  "What are you going to call this one?" inquired Tandy next morning as he and Samuel squinted thoughtfully up at the gleaming ivory column between the main and mizzenmasts. "Might call it the whalemast," said Samuel, rubbing his chin reflectively. "And it's a lucky thing for us the point was sharp enough to cut through the decks without damaging the ship. At any rate, it's given us the biggest fish story a voyager ever had to relate. Tossed on the horn of a Narwhal! And the best part of the whole story is that we have the proof right along with us. Hah! Right here!" Samuel in his glee and exuberance gave the whalemast a hearty slap. "Kobo says that vine won't unwind for a couple of days, but anyway it'll be a fine rest for the whale floating around without having to swim. And I expect it can grow another horn?" "I expect so," agreed Samuel, winking down at Sally, who was standing on her head in the bowl of his pipe. "If this little Lady would just talk, she could give us a heap of valuable information about life in Lavaland, Mate." "Roger's taught Mo-fi to say 'Ship ahoy!'" observed Tandy, strolling over to the rail to watch the white foam sweep past the ship's side. "And your sea tree sprays have grown an inch since yesterday, Captain." "They have?" Samuel blew three rings from his pipe, then walked aft to glance at the compass. "Well, my boy, if the rest of the voyage is as good as the beginning, we'll sail home loaded to the gun'ls." The mention of home always made Tandy wince, for the Crescent Moon was the first real home he had known. To think that he would be put ashore in Ozamaland while Samuel's ship would continue its adventurous voyage of discovery without him, was a fact almost too terrible to consider. "Maybe we'll never come to Ozamaland at all," mused Tandy as he climbed into the rigging to join Roger. "Maybe the Captain's reckoning is wrong and Ozamaland is to the north instead of the south." Vastly comforted by this idea, Tandy swung nimbly to the crosstree on the fore t'gallant mast. Roger was staring intently through Ato's telescope and as Tandy squirmed along to a position beside him, the Read Bird let out a shrill squall, all his head feathers standing straight on end. "What do you see? What is it?" cried the little King, shading his eyes with his hands and staring in all directions. "I can't see a thing." "Take the glasses," urged Roger, handing them over with a frightened gulp. "Take the glasses and then tell me it isn't so." Tandy, scarcely knowing what to expect, screwed his eye close to the telescope, then he, too, gave a shriek of consternation. "Why—it's a big HOLE, a HOLE in the sea!" he stuttered, lowering the glasses and staring at the Read Bird in blank dismay. "Exactly!" croaked the Read Bird, "and whoever heard of such a thing? A hole in the ground, certainly, but a hole in the sea, why that's just plain past believing. Ahoy, DECK AHOY!" Wagging his head, Roger lifted his voice in a long warning wail. "Heave to, Master Salt! Heave to! Danger on the bow!" Somewhat surprised, but without stopping to question Roger, in whom he had the utmost confidence, Samuel hove his vessel to. And not a moment too soon, for barely a ship's length away yawned an immense and unexplainable hole in the sea. Round its edges the waves frothed, tossed and bubbled, making no impression on that quiet curious vacuum of air. Crowding into the bow, the ship's company stared down in complete wonder and mystification. "Now, goosewing my topsails, this'll bear looking into!" puffed Samuel, breaking the silence at last. "Now, now, NOW!" Ato snatched wildly at Samuel's coat tails as he raced aft bellowing loudly for Kobo to come alongside. "You'll not go a step off this boat. We can sail round this air hole and no damage done, but as for looking into it! Help, HELP! Avast and belay and I'll knock eight bells out of anyone who leaves this ship!" Seizing an iron belaying pin, Ato made a desperate rush after Samuel Salt, and failing to catch him before he slid down the cable to Kobo's raft, he grabbed Tandy firmly and angrily by the seat of the pants. "Not a step!" panted the ship's cook savagely. "Not a step! Roger! Roger! Come back here this instant." But Roger, with a screech of defiance, had already flown after Samuel. Tandy, pinned against the rail by Ato's two hundred and fifty pounds, was forced to watch Nikobo, with Roger and Samuel on her back, moving cautiously toward the edge of the air hole. Over his shoulder Samuel had a huge coil of rope the end of which he had attached to the capstan of the boat before he dropped over the side. "Oh! Oh! and OH!" wheezed the ship's cook, "If Sammy goes down that cavern we're as good as lost. No one to navigate, to up sail or down sail or lay to in a storm. My, My and MYland!" "Well, there he goes!" cried Tandy as Samuel flung the rope down into the sea hole. "Don't worry, Ato, he's always come back before, hasn't he? Let me go! Let me go, I tell you!" With a sudden jerk Tandy tore out of Ato's grasp, climbed up on the rail and dove into the sea. Swimming rapidly toward the hippopotamus, he climbed on her back and with Roger fluttering in excited circles overhead Nikobo swam as close to the edge of the sea hole as she dared, watching in terrified fascination as Samuel calmly lowered himself into the clouded blue depths. With mingled feelings of interest and alarm, Tandy saw the Royal Explorer of Oz go down lower and lower and finally disappear altogether into the deep blue air below. Now not a glimpse of Samuel was visible and not a sound came up to reassure them that he was still there. "I'll just fly down and see what's up," quavered Roger, and in spite of the loud shouts and threats of Ato on the Crescent Moon, the Read Bird spread his wings and coasted slowly and bravely into the immense air shaft. Nikobo, now as alarmed as the ship's cook, began swimming frantically round the edge of the misty chasm, letting out piercing blasts that sounded like nothing so much as a ferry boat whistle. Tandy himself felt uneasy and frightened and Ato, unable to bear the suspense any longer, climbed over the side and came swimming out to join them. After an endless fifteen minutes, during which dreadful fear and premonition gripped the watchers, the head of the Read Bird popped mournfully into view. "Is he all right? Where's Sammy? What in soup's he doing? What'd you find out?" gasped Ato, reaching out to clutch Roger by the wing. Roger, limp and bedraggled, with all the stiffness out of his feathers, said nothing for a whole minute. Then, beating his wings together, he began to scream out hoarsely, "The Captain's caught! The Collector's collected. They have Master Salt forty fathom below. They've got him shut up, I mean down at the bottom of the sea like a gold fish in a bowl, only he's in a big bowl of air. They're poking little fish and crabs through a trap door in the air shaft and I cannot break or even make a dent in the transparent slide they've shot across the air hole to shut him off from us. And oh, my bill and feathers! Every time they open the trap door to shove things in to him, water rushes into the vacuum. He's standing in water to his knees now and unless we can break a hole in that lid the Captain's done for—done for, do you hear?" "They?" asked Tandy while Nikobo's eyes almost popped out of her head, "Who do you mean?" "Oh, oh, don't ASK me!" choked the poor Read Bird. "They're not fish and they're not men. They're about the size of Tandy, here, sort of stiff and jellied and perfectly transparent. On a shell hanging outside of one of their caves it said 'Seeweegia.'" "Seeweegia!" moaned Ato, clutching his head in both hands. "Let me see! Let me see! What's to be done, boys? Now quick! What's to be done?" "Have Roger fetch the saw we used on the whale's horn," gurgled Nikobo. "And I'll climb down and saw a hole in that slide," cried Tandy eagerly. "No, I'll climb down," said Ato firmly. "I've known Sammy the longest and if he's going to come to a watery end I might as well end with him." Leaving the two arguing, Roger flashed back to the ship, returning in almost no time with the scintillating and powerful saw. Tandy had meanwhile convinced Ato that he could climb down the rope faster, being so much lighter, and now, with tears in their eyes, Nikobo and the ship's cook saw Tandy and Roger disappear into the air shaft. Tandy let himself down carefully hand over hand, Roger keeping abreast of him with the saw. To slide rapidly to the bottom would have been quicker, but the resulting blisters would make it difficult to use the saw. Forty fathoms, nearly two hundred and forty feet, is a long way to go hand over hand on a rope, and before he reached the glass-like slide, Tandy's palms stung and his shoulders ached and burned from the strain. But at last he was down, and dropping to his hands and knees with Roger mourning and muttering beside him, Tandy peered fearfully through the glassy substance. For a moment everything was a green and misty blur, but gradually the figure of Samuel Salt standing sturdily in the middle of the air bowl became visible. Although waist high in sea water, and surrounded by loathsome sea creatures and crabs the Seeweegians had tossed in for him to eat, Samuel was making slow and interested entries in his journal. Pressed against the sides of his strange aquarium, Tandy could see the round, square and triangular faces of the jellyfish men and women. Brilliantly colored vines and seaweed waved and tossed in the current, the floor of the ocean was covered with bright shells, polished stones and all manner of sparkling deep sea jewels. Had Tandy not been so worried about Samuel Salt he would have liked nothing better than sketching this strange and beautiful under sea Kingdom with the Seeweegians flopping and swimming busily in and out of their grottos and caves, or disporting themselves in the sea weed forests. But as it was, his only thought was of quickly freeing the Captain of the Crescent Moon from his curious prison. "Look, they've put up a sign," hissed Roger, handing over the saw. Looking in the direction indicated by Roger, Tandy saw an immense shell on which long wisps of sea weed had been arranged to form the words: Come see the curious high air manster. Admission, 1 pearl, 5 corals and a clam! The sight of this sign swinging from a small sea tree close to Samuel's air bowl sent a wave of rage up Tandy's back. Rubbing his palms briskly together, the little boy seized the saw and struck it with all his might against the unyielding surface of the slide. The noise attracted Samuel's attention, and looking up he began waving his arms, yelling out wild orders and commands. Not being able to hear any of them and being quite sure Samuel was telling them to leave the air shaft before the Seeweegians shot another slide above their heads and caught them, too, Tandy proceeded grimly with his task. Roger helped, scraping away with both claws and bill. For five desperate minutes they worked without success, then a tiny crack split the slide from edge to edge. Wedging the saw into the narrow opening, Tandy began sawing away like a little wild man, for a fresh batch of snails and crabs tossed in to Samuel had let in another rush of sea water. Immersed to his chin, Samuel started to swim round and round, dodging the end of the saw as it flashed up and down above his head. "Oh!" gasped Tandy, stopping a moment to blow on his fingers. "I'll never be able to make this opening large enough. Look, look, Roger, they're opening that trap door again. Oh, Oh! I can't bear it!" "Help! Help!" yelled the Read Bird, looking despairingly up the empty air shaft. "Help, for the love of sea salt and sailor men!" His cry, increased by the curious nature of the compressed air in the air shaft, increased a hundredfold and fell with a hideous roar upon the anguished ears of Ato and Nikobo. Almost instinctively and without thought of her own safety, or Ato's, or the dire consequences, the hippopotamus jumped bodily into the sea hole. Roger, still glaring upward, had a quick flash of an immense falling object. Realizing at once what had happened, the Read Bird had just time to snatch Tandy and drag him to the opposite side of the slide before Nikobo landed—broke through the thick glass, plunged into Samuel's aquarium and shot out through the side into a group of horrified Seeweegians. Now do not suppose for an instant that Tandy, Roger or Samuel himself saw all this happen. Indeed, after Nikobo struck the slide, none of them remembered a thing, for the ocean, rushing in through the puncture the hippopotamus had made in the vacuum, rose like a tidal wave, carrying them tumultuously along. Nikobo came up at a little distance from the others, with Ato, completely wrapped and entangled in seaweed, clinging tenaciously to her harness and looking like some queer marine specimen himself. Too shocked and stunned to swim, the five shipmates bobbed up and down like corks on the surface of the sea. Then Roger, spreading his wet and bedraggled wings and coughing violently from all the salt water he had swallowed, started dizzily back to the Crescent Moon. Nikobo had several long gashes in her tough hide, but still managed to grin at Tandy. "I—I must have lost the saw," panted the little boy, pulling himself wearily up on her back. "Never mind the saw. I still have my journal, and look what I caught!" puffed Samuel Salt, dragging himself up on the other side of the hippopotamus. "Ship ahoy, Mates, a live and perfect specimen of a jellyfish boy." Holding up his prize, Samuel smiled blandly, all his danger and discomfort apparently forgotten. "Oh, my eyes, ears and whiskers!" quavered Ato, peering out of his net of seaweed. "Is it for this we've been scraping our noses on the sea bottom?" Nodding cheerfully, Samuel plunged the squirming and transparent little water boy under the surface, holding him there, as Nikobo swam slowly and painfully back to the ship. |
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