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.