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diff --git a/old/44824.txt b/old/44824.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d555271 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/44824.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4949 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Sign of the Green Arrow, by Roy J. (Roy +Judson) Snell + + +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: Sign of the Green Arrow + A Mystery Story + + +Author: Roy J. (Roy Judson) Snell + + + +Release Date: February 2, 2014 [eBook #44824] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIGN OF THE GREEN ARROW*** + + +E-text prepared by Stephen Hutcheson, Rod Crawford, Dave Morgan, and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) + + + +Transcriber's note: + + Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_). + + + + + +A Mystery Story + +SIGN OF THE GREEN ARROW + +by + +ROY J. SNELL + + + + + + + +Reilly & Lee +Chicago + +Copyright 1939 +By +Reilly & Lee +Printed in the U.S.A. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + I "This is Our Secret" 11 + II Spooky Waters 22 + III A Bright Eyed Beach-Comber 34 + IV Spies 46 + V Whispering Depths 54 + VI Real Progress! 73 + VII Mystery Singers of the Night 82 + VIII Monster of the Deep 96 + IX Dave's Electric Gun 105 + X Little Big-Heads 115 + XI Tigers of the Sea 125 + XII Johnny's Day Off 136 + XIII The Green Arrow Trail 150 + XIV An Important Discovery 161 + XV Adrift in the Depths 167 + XVI Voice of Drums 174 + XVII Marching on the Castle 183 + XVIII The Battle 192 + XIX On the Bottom 204 + + + + + SIGN OF THE GREEN ARROW + + + + + CHAPTER I + "THIS IS OUR SECRET." + + +It was midnight. Johnny Thompson paced the deck of the _Sea Nymph_ alone. +He would be doing this until daybreak. The tropical night was glorious. +There was a faint breeze--just enough to ripple the waters where the +phosphorescent light thrown off by a million tiny creatures rivaled the +stars above. + +"Spooky," he thought, meditatively. "Out here all alone with the +night.... Natives over there." He faced the east, where dark green hills +loomed out of the water. Over there was a small island. Johnny never had +been there. Some time he'd get into a canoe and paddle over. Earlier in +the evening he had seen a light, a white man's light, he had thought, +without knowing why. He-- + +His thoughts were interrupted by someone moving, up forward. Or was +there? He had supposed they all were asleep--the strange old man, bony +and tall, with goggle eyes and heavy glasses, the tall young man and the +blonde girl. They all had berths forward. The captain and mate were aft; +the native crew, below deck. There was no need for any of the crew, now. +The boat was anchored. Only he, Johnny Thompson, was needed, to keep +watch for prowlers of the sea, or signs of a storm. + +It was strange, this new job. He was not sure just what these people were +planning--some scientific expedition, he thought. The ship's outfit was +rather irregular, but he had been glad of the chance to sign up as watch. +He loved the sea. + +"Someone--" he said to himself, "--is moving, up there." He started +forward, cautiously. + +He had covered only half the hundred and twenty-five foot length of deck +when suddenly he beheld the girl of the party. + +"Walking in her sleep," Johnny thought, with a touch of alarm. But she +wasn't. + +"Hello!" She poked a hand from beneath her midnight-blue dressing gown. +"It's too swell a night to sleep." + +"Yes," Johnny agreed. + +"You're not a regular watch, are you?" she asked. + +"That--er--" Johnny hesitated. "That's not my regular job. Nothing is. +Does that matter?" + +"No, I suppose not. Anyhow nothing could happen, here." + +"Plenty could happen," he contradicted, quietly. + +"How do you know?" + +"I've been in the Tropics before. Natives get ugly sometimes. They +imagine white men are getting the best of them--which, for the most part, +they are!" Johnny laughed. "Then there are storms," he went on. "Wildest +place for storms you've ever seen. Once I drifted before a storm for +thirty-six hours in a boat just about like this, only--" he hesitated, +"it was different." + +"Yes," the girl laughed, "it must have been, as there's not another boat +quite like this in all the world, I guess. It-- + +"Look!" she exclaimed softly, pointing toward the distant island. "What's +that strange light?" + +"Light?" Johnny spun round. "Oh! Say--that _is_ strange! It's green. A +green light." + +"Like an arrow," the girl whispered. "Green arrow of the Tropics. Quite +romantic! But what can it be?" + +"It's not for us," said Johnny. "It--it seems to blink. Wait!" + +Retracing his steps he went to a box of life-preservers where he had left +his heavy field glass. He returned quickly to her side. + +"Now," he invited, "have a look!" He held the glass in position for her. + +"It--it _does_ blink," she murmured. "It's like an electric sign. Some +lights go off; others go on!" + +"Let's see." Johnny took the glass. "Why--it's some sort of signalling," +he decided at once. "But not for _us_!" + +Instinctively they turned to scan the sea. + +"There's no other boat out there," said Johnny. "At least there wasn't +any at sunset. If one had moved in, we'd see the light." + +"If there were a light," whispered the girl, "how gorgeously mysterious +it'd be. How-- + +"Look!" she exclaimed. "Do you see it? A green arrow out there on the +sea?" + +"No--oo," Johnny said, after a moment of gazing. "I can't see it. Must +have been a reflection of that other light. That often happens, you--" + +"No!" The girl said, emphatically. "There! I saw it again!" + +"Perhaps I'm color-blind," said Johnny after another long look. "But I +just don't see it!" + +At that he turned around to continue his study of that land light. + +"It's strange," he murmured. "I can't quite count the lights, but they +_do_ go on and off. Irregularly, too. It must be a signal. But what are +they saying?" + +"And to whom?" the girl added. + +"Well," she sighed a moment later, "we'll not learn the answer, at least +not tonight. Because it's gone!" + +"So it is," said Johnny, after a long look at the island. + +"Sha--shall we tell them?" he asked after a moment. + +"Who? Grandfather and Dave? Oh--why should we? It can't be anything that +affects us! Let's keep it for our own little secret. Perhaps we'll solve +the riddle--" + +"All right," Johnny agreed, readily. There's a queer girl for you, he was +thinking. She'd be lots of fun, though. + +"Is the elderly man your grandfather?" he asked. + +"Yes. Professor Casper's his name. Only wish I knew as much as he does. +My name's Doris--Doris Casper." She put out her hand. "I--I'll be seeing +you. Good night. And don't forget--it's our secret--sign of the green +arrow!" + +She was gone. + +"Sign of the green arrow," Johnny whispered, softly. "Perhaps I _should_ +report it to the professor. And then again--perhaps I shouldn't. It can't +have a thing to do with this boat, and it's entirely out of my line of +duty. The girl wants to share a secret. Most girls do, in fact. So why +not?" + +With that, for the present at least, the whole affair was dismissed from +his mind. + +Half an hour later he found himself sitting alone on the after deck, +glancing away at those dim, mysterious shores, and thinking back over the +events that had led up to this mildly exciting night. + +Two months before, he had found himself in New York wanting a job, and +not able to find one. After three weeks of trying he had grown somewhat +bitter about the whole thing. + +"I'm intelligent," he had said to a prospective employer. "I've always +worked. I like it. Why shouldn't I have a chance?" + +"Why not?" the grey haired man had replied sadly. "I've asked that +question often, but I don't know the answer. I only know we can't use +another man." + +That very afternoon, while watching boats moving out to sea, Johnny had +his chance, and took it. He caught sight of a young man, struggling +toward a gang-plank under a heavy load. + +"Give you a lift?" he had volunteered, courteously. + +"Whew! Yes." The man mopped his brow. "Looking for a dime?" + +"Not yet!" Reddening, Johnny impulsively jerked a few small bills from +his pocket. "Not broke, yet." + +"Oh!" The man looked at him with interest. "Say!" he exclaimed. "I +shouldn't wonder if you'd do!" + +"For what?" the boy asked. + +"I'm off to the Spanish Main to take pictures--native life, ancient +ruins, and all that. There's a lot of stuff to lug, and--" he hesitated, +"perhaps a fight to step into now and then! Want to go?" + +"_Do_ I?" Johnny grabbed the two largest bags. + +"There's no money in it! Just experience and expenses." + +"All right! What are we waiting for?" Johnny led the way up the +gang-plank. + +All that had been two months before and what wonderful months those had +been! Sailing from island to island, they had taken pictures of quaint, +native homes, of native women with flashing eyes, of ancient buccaneer +cannon, fast rusting to nothingness. There had been three exciting +fights, with men who had thought they were intruding. In one of these, a +machete had come within a fraction of an inch of Johnny's ear. He seemed +to feel the cool swish of it now. + +Then, he thought with a sigh, those golden days had ended. Lee Martin, +the photographer, had been called back to New York. + +"You keep the stuff," Lee had said to Johnny. "You may be able to get +some unusual pictures. If you do--send 'em home to me. I'll see what I +can make out of 'em, for you." + +Johnny had watched Lee's boat fade into the distance. Then, with heavy +heart, he had marched back to his lodgings in Port au Prince, the capital +of the Island Republic of Haiti. + +That very day he had noticed the _Sea Nymph_, located the man in charge, +and signed up as watch. His photographic equipment was in his stateroom. +He had laid in a good supply of film packs and plates. Would he find +opportunity to use them? Would he get some unusual pictures to send to +Lee Martin? Time was to answer all these questions in its own way.... + +"It's a strange layout," he thought, as he took a turn about the deck. "I +suppose I'll know what it's all about before long." + +It was indeed a strangely equipped craft. A three-master, with an +auxiliary motor for bad weather, the _Sea Nymph_ had been built for +island trade. Since the bottom had dropped out of the sugar market, she +had been lying idle in the harbor. Without making many changes, the +elderly professor had equipped her for his purpose, whatever that might +be. Johnny had not yet been told. There had been a hold at the boat's +center, for sugar and other freight. This had been transformed into a +tank--or swimming pool. Johnny could not tell which. Doris, garbed in a +gay swim suit, had taken a morning plunge there, but he had a notion it +was for some other purpose, also. + +Strangest of all, close to the stern where it could be reached by the +stout hoists, was a large, hollow steel ball. It was all of eight feet in +diameter, and its walls were several inches thick. What, he had asked +himself more than once, could that be for? But he had asked no one else. +The natives would not know, and one simply did not ask such questions of +an employer. Besides, Johnny had learned long before, it is a waste of +time to ask questions which, in good time, will answer themselves.... + + + + + CHAPTER II + SPOOKY WATERS + + +Johnny's questions regarding the steel ball were answered the following +afternoon. After his usual six hours of sleep, he was sitting on the deck +when the young man they called Dave--his whole name was Dave +Darnell--approached him. + +"I saw you taking pictures yesterday," Dave said with a smile. + +"Yes," Johnny answered. "Just a picture of that island. I hope you didn't +mind." + +"Not at all", said Dave. "That looked like a rather good camera." + +"It is!" Johnny exclaimed. "None better. Of course," he added, grinning, +"it's not mine. It was loaned to me. And there's equipment, screens for +infra-red pictures, flash bulbs, flood-lights--about everything." + +"Say--ee--" Dave exclaimed. "Looks like you're a real find! Want to go +down and try your luck at taking pictures?" He nodded toward the big +steel ball. + +"Down?" Johnny asked, a little blankly. + +"Yes--to the place of eternal night!" + +"E--eternal night!" + +"That's right! I can't describe it to you! But I can show you. Question +is--can you take pictures in complete darkness?" + +"They don't come too dark for me!" Johnny flashed back. "Lee Martin and I +took a picture of a Voodoo witches' meeting--people hiding in the dark +from the island police. You couldn't see your hand. But we got the +picture all right. And I nearly lost an ear! A burly black fellow swung +at me with a machete!" + +"Nothing like that down there," Dave chuckled. "All the same--you'll be +surprised! Do you want to go?" + +"Sure--I'll go," Johnny agreed. "Only," he hesitated, "I have a strange +horror of being completely out of touch with the rest of the world! What +do we do about that?" + +"That's easy!" Dave laughed. "We have a short-wave set on the boat and +another in the steel ball. Doris or the professor is always listening in. +How about it--do we go?" + +"We sure do!" Johnny grinned. + +"O.K.! Get your stuff together. We'll go down in an hour!" + +"Wonder what I'm getting into now?" Johnny asked himself as he walked to +his stateroom. + +An hour later he found himself passing through one of the strangest +experiences of his life. He was seated, doubled up. Had he wanted to +stand, he could not have done so. His eyes were wide open, but he saw +never a thing! + +"Inky black!" he whispered. + +"Nowhere else will you see such darkness," came Dave's voice, close at +his side. + +"But look! There's something!" Johnny exclaimed in a low tone. + +"Yes!" Dave's voice rose excitedly. "And it's something quite new!" + +Johnny stared with all possible intensity. Before him--how far away he +could not tell--there moved a series of small, round spots of yellow +light. "It's like flying through the air at night," he murmured; "and +seeing the lights of a huge Zeppelin passing." + +"Quick! Get your camera ready!" said Dave. + +"All right--it's all set!" Johnny's own voice sounded strange to him. + +"I'll turn on the light," said Dave. "Now!" + +"One, two, three--" Johnny counted to ten, and closed the camera shutter +with a click. + +"Now! One more picture," urged Dave. Another click. "They're passing. +They'll soon be gone. If only it works!" Dave's voice grew louder with +excitement. + +"There", Johnny sighed. "That's two pictures--I hope!" + +"No time for another," said Dave. + +Johnny stared once more at the blue-black darkness before him, and +marveled afresh. Could anything be stranger than this? Queerest of +all--there had not been one ray of visible light. And Dave's voice at his +side had said, "I'll turn on the light!" + +But Johnny knew what it was all about. He had taken pictures in the dark +before. Still the strangeness of it all, baffled him. + +As if brought on by the darkness and mystery, he suddenly thought of +something he must tell Dave. + +"Samatan is stirring up trouble with the crew of the _Sea Nymph_!" he +said. + +"Our cook? Samatan?" Dave's voice registered surprise. "You must be +mistaken." + +"No" said Johnny. "I heard him last night". + +"But why should he? He is well paid." + +"That's what I don't know." There was a note of perplexity in Johnny's +voice. "It's what somebody must find out. What if he should persuade the +men to hoist anchor and sail, _right now_?" + +"Right now?" + +"Yes." + +"That would be practically fatal! It-- + +"But look!" Dave's voice changed. "There they are again! I never saw such +a sight! Get ready for another picture!" + +Johnny quickly took another picture--two--three more pictures. After +that, the spots of yellow light disappeared as before, and--for what +seemed a very long time--there was nothing but inky blackness. + +Johnny settled back for a few, fleeting thoughts. That he was due for +some unusual experiences he had never a doubt. Fancy, going far beneath +the surface of the sea in a thing like this steel ball! Suppose something +went wrong--even the least little thing! What then? Dave had told him it +was possible to go down half a mile, perhaps more. Would they ask him to +go down that far to take pictures? + +Sometimes, he thought, it's better not to know too much about what is +ahead. + +He had been vastly interested in their manner of taking off in that steel +ball. They had crawled through a small entrance in the side, and taken +their places. Then had come the bang of a steel door, swung into place. +This was followed by the clang of wrenches, bolting them inside! + +Dave had seen him move, restlessly. "Don't let that bother you," he had +laughed. "I've been down scores of times. It--it's just grand! Professor +Casper got the thing up," Dave had explained. "Now his doctor won't let +him go down--on account of a bad heart. So it's up to me, on this trip. +There are things we want to know. Your pictures should help." + +There hadn't been time for any more talk. After the door had been +securely bolted down, the hoist had lifted them over the rail and lowered +them gently into the inky depths. + +With a suddenness that was startling, Johnny awoke from his revery. Like +the flash of electric bulbs, lights were appearing and disappearing +before his eyes. + +"Wha--what is it?" he exclaimed. + +"Shrimp," was Dave's matter-of-fact reply. "Something is after them. The +squid shoots out ink to make himself invisible, but in this darkness that +would do no good. These shrimp shoot out little balls of fire. Look!" +Suddenly Dave switched on a powerful electric light, and the little world +about them was transformed. + +Seeming to swim in air, a score of tiny, crab-like creatures moved +rapidly across the spot of light. Viewed through the six-inch-thick +window of fused quartz, they seemed fantastic indeed. + +For a few seconds the space before them was a dark and empty void. Then +again, it filled with darting creatures. Dave switched off the light, and +once again the shrimp disappeared. As soon as the more powerful light +from their strange, sub-sea visitor had been turned on, they had appeared +as dark, darting creatures. + +"What was following them?" Johnny asked. + +"Who knows?" There was a suggestion of deep mystery in his companion's +tone. "That's the thrill and charm that comes from exploring the sea's +depths! Anything may put in an appearance. Creatures such as the world +never has dreamed of, may pass before our eyes!" + +"How strange! How sort of--" + +Johnny broke off to stare, then to exclaim--"There--there's something +_huge_!" + +"Quick! The camera!" Dave's voice trembled. "No--it's too late!" + +Moving with surprising swiftness, some great, dark bulk passed through +the outer edge of their narrow beam of light. + +"Wha--what was it?" Johnny felt a little giddy. + +"Some huge creature of the deep. Perhaps a whale or a black fish," Dave +replied quietly. "It is known that they penetrate to these depths. Then +again--perhaps it was some huge, scaly creature that inhabits these +depths alone." + +"What if it had collided with us, or tangled in our cable?" + +"Then," Dave's tone was dry and droll, "we might have taken a long, swift +ride through space!" + +"Swinging like a pendulum?" + +"That's it! On our thousands of feet of cable." + +"I shouldn't like that," Johnny shuddered. + +"Then why bring it up?" Dave chuckled. + +"Why, indeed!" Johnny laughed-- + +After another half hour of waiting, for one more fascinating spectacle, +Dave decided to signal for their return to the top. Johnny experienced a +real sense of relief. + +"To explore the depths of the sea--earth's last great frontier--this is +our purpose," Dave said, as they began to rise. "For centuries men have +been discovering strange creatures washed up on beaches. They could have +come from nowhere save the ocean depths. For many years they have been +dragging these depths with nets, to discover, if they could, what lived +in these 'spooky waters' of dense darkness." + +And now, Johnny thought exultantly, I am having a part in an expedition +that may reveal the secrets of these dark depths. + +But once again his mind returned to Samatan. This strange person, with +his apparent hold on the native crew, was cook for the expedition. And a +marvelous cook he was. Johnny had been interested in the strange old man, +from the first. He had studied him carefully. And there could be no +mistake about it--Samatan was endeavoring to stir the crew to +something.... + +Now the blue-black world about him appeared to be changing color. The +blackness was less intense. + +"It's like the coming of dawn," he said to Dave. + +"Yes," Dave chuckled, "only here we may make our own dawn, slow or fast, +as we choose!" + +That this was to be rather a fast dawn, Johnny was not long in +discovering. But it was fascinating. To pass from inky blackness to dark, +deep blue, on into colors that resembled a sunrise, and then to the +eternal blue of a bright, tropical day, was an experience not soon to be +forgotten. From time to time as they rose, strange denizens of the sea +seemed to peer at them. Once a shark shot past, and just before they +reached the top, a great turtle swam awkwardly away. + +Came the bump--bump of their steel ball as, lifted by the great crane, it +landed on the deck. Then, almost before he knew it, Johnny thrust his +head into bracing fresh air, to be greeted by a smiling face and to hear +a girl's voice saying: + +"Hello, Johnny Thompson! How do you like being down in Davey Jones' +locker?" + +After assuring her of his enthusiasm, Johnny hurried to his stateroom. He +was wondering whether Doris remembered their "secret" of the night +before. + + + + + CHAPTER III + A BRIGHT EYED BEACH-COMBER + + +Johnny went at once to a darkroom that had been quickly prepared in the +hold. Pictures could be taken on land in what appeared to be complete +darkness; he knew this from his work with Lee Martin. But would the utter +blackness beneath the sea be the same? He would know, soon. + +He watched the films with absorbed interest. As the developer took hold, +he saw nothing but blackness. + +"Nothing there!" he muttered disappointedly. "Wasted shots. We--" + +But wait! Was something coming out? Yes! There it was! An indistinct, +shadowy form! + +His thoughts leaped ahead. His pictures were to be a success. He would be +asked, times without number, to go down in that darkness and take more +pictures. Dangerous work, but he had to be a good sport, and besides, it +was splendid experience for him. + +The strange, undersea creatures, some very large, with heads as long as +their bodies, with fantastic buck teeth and hideous eyes, some small and +snakelike and some as normal looking as any fish to be found near the +surface, came out clearly visible on the film. + +"Perfect!" was the professor's enthusiastic reaction when Johnny showed +him damp prints a few hours later. "A real contribution! And you took +them in complete darkness!" + +"In what appeared to be complete darkness," Johnny corrected. "I did it +with an infra-red light screen. That screen shuts out all but the +infra-red rays. Eyes can't see the light of these rays. + +"Of course," he went on, "we might have used a flood light, but that +would have frightened those creatures away. As it is, we got them in what +you might call a natural pose. Candid camera shots from the deep sea," he +laughed. + +"Yes, yes," the professor agreed. "Very remarkable and most useful!" + +"Of course," said Johnny, with a touch of modesty. "I learned all this +from Lee Martin. He took me on as a helper and sort of body-guard. I just +absorbed this camera stuff as we went along." + +"I see," said the professor, "that you have learned one of the real +secrets of success." + +"What's that?" Johnny asked. + +"To learn all you can about everything that comes your way, and to file +that knowledge away in your brain. One never can tell when the +opportunity to use such information may come to him. Perhaps never, but +it's always there! + +"You should be a great aid to us," the professor added thoughtfully. "You +see," he said, leaning forward in his chair, "I regard this work as the +most interesting and exciting of my entire career. Young man,"--his eyes +fairly shone, "what place do you think of as our last frontier?" + +Then, before Johnny could reply--"You may go east, west, north, south" +the professor continued "but you find no frontier. You must go up or +down! Up into the stratosphere--or down, into the sea. These are our last +frontiers. Dave and I have chosen the deep sea, because there we may yet +discover forms of life not known to man. These pictures," he held them +up, "show two types of fish never before seen--and we have but begun!" + + * * * * * * * * + +"We have but begun," Johnny repeated softly to himself as, some hours +later, he once more paced the deck in his solitary vigil. "We have begun. +Where shall we end? We--" + +His soliloquy was interrupted. Had he caught a gleam out there on the +water? He thought so. Now it was gone. + +That was one thing he was to watch for--natives in dugouts and canoes. +Who could tell what they might do? In a strange land one did well to keep +close watch. He would keep an eye out for that light.... + +"Exploring our last frontier," he whispered softly. He was in for +something truly big again. Big, exciting, and dangerous! Well, that was +the life. Life, action, thrills--and a touch of romance! Boy-oh-boy! That +was the stuff! + +But there _was_ a gleam of light on the water! There could be no +mistaking it. It was closer, too. What should he do? Call someone? After +a moment's thought he decided to wait. His flashlight would reach out a +hundred feet or more. Time enough when those people, whoever they were, +came within reach of his light. So, somewhat excited, Johnny waited by +the gunwale, watching the bobbing of a tiny light--now here--now +there--now gone--but ever coming nearer. + +He waited, breathless, tense, expectant, watching for some craft. What +would he see? Dark faces? Gleaming spears? Flashing machetes? Soon he +would know. + +When at last he cast the gleam of his powerful light on the spot where +that golden glow had last shown, he gasped in astonishment. + +"A girl!" he exclaimed, amazedly. + +Yes, it was a girl. In a dugout patterned after a white man's canoe, she +came straight on, without a sound. Her boy's shirt and blue slacks were +faded, but clean. Her reddish-golden hair fairly gleamed in the light. +She had a round, freckled face and smiling eyes. + +As she came alongside, Johnny reached over, took her line and made it +fast. Then he gripped her small, firm hand and helped her over the low +rail. + +"I--I had to come," she breathed. "I--I've been watching you for days. +What--" there was tense eagerness in her voice, "what is that big ball +you let down into the sea?" + +"That," said Johnny, after bringing her a deck chair, "is for going down, +down, down, to the bottom of the sea!" + +"I--I hoped it would be." + +"Why" + +"Our trading schooner, the _Swallow_, sank. We--we can't find it. I +thought--" + +"Thought these people might find it for you?" + +"Yes! Yes--that's it! Do you suppose--" + +"I can't tell about that. You see," Johnny hesitated, "I'm only a watch, +on this boat. I--well you might say I'm just a tropical tramp!" + +"That," said the girl, putting out her hand, "makes us kin! Grandfather +and I are beach-combers! + +"You see," she went on, after giving Johnny's hand a quick grip, "I sort +of ran away from home. No, not quite that. I was half through college. It +cost an awful lot. My folks couldn't afford it, but they wanted me to +finish anyway. I wouldn't let them spend the money, so I asked +grandfather to send me a steamship ticket. He did--and here I am! It's +grand! Really gorgeous! These nights." She spread her arms wide. "The +jungle! The water rushing along the shore, the birds, the flowers, +romance, adventure, everything! It's just grand!" Her face fairly shone. + +"But our boat," her voice dropped, "sprang a leak in a storm. The natives +were sailing her. They lost the location and we can't find it. Perhaps--" + +"You'd have to see Dave," said Johnny. + +"He's the young man who goes down in the steel ball? I--I've been +watching you through the glass." + +"Yes, that's Dave. He takes his work of exploring the sea's depths very +serenely! Tell you what!" Johnny exclaimed. "You get him to take you +down!" + +"In--in that thing?" The girl drew in her breath sharply, eyeing the +distant shadow of the huge sphere. + +"Sure, in the steel ball! He'd like to! He's proud of it. And he likes +showing people strange things. If you want someone to do a certain thing +for you--ask him to do something else, first! That's a grand rule." +Johnny looked into the girl's frank, grey eyes, and decided he liked her. + +"Yes--I--I suppose so," the girl replied, slowly. "But you know--well, +anyway--it's worth thinking about!" + +"Look!" said Johnny, starting up. "Perhaps you can tell me what _that_ +is." He pointed to the distant island, where again the blinking green +arrow could be seen. + +"No, I--" The girl sat there, staring. "I never saw that before. But you +know," her voice dropped to a whisper, "there are spies on these islands! +Lots of spies!" + +"Spies?" Johnny's voice expressed astonishment. + +"European spies," she added. + +"But why?" + +"I don't know about it. Grandfather can tell you all there is to know. +He's always talking spies, and saying what they'll do when the time +comes.... You must come over and see us. Our place is just over there on +the shore. You'll come, won't you?" + +"Yes. Certainly I'll come." + +"Thanks a lot." Once more she gripped his hand. "And now--goodnight. +I--I'm glad I came." She was over the side and away. + +"Well, I'll _be_!" said Johnny as he settled back in his chair. A moment +later, faint, and far away, he heard her voice come over the dark water: + +"My name is Mildred Kennedy. Be sure to come see us--don't forget!" + +For answer Johnny whistled once, cupping his lips with his hands, to +reduce the likelihood of arousing anyone on board. After that he was left +to silence and the night--and the mysterious arrow of green light, +blinking away on the distant hillside. + +Sliding out the field glass, he studied that arrow for two full minutes. +He felt sure from its strange blinking and winking that it was being used +as a code signal. For the life of him, however, he could not make the +lights separate themselves. They always remained a blur. + +"Too far away," he grumbled. He wanted to hoist anchor and let the boat +drift closer to shore, but this, he knew, would not do. He was neither +skipper nor mate. + +Suddenly recalling Doris' words of the previous night, he realized that +he had made the light, the secret of the bright-eyed little Mildred +Kennedy! "I won't tell Doris about that!" he decided. "At least, not +yet." + +He was seized with a sudden desire to know who was receiving those +blinking signals of the green arrow. Deep in thought, he turned his back +to the island and, to his utter astonishment, saw above the motionless +sea some distance away, a second blinking green arrow! + +"Ah!" he breathed, lifting the glass to his eyes. Digging into a pocket, +he dragged out a pencil and a small notebook. After that, for fully ten +minutes, he held the glass with his left hand while setting down numbers. +5 - 7 - 11 - 9, 13 - 6 - 3, 4 - 9 - 2 - 7. He wrote down figures and more +figures, until a strange, rushing sound reached his ears. + +Startled, he sprang to his feet. On the shore side he saw a broad band of +white foam rapidly approaching the boat. Standing there, mouth open and +staring, he watched it sweep toward him. With a hissing roar it swept +beneath the boat and, without causing the least movement of the craft, +went rushing on. + +"False alarm," he murmured. "Probably what they call a rip-tide." + +Turning back to sea, he looked again for the blinking green arrow. But it +was gone. The distant island hill, too, now was entirely dark. + +"Strange," he muttered, as again he paced the deck. + +And indeed it was strange, for the ship's log had recorded no boat in +sight at sundown! + +From then, until Johnny's vigil ended with the dawn, there was nothing to +disturb the calm stillness of the tropic night. + + + + + CHAPTER IV + SPIES + + +On board the _Sea Nymph_ was a small boat known as the Tub. Very short +and broad, it rowed like a washtub, and in a storm, would have been about +as safe as a laundry basket. But water held no terrors for Johnny, so, +late the following afternoon, he pushed the Tub into the sea and headed +for shore. + +"You came! How grand!" Mildred Kennedy came racing down a palm-lined path +to greet him. + +She wore an orange-colored smock, and there was flour on the hand she +held out in greeting. + +"I'm making cookies," she confided. + +"Sounds great!" Johnny grinned. + +She led him to a broad, screened porch where a bearded giant unwound +himself from a deep, comfortable chair to meet him. + +"This is grandfather." Real pride shone in the girl's eyes. "He's been a +beach-comber for thirty years. That's a record!" + +"Now, child," the old man drawled, "don't you go bragging on me. + +"Have a chair," he directed Johnny. + +"My cookies will burn. I'll have to hurry," said the girl. +"Grandfather--you tell him about those spies." + +"Spies? Oh, yes. Those European fellows." The old man's face darkened. +"I've been preaching against 'em for mighty nigh twenty years. Mebbe +longer than that, I reckon. You see, Mr. Thompson--" + +"Please call me Johnny," said the boy. "I'm not used to the 'Mister'." + +"All right, Johnny. That's what it shall be. You see, Johnny, these +islands were once a French colony. The French made slaves of the natives. +They brought in a lot more slaves and before long, there were many more +slaves than there were Frenchmen. So the natives polished up their +machetes, started poundin' their Voodoo drums, and drove the Frenchmen +off the islands. This has been a republic ever since. + +"But spies, now," his voice dropped. "How'd you get to thinkin' o' +spies?" + +"Your granddaughter told me there were spies. And there's been a green +arrow--an arrow of light--on the hill at night, and another on the water. +It's sort of mysterious." + +"A green arrow of light," the old man repeated. "That's what Mildred was +telling me. Strange that I never saw it." + +"You couldn't," said Johnny, "unless you were on the water. It's near the +middle of the island, and up high." + +"There's a place up there built of stone, half castle--half prison," +Kennedy said, thoughtfully. "Some Frenchman built it, thinking he could +hold out against the natives. Well, he couldn't, and now the natives +think it's haunted. Won't go near it. It's a long way up a terrible +trail. + +"But those spies, now," he added thoughtfully. "They may be using it for +a hideout and signal tower. They stop at nothing." + +The old man rose, circled the porch like a prowling tiger, then returned +to his seat. + +"These natives," he went on, "are a simple people. They can't run a +country. They found it out soon enough. So did these other people, these +Europeans. I won't name the country as you'll learn it soon enough. Those +Europeans came here and began boring in, just as they do everywhere. +You'll find them in every South American republic and every island of the +sea. They're robbers, spies, traitors!" His voice rose. "They rob the +people, and at the same time plot the overthrow of all governments but +their own. + +"Young man!" Mr. Kennedy left his chair with surprising vigor. "Did you +ever take a good look at the map, and think how important this Caribbean +Sea is?" + +"No, I--" + +"Come here. Have a look!" + +They stood before a large wall map. "Look at it," Kennedy insisted. +"Plentiful islands with Central America on the west. A score of wonderful +harbors. Suppose those people took possession of these islands. Look at +Haiti! A harbor where an entire navy might drop anchor! Yes--and room +left for ten thousand seaplanes! Bombers! How would our Atlantic +coast--Miami, Charleston, New York, Boston--how would they look, after +those planes had been raiding from this base for a week, if there were +war. And who says there _won't_ be! + +"You saw a light on the water!" He whirled around. + +"Yes! Low down! A green arrow of lights, that flashed." + +"'Low down'!--I should say they were!" The old man grimaced. "Spies!" he +muttered. "Since our Marines left the islands--we took control during the +World War, you know--these islands have been nests of spies! Something +should be done about it. But these natives sleep on--and Uncle Sam +doesn't care to interfere. And yet I'm beginning to hope he will--before +it is too late!" His words trailed off as he resumed his seat. + +"These people may call themselves beach-combers," Johnny thought to +himself. "Perhaps they are, in a way! But they're grand folks." + +The house, which he presumed had been built with native labor, was made +of massive, hardwood logs. There was no glass in the broad windows, but +bamboo "screens," which could be let down at night. Mosquito-net canopies +were hung over the beds to keep out insects. Most tropical houses are +like that. + +Behind the house were orchards--grapefruit, oranges, bananas. And down in +the flat land by the shore, sugar cane was growing. + +"We cut it out of the wilderness, the natives and I," the old man +rumbled, in response to Johnny's polite inquiry. "They're quite +wonderful, these natives--once you come to understand them. + +"Of course," his brow darkened, "some of them can't be trusted. Those +men, those Europeans--" his tone was bitter, "have corrupted them. Yes, +and robbed them, too! They pay little for their produce, wild rubber, +chicle, wild coffee. And they charge the natives high prices for cheap +goods. They get the people deeply in debt to them, and then make slaves +of them. + +"That," he sighed, "was why we bought a trading schooner, Mildred and I. +We wanted to give the people of our small island a chance. We were doing +it, too!" He struck the table a blow with his massive fist. "By George! +We were doing it! + +"But our boat's on the bottom now!" His voice fell. "Our natives took her +out in a storm, and she sprang a leak." + +"Yes, I know. Mildred told me." Johnny was wondering whether some +treacherous native, inspired by the Europeans, had let the water into the +Kennedy boat. At the same time he was making a resolve to do all he could +to find the boat and help bring it to the surface. + +Mildred entered with a great plate of cookies and a pitcher of ice-cold, +fruit juice. + +"I hope you like them," she smiled. + +Johnny did like them. What was more, as the moments passed he became more +and more interested in his new-found friends. They were, he told himself, +good, kind, intelligent people--his kind. They would do things, together. +He saw himself with the girl, following obscure trails in search of that +spy castle whence, perhaps, the green arrow messages came. + +"Well," he sighed at last, "I'll have to be getting back. It's been +grand, this visit. I hope you'll let me come back, and that--that we can +do things together." He was looking at the girl. + +"Do things? What, for instance?" Her face was serious. + +"Lots of things. Things that may help." He gave her a broad smile. +Then--"just a big batch of day-dreams, I guess." + +At that he shook hands with the old man, walked down the broad path with +the girl, gripped her hand for an instant, then climbed into his Tub and +rowed away. + +"Thanks for one grand time," he called back. + +"You're welcome, and thanks for coming," was Mildred's answer. And the +hills echoed back, "thanks--thanks." + + + + + CHAPTER V + WHISPERING DEPTHS + + +Johnny had an active mind. Figuring and planning were almost continuous +activities with him. Sometimes he really tried to slow the process up, +but his mind would keep right on, figuring and planning. + +As he rowed slowly back to the boat, his thoughts were particularly +active. There were things to be done. He would see that they _were_ done, +in the end; he surely would. By going down in the steel ball as many +times as Dave wanted him to, and by taking pictures, he'd put Dave in +debt to him. Then he'd persuade Mildred to go down in the steel ball. +Dave would like that. Then, at just the right time, he and Mildred would +ask Dave to help find that trading boat at the bottom of the sea, and to +float it once more. + +Then they would get busy on those spies, he and Mildred and--and anyone +else who would help. It was a patriotic duty, by thunder! It surely was! +In his mind's eye he saw the map of the Caribbean Sea, these islands at +one side, the Panama Canal on the other. If the Europeans got these +islands, what would happen to the canal? Filled with rocks and mud--that +was the answer! They'd bomb the very daylights out of it. Yes, they must +uncover those spies--at least some of them. He wondered whether the green +arrow would show tonight, and whether he would be able to make any sense +out of the numbers he had written down in his notebook. + +"It's some sort of code," he told himself repeatedly. "If I can decipher +it we may get somewhere." + +But here he was alongside the _Sea Nymph_, and Dave was saying: + +"Hello, Johnny. We're shifting our position tonight--coming in a little +closer. Tomorrow afternoon I'd like you to go down with me to get some +pictures. You won't mind, will you?" + +That was exactly what Johnny had planned. "No, I won't mind," he said, +"that will be keen." + +A mist drifted out over the ocean. All that night Johnny paced the deck +in a chill fog. No green light showed from the island hills. Once he +thought he heard men's voices, but nothing came of it. He was glad enough +when he could crawl into his berth, draw his blankets over him, and lose +himself in sleep. + +When he awoke the sun was shining. It was mid-afternoon, and Dave was +waiting for him to appear, for their trip below. + +"What a life!" he murmured. After he had gulped some hot coffee, +hurriedly bolted some seabiscuits and a piece of pie he reappeared on +deck. + +"All ready?" Dave asked. + +"Soon as I get my camera and things." + +"Good! I'll have the steel ball in shape P.D.Q.," Dave grinned, +good-naturedly. + +"He's really a nice chap," Johnny thought. "Only he takes science and +discovery pretty seriously. I suppose we'll discover some saber-toothed +viper fish, or maybe some flying snails!" He smiled at his thoughts. Life +was not half bad after all. + +Half an hour later he was experiencing such thrills as only the deep, +deep sea could bring. Some five hundred feet beneath the surface of the +sea he sat doubled up in his place, staring at an ever changing panorama. +A rocky wall, not twenty feet from him, stood up like a sky-scraper, +straight and tall. Here and there it was broken by fissures and caves. +Everywhere it was festooned with sea vegetation--seaweed, kelp, anemones. +All these, with coral that rose like Gothic architecture, were +entrancing. + +Dave was by his side--not to admire, but to record. The look on his face +was almost solemn. As they moved slowly downward Dave spoke into a small +microphone and Doris, up on deck, recorded his words. Strange words they +were, too: "A school of parrot fish; three hatchet fish; two +round-mouths; a golden-tailed serpent dragon; a--oh--oh!--Hold +everything!" + +At that instant Dave's window was opposite a dark cavern. As he threw on +a more powerful light he caught the gleam of two, great eyes. How far +apart they were! + +Despite his efforts to remain calm, Johnny's heart skipped a beat as, at +Dave's command, he touched his moving-picture camera and set it +recording. What sort of creature was this? A whale? A blackfish? Or some +strange, unknown denizen of the deep? Suppose at this instant it should +become enraged, should rush out of its hiding place and drag the steel +ball out into the deep--to send it crashing against the rocky wall? A +broken window would mean instant death. And yet Johnny's hand did not +tremble as he adjusted his camera.... + +Just after the steel ball had gone over the side, Mildred Kennedy, in her +dugout canoe, had arrived for a visit. It had called for real courage, +this little journey. From a distance these _Sea Nymph_ people had seemed +so serious. All but Johnny. "But it's not decent to stay away and not be +properly sociable," she had told her grandfather. So here she was. + +There had been time only for a brief word of welcome from Doris. After +that, whispering excitedly--"Dave and Johnny are below in the steel ball. +It--it's dreadfully thrilling, even here on deck," Doris had clamped a +pair of head-phones over her guest's ears and had whispered tensely: + +"Listen!" + +So they were seated on the deck of the _Sea Nymph_, listening intently +for reports from below. At the same time, they talked. + +"I came to visit my grandfather," Mildred said, "just as sort of a lark. +I was storm bound indoors for two weeks, and when I saw how simple and +kind the natives were, the happy, free life they lived, and yet how many +things could be done for them, I wanted to stay. So I just did. And I am +glad. Only--" A shadow passed over her face. + +"Listen!" Doris held up a finger. "Thought I heard a whisper. It--it +couldn't be Dave! I--I hope nothing has gone wrong. It's truly dangerous +being down there, and yet one does learn so much--" + +"Shish!" Mildred held up a finger. "I--listen--I hear a whisper! It--it's +numbers he's saying. How strange!" + +As the two girls sat in silence, pressing the phones to their ears, +listening with their every sense, they caught--in a low whisper: + +"Two hundred--and--eight--and a half. Ten. No--now a drop--thirty, +thirty-one--two--three--" + +Then Dave's voice boomed through, drowning out the whisper. "O.K. We saw +some sort of monster," he was saying. "He was in one of these caverns and +Johnny got his picture--we hope! Wish you were down here." + +"So do we!" Doris' voice exclaimed. "We heard a whisper. Thought you +might--" + +"You've been dreaming!" Dave boomed back. "Forget it--and tell that man +at the cable to let us down again, slowly. Boy!--how I do want to see +things!" + +Yes, Dave wanted to see things. Most of all, on this particular day he +wished to go down--down--down into the watery depths, to discover, if +possible, just how far down, sea vegetation and coral were to be found. + +"If only I don't find bottom too soon," he thought. "And if the sea +remains calm." + +The sea. He shuddered a little at this. If the anchors held--all would be +well. But if they should give way--that would be truly terrible. To the +right and left of them, not a quarter-mile apart, were parallel walls of +rock. To be dragged against one of these--? Who could tell what disaster +might result! + + * * * * * * * * + +In the meantime, as they listened, the two girls talked of many things, +of home, of thrilling tropical nights, of Mildred's sunken schooner and +many other things. + +Of a sudden, their conversation was interrupted by a sound, conveyed +through their head-phones. + +"Sh--"--Doris' hand went up. "It's that strange whisper again!" + +"Whispering waters!" Mildred murmured. "How mysterious!" + +Low as her tone was, the whisperer apparently caught it, for--still in +that hoarse whisper--there came back: + +"So we are mysterious! How very grand! And it was a lady who spoke!" + +Once again Dave's voice broke in upon the whisperer: "Doris!" Tenseness +was evident in his tone. "Doris!--Tell them to hold us right where we +are!" + +"_Hold it!_" Doris called to the windlass man, instantly. + +"_Hold it_," came back the quick acknowledgment. + +"All this," Doris said to Mildred, "is most provoking. You are just dying +to know what strange things are happening below, what marvelous +discoveries are being made--but the only part you have in it is listening +and waiting!" + +Down in the steel ball, Dave had caught a movement to the right, away +from the cliff. Switching his light in that direction he had discovered a +huge, dark object moving slowly through the water. + +"It's that 'thing'!" he told himself. "The very thing I've seen before!" + +To his great disappointment, the form was as indistinct as before. That +it might be a whale he knew quite well. He suggested the idea to Johnny. + +"But it's not a whale--I'm sure of it!" Johnny whispered. Swinging his +moving-picture camera into range, he managed to catch the rear half of it +before it passed from view. + +"The camera sees more than the eye," he murmured. "Here's hoping." + +Dave turned again to his task of exploring the under-sea wall. He +signalled their continued descent. + +A moment later the ear-phones on deck were silent. Both Dave and the +mysterious whisperer were unheard. + +"Who _could_ that have been?" Mildred asked. + +"I've no idea," was Doris' reply. + +"Do you know," Mildred added dreamily, "I have a feeling that whisperer +was not far away!" + +Doris started to speak but checked herself, suddenly. Once again she had +caught the weird tones of the whisperer. + +"One-eighty--eighty-two--eighty-six," he droned. Then he raised his voice +above the whisper, and called: + +"Hello there--you mermaids! Are you still there?" + +"He _must_ be near us!" Doris exclaimed. "If not--why would he call us +'mermaids'?" + + * * * * * * * * + +At that same instant Dave was experiencing a thrill. Arrived at a spot +opposite a broad shelf on the perpendicular wall, he and Johnny found +themselves within five feet of the rock. Vegetation, which had been +thinning out, was just disappearing. + +And then Dave saw it--a long, wavering arm, reaching out for the steel +ball. Involuntarily, he started back from the window. Then he laughed. + +A second arm appeared. Then, a third. + +"Octopus!" he whispered to Johnny. "Such a monster!" Instantly his light +was on, and Johnny's movie camera was grinding away. + +"Only one of his kind I've ever seen!" Dave was thrilled to the tips of +his toes. "Wish he'd climb on board and let us take him up. He won't do +that, but I'll get him, all the same! Some time I'll get him! + +"How ugly he is! See how his eyes shine, Johnny! People sure would throng +around him in an aquarium! Put him in with some gorgeous, tropical fish +and you'd have a 'beauty and the beast' show! You--" + +Suddenly he stopped speaking, to stare straight at the wall. They were +moving away! There could be no doubt of it. Fascinated by the strangeness +of the situation, he and Johnny sat motionless while the octopus faded +from sight. Two yards--three--five--ten--twenty--they were swinging off! +And behind him was a second wall, against which the window of the steel +ball might crack like an egg shell. + +At that instant Dave heard a strange voice repeating an idiotic question: + +"_Hello there, you mermaids. Are you still there?_" + +The very sound of a human voice seemed to rouse him. + +"Doris!" he called. "The anchors have pulled loose! The ship is +drifting!" + +"_Hello, there_," called that same voice. "_So you're not a mermaid, +after all!_" + +Something had gone wrong with Dave's radio, Doris thought. His voice did +not come through clearly. + +"Hello! Hello Dave!" Doris called. "Repeat! What did you say?" + +"_I said are you a mermaid?_" came in that teasing voice. + +"Get off the air!" Doris stormed. + +"Doris!" Dave roared. His voice came through clearly now. "The ship's +adrift! Tell the captain to order our main anchor line played out--to +pull hard to port!" + +"Anchor line out! Hard to port!" the girl cried. + +"Anchor line out. Hard to port!" came booming back the repetition. + +Instantly Doris found her head in a whirl. Dave and Johnny were down a +full thousand feet. On each side of their ball a rock wall rose high +above them. To crash against it might mean disaster. + +"Haul away--Top speed!" came in Dave's usual calm voice. + +"Haul away. Top speed!" Doris called to the control man. + +Complete silence followed. Even the "whisperer" appeared to have sensed +the tenseness of the situation and had gone off the air. + +That there was to be a race against time with their lives as a grand +prize, Johnny realized at once. Here they were, several hundred feet down +in the black depths of the sea, drifting at a fairly rapid rate toward a +rocky wall. If they hit that wall? He shuddered at the thought. The +pressure of water at that depth was tremendous. If the ball cracked, +nothing could save them. + +"Is there anything at all we can do?" he asked Dave. + +"Not a thing, I guess," Dave answered. Then, "Yes! Yes, there might be, +at that! There are the levers! They are _outside_ the ball and can be +worked from _within_! I had them fixed up for gathering outside samples. +If we lifted them into position, they'd lessen the shock if we hit the +wall!" + +No sooner said than done! Groping about, Johnny seized a handle here, +another there, as Dave was doing. He felt much better when the outside +levers were in position. They would provide a little protection, at +least. + +With astonishing speed, now, the wall approached. They could see every +detail of the seagrowth clinging there. "Ten yards," Johnny guessed. +"Eight--five--three--" He was sitting on the inner handle of the lever +and gripping the other hard. "Now--now comes the test!" he breathed. + +The words were hardly out of his mouth when there came a grinding impact +that all but lifted him from his place. And then--they were free of the +ledge! + +"Free!" Dave cried joyously. "Doris! We are safe!" he called into his +speaker. + +The ball rose slowly above the top of the ledge. + +Dave, however, had spoken too soon. Scarcely had he settled back when a +great spiral of coral, like the towers of a church, appeared to leap at +them. This, he knew, grew from the top of the ledge. + +There was just time for a lightning decision, but they were prepared for +it. + +"This lever is closest," Dave exclaimed. "It's our window or the lever!" + +Throwing their whole weight on the lever handle, they waited a +second--two--three--ten--twenty. Johnny heard his watch ticking them +off.... + +Then came the heavy jolt. He was thrown so violently that his head struck +the top, and his senses reeled. + +When at last he was able to sit up and look out, he murmured a fervent +"Thank God." For the hazard was past. The glorious blue of water was all +about them. + +Fifteen minutes later the steel ball rested on the _Sea Nymph's_ deck. A +few more moments and, hands first, like frogs leaping from a jar, the two +tumbled out on the deck. + +"Hel--hello, folks!" Dave said, standing up a trifle unsteadily. "How's +the weather up here?" + +"That," said Doris, gripping Dave's arm without realizing it and giving +Johnny a happy smile, "that was awful!" + +Mildred, gazing at them admiringly, echoed the thought. + +"How about a glass of lemonade, and--and something to go with it?" Dave +demanded. "Chocolate coated marshmallow cake, macaroons, and--" + +"Dave, you'll get fat," Doris laughed. + +"And then I wouldn't be able to get into the steel ball. Wouldn't that be +grand? + +"But no!" Dave answered his own question. "It wouldn't! Not at all. For +I've been seeing things--wonderful things! And I'm going back tomorrow!" + +After their little feast on deck, Doris accompanied Mildred to the boat's +side, gave her a hand as she dropped lightly into her dugout, and said in +a friendly tone: + +"You'll come again, won't you--very soon?" + +"Oh, yes!" Mildred exclaimed. "I'll fairly haunt you from now on, for we +do get a little lonely--grandfather and I. But you must all come over and +see us too! Won't you?" + +"Oh, yes, very soon," Doris answered, cordially. + +"Day after tomorrow is Sunday--how about then?" + +"I'll let you know. It's up to Dave, really. He's so absorbed he almost +forgets to eat. You see," Doris went on, "he's very fond of my +grandfather, and wants to help all he can." + +"These grandfathers of ours!" Mildred laughed. + +Half an hour later Johnny came upon Doris, standing before an easel and +putting the last touches on a picture of the sea, the island, and a +gorgeous sunset. + +"I didn't know you were an artist," he said in genuine surprise. + +"I'm not," Doris frowned. "I only make a try at it. Those colors! You +never can get them just right!" + +"Looks swell!" Johnny said, admiringly. "Wish I could do half so well. +Why don't you try an _underseascape_?" + +"What would that be?" Doris wrinkled her brow. + +"You go to the bottom of the sea, fifty feet or so down, in a diving +helmet. You set your easel on the bottom, weight it down, and +paint--whatever you see there!" + +"Not really?" + +"I read about it in a book. Found it in the ship's library. Anyway--it +would be fun trying." + +"Water would spoil your paint." + +"It says not," Johnny grinned. "Only trouble is--little fish, like flies, +get into your paint!" + +"I'll try it some time," Doris declared. "I've been down twice with Dave. +It's thrilling--walking on the bottom of the sea. Thanks for the idea, +Johnny!" + + + + + CHAPTER VI + REAL PROGRESS! + + +After going on duty that night, Johnny came upon Samatan, leader of the +boat's native crew. He was seated in a corner, but one of the ship's +lamps lighted his face. He was staring at the steel ball and there was +unmistakable animosity in his expression. + +"Looks as if he'd like to eat it," Johnny mused. "Wonder what it's all +about." + +A little later he heard the natives talking in their quarters below deck. + +"Sounds as if they were angry about something," he told himself. More +than once he heard Samatan's voice rising above the rest, as if he were +making some sort of speech. He wondered if it could be possible that the +European spies had somehow inspired these natives with hate for _all_ +Americans. + +"That would be bad," he thought. "It might spell disaster." He resolved +to cultivate Samatan's acquaintance to find out, if possible, just what +his grievance was. Then he might put things to rights. + +Maybe some superstition is connected with the steel ball, Johnny +reflected. When you are among primitive people you never know quite what +to expect. + +That night the green arrow blinked again. Johnny saw it, shortly after +midnight. The boat was closer in, now, and he could make out the separate +lights of the arrow as they flashed, up there on the hillside. If there +was another light out at sea, it must have been far away--or too low to +be visible. He caught no sight of it. + +When the arrow appeared, Johnny got busy at once. With small circles, +like coins in a row, he sketched an arrow, in pencil. + +From the tip of the flashing arrow to the other end, there were thirteen +lights. Besides, there were two lights slanting back on each side, at the +tip. These four helped form the head of the arrow. Four others, in pairs, +made the feather end. + +As he watched intently through powerful binoculars loaned him by the +professor, Johnny noted that the thirteen lights blinked separately, but +the eight which comprised the head and feather of the arrow, blinked in +unison. + +"Those eight lights must stand for a period," he concluded. "The thirteen +are letters, or code numbers. I wonder how they work." + +For some time, as on that other occasion, Johnny recorded the winking and +blinking of the lights. When at last the green arrow became dark, he took +a turn about the deck, then settled down to the task of trying to figure +that code. Dawn found him still figuring, but seemingly no nearer the +solution. + +"Dumb!" he exploded at last, as he crammed the notebook into his pocket +and went to breakfast. When he returned to the deck late that afternoon +he found Doris and Dave working over some notes. + +"Hello, Johnny. How about those pictures we took yesterday?" It was Dave +who spoke. + +"Oh, yes," Johnny exclaimed. He had forgotten them. "Come on to the +darkroom, if you like. I'll develop them right away." + +Doris accompanied them to the darkroom. There, fascinated, they watched +strange creatures of the depths come out on the film. + +The great, shadowy creature which had peered out from a rocky cavern was, +the picture revealed, a veritable deep-sea monster. + +"If only I could bring him up!" Dave exclaimed. "But then, he'd never +live at surface levels. But our great, sea-green octopus, I do believe, +could live anywhere. I'm going after him!" + +Most interesting of all--and most baffling--was the picture Johnny had +taken of the great, slow-moving thing seen in the open water far from the +rocks. + +"Oh, that!" exclaimed Dave, as it began coming out in the film, "that's +really a monster for you!" + +"If it _is_ a monster," said Johnny, in a tone of mystery. + +Whatever it might be, the picture only added to the mystery. Too far +away, too indistinct to be seen clearly, the thing might have been a +whale, or some other form of deep-sea monster. Truth was--deep down in +his heart Johnny believed it to be neither. His theories were too +fantastic to be put into words--at the moment. + + * * * * * * * * + +Their afternoon ashore the following day proved interesting, inspiring, +and exciting. + +They were served a grand meal of native wild turkey, baked sweet potatoes +and all manner of delicious, tropical fruits. After that, Mr. Kennedy +took Dave, Doris and the professor for a look at some unusual wild birds, +nesting at the edge of the jungle. + +Johnny settled himself comfortably in a split-bamboo chair and gave +himself over to wondering and dreaming. + +Mildred had gone to supervise the washing of her precious dishes--some of +which dated back to ancient buccaneer days--so Johnny was alone with his +thoughts. And strange thoughts they were.... He recalled having heard the +bearded giant Kennedy saying to the professor--too much absorbed in +research to pay much attention--"Those men, those Europeans! They starve +their own people, and use the money to buy gunboats and cannon. They are +slaves--those people--slaves! If we don't watch out _we'll_ be slaves, +too!... Look at this Caribbean Sea! More important than the Mediterranean +ever was! And who's to stop them from taking possession of these islands? +Why, even the president of this poor little Republic is in debt to them! +Up to his ears!" + +Was Kennedy right? Johnny wondered, dreamily. What of that signal up +there on the ridge--the signal of the green arrow? Was _it_ operated by +spies? And if so--what had they been saying with those blinking lights? +What-- + +"Penny for your thoughts!" Mildred was back. + +"Not worth it." Johnny stood up. "Tell you what, though--I'll play you a +game!" + +"What sort of game?" + +"Game of the Green Arrow. The object is to discover what it says!" + +Drawing up a small table, Johnny spread a notebook and some papers on it. + +"Now," he said. "Here's a drawing of the green arrow. Twenty-one green +lights make the arrow. Thirteen in a row," he pointed out, "two here, two +there, and two more on each side at the other end. The last eight blink +all at the same time, but the thirteen--only one at a time. By their +blinking they are conveying messages. But what do they say? Here's a set +of papers with records of their blinking, all marked with numbers. If you +can work that out, you go to the head of the class!" + +"I see. Easy as that!" Mildred laughed, and promptly seated herself +across from him. + +After that, save for the lazy hum of bees or the sudden whir of humming +birds' wings, there was silence in the place.... + +Suddenly the girl sprang up. "Why, I--I've got it!" she cried, excitedly. + +"Just like that!" Johnny smiled. + +"Well, I certainly have! Listen! This is what that first message says: + +"_Keep a sharp lookout. There are counter-spies afloat._" + +"WHAT! Gee willikens!" Johnny gazed at her, truly amazed. "How could you +make it read like that?" + +"Because that's the way it _does_ read!" she raced on. "It's really easy. +There are twenty-six letters in the alphabet. Having thirteen lights +suggests that they have split that twenty-six _in two_. Each light must +stand for _two_ letters. But the question is--which two? Well, the _top_ +thirteen stand for A, B, C, etc. But what about the bottom ones? + +"The simplest way," she leaned forward, smiling, "would be to put the +_last_ thirteen letters under the _first_ thirteen! Then, blinking _one_ +light for _two_ letters, let the fellow receiving the message see _which_ +of the two letters makes sense. + +"I tried that," she went on "and it didn't make any sense at all, so I +ran the _last_ thirteen, backwards. By trying each of the two possible +letters in each instance, I got the message I just read to you." + +"Which must be just about right," Johnny breathed. "Mildred--you're a +wonder! Now let the old green arrow blink! We'll always know what it's +saying--and we may make some startling discoveries." With that he seized +her hands and whirled her wildly about the broad porch. + +"List--listen," she panted, as, quite out of breath, she dropped into a +chair, "what's that?" + +"Natives singing, I suppose" said Johnny, "they are fond of singing." + +"Those singers are not natives!" The girl held up a hand for silence. +"They never sing like that. Besides--all those voices are men's!" + + + + + CHAPTER VII + MYSTERY SINGERS OF THE NIGHT + + +Mildred was leaning forward, lips parted, listening intently. + +"What are they singing?" she whispered. + +"I can't make it out," was Johnny's slow reply. "Too far away. +Besides--it doesn't sound like English, at all." + +"Now," she said, softly, "now it is coming out stronger." A sudden breeze +wafted the distant voices toward them. + +"It's a funny old song," said Johnny. "I've heard it somewhere. Perhaps +it's from light opera." + +"But how strange to be singing that, here! Who could they be?" + +"Who knows?" Johnny answered slowly. + +"Now they're coming closer," he said a moment later. "Must be eight or +ten of them!" + +"Suppose they come all the way?" She gripped his arm firmly. "That would +be--" + +"I think we'll take care of ourselves, Mildred." His tone was deeply +serious. "Some time," he added, reflectively, "we'll go up to that +ancient castle that was a fort--and, perhaps, a prison!" + +"We might, some day. Only--" + +"Only what?" + +"It might be dangerous." + +"Poof!--What is danger?" + +"I know. That's the way I feel, sometimes. What's the use of being afraid +of--of anything? + +"But we'd have to find the right trail," she added. "Those hills are +terrible. They're all cut up with ravines. There are animal trails and +native trails running everywhere. It--it's almost impossible to keep them +straight." + +After that, for a time, they were silent. The sound of singing, coming +ever closer, increased in volume. The tunes changed, but not once could +they understand the words. It was strange. + +Somewhere in the jungle a jaguar screamed Nearer at hand some night-bird +sang: "Oh--poor--me! Oh--poor--me!" + +"It's dark," Johnny whispered. "Seems like the folks should be back?" + +"They were going quite a distance, and anyhow they took flashlights." + +To Johnny, the place suddenly seemed deserted and silent. Seeing a +high-power rifle in the corner, he picked it up and threw back the catch. +It was loaded. He set it back without a sound. + +"There!" The girl's sudden exclamation startled him. "They've stopped +singing! I expected that!" + +"Why?" + +"I don't believe they knew anyone lived here. I could tell all the time +just how far they were, on the trail. I've heard natives singing over +that trail a hundred times. The sound changes when they reach the +clearing." + +"And you think--?" + +"I think that when they reached the clearing they were surprised. They +didn't want to be seen. That's why they stopped singing. Now they must be +going back." + +"Or--coming on!" Johnny stepped to the corner and took up the rifle. + +"No!" the girl's tone was decisive. "They've turned back." + +A moment passed in silence;--two--three--four--five. Then the girl sprang +silently to her feet. + +"Come!" she gripped his hand. "Let's go have a look!" + +Astonished, Johnny caught up the rifle and followed. Never had he known +anyone who could get over a jungle trail so fast in the night. She +carried a flashlight, but seldom used it. Three times she paused to +listen. The third time, as Johnny stirred slightly in the path, she +whispered: + +"Shish!" + +"Sounds like oars," Johnny whispered back. + +"It _is_ oars!" came back in a barely audible whisper. + +"Then they came by boat." + +"Yes. Come on!" Once more she gripped his hand and this time they +advanced slowly, cautiously. Not a twig snapped. + +Once again they paused as a low, bumping sound reached their ears. + +A moment more and they came out of the jungle, on a broad, sandy beach. +Instantly Johnny's well-trained eyes swept the sea. The moon was just +rising. It painted a golden path across the waters, far into the +distance. But there was no sign of a boat. + +"Can you beat that!" Johnny murmured, softly. + +"We must have been mistaken," said Mildred, wonderingly. + +"Only we were not!" Johnny thought. But he made no comment. + +Gripping his arm, the girl led him along the beach until they came upon a +mark in the sand. + +"A boat was pulled up here," she said, positively. + +Johnny threw a gleam of light on the spot. "Queer sort of mark," he +murmured. "No regular boat! It's like the mark a white man's boat would +make--or perhaps a collapsible boat." + +A moment later his eyes caught a faint gleam. Pretending to examine the +sand, he stooped over to pick up a metal disc. Without knowing just why, +he thrust it into his pocket. + +"What she doesn't know won't worry her," he told himself a moment later. + +"Well," Mildred said, in a tone of forced cheerfulness, "this seems to be +the end of the search. Let's go back." + +"O.K." + +They turned about and were soon threading their way back through the +jungle. "Johnny," she said at last, "We need our boat more than ever, +now." + +"For protection as well as profit?" + +"Yes." + +"Ask Dave to take you down in the steel ball," Johnny suggested. "He'll +do it, I'm sure, as he's in love with the professor's invention. Can't +say I blame him, either. After that--ask him to help find your boat". + +"I'll ask him tonight, if he'll take me down." + +And she did. + +"What's that?" Dave asked, as they all sat on the porch, a little later. +"You want to go down in our steel ball?" + +"Yes. Yes--I--I'd like to." The words took real courage, as she did _not_ +want to. In fact--she was dreadfully frightened at the thought. And yet-- + +"Well," said Dave, "I don't see why you shouldn't--tomorrow." + +"To--tomorrow?" She shuddered slightly, but he could not see her, in the +dark. + +"Yes, tomorrow. There'll be no picture-taking. I'm going after a +sea-green monster--probably the largest octopus anyone ever saw!" + +"Oh--o--o!" + +"He won't get _you_," Dave laughed. "Can't get inside the ball. What do +you say? Is it a date?" + +"Yes--I--yes! Yes! Sure it is!" + +"Fine! Can you be on board at eight in the morning?" + +"Yes--I--I'll be there. Thanks--thanks a lot!" + +"Well," she whispered to Johnny a short time later. "He's going to take +me down! Tomorrow! And I'm scared pink!" + +"You needn't be," Johnny laughed. "It's safer than an auto on Michigan +Avenue in Chicago! And just think--you'll be the first young lady ever to +go down five hundred feet beneath the surface of the sea! At least, I +imagine you will!" + +"That," she replied with a slightly unsteady chuckle, "will be a very +great honor!" + + * * * * * * * * + +As Johnny changed to heavier clothes for his watch, later that night, the +disc he had found on the beach, fell from his pocket. + +He picked it up and realized instantly that it was a button from a +uniform jacket. + +"So that's it!" he murmured, as he buried it deep in his pocket. + +A night on this tropical river, into which they had come for easier +access to the Kennedy cottage, was a new and interesting experience for +Johnny. Mangrove trees, growing far out over the river, all but touched +the deck. A troop of monkeys, apparently planning to cross the river on +swinging branches, came chattering along to burst into a sudden frenzy of +fear and anger at sight of this intruder. Crocodiles floated lazily on +the dark surface of the water. Their eyes shone like balls of fire when +Johnny's flashlight was directed at them. + +From the far distance came the singing of men and women, a native chant. +A little later, paddles gleaming in the light, some of the singers +floated past. Their large dugout was loaded with all manner of tropical +fruits--bananas, pineapples, wild oranges and mangoes. + +"What a life," Johnny murmured, as the natives drifted past. He thought +of the conditions of thousands of persons in the great cities of +America--then looked out again at that boatload of people. It would be +grand, he thought, to live here forever. And yet, there were the spies, +and debts to those Europeans. + +"Debts," he sighed, "that haunt them till they die." + +Doris came on deck. "You just _can't_ sleep on such a night!" she sighed. +"It's too wonderful--the river, the moonlight, and the dark, mysterious +jungle at night." + +"And the spies," Johnny added. "Don't forget them!" + +"The--the spies?" She stared at him. + +He told her of his adventure with Mildred, and, of the mysterious night +singers. + +"They vanished," he ended. "Vanished into thin air. And they had a boat +of some sort. We saw its mark in the sand." + +"How thrilling! How sort of spooky!" she murmured. + +"And there's the code of the green arrow," Johnny added. "We solved +that--or rather Mildred did." He explained it to her. + +"That sounds dangerous." She seemed a little startled. "But it--it +doesn't affect us, does it?" + +"No--oo--not directly," he responded. "But they are spies, all right! +Their message shows that. You can't have counter-spies without first +having spies. If they should chance to think that _we_ are the +counter-spies, and that we're watching them from the steel ball, and--" + +"The steel ball! How _could_ we?" + +"Well," Johnny replied slowly, "perhaps we couldn't. That was just a +notion. But we _could_ be counter-spies." + +"But we're not!" + +"That," he laughed, "is what they may not know." + +"Oh, you and your spies!" she exclaimed. "You're always taking the joy +out of life. Look at that moon!" + +"I have been looking at it. Big as a barrel!" + +"Gorgeous," she agreed. "Do you know?" she stepped over to the rail. +"I've been thinking of that picture you suggested--the one painted +beneath the sea. It would be wonderfully colorful--all those bright, +tropical fish, the waving water-ferns, the coral, and all that. I'm going +to try it, some time. Only--" + +"Only what?" + +"The sharks." + +"They won't trouble you. I'll stay on deck and watch. If anything comes +after you, I'll be right down. Is it a bargain?" + +"I'll do it." She put out a hand and, solemnly, they "shook" on it. + +Ten minutes later Johnny was alone with his thoughts, and the night. They +were long, long thoughts. He was working out a theory about the messages +of the Green Arrow, and the whisperings beneath the sea. + +One question brought him up with a start. If these people were foreign +spies--why did they speak in _English_? For a time, this was a poser. But +then the answer came, and he threw back his head and laughed! Foreign +spies, sent to America would be _required_ to speak English! If they were +keeping in touch with some of their own people by short-wave--_of course_ +they would speak English! Otherwise, anyone listening-in on their +messages, would instantly suspect them. + +That the messages of the green arrow also were in English, was not so +easy to explain. "Perhaps talking and sending messages in English, has +become force of habit with them," he told himself. + +The night was long, too, and he was tired. He rejoiced when the first +flush of dawn told him a new day was here. + +Dave came on deck early. "We'll be getting out of here at eight," he +said. "I guess you know that I'm taking Mildred down below, today. It'll +be interesting to see how a girl reacts to all that strange environment. +She seems a bit timid. But she asked for it. So--" + +"There's someone _I'd_ like to take down," Johnny said, suddenly. + +"Who?" Dave questioned. + +"Old Samatan." + +"In the name of goodness!" Dave exclaimed. "Why?" + +"He acts very queer about that steel ball--looks as if he'd like to bite +a chunk out of it, and I don't understand it." + +Johnny hesitated. "Perhaps if someone took him down, it would clear up +some mistaken notions in his queer old head. He seems to have a lot of +influence with the other natives. If anything should happen--" + +"Nothing will happen." Dave broke in. "This is the quietest place in the +world." + +"Do you think so?" Johnny asked, with a little smile. + +Dave nodded, absently. "But if you'd like to take Samatan down," he +added, "it's O.K. with me. Be a grand experience for the old fellow. He'd +never get over telling about it." + +"Soon?" asked Johnny. + +"Any time you like," was the answer. + +Thanking Dave, Johnny ambled off to his berth for a long and dreamless +sleep. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + MONSTER OF THE DEEP + + +Morning came and, for Mildred--the ride in that steel ball. + +Never in all her life had she been so thrilled, and so frightened. Curled +up inside the sturdy metal sphere, she went down--down--down, into the +mysterious depths of the ocean. The light from the quartz window seemed +bright blue, yet she experienced trouble in distinguishing small objects +within the ball. + +The creatures outside the window were strange beyond belief. Here a great +school of blue fish shot past. There a six-foot monster with waving tail +sped on in swift pursuit of smaller fry. And a group of small, dark, +crab-like creatures wriggled their way across the scene. A little farther +from the window loomed a dark wall. She shuddered at sight of this. All +too vividly she recalled Johnny's account of their harrowing experience +on that other day. + +At Johnny's first suggestion that she accompany Dave on this sub-sea +journey, her impulse had been to say quite definitely--"No! I won't go!" + +But she had not said it. She just must have Dave's help in finding their +schooner. So--she continued to shudder as they went down--down--down. + +Dave was at her side, saying never a word. Staring at the passing scene, +now throwing on a powerful light, now switching it off again, he appeared +to have forgotten she was there. + +It was to be a very short trip, perhaps only half an hour. They were to +make an attempt to capture some fantastic sort of creature. Mildred was +thinking of this now, wondering in a vague sort of way, how the capture +was to be made. Then suddenly, her thoughts were interrupted. Her heart +skipped a beat as Dave exclaimed: + +"Man! Oh, man!" + +The steel ball was now close to the wall. For the moment, at a command +from Dave, it had ceased dropping. Suddenly from a crevice in the wall +there glided a form resembling a great golden serpent from a fairy tale. + +"Zowie!" Dave chuckled, "he sure looks dangerous--but he's not. A +golden-tailed serpent dragon," he explained. "They're quite rare. + +"Now," he spoke into his microphone, "slowly downward." + +Once more the rocky ledge appeared to glide upward. + +"Should be there soon," Dave murmured. "Only hope the old boy is at home. +He probably is. But we may miss him. It's hard to get the right +location." + +For Dave this brief expedition had one purpose--to capture the immense, +sea-green octopus he had seen on a previous trip. As they continued to +sink into the depths, his eyes remained fixed on that wall. Then of a +sudden he exclaimed: + +"There! There he is!" + +Adjusting his microphone he said: + +"Doris, we are here. Stop the cable drum." + +The ball ceased to sink. For a full moment Mildred saw only a dark cavern +in the wall. Then suddenly she was startled to discover two large eyes +staring out at her. + +A moment more and a long arm came wavering toward them. + +"Doris," said Dave. His voice was steady. "Have them swing us out a bit. +Ten feet may do." Then, seconds later, he said: "There. That's it." + +He began working at something close beside him. As Mildred watched the +dark cavern she saw an arm reach out, then another. For a time these +appeared to wave aimlessly. Then they took direction. To her astonishment +she saw that a steel rod had swung outward toward the octopus from the +bottom of the ball. At the end of this arm were steel clamps, and in the +clamps she saw a dead lobster. The terrifying tentacles of the octopus, +appearing fully twenty feet long, were moving toward the lobster. + +"The octopus feeds on shell fish--crabs and lobsters," Dave explained +briefly. + +"Now," he breathed, as one long arm encircled the steel clamps. "Now--I +wonder what luck." Once again he worked at levers and small handscrews at +his side. The clamp out there in the water half opened, then closed +again. This was repeated twice. Then: + +"Ah! Got him!" Dave's voice rose exultantly. Into the phone he whispered, +"Doris. Out a little--and then up, at top speed!" + +To her astonishment Mildred saw a great mass of twisting arms emerge from +the cavern. One by one these arms wound themselves about the steel ball. +One of these, a great scaly affair with little suckers on its underside, +crossed the window. With a little cry of dismay she shrank back. + +"He can't get to you," Dave laughed. "Even if he could, he'd be harmless +enough, unless he drew you beneath the water and drowned you. + +"You see," he added, "while the octopus was working to get that lobster, +I opened the clamps. His arm slipped in, and I closed them. Now he's +making himself comfortable for the ride. It will be a longer ride than +you might suppose--all the way to the New York aquarium! And boy! Will he +be something to look at! Largest ever captured, I'm sure--and sea-green +at that. This being a naturalist is the berries, when things are right. +All you have to do-- + +"Hello!" he exclaimed. "Here we are at the top, already. Now for some +work." + +Before making any attempt to get the big-eyed octopus into the ship's +pool for live specimens, Dave assisted Mildred from the ball. When she +climbed forth, she felt a cold chill course down her spine. Those great, +scaly arms were not a foot from her head. But they did not move. + +"Good boy, Dave!" the professor exclaimed half an hour later, as they +watched the octopus surveying his prison tank in the _Sea Nymph's_ hold. +"That is a real prize! A few finds like that and we will have more than +paid our way. + +"I like to think," he added, quietly, "that we are truly serving the +millions of people whose only chance to see rare creatures of land or sea +is in the zoos and aquariums." + +"I am sure it _is_ a great service," Mildred exclaimed. "But professor! +What spooky waters those are down there!" + +"Yes, they are spooky," the professor agreed. "But today, I take it, they +were not whispering?" + +"No," the girl agreed. "The whisperer seems to have vanished." + +"These little undersea journeys always make me hungry," said Dave. "Come +on Mildred--let's have a cup of tea." + +Seated under a colored umbrella on deck, they sipped their tea in +silence. Mildred was thinking--"I wonder if this is the time to ask him?" + +It was Dave who at last broke the silence. + +"Well, Mildred," he said, "you behaved very well for the first time down. +I was wondering--" + +"If a girl could take it," she smiled. "Down here we just have to--all +the time." + +"How so?" he asked in surprise. "In what way?" + +"Well, only a few days ago grandfather lost his motorboat. It's somewhere +at the bottom of the sea, but not far down. I wasn't on board when it +sank. And now," she hesitated, "now fresh dangers appear to threaten us, +and we have no boat either for trading or--or for escape!" + +"Escape? Escape from what?" Dave ejaculated. + +"Well, we might have to escape, you see." Mildred leaned forward eagerly. +Her eyes shone. "Grandfather always has opposed those men--spies, +really--who are trying to get all the islanders under their control. So +they hate him. Just recently--" + +She went on to tell of the code message flashed by the green arrow and of +other strange and unexplained happenings. "Of course," she added, +"nothing has been _done_ yet. But you never can tell." + +"And you want me to help you find that motorboat of yours, with my steel +ball? Am I a good guesser?" + +"You certainly are," the girl replied, frankly. + +"And you didn't really want to go down in the steel ball--you were +terribly frightened by the thought? But you believed it might help, so--" + +"So I went," she breathed. "You don't mind, do you?" + +"Mind?" he exploded. "I think you are a grand, brave, little girl. If you +were my sister,"--he paused to grin good naturedly. + +Smiling back at him, Mildred felt sure she would be aided in her search +for her grandfather's motorboat. The thought made her very happy. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + DAVE'S ELECTRIC GUN + + +Once again it was night. + +Johnny walked slowly back and forth along the narrow deck. There was +about him on this night a sense of uneasiness, as if some unusual thing +was about to happen, or possibly a whole succession of things, which +might change the whole course of his life.... That very evening he had +heard old Samatan making a speech to the native crew--a fiery sort of +speech, with the men uttering grunts of approval every now and then. + +"I'll take him down in the steel ball tomorrow, if I get the chance," +Johnny assured himself. "That should cool him off!" + +Samatan, however, was not the only cause of his uneasiness. There was the +sign of the green arrow, those singers, and the boat mark on the +beach--and Mr. Kennedy's constant talk of spies. All these, he felt, were +part of a strange pattern of events. + +"The whole thing may blow up any time," he told himself. "And then +what--" His thoughts were interrupted suddenly. He sprang forward. He +could swear he had seen something move near the steel ball. + +"No one here now," he murmured, circling the ball, slowly. "Imagined it, +I guess. My nerves are jumpy tonight." + +A whole succession of small, dark clouds, high in the heavens, had been +passing before the moon. One moment the deck was white with moonlight; +the next, it was dark as the deep sea. + +Johnny laughed softly, and found it helped steady him. Taking another +turn 'round the steel ball, he walked past the open top of the tank in +which the giant, sea-green octopus was kept. As he came alongside, there +was a sudden splash--as if the creature had thrown out a long arm and +allowed it to drop. It gave him a real start. Suppose the monster reached +out for him and really made connections. Suppose-- + +There was that darting shadow again. Or was it? Just then a big cloud hid +the moon. + +"It's nothing," he assured himself. "Can't be. Crew's all asleep. No +chance of anyone coming on board without being seen. Guess I'll have to +take a good, long, drink of cold water." + +Going to the stern he obtained his thermos bottle, uncorked it and drank. + +Then he dropped into a steamer chair to await the reappearance of the +moon from behind that big, black cloud. + +The cloud still obscured it when, swift as a shot, he leapt straight into +the air, as from the octopus tank came a shrill, hair-raising scream of +terror. + +"Great Jehosophat!" he exclaimed as he sprinted down the deck. + +One flash of his electric torch showed a hand waving wildly above the +surface of the water. An instant later a head bobbed up. Eyes wild, +nostrils dilated, the mouth opened in another unearthly scream as the +victim vanished beneath the water, now thoroughly roiled by the octopus' +savage threshing. + +Long slimy arms appeared--here, there--seemingly everywhere. Then again, +a man's head broke the surface. + +But now Johnny was on the steel ladder, reaching for the hand that had +followed the head above water. Seizing it, and wrapping his left arm +about a rung of the ladder, he pulled with all his might. That he was +taking his life in his hands, he well knew. Those scaly arms seemed to be +feeling for _him_. If they reached him-- + +All the while, Johnny was thinking, "Who is this person and how did he +get on board?" + +Thanks to Johnny's good right arm, the man's head remained above the +surface. He was a swarthy individual, with short-cropped, black hair. +Spitting out a quantity of water, he whispered hoarsely: + +"Don't let him! Don't let him pull me back under!" + +There came a sudden tug that all but broke Johnny's grip on the man's +hand. At the same time, waving above the disturbed surface of the tank, a +long, slimy arm seemed to feel for the boy on the ladder. + +Then, to Johnny's vast relief, came Dave's voice, calling: + +"Johnny! Johnny Thompson! Where are you?" + +"Here! Here in the tank! Help--and _hurry_!" Johnny shouted, desperately. + +There came the sound of running feet along the deck. At that very +instant, a scaly tentacle found Johnny's wrist and wrapped itself about +the two hands, binding them together as with a band of steel. + +"Wha--what's happened?" Dave threw a flash of light on the fantastic +scene. His quick eye took it all in at a glance. "Hang on, Johnny! +I--I'll be back in a jiffy!" Then he was gone. + +The tremendous power of that steady pull from the tank, promised to +wrench Johnny's arm from its socket. The stranger in the pool uttered a +low groan. Johnny's mind went into a tailspin, but he hung on +desperately. How would this end? Would Dave _never_ arrive? + +"Now!" came from above, and Dave was back. In one hand he held an +automatic, and in the other, what appeared to be an iron rod. + +"Get ready for an electric shock," he said, quietly. "I think this will +fix him." + +He thrust out the rod until it touched one arm of the octopus. Next +instant, Johnny felt a powerful electric shock that brought his muscles +up with a jerk. Again, and yet again came the shock. Johnny could hear +the stranger's teeth chatter. Then he saw the fellow's other hand. It was +free. At the same time the scaly thing about his wrist began to relax. + +Giving a powerful pull, he lifted the stranger half out of the water. +Twenty seconds later they both were free, and tumbled, panting, on the +deck. + +For a full minute Johnny lay motionless. When at last he sat up he said +to Dave: + +"Hang onto that gun. You may need it." + +Turning to the swarthy stranger he demanded: + +"What were you doing on this boat?" + +"I was just a-passin' by, and took a notion to climb aboard," the +stranger muttered. + +"You are lying," said Johnny. "You were spying into things! Why?" + +"I wasn't spying! I don't know what you're talking about," said the man. + +"I don't think he's a spy," said Dave. "He's just some native." + +"Native, my eye!" snapped Johnny. He had noted the outline of a long +knife, showing through the fellow's wet garments. + +By this time the native crew was swarming up from below, and Doris and +the professor were standing in the shadows. + +"Let the fellow go," Dave whispered to Johnny. "He's just some native who +happened by in a dugout, saw our boat and thought he'd have a look. He +might have meant to steal something, but you can't prove that. We don't +want to get these natives excited. They might leave us in a body. Then +where would we be?" + +"Oh--all right," Johnny agreed, reluctantly. To the man he said: "Come +with me." + +The man's boat was tied to a belaying pin up forward. As they walked in +that direction, Johnny and the intruder were out of sight of the others, +for a moment. + +"I'll just take this to remember you by," said Johnny, dragging the man's +knife from its sheath. "If you're a native--you should carry a machete." + +The man favored him with a mocking smile, then bolted over the rail into +his small boat and was gone. + +"Well, that's that!" said Johnny, as he rejoined the others. "Here's +hoping he doesn't come back." + +"Johnny," said Dave, "I wonder if you weren't making a whole lot out of a +very little." + +"Perhaps I was," Johnny answered quietly. He saw no point in arguing. + +A moment later he said: "Dave--what was that thing you shocked the +octopus with?" + +"That was an electric gun," Dave laughed. "We use it while we're +exploring the sea-bottom on foot. If some big fish, like a shark, gets +too curious--we touch him and pull the trigger. Believe me, they beat it! + +"It's lucky I had it," he added. "Otherwise I'm afraid I should have been +obliged to kill our prize, and that would have been a great loss. By the +way, Johnny, how did that fellow get into the tank?" + +"Tumbled in, I suppose. Probably thought he was going down into the hold +to prowl around." + +"I wonder why?" said Dave. + +But Johnny didn't see fit to discuss the matter further. + +After the others had retired again, Johnny took the stranger's knife to +the light and examined it closely. Never had he seen such perfect +workmanship. The blade was of hand-forged steel, with a handle of old +ivory. Two foreign words were stamped on the blade. Johnny could not read +them, but he knew very well this was no native's knife. + +"A spy, beyond a doubt," he muttered. "Wonder how many there will be +tomorrow night. Dave must let me have a gun!" + +Just then the moon came out from behind a cloud, flooding the deck with +white light. What a difference that made. All the mystery of the night +seemed to fade. + +Johnny shrugged his shoulders and continued to pace the deck. + + + + + CHAPTER X + LITTLE BIG-HEADS + + +Next day Johnny took Samatan for a ride in the steel ball. He had +supposed it would be difficult, if not impossible, to induce the +dignified old native to accompany him, but he was due for a surprise. + +"Samatan," he said pleasantly, "you know we have been making trips far +beneath the surface of the sea in that steel ball." + +"Yes!" Suddenly Samatan was alert. + +"Dave and I--we--well we thought you might like to go down." + +"In the big ball?" The native's eyes shone, eagerly. + +"Yes, that's right." Johnny answered. + +"Today?" asked Samatan. + +"If you wish." + +"In one hour," said Samatan. + +An hour later, Samatan took his place beside Johnny in the steel ball, +watched the massive, steel cap being screwed into place, felt the bump of +the ball on the deck, then sensed their drop into the sea. All this--in +stoical silence. + +Down they went, a hundred feet--two hundred--five hundred--a thousand. By +the small light at his side, Johnny watched the native's face. The +expression never changed. + +"He seems to be expecting something interesting and exciting," the boy +told himself. "Wonder what it could be. If he's afraid, he sure doesn't +show it." + +As they sank lower and lower, the darkness increased. At last, as Johnny +threw off the electric light and all about them was inky black, from the +native's lips came a hiss of surprise. That was all. + +When Johnny threw on a powerful light, the look of expectation on +Samatan's face returned. + +"Strange sort of person," the boy thought. "What can he be expecting to +see?" + +They were now standing still. The professor on deck, had decided their +descent had gone far enough. + +As Johnny sat staring into the inky blackness before them, he gave a +sudden start, then snatched his camera. There, plainly in view, was one +of the strangest monsters he ever had seen. + +Scarcely had he adjusted his camera for a picture, than a second creature +appeared. + +"Must be a school of them." His hand trembled a little. + +Just as the camera clicked there began the most amazing and terrifying +experience of Johnny's eventful life. As though pushed by a giant hand, +as a child pushes a playmate in a rope swing, the steel ball moved +rapidly outward and upward--although Johnny had given no signal! + +Outward and upward--one hundred--two hundred--three hundred feet. Who +could say how far? What mysterious power motivated this wild ride, and +where would it end? Would the cable snap? + +Johnny made no effort to conceal the horror reflected in his face by this +thought. Sealed in a steel ball, resting on the bottom of the sea, half a +mile or more below surface. What chance? The boy's lips moved, but no +sound came. Then, by sheer will power, he adopted a calmer mood and +waited the turn of events. + +Samatan neither moved nor spoke. Strange Samatan! Did he think this was +part of the show? And what had he been waiting so patiently to see? + +There was even greater consternation on board the _Sea Nymph_. + +Dave had gone ashore for a bit of dry-land exploring but, with Doris at +his side, the professor stood watching the pumps that sent air to the +occupants of the steel ball. His gaze, reflecting serious concern, was +focused intently on the gauge registering strain on the steel ball's +cables. + +"Doris!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Look, Doris! _Look! The strain has +doubled!_ The cable is perilously near the breaking point!" + +"Poor Johnny!" Doris cried, distractedly. "Down there with old Samatan! +If the cable breaks--" + +"If the cable breaks--no power on earth can save them!" The professor's +voice dropped. "The bottom must be a full mile down and I doubt whether +the ball could withstand the terrific pressure. Nor is there any way we +could bring it to the surface!" + +"What can be done?" Doris was wringing her hands. + +"Pray!" was the professor's simple reply. "Strange things are +accomplished by prayer, and faith." + +Doris _did_ pray. Then they waited in silence. Ten seconds ticked their +way into eternity. Twenty--thirty--sixty. The arrow of the gauge moved +nearer the "maximum strain" point at the top of the dial--and stood +still. Then, for a brief second, it moved forward again. + +"The cable! It can never stand the torsion!" the professor groaned. + +Just as all seemed lost, the arrow quivered--and began, slowly, to move +the other way. + +"Thank God!" exclaimed the professor, fervently. "It--it's going down, +Doris, child." + +Staring at the dial, Doris opened her lips in silent thanksgiving. She +could only stand and stare. + +What had happened? + +That was a question that remained unanswered for weeks. Some tremendous +power behind the steel ball had pushed it away and up, until its certain +doom seemed inevitable. + +Then, with a sudden, rolling lurch, the ball had been freed and at once +began sinking to its original position. Fortunately, the resistance of +the water was so great, there was no danger that the stopping of the +descent would snap the cable. + +As they reached bottom position, Johnny grabbed Samatan's hand and +gripped it, impulsively. + +Then it was that the native said a strange thing: + +"You go bottom now?" he asked, hopefully. + +"No," said Johnny, happily. "But we are _safe_, man! I'm signalling them +to draw us up!" + +"No go bottom?" There was a suggestion of disappointment in Samatan's +voice. + +Suddenly Johnny thought he understood. Samatan had expected to see +bottom. That was what he had wanted, and it explained his strange +eagerness to go down. But _why_? What did he expect to see there? + +Johnny, however, was far too eagerly awaiting the first, faint gleam of +light as they rose, to think much more about Samatan's behavior. + +The strange "dawn beneath the sea" came to him once again. Such a +glorious dawn! He was to live on! What a privilege it became, suddenly, +just to live! The ball rose free of the water, to swing about and bump +gently down to the deck. A few moments later, the professor and Doris +were gripping his hands and demanding to know what had happened. + +"What in the world went wrong?" they asked, in chorus. + +"We ran into a school of monsters." Johnny was now able to laugh at his +predicament. "They must have taken us for a ride, I guess!" + +"What kind of monsters?" The professor was so serious his voice trembled. + +"You won't believe me if I tell you," the boy replied, soberly, "but here +goes. They had heads twice as large as their bodies! And those heads! If +only their mouths had been a little larger, they might have swallowed our +steel ball at one gulp!" + +"Did they have a small lower jaw and a large upper one? Were their eyes +set well back on the side of their heads? Did their tails wave like those +of some tropical fish?" The professor was growing excited. + +"Yes, yes, and yes," Johnny laughed again. "But say--I tried to take +pictures of them! Wonder if they could have been good! Wait till I get my +camera." He made a dive into the steel ball to reappear at once with the +camera. + +"But Johnny!" Doris insisted, "you haven't told us what really happened?" + +"I don't know, and that's a fact!" replied Johnny, quietly, soberly. "I +was just taking pictures of those beasts when--" + +"They're known as little big-heads," the professor broke in, "and they +are rare, indeed! You are the first person ever to see them alive. Two +specimens have been found washed up on coral beaches, dead. You are a +truly great explorer, Johnny! You may now take a bow." + +"Aw, say!" Johnny fairly blushed. + +"Anyway," he insisted, "one of them must have become tangled in our +cable, and in his wild efforts to free himself, took us for an underseas +joyride!" + +"That doesn't seem possible," mused the professor, slowly. "I should like +to know what really happened." + +"So should I!" Johnny agreed. "All I have to say is--I'd like them to +stay clear of our cable, in the future! Please look at my hair! Do you +think it will turn white?" + +"In thirty or forty years," Doris laughed. "But Johnny--we're dying to +see those pictures." + +"Yes, yes!--by all means!" the professor agreed. "Let us see them at +once." So they crowded into Johnny's small darkroom to watch the +enthralling "coming out" of one more set of plates. + + * * * * * * * * + +"Little big-heads," the professor whispered solemnly, as the pictures +began to appear. "Johnny, you are a wonder! Once again we have registered +a real triumph!" + +"I'm glad of that," Johnny said, sincerely. "I like being a success. But +even better--I enjoy living! + +"I'm sure I'll not be able to sleep in the dark for months to come," he +said, more lightly. "I'll be imagining I'm still in that steel ball, +swinging wide in utter darkness!" + +"Johnny," Doris whispered some time later, "What _really_ took you for +that ride?" + +"I could only guess--and it would be a wild guess, at that!" There was a +suggestion of mystery in his voice. "I'm sure of one thing, though. It +wasn't any little big-head!" + + + + + CHAPTER XI + TIGERS OF THE SEA + + +Doris, standing on the ocean's floor forty feet down, started back in +sudden terror, and her foot struck a rock. She all but fell over. On the +beach she would have taken a terrible tumble. + +"It was just a shadow," she told herself. "Only a shadow moving beyond +that great rock. A blue shadow. Grandfather said I'd be in no danger, and +he should know." + +Involuntarily she put a hand over her wildly beating heart, then smiled +at her action and at once felt better. + +"I must finish," she told herself, stoutly, as she resumed her task. + +She was painting a picture. The circumstances under which she worked were +strange, almost beyond belief. When Johnny had suggested an underseas +picture, she had been truly thrilled. But she had shuddered and said, +"No!--I'd never dare do that!" + +But--given one glimpse of the setting for such a picture, she had become +greatly excited. "Such colors! Such contrasts! Yes--I surely must paint +it!" she had exclaimed. + +The task now was well begun. She was wearing tennis shoes and standing on +sand. Before her a great anchor, red with rust, leaned against a huge +boulder. Beside the anchor was a copper-bound chest. One might easily +have imagined that this chest contained Spanish treasure--gold, diamonds, +rubies. But it was empty, as Doris already had discovered. + +The gray rock that supported the anchor was festooned with vegetation of +rare hues--red, orange, pink, yellow, and deep dark blue, mingled in +profusion. In and out among these plants darted small creatures which +might almost have been birds. The girl was wearing a great brass helmet +which hid her face. She was looking through glass, at a world +unbelievably strange and beautiful. + +Above her, its shadow looming darkly, lay the _Sea Nymph_. Descending +from the boat was a long tube that supplied her with air. A constant +trickle of bubbles escaped from beneath her helmet. Her easel was +weighted down, and her canvas specially treated to resist water. Her +brushes and colors were the same she had used on the sunny, tropical +shores. + +But the scene! How she thrilled to it! And she was painting it as truly +and exactly as she could. Perhaps thousands who never had been beneath +the surface of the water would look at this picture and wonder at its +coloring. + +Thrilled at the thought, she painted more industriously than ever, +forgetting entirely the blue shadow. She had searched long for a spot +that would make the most interesting picture. She had wandered, +fascinated, until she had chanced upon this anchor and strong box, lost +so long before. + +It was indeed wonderful. With a background of ivory and pink coral, +purple plumes of seaweed, fringes of lace-like anemone, in a framework of +water-washed rocks--it made a scene not soon to be forgotten. + +So here she was, painting rapidly--though far back in her mind was the +memory of that blue shadow behind the rock.... + +The scene was forever changing. A cloud passing over the sun, dimmed the +colors. Then a large school of small fish, darting forward at a furious +rate, completely shut off her view. + +But now! "Ah, now!" she thought, joyously. + +A dozen tropical fish, the brightest and best she ever had seen, came to +play about the ancient chest and "pose" for their pictures. With quick, +deft touches she painted them in--two, staring large-eyed at the +anchor--three, peering into the ancient chest, and three just "resting". + +But what was this? + +Like a flock of birds that have caught sight of a circling hawk, the +tropical fish darted swiftly away. Had they caught a glimpse of a +dangerous foe, gliding from behind the rock? The girl thought so, and +shuddered. She even fancied she had caught its color again--dark blue. +But of this she could not be sure. Down here all was so strange. + +"A villain," she murmured to herself with a low laugh. "The final touch +to a gorgeous setting." + +To quiet her shaky nerves she gave herself more intensively to completion +of her task. + +"There is no danger," she assured herself again. "Grandfather says there +is absolutely none--and he has spent days on end on the ocean's floor." + +She recalled his very words: "Oh, yes, there are sharks in these +waters--but they won't harm you. If they should get curious and come too +close--poke them with your stick! I've done that more than once." + +Scarcely had she gone over these reassuring words when something startled +her, anew. A dark shadow appeared suddenly at her right. She took one +look, then laughed. "It's only a fish," she thought. + +Brushing away two tiny fish that had managed to get themselves stuck to +her canvas, she began giving her work its final touches. + +For ten full minutes she worked feverishly. "My time is almost up," she +was thinking. "They will be giving me the signal. Then up I'll go. But I +do so want--" + +Her thoughts were suddenly arrested. What was that? She had felt the +motion of water against her body. "As if something passed--fast!" she +thought with a little shudder. Turning slowly about, she peered through +the window of her brass helmet. + +"Nothing," she whispered. "Nothing but three long, gray fish, over there. +But what of that? I--I'll give my signal rope a pull," she told herself. +"Just a minute more and I'll do it." + +The minute stretched to two, three, four. And then it happened. One of +the long, gray fish flashed like a streak of doom, straight for the hand +that held the paint brush. Missing by inches, it collided with the easel, +knocked it to the sea floor and shot away in sudden flight. + +The fish could not have been more frightened than the girl. Suddenly she +recalled wild tales told by the natives about the vicious +barracuda--"Tiger of the Sea." ... A woman had dabbled a finger in the +water--and one of these fish snapped it off.... Swimmers had lost +toes.... She felt paralyzed with fear. + +Then, like an act in some strange drama, a pair of dangling legs appeared +between her and the gray terrors. The legs were followed swiftly by a +body, a brass helmeted head and two hands, holding a sharp-pointed spear. + +The spear shot out! + +The gray terrors, like arrows from a bow, flashed out of sight. It seemed +to Doris that no creatures ever had moved so rapidly beneath the surface +of the sea. + +She watched the "apparition" in a helmet--which she knew to be +Johnny--take up her easel and set it in position. She noted, vaguely, +that the picture had landed right side up and was not harmed. Then Johnny +turned and held out his hand. + +She expected to be taken straight up to the ship's deck. Instead, he led +her a distance of a hundred feet along the bottom. Then they came to an +abrupt halt, and Johnny pointed straight down. + +She looked--and involuntarily stepped back. They were standing on the +very brink of a yawning, watery precipice. Far down as one could see was +only blue-black depth. It was an awe-inspiring sight. + +As if to add to her amazement, she saw--perhaps a hundred feet down--some +large, dark hulk. It was dim and indistinct as a shadow, yet very real, +as it moved slowly along the cliff, to disappear in the blue-black of the +apparently bottomless ocean. + +This had not been part of the planned show, she knew at once from her +guide's actions. He moved his arm, pointing excitedly. + +A moment longer they stood there, looking down. Then came the signal to +come up. The picture and paints were attached to the easel, and a cord +drew them up. All Doris had to do was to give a little spring, and up, +up, she rose, to the glorious sunshine of a tropical day. + +A quarter of an hour later, she and Johnny were seated on the deck, +laughing at one another and scarcely knowing why. + +Dave and the professor had gone ashore to study tropical bird life, so +after the evening meal, Johnny and Doris sat on deck watching the play of +phosphorescent creatures beneath the surface of the sea. + +"This," said Johnny, "is my day off. Tonight I sleep. Tomorrow old +Samatan and I are going for a sail in a large dugout, to visit some coral +reefs." + +Doris smoothed back her thick, golden hair, fixed her bright blue eyes on +him, and said: "Why?" + +"We need him for a friend," Johnny replied, quietly. "If _he_ is with +us--all the native crew will be, too. He's a leader." + +"You talk," said Doris, "as if there were to be war!" + +"Who knows?" Johnny did not laugh. "Perhaps there will be, but not just +yet. There are spies with us now!" + +"How do you know?" She leaned forward in her chair. + +"That man I caught on board the other night, was a spy. Look!" He held up +the exquisitely wrought knife. "Do you think a native would have such a +gem of a knife? Not a chance! + +"Then--there's the green arrow to prove he's a spy!" Johnny went on. "One +of the messages I spelled out by using their code read: '_Board them. +Discover all you can._'" + +"But why?" said Doris. "We're not secret agents." + +"That's what _they don't know_! We are Americans--and they don't want us +around." + +"Know what?" Johnny continued, "I believe that big thing that glides +through the water--the thing we saw today--is a submarine!" + +"It can't be!" + +"Why not?" + +"Well, if it is--it must be an American submarine!" + +Johnny looked at her for a moment in silence. + +"It's not an American submarine," he said, after a time. "I've seen them, +and this one's the wrong shape. It's some spy submarine, looking over the +bottom of the sea and getting information for the next war. I shouldn't +be surprised if a large part of that war were fought right in this +Caribbean Sea! + +"What's more,"--he rose to his feet--"I'll bet a dollar that the thing +that took Samatan and me for a ride in the steel ball, _was that same +submarine_!" + +"Trouble with you," Doris laughed merrily, "is too much imagination." + +"You just wait and see," Johnny replied with a smile. + +The sound of oars at this moment, announced the return of Dave and the +professor from their day's explorations. + + + + + CHAPTER XII + JOHNNY'S DAY OFF + + +Next morning Johnny and old Samatan sailed away toward the smiling face +of the rising sun. + +"This is a grand dugout you've got!" Johnny enthused. + +Smiling, Samatan pulled a line, giving the boat full sail. She tilted +sharply. Boy and man settled back against the pull of the sail and sped +along before the wind. + +Johnny's eyes took in the whole of the trim little craft, and he smiled, +contentedly. + +It was indeed a great little dugout. Not so small, either. Fully twenty +feet long and six feet wide, it had been hewn from a solid mahogany log. +The boy tried to estimate the number of days of hard, careful work that +would have required, but gave it up. + +The inside surface was polished to the last degree, and the seats were +braided, cocoanut fibre. On the prow, carved in the most perfect manner, +was the wooden image of a seagull. + +All unknown to Johnny, Samatan was keeping an eye on him. His keen old +mind read the boy's thought like a book. One lover of a sailboat +recognizes another, and since his tenth birthday, Johnny had been an +ardent sailboat enthusiast. At that age he had rigged up a square sail +for a rowboat and had known many happy hours on the water. The fact that +he had once capsized and barely escaped drowning, had not in the least +dampened his ardor. + +"We go coral reef. Catchem turtles for stew," Samatan said at last. + +"How do you catch them?" Johnny asked. + +"Samatan show you." + +After that there was silence. + +It became evident that Samatan was an expert with a sail. The breeze +picked up and the sea became choppy, but the smiling old man, eyes +squinting, lay back at ease. Pulling first at one rope, then another, he +held the small craft on her course. + +Johnny laughed right out loud when at last the old man took off his soft, +loose shoes, gripped the ropes with his toes and began steering with his +feet. + +Two delightful hours passed. Then the dugout slid up on a sandy shore. + +When the boat had been pulled up, Samatan's eyes scanned the sandy beach. +Suddenly he went racing away and, with the silence and speed of a great +cat, stole up on an unsuspecting turtle, basking in the sand. A quick +leap--and the turtle lay on its back, a prisoner. + +"Food," said the old man. "Much food from the sea. But," he added +quietly, "we take only what we need." + +When all the turtles needed had been stowed away in the boat, they went +for a walk on the beach. They made a strange picture, this bright-faced +American boy and the old, brown native whose face was wrinkled by many +tropical suns. + +Seldom had Johnny spent a more interesting or exciting morning. They hung +a heavy cord over a rocky ledge to snare a sea-crab, turned over a +Hawk's-bill turtle, whose shell was worth eight dollars a pound, and +chased a monkey up a cocoanut tree. + +They had wandered for two hours and were far from the boat when, for no +apparent reason, Samatan uttered a low exclamation. Then he faced +squarely toward the ridge, which at this place rose some twenty feet +above the beach. + +"Huh!" he grunted. "We see!" + +He dashed away at surprising speed, up the hill. Tripping over vines and +blundering into a bramble bush, Johnny followed. + +When at last he caught up with the agile old man, Samatan was standing +motionless, looking off at the sea. For a full minute, lips parted, eyes +staring, they stood there in silence. + +For--stealing up on them like an enemy in the night, a terrific storm was +racing in from the sea. It took but one word from Samatan's lips to +complete the terror of the prospect. + +"Hurricane!" he said, gutterally. + +"We must run for the boat!" Johnny sprang down from the rock. + +"Not go now. Too late!" Samatan did not move. Instead, he stood looking +along the ridge, first this way, then that. + +"The _Sea Nymph_!" Johnny broke out again. "She will be lost!" + +"Not get lost," Samatan said, slowly. "Good crew. Harbor not far." Once +again his eyes swept the ridge. + +"Come," he said at last. "This way. We go fast." Even as he spoke, a gust +of wind sweeping in from the sea, all but threw the boy off his rocky +perch. + +For ten minutes or more the two of them fought their way along the ridge. +At last the native paused. "Here," he said, "is most high. Trees. Must +climb these--quick! Waves go all over coral reef!" + +"Al--all right." The rising gale blew Johnny's words down his throat. +Seizing the low branches of a large tree, he prepared to climb. + +"No! That bad tree! No good!" said Samatan. "This one." + +Into Johnny's mind at that moment came the words of the professor: "When +I am in a strange land I do what a native will do--go where he goes. If +he says 'No go'--I stay." + +So, without further questioning, the boy began to climb Samatan's tree. + +The tree was short and sturdy. Soon they were perched like crows on two +limbs close together. And in silence they watched the onrushing storm. +The sky was black. It was like night. Scarcely could the boy see his +companion. Trembling with excitement, he decided to force his thoughts +from the impending hurricane. + +"Samatan," he said, "there was something about our steel ball you did not +like." + +"Yes," came the instant reply. "Professor--he is good man. Very good. But +one thing must not do. He must not!" + +"He is going to tell me," Johnny thought, with quickening pulse. + +But at that moment there came such a roar as would drown the strongest +voice, and onto the beach came the rush of a great sea. Something like a +tidal wave had struck the narrow reef. + +"I must hang on," the boy thought. The next instant he was engulfed in +stinging salt water. The sea had swept over the land. + +Though Johnny felt that he was being swallowed by the sea, it was in +reality only the froth and foam of the monster wave that reached him. One +instant he was gasping for breath, the next, he was looking down on a +madly whirling world. + +The thought that struck him first, with the force of a blow, was--"the +tree I meant to climb is gone! Swept away by the sea!" + +It was true. The tree, rotten at the roots, had vanished. Samatan had +saved his life, and a new sense of respect for the aged native swept over +Johnny. With it came the conviction that whatever it was the old native +wanted from the professor, it must be right for him to have it. And +something seemed to assure Johnny that he would hear the story without +asking. + +But at that moment, to talk at all was impossible. The shrieking of the +wind, the cracking of branches, the roar of thunder and the mad tumult of +the sea, were completely deafening. Johnny wondered how long it would +last? Would greater waves come? Would he and Samatan at last be swept +into the sea? To all these questions he found no answer. + +In an effort to forget the terror of the situation he made himself think +once more of the great steel ball and his adventures beneath the sea.... + +In the meantime his companions on the _Sea Nymph_ were witnessing a feat +such as even the gray-haired captain never had seen equaled. Watching the +storm, yet fearing for the safety of Johnny and Samatan and hoping +against hope that they might return, they on the yacht had delayed +lifting anchor. + +When at last they headed toward the narrow entrance of a natural harbor, +the wind tore their sails to ribbons, while waves, mountain-high, swept +them toward a rocky wall. + +In despair, the captain trusted the fate of his ship to the native crew. +Nor did he trust in vain. With a few yards of sail at their command the +natives, in the midst of dashing spray, clung to spar and masthead, +turning the graceful craft this way and that. Then--at precisely the +right instant--they seemed to lift her from the sea and send her shooting +through a channel so narrow it seemed the paint would be scraped from her +two sides at once. They sent her gliding smoothly to safety, in a harbor +as calm as a millpond. + +"Bravo!" shouted the captain. + +"Glorious!" the professor cried. "Never saw such sailing! Those men +deserve all praise!" + +Six long hours the storm roared on, and for six endless hours Johnny +clung to his tree. Though the sea, like some menacing monster, appeared +to thrust out long, white arms to grasp him, he remained safely with +Samatan, in the tree top. At last, sweeping high overhead, the +storm-clouds raced away--to leave a kindly, golden moon looking down on +the boy and the old man. + +"Come," said Samatan, climbing gingerly down from his perch. "We go +back." + +"Back to what?" Johnny's lips framed the words he dared not speak. + +Their trail back over the moonlit beach was strange beyond belief. They +climbed over a huge old palm tree, lying on the ground, stumbled on a +giant, loggerhead turtle, killed in the storm, and slipped on jellyfish +left high on the ridge. + +As they rounded a bend in the beach, a large object loomed before them, +white and ghostly in the night. + +"Boat," said Samatan. + +"Lifeboat," the boy amended as they came closer. + +Examining it closely he read the words: "S. S. Vulture". Bashed in at the +prow, the boat lay empty, upside down. What was its story? Had the +Vulture been wrecked? Had part of her crew put to sea in this boat, only +to perish? + +With a shudder, Johnny pushed on behind his tireless guide. + +"Our boat must be gone," he ventured at last. + +Samatan made no reply. + +More fallen palms, tangled sea moss, jellyfish, a dead crocodile, a mile +of sand, and then--Johnny rubbed his eyes. He opened them to look again. + +"Our boat!" he exclaimed. + +"Yes," Samatan said. + +It was true. The boat was safe. Piled with seaweed and half-buried in +sand, it remained where they had left it. + +A brief examination redoubled the boy's admiration for the aged native. +The dugout had been chained to a stout, palm stump. Even the sail was +lashed beneath the seat. Samatan had taken all these precautions before +there was any sign of a storm. Wise old Samatan! + +In awed silence Johnny helped to clear the sand and seaweed away. + +"Now we go," said Samatan, preparing to launch the boat. + +If Johnny had admired Samatan's sailing before, his admiration was +doubled now. Up--up--up they glided, until they seemed ready to touch the +stars, then down--down, far into the trough of a wave. + +"Samatan." Johnny spoke without thinking. "Why do you hate our steel +ball?" + +"Hate? Ball?" Samatan struggled for the right word. "Good man, professor. +But must not steal natives' gold!" + +"Gold?" Johnny ejaculated. "I don't understand." + +The tale the old man told, then, out there on the racing sea, was +fantastic indeed. Yet Johnny doubted never a word of it.... + +The islands now belonging to Samatan's native people once had been a +French colony. The French had made slaves of the natives, and had brought +in many more slaves. Then the slaves revolted and drove all the Frenchmen +from the islands. + +"After that--_our_ land!" Samatan declared proudly. "Long time republic. +Long time everybody happy. Then," his voice dropped, "how you say +it--came bad man. Very hard man. Very cruel. Make people work too hard. +Want gold. All gold. By and by want kill that man, my people. + +"This bad man see strange men come--many men." Samatan continued. "They +put gold in chest--much gold--and dump in sea. + +"Now," Samatan sighed, "bad man dead. Gold lost. Never find that gold, my +people. Belong my people--that gold! Find gold--my people pay debts. Very +happy. But now," he frowned, "Professor, he hunt gold with steel ball. +Wanna keep that gold, you think, that professor?" + +"Oh, no! No!" Johnny laughed. "The professor is not looking for treasure! +Only strange fishes, all sorts of odd creatures that live beneath the +sea." + +"Not wanna find gold?" The old man was plainly puzzled. + +"Oh, sure--I s'pose he'd _like_ to find it," Johnny laughed. "And--we'll +really try to--now that we know about it. But if we _do_ find it, you may +be sure it will all be for your people--to the last doubloon!" + +"Good boy, Johnny." The old man smiled broadly. "Good man, Professor. All +good. Everybody!" + +"I see a light," said Johnny. "That must be Kennedy's place." + +"Right, Kennedy." said Samatan. "By and by we come that place." + +"That," said Johnny, "will be swell!" Then his brow wrinkled. Where, he +wondered, was the _Sea Nymph_? Did it make harbor safely? He sighed as he +reflected that soon he would know the answer--for better or worse! + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + THE GREEN ARROW TRAIL + + +While Johnny was going through his wild adventure, Doris and Dave were +not without their own exciting moments. Of course while the storm lasted, +the professor's party remained inside the _Sea Nymph's_ cabin. As soon as +it abated they immediately went ashore. + +Troubled as they were at thought of Johnny's possible fate, there was for +the moment nothing they could do. The seas were still running high. Dave +and the professor went for a tramp in the jungle, while Doris followed +the trail to the Kennedy home. + +Mildred appeared greatly worried when told of the journey Johnny and +Samatan had undertaken. + +"But why did Johnny go?" she asked in surprise. + +"Oh," replied Doris, "he had a notion that Samatan was angry about +something. He said we might need the help of Samatan and his men." + +"How?" Mildred asked. + +"That's it--how?" Doris laughed uneasily. "He thinks there are many +European spies around here!" + +"Well--there are!" Mildred nodded her head vigorously. + +"You, too?" exclaimed Doris. "But anyhow, Johnny thinks the spies believe +_we_ are looking for _them_--and that they'd do something terrible to +us." + +"I shouldn't wonder," said Mildred. + +"How comforting you are!" Doris smiled ruefully. "Just when I want to +feel quiet in my mind! You aren't helping a bit!" + +"Well," said Mildred, "how can I? There were those men singing in some +foreign tongue. They just vanished! And there's that mysterious, blinking +green arrow." + +"Two of them," Doris corrected. "One on land and one on sea--like Paul +Revere!" she chuckled mischievously. + +"But of course," she added more seriously, "there was the man who came on +board our boat, sneaking around, and went into a huddle with the octopus! +That would have been funny had it not been so terrible. He had a knife +that Johnny says no native would carry. But I don't see--" + +"There are a lot of things we don't see!" Mildred broke in. "For +instance--who was that whisperer who was always breaking in when Dave and +Johnny in the steel ball were being dragged against the rocks?" + +"He might have been a thousand miles away. Radio's like that," Doris +said, doubtfully. + +"Yes-and he might not!" Mildred exclaimed. "He appeared to know too much +for that." + +"One more thing," Doris laughed. "Johnny thinks there is a submarine--a +foreign one--in these waters!--He thinks we saw it, and that _it_ was the +thing that dragged the steel ball, that day!" + +"I shouldn't wonder a bit," said Mildred. + +"Oh, bother your 'shouldn't wonder'!" exclaimed Doris, good naturedly. +"Come on, let's take a walk. It will be good for our nerves! + +"But I'll tell you one thing," she added as they started off. "If I +believed _half_ the things you do--I'd be getting out of here!" + +"It's not so easy," Mildred replied, soberly. "Grandfather is a dear. It +would be a shame to leave him alone. Of course he says he's going to send +me back to college in the fall, and I suppose I shall go. College means +so much these days." + +"Yes," Doris agreed, "I'm sure it does." + +"But he can't do that unless we get our motorboat up from the bottom," +said Mildred. "And even after that--there are the spies." + +"Spies! Always spies!" Doris laughed. "Let's forget them!" + +"O.K. Let's do," the other girl agreed. + +The trail they had chosen led to the beach where the mysterious male +chorus had disappeared. Arrived at the beach where the waves were now +racing, they stood for a time in silence. When a piece of driftwood--the +broken side of a native dugout--came floating in, Mildred turned away +with a shudder, her thoughts on Johnny. + +Having wandered into the jungle a short distance she stopped suddenly to +stare at the trunk of a tree. There, standing out against the smooth gray +bark, was a small, green arrow! + +"Doris!" she called. "Come here!" + +"Green arrow!" Doris exclaimed, reaching Mildred's side. "What do you +suppose it means?" she whispered. + +"It's a trail marker!" said Mildred. "There should be others. Come on!" + +There were others! Some were quite far up on the trees, while others were +low. They continued the search for ten minutes, steadily finding others. + +Doris was frightened and did not wish to go on. At every turn of the +trail she expected to come upon a freshly made clearing, a cluster of +tents and a whole army of strange warriors. + +But Mildred thought of but one thing.... Perhaps they were on the road to +a real discovery. + +As they went deeper and deeper into the jungle, the green arrows became +scarcer, and harder to find. The trail grew steeper and narrower. Thorny +bushes tore at them, and once a great snake crossed their path. Unused to +all this, Doris was distinctly uneasy. But Mildred's face fairly shone. + +However, when they came to a place where the trail split into three +narrower ones and, search as they might, they could not find a single +arrow, Mildred, too, was ready to give up. + +"Come on," said Doris. "It will soon be dark, and I must get back to the +boat. They may want to put out, in search of Johnny and Samatan." + +"You're right," said Mildred. "We must be starting back. But--I'm coming +back here again!" + +"Alone?" Doris stared. + +"Perhaps." + +The journey back to the Kennedy home was made in silence. + +By the time the girls had eaten their evening meal it was completely +dark. Wandering down to the beach they listened to the diminishing roar +of the sea, and watched its strange blackness against the moon's golden +light. + +"There's a light!" Doris exclaimed. + +"Yes, sir! And it blinks!" Mildred became excited. + +After watching for a full minute, she suddenly threw her arms around her +companion to exclaim: "Oh! Doris! That's Johnny! It is--it surely is! +Sometimes he blinks his light from the ship that way--one, two, +three--one, two, three! Oh, it's wonderful! Aren't you glad?" + +"Of course I'm glad," said Doris. "But then--men always do manage to get +back one way or another, don't they?" + +"Oh! Oh, no!" Mildred caught her words. "They don't--nowhere near +'always'." + +Just then Dave and the professor came down to the beach. + +"We think it's Johnny and Samatan," Doris said quietly. + +"Good!" said the professor. "That lifts a load from my shoulders!" He +turned to speak to Mildred, but she had gone. + +Ten minutes later, natives caught the dugout and hauled it far up on the +sandy beach. + +After receiving the congratulations of his shipmates, Johnny began +flashing his light into the surrounding darkness, searching for Mildred. +At last the beam came to rest on a charming picture--a girl with +reddish-golden hair, wearing a dress of golden material, tied at the +waist with a broad red sash. All this--against the greenish blackness of +a jungle night. + +"Why!" Johnny exclaimed, as he caught her hand. "The little beach-comber +has turned into a golden fairy!" + +"P--please, Johnny!" Mildred stuttered confusedly, "I--I just wanted +to--celebrate your return from the d--dead!" + +"Nonsense!" exclaimed Johnny. "I always come back. But it was mighty nice +of you, anyhow, and I won't forget!" + + * * * * * * * * + +He was ready for a good, long sleep. His task of watching was given over +for the night to Samatan's son, who was a member of the native crew. So +Johnny did not return to the boat, but was shown to the guest room of the +Kennedy cottage where, under a mosquito-bar canopy, with the tropical +moon shining through the bamboo lattice, he slept the sleep of the just. + +By the next afternoon both he and Mildred were ready for further +adventure. Together, they tramped into the jungle. + +"If we find more green arrows," said Mildred, fairly tingling with +excitement, "where do you think the trail will lead us?" + +"Hard to tell," said Johnny. "It might take us right to the spot from +which the green arrow of light shines out in the night." + +"And then?" she whispered. + +"No can tell!" laughed Johnny. "We'll answer that when the time comes." + +But would they? And what would the answer be? + +After hours of searching they decided that, whatever the answer might be, +the finding of it must be postponed for another day. Beyond the spot +where the trail forked, they could not proceed. + +"There's something queer about these signs of the green arrow," said +Johnny, dropping onto a cushion of moss in the shade. "There is something +we don't know about it all." + +"Yes," replied the girl, "and we're going to find out what it is!" + +"But not today," said Johnny. "The shadows already are growing long." + +By the time they reached the beach from which the singing band had so +mysteriously disappeared, the abrupt, tropical darkness had fallen. For a +moment they stood looking at the dark, mysterious sea. Suddenly Mildred +gripped Johnny's arm and whispered: + +"Look! The green arrow!" + +True enough. Seeming but a stone's throw from shore, the green arrow +appeared to rise from the sea. + +"It _must_ be on a submarine!" Mildred whispered. + +"Wait! They're signalling." Johnny dragged pencil and paper from his +pocket and began scribbling numbers. This continued for two minutes. +Then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the green arrow vanished. + +"Gone!" the girl exclaimed. + +"Come on," said Johnny. "I want to see what they were saying." + +Leading the way to a dark hollow where their light could not be seen, he +asked her to hold the electric torch while he deciphered the message. + +"'_We will strike_,'" he read aloud, "'_at the earliest possible +moment!_' + +"That's all." He stood up. "Spies strike in the dark--and without +warning. I wonder what we have ahead of us!" + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + AN IMPORTANT DISCOVERY + + +That night as he tramped the deck on his silent watch, Johnny found his +mind crowded with disturbing thoughts of the significant message the +green arrow had flashed over the sea. + +"_We will strike_--" his mind went over the words again and again, "_at +the earliest possible moment!_" Where would they strike? And who was to +receive the blow? His shipmates on the _Sea Nymph_? Old Kennedy and his +daughter? Or someone he never had seen? + +"I may never know," he told himself. "Spies strike in the dark." + +Johnny had read that during the World War, spies had swum to the +propellers of outgoing ships laden with men and supplies. Hours later, +with the ship far out at sea, a bomb had exploded, blowing away the +propeller and leaving the ship helpless. He knew, too, that spies had +placed incendiary bombs in the holds of ships, and dumped quantities of +acid in the very bottom of a vessel, to eat its way through the steel. + +"Yes," he thought, "and even now--in times of supposed peace--they are +boring in!" + + * * * * * * * * + +The _Sea Nymph_ left the river and put out to sea while Johnny slept. +When he awoke in mid-afternoon, they were anchored in their old position. + +"How would you like to make a solo journey in the steel ball?" Dave asked +when he came on deck. + +"Go--go down alone?" Johnny asked, feeling a bit strange. "That--oh, +that's O.K., I guess." + +"I was down this morning," said Dave, "and my eyes are tired. There are +some pictures I'd like to have. Conditions below are all right, and +there's an off-shore breeze. We've two lines out to windward, which +should hold her steady. + +"What the professor would like," he went on in a businesslike tone, "is +to have you go down, slowly, along that submerged cliff, stopping every +ten feet to take a photo floodlight picture. That will give us a +continued story of plant and animal life, down to perhaps two thousand +feet." + +"Al--all right," Johnny agreed. "I can do that." But for the life of him +he could not still his heart's wild beating. He seemed to be hearing a +voice say: + +"_We will strike--at the earliest possible moment!_" + +He forced his lips to repeat: "Two thousand feet, you say?" + +"About that. Better get ready at once. The wind may pick up." + +"Yes, it may stri--pick up," Johnny agreed a little absently. + +Twenty minutes later, inside the steel ball and busy taking pictures of +the wall as he stopped each ten feet, he had all but banished thoughts of +the green arrow from his mind. + + * * * * * * * * + +But someone else really was seeing green arrows--and plenty of them. That +was the granddaughter of old Mr. Kennedy--the man who for twenty years +had defied encroachments of foreign interests in this happy little +republic. For Mildred had gone on a hunting expedition all her own. She +was hunting spies. She had started once more over the green arrow trail +and, strangely enough, almost instantly had discovered the secret of its +markings. + +During their months together she and her grandfather had spent hours on +end, tramping the jungle, and he had taught her to know all the usual +signs. The trail of some great snake in the sand--the uprooted earth, +where little wild pigs had been--the marks of a monkey's claws on the +green sprouts of a tree--all had a meaning for her. + +Knowing these usual signs, she had looked for unusual ones--and had found +them. On reaching the spot where they had lost the trail on two other +occasions, she noted that the next to the last arrow was low down, while +the _last_, was some ten feet higher. So--to reach this last marking +place--someone had been obliged to climb! In doing this, bits of bark had +been broken off, leaving fresh, light-brown spots on the tree trunks. + +"Now I shall look for broken bark--not arrows," she told herself. + +She had not gone forward a hundred paces on the right hand fork of the +trail, when she let out a cry of surprise and joy. Not only had she +discovered broken bark, but up, perhaps thirty feet on a tree, she saw a +green arrow. + +"One, two, three," she whispered. "Perhaps that's the way it goes. One +arrow down low, one a little higher, and a third, well up on the trunk!" + +She discovered at once that this was just the way the markings ran. So +immediately she took up the trail again. + +The distance from the shore of the island to the summit of the tallest +hill, was considerable. The trail, such as it was, made only by natives +and wild animals, wound round and round--up and up. + +The girl followed this trail for more than an hour. Then she sat down on +a fallen mahogany tree to think. She was far from all her friends. Should +she go farther? She, too, recalled the last message of the green arrow of +light--about "striking"! + +"Perhaps I can stop them," she whispered stoutly, as she rose to her +feet. "At least I can try!" + +Though her knees trembled, she did not falter, but marched straight on. +For was she not the granddaughter of old Kennedy--hero of a hundred +battles? + + + + + CHAPTER XV + ADRIFT IN THE DEPTHS + + +All went well with Johnny on his undersea photographing trip until he had +reached the fifteen-hundred-foot level. Then he called in his +loud-speaker to Doris, who was directing the controls: + +"Sorry, Doris. On that last, ten-foot shot, I made a double exposure. +Hike me up a bit, will you, please?" + +"O.K. Johnny," was the answer. To the men at the hoist she said: "Up ten +feet." + +"Up ten feet," the men repeated. + +Johnny waited for the rise. His floodlight was on. Some strange creatures +with amazing teeth, were passing, and he snapped his camera. + +"Interesting place, down here," he thought. "Hate to stay down here all +night, though." His leg felt cramped. He tried to shift to a new +position, but at last gave it up. "No sort of place for an active +person," he sighed. "Wonder why I don't go up a bit--I'd like to get this +over!" + +"Hey, up there!" he called into the phone. "What's wrong?" + +"Sorry, Johnny," Doris drawled. "Something's wrong with the hoist. It +won't work. But they'll get it fixed pretty soon, I guess!" + +Something wrong with the hoist! Johnny experienced a cold chill. Suppose +someone had been tampering with that hoist--had done something really +serious? What then? You couldn't take hold of a fifteen-hundred-foot +steel cable with a two-ton ball at the end of it, and haul it by hand +like a fishline. Johnny realized all too keenly that his life depended on +that hoist. + +"It could have been tampered with," he told himself. This was all too +true. While the boat had been in the harbor it had not been any too +carefully guarded--and Johnny had been off duty one whole night! "Might +cost me dearly--that night!" he thought. + +To ease his mind he began watching the passing show--fire-glowing +shrimps--flying snails, and a host of other strange creatures. He snapped +his camera again and again. + +"I say, up there," he exclaimed impatiently, "what's keeping us?" + +"Sorry, Johnny. It's the hoist. We--" + +Doris stopped suddenly. Johnny felt a shock--as if his cable had been +struck by something hard and heavy. At the same instant the ball began +drifting away from the submerged wall of rock. + +"Hey, there!" he called, in genuine alarm, "what's up now?" + +There came no answer. He called again, and yet again. No answer. His +heart began pounding madly. + +"This won't do," he told himself, savagely. "Probably nothing--just +nothing at all! It--" + +Then came a second, jolting shock, and--ceasing to move in a circle--the +ball began drifting quite rapidly away from the rock and out to sea. + +Johnny knew at once what had happened. One of the anchor cables holding +the boat in place had been struck and broken. + +"By that submarine!" he burst out savagely. Then as if it were right out +there in the water in front of him, he seemed to see the green arrow of +light, and to read: + +"_We will strike_--at the earliest possible moment!" + +"They have struck!" he thought. "The second cable has been broken by the +added strain--and we are drifting out to sea!" + +He tried to think what this meant. The hoist was broken, so he could not +be pulled up. Out to sea some three or four miles were coral reefs and +beneath these, no doubt, a rocky wall. Moving at its present rate and +striking that wall, the steel ball might crack! + +Only one cheery thought came to him at this moment. If the boat's small +motor was strong enough to counteract the force of wind and current, he +could be held in one position until the hoist was repaired. + +Even as he thought this, Doris came back on the air: "Awfully sorry, +Johnny, but something has severed an anchor cable--and then the other one +broke! The hoist won't work. We'd have the motor going, but that, too, +seems to have gone wrong. Keep your chin up, Johnny. We'll get you up out +of there before it's--too late." Her voice faltered at the end. + +Johnny found it impossible to utter a single word in reply. + + * * * * * * * * + +In the meantime, Mildred still was following the signs of the green arrow +trail. + +As she advanced, the trail grew steeper and rougher. She followed it +between dark pines, where the shadows were like night, along a narrow +ledge to an abrupt descent into a low ravine. + +More than once, as if contemplating retreat, she turned and looked back. +But always, she went on. + +At last, weary from climbing, she dropped down on a flat rock in the +shade and dabbed at her damp cheeks with a white, red-bordered +handkerchief. + +As she rested she turned her head quite suddenly to listen. All the usual +sounds of the tropical wilderness--the call of monkeys, the shrill +squawks of parrots, the piercing screams of jungle birds--these all were +familiar to her. But did she hear some strange sound--perhaps a human +call? Listening intently for a moment longer, she rose and journeyed on. + +Some ten minutes later she paused once more. She had come to a spot where +the trail led round a towering cliff. In an involuntary gesture of dismay +her hand unclasped and she dropped her handkerchief. It fell unnoticed +among some large leaves--a bit of red and white amid the eternal gray and +green of the jungle. + +Summoning all her courage, Mildred proceeded along the rocky trail. Like +a soldier she tramped straight on until, with a startled cry, she stopped +abruptly, on rounding a sharp turn in the path. + +There, directly ahead, was the ancient castle that might once have been a +fortress or a prison. Standing before its door and staring intently at +her, was a man with a rifle. Turning to flee, in complete panic--she +found herself facing another man, similarly armed. + +A man in front of her, and one in back--a towering cliff above--a +precipice below. She was trapped. + + * * * * * * * * + +Darkness came to the Kennedy cottage, but no Mildred returned to join its +worried owner at his evening meal. + +He ate alone and in silence. In silence he smoked his pipe on the veranda +until midnight. Then he went to the house of Pean, his head native. + +"Pean," he said, "she has not returned. At three o'clock, unless I come +again, tell Camean to make _wanga_ with the drums." + +"Make _wanga_ at three. Can do," said Pean. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI + VOICE OF DRUMS + + +Johnny, meanwhile, was having a very bad hour all by himself. Still +drifting a thousand feet beneath the surface of the sea, he awaited his +deliverance--a deliverance he knew might never come. + +Knowing little about the rate at which the powerless boat might be +drifting, he made a guess; it should be about two miles per hour. "That +gives me less than two hours," he told himself, grimly. + +After noting the time, he decided to take a few more pictures--just in +case. + +Never before, he imagined, had such opportunity for taking undersea shots +been given any living being. Moving at fairly steady speed, he passed +through countless schools of deep-sea creatures, and never before had +Johnny looked upon such fantastic sights. + +"Like things in a nightmare," he told himself. "All heads--practically no +bodies at all--some long and slim as a leadpencil, with noses half the +length of their bodies. If ever I get out of this I probably shall be +famous. But--" + +What was this? His eyes stared at the compass. It appeared to have gone +wrong, or else-- + +"Hey!" he called into the loud speaker, "what's up? Are we going north by +east--" + +"North by east is right. Oh, Johnny!" Doris apologized, "I didn't let you +know, but they have the sails up, and we're traveling in a circle. We +think that will keep you off the rocks. The chart is not very clear, but +we can cruise around for hours if--if it is necessary." + +"Hours!" Johnny groaned. + +"Well, anyway--" Doris stopped, abruptly. Then: + +"Johnny! You're saved! The mate just told me the hoist will be working +again any minute now!" + +"Hooray!" Johnny shouted. "Hooray! We live again! Boy-oh-boy!" + +"Yes, Johnny,"--the girl's voice went husky, "it will be good to see +you!" + +Ten minutes later, Johnny was going up. Slowly, surely, the dense +darkness passed. The blue black of early dawn was changing places with +glorious hues, and then came the light of a rapidly passing day. + +As he tumbled from the steel ball Johnny placed a box of plates carefully +on the deck. + +"There you are!" he exclaimed. "Pictures I'll really live to see!" + +The pictures were superb--all the professor could have dreamed of, and +more. "These, alone, will add greatly to the world's riches," he said, +placing a trembling hand on Johnny's shoulder. + +"And when you show them," Johnny grinned, "tell your audience they were +taken by a ship's watch, will you?" + +"I take it," said the professor with a laugh, "that you think you'd like +to keep your feet on the ground, for a while!" + +"Absolutely," Johnny agreed. "And in more ways than one!" + +Johnny went back to his old task of walking the deck that night. There +would be no more tampering with hoists and motors if he knew anything +about it--and he surely would know if it happened in the night. + +For some unknown reason, this night was not like others that had passed. +There seemed to be a spirit of unrest in the air. + +Doris, too, felt it. Enveloped in a midnight-blue gown, she wandered out +on deck. + +"It's ridiculous," she exclaimed. "A grand night to sleep, but my eyes +just will not stay closed!" + +"There are ghosts in the air," said Johnny. "I have felt them and almost +heard their wings--or do ghosts have wings? There goes one now!" + +Doris jumped as some swift, darting thing shot past her head. + +"Oh, no!" Johnny laughed. "Only a bat. You'd think--" + +He stopped suddenly to stare at the distant hills. The next instant, with +binoculars held to his eyes with one hand and a pencil in the other, he +was recording a message. + +"The green arrow speaks again," he murmured softly. "Oh--Oh--now it's +gone! Snapped right off as if a fuse had blown. + +"Oh, well--perhaps it will flash again, later." He stuffed his notebook +into his pocket. + +"We'll be leaving here soon," Doris said quietly. "In two or three days, +I think. Grandfather received a wireless today. And how I'm going to hate +it." She sighed. "This," she spread her arms wide, "this has been grand! +Moonlight on gorgeous waters! Strange tropical shores. Adventure!" + +"And bats!" said Johnny, as one shot past his ear. + +"But even they are different," she insisted, smiling. + +"Yes, I know," Johnny agreed. "To go to strange places, to see new +things, to find excitement, thrills, mystery and adventure--that's life!" + +"Is it for most people?" she whispered. + +"Perhaps not," he replied thoughtfully. "Most people like to be safe and +comfortable, to go to the same places, to see the same people, do the +same things. That's their privilege, of course." + +"That's right, Johnny. And now--goodnight." + +"Goodnight," he replied, softly. + +Halfway between midnight and morning, when even the bats were less +active, and the whole tropical world seemed asleep, Johnny was amazed to +hear the sudden roll of a native drum, from the island. The very sound of +it at that eerie hour, set his blood racing and his skin prickling. + +"Drums!" he ejaculated. "What can that mean?" + +For a time the weird beats were a steady roll. Then they began breaking +up; two beats, a pause--one beat--pause, three beats--pause.... + +"Like a message," he whispered. Then with a start, he recalled the +message of the green arrow--undeciphered in his pocket! + +Dragging it out, he began decoding it, growing more and more wildly +excited every minute. + +"H--E--" he worked it out "L--P! _HELP!_" + +"Someone is in trouble," he whispered. "But there are only three letters +left. Rapidly he studied these out. + +"_Help Mil_--" + +A cold sweat broke out on his brow. He recalled Mildred's determination +to follow that green arrow trail. Had she followed it too far? Had the +spies captured her? Was she a prisoner? And had she attempted to get off +a message on the green arrow, only to be interrupted? Or perhaps even-- + +"I might be wrong," he told himself. But he dared not hope. + +Again there were the drums. This time a drum close at hand, on shore, +thundered out. Then, from far away in the jungle came an answer, another, +and yet another. It was ghostly, romantic, thrilling. Johnny's hair +fairly stood on end. But what did it mean? + +He caught the sound of soft footfalls. Instantly he was on his feet, all +attention. + +"Oh!" he exclaimed softly. "It is you, Samatan." + +"Yes. The drums! They speak!" murmured Samatan. "Something--it is very +bad." His voice was low-pitched, tense. + +"What do they say?" Johnny asked in a whisper. + +"That something very wrong. This what drums say!" The old man's voice was +vibrant with emotion. + +"They say Kennedy has had _bad_ done him! Natives must come. All who love +Kennedy must come. And all natives love Kennedy! All night they must +come. In morning they march--perhaps they fight! Much fight for Kennedy! +Maybe much die!" His voice trailed off. + +"Yes," Johnny choked. "Something terrible has happened. We must go, +Samatan!" + +"Just when it little light, in my dugout, we go, Johnny," said Samatan, +quietly. + +Settling back in a steamer chair the old man closed his eyes and appeared +to sleep. While from the shore came again and again the vibrant rumble of +the drums--tum--tum--tum--tum--on and on into the night that was marching +toward the dawn of another day. + +Tense with forebodings of what might be in store, Johnny +waited--impatient and grimly expectant. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII + MARCHING ON THE CASTLE + + +Old Samatan was not asleep. He was only thinking. After a time he opened +his eyes wide, to stare at the dark shore where drums still beat out +their message. + +"Make _wanga_," he said to Johnny. "Always when trouble, my people make +_wanga_--make prayer to Voodoo gods. Gods help good natives win +victories." + +"Great!" exclaimed Johnny. "Then we shall win!" + +"Yes. Win," the old man said, softly. + +Then Johnny told Samatan of the green arrow trail that Mildred had said +she would follow. He told of the suddenly broken message he had picked up +from the green arrow. + +Thinking deeply, Samatan declared they should go very soon--at least a +full hour before dawn. + +"Shall Dave go, too?" Johnny asked. + +"Plenty men on shore," the old man waved an arm. "We go--tell Kennedy. +That all. Dave? Better Dave stay." + +Half an hour later, Johnny wakened Dave to tell him what was going on. At +first Dave was determined to go with them and have a hand in the affair. +But after sober thought he decided it best to stay with the ship. + +"The ship may be needed before this thing is over," he said. + +"Yes, it may," Johnny agreed. + +So, guided by native fires on the beach, Johnny and Samatan headed for +shore. + +Johnny was steeped in gloom as he pictured the golden-haired little +beach-comber, the prisoner of unscrupulous spies. + +"Nothing could be worse," he groaned. "I should have warned her never to +go, alone!" + +But the moment their boat touched shore, Johnny's mood changed quickly +for the better. Seldom had he witnessed a more inspiring sight. In two +short hours, more than a hundred, dark-faced, half-clad, natives had +gathered at the call of their beloved Kennedy. + +They were squatting around the fires, roasting small fish or strips of +peccary meat and gulping cups of bitter, black coffee. + +"They will go for a whole day on this," Kennedy told him, "and still be +with us when the day is done." + +When Johnny told of the green arrow's message and the trail Mildred had +sworn to follow, the old man's brow wrinkled. + +"I suspected something of the sort," he rumbled, "but this is worse than +I figured. There may be a number of those spies--all well armed. And +we--" he went on, with a touch of sadness, "these people here are not +warlike. We have two heavy rifles of ancient make, half a dozen light, +hunting rifles, two or three shotguns, and a hundred machetes. But these +natives--" There was a rumble of admiration in his voice. "You should see +what these men can do with those two-foot blades of theirs! There are two +grindstones out behind the house--and they haven't stopped turning for +hours!" + +Johnny felt a tingle course through his veins as the old man finished. It +was, he thought, like the days of old, like something he had read in a +book. They were to storm an ancient castle to rescue a fair lady! + +There were men among that loyal throng who knew every trail leading to +the old castle. + +"The men say it will take about three hours to reach the place," said +Kennedy, when just after dawn, they prepared to break camp. "We shall +have to march in silence, as sound travels far. I only hope," his brow +wrinkled, "that these spies did not guess the meaning of those drums. I +hated that. But there was no other way to get the men together, nor," he +added in an undertone, "to put the real, fighting spirit into them. For +more than a hundred years, the beating of these drums has meant battle!" + +"And how they respond to it!" Johnny enthused. + +"Yes, Johnny," the old man rumbled. "These are faithful, loyal people. +Think what it would mean to have these islands taken over by a foreign +power--cannon and bombing planes everywhere. If war came, think how these +beautiful islands would be torn to bits by bursting bombs! Just think +Johnny! Try to imagine it!" + +For a moment after that, there was silence. Kennedy's voice was husky +when he spoke again. "Johnny, my boy--I've come to like you a heap. +Promise me, Johnny, that if anything should happen to me this day, you'll +see the girl safely back to her own land where she rightly belongs." + +"Nothing can happen to you," Johnny declared, stoutly. "You could handle +four of those cowards, single-handed." + +"Promise me," the old man insisted. + +"I promise." Johnny put out a hand that was at once caught in a grip of +steel. + +And so they marched away into the golden, tropical dawn. + + * * * * * * * * + +Those on the _Sea Nymph_ were on deck early that morning. Coffee and +muffins were served in the forward cabin. After Dave told what was +happening on land, a silence fell over the party. Active, happy, always +friendly, Mildred had found her way into all their hearts. + +"Dave," said the professor at last, breaking the silence, "since that +fine old man Kennedy is in a good way to lose his granddaughter--" + +"Oh, but he won't!" Doris broke in. "Not with Johnny Thompson on the +trail of those spies. I had a letter last week from an old friend, +Marjory Morrison. She's known our Johnny a long time, and she says he's a +marvel!" + +"No doubt," said the professor. "But spies, my dear!" + +"Spies are cowards," Doris exclaimed. "Just the same--I'd like doing +something for those Kennedys!" + +"Just what I was about to suggest," the professor beamed. "Manifestly, we +can't sail this ship up that mountain but we can go in search of their +sunken schooner!" + +"Oh, yes!" Doris sprang up. "Let's do that! Anything to help!" + +"I know the spot, within a mile," said Dave. "Kennedy showed me on the +map. It's not over three miles from here." + +"Good! We shall weigh anchor at once," exclaimed the professor. "In the +steel ball, Dave, you should be able to locate the schooner in a very +short time." + +"And then?" asked Dave. + +"One problem at a time," smiled the professor, who during his long life +had solved many a problem. + +Fifteen minutes more and they were away. + +"Do you think we shall be able to find their sunken schooner?" Doris +asked, as she and Dave stood in the prow, looking at the hills. "That +depends," said Dave. "Just now, another problem interests me more." + +"And that?" + +"Whether that girl, who seems the very spirit of the island, ever will +sail that schooner again." + +"Never doubt it," said Doris. But in spite of her high hopes, she herself +was in grave doubt. + + * * * * * * * * + +Johnny was never to forget that silent march up the tropical island +trail. Before him glided a native guide. Behind him, taking each steep +ascent with the quiet, steady breathing of a boy, came the giant Kennedy. + +After these marched a silent throng. Their faces and machetes shining in +the morning sun, they were a band of simple, honest natives, in whose +midst Kennedy long had stood out as king. + +A monkey chattered from a tree, but no rifle was aimed at him. A parrot +screamed, and over in a narrow ravine, a drove of wild pigs scampered +unmolested over the dry moss of the jungle. + +"We're seeking bigger game, today," the boy thought, grimly. + +Finally they arrived at a point not far distant from the turn, beyond +which lay the castle. Kennedy held up a hand, and the men gathered +silently about him. In low tones he gave them final instructions. + +There were, he said, three trails to the ancient castle. They would +divide into three groups. John Puleet, a stalwart native, with his +followers, would circle the hill to the right. Teratella, another burly +leader of the islanders, would go to the left with his men. Time would be +given them to take their positions. When this had been done, a "wild +parrot" would scream from the right, another from the left--and they +would all move forward. + +"We'll take the trail straight ahead, with old Samatan," he said to +Johnny. "It's the toughest of them all, if we are attacked." + +"O.K." Johnny murmured, gripping his light hunting rifle. + +Silently, one by one, a hundred men crept into the brush. After that, +save for the chirp of some small bird and the faint sound of a dashing +stream, all was silent. It was, Johnny thought, the dead silence that +comes before a storm. + +Stooping suddenly, he picked something from among the leaves by the +trail. It was Mildred's lost handkerchief. He held it out for Kennedy to +see, but neither said a word. + + + + + CHAPTER XVIII + THE BATTLE + + +Meanwhile, Dave and Doris were warming to the search for the small +trading boat that had meant so much to Kennedy and Mildred. + +Having found the approximate location where the little supply schooner +sank, Dave climbed into the steel ball and was lowered into the deep. For +an hour after that, with the steel ball always close to the bottom, they +sailed about in ever widening circles. From time to time Doris called on +the radio: + +"See anything?" + +"Yes, a whole flotilla of jellyfish," would come Dave's laughing answer. +Or--"there's an ancient wreck off to the right--goes back to pirate days, +I'm sure. But I don't catch the faintest gleam of a white schooner." + +When at last he returned to the surface and was released from his +spherical prison, he complained of eye-strain. + +"Let me go down with you," Doris pleaded. "I'll be eyes for you. Together +we can't fail to find the schooner. We just must get it located!" + +"What do you say, professor?" Dave turned to his superior. + +"What's the bottom like?" + +"All sand." + +"No rocks?" + +"Not a one." + +"O.K., my girl--in you go." The professor waved a hand, and in they went. + +To the imaginative Doris, this fairyland of waving seaweed, darting fish, +and drifting jellyfish was most entertaining, but she never forgot their +real mission. "Dave!" she exclaimed more than once. "I see something!" A +moment of excitement, and then--"No--it's nothing but a bit of coral, +after all." + +Then, of a sudden, a whisper reached her ear: + +"One eighty--eighty-two and a half--eighty four--" + +"Dave! He's back! The whisperer is back!" Doris spoke before she thought. + +"Why! Hello there, mermaid!" came in words startlingly distinct. + +Doris and Dave remained silent. Who could this be? Where was he? On land, +or in the sea? Or on it? + +For a time they heard that whispering of numbers. Then it faded, as +abruptly as it had come. + +As they drifted, they quietly discussed the strange whispering, but came +to no logical conclusions. Neither did they sight any white schooner, +resting on the bottom. + + * * * * * * * * + +For a long time, there on the side of the hill beneath the tropical sun, +Kennedy's fighting band watched and waited. + +"The signal will come," Johnny thought with a thrill. "The signal to +move! And then-- + +"There! There it is now!" he exclaimed in a hoarse whisper. + +There had come the distant scream of a wild parrot. One more scream. + +"Now!" said Kennedy. "Let's go!" + +"We go," old Samatan said, simply. + +Johnny would have taken the lead, but the old man pushed him back. +Cautiously they moved straight ahead. + +Johnny sighed in relief as they reached the end of a narrow pass. That, +he thought, would have been a bad place to be caught. His sense of relief +was short-lived, however, for out from the wide door of the ancient +castle, burst a man with a rifle. Instantly Johnny recognized him as the +man whom he had saved from the grip of the octopus. + +"Come on!" he exclaimed, as the man leveled his rifle. A shot cracked +out, and a bullet burned Johnny's cheek. Next instant the man dodged and +the rifle clattered from his nerveless hands. There had been a flash of +steel, as Samatan had thrown his machete. Its point was buried in the +door, just back of the spot where the man's head had been. + +Dropping his rifle, Johnny executed a flying tackle, bringing the man to +the ground, with a thud. Instantly two powerful natives pinned him to the +earth. + +"Come on!" Kennedy shouted, as the door stood open a crack. "We're going +in!" His powerful shoulder forced the door so suddenly that a man on the +other side of it was instantly floored. A second man--huge, fat, +beast-like--lurched at Kennedy with a knife. He was felled with one blow +of the old man's bare fist. + +"Now!" Kennedy roared, towering over the prostrate pair. "Tell me where +my granddaughter is or I'll tear you limb from limb!" + +"Girl?" the fat man stammered in broken English. "Gone--gone." + +"Where to?" Kennedy touched the man none too gently with his foot. But +the halting reply could not be understood. + +"Please, sir," came in a youthful voice from the corner, "if I may, I +will tell you. + +"But first I must tell you," said the youth who, until now, had not been +noticed, "that I am not one of these!" He nodded at the men on the floor. +"I was coming to America to join my father, and they compelled me to +accompany them here." + +"Is that true?" Kennedy demanded of the stout man on the floor. The man +nodded. + +"All right. Tell us." Kennedy's voice softened a little as he spoke to +the youth. "Where is my granddaughter?" + +"They took her to the submarine," said the boy. + +"The submarine?" Kennedy stared. + +"Yes. There is a submarine," said the boy. "They are making a survey of +the sea-bottom around these islands! Don't you see," the boy seemed +anxious to please, "in time of war, they shall place depth bombs and +steel nets--and establish submarine bases!" + +"I see," Kennedy replied in a low tone that was not good to hear. "Very +nice, I should say. We seem to have stumbled into the situation at about +the right time! + +"But my granddaughter." His voice rose. "She is on this submarine?" + +"Yes sir." + +"Then," roared Kennedy, "we shall find the submarine! And if we do +not--or if my granddaughter has been harmed--!" He laid his machete, +sheath and all, across the stout man's throat. And the stout man turned a +sickish, yellow-green. And not without reason. + +"Get up!" commanded Kennedy. The two men stood up. "I'll guard them," he +said to Johnny. "You and the natives search this place. Gather up every +scrap of paper to be found. There should be ample evidence of this +espionage. And--there is not a moment to be lost!" + +"Not a second," said Johnny. + +A few hours later, with three other prisoners taken by the second band of +natives attempting to flee from the rear of the castle, they were back at +the Kennedy cottage. At once Johnny and Samatan prepared to leave for the +_Sea Nymph_. + +"We'll do all in our power to find that submarine," Johnny assured +Kennedy, as he and Samatan pushed off.... + +But Johnny could not have known, of course that the submarine had been +found.... + + * * * * * * * * + +For a long time Doris had watched the sea bottom as the steel ball moved +about in a circle that ever grew wider. So absorbed had she become that +her ear-phones were forgotten. When suddenly a voice broke in on her +thoughts, she jumped involuntarily. + +"Hey, there! I say, there! Are you there?" came in a hoarse, anxious +voice. "Listen! It's important! Listen! Are you there?" + +Doris adjusted her microphone, then answered, as her heart missed a beat. +"Yes, we are here. Why?" + +"Listen!" came in gutteral tones. "We are on the bottom, and we can't get +up!" + +"Try the Australian crawl," Doris laughed into her speaker. These people +were good at kidding, whoever they were. + +"Listen!" came in a man's voice, hoarse and insistent--even pleading. "We +are in a small submarine. We are on bottom and our pumps have failed!" + +"Submarine!" Doris whispered, as she and Dave gaped at each other. + +"We are about two hundred feet down," the voice went on, desperately. +"Something's gone wrong with our pumps, and we can't blow out the water +in our compartments. You gotta help us. We have a friend of yours here +and she'll tell you I'm speaking the truth!" + +Doris and Dave were startled beyond description when they heard Mildred +Kennedy's voice coming over the air. + +"Listen, Doris," the girl's voice was tense with emotion. "I'm down here +in this submarine. I blundered onto that ancient castle up on the ridge, +and there were spies there. They wouldn't let me go because they--they +said I'd tell what I saw. And that--that's true. I would! + +"But these boys on the submarine--they--" her voice broke a little, +"they're not really spies! They're just boys in the navy of their +country, doing what they're ordered to do. They've been decent to me, and +they'd have put me back on land if they'd dared. So--so you can't let +them die like this. You just can't, Doris! Besides, I--" she choked, and +could not finish. + +"We won't let them die and most of all--we won't let _you_ die!" declared +Dave, who had been absorbing every word. "Just you keep cool and stand +by. We--we'll have our whole navy here in no time. Just you see!" + +"Th--thanks, Dave ... Mil--Mildred, signing off," came in a wee small +voice. + +"Gee, she's a game kid," whispered Dave to Doris. Then into his +microphone: + +"Put that man on again," he said. + +"Here, here I am," came the hoarse voice from the submarine. + +"Here's what we'll do," Dave said, shortly. + +"We have a fairly powerful wireless on our ship. We'll get in touch with +the United States Naval Station at Port au Prince at once, and report the +situation. They will send assistance--even though you're over here to +help your spies! Now--give me your location--in code." + +"O.K." the foreigner answered, humbly, "Here it is. 2 - 4 - 7, 9 - 3 - 6, +1 - 6 - 3 - 9, 3 - 7 - 9.--That is all. Will you please repeat?" + +Dave read the numbers he had written, and the sub commander checked them +again. + +"Don't be nervous or frightened about the girl, here," he said. "We have +oxygen enough for thirty-six hours, at least." + +"I hate to think what would happen to you if any harm comes to her," Dave +answered, grimly. "We're signing off and going up." + +To get the Port au Prince naval station was only a matter of moments, +after the steel ball was back on board. + +"There's a submarine and a coastguard cutter at Santiago de Cuba," was +the answer. "We will get in touch with them at once, and you can be sure +of fast action!" + +After a short wait came the encouraging news: "Submarine and cutter +proceeding to the rescue under forced draft!" + +Fifteen minutes later the _Sea Nymph_ was in motion. Dave, having +obtained the grounded submarine's location, would sail to the spot and +stand by to aid, if possible. + +"Perhaps we'll go down in the steel ball and reach them before that sub +arrives," he said. + +"But Dave!" Doris exclaimed. "What can one submarine do for another on +the bottom? Surely they can't raise it!" + +"No--o, they couldn't. Nor could we. But then," Dave sighed, "there must +be some way. We'll have to leave that to the navy, I guess." + +Two hours later the steel ball rested on the sandy bottom some two +hundred feet down, and within twenty feet of the submarine's dark bulk. +As Dave and Doris stared out of their window, they saw a face in a port +of the submarine. It was Mildred, and she was waving at them. + +"Only twenty feet," Doris murmured, "and yet for the moment there's +nothing we can do! How strange--and how--how terrible!" + + + + + CHAPTER XIX + ON THE BOTTOM + + +Night was falling on the waters of the blue Caribbean when Johnny and +Samatan finally reached the _Sea Nymph_, and were told of the sub's +predicament. For a full hour after darkness fell, Doris and Johnny sat on +the after deck. But they spoke hardly a word. They were thinking of a +brave, American girl, two hundred feet below surface, in a foreign +submarine. + +"Johnny!" Doris gripped the boy's arm suddenly. "Is that a light--or is +it a star?" She pointed out to sea. + +"A light! No, it's a star. No! No! It _is_ a light! See! It blinks!" + +"Dave!" Doris called. "The navy is coming!" + +And so it was. As they stood there waiting, the light grew brighter and +brighter. Then a long, sleek form, dark as the night, slid alongside the +_Sea Nymph_. + +"Ahoy there!" a voice called. + +"Ahoy!" Dave echoed. "We'll send our small boat for you at once" + +Ten minutes later, the young commander of the American submarine was on +board. + +"What's the situation?" he demanded, briskly. + +"They're down here, about two hundred feet," said Dave. "Their pumps +won't work and they can't get up!" + +"That's it, eh? It sounds bad." The young officer's voice was somber. "I +suppose you assumed we had a diver on board, and--until three days +ago--we did have. But now he's in the hospital with a raging fever!" + +"Might I inquire," the professor asked, slowly, "what a diver would do?" + +"Certainly," said the officer. "We have three hundred feet of hose. +Somewhere on the side of their sub, if it's anything like ours, is a +short piece of pipe with a thread on it, to which our hose could be +attached. After that--when they have opened an inner valve--we can pump +in enough air to float them. But without a diver--" + +"I," said the professor, "am a diver. Have you the equipment?" + +"You?" The young officer looked at the aged professor admiringly, but +without making a reply. All eyes were focused on the dignified old man. + +It was Dave who best understood the situation. + +He knew the professor had made many a trip to the bottom of the sea in a +diving outfit, but that had been years before. Now he was a frail, old +man. "The pressure at two hundred feet is terrific," the boy thought. +"And his doctor has warned him--even about going down in the ball! He +must not go." + +Still Dave remained silent. He was thinking hard--thinking how even in +life's twilight this splendid old man displayed a glorious courage. + +"I must go down." It was the professor's voice. "It is my duty. Those are +young people with life before them. They must not be allowed to perish." + +Still the young officer did not speak. + +"All right, Professor," Dave said huskily. "But first--give me an hour! I +will try something. If I fail--then your turn comes!" + +Slowly the professor grasped Dave's hand. + +In a few precise words, Dave outlined his plans. Then he leaped toward +the steel ball. With all possible speed he was bolted in, lifted over the +rail, and lowered slowly into the ominous, black waters. + +Never before had he been down at night. The spectacle that met his eyes +as he sank, was surprising almost beyond belief. The whole sub-sea world +seemed on fire. It was like being out in a moonless night, surrounded by +billions of fireflies. + +As his eyes became accustomed to the bizarre scene he was able to +distinguish individual specimens from among the myriads of luminous +creatures that crowded the waters. Here, like excursion boats all aglow, +a score of jellyfish floated past. There, a throng of shrimp stood out in +dark outline against the background light, suddenly darting frantically +away as some great fish with bright spots along his sides gave chase. +Casting off balls of illumination, the shrimp were lost to sight in a +flare of light. + +But there was little time for such thoughts, as this underseas mission +concerned the lives of nine young people. A sudden storm would spell +their doom.... + +Dave had asked for an hour, and he must save the professor from taking so +great a risk, if possible. No less experienced person--not even +Dave--could safely descend to such depth in a diving suit.... + +Suddenly he saw the light from the sub's porthole, just before him. + +"Steady!" he said into the mike. "Doris--tell them to stop lowering, and +swing me to the right about twelve feet." + +Instantly they obeyed his orders and for a time, he studied the sub. Then +he saw what he had sought--the threaded end of pipe for letting in the +air. Once again he had his position changed. Now he was close to the bit +of threaded pipe. But the dangling air hose from the sub on the surface, +still was several feet away. More orders.... More moments.... and every +second counted.... At last the steel ball rested on bottom. The sub was +six feet distant, and now the hose dangled directly before his window. + +What Dave hoped to do was to seize the screwcap at the end of the hose +with the pincherlike affairs attached to the outside of the steel ball. +Then, by twisting his pinchers round and round, he would try to attach +the hose to the sunken submarine. + +Could he do it? His heart sank as the force of a wave far above, drew the +steel ball off the bottom for a moment. + +"I--I've got to do it! I've _got_ to," he muttered. + +Once again his hand was on the lever. It rose, slowly, as the hose before +him swayed. + +"Back a foot," he called to Doris. + +Back he slid. "Now," he breathed. There was the hose and screwcap, and +there were his pinchers. Swiftly, skillfully, he manipulated the lever, +and, by a fortunate providence, caught the cap just as he should. + +"Now," he breathed. + +But again there came that sickening lift and swing--and one crash of his +window against the sub, would spell his doom. + +Now he was on bottom again. A move--a second move--then a third--and he +was back in position. Now-- + +"No," he breathed, desperately, "not this time." + +For again came that sickening lift. + + * * * * * * * * + +In the meantime a coastguard cutter had anchored close to the _Sea Nymph_ +and an officer came aboard. + +"I am Major Braden, of the Marines," he said, bowing to Doris, Johnny and +the professor. "I'm on extraordinary duty just now--watching these +waters. I used to be in command when we occupied these islands for +military purposes, and I understand you've located a foreign submarine." + +"And six spies, now held captive on land," Johnny added. "We took enough +maps and reports from their hangout, to start a secret service all our +own!" + +"Good! Great! A real service to your country, young man!" + +"But the sub's still on bottom," Johnny added, "and we're trying to raise +her now. They--they've got one of our good friends on board!" + +"I'm sure you'll succeed," exclaimed the Major. "And when that sub breaks +water--we'll have three, six-inch guns trained on her. She'll not +escape," he concluded a little grimly. + + * * * * * * * * + +For a full quarter-hour, Dave struggled in vain to bring the threaded +pipe on the sub, and the screw-cap at the end of the hose, into exact +position. At one time he actually turned the cap, and felt it catch. But +it would not turn further. + +"Started wrong," he murmured. "Threads are crossed. Must take it off at +once." + +Ten seconds of struggle and he was back where he had started. His heart +sank. Should he give up? He closed his eyes to think--and saw the +professor's frail, kindly face before him. + +"No!" he groaned. "I won't give up!" + +Slowly, carefully, he maneuvered himself into position. The lever rose +slowly, and glided forward. He gave it a turn. It stuck. Deftly he +twirled his lever; 'round and 'round it spun. + +"Now!" he breathed. He gave the lever an experimental tug. _The cap held +firm._ + +"Try it!" he fairly shouted into his mike. + +Ten seconds later, the hose hanging loosely before his window, twisted +and writhed like a snake. It was filling with air. He watched the spot +where it joined the pipe on the sub. Should bubbles appear, all his work +was lost. Ten seconds, he watched. No bubbles. Twenty--thirty--forty +seconds. Still no bubbles. + +"Hooray!" he shouted hoarsely. "Hooray! We win!" + +And from the sunken sub came an answer: + +"It is good! We are getting air!" + +After having his steel ball moved to a safe distance, Dave settled down +to watch. Had they won? Would the sub really rise? + +Fifteen long, tense, minutes passed. Then, like a giant fish which had +been asleep on the bottom, the dark bulk before him began to stir. + +"Thank God!" Dave exclaimed, fervently. + +A moment more and the sub rose slowly toward the surface. And, like a +cattleboy driving the cows home at eventide, Dave followed in his steel +ball. + +True to the Major's promise, powerful lights and capable-looking guns +were trained on the sub when, with a rush, she broke surface. But there +was no need for that. The members of the youthful crew were too glad to +escape death on the bottom of the sea, to offer any resistance to +capture. + +The first person to appear above the sub's deck was Mildred. Awaiting her +in the Tub was Johnny, and how he greeted her was a sight to behold. Some +time later they sat on the porch of the Kennedy home--Dave, Doris, Johnny +and Mildred. + +"Well, Johnny," said Dave, "our work beneath the very deep sea is done. +We'll collect a few specimens--turtles, crawfish, and bright, tropical +fish close to the surface--then hoist anchor for New York!" + +"New York? Where is that?" Johnny asked dreamily. + +"It's an ancient Dutch colony," Dave chuckled. + +"Oh, yes! I remember!" said Johnny. "I think I'll not go there, if you +folks don't mind." He hesitated. + +"Mildred tells me she located their motorboat while she was in the +submarine. Major Braden thinks we've done a brave deed or two and put him +in a good way to clear up this spy business--so he's going to repay us by +helping bring the schooner to the surface. But of course," he drawled, +"there will be a lot of work to be done after that." + +"And you'd like to stay and help" said Dave. "I don't blame you. I'd like +to stay myself. Well, old son, all I can say is--go ahead and God bless +you!" + +"I'll be back in the States in two or three months, I guess," said +Johnny. "I--I'm sort of thinking of going to college. College is +wonderful for just anybody! + +"I hope you come back to these waters with the steel ball," observed +Johnny, after a time. "I'd like to have one good, long, look for old +Samatan's treasure chest." + +"Oh! That?" said Dave, with a short laugh. "Probably just a myth. But if +we ever get back--you shall have a try at it, I promise you!" + + + + + * * * * * * + + + + +Transcriber's note: + + +--Copyright notice provided as in the original printed text--this e-text + is public domain in the country of publication. + +--Obvious typographical errors were corrected without comment. + +--Dialect and non-standard spellings were not changed. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SIGN OF THE GREEN ARROW*** + + +******* This file should be named 44824.txt or 44824.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/4/4/8/2/44824 + + + +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. 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