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.