The Wailing Octopus by John Blaine

Author:John Blaine [Blaine, John]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER X

The Wailing Octopus

As Rick steered the Water Witch to its anchorage above the reef, he told Scotty about the theory he had developed that morning.

He concluded, “Their going out to take a look where we were diving is another piece of evidence.Unless they were afraid that we might be interested in their stuff-whatever and wherever it is-why would they be so concerned about what we’re do-ing?”

“It makes a lot of sense,” Scotty agreed soberly. He looked at Rick with a sudden twinkle. “It might be a good idea to take a look around down below-just so we’ll know what to stay away from, of course.”

Rick grinned.

By the time they dropped anchor, Scotty had the diving gear rigged and it was only the work of minutes to get into the water. Each carried a spear gun in one hand and a wrecking bar in the other. Ordinarily they would not have bothered with the guns, but being armed seemed just common sense.

On the bottom, Rick scouted around the wreck, looking for signs of its former structure while Scotty attacked the stern with a crowbar. Under Scotty’s prying, a timber suddenly

gave with an audible crack, and a huge grouper that must have weighed nearly three hundred pounds rushed past Rick, startling him half to death until he saw what it was.

Scotty hooted in derision as Rick back-pedaled, then he put his bar down and swam to Rick’s side. He scrawled on his belt slate, “Whrehe cmfrm ?”

Rick shrugged. It was a good question. They swam slowly around, looking for the grouper’s hiding place and failed to locate it. Rick knew the big fish liked caves, rocky clefts, and the interiors of wrecks. This one must have a hole somewhere.

He tried again, going right down to the bottom and crawling along with stomach touching the sand. Even so, he might have missed the hole if stirred-up dust from the fish’s sudden departure hadn’t indicated where it was. The hole, big enough for him to crawl through, was under the wreck, hidden by rotted planks covered with marine growth. He hooted for Scotty’s attention and showed it to him.

He took his belt slate and wrote, “Way intoshp ?”

Scotty nodded and wrote in his turn, “Toodrk . Needlites .”

Rick nodded. For a moment he was tempted to try ripping off the planks with his bar, but he decided against it. Any disturbance might very well collapse the entire structure.

He wondered whether the hole was just a shallow opening, or whether it actually led into the ship. No matter. They had watertight flashlights with their spare gear in the boat.

They could find out on the next dive.

For their remaining time underwater he joined Scotty in his assault on the stern of the ship. They were rewarded by finding whatwas evidently the interior of a cabin . Rick ripped off another plank,then jumped as Scotty hooted four times for danger. The cabin was the home of a fairly large moray eel! Both boys dropped their bars and grabbed for their spear guns, but Scotty held up his hand in a sign to wait.

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