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.