CAUGHT BY SEA SUCKERS
"What sort of a place is this?" asked Andy, as he gazed at the last
resting spot of the big ships.
"They have probably drifted here with the ocean currents, become caught
in the ice and have remained here hundreds of years," said Mr.
Henderson. "Some of the ships are very old, and, by their build must
have sailed the waters centuries ago."
"Maybe some of them are treasure ships," suggested Jack.
"They might be," admitted the professor.
"Then we'll go aboard and get the gold," spoke Mark.
"I'm afraid you'll be disappointed," went on the inventor. "In the first
place most treasure ships are looted before they sink. And it would be
very dangerous for any of us to venture to explore those hulks."
"Why?" asked Jack.
"Because they are rotten, and liable to fall to pieces any minute. If
you happened to be in one at the time you would be caught in the
wreckage and eventually drowned even though you had on a diving suit.
Then, again, the ice here is constantly shifting about, and a sudden
motion of the under-water floe might carry you hundreds of miles away.
So we will not try to hunt for any fortunes on the sunken ships."
With this the boys were forced to be content. They stood at the small
windows looking at the skeletons of ships that lay on every side of the
_Porpoise_. Some of the craft were big steamers, and others were small
sailing vessels. A few had jagged holes in the hulls, showing how they
had been damaged. A few stood upright, with sails all set, as if
disaster had suddenly come upon them.
"Well, what is the next move?" asked Andy after a pause. "Are we going
to stay here?"
"We are going to find the South Pole," spoke Mr. Henderson suddenly.
"That is what I set out to do, and I am going to accomplish it if
possible. We have had many accidents and a harder time in some respects
than when we made our trip to the north in the air ship. But I am sure
we shall succeed. Start the ship to the south, Washington."
"But we may run into an iceberg," objected the old hunter, who was
inclined to be cautious.
"I think not," answered Mr. Henderson. "I believe we are on a sort of
level plane between two vast upper and lower fields of ice. We can go
freely in any direction excepting up or down."
"How is that?" asked Mark. "I don't quite understand."
"Because there is, I believe, a big sheet of ice above us, one, say
several hundred feet thick. The same thing is below us, between us and
the real bed of the ocean."
"But suppose we have to go up to renew our air supply?" asked Jack.
"We can't go," replied the inventor.
"Then we will die."
"Not necessarily. We will steam along until we come to a place where
there is no ice above us."
"But I thought you said there was nothing but ice above us now."
"So there is, but I intend to head due south and there, I believe, we
will find an open polar sea. If we do my theory will be proved and we
will have made a great discovery."
"Forward then!" exclaimed Jack. "Let us strike for the open sea."
The _Porpoise_ began to move ahead. She steamed slowly, for Mr.
Henderson realized that he was in dangerous waters. He took his position
in the conning tower, and had Jack with him to assist in looking for
any obstructions that they might unexpectedly meet.
The big searchlight gave a fine illumination, for the ice above and
below reflected back the beams, and what would otherwise have been a sea
of darkness was made one of daylight.
The water swarmed with fish, but they were like none that the
adventurers had ever seen or dreamed of before. There were monsters with
hideous heads, and eyes so large that they occupied nearly half of the
ugly bodies.
Then there were serpent-like forms, fish with long slender bodies and
whip-fashioned tails, with jaws that extended before them for ten feet
or more. Others there were, great lumbering monsters that crawled along
on the ice, somewhat as seals do.
After several hours' travel the submarine ran into a school of fish that
had shapes like those of polar bears, while their heads were like those
of sharks. The creatures swarmed up to the side of the vessel, and some
scratched with their claw-like fins on the glass windows of the conning
tower and the side bull's-eyes.
A meal was prepared by Washington, and all the adventurers brought good
appetites to the table. On and on rushed the ship, every hour coming
nearer and nearer to the pole.
Professor Henderson had turned the steering of the craft over to Mark,
who, with Jack as an assistant was sending her along at a good speed,
when suddenly the submarine seemed to slacken in her progress.
"What's the matter now I wonder?" asked Mark.
"Maybe the engine bearings got hot, and Washington had to slow up to
cool them," suggested Jack.
He looked through one of the side windows in the conning tower, a moment
later, and uttered a cry of fear.
"What is it?" asked Mark.
Jack pointed with a hand that trembled from fright. Staring at them
through the thick glass of the bull's-eye the boys beheld the most
hideous sea monster they had yet encountered.
It seemed to be a vast circular mass of flesh, twenty feet in diameter,
and, in the middle were two openings each three feet across. They were
like big holes, and, at the farther end of them could be seen two
unblinking eyes. In the centre was a horrible mouth, armed with a triple
row of teeth.
Down below there was a short body, at the end of which was a smaller
disk, armed with a sharp horny point.
"What is it?" asked Jack in a whisper.
"I don't know," replied Mark.
A moment later Mr. Henderson came up the companionway into the tower. He
caught one glimpse of the monster.
"It is the great sucker of the polar seas!" he exclaimed. "Quick! Speed
up the engine! If that one, and the mates of it, fasten on to us we will
have trouble!"
He pressed the signal that connected with the engine room, and told
Washington to start the engine at its greatest power. The next instant
the ship throbbed and trembled under the vibrations of the big screw.
"We may escape!" cried the professor.
As he spoke the ship seemed to come to a sudden stop. The engine could
still be felt moving, and the big screw still churned the water to foam
in the tunnel, but the craft was stationary.
"We are caught!" exclaimed the professor.
"So we are!"
The windows in the conning tower were darkened. The big sucker had
thrown itself forward and spread itself over the glass, clasping its
horrible form half way about the submarine.
"Let's look at the other windows! There may be only one of the
creatures!" Mr. Henderson exclaimed, as he hurried down the companion
way and into the main cabin. He threw back the slides covering the
glass.
The sight that met his eyes caused him to recoil in horror. There,
pressing their shapes against the steel sides, and over the bull's-eyes
of the ship were two more of the gigantic suckers!
The ship had now ceased to move, and Washington, in the engine room,
feeling that something was wrong, had shut off the power. The
adventurers were caught in a trap more terrible than that of the ice,
the volcanic mountain, or the Sargasso Sea. It was a trap from which
they might never escape.
The suckers, thinking the submarine was perhaps a species of fish, like
themselves, and one of their enemies, had fastened on it their fatal
vice-like grip. To move through the water, with the weight of all that
clinging flesh was impossible.
"What sort of creatures are they?" asked Jack, speaking in a whisper, so
great was the terror inspired by the presence of the gigantic sea
suckers.
"I never saw any of them before," replied the professor, "but I have
read about them. They live only in the polar regions and are a species
of octupus, only more terrible. Their powers of suction are enormous,
and once they fasten on a fish or animal they never let go until they
have absorbed it completely. They act in the same way that a star fish
does on an oyster."
"But they can't eat the ship," said Jack.
"No, I fancy the steel and iron sides will prevent them from making a
meal of us."
"Then where is the danger?"
"They will not let go until they discover that they cannot devour us,
and it may take days. We can only remain under water a comparatively
short time at the most. So you see where the danger is."
"But can't we go out and kill them? Then they would let go."
"It would be most risky to venture out, protected even with a diving
suit, and carrying the electric guns," the professor went on. "No, I
must think of some other plan to free ourselves from the creatures."
"Blow 'em up wif dynamite an' send 'em inter disproportionately
contrastedable circumferences!" exclaimed Washington, who had been
listening to the conversation.
"This isn't any time to joke," Mr. Henderson said sternly.
"I wasn't joking," replied the colored man. "Can't we squirt acid on 'em
or chop 'em up, or--or--"
"We can do nothing for the time being," said the professor. "Come, we
will have a consultation on the subject. Perhaps some one may be able to
think of a plan of rescue."
"Let us hope so."
They all gathered in the cabin. The professor explained the nature of
the creatures, as far as he knew them from what he had read or heard. He
pointed out, through the glass windows, over which the suckers were
still clinging, how they maintained their grip, by exhausting, through
their big mouths, the air between their saucer-like surfaces and the
ship to which they were clinging.
"Can't we go out and fight 'em?" asked Andy, who was always ready to use
a gun.
"I doubt if we could get out," replied the professor. "Though we can not
see them, I believe the creatures cover every part of the ship from stem
to stern. We could never open the door of the diving chamber with that
terrible sucker covering the iron portal."
"Maybe if we wait long enough a lot of sharks will come along and eat
'em up," put in Jack.
"I am afraid sharks will not come to these frozen waters," said the
professor. "They like a warm climate."
"And you don't think it would be feasible to use dynamite," asked Mark.
"We can't get out to place it where it would blow up the fish and not
us," answered Mr. Henderson. "If we could it might serve."
A silence fell on the group. They were in sore straits and there seemed
no hope of rescue. The big disk-like bodies that covered the windows did
not move, but remained there, staring with horrible persistency into the
interior of the ship.