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.