by John Blaine
“How about the danger, Jack?”Carl Ackerman asked. “There are ordinary sharks in the lagoon, even if the Phantom Shark has gone. And, if you get into a grotto down on the bottom, you may run into a squid or octopus.”
Jack smiled. “There’s always a possibility, but dangers from sharks, squid, and octopus are pretty overrated. The big danger is from moray eels. Or I might step on a poisonous sea star. I never have, though, and I’ve been diving most of my life.”
“Not alone,” Dr. Warren said.
“No, not alone.But I’m willing to take the chance. The odds are all on my side.”
Dr. Warren hesitated.
“Tell you what, I’ll try it once. If it’s too much, I’ll quit.Fair enough?”
Rick could see that Jack was eager to make the dive and said, “Scotty and I can stand by. We won’t be much help, but maybe we’ll be able to haul you out” “I won’t need hauling,” Jack said decisively. “You Page 63
can stand by, though, in case I come up winded. Come on, let’s get into our trunks.” He spoke to Tom.
“Got a heavy weight with a line? Give me about fifty pounds if you can.”
“The lifeboat anchor should do it,” Tom said. “I’ll have extra line put on it.”
Rick and Scotty hurried with Jack down the companionway into the cabins. They stripped off their clothes and got into swimming trunks. When they returned to the deck, they found the lifeboat in the water. Two seamen shipped the long oars and took their places.
Tom Bishop stepped into the boat with a coil of half-inch rope and untied the kedge-type anchor with which the lifeboat was equipped. He removed its rope and tied in the one he carried, then tied the loose end securely to a cleat.
Jack Pualani came out on deck in his swimming trunks. He had underwater glasses, and a pair of gloves.
A heavy knife was at his belt.
Rick looked at the mate critically. Jack was no longer a young man, but no one could guess it by looking at him. His bronzed body was powerfully muscled, and he had an unusual depth of chest, the result, Rick thought, of his years of diving.
Tom Bishop had gone to the other lifeboat and was bringing back its anchor. He addressed Rick and Scotty. “We’ll leave this second anchor in the lifeboat with you. Be sure the line is clear at all times.
Watch Jack through the waterglass . If he gets into trouble, both of you take a grip on the anchor and go after him. It will pull both of you down, if you kick to help out. Got knives?”
They had forgotten them. Chahda hurried below and returned with a pair of keen fish knives with sheaths from the supply chest. The boys put them on the cloth belts of their trunks.
“Letsgo,” Jack said, and led the way into the lifeboat.
Fifty feet away from the trawler, the mate instructed the seamen. “Hold her right here. When you see me coming to the top, lift your oars so I won’t bash my head against one of them.” He took the waterglass , a long box of metal with one end open and the other glassed in. He put it over the side so that the glassed-in end was under the water, then put his face to the open end and examined the bottom for long minutes. Finally he looked up at the boys.
“Can’t see much, but the bottom looks pretty clean. Don’t get excited if any sharks come around.
Chances are they won’t bother me.”
Rick wished he had Jack’s confidence.
The big Hawaiian stood up, handing Scotty the waterglass . For a moment he poised on the seat, his brown skin gleaming in the sun, then he stepped into the water. There was a gasp from the watchers on the trawler. But Jack didn’t dive just yet. He took hold of the gunwale and filled his lungs. Rick saw his massive chest expand, then he exhaled with a whoosh and repeated the process.
“Pass over the anchor,” Jack directed. “See that the line runs free. Don’t let go until I signal.”
Rick lifted the heavy anchor and put it over the side, while Scotty took the line and held it. The anchor dangled just under the surface. Jack inhaled, exhaled, inhaled, exhaled,then inhaled again with an explosive sound. He gripped the anchor and let himself sink. Then, as he nodded, Scotty let go the rope.
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Rick grabbed for the waterglass and put it over the side as Jack vanished from sight. The rope whistled by his ear as he bent over the gunwale. The glass helped a lot. He saw the path of bubbles that marked Jack’s rapid descent, then, as the bubbles cleared, he saw Jack himself plummeting toward the bottom.
The rope went slack. While the seaman held the boat in position with slow movements of the oars, Scotty began hauling up the anchor.
Rick strained to see through the waterglass . Jack was a dim shape on the bottom, moving with slow strokes. He stopped and Rick saw his arms move. Then he swam a few feet and stopped again.
The seconds were ticking by. Rick could almost time them by the pulse in his temple. Was Jack going to stay down forever?
“One minute!” Dr. Warren shouted.
Was that all? Rick called without taking his eyes from the dim shape on the bottom, “He’s all right.”
Jack continued to move, stopping now and then. Rick couldn’t see what he was doing. He moved the glass and scanned the water near by. Directly under him, a tiny fish moved, but there was no other sign of water life.
“Two minutes,” the scientist called.
Rick watched Jack. Surely he must be coming up soon! But the mate was working at something, his arms a pale blur. Then Rick saw him swing upright. A heartbeat later he was flashing to the surface.
“Lift oars,” Rick shouted.
Bubbles broke from Jack’s lips and raced ahead of him to the surface, then the mate himself broke water, lifting almost three feet into the air. His breath expelled with an explosive whistle and he gulped in clean air. A moment later he had a grip on the gunwale with one hand and was grinning at them, his chest heaving-
“Look what I found,” he said. He took a shell from his belt, then another, and another. He reached behind him and found a fourth. “Gold lips,” he said. “The bottom is covered with them! I think we’ve really found something.”
“You should have a basket,” Scotty said.
The mate shook his head. “No need. I haven’t enough time to get more than I can tuck into my belt.”
“Any sign of octopus or anything down there?” Rick asked.
“None that I saw.A little moray got inquisitive and I took a poke at him with my knife. He ducked back into his hole. Any sharks in sight?”
“I didn’t see any,” Rick answered.
“We probably won’t. I’m trying not to raise too much fuss down below. Sharks are curious, even when they’re not hungry.”
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Jack hooked his elbow over the gunwale and examined one wrist.“Rubbed it a little on a chunk of coral.
I was afraid for a minute that I’d scratched it.”
“Sea water is a good disinfectant,” Scotty said.
“That’s not it. Blood brings the sharks.”
Rick held up the shells so the group aboard the trawler could see. “Four,” he called.
“Is he going down again?” Dr. Warren called back.
“Yes, sir.”
“Tell him not to overdo it.”
“I won’t,” Jack said. “Once or twice more and I’ll call it quits. Pressure is terrific. Okay, get the anchor over.”
Rick took the anchor and put it over the side, then took the rope from Scotty.
Scotty picked up the waterglass , first checking to see that the rope was clear.
Jack began his deep breathing, and this time he did it more slowly, gulping in the air, holding it in his lungs for a moment and then expelling it. Then, as he dropped below the surface, Rick let go the rope.
After the bubbles cleared and the anchor was hauled in, he found he could watch, even without the glass, although he couldn’t see nearly as well. He held his hands out to shade the patch of water directly under his eyes from the sun.
“One minu
te,” Dr. Warren called. There was no other sound.
Far below, Jack was collecting shell, breaking the big oysters from the coral rock with his knife. Rick could see the shadowy outline of his body, but that was all.
“He’s shaking his head,” Scotty said worriedly. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know,” Rick said. “Is he still moving?”
“Yes.”
The scientist called, “Two minutes.”
Rick waited anxiously for Jack to start his swift rise to the surface, but the mate still moved around below.
“He keeps shaking his head,” Scotty said. “I’m afraid something is wrong.”
The seconds ticked away.
“Two and a half,” Dr. Warren cried. “Why doesn’t he come up?”
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Rick half rose. “Scotty, we’d . . .”
Barby screamed.“Shark!”
Rick caught a glimpse of fin fifty feet away, then he saw the rush of a sleek body through the water. And Jack flew toward the surface, arms flailing with driving strokes and his feet kicking frantically.
“Get ready to grab him,” Scotty said hoarsely.
“Lift oars,” Rick shouted.
The mate broke water within reach, and before he had a chance to fall back in after his plunge into the air, four strong hands had him by the arms. With a mighty heave the boys pulled him into the boat-and as his feet left the water, chisel teeth clashed futilely on air.
Jack rolled over, gasping for breath, and then Rick saw what was wrong. Blood was running from his nose, and his eyes, when he opened them, were ruby red.
“The ship,” Rick cried. “Get us there, quick!”
Oars dipped and the seamen bent their backs. The lifeboat flew through the water.
Jack tried to sit up and grinned weakly. “I was bleeding, wasn’t I? I thought so when I saw that shark.
Good thing they’re timid. If he’d struck without looking the situation over, I’d be a gone duck.”
“What happened?” Rick said, his throat tight.
“Pressure got me. Guess I’m getting old.”
The lifeboat slid into place near the ladder and the boys lifted Jack to his feet. “Take it easy, grandpa,”
Scotty said with joking tenderness.
Willing hands helped Jack up the ladder. He sat down in a chair Chahda placed for him, then drew four more shells from his belt.
“That’s all for today,” he said. He wiped blood from his nose.
“And for every other day,” Dr. Warren said flatly.
Mrs. Warren had hurried below at the first sight of Jack. She returned now with cubes of ice in a bowl of water and some soft linen napkins.
The boys and the scientists stood back and let the two feminine members take over. While Mrs. Warren wiped Jack’s face, Barby wrapped ice cubes in a napkin. His nose was still bleeding a little. Barby applied ice, tears in her blue eyes.
“I saw the shark, Jack,” she said shakily.
“So didI ,” the mate said. “He wasn’t a very handsome shark. He had buck teeth. I saw them when he gnashed them at me.”
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“Don’t joke,” Barby reprimanded. “You might have been killed!”
“But I wasn’t,” Jack said, grinning. “So a joke is in order.” He looked at Rick and Scotty.“And thanks to you, my fast thinking friends. If you hadn’t grabbed me, old brer shark would have.”
Rick swallowed as he remembered those clicking razor teeth. “Aw, he would have let go right away,” he said. “You’re too old and tough. Guess you’d better confine your diving to only twenty fathoms instead of twenty-two from now on.”
“He’ll confine his diving to a glass of water,” Tom Bishop said firmly. “I’m taking no more chances on losing the best mate I ever had. If he got killed, I’d have to run the ship myself, and likely I’d pile it on a reef first thing.”
The deep color of Jack’s eyes was receding, but they were still bloodshot. The bleeding had stopped under the application of ice. He sat up straight. “I’m all right now, thanks. What say we see what the oysters look like?”
The seamen had brought the four from the lifeboat. Dr. Warren had been examining them. They were almost ten inches in diameter.
“What do you think, Bill?”
The biologist answered, “ MargaritiferaMaxima Jameson.Known as ‘gold lips.’The best of the pearl oysters. Open one, Jack.”
“Here goes,” the mate said. He took the first oyster and opened it expertly with his knife, exposing the beautiful, iridescent mother-of-pearl interior, then probed in the soft flesh. He let out a yell of triumph.
“Got one!”
His strong fingers tore the oyster loose, then unrolled the flesh from around a spherical object the size of a small pea. He held it up. It gleamed in the sunshine, pink, round, perfect.
The watching group stared in awe. Barby had been holding her breath. She sighed audibly. “It really is!
Oh, Jack! It’s . . .it’s wonderful!”
He handed it to her, and she cradled it in her two hands while the others looked.
“Incredible luck,” Dr. Warren said in awe. “The very first try!”
“Let’s open the others,” Rick said quickly. He handed one to Jack.
The mate opened it and probed. “No luck,” he said. He flipped the meat over the side and dropped the shell on deck. “Let’s have another.”
Chahda handed him one.“Maybe this one.”
The Hindu boy was right! In a moment a second pearl, white and round, slightly smaller than the first, was in Barby’s hand.
Dr. Warren scratched his head. “This is too much! Jack, have you ever seen anything like this before?
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Two pearls in three oysters! It’s incredible!”
“Open the rest,” Bill Duncan said. “Maybe you hit the jackpot.”
The rest were quickly opened as the group watched in silence. When Jack had finished, eight open shells lay on the deck. And there were five pearls in Barby’s hands, three of them perfect, two irregular in shape but valuable as baroque or novelty pearls.
They were stunned. To find one pearl in eight shells would have been superlative luck, but five-it passed belief.
Barby stared at the lovely things, her smooth forehead puckered in disbelief.
“I’ve read a lot about pearls,” Bill Duncan said. “But I’ve never heard of anything like this. There must be some unusual condition in this lagoon.No wonder the Phantom Shark didn’t want us around!”
Jack Pualani reached out and touched the pearls. “I don’t know what the conditions are,” he said, “but I’ll tell you this. When we get toNoumea , I’m buying a helmet-or a whole suit if I can get one. There’s a fortune right in Barby’s hand. There must be a whole mint in this lagoon!”
“Better get some rest, Jack,” Tom Bishop said. “We’ll talk about it later after you’ve had a nap.Well, Dr. Warren, what now?”
The scientist looked at the pearls. “I suppose a mere fish survey seems rather anticlimactic after this, but I suggest we up anchor and head east. The sooner we get the second leg of the survey completed, the sooner we can return toNoumea . I’d like to talk with an expert about these. It’s . . . well, it’s incredible.”
Incredible or not, Rick thought, they had finally found the answer to the Phantom Shark’s presence in the lagoon. In spite of statistics, in spite of the rarity of pearls, the Phantom Shark had found an apparently inexhaustible source.
He looked at Barby. Her bright head was bent over the pearls she cupped in her hands, but where he should have found a look of sheer rapture on her face, there was bewilderment. She felt his glance and looked up.
Chahda said, “Daughter of the moon, Barby. Bones of gods turned into sea-dwelling pearl.
Remember?”
Then Barby said a strange thing. “I remember,” she said thoughtfully. “But, Chahda, I don’t think the sacred Hindu book was talking about anything like thi
s!”
CHAPTER XV
Barthelemi Has News
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Barby had a secret. She hadn’t said anything, but the boys knew. And Chahda had suggested that Dr.
Warren shared it with her. The two of them had been seen with heads together down in Carl Ackerman’s laboratory.
“I won’t ask them what it’s all about,” Rick said. “They’ll tell us when they get ready.”
“Maybe,” Chahda said. “Barby likes secrets.Especially pearl secrets.”
Scotty leaned against the rail and stared out into the blue water. “It must have something to do with the pearls and the lagoon. I don’t know what else it would be. Incidentally, have either of you seen the pearls since we left the lagoon?”
“Not I,” Rick said.
Chahda shook his head.
Rick watched the horizon.New Caledonia should be coming in sight almost any moment now. Jack had estimated that they would make a landfall at about nine in the morning and it washalf past eight . He was both glad and sorry that the big island was so close, glad because inNoumea they might find another clue to help in solving the riddle of the Phantom Shark, and sorry because it was almost time to leave the Tarpon.
Scotty spoke up. “Do you know, this is the first time we’ve had a mystery and haven’t been able to follow it through? I can’t forget how we sat there in the lagoon with the Phantom Shark right under our noses, and we didn’t do a thing.”
“Couldn’t,” Chahda said reasonably. “What we supposed to do? Dr. Paul had right idea. Let Phantom hide. If we try to stir him up, maybe means plenty trouble.”
“We’ve never ducked trouble.”
Rick smiled at Barby as she joined them at the rail.“Hey, towhead, how about giving us some low-down on pearls? If you won’t let us read your book, you’ll have to give it to us in easy doses.”
“That’s right,” Scotty agreed. “We want to know what we’re talking about when we get toNoumea .
Otherwise, who’ll believe our yarn about a lagoon carpeted with pearls?”
Barby’s eyes opened wide. “You’re not going to tell anyone!”
“Not if we can help it,” Rick said. “We’d start a rush to Nanatiki that would make theKlondike gold strike look like a school picnic. Come on, let’s have the first lesson.”