Rick Brant 6 The Phantom Shark

by John Blaine

  *by any method,’ weighed 2,176 pounds.CaughtSouth Africa.”

  Mrs. Warren shook her head. “What an astonishing memory. Chahda, I hope you put it to good use when you get older.”

  “Will do,” he promised.

  Rick paced off fifteen feet on the deck. “That big shark must have been about so long,” he said.“A whopper! Even the Phantom Shark couldn’t be any bigger than that.”

  “Maybe the Phantom Shark is bigger than that,” Scotty commented. “Remember Jack’s story? How do you account for it?”

  Rick stretched out on his back and shaded his eyes with his hands. The others sat down on deck, using the winch housing for a back rest.

  He tried to picture the Shark, as Jack had described it.A swirl of water and a silvery fin. Well, why not?

  “It wouldn’t be hard to make an underwater craft that would look like a shark.”

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  Scotty jeered. “No? Remember it took six months and all the Spindrift scientists to turn out the Sub-mobile.”

  “That was different,” Rick said. “The Submobile had to take terrific pressure, and it had a lot of complex equipment. But all you need to go under the water, in shallow depths, is something that’s watertight.

  Shucks, I could put you in an ordinary steam boiler, close the valves and dump you into the drink and you wouldn’t even get wet.”

  “But air would run out,” Chahda said.

  “If you put in oxygen tanks like the Submobile had it wouldn’t,” Barby pointed out.“Not for a long time, anyway.”

  Scotty was still skeptical.“All right. I’m on the bottom in five fathoms, in a sealed washtub. And what good does it do me?”

  “None,” Rick agreed. “I was just pointing out that men can live under the sea in anything watertight, if they have air. But as for something useful . . . that’s different. I can’t even imagine what use the Phantom Shark would have for an undersea boat. I can’t swallow that yarn about him lying in wait until a diver finds a pearl. He might have to wait for months.”

  Scotty held up his hand. “Listen a moment.”

  The tone of the ship’s engines had suddenly changed. They were slowing down. The Tarpon rolled more heavily in the long swells.

  “Better see what’s up,” Rick exclaimed. He got to his feet and hurried to the wheelhouse, the others right behind him.

  Tom Bishop and Jack Pualani were looking at a chart of the area when the young people hurried into the little deckhouse.

  “We’ve slowed down,” Rick said.“Anything the matter?”

  “Not a thing,” Tom Bishop answered. “We’re slowing speed so we won’t get too close to Nanatiki before morning. This chart’s a little too vague for comfort.Might be some reefs that aren’t on it.”

  Rick looked over the men’s shoulders. The chart was large scale, and mostly blank. The familiar fathom readings that usually dotted charts were missing. Even the wind arrows were scarce. In the midst of the chart’s emptiness a rough oval showed the atoll. Five islands were charted, two of them marked as questionable. A number of reefs were indicated, many of them questionable.

  “Strange there isn’t a better chart than that,” Scotty said.

  “Plenty of blanks in the world’s charts,” Tom Bishop returned. “There will have to be a lot of surveying before all of them are filled in. We’ll fill this one in ourselves, before we’re through.”

  Rick estimated the length of the atoll. It was over five miles long and close to three miles wide. The surrounding ring of coral reefs was clearly indicated, the islands spotted on the ring some distance apart.

  “The lagoon must be pretty deep,” he guessed.

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  Jack Pualani agreed. “This atoll is a long way from being as far developed as those in the Central Pacific.

  It’s probably a young one, only a few thousand years old.”

  Barby smiled. “Just a baby. How will it look when it gets old?”

  Jack indicated the outlined ring. “This reef is building up all the time. Coral does it. Eventually it will reach the surface of the water, as the islands already have. Then broken, dead coral and driftwood and things like that will pile up on it. Eventually it will be land. When enough time has passed for the coral to get in its work, the entire ring will be land and the lagoon will be cut off from the sea. Then, a long time later, the coral will fill in the lagoon and it will become one vast island, maybe ten feet high at the highest point.But not for many thousands of years yet.”

  “No natives there, are there?” Scotty asked.

  “No record of any. There isn’t enough land to support a population. We’ll find a few sea birds and a lot of land crabs, but that’s all.”

  “Unless we find the Phantom Shark,” Rick added.

  Jack’s hand swept across the chart.“Even if the Shark is in the area, we might not know it. If we were at one end of the atoll and hewere at the other, we probably wouldn’t even see him.”

  Dr. Warren came into the wheelhouse. “Tom, I came in to ask you to tell me when we leave the charted area.” To the young people, he explained, “The area in the vicinity ofNew Caledonia has already been thoroughly charted by the French government. We don’t want to duplicate their work, but we do want to overlap our areas sufficiently to insure full coverage.”

  Tom Bishop answered, “We’ll reach the edge of the French charts at about six-thirty in the morning, Paul. I’ve arranged my watches so enough men will be standing by to help with temperature and salinity readings.”

  “Good. Rick, if you feel like getting up that early, you can work the fathometer with me.”

  “I’ll be up,” Rick promised.

  Jack Pualani looked at the ship’s chronometer.“0900 hours Greenwich Civil Time.Which means chow time locally. Anyone else interested in food?”

  Everyone else was. The sea air created prodigious appetites.

  After dinner, Rick joined Barby, Chahda, and Scotty in the bow of the Tarpon. The sun was a huge orange ball, supported a few inches above the horizon by a thin layer of pink clouds. They watched it dip from sight and saw the bright blue of the sky give way to a dark bowl of stars.

  A few hours ahead lay Nanatiki.

  Rick lifted his face to the sky and traced the outline of the constellation Scorpio. Under the curve of the Scorpion’s tail the sky was still light, a crescent of soft blue marking the last of the day. For a moment he thought the horizon clouds had moved, ominously, into the shape of a great fin. He smiled to himself.

  Imagination made him see lots of things that weren’t there,

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  Just then Barby spoke up from beside him, her voice soft and almost inaudible in the warm night wind.

  “We’ll see him there. I feel it.”

  None of them had to ask whom she meant by “him.”

  CHAPTER XI

  The Atoll

  A hail from the masthead brought Rick out of the cabin where he had been watching the fathometer. The sailor who had taken up a position on the rigging mast called down, “Land.Dead ahead.”

  Nanatiki!

  Since before dawn, the scientists had been charting the ocean bottom. While Rick watched the automatic fathometer, checking occasionally to be sure the recording drum was operating smoothly, Scotty and Chahda had helped with the water-sample tubes and thermometers that gave valuable data on ocean temperatures and currents.

  Letting the automatic recorder take care of itself for the moment, Rick hurried out on deck. Jack Pualani came out of the wheelhouse and called to the sailor on the mast, “Keep a sharp lookout for shoal water.”

  Rick joined Barby, Scotty, Chahda, and the others in the bow of the ship. Dead ahead, a blur on the horizon, was a low island. Jack Pualani called, “If our reckoning is right that should beNanatikiIsland .

  Keep an eye open for Faisol on the starboard.”

  The three islands of the atoll that were definitely listed were Nanatiki, Faisol, and Nambi . If others existed, they w
ould find and chart them.

  “I want to go ashore and collect some coral and shells,” Barby said excitedly.

  Dr. Warren smiled at her enthusiasm. “I hadn’t planned to stop long enough for any shore excursions, Barby.”

  “It won’t hurt to delay for an hour or two,” Mrs. Warren said. “Please, Paul. I’d like to gather some shells myself. There must be some beauties here.”

  The scientist threw up his hands in mock despair. “I give in.”

  Jack grinned at Rick. “Seen any sign of another ship?”

  Rick shook his head. “I’ve been inside, at the fathometer. Have you seen anything?”

  “Not even a bit of driftwood,” Jack replied. “Either your phantom friend hasn’t arrived or he’s at the Page 52

  other end of the lagoon.”

  Tom Bishop joined the group in the bow. “What do you think, Jack? Do we dare take her inside the lagoon?”

  Jack looked doubtful. “It will take a lot of time, because we’ll have to slow down and feel our way.

  Wouldn’t want to take a chance of ripping out the bottom on a coral head.”

  “Better stay outside,” Dr. Warren suggested. “We can look the situation over from one of the motorboats before going inside.”

  “That’s safest,” Tom Bishop agreed. “Take her in close ashore and drop the hook, Jack.”

  They were nearing the island rapidly now. Rick borrowed the spare binoculars from the wheelhouse and focused them on the low bit of land.

  It was a typical atoll island, perhaps five hundred yards long and not more than two hundred yards wide.

  At its highest point it was only about six feet above high water. A line of coconut palms, like oversize feather dusters, were outlined against the sky. There was no sign of life.

  It wasn’t necessary to heave the lead here to keep track of depth. The clarity of the water would permit them to see any reefs or coral outcroppings.

  “Plenty bottom,” the lookout called.

  They could see the surf breaking against the shore now, and to either side of the island a long, thin line of surf marked the reef. The Tarpon reduced speed to a point just sufficient to maintain rudder control and slowly moved toward the island.

  They were within two hundred feet of the shore before the coral became dangerous. At a word from Jack, the bow anchor ran out and took hold in five fathoms of crystal-clear water. He surveyed the beach through binoculars, then nodded with satisfaction.“Sand. No trouble landing.” He raised his voice.

  “Lower the port lifeboat.”

  The sailors jumped to obey, and in a few moments the motorboat swung outward on the davits and splashed into the water.

  “All ashore that’s going ashore,” Tom Bishop called.

  Mrs. Warren and Barby hadn’t wasted the moments during which the Tarpon was approaching the shore. They appeared in slacks and shirts, each carrying a sugar sack borrowed from the galley to hold the sea shells they hoped to find.

  They were the first down the ladder and into the boat, but the boys weren’t far behind. Then Dr. Warren and Jack Pualani came down the ladder, followed by Carl Ackerman and Bill Duncan.

  The seaman in the stern started the motor and Jack cast off. In a moment they were on their way, the boat throwing up white spray in the low surf. At a word from Jack, the coxswain cut the motor and the boat came to a smooth stop on the sandy beach.

  Almost at once the party scattered in all directions. Rick surveyed the low island and found he could see Page 53

  almost all of it from where he stood.

  Chahda joined him. “Good beach.Fine for swim or for picnic.”

  “Bet it’s never been used,” Rick said. He shied a pebble at a sand crab that scuttled toward the water.

  “This is about as lonesome a place as you can find in the Pacific, not counting Pitcairn orEaster Island and some of those.”

  “Even more lonesome,” Chahda corrected. “Those haspeople. This bit of empty real estate.For sale cheap.”

  Chahda stopped suddenly. “Say! Maybe someoneelse been here. Look!” He pointed at a bit of white paper on the beach ahead.

  Rick ran forward and picked it up. “You’re right.” It was an empty cigarette package, native cigarettes with a French brand name. He examined it carefully. “It hasn’t been wet.”

  Chahda touched the paper, then looked at Rick, his eyes wide. “Good as new.”

  Rick thought quickly. They were on the beach, about six yards from the belt of palm trees and below high-water mark, if the line of twigs and other flotsam was any indication. He looked back the way they had come and saw Jack Pualani walking toward them.

  “Jack!” He beckoned to the Hawaiian mate.

  The mate lengthened his stride and caught up with them. “What’s up?”

  Rick handed him the empty package and pointed to the exact place where they had found it. “Jack, is the tide in or out?”

  Jack looked around, his eyes narrowed.“Coming in.” He marked a line with his foot. “This will be about thehigh point , if I guess correctly.”

  The spot he had marked was higher on the beach than the location of the cigarette package.

  Rick took a deep breath. “Then this package was dropped sometime today, after the tide had gone out.”

  “Looks like it.”

  “Then man is still here,” Chahda suggested.

  Rick shook his head. “I doubt it. There’s no place for him to hide. My guess is that he was parkedunder one of these palms, keeping an eye toward the southeast. The Phantom Shark wouldn’t dare take any chances. And this would be the best place to have a lookout.”

  “I’ll buy that,” Jack agreed. “It means the Phantom Shark was in the lagoon. If he took his man off, it must have been from the lagoon side. Otherwise, our lookout would have seen him.”

  “Why couldn’t he see him, anyway?” Rick asked. “A ship could be seen through these palms.”

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  “Not necessarily. It was probably anchored offshore on the lagoon side. Let’s hike to the other side of the island and take a look.”

  The other side was only a moment’s hike away. The three came out on the beach and stared into the lagoon. Far away, almost on the horizon, a line of surf creamed, marking the opposite reef. To their right, on the very rim of the horizon, was another island, apparently much like the one they were on. There was no sign of life in the open water. But on the beach were two lines of footprints where one person, barefoot, had come ashore and then left again.

  “He could be sitting behind that other island,” Jack said. “We’d never see him. And he would have had plenty of time to reach it.”

  Rick winced at Chahda’s sudden strong grip on his arm. The Hindu boy was staring out at the lagoon.

  Rick followed his gaze, then he saw it!

  “Look, Jack!” Rick’s voice was tense. With his free hand he pointed.

  Far out in the lagoon, the sunshine cast a sparkling reflection from something that twinkled briefly and then vanished in a swirl of foam.

  Rick blinked. Had he imagined it, or had he seen, for just an instant, a giant silver fin?

  Chahda muttered something in Hindustani.

  “I never thought I’d see it,” Jack said, awed. “Did you see the size of it? There never was a shark that big!”

  “I don’t know what it was, but it wasn’t a shark,” Rick said flatly.

  “Had big fin,” Chahda pointed out.

  “Yes, but it wasn’t a fin made of flesh. There’s only one thing would reflect the sun like that-polished metal!”

  Barby and Scotty hailed them. Rick turned, to see the two coming through the palms.

  Scotty waved as he came up. “Why so intent over here?You been seeing seagoing pixies?”

  “I wish it were something as innocent as that,” Rick said grimly. “We just saw the Phantom Shark!”

  CHAPTER XII

  The Mystery Ship

  Rick and the others kept a close watch on th
e lagoon, but the giant fin failed to reappear.

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  Rick spoke his thoughts aloud. “Why not some kind of diving outfit? It wouldn’t have to be the regular kind. That would account for some of the tales about a big silver shark, wouldn’t it?”

  “It might be,” Jack admitted. “That would mean a self-contained diving unit withits own air supply and some means of propulsion. If it were motor driven, it might account for the fin. Submarines don’t have fins, but they do have stabilizers.”

  Chahda looked at Rick.“You scientist. You ever hear of machine like that?”

  Rick shook his head. “Closest thing to it I’ve ever heard about were the midget subs the Japs used during the war. This thing isn’t that big, and I didn’t see any conning tower or periscope.”

  “It doesn’t matter much,” Jack pointed out. “It’s a man-made gadget of some kind. The thing that puzzles me is what is it doing out in the lagoon?”

  “Maybe harvest pearls on bottom,” Chahda suggested.

  Jack grinned mirthlessly. “If that’s so, the Shark has found the most wonderful pearl beds in history.

  Believe me, kids, pearlers don’t just sweep the bottom. They work hard for what they get-and they don’t get much.”

  “Then what are they-or it-after?” Rick asked practically.

  “I don’t know,” Jack said. “But I’d certainly like to take a look.”

  Mrs. Warren had filled her sugar sack with shells. She and Dr. Warren walked toward them. Bill Duncan and Carl Ackerman were arguing over the species of something they had found on the beach.

  “About ready to return to the ship?”Dr. Warren asked.

  “Yes, sir,” Rick said. He told the scientist about the strange fin and pointed to the place where they had seen it.

  Dr. Warren’s brows furrowed. “Assuming that what you saw was man-made, I must admit I don’t like it. However, I’d like a bit more information. If this device isn’t really a sea creature of some sort, where is the ship it operates from?”

  “Behind the island.Anyway, that’s my guess.” Jack Pualani pointed to the island on the horizon.