IN STRANGE PERIL
"What is it, Tom? What is it?" cried Mr. Damon, not stopping in this
moment of excitement to bless anything. "What is going to attack Ned
and Koku?"
"I don't know," answered the young inventor. "It's some big fish
evidently. I must get to the diving chamber!"
He gave a quick glance through the observation windows. Ned and the
giant were moving as fast as they could toward the side of the craft
where they could enter. The black, shadowy form was nearer now, but its
nature could not be made out.
Calling to his force of assistants, Tom stood ready to let his chum and
Koku out of the diving chamber as soon as the water should have been
pumped from it.
A little later, as they all stood waiting in tense eagerness, there
came a signal that the two divers had entered the side chamber. Quickly
Tom turned the lever that closed the outer door.
"They're safe!" he exclaimed, as he started the pumps to working. But
even as he spoke they felt a jar, and the submarine rolled partly over
as if she had collided with some object. Yet this could not be, as she
was stationary on the floor of the ocean.
"Bless my cake of soap, Tom!" cried Mr. Damon, "what in the world is
that?"
"If it's an accident!" exclaimed Mr. Hardley, "I think it ought to be
prevented. There have been too many happenings on this trip already. I
thought you said your submarine was safe for underwater trips!" he
fairly snapped at Tom.
The young inventor gave one look at the irate man who was coming out in
his true colors. But it was no time to rebuke him. Too much yet
remained to be done. Ned and Koku were still in the chamber and
protected from some unknown sea monster by only a comparatively thin
door. They must be inside to be perfectly safe.
Tom speeded up the pumps that were forcing the water from the chamber
so the inner door could be opened. Eagerly he and his men watched the
gauges to note when the last gallon should have been forced out by the
compressed air. Not until then would it be safe to let Ned and Koku
step into the interior of the craft.
The submarine had not ceased rolling from the force of the blow she had
received when there came another, and this time on the opposite side.
Once more she rolled to a dangerous angle.
"Bless my tea biscuit!" cried Mr. Damon, "what is it all about, Tom
Swift?"
"I don't know," was the low-voiced answer, "unless a pair of monsters
are attacking us on both sides alternately. But we'll soon learn. There
goes the last of the water!"
The gauge showed that the diving chamber was empty. Quickly the inner
doors were opened, and, with their suits still dripping from their
immersion in the salty sea, Ned and Koku stepped forth. In another
moment their helmets were loosed from the bayonet catches, and they
could speak.
"What was it, Ned?" cried Tom.
"Big fish!" answered Koku.
"Two monster whales!" gasped Ned. "We barely got away from them!
They're ramming the sub, Tom!"
As he spoke there came a blow on the port side, greater than either of
the two preceding ones. Those in the M. N. 1 staggered about, and had
to hold on to objects to preserve their footing.
"Both at the same time!" cried Ned. "The two whales are coming at us
both at once!"
This was evidently the case. Tom Swift quickly hurried to the engine
room.
"What are you going to do?" asked Mr. Hardley. "You ought to do
something! I'm not going to be killed down here by a whale. You've got
to do something, Swift! I've had enough of this!"
Tom did not deign an answer, but hurried on. Mr. Damon followed him,
having seen that some of the sailors were helping Ned and Koku out of
the diving suits.
"Are we in any danger, Tom?" asked the eccentric man.
"Yes; but I think it is easily remedied," was the answer. "We'll go up
to the surface. I don't believe the whales will follow us. Or, if they
do, they can't do much damage when we are in motion. It's because we
are stationary and they are moving that the blows seem so violent.
Unless they collide head on with us, in the opposite direction to ours,
we ought to be able to get clear of them. If they persist in following
us--"
He paused as he pulled over the lever that would send the M. N. 1 to
the surface.
"Well, what then?" asked Mr. Damon.
"Then we'll have to use some weapon, and I have several," finished the
young inventor.
A few moments later the craft was in motion, not before, however, she
was struck another blow, but only a glancing one.
"We're puzzling them!" cried Tom.
Having done all that was possible for the time being, Tom hurried to
the observation chamber, followed by the others. There Tom switched on
the powerful lights. For a moment nothing was to be seen but the
swirling, green water. Then, suddenly, a great shape came into view of
the glass windows, followed by another.
"Whales!" cried Tom Swift. "And the largest I've ever seen."
It was true. Two immense specimens of the cetacean species were in
front of the submarine, one on either bow, evidently much puzzled over
the glaring lights. They were bow-heads, and immense creatures, and it
would not take many blows from them to disable even a stouter craft
than was the submarine.
But the motion of the undersea ship, the bright lights, and possibly
the feel of her steel skin was evidently not to the liking of the sea
monsters. One, indeed, came so close to the glass that he seemed about
to try to break it, but, to the relief of all, he veered off, evidently
not liking the look of what he saw.
Just once again, before the craft reached the surface, was there
another blow, this time at the stern. But it was a parting tap, and
none others followed.
"They've gone!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, as the whales vanished from the
sight of those in the forward cabin.
"Have you any adequate protection against these monsters of the deep?"
asked Mr. Hardley in a fault-finding voice. "I should think you would
have taken precautions, Swift!"
He had dropped the formal "Mr." and seemed to treat Tom as an inferior.
"We have other protection than running away," said the young inventor
quietly. "There are guns we can use, and, if the whales had been far
enough away, I could have sent a small torpedo at them. Close by it
would be dangerous to use that, as it would operate on us just as the
depth bombs operated on the German submarines. However, I fancy we have
nothing more to fear."
And Tom was right. When the surface was reached and the main hatch
opened, the sea was calm and there was no sight of the whales. They
evidently had had enough of their encounter with a steel fish, larger
even than themselves.
"But they surely were monsters," said Ned, as he told of how he and
Koku had sighted the animals; for a whale is an animal, and not a fish,
though often mistakenly called one.
"Koku was for attacking them with his axe," went on Ned, "but I
motioned to him to beat it. We wouldn't have stood a show against such
creatures. They were on us before we noticed their coming, but I
presume the big submarine attracted them away from us."
"It might have been the lights you carried that drew them," suggested
Tom. "I am glad you came out of it so well."
Mr. Hardley seemed to recover some of his former manners, once the
peril was passed, but his conduct had been a revelation to Mr. Damon.
"Tom," said the eccentric man in private to the young inventor, "I'm
disgusted with that fellow. I don't see how I was ever bamboozled into
taking up his offer."
"I don't, either," replied Tom frankly. "But we're in for it now. We've
agreed to do certain things, and I'll carry out my end of the bargain.
However, I won't put up with any of his nonsense. He's got to obey
orders on this ship! I know more than he thinks I do!"
The next two days the M. N. 1 progressed along on the surface, and
nothing of moment occurred. Then, as they neared southern waters, and
Tom desired to make some observations of the character of the bottom,
it was decided to submerge. Accordingly, one day the order was given.
Not until the gauge showed a hundred fathoms, or six hundred feet, did
the craft cease descending, and then she came to rest on the bottom of
the sea--a greater depth than she had yet attained on this voyage.
"How beautiful!" exclaimed Mr. Damon, when Tom turned on the lights and
they looked out of the forward cabin windows. "How wonderful and
beautiful!"
Well might he say that, for they were resting on pure white sand, and
about them, growing on the bottom of this warm, tropical sea were great
corals, purple and white, of wondrous shapes, waving plants like ferns
and palms, and, amid it all, swam fish of queer shapes and beautiful
colors.
"This is worth waiting for!" murmured Ned. "If only moving pictures of
this could be taken in colors, it would create a sensation."
"Perhaps I may try that some day," said Tom with a smile. "But just now
I have something else to do. Ned, are you game for another try in the
diving dress? I want to see how it operates with a new air tank I've
fitted on. Want to try?"
"Sure I'll go out," was the ready answer. "It's nicer walking around on
this white sand than on the black mud where we saw the whales. You can
see better, too."
A little later he and one of the sailors were outside the submarine,
walking around in the diving dress, while Tom and the others watched
through the glass windows. The new air tank seemed to be working well,
for Ned, coming close to the window, signaled that he was very
comfortable.
He walked around with the sailor, breaking off bits of odd-shaped coral
to bring back to Tom. Suddenly, as those inside the craft looked out,
they saw the sailor turn from Ned's side, and with a warning hand,
point to something evidently approaching. The next instant a queer
shape seemed to envelope Ned Newton, coming out from behind a ledge of
weed-draped coral. And a cry went up from those in the submarine as Ned
was seen to be enveloped in long, waving arms.
"An octopus!" cried Mr. Damon. "Bless my soul, Tom, an octopus has Ned!"
"No, it isn't that!" cried the young inventor hoarsely. "It's some
other monster. It has only five arms--an octopus has eight! I've got
to save Ned!"
And he hurried toward the diving chamber, while the others, in
fascinated horror, looked at the diver who was in such strange peril.