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.