Creatures of the Abyss, Murray Leinster [read after .txt] 📗

he went abovedecks, half an hour later, he had listed just six electronic components. The tender was gone, and Horta with it. Davis greeted Terry as cordially as before.

"The tender's left," said Terry with restraint. "Here's my list."

Davis did not even glance at it, but beckoned to one of the crew-cut young men who'd unloaded the tender.

"This is Nick Alden," he said to Terry. "He's one of the gang. See about this list, Nick."

The crew-cut young man put out his hand and Terry shook it. It seemed expected. He went forward with the list and vanished down the forecastle ladder. Davis looked at his watch.

"Five-thirty," he observed. "A drink might not be a bad thing."

He went below, and Terry surveyed the Esperance. She had the look of a pleasure craft, but was built along the lines of something more reliable. There was an unusual power winch amidships, with an extraordinarily large reel. Next to it there was a heavy spar by which to swing something outboard. There were two boats, well stowed against heavy weather, and a number of often-omitted bits of equipment, so that the schooner was not convincing as the hobby of a mere yachtsman.

Then Terry saw the brass-trimmed tender heading out from the yacht-club float again. Foam spread out from its bow. A figure in it waved. Terry recognized the girl who'd come into the shop of Jimenez y C�a. She was smiling, and as the launch came nearer it seemed to Terry that there was triumph in her smile. He bristled. Then he saw some parcels in the bow of the tender. Next to the parcels—and he unbelievingly suspected what they were—he suddenly recognized something else: his suitcases and steamer-trunk. In order to sail with the Esperance he need not go ashore to get his belongings. They were brought to him. He became totally convinced that these people had assumed he'd do what they wanted him to, without consulting him. He rebelled. Immediately. Any time other people took for granted that they could make plans for him, he would become obstinate. When he was in a fix—and now he was practically stranded in Manila with a need to go elsewhere for a time and no money with which to do it—he was especially touchy. He found himself scowling and angry, and the more angry because what was required of him would have been very convenient if there'd been no attempt to inveigle him into it.

The launch came around the Esperance's stern. Davis came from below with two glasses. The girl said cheerfully, "Howdo! We've got your extra items. All of them. And your baggage."

Terry said curtly, "How did my list get ashore?"

"Nick phoned it," said Davis. "By short-wave."

"And where the devil did you find the stuff I named?"

"That," said Davis, "is part of the mystery you don't like."

"Right!" said Terry grimly. "I don't like it. I don't think I'll play. I'll go ashore in the tender."

"Hold it!" said Davis. But he was speaking to the operator of the tender. The crew-cut Nick was in the act of handing up the first piece of baggage. Davis waved it back. "I'm sorry," he said to Terry. "We'll stay at anchor here. If you change your mind, the tender will bring you out any time."

Terry brought out the sheaf of bills the girl had left in the shop of the vanished Jimenez. He held them out to the girl. She put her hands behind her back and shook her head.

"We put you to trouble," she said pleasantly, "and we haven't been frank with you. That's to make up for it."

"I won't accept it," said Terry stiffly. "I insist."

"We won't have it back," said Davis. "And we insist!"

Terry felt idiotic. There was enough of a breeze to make it impractical simply to put the batch of bank notes down. They'd blow away. The girl looked at him regretfully.

"I'm truly sorry," she said. "I planned the way we went after you. You are exactly the person we're sure to need. We decided to try to get you to join us. We couldn't explain. So we asked what you were like. And you're not the sort of person who can be hired to do what he's told and no questions asked. Captain Horta said you were a gentleman. So since we couldn't ask you to volunteer blindly—though I think you would volunteer if you knew what we're about to do—we tried to make you come for the adventure of it. It didn't work. I'm sorry."

Terry had the singular conviction that she told the exact truth. And she was a very pretty girl, but she wasn't using her looks to persuade him. She spoke as one person to another. He unwillingly found himself mollified.

"Look!" he said vexedly. "I was leaving Manila. I need to be away for a while. I am coming back. I can do any crazy thing I want for some weeks, or even a couple of months. But I don't like to be pushed around! I don't like—"

The girl smiled suddenly.

"All right, I'll keep the money."

The girl smiled more widely and said, "Mr. Holt, we are off on a cruise. We'll put in at various ports from time to time. We think you would fit into our party. We invite you to come on this cruise as our guest. You can be helpful or not, as you please. And we will not try to pay you for anything!"

Davis nodded. Terry frowned. Then he spoke painfully.

"I have a gift for making a fool of myself," he said ruefully. "When it's put that way, fine! I'll come along. But I reserve the right to make guesses."

"That's good!" said Davis warmly. "If you do find out what we won't tell you, you'll see why we didn't."

He waved to Nick and the tender operator. The parcels came onto the Esperance's deck. His baggage followed. He picked up one of the new cardboard parcels and examined its markings.

"This," he said more ruefully still, "has me stymied. I'd have sworn you couldn't get one of these special tubes nearer than Schenectady, New York. But you found one in Manila in minutes! How did you do it?"

The girl laughed.

"Terribly simple!" she said. "We'll tell you. But not until we're under way, or you might be so disgusted with the simplicity of it that you'd want to go ashore again."

Two

The edge of the sun touched the horizon and sank below it, out of sight. There were magnificent tints in the sky, and the gently rippling harbor water reflected them in innumerable swirlings of color. The Esperance swayed very slightly and very gracefully on the low swells. In minutes two of the dungareed members of the ship's company got the anchor up with professional efficiency. One of them went below, and the Esperance's engine began to rumble. Davis casually took the wheel, and the small yacht began to move toward the open sea while Nick played a salt-water hose on the anchor before lashing it fast. The brief twilight of the tropics transformed itself swiftly into night. Lights winked and glittered ashore and on the water.

Terry felt more than a little absurd. The girl said pleasantly, at his side, "My name's Deirdre, in case you don't know."

"Mine's Terry, but you do know."

"Naturally!" she said briskly. "I should explain that I'm the ship's cook, and the boys forward aren't professional sailors, and my father isn't—"

"Isn't in this business for money," said Terry. "It's strictly for something else. And I don't think it's buried treasure or anything like that."

"Nothing so sensible," she agreed. "Now, if you want to join a watch, you'll do it. If you don't, you won't. The port cabin, the little one, is yours. You are our guest. If you want anything, ask for it. I'm going below to cook dinner."

She left him. He surveyed the deck again, and presently went back to where Davis sat nonchalantly by the Esperance's wheel. Davis nodded.

"Now that you've, well, joined up," he said meditatively, "I've been trying to think how to, well, justify all the mystery. Part of it was Deirdre's idea. She thought it would make our proposition more interesting, so you'd be more likely to take it up. But when I think about explaining, I bog down immediately."

Terry sat down. The Esperance drove on. Her bow lifted and dipped and lifted and dipped. The water was no longer nearly smooth. There was the beginning of a land breeze.

"There's La Rubia," said Davis uncomfortably. "You outfitted her with underwater ears and a radar, at least. Was there anything else?"

"No," said Terry curtly. "Nothing else."

"She catches the devil of a lot of fish," said Davis. He frowned. "Some of them you might call very queer fish. You haven't heard anything about that?"

"No," said Terry. "Nothing."

"I think, then," said Davis, "that I'd better not expose myself to scorn. I'd like to be able to read her skipper's mind, though. But it's possible he simply thinks he's lucky. And it's possible he's right."

Terry waited. Davis puffed on his pipe. Then he said abruptly, "Anyhow you're a good man at making gadgets. We'll let it go at that, for the time being."

The sea became less and less smooth. There were little slapping sounds of waves against the yacht's bow. The muted rumble of her engine was not intrusive. The breeze increased. Davis gave a definite impression of having said all he intended to say for the time being. Terry stirred.

"You want me to build a gadget," he said. "To drive fish. Would you want to give me some details?"

Davis considered. A few drops of spray came over the Esperance's side.

"N-o-o-o," said Davis. "Not just yet. There's a possibility it will fit in. I'd like you to make one, and maybe it will fit in somewhere. But La Rubia's the best angle we've got so far. There is one gadget I'd give a lot to have! You know, a depth-finder. It sends a pulse of sound down to the bottom and times the echo coming back. Very much like radar, in a way. Both send out a pulse and time its return."

Terry nodded. There was no mystery about depth-finders or radars.

"We've got a depth-finder on board," said Davis. "If I sail a straight course and keep the depth-finder running, I can make a profile of the sea bottom under me. If I had a row of ships doing the same thing, we could get profiles and have a relief map of the bottom."

"That's right," agreed Terry.

"What I'd give a lot for," said Davis, "would be a depth-finder that would send spot-pulses, like radar does. Aimed sound-pulses. And an arrangement made so it could scan the ocean bottom like radar scans the sky. One boat could make a graph of the bottom in depths and heights, mapping even hummocks and hills underwater. Could something like that be done?"

"Probably," Terry told him. "It might take a good deal of doing, though."

"I wish you'd think about it," said Davis. "I know a place where I'd like to use such a thing. It's in the Luzon Deep. I really would like to have a detailed picture of the bottom at a certain spot there!"

Terry said nothing. He'd been made angry, then mollified, and now he felt tempted to grow angry again. There was nothing definite in what was wanted of him, after elaborate machinations to get him aboard the Esperance. He was disappointed.

"Good breeze," said Davis in a different voice. "We might as well hoist sail and cut off the engine. Take the wheel?"

Terry took the wheel. Davis went forward. Four dungareed figures came up out of the forecastle. The sails went up and filled. The engine stopped. The motion of the boat changed. More spray came aboard, but the movement was steadier. Davis came back and took the wheel once more.

"I think," he said, "that we're acting in a way to—hm—be annoying. I ought to lay my cards on the table. But I can't. For one thing, I haven't drawn a full hand yet. For another, there are some things you'll have to find out for yourself, in a situation like this."

"Such as—"

"Well," said Davis with a sudden dogged air, "take those orejas de ellos, for an example. Ellos are supposed to be some sort of beings at the bottom of the sea who listen to fish and fishermen. It's a superstition pure and simple. Suppose I said I was investigating the possibility that there were such—beings. You'd think I was crazy, wouldn't you?"

Terry shrugged.

"What I am interested in," said Davis, "has enough credit behind it for me to get some pretty rare electronic parts from the flattop in harbor back yonder. Nick called them by short-wave, they sent the parts ashore and gave them to Deirdre, and she brought them out