snap.</p> + +<p>As the monster curved past, the swirling water of its passage nearly +dislodged the torpooners, and they made haste to jam themselves into the +crevice as tightly as they dared for the safety of their suits.</p> + +<p>The whale whipped around in a narrow circle and returned. Its pointed +teeth gleamed as it snapped shut its jaws and muzzled its hard, wicked +snout into Ken's ribs. Again it circled and streaked for the niche; and, +helpless, Kenneth Torrance lay there as the beast tried to slide its +head into it. He felt more of the terrifying nuzzling of the snout. But +the creature could not dislodge him.</p> + +<p>"Can't bring his teeth to bear," he muttered with a certain relief. +"Niche isn't high enough. We're safe, I guess, for a couple of minutes. +Unless the blubber-men come in and kill him like they did the one Chan +followed last week."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>For several minutes the sea-beast continued its frantic attempt to reach +the two humans, and then its attacks became desultory. During one +respite Ken managed to get up his flashlight and send its beam out over +the floor—and what he discovered was the essence of irony. Directly +opposite, on the floor by the wall, lay a familiar long slim shape, its +stern tipped by rudder-planes and propeller, its metal flanks gleaming +in the white ray. The torpoon. And utterly useless—a heartbreaking +jest—unless they could reach it.</p> + +<p>But a slight hope grew in the men at its discovery. They had come to the +right trap, after all. Probably the whale had dislodged the shell from +the wall with fluke-blows—possibly, too, the blows had sprung its seams +and opened the engine-compartment to water....</p> + +<p>Ken occupied himself with the problem of how to get to it. It held their +only hope. But with all his racking his brains he could think of no way +but to make a rush for it. If he could get inside, the torp, lying flat +on the ground, would be reasonably safe from the killer until he could +get it running.</p> + +<p>Through the face-shields, he met his companion's eyes. The same decision +had come to both.</p> + +<p>There was a tiny space of muddy floor between them. Kent doused it with +light from the flash. In the mud, with a forefinger he slowly traced +these words one at a time, rubbing each one out to make room for the +next:</p> + +<p>"I get torp. Kill whale with gun. Only way. I go. I senior. If fail, you +try."</p> + +<p>He looked at the other inquiringly. Vigorously, Chanley Beddoes shook +his head.</p> + +<p>He smoothed over the last word Ken had marked and in its place, in the +same fashion, began:</p> + +<p>"No. Draw lots. Only fair."</p> + +<p>Yes, it was fair, and Ken knew it. He wrote:</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>The second torpooner scrabbled around with his fingers. Presently he +unearthed something, and apparently satisfied showed them to Ken. They +were two pebbles, of different sizes. Beddoes pointed to the larger. He +wrote:</p> + +<p>"Large makes attempt."</p> + +<p>Again Ken nodded. He marked:</p> + +<p>"Other try keep killer's attention."</p> + +<p>From time to time a long sleek body slid down to them and edged back and +forth, striving its best to dislodge them with its blunt shout. After +each failure it would return to a position just over the outer entrance. +At the proper moment Chanley Beddoes jumbled the pebbles in his cupped +hands and laid two fists down on the pad.</p> + +<p>Unhesitatingly, Ken placed a finger on the left one.</p> + +<p>Beddoes turned and opened it. It was the smaller pebble.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Close as was his face-shield to Beddoes', Ken could not see what his +reaction was. Ken stretched forth his hand and clumsily touched his +companion's shoulder.</p> + +<p>"Good hunting!" he said; but Chan never heard that....</p> + +<p>The marked man peered out into the trap. The killer was circling slowly. +In the escape hole, the faces of three or four blubber-men were dimly +visible. They seemed to be watching with interest.</p> + +<p>There came a good moment when the killer paused at the three bars of its +cell, its head turned in exactly the opposite direction from the two +torpooners. Beddoes seized the opportunity at once. Almost before Ken +knew it, he had rolled out of the niche.</p> + +<p>Quickly he worked to his feet and started pushing for his goal. The +whale had not seen him. Arms and legs straining, he floundered slowly +ahead. He nearly made it.</p> + +<p>But the killer, restlessly turning, saw him—and Kenneth Torrance winced +and cried out.</p> + +<p>The black monster struck. With horrible, beautiful grace it curved down. +Its snout caught Chanley Beddoes square in the side and butted him up +and around, and both disappeared in a swirl of water into the inky +shadows of the trap's ceiling.</p> + +<p>Ken closed his eyes. He knew what was happening. He could not move. But +it came to him, as he lay there sick with horror, that he would never +have a better chance than now, while the killer was occupied.</p> + +<p>Recklessly he forced himself out of the niche. Up above there was +commotion, a whirlpool of churning water. The current helped him: he got +caught in it and was swept sprawling right over to the torpoon's side.</p> + +<p>He clutched at the port, expecting each instant the tear of monster +fangs; but he made the interior and clicked shut the port. No matter the +water that had come into the main compartment with his entrance. He +pulled the starter over, and heard the familiar drone of electric +engines, safe inside their water-tight division. He felt no relief at +this. There was only the same sick horror.</p> + +<p>He raised the torpoon a little. There was one thing to do. Perhaps it +was mad to try to destroy that killer whale in so narrow a space, but he +was going to attempt it. It would not be so bad to join Chan, if he +failed....</p> + +<p>A terrific blow struck the stern of the torpoon and spun it around +dizzily. Ken made out the killer lifting its flukes for a second blow. +Quickly he sped the torp ahead, and turned as best he could. Flashing on +his powerful bow-beam, he found the killer to his left, slightly above. +Carefully he maneuvered into firing position: then coldly, with deadly +accuracy, he centered the sights of his nitro-shell gun on the vital +spot behind the eyes. He pressed the trigger: again, and yet again. The +projectiles hurtled out.</p> + +<p>The monster started; its beady eyes settled on the torpoon; with a lunge +it darted forward, jaws gaping wide. And as it came another shell sped +true into the tooth-rimmed mouth.</p> + +<p>It halted then, and doubled in the water. Shock after shock shook the +torpoon as the shells exploded in the whale. For a little while the +sea-beast flurried, and once or twice the torp shivered from chance +fluke-blows. But then at last came peace. The body rolled over, showing +its white belly, and drifted towards the trap's ceiling....</p> + +<p>The brown-skinned heads had disappeared from the inner entrance. Kenneth +Torrance glanced in that direction for a last time, then looked sadly +around.</p> + +<p>"So long, Chan," he murmured. "So long."</p> + +<p>The torpoon squeezed through the bars of the outer entrance and sped +forth into the open sea.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>So it was that, perhaps an hour later, the light-beams of the whaling +submarine <i>Narwhal</i>, doggedly scouring the region where last her first +torpooner had been heard from, fell across a slim shape of steel that +was beating its way at full speed through the foggy murk of the Arctic +sea.</p> + +<p>Right up to the <i>Narwhal</i> she came, swerving at the last moment and +hovering outside the starboard torpoon catapult; while, aboard the +submarine, an officer whose voice quivered with excitement roused +Captain Henry Streight from his bunk, and the men off duty gathered +around the inner catapult entrance-port.</p> + +<p>Quickly the outer port swung open. And the lone torpoon slid in—slid +home.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seed of the Arctic Ice, by H. G. Winter + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEED OF THE ARCTIC ICE *** + +***** This file should be named 32029-h.htm or 32029-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/0/2/32029/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/32029-h/images/illus.jpg b/32029-h/images/illus.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ebe3be6 --- /dev/null +++ b/32029-h/images/illus.jpg diff --git a/32029.txt b/32029.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6072418 --- /dev/null +++ b/32029.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1745 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Seed of the Arctic Ice, by H. G. Winter + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Seed of the Arctic Ice + +Author: H. G. Winter + +Release Date: April 17, 2010 [EBook #32029] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEED OF THE ARCTIC ICE *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + Seed of the Arctic Ice + + By H. G. Winter + +[Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Astounding Stories +February 1932. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the +U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] + +[Sidenote: Killer whales and seal-creatures tangle Ken Torrance in an +amazing adventure under the ice-roofed arctic sea.] + + +Sleepily the lookout stared at the scope-screen before him, wishing for +something that would break the monotony of the scene it pictured: the +schools of ghostly fish fleeting by, the occasional shafts of pale +sunlight filtering down through breaks in the ice-floes above, the long +snaky ropes of underwater growth. None of this was conducive to +wakefulness; nor did the half-speed drone of the electric engines aft +and the snores of some distant sleeper help him. The four other men on +duty in the submarine--the helmsman; the second mate, whose watch it +was; the quartermaster and the second engineer--might not have been +present, so motionless and silent were they. + +The lookout man stifled another yawn and glanced at a clock to see how +much more time remained of his trick. Then suddenly something on the +screen brought him to alert attention. He blinked at it; stared +hard--and thrilled. + +Far ahead, caught for an instant by the submarine _Narwhal's+ +light-beams, a number of sleek bodies moved through the foggy murk, with +a flash of white bellies and an easy graceful thrust of flukes. + +The watcher's hands cupped his mouth; he turned and sang out: + +"K-i-i-ll-ers! I see killers!" + +The cry rang in every corner, and immediately there was a feverish +response. Rubbing their eyes, men appeared as if from nowhere and jumped +to posts; with a clang, the telegraph under the second mate's hand went +over to full speed; Captain Streight rolled heavily out of his bunk, +flipped his feet mechanically into sea-boots and came stamping forward. +First Torpooner Kenneth Torrance, as he sat up and stretched, heard the +usual crisp question: + +"Where away?" + +"Five points off sta'b'd bow, sir; quarter-mile away; swimming slow." + +"How large a school?" + +"Couldn't say, sir. Looks around a dozen." + +"Whew!" whistled Ken Torrance. "That's a strike!" He pulled on a sweater +and strode forward to the scope-screen to see for himself, even as +Captain Streight, all at once testy with eagerness, bawled: + +"Sta'b'd five! Torpoon ready, Mister Torrance! Mister Torr--oh, here you +are. Take a look." + + * * * * * + +Never in the two years of experience which had brought him to the +important post of first torpooner had Ken failed to thrill at the sight +which now met his eyes. Directly ahead, now that the _Narwhal's_ bow was +turned in pursuit, but veering slowly to port, swam a pack of the twenty +to thirty-foot dolphins which are called "killer whales," their bodies +so close-pressed that they seemed to be an undulating wave of black, +occasionally sliced with white as the fluke-thrusts brought their +bellies into view. Their speed through the shadowed, gloomy water was +equal to the submarine's; when alarmed, it would almost double. + +"Three more of 'em will fill our tanks," grunted Streight, his chunky +face almost glowing. He bit on a plug of tobacco, his eyes never moving +from the screen. "Now, if only we hadn't lost Beddoes.... Y' think you +can bag three, Mister Torrance?" + +"Well, if three'll fill our tanks--sure!" grinned Ken. + +The other's eyebrows twitched suddenly. "They're speeding up!" he +shouted, and then: "That torpoon ready, there? Good." His voice lowered +again as Ken pulled his belt a notch tighter and snatched a last glimpse +of the fish before leaving. "I want you to try for three, son," he said +soberly: "but--be careful. Don't take fool chances, and keep alert. +Remember Beddoes." + +Ken nodded and walked to the torpoon catapult, hearing Streight's +familiar send-off echoed by the men of the crew who were nearby: + +"Good hunting!" + + * * * * * + +The idea of an underwater craft for the pursuit of killer +whales--tremendously valuable since the discovery of valuable medicinal +qualities in their oil--had been scoffed at by the majority of the +Alaska Whaling Company's officials at the time of its suggestion, but +the _Narwhal_ after her first two months of service had decisively +proved her worth. She was not restricted to the open seas, now swept +almost clean of the highly prized killers; she could follow them to +their last refuge, right beneath the floe-edges of the Arctic Circle; +and as a result she could bring back more oil than any four surface +whalers. + +With a cruising radius of twenty-five hundred miles, she stayed out from +the base until her torpoons had accounted for anywhere from sixty to +eighty killers. One by one these sea-animals would be taken to the +surface and there cut up and boiled down, until her tanks were full of +the precious blubber oil. Ever farther she pressed in her quest for the +fish schools, dipping for leagues into a silent sea that for ages had +been known only to the whale and the seal and their kindred; a sea +always dark and mysterious beneath its sheath of ice. + +The inner catapult door closed behind Kenneth Torrance, and he slid into +his torpoon. Twelve feet long, and resembling in miniature a dirigible, +was this weapon that made practical an underwater whaling craft. The +tapered stern bore long directional rudders, which curved round the +squat high-speed propeller: its smooth flanks of burnished steel were +marked only by the lines of the entrance port, which the torpooner now +drew tight and locked. Twin eyes of light-beam projectors were set in +the bow, which was cut also by a vision-plate of fused quartz and the +nitro-shell gun's tube, successor to the gun-cast harpoon. + +Ken lay full-length in the padded body compartment, his feet resting on +the controlling bars of the directional planes, hands on the torpoon's +engine levers. A harness was buckled all around him, to keep him in +place. His gray eyes, level and sober, peered through the vision-plate +at the outer catapult door. + +Suddenly a spot of red light glowed in it; the door quivered, swung out. +A black tide swirled into the chamber. There came the hiss of released +air-pressure, and the slim undersea steed rocketed out into the exterior +gloom, her light-beams flashing on and propeller settling into a blur of +speed as she was flung. + + * * * * * + +Ken turned on her full twenty-four knots, zoomed above the dark bulk of +the slower mother ship, whose light-beams flashed across him for a +second, and then straightened out in a long, slight-angled dive after +the great black bodies ahead. + +Aware that some strange enemy was on their track, the killers had become +panicky and were darting away at their full speed, which was only +slightly under that of the torpoon's humming motors, and which at times +even surpassed it. Ken saw that it looked like a long chase, and settled +his lean body as comfortably as he could. + +His mind was not concentrated on the task ahead, for the first part was +mere routine and he could follow his quarry almost mechanically. And so, +as his steel shell drove through the ever-shadowed, icy sea, he began to +think about the disappearance of Chan Beddoes, the _Narwhal's_ second +torpooner. + +Dead, now Beddoes; it was a week since he had set out on the chase from +which he had never returned. Ken could only conjecture as to what had +stricken him down. There were countless possibilities: perhaps a blow +from a dying killer whale's flukes bursting his torpoon's seams; perhaps +a crash into underwater ice. Whatever it was, it had been sudden, for +not even a faint radioed S.O.S. had trembled into the ear-phones of the +_Narwhal's_ radio-man. For two days they had held hopes that the second +torpooner still lived, as the sea-suit stored in each torp contained +air-units sufficient for thirty-six hours. But a whole week's passing +told them that that vast stretch of glacial sea was now Chan Beddoes' +grave. + +Ken's reflections brought an urge to get the present job over with as +quickly as possible. He squeezed another ounce of speed from the +torpoon, taxing it to the limit and setting up a slight vibration; then +he fondled the nitro-shell gun's trigger and studied the huge fish +bodies ahead. + +"Seems as if they're going to run forever," he muttered indignantly. +"We'll be to the Pole if they keep it up!" + + * * * * * + +Already the _Narwhal_ was miles behind. Through the torp's vision-plate +a scene of ever increasing mystery and gloom met his gaze. The killers' +course had brought them beneath a wide sheet of ice, apparently, for +there were no more columns of pale sunlight piercing through. The +quarter-light monotone was unbroken, save by deeper drifts of shadow, +and as he drummed through it the torpooner wondered at its lifelessness. +He discerned no more of the ghostly fish-schools that usually abounded. +Some enemy possibly had driven them from the region; but not the whale +he was pursuing, for they scorned such fare. + +He was scanning the surrounding murk apprehensively, when, of a sudden, +his brain and body tensed. + +Off to one side, far to the right, he thought he had glimpsed a figure. +It was hanging motionless, level with him; and at first it looked like a +seal. But the flippers seemed longer than a seal's; moreover, no seal +would be anywhere near a pack of killer whales; nor did they poise in an +upright position. It couldn't be a seal, he told himself. What, then? +Was it only imagination that made it appear faintly human-shaped? + +He strove to catch it again with staring eyes, but it was gone, leaving +only a jumbled impression of something fantastic in his mind, and the +next instant the whole thing was forgotten in the movements of the +killer school, now only a few hundred yards ahead. + +They suddenly began a great sweeping curve to the right, a typical +maneuver before standing for attack or breaking up. At once Ken swerved +to starboard and drove the torpoon's nose for an advance point on the +circle the fish were describing. His move swallowed the distance between +them; the sleek, thick-blubbered bodies swept close by his vision-plate, +their rush tossing the torp slightly. Twelve of them went past in a +blur, and then came the thirteenth, the invariable straggler of a +school. The thin light-beams pencilled through the darkness, outlining +the rushing black shape; Ken gripped the gun's trigger and jockeyed the +torp up a trifle in the seconds remaining, always keeping the sights +dead set on the vital spot twelve inches behind the whale's little eye. + +When only fifteen feet separated them he squeezed the trigger and at +once zoomed up and away to get clear of the killer's start of pain and, +if the shot were true, its following death flurry. + +The shell slid deep into the rich outer blubber; and, wheeling, Ken +watched the mighty mammal quiver in its forward rush. This was merely +the reaction from the pain of the shell's entrance; the nitro had not as +yet exploded. + +Now it did. The projectiles carried but a small charge, in order not to +rip too much the buoyant lungs and so cause the body to sink, but the +killer trembled like a jelly from the shock. The heart was reached; its +razor-sharp flukes thrashing and tooth-lined jaws clicking, the killer +wheeled with incredible speed in its death flurry. A minute later the +body shuddered a last time, then drifted slowly over, showing the white +belly. It began a gentle rise up toward the ceiling of ice. + +"One!" grinned Ken Torrance. He noted his position on the torpoon's +dials and gave it to the _Narwhal_ by radio. They would then follow and +pick up the whale. + +"I'll have the second in ten minutes," he promised confidently. "Signing +off!" + +Again the torp darted after its prey. + +He found it easy, this time, to overhaul them. Not many minutes had +elapsed before he again caught sight of their rhythmically thrusting +flukes and the flash of white under-sides. Unaware that one of their +fellows had been left a lifeless carcass by the steel fish again nearing +them, they had reduced their speed somewhat. + +Ken angled down a hundred feet into the deeper shadows, not wanting to +apprise them of his presence. He continued at that level until the belly +of the rearmost whale rolled white above him; then he veered off to the +left, rising as he did so, in order to bring his assault to bear +directly on the killer's flanks. + +He swung back and streaked in for the kill. It looked like an easy one. + +But he was never more mistaken in his life. For, as luck had it, he had +chosen a tartar, a fighting fish--literally the "killer" which its kind +had been named. + + * * * * * + +The torpooner knew what he was in for as soon as he fired his first +shell. Its aim was bad, and instead of sinking into the flesh it merely +ripped across the whale's back, leaving a ragged, ugly scar. + +An ordinary whale would have been scared into panic by the wound and +doubled its speed in an effort to get away; but Ken Torrance saw this +one wheel its six-foot snout around viciously until its beady little +eyes settled on the torpoon. + +"I'll be damned!" he muttered. "He's turning to fight. All right, come +ahead!" + +He veered about and fired another shot that missed its mark by feet, but +creased the whale's flukes. At once this terrible weapon lashed +titanically up and down, and thirty feet of berserk killer came curving +towards the lone man inside his shell of steel. Ken tensed himself for +combat. He would have to keep a good distance from the fish and fire +until he got it, as a square smash from its flukes might crumple the +torp like an egg-shell. + +[Illustration: _Thirty feet of berserk killer came curving towards the +lone man_.] + +But his foe gave him no chance. Crazy with pain and anger, it swept up +and nipped his dive for the bottom with a fluke-blow that tumbled the +torpoon over and dazed its pilot. Before he could get straightened out +it was on him again, catching him up into a wild whirlpool, butting the +shell and flashing round to get its flukes into position. With a wrench, +Ken jammed the rudder over, shoved his accelerator flat, and got free +just as the tail thrashed down. He was breathing hard and sweating as he +banked around--to see once more the whale, its wicked jaws wide open, +charging directly at him. + +For a moment he was unable to move. Such a mode of attack was totally +unexpected, and the sight held him fascinated. He could see the very +wrinkles of the monster's skin as it rushed in, with shadowy flukes +thrusting behind; could see the lines of dagger-like teeth, the +cavernous maw and gullet. And then all vision was blotted out as the +jaws closed around the torpoon's nose. + +Ken did not wait for those jaws to crunch shut. He gripped the +nitro-shell gun's trigger and squeezed it back. + +The weapon hissed, flung its shell. He reversed his engines to try and +tear free. Seconds dragged by with no result. Then he felt a mighty +jolt; his harness broke; and he was pitched into the torp's engine +controls. + +That was all he knew, save for a vague feeling of falling, falling over +and over, which was ended when a second bone-shaking shock brought +complete oblivion.... + + * * * * * + +It was darkness that met his eyes when they opened, the eery darkness of +the floor of the Polar Sea. + +Darkness! Half-conscious as he was, he started in surprise. He looked +for the torp's shaded control board-lights, but could not find them. +Bewildered, he wondered what had happened, and then remembered the +whale. In its flurry it had smashed him down. + +Pain was thumping his forehead where he had struck the control levers; +with a groan he twisted his body around and felt for his hand-flash. At +any rate, there was no water inside the body compartment. The seams had +resisted the blow. But why were there no lights? + +He found his hand-flash, and its beam showed him the reason. Playing it +on the small water-tight door which separated the main compartment from +that in which the machinery was contained, he looked through its fused +quartz peep-hole. He gaped in consternation. + +There was, after all, a leak in the torpoon's shell, and a bad one. The +machinery compartment was full of water. + +"Gosh!" he muttered. "That means no light, no radio--no power! Guess I'm +stranded!" + +He considered the situation. It was not serious, for he had been in +touch with the _Narwhal_ after bagging the first whale and had given his +position. The submarine would proceed to the kill immediately; then, +after a while, not hearing from him, they would scour the neighborhood, +just as they had hunted for Chan Beddoes when he did not return. + +But they'd find him, Ken told himself--and soon. He had no idea how long +he had lain unconscious, but probably by now the mother ship had already +hooked onto the first whale; maybe she was already hunting for him. + +"Well, I'd better get out and be ready to signal to 'em with the flash," +he reflected. "They may miss me here in the mud." + + * * * * * + +Taking his sea-suit from a long narrow locker, he drew the stiff-woven +fabric over his body, turned the air-units on, clamped the face-shield +shut, and then, gripping his hand-flash, slowly opened the port in the +shell's side. + +A weird figure he was, fit for the mysterious gloom into which he came. +With casque of steel and lead-weighted feet, staring face-shield and +metal belt, and equipped with a knife and two or three emergency tools, +the sea-suit transformed him into a clumsy, grotesque giant. He sloshed +into the muddy sea bottom, stumbling at first from the heavy water +resistance and hardly able to see anything. The torpoon itself was a +hazy blur at a short distance, but up above the light was better, being +almost bright next to the ice ceiling. He adjusted the air pressure +inside his suit, floating his feet off the bottom. A few clumsy +armstrokes and he went drifting gently upward. + +Knowing that the "bends"--bubbles of air in a diver's veins--come from +too rapidly changing pressures when rising, he made his ascent +carefully. Up twenty feet, then a pause; twenty feet more and another +pause. So he rose some ninety feet, and finally arrived at the underside +of the ice floe. + +Here he found the water a pale blue-green, increasing, at the limit of +his vision, to impenetrable black. Nearby was a great dark blur which he +recognized as the killer whale that had struck him down. It bobbed +lifelessly against the smooth, light ceiling of ice. Slowly, he swam +over towards it. + +There was no mark of the havoc his last shot must have wreaked inside. +He examined the body with interest, fingering the two inch-long teeth, +which even the mighty sperm whale fears and flees from. + +"Pretty wicked," he said aloud, just for the companionship of his voice. +"And there's a lot of oil in this brute. Streight'll be glad to get him. +Maybe he won't need a third to fill the tanks." + +Thought of his captain made him look up and around, hoping to see the +_Narwhal's_ light-beams come threading through the distant murk. He did +not see them, but what he did see caused his mouth to drop open, and his +veins to chill with a cold that was not that of the sea nor the ice +above. + +"Good Lord!" he whispered. "That thing--again!" + +Like a specter from the deep, some hundred feet away was a form, +seal-like in appearance, yet not wholly seal. It poised there +motionless, apparently looking straight at him. + +Fear came over Ken as he studied it. Its body was perhaps ten feet long, +and sleek and fat under a brown-colored hide. But its flippers were not +those of a seal; they were too long and slender, especially the hind +ones. They unquestionably bore a remote resemblance to human arms and +legs. + +"Yet it can't be anything but some kind of seal," Ken whispered to +himself. "It must be!" + +But then, too, it did not have the ordinary seal's bullet head, set +squat between smoothly tapering shoulders, but rather something bulbous, +half like that of a man, in spite of the layers of fat that stream-lined +from it to the broad shoulders. It did have, however, two large, staring +eyes, and slitted holes inches below them for nostrils--which showed +that it breathed air and was therefore warm-blooded. + +Quite motionless, each stared at the other, while minutes passed. Then +the creature moved slowly up and forward, impelled by a graceful and +hardly perceptible roll of its queer flippers. Very gradually it came +towards Kenneth Torrance; and he, peering with fear-tinged curiosity at +the animal's bold advance, saw two creases of fat that must have been +lips slide open in the smooth brown face, baring strong, pointed teeth. + +Not knowing whether it was an attack or merely inquisitiveness, he +unsheathed his knife. At this the figure stopped and poised motionless +again, perhaps fifty feet away, and after a moment turned its sleek head +first to the left and then to the right. Automatically, Ken gazed around +likewise. He drew in his breath with a sharp hiss. + +Like shadows, additional figures had appeared in the distant murk. +Silently they had come; he could see eleven--twelve--even more. He was +surrounded! No longer doubting their purpose, he gripped his knife +firmly. He knew he could never get down to the torpoon in time. + +And then the circle began to close. + +There was little he could do to resist them, he realized, for what he +had seen of their movements told him that they were swift, effortless +swimmers. But he braced himself as best he could against the dead whale, +to protect his back. He would at least go down fighting. + +As their spectral shapes slid slowly closer he noted something that had +escaped his eyes before. Four or five of them were holding dim objects +in their arm-like flippers. Spears, he made them out to be, rudely +fashioned from bone. And others held dark-colored loops, which they were +slowly forming into nooses. + +"They're intelligent, all right," Ken muttered. "Spears--of whalebone, I +guess. And ropes--probably seaweed. Weapons! Good Lord, what kind of +seals are these?" + +Easily, gracefully, the silent circle drew in to perhaps twenty feet of +him, where they paused again, hanging motionless at regular intervals in +the eery, wavering half-light. Ken licked his lips nervously. Then the +one whom he had seen first moved its head slightly, in what was +apparently a signal. And in a concerted movement, so bewilderingly rapid +that his eyes could not hold them, they rushed him. + +He had expected speed, but not speed such as this. He had barely swung +his knife-arm up when the wave engulfed him. + +Doubling, curving shapes looped around him; blubbery bodies pressed +against him; eyes flashed by in streaks of brown; he knew that he was +being tumbled and tossed and that his knife and hand-flash had fallen +under the shock of the attack. And then there was a sharper sensation. +As he struggled to break free, taut cords trussed his legs and arms like +any captive animal's. + +The stream of moving bodies slowed in movement and fell back from a +breathless, dazed Kenneth Torrance. He then got his first clear view +since the assault was unleashed. + +He was upright, many feet away from the killer whale's carcass, his arms +bound strongly to his sides with seaweed-rope, his legs locked close +together. To one side he glimpsed several of the creatures fastening +other rope strands to the whale's flukes. When they had finished, with +smoothly thrusting flippers they began to haul the carcass forward, and +he felt himself move feet first in the same direction. + +He forced a wry smile to his lips. "A swell fight I put up!" he grunted. +"Hold 'em off! Yeah--I bet I held 'em for a full tenth of a second." + + * * * * * + +He still could hardly believe what had so rapidly befallen him. It was +difficult to credit eyes that showed him creatures whose bodies were +mainly seal-like, and yet whose weapons and co-ordinated movements spoke +for human intelligence. But they were certainly real. At his feet he +could feel the pressure of a guard's flippers against him. + +He was towed in this fashion for some distance when the pressure of the +flippers suddenly tightened and he was pulled into a deep-angled swoop +toward the sea-bottom below. Previously he had seen his captors' amazing +speed, but now he felt it. Down and down he went, and at last, when it +seemed he must crash into the sea floor, his momentum was quickly +checked, and he found himself standing in the mud, from which position, +lacking support from his guard, he drifted to a horizontal one, face up. +And there, lying helpless on the bottom, he saw the reason for the +sudden dive. Far to the right, piercing faintly through the murk, were +two faint interweaving beams of white that preceded a slowly moving dark +bulk. + +The _Narwhal_! Wild hopes of rescue coursed through him. + +Dimly, as he watched the beams, he was aware of the rest of the +creatures dropping down, guiding between them the whale's carcass. Then +a firm pressure was applied to his side, and he was rolled over, face +down in the mud. Unable any longer to see his ship, his momentary vision +of rescue vanished. + +"Hopeless, I guess," he muttered despairingly. The darkness on the +sea-floor was too thick, the wavering shadows too deceptive. And his +hand-flash and knife were gone--probably knocked from his grasp during +the struggle, he thought. + +He realized that the seal-like animals were lying low until the +submarine passed, its size having awed them. The color of the bodies +blended perfectly with the gloom, as did that of his own sea-suit. His +bonds prevented him from making even the slightest movement to attract +attention. + +Torturing thoughts raced through the torpooner's brain. He saw, in his +mind's eye, straight above, a hazy bulk, with shimmering columns of +white angling from its nose. His imagination pictured for him the warm, +well-lit interior, and the bunks--the coffee steaming on the fire, the +men at their posts and Streight's anxious, beefy face. He saw it all as +plainly as if he were inside, cracking jokes with one of the engineers. + + * * * * * + +The minutes passed. The _Narwhal_ must now be gone. Ken's cheek muscles +stood out as he pressed his teeth together. "Well, go on!" he exploded +in impotent rage. "What are you waiting for? Kill me! Eat me if you're +going to!" And he cursed the silent forms around him till his ears hurt +from the reverberation. + +After the _Narwhal_ had vanished in the gloom, the torpooner's captors +lifted him from the bottom and propelled him leisurely forward again, +the slight, graceful roll of their flippers slipping them along +smoothly. + +A dull hopelessness came over him. No longer could he hope that his +submarine would find him. Only one thing was certain, and that was that +death would soon come. For even if his captors did not kill him at once, +he had but thirty-six hours before his air-units would be exhausted. +Certainly, having captured him, the seal-creatures would not release +him. And it was too much to expect them to realize that his sea-unit was +only an artificial covering which enabled him to live underwater, and +not his own flesh and blood. + +And as for the chance of breaking loose--the idea was laughable. His +speed was snail-like in comparison with theirs. Even if he did manage +somehow to get away, what good would it do? How could he, a puny, +helpless mite, ever hope to locate the _Narwhal_ in this vast sweep of +Arctic sea? His torpoon was wrecked, and he had no means of +communication. + +His situation was quite hopeless. + + * * * * * + +Far ahead, a dark shape grew in the foggy murk, and as they neared, +spread upwards and outwards. They angled up and up; the sea-floor was +higher there. Ken, peering as best he could, made out that the +mountainous, looming bulk was the face of a giant underwater mound, +whose uneven formation indicated that it was the result of some +long-past upheaval. It was the first of a rolling series of such +hillocks, six or seven in all, stretching back into the gloom. Their +rounded peaks reached to within a few feet of the water's ice-sheathed +surface. Surely the creatures' home was among these mounds. + +He was skirted round the base of the first hillock and caught a glimpse +of something in its face which was apparently of his captors' +construction. It was a hole, dark, mysterious, perhaps fifteen feet in +diameter, and barring it were three great gray stakes, reaching from top +to bottom. Behind the stakes, Ken got a jumbled impression of a body, +large and sleek, of black streaked with white, that moved restlessly +back and forth in the hole and occasionally seemed to lash out in anger. +He wondered what it was. Before long, he knew. + +The party of seal-creatures stopped before the second of the row of +hillocks. In its face, too, was a hole--a well of blackness--but with no +stakes across it. He twisted his head back and saw the carcass of the +killer whale he had slain being guided up to the entrance and shoved +through. Then, from the upper rim of the hole, three stakes similar to +the others he had seen slid down and barred it. + +"Storehouses!" he muttered. "Storehouses, I'll bet anything. And killer +whales are their food. They keep 'em in the holes until they're needed. +But I'll swear it was a live whale I saw in the first one--and how in +the dickens could they capture a mighty killer with their dinky spears +and ropes?" + +There he had to leave the question, for its answer implied greater +intelligence in the creatures than he would admit. + +Intelligence--in seals! + +And now he was guided smoothly forward to the third hillock, where the +leaders of the group glided through a V-shaped cleft in its face. His +guards brought him along behind. + +A wry smile twisted Kenneth Torrance's lips. To him, the cleft was more +than an entranceway. To him it signified the beginning of the hopeless, +lonely end of his life.... + + * * * * * + +The cleft led into a corridor, and the corridor was softly illuminated +with a peculiar light whose source he could not discover. It served to +show him a passageway that was wide rather than tall, and gouged from +the firm, clayey soil by blunt tools that had left uneven marks. +Straight ahead it led, and, as they continued, the mysterious +illumination brightened, until suddenly, rounding a turn, its source +appeared. + +Like will-o'-the-wisps, a score of arrows of light flashed softly into +view down the corridor. They were of delicate green and orange and +yellow, glowing and luminous, and hovering like humming birds between +floor and ceiling. Ken looked at them in some alarm until his nearer +approach showed him what they were, and then he exclaimed in amazement: + +"Why--they're fish! Living electric bulbs!" + +A school of slender, ten-inch fish they were, each one a radiant, +shimmering, lacey-finned gem of orange or green or yellow. In concert +they shot to the ceiling over the party of seal-creatures, who still +swam impassively ahead, paying no attention to them, and from there +scattered in quick darts in all directions, showering the cortege with +washes of spectral luminosity. Then the corridor crooked again, and with +one simultaneous movement they were gone. And the scene that lay +revealed before Kenneth Torrance took his breath from him. + +In the passageway he had seen a score of the living jewels; now he +beheld hundreds. He peered up at a shimmering sheet of brilliance, +composed of hundreds of the slender refulgent fish, all swimming in slow +rotation. Below them was a large cavern, which he guessed had been +created by hollowing out one of the underwater hillocks. The sides were +rounded, and pitted with holes that represented other passageways, +showing dark against the luminosity from above. And streaming out from +these dark holes of corridors came dozens of the seal-creatures, +gathering in response to some unheard, unseen signal that had called +them to witness the strange captive their fellows had brought in.... + + * * * * * + +Ken's guards gripped him more firmly and he was guided forward and +downward to the smooth black floor of soil. + +Scores of large, placid eyes stared at him from the slowly undulating, +brown-skinned bodies packed close about him. The sight was so weird, so +beyond his imagination, that he laughed a little hysterically. + +"Dreaming!" he said. "Dreaming! But what a dream!" + +Silently, a space cleared in the center of the horde. His bonds were +taken away, the guards released his arms and he righted himself and +stood there on braced legs, the object of a concerted gaze. + +This, the torpooner felt, was the crucial period. Something was about to +be decided. If it looked bad he would make a wild--and of course, +futile--break for freedom, and die quickly when they punctured his suit. +But meanwhile he would stick things out. Anything might happen in that +fantastic convocation. + +There came a stir in the tiers of brown bodies. An aisle cleared, and +down it a single seal-creature glided slowly towards Ken +Torrance--undoubtedly the leader of the herd, ruler of the underwater +labyrinth. + +Gracefully the creature glided up to the lone human, and when only a +foot away extended one of its long upper flippers so that its webbed +edge rested on his sea-suit's casque. And its placid brown eyes hung +close to the face-shield and gazed through inquisitively, intelligently! +Intelligently! No longer did Kenneth Torrance doubt that. As he held +absolutely motionless under the close-searching scrutiny, his brain rang +with the conviction that this creature, this thing of blubbery body and +long, webbed flipper-arms and legs--this brown-skinned denizen of the +Arctic underseas was, with all its fellows, related to him, a man of the +upper world. + +Men they were; or, rather, blubber-men! + + * * * * * + +Previously he had marveled at something suggestively human-like in their +appearance; now he recognized human intelligence in his observer's +peering brown eyes and questing movements of the flipper over his head +casque and suit. Warm red blood flowed in its blubber-sheathed body; an +intelligent brain lay in the fat round head. And why not? + +Whales, ages ago, were land mammals, animals that walked on the soil of +the dim, early world. They had taken to the seas in quest of food, had +stayed there and never returned; and Nature had guarded their bodies +against the cold and great depths by giving them layer upon layer of +oily blubber. The ancestors of these creatures before him might well +have lived on the soil, walked and run as he did; then, when the ice +came, taken to the sea and made a new home for themselves. + +They had enticed the splendent light-fish into their caverns to give +illumination. Intelligence almost human. A brain not as highly developed +as man's, but a human brain! + +Ken Torrance had been almost apathetic toward his eventual fate, but +suddenly, now, a great hope came to him--and twin with it, on its heels, +came fear. If, or since, this creature inspecting him had an +intelligent, human brain, in some way he might be able to correspond +with it. He might be able to show that his real body was inside the +sea-suit; that he had to have air; that he would die if he were kept +underwater, that he could not survive as a prisoner. These creatures +appeared to be friendly; seemed to wish him no harm. If he could show +them that he was a man of the upper world, they might let him go. + +If he could do it! He had to make known to the herd leader that he +breathed air, and that he'd die if they didn't release him at once. On +that depended life and death. + +Ken trembled as he cast about for some way of putting over his idea, and +then the plan came. Smiling through his face-shield at the brown eyes so +close, he drew back slowly and took out a short steel crowbar from the +belt at his waist. He bent over and made a line on the soft floor. + +All eyes watched him; every creature held motionless, apparently +interested, eager to understand. Under his suit-clad figure the crowbar +traced a rude outline of a man in a sea-suit. The torpooner pointed to +the drawing and then fingered his suit, repeating the gesture several +times. Then he drew another figure in the soil, this one intended to +represent him without the sea-suit. It was not as bulky; the features +were sharper and thinner. Ken pointed to the twin dots standing for +eyes, then tapped his face-shield; he did this again and again. + +For a moment the leader did not move; but then he slid forward and +stared through the shield. Rapidly Ken opened and closed his eyes, and +pointed again to the dots on the drawing's face. + +"Eyes! Eyes!" he said excitedly, voicing the thought his brain was +making. "Eyes--inside the suit! The suit's not me; I'm inside! Eyes!" He +waited for a reaction, tense and strained. The blubber-man reached out +one flipper-arm and took the steel bar from his hand. + +A thrill ran through him as the creature dipped its body down and began +to draw in the soil. Laboriously, crudely, he outlined another sea-suit, +and on the circle representing the face-shield marked two dots--eyes. + +"He's getting it!" Ken cried. + +The blubber-man went on drawing. He sketched a second suit, similar in +all 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 that +corridor to show them that I want to go, and if--" + +But before he could stir, the leader of the blubber-men, with one quick +gesture, summoned two creatures from the innermost circle. Swiftly they +placed themselves alongside Kenneth Torrance, lifted him and bore him +forward, right across the cavern to another of the passageway-entrances. + +It was so sudden that for a moment Ken could not think clearly. What had +happened? Were they releasing him? Or was he still to be kept a +prisoner? No doubt the latter. And he had been so sure that he was +communicating with the blubber-man's brain! + +His lips pressed tight in a hard white line. It was a tough blow to +take. + +"Well, that's that," he said. "It was all imagination." + +He did not know that his drawings _had_ signified something to the +leader of the herd--that each had mistaken the meaning of the other. Nor +did he have any inkling of the greatest surprise of all that now lay +just before him. + + * * * * * + +The surprise lay in another cavern. + +A quick turn through a cleft-like entrance brought them into it. The +room was only a fraction of the size of the central meeting place, and +its light, from but several of the light-fish, was dim and vague, barely +enabling Ken to see what looked like a pile of rocks in the chamber, +heaping upwards. The ceiling was flat and strangely blurred, a rippling +veil. As he wondered what caused this, his guards lifted him rapidly +towards 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 veil +he had seen was the top plane of the water, which only filled +three-quarters of the cavern. + +Surprise left him breathless. At first he could see nothing, could only +feel that his shoulders were above water. Then he was pushed slowly +upward until he rested almost completely above the surface. How did the +cavern come to be but part-filled with water? he wondered. And was this +dim emptiness around him air? Could he breathe it? + +Then he was vaguely aware of a presence on the top of the rock heap. He +sensed rather than heard a stir of movement. Then suddenly a ray of +light stabbed through the darkness and impinged on his +head-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 upward +and backward, and in its glare a face suddenly appeared out of the +darkness. + +"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 it +at first seemed. And here, in a cavern of the blubber-men! + +He pulled himself further up on the rock pile, unfastened the clasps on +his helmet and took it off--for Beddoes wore none, and that meant the +space 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's +been so lonely, so dark.... You are there, Ken? I'm not just dreaming +again?" + +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'll +save our units. How ever do they get it down here?" He asked the +question in hope of steadying Beddoes; giving his mind something +definite to occupy it. + +A soft ripple sounded just then; looking round, Ken saw that his two +guards had slipped back beneath the water, leaving them alone. + +Chan Beddoes' helmet was off, but the rest of his body was still clad in +a sea-suit. He half squatted on the rocks, his face raised and peering +at the first torpooner fearfully, as if afraid he would disappear as +suddenly as he had come. The beam of light came from a hand-flash held +in his hand. Scattered around were pieces of whitish meat--fish--and the +air was sickening with its smell. Ten feet above was the chamber's domed +ceiling, 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. I +think they sleep in rooms like this." His voice rose with hysteria. +"Ken, they're seals and yet they're human! Human, down here! They have +arms and legs and they breathe air, like whales--and they've kept me +here for weeks, years--I don't know! They're devils! It's been so dark +and cold and--and--" He began to cough painfully. + +"I know," Ken told him sympathetically. "Steady, man. How did you get +here? 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 of +us, chasing those killers. They broke up and we went after different +ones, and I lost sight of you. + +"I chased mine for a long time, and when I fired I only wounded him. He +went like hell, and I after him. After half an hour I was ready to give +up; 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--one +of these human seals, though I didn't know it then. It seemed to be +fleeing from the killer, just as the killer was from me. There was +something big and dark ahead--a shadow, I thought, and kept my eyes on +the whale. And the next second my torpoon crashed and I was knocked +cold. + +"It's a deliberate scheme," he went on at a tangent. "The seal things +get a killer chasing them and lead it towards the traps they've got in +the sides of these hillocks. They dart in and the whale follows; then +bars drop over the entrance and they've got the killer trapped. They eat +them." + +"But how does the blubber-man get out?" Ken asked. + +Beddoes scowled. "Oh, they're clever enough! A passage runs off the +trap, big enough for the seal thing, but not for a killer.... Well, my +torp had gone into the trap and was stuck in one of the walls. When I +came to I reversed my engines full, but I couldn't get free. The impact +had ruined my radio. + +"Through the after peep-holes I could make out the killer in the trap +with me, lashing around like mad. The bars over the entrance were +wide-spaced enough to let the torp squeeze through--but I couldn't get +loose. + +"As I lay there, wondering what to do, I saw some more of those +blubber-men in the corridor raising the bars. They had long spears and +knives--and in ten minutes that killer was dead and the place black with +its blood. + +"Well, I thought I saw my chance. I got into my sea-suit, thinking I +maybe could dig the torp free and escape before the damned fish caught +me. I climbed out the port and was hacking at the mud bank with my +crowbar 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 get +plenty more of that." + +For most of the man's narrative his tone and manner had been sane +enough, but now again he broke out wildly. + +"And I've been here for days! Weeks! And nothing but fish to eat, and +whale meat, and pieces of ice brought for me to drink, and the darkness +and the fish smell! God, it's driven me crazy! I can't stand it any +longer, 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. "Get +control 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, you +think that? Hell, no! Put on your helmet. Look down--down under the +water--and you'll see a guard at the entrance. There's always one +there--with a spear. And every now and then he comes up, to see what I'm +doing. But no matter; now that you're here we can make a break. You've +still got your crowbar; they took mine away. I've only had my flash to +work with." + +In spite of his awful experience and intolerable predicament, Ken was +getting drowsy. He had been through much; he had been short on sleep +when he had started out. Nevertheless, he forced himself to consider +their situation. Since the blubber-men had kept Chan Beddoes a prisoner, +they would no doubt keep him one likewise. It did not mean immediate +death from suffocation, for there was air of a kind here; and food was +brought. But--imprisonment! + +All around him was damp darkness; the rocks they lay on were jagged and +slime coated all over and there were little pools of water here and +there. Gloom; awful water beneath; slimy rocks to lie on; raw whale meat +to eat; stench of rotting fish. Imprisonment! Weeks of this! Suddenly he +felt deep admiration for Beddoes in having clung to sanity so long. + +"Yes," he said slowly, "we've got to get out. But with that guard on +duty.... What's your plan?" + +The other coughed long, then began: + +"It all depends on whether they've moved my torpoon from the trap where +it stuck. You didn't see it anywhere? Well, it's got to be still in the +trap, and we've got to get to it. It'll carry both of us. The whale that +led me into the trap is dead, and we can finish prying the torp loose +with your crowbar." + +Ken nodded. "But the guard?" + +Chanley Beddoes said harshly: "I'm going to kill it!" + +Ken looked at him. His pale, drawn face was contorted; his hands +clenched and unclenched. He repeated: + +"Yes, kill it! I've a score to settle with these devils, anyway. I'll +take him unawares. One blow'll do it, if it's placed right. Then, down +the corridor and to the trap. I think I remember the way." + +Ken thought it out, and shook his head. + +"What's the matter?" Beddoes asked. + +"We'd better not," he said "Not yet. And never, if we can help it." + +"Why not?" Beddoes cried in great surprise. + +"Don't you see? They haven't really harmed us. They're friendly. Yes, +they've kept you prisoner and they'll keep me, too--but probably they +don't think that's any terrible hardship for us. And they don't realize +how much we want to get free." + +"What will we do then?" Beddoes broke in impatiently. + +"When I see the leader again I've got to get it over that we want to be +released. It's a better risk than killing this guard, anyway. They're +disposed to be friendly; but if you killed one there'd be the devil to +pay." Ken paused, and his eyes closed. He said wearily: + +"But, I'm dog tired; no sleep for twenty hours. Let me sleep an hour or +two; my head'll be much clearer and we'll talk it over." + +Chanley Beddoes said nothing. Ken yawned and stretched his body as +comfortably as he could on the slime-coated rocks. Dazed from the rush +of amazing events his eyelids closed at once, and soon his breathing +settled into a regular beat. + + * * * * * + +Perhaps half an hour later, a shape moved in the dank gloom of the +underwater cavern. The top plane of water rippled softly; little +wavelets eddied against the rocks and whispered as the shape slipped +down underneath. Then there was silence, no movement; and the water +again calmed into a black sheet, smooth as glass. For minutes it stayed +so, while Ken's deep, regular breathing stirred the air. + +Then suddenly the water's calm was broken. Through its rippling waves +the shape reappeared, rivulets streaming from it. Quickly hauling itself +up on the rocks, it clambered towards the sleeper. For a moment it +paused; then its helmet swung back, revealing Chan's tense, pale face. A +hand reached out and gripped the sleeper's arm. A voice called: + +"Ken! Wake up! Hurry!" + +Even as the words reverberated in the close bowl, the black mirror of +water stirred once more. Something pierced through and drifted idly on +the surface. It was a large brown-skinned shape, apparently lifeless. + +"Ken!" called Chan anxiously again. + +The first torpooner stirred. Out of the depths of slumber he mumbled: + +"What's the matter?" + +"We've got to shove off right now! Quick! Put on your helmet!" + +Kenneth Torrance sat up and peered through half-open eyes. He saw before +him the face of Chanley Beddoes, wild and excited. In one hand he held +the steel crowbar. And behind, on the surface of the water, floated the +motionless body of a blubber-man, its head beaten in, streamers of red +trailing from it. + +Ken said sharply: + +"You killed him? After what I told you? You fool!" + +"Yes, I killed him!" Beddoes answered brazenly. "What of it?" + +Ken said nothing for a moment. Bitter reproach trembled on his tongue, +but he did not speak the words, for Chan's mind was all too clearly on +the thin line this side of insanity. He only said: + +"Well, you've forced the issue, and we've got to leave immediately. It +may mean our death, but let's forget it. Now--how much of your air-units +is left?" + +"About two hours. I lost a lot through a leak." + +Ken took half of his own store of the little cells from his helmet. +"I'll share mine. That'll give us both sixteen hours all told--in case +we don't find your torpoon. You're sure they killed the whale in that +trap? And you know the way?" + +"I think so," said Beddoes excitedly. "You follow me." + +"All right. On helmets, then." + +The clasps were fastened down, cutting them off from spoken +communication with each other. Ken took the hand-flash and crowbar and +stuck them in his own belt, and both clumsy, grotesque figures splashed +into the water, vanished beneath its surface and ducked under the +shadowy body of the dead blubber-man. + +Below, in the dim quarter-light, Ken peered out of the entrance to the +cell chamber. The corridor seemed safe, there being only the distant +colored streaks of light-fish, and occasionally even these disappeared, +leaving heaped shadows in the darkened water. He nodded to Beddoes and +boldly they began their flight. + +Their progress was nerve-rackingly slow, in spite of their utmost +exertions. The water that retarded them at times contained unsuspected +currents that destroyed their equilibrium and sent them stroking madly +with both hands to regain it. Far different, this, than the swift, +effortless swimming of the blubber-men. Their weighted feet stumbled +often on the floor of the passage, and several times they lost balance +and fell towards the sides. Each time that this happened Ken was struck +with the fear of ripping the fabric of his sea-suit. And all the time +there was the apprehension of imminent discovery. + +At last he saw Beddoes wave an arm and enter a dim cleft a few feet +ahead in the left side of the wall. In turn he floundered through--and +just in time. From around a bend in the corridor shortly ahead there +came two blubber-men. In only a few seconds they would pass the niche +the two humans had entered. Crowbar ready, Ken flattened himself against +the sidewall, pulling his companion back with him. They waited. + + * * * * * + +The seal-men passed by--two sleek, blubbery shapes, flipper-arms and +legs weaving gracefully, bodies rolling slightly, eyes apparently +directed ahead. Close! + +They had escaped that time, but there was a disturbing thought in Ken's +mind and in Beddoes' too, perhaps--as they resumed their slow-motion +flight down the second corridor. "What if those two were going to visit +us in the cell-chamber? Once they see the dead guard, hell sure will +start to pop!" + +For a period that seemed to be measured in hours they fought their way +forward through the retarding pressure of the water. The corridor +described a long curve. They were on the last stretch--and still no +pursuit! + +"If only the torp's there!" Ken kept exclaiming in his thoughts. "Just +that!" + +"If only the torp's there!..." Had they come the right way? He had to +trust that to the memory of Beddoes. Beddoes, whose mind had clearly +been affected by his seven-day nightmare.... He shook his head. He dared +not doubt. + +They increased their pace a little. Imagination stimulated their weary +muscles. The _Narwhal_! Men of their own kind! Sun and air! Life again! +Ken could have shouted when he saw his partner stop and gesture +excitedly before a dark spot in the wall. It could be nothing but the +entrance to a trap. + +He pressed forward, flicking on his flash and making sure by the +water-waved beam it threw. But Beddoes was attending to some sight down +the corridor; and suddenly he pointed in fright. The first torpooner +looked in the indicated direction and saw what was meant. + +Approaching was a wave of menacing brown-skinned bodies, streaming +swiftly through the passage several abreast. Their escape had been +discovered. The blubber-men were coming. + +At once Ken acted, pushing Chan into the narrow opening and scrambling +after himself. They wormed along for several feet, till they emerged in +a large dark chamber at the far end of which was a big circular entrance +barred by three great pale stakes. They were certainly in a whale trap. + +Rapidly Ken played his flash around, looking for the torp, but it was +nowhere visible. To one side was an out-jutting rock with a niche +beneath it. It was a promising place and he stumbled his way there, +followed by the other. + +It was then that a most peculiar feeling came over him, a feeling that +was instantly a surge of panic. Something else was in the trap! His +flash arced around and up, and what lay revealed in its ray caused cold +shivers to run down the backs of the two men. + +Above them, just over the three-toothed outer entrance, hung a black, +sleek body, white-striped. Head-on it was, and motionless, eyeing them. +A killer whale--alive!--and poised for a lunge! + +It barred the way to the outer entrance. They could not retrace their +steps; already the round brown head of a blubber-men showed in the inner +entrance. They were trapped, front and rear, and confronted by the +deadliest animal in the sea. + +A second they watched it, frozen immobile; then the whale's great body +curved and its flukes went up, and by purest instinct the men dove for +the niche at their feet. Head to head, they arrived in it, and just in +time, for the great jaws of the killer barely missed their snap. + +As the monster curved past, the swirling water of its passage nearly +dislodged the torpooners, and they made haste to jam themselves into the +crevice as tightly as they dared for the safety of their suits. + +The whale whipped around in a narrow circle and returned. Its pointed +teeth gleamed as it snapped shut its jaws and muzzled its hard, wicked +snout into Ken's ribs. Again it circled and streaked for the niche; and, +helpless, Kenneth Torrance lay there as the beast tried to slide its +head into it. He felt more of the terrifying nuzzling of the snout. But +the creature could not dislodge him. + +"Can't bring his teeth to bear," he muttered with a certain relief. +"Niche isn't high enough. We're safe, I guess, for a couple of minutes. +Unless the blubber-men come in and kill him like they did the one Chan +followed last week." + + * * * * * + +For several minutes the sea-beast continued its frantic attempt to reach +the two humans, and then its attacks became desultory. During one +respite Ken managed to get up his flashlight and send its beam out over +the floor--and what he discovered was the essence of irony. Directly +opposite, on the floor by the wall, lay a familiar long slim shape, its +stern tipped by rudder-planes and propeller, its metal flanks gleaming +in the white ray. The torpoon. And utterly useless--a heartbreaking +jest--unless they could reach it. + +But a slight hope grew in the men at its discovery. They had come to the +right trap, after all. Probably the whale had dislodged the shell from +the wall with fluke-blows--possibly, too, the blows had sprung its seams +and opened the engine-compartment to water.... + +Ken occupied himself with the problem of how to get to it. It held their +only hope. But with all his racking his brains he could think of no way +but to make a rush for it. If he could get inside, the torp, lying flat +on the ground, would be reasonably safe from the killer until he could +get it running. + +Through the face-shields, he met his companion's eyes. The same decision +had come to both. + +There was a tiny space of muddy floor between them. Kent doused it with +light from the flash. In the mud, with a forefinger he slowly traced +these words one at a time, rubbing each one out to make room for the +next: + +"I get torp. Kill whale with gun. Only way. I go. I senior. If fail, you +try." + +He looked at the other inquiringly. Vigorously, Chanley Beddoes shook +his head. + +He smoothed over the last word Ken had marked and in its place, in the +same fashion, began: + +"No. Draw lots. Only fair." + +Yes, it was fair, and Ken knew it. He wrote: + +"How?" + +The second torpooner scrabbled around with his fingers. Presently he +unearthed something, and apparently satisfied showed them to Ken. They +were two pebbles, of different sizes. Beddoes pointed to the larger. He +wrote: + +"Large makes attempt." + +Again Ken nodded. He marked: + +"Other try keep killer's attention." + +From time to time a long sleek body slid down to them and edged back and +forth, striving its best to dislodge them with its blunt shout. After +each failure it would return to a position just over the outer entrance. +At the proper moment Chanley Beddoes jumbled the pebbles in his cupped +hands and laid two fists down on the pad. + +Unhesitatingly, Ken placed a finger on the left one. + +Beddoes turned and opened it. It was the smaller pebble. + + * * * * * + +Close as was his face-shield to Beddoes', Ken could not see what his +reaction was. Ken stretched forth his hand and clumsily touched his +companion's shoulder. + +"Good hunting!" he said; but Chan never heard that.... + +The marked man peered out into the trap. The killer was circling slowly. +In the escape hole, the faces of three or four blubber-men were dimly +visible. They seemed to be watching with interest. + +There came a good moment when the killer paused at the three bars of its +cell, its head turned in exactly the opposite direction from the two +torpooners. Beddoes seized the opportunity at once. Almost before Ken +knew it, he had rolled out of the niche. + +Quickly he worked to his feet and started pushing for his goal. The +whale had not seen him. Arms and legs straining, he floundered slowly +ahead. He nearly made it. + +But the killer, restlessly turning, saw him--and Kenneth Torrance winced +and cried out. + +The black monster struck. With horrible, beautiful grace it curved down. +Its snout caught Chanley Beddoes square in the side and butted him up +and around, and both disappeared in a swirl of water into the inky +shadows of the trap's ceiling. + +Ken closed his eyes. He knew what was happening. He could not move. But +it came to him, as he lay there sick with horror, that he would never +have a better chance than now, while the killer was occupied. + +Recklessly he forced himself out of the niche. Up above there was +commotion, a whirlpool of churning water. The current helped him: he got +caught in it and was swept sprawling right over to the torpoon's side. + +He clutched at the port, expecting each instant the tear of monster +fangs; but he made the interior and clicked shut the port. No matter the +water that had come into the main compartment with his entrance. He +pulled the starter over, and heard the familiar drone of electric +engines, safe inside their water-tight division. He felt no relief at +this. There was only the same sick horror. + +He raised the torpoon a little. There was one thing to do. Perhaps it +was mad to try to destroy that killer whale in so narrow a space, but he +was going to attempt it. It would not be so bad to join Chan, if he +failed.... + +A terrific blow struck the stern of the torpoon and spun it around +dizzily. Ken made out the killer lifting its flukes for a second blow. +Quickly he sped the torp ahead, and turned as best he could. Flashing on +his powerful bow-beam, he found the killer to his left, slightly above. +Carefully he maneuvered into firing position: then coldly, with deadly +accuracy, he centered the sights of his nitro-shell gun on the vital +spot behind the eyes. He pressed the trigger: again, and yet again. The +projectiles hurtled out. + +The monster started; its beady eyes settled on the torpoon; with a lunge +it darted forward, jaws gaping wide. And as it came another shell sped +true into the tooth-rimmed mouth. + +It halted then, and doubled in the water. Shock after shock shook the +torpoon as the shells exploded in the whale. For a little while the +sea-beast flurried, and once or twice the torp shivered from chance +fluke-blows. But then at last came peace. The body rolled over, showing +its white belly, and drifted towards the trap's ceiling.... + +The brown-skinned heads had disappeared from the inner entrance. Kenneth +Torrance glanced in that direction for a last time, then looked sadly +around. + +"So long, Chan," he murmured. "So long." + +The torpoon squeezed through the bars of the outer entrance and sped +forth into the open sea. + + * * * * * + +So it was that, perhaps an hour later, the light-beams of the whaling +submarine _Narwhal_, doggedly scouring the region where last her first +torpooner had been heard from, fell across a slim shape of steel that +was beating its way at full speed through the foggy murk of the Arctic +sea. + +Right up to the _Narwhal_ she came, swerving at the last moment and +hovering outside the starboard torpoon catapult; while, aboard the +submarine, an officer whose voice quivered with excitement roused +Captain Henry Streight from his bunk, and the men off duty gathered +around the inner catapult entrance-port. + +Quickly the outer port swung open. And the lone torpoon slid in--slid +home. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seed of the Arctic Ice, by H. G. Winter + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SEED OF THE ARCTIC ICE *** + +***** This file should be named 32029.txt or 32029.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/0/2/32029/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/32029.zip b/32029.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a90dc98 --- /dev/null +++ b/32029.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5f9da1d --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #32029 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32029) |
