The submarine was moving slowly forward, so that they were being
treated to a constant change of scene. It was like a vast panorama
being unrolled before their eyes, and for their especial benefit. The
three boys clung to their ports of observation, and continued to gaze
at the marvelous sights as though fascinated.
They could see as plainly as though looking into one of those aquarium
tanks with the glass sides, where all manner of curious fish swim idly
back and forth, and rub their noses vainly against the transparent
barrier.
“Such gloriously colored fish I never saw before!” Ballyhoo was saying,
and the others could easily echo his words, for they discovered some
new object of interest with almost each passing minute.
Sometimes these denizens of the depths were of a brilliant scarlet hue;
then again they seemed to possess most of the colors of the rainbow,
delicately shaded. Others had long waving tails, and often the boys
would discover some ugly looking monster that seemed quite out of place
in such splendid surroundings, like an ogre at a feast of fairies.
“There, I saw a shark swing past!” exclaimed Ballyhoo, later on,
perhaps with an odd shiver passing over him, for sharks always brought
up that little adventure of his.
Jack had already commenced to arrange his camera. Before now he had
tried it for height, and hence knew just how to proceed so as to get
the proper results.
“Some of these things seem too fine to be lost,” he told Oscar, who had
his station close beside him. “And as we sink a little lower I begin to
notice those waving fields of submarine flowers, or weeds, or plants,
whatever you can call them. Any time now we’re apt to run into a field
that I’d like to get a picture of.”
Oscar said nothing to discourage him. In fact, he, too, felt that it
was high time they were remembering that the main object of their
coming to this part of the Caribbean Sea had been to secure wonderful
pictures of the ocean depths and its denizens, rather than to share in
the treasure that was the magnet drawing Captain Shooks.
Up in the bow no doubt the skipper was at his post. His was the hand
that controlled the destiny of the undersea boat now. It required
another sort of education than that of the ordinary pilot’s to
manipulate the wheel when once down in those depths, where buoyancy
could be so easily altered. To rise or fall was possible by the mere
touch of a finger, it seemed, so delicately were they poised there.
Now it became necessary to come to a full stop on account of some
obstacle ahead in the shape of an undersea cliff that barred progress.
This must be surmounted by pumping out some of the water ballast so
that they would rise above its summit, or perhaps it might be deemed
advisable to turn aside, and pass around the obstruction.
From time to time Jack’s exclamations, and the sound of his cranking,
announced that he was busily engaged at his labor of love. If he
could only catch some of those wonderful vistas of waving plants, and
floating fish with their goggle-eyes, he felt he would be amply repaid
for all his work.
“Another shark!” announced Ballyhoo, who seemed to have a good eye for
those savage monsters of the deep, “and let me tell you he’s some size
in the bargain. Oh! get him in the picture, Jack, because we seem to
have stopped right here for some reason or other. Don’t you see, he
must be one of those leopard sharks we’ve heard Uncle Abner tell about,
for he’s all spotted.”
“I can hardly believe that,” Oscar told him, “because, unless I’m
mistaken, he also said that species was only to be found away over in
the East Indies. But that chap was a dandy, all right, and I hope you
got him, Jack.”
“Whee! there’s another right now!” cried Ballyhoo, “and as sure as you
live, boys, he acts like he meant to knock a chip off the shoulder of
his first cousin, too. See him make that furious rush for Mr. Spot,
will you? Oh! we’re going to be treated to a regular shark duel, that’s
what we are! Be sure and don’t miss that, on your life, Jack. It’s all
been staged just for our benefit. Those monsters knew it was a chance
of a lifetime for them to get in the spot-light!”
While Ballyhoo rattled along at this rate, events outside were taking
on a sanguinary hue. Something had happened to anger both of the huge
sharks, and they continued to make savage attacks on one another. Their
teeth must have been busily engaged in these frequent contacts, for the
boys soon saw that they began to show the marks of many terrible wounds.
By now the whole crew of the submarine must have learned of what was
taking place close by, for they crowded to the various glass-covered
openings in the endeavor to see what they could of the affair. It
enlisted their sympathies, even as a group of Cubans might take a
lively interest in a cock fight, or ten thousand Mexicans gather to
watch a bull match his horns and muscles against the agility of his
human baiters in the arena.
Back and forth the pair swam, tearing at each other as though anxious
to take advantage of this unusual flood of light visiting their
undersea range. One was a little larger than the other, and, of course,
the boys immediately allowed their hopes to rest upon the smaller shark.
Indeed, it soon began to prove that this one was the more agile of
the two, and could get away with less punishment after some of their
terrific rushes. From this fact the spectators expected that in the end
the battle would result in the vanquishing of the larger spotted fish,
which appeared a trifle sluggish in its movements.
“You see,” said Ballyhoo, who noted all these points with the eye of
a professional, “it’s a heap sight better to be quick and spry than
big and powerful. That spotted shark could just lie on the other and
squeeze him to death, but he’ll never get the chance. Oh! my stars!
what a smash that was, and both of them took a hunk away! Why, they’ll
be all torn to pieces if they keep it up much longer.”
“It’s getting near an end right now,” asserted Oscar. “That spotted one
is showing signs of being almost all in. A few more such clashes and
his name will be Dennis, you mark what I’m telling you, boys.”
“I do believe Captain Shooks has stopped the boat just on purpose to
let us get a picture of the shark duel!” cried Jack, who was turning
his crank, and at the same time trying to watch what was going on
outside, a rather difficult task, all things considered.
“He knows what this must mean to us, that’s right,” asserted Ballyhoo.
“Here they come again at it, hammer and tongs. They make me think of
some things I once saw in the stock yards I visited with my father
when I was smaller, for this is butchery, if ever there could be such
a thing. I’m hoping deep down in my heart that both of them get wiped
out, for I haven’t any use at all for sharks! Ugh!”
That seemed to be the concluding round to the battle. The two sharks
stayed close to each other, and continued to snap viciously; but the
jaws of the big spotted one lacked something of their former vigor.
Indeed, it could be seen that this fish was at the end of his rope, for
he swung this way and that, as though unable to guide his course.
Even as the spectators continued to stare through their glass-covered
windows, arranged for this very purpose, and well protected against all
pressure to be met with down at the depth to which the boat could be
lowered, they saw the larger shark give a last flip with its tail, and
then roll over, belly up.
“That settles him, all right!” Ballyhoo was heard saying quite
revengefully, just as if he had taken a vow upon himself never to spare
a shark when he had a chance to annihilate such a creature.
“But the victor is almost as badly off, you notice,” Oscar called
out. “See how he wobbles as he starts to swim away. The chances are a
hundred to one he’ll be attacked by another of his kind before an hour
goes by; and if that happens it’s good night to the game little chap.”
“Well, it was a pretty fast scrap while it lasted,” Ballyhoo asserted,
“and if we’d staged it ourselves we couldn’t have done it any better.
The luck of the Camera Boys still holds good, seems like. Everything
comes our way, given time.”
“I only hope my pictures turn out first class,” Jack was heard saying.
“You see, I’ve never had any experience taking such through a heavy
glass like these observation windows or big bull’s-eyes are made of.
Still, everything looked perfectly natural to the eye, as far as I
could make out. How about that, boys?”
Oscar, wishing to satisfy the anxiety of the operator, hastened to
assure him that all was well.
“If that’s all you’ve got to bother you, Jack, just take it for granted
it will be the boss picture,” he went on to say. “Of course, a whole
lot depends on whether your focus was good, and if the rising and
falling motion of the boat didn’t interfere with first-class work.”
“I’m not afraid of that part,” the other asserted, which ended the talk
on that particular subject.
“Now the engines have started up again, you notice,” Ballyhoo announced
glibly. “The show being over, that act of it anyway, we mean to
commence going on again. What comes next, I wonder? Some terrible
monster of this under-the-sea land will perhaps try to knock a hole in
the side of our craft, thinking it’s a big whale come down to look the
ground over. Be ready for anything, Jack. We’re in this business for
thrillers, just remember.”
“And I imagine we’ll have all we want of the same before we’re through
with it,” Jack told him in return, as he once more took up his station
at his post, and made ready to turn on the “hand power” when the right
occasion arose.
Now that they were moving back and forth, they discovered new and
entrancing objects to admire. Captain Shooks was evidently carrying out
his announced programme when he said that his line would be to drop
down and “comb every foot of the sea bottom around Coco,” looking for
some sign of that long-lost vessel, the fame of whose treasure-trove
had come down in some musty document.
The Company believed there might be an element of truth in the story,
and until a thorough investigation had been made the first project of
the list would not be abandoned.
Some times they were so near the sea bottom that they actually cruised
amidst those strange trees such as mortal eye had possibly never before
beheld, their greenish trunks bending as the submarine’s nose touched
them, just as though they were great canes, and as pliable as reeds.
Other moving objects were encountered from time to time, giant crabs,
and singular looking creatures to which the staring boys could give
no distinguishing name, because they had never before seen anything
similar, nor did they remember having read of such grotesque objects.