"I'll wager it's a derelict, or an abandoned vessel with no crew," breathed Ato, seating himself on a fire bucket to somewhat ease the long wait. The first hour Tandy stood fairly well, but the second seemed interminable. The flickering lanterns, the tense quiet, the choking fog and gentle roll of the ship all made him desperately drowsy, and, much to his later disgust, he must have finally fallen asleep. The next thing he remembered was the shrill squall of the Read Bird and the pleasant feel of the sun on his eyelids.
"The ship! The pirates! The fog!" thought Tandy, springing up wildly, but neither ship nor pirates met his astonished gaze. Abaft the beam lay a great whispering deep sea forest, its trees higher than the masts of the ship, springing directly out of the water and stretching their leafy branches to the sky. It was into one of these giant greenwoods theCrescent Moonhad crashed in the fog. Samuel was staring at the sea forest with the rapt look of a scientist who has just made an unbelievable discovery, and Ato, with his elbows resting on the rail, was gazing dreamily in the same direction.
"'Hoy! Ahoy! Why, I never knew there were forests in the sea," exclaimed Tandy, running over to insinuate himself between the cook and the Captain.
"There aren't! It's just plain impossible!" breathed Ato, moving over to make room for Tandy. "But, impossible or not, there she lies. And isn't it pretty?" he mused, resting more than half of his great weight on the rail.
"I suppose Sammy'll want to dig up a sea tree and bring it along," he leaned over to whisper mischievously in Tandy's ear. "And anyway, it's better than pirates."
"Look, look, there's fish in those trees," screamed Roger, bouncing up and down on Ato's plump shoulder. "How about some flying fish for breakfast, Cook dear?"
"Breakfast? Breakfast? Can it really be time for breakfast? Ho, hum! I thought I was still asleep and dreaming," grunted Ato, giving himself a little shake. "Well, forests or no forests, a man must eat, I suppose!" And still gazing delightedly over his shoulder, the ship's cook trod reluctantly toward the galley, while Tandy hurried into the cabin for his paints.
Tandy had to call Samuel twice before he would come to breakfast and when he finally did sit down, he was so busy preparing to explore the sea forest he ate scarcely a bite.
"We'll take the jolly boat," he decided, making long notes in his journal between his sips of coffee, "the small nets and knives and baskets for cuttings and any specimens we may pick up and—"
"Why the jolly boat when we have a jolly sea-going hippopotamus?" inquired Roger, elevating one eyebrow. "A jolly hippopotamus, I might add, who runs under her own power and saves us the trouble of rowing!" Roger was much annoyed because he had failed to catch a flying fish before breakfast and instead of eating his hard-boiled eggs, kept winging over to the open port to glare at his finny rivals. Tandy, like the Captain, was too excited to eat, and even Ato downed his omelette and fresh strawberries from the Peakenspire fruit vine with rare speed and indifference.
"It's a lucky thing you're so enormous, Kobo," puffed the ship's cabin boy, dropping down on the raft a few minutes later. "Ato's got his crab nets and fishing lines, Samuel's bringing an aquarium, a couple of baskets and a box. And I have this pail, my paints and a cage in case Roger does manage to catch one of those flying fish." Kobo was staring fixedly at her vegetable vine as Tandy dropped down beside her, and now snapping off a whole bushel of beans, she turned round and, munching contentedly, surveyed the excited boy at her side.
"Whatever you have can be hung to my harness," she assured him, speaking a bit thickly through the beans. "But turn the point of that scimiter up instead of down; you wouldn't want to carve old Kobo, now would you? It will seem funny swimming through a forest, won't it, little King? The further we go on this voyage the queerer everything grows."
"But I like it queer," stated Tandy, climbing with a satisfied little sigh on Nikobo's broad back.
"I, too, find it most interesting and jolly," agreed the hippopotamus, fastening her eyes dreamily on the vegetable vine to see what was coming up next. "I thought I might be on short rations when I came on this voyage, Tandy, but I declare to goodness I've never had such a rich and varied diet in my life. You, too, look fine and strong and much happier than when we met in the jungle. But to get back to the fare—why, today I've had a basket of biscuits, a bushel of beans—"
"And that makes it Bean and Biscuit Day, I suppose," giggled Tandy, remembering Kobo's strange way of dividing up her week. "But look! Listen! Here they come!"
"Ahoy below, Hip Hip OPOTOMUS, AHOY!" roared Samuel Salt jovially from above. "All ready to cast off, my lass?"
"Aye, aye, sir!" grinned Kobo as Samuel and Ato came panting down the rope ladders to the raft. "Move over, Tandy, and make room for the Cook and the Captain!" It took nearly ten minutes to get all the gear and crew aboard and Nikobo looked like some curious deep sea monster when she finally shoved off. Two large baskets were slung from ropes across her back. The pail and bird cage slapped up and down on one hip, the aquarium on the other, and through her collar various fishing rods, nets and poles were stuck like quills on a porcupine.
"Now whatever you do, don't submerge," warned Samuel, holding his tin box for especially fragile specimens high above his chest to keep it dry. "Just slow and steady, m'lass, so we'll have time to observe and admire and make notes of any strange growths and creatures as we ride along."
"Creatures!" exclaimed Tandy, twisting round. He was perched on Nikobo's head, his paints held carefully in his lap. "Would there be any wild animals in a sea forest, Master Salt?"
"Sea Lions, likely," predicted Samuel, peering round eagerly as Nikobo paddled between two slippery barked sea trees into the murmuring forest itself. Except for the fact that the floor of this curious sea wood was the blue and restless sea, it might almost have been a forest ashore. The trees, tall, straight and stately, towered up toward the sky. Staring down into the clear green water, Tandy saw their trunks going down, down, down as far as he could see.
"Rooted in the very ocean bed," marveled Samuel Salt, touching one lovingly as they passed. "What splendid masts these would make, Mates! Avast and belay, Nikobo, I believe I'll just take a cutting or two."
"Ha, ha!" roared Ato, peering over Samuel's shoulder. "So now we're going to grow our own masts."
Samuel himself, leaning far out over Nikobo's back, severed three young shoots from the sea tree and popped them happily into the aquarium. Vines that were really of coral ringed the gigantic trunks like bracelets, and the leaves of the trees were long ribbons of green and silver that whipped and fluttered like banners in the morning breeze.
"What's that?" puzzled Ato as the hippopotamus made her way leisurely between the trees. "Looks like mushrooms, Sammy! Wait, I'll just pick me a few and see." Hooking his heels in Nikobo's harness, Ato began vigorously cutting from the trunk of one of the trees the colored fungus growths which sprouted in great profusion just above the water line. Nikobo bravely offered to sample some, and after waiting anxiously to see whether they would have any ill effects the ship's cook decided they were harmless and joyfully filled one of the baskets. The only specimens that really interested Ato were of the edible variety. While he was thus employed, Tandy, an experienced climber by now, scurried up to the top of one of the sea trees, breaking off several branches so Samuel could press the curious leaves in his album. High above his head Tandy could see Roger chasing angrily after a flying fish, muttering with anger at his unsuccessful efforts to overtake the nimble little sea bird. In our own southern waters there are large flying fish that leap out of the water of the gulf stream, but the flying fish in this Nonestic Sea Forest were small, and where most fish have gills wore strong transparent wings. Their claws, somewhat like a crab's, made it possible for them to perch jauntily in the branches of the sea trees, and these strange little fellows could swim and dive as well as fly. Pulling out his pad, Tandy made a lively sketch of one in the tree opposite, for it did look as if Roger would never succeed in catching one.
All morning Nikobo paddled calmly through the dreamy sea forest; Samuel making notes, Tandy sketches, and Ato catching in his long-handled nets plump little fish and crabs, and filling another basket with the small delicious clams that clung like barnacles to the slippery bark of the sea trees. In the shadowy center of the forest where the trees pressed closer together and great flat rocks stuck their heads out of the water, the explorers came upon several fierce sea lions. They were not smooth and shiny like the seals of our own oceans, but yellow and tawny with long yellow tusks, tufted tails and scaly manes. Their front legs ended in sharp claws, their back legs were shorter and their feet were webbed for swimming. Only the fact that Nikobo was larger and more frightening to the sea lions than they were to her saved the party from a savage attack by these malicious-looking monsters. As it was, they retired sullenly into the deeper shadows, snarling and roaring defiance as they backed away, but not before Tandy had made an effective sketch of the whole group.
"'Tis a lucky thing for us that you're along!" grunted Ato, drawing his feet up out of the water and looking with grim disfavor after the snarling sea lions. "Likely as not, if you had not made that picture, Samuel would have tried to drag one along by its tail, regardless of our feelings or safety."
"A wild maned sea lion would be a valuable addition to any collection," sighed Samuel Salt, shaking his head regretfully. "But then—" he grinned in his sudden pleasant way, "not much of a mascot at that."
The only other happening of note was Roger's capture of a monkey fish. Unable to overtake a flying fish, the Read Bird had pounced on this small combination of a land and water beast as it sat quietly sunning itself on the limb of a tree. Screaming and chattering, he bore it proudly down to the Captain, and Samuel was so pleased with the curious little creature that when Nikobo suggested going back he made no serious objection. And as the hippopotamus, rather weary from her long swim, headed thankfully back for the ship Tandy and Samuel made ambitious plans for the monkey fish's care and comfort.
Thrusting it into Tandy's bird cage, Samuel regarded it with increasing enthusiasm and interest. "I'll rig up a wooden tree in one of the aquariums, set the aquarium in one of the large cages so it'll have both air and water, and call it 'Roger' after its discoverer," beamed the former Pirate with a wink at Tandy.
"Don't you dare call that monkey fish after me," screeched the Read Bird, flying round to have another look at his strange prize. "Why, it's uglier than a blue monkey, looks like a regular goblin, if you ask me." And to tell the truth, the monkey fishwaseven uglier than a goblin, shaped like a monkey but scaled all over, and with unpleasant goggly eyes and three short spikes sticking out of its forehead.
"It does look like a goblin," agreed Tandy with an amused sniff. "But let's call it Mo-fi, which is short for fish and monkey."
"Tip tops'ls!" approved Samuel Salt, taking out his note book. "Wonder what it eats?"
"Great grandmothers, what would it eat?" moaned Ato, looking blankly at Samuel. "Another mouth to feed and listen to! Dear, Dear and DEAR!"
"Oh, give it a box of animal crackers," put in Roger carelessly.
"No, I brought along some gold fish food for just such an emergency as this," declared Samuel, making a little flourish with his pencil as he wrote busily in his journal. "Gold fish food will be splendid for a monkey fish."
"Well, don't forget the bananas—for remember it's a monkey, too," chirped Roger, settling on the Captain's shoulder to read what he had written. So, laughing and joking and in the highest good humor the exploring party returned to theCrescent Moon.
What with planting the slips from the sea tree, settling Mo-fi in his aquarium cage, pressing the leaves from the marine forest, and making copies and further notes about the sea lions in his journal, Samuel did not get his ship under way till late afternoon.
Ramming into the sea tree, beyond scraping off some paint, had done little damage, so singing boisterously, Samuel finally heaved up his anchor. And soon, with Ato stirring up a huge clam chowder, Tandy painting the sea forest on the chart and Roger scouring the hold for Mo-fi's fish food, theCrescent Moonagain dipped adventurously into the southeast swell.
"Ahoy! and how goes it with the able-bodied seaman?" called Roger, swooping down from the foremast. Tandy, polishing the brass trim on the binnacle, looked up with a welcoming grin.
"Tip topsails!" he answered, pausing a minute to stare off toward the skyline to see whether any islands or sea serpents were visible.
"And look at that muscle, now," marveled Roger, touching Tandy's arm admiringly with his claw. "You're twice the lad you were, Mate, and I'll wager my last feather you can lay any lubber by the heels. If anyone gets fresh-water ashore, remember you're a salt sea-going sailor and you just take a poke at him. That's my advice without any charge or obligation. But then again, a chap that's a King, the Royal Artist of an exploring expedition, with a sea forest named after him, might not need to take any advice at all," added Roger with a long and knowing wink.
"But I like you to tell me things," said Tandy, looking earnestly up at the Read Bird. "You make everything seem so interesting and jolly." With a secret smile, for Tandy was thinking how much he would enjoy taking a poke at Didjabo, the Chief Ozamandarin, the little boy went on with his polishing. If Didjabo said anything further about shutting him up in the Tower, he just plain would take a poke at him. But saying nothing of all this to Roger, he called up cheerfully, "How's Mo-fi? Has he stopped scolding and begun to eat?"
Roger, who was running races with himself up and down the taffrail, stopped short and held up his claw. "Everything I give him," he told Tandy solemnly. "And I declare to badness he's getting to know me, Mate. He only pulled out three feathers instead of a fistful when I gave him breakfast just now. Before long he'll be so tame he'll be riding around on your shoulder."
"Not MY shoulder," laughed Tandy, waving his bottle of polish at the Read Bird. "Goodness, I believe you're growing fond of that monkey fish, Roger."
"Well, why not?" retorted the Read Bird, puffing up his chest. "Ato has me, the Captain has Sally, you have Kobo, so why shouldn't I have a little pet if I want one?"
The monkey fish seemed such a strange prickly sort of pet, Tandy could hardly keep his face straight, but seeing Roger was quite in earnest, he tactfully changed the subject. "Do you suppose we'll make any new discoveries today?" he asked, screwing the cap on the bottle of polish. "Any as important as the sea forest, I mean?"
"Why not call it by its proper name?" teased Roger, scratching his head with his left claw. "And I think it most unlikely we'll strike anything as curious and important as Tazander Forest. Two discoveries like that just couldn't happen two days running. Still, I'll just fly up to the main truck and have a look around."
"Main truck?" Tandy wrinkled up his brows. "I thought I knew all the parts of this ship by now. You never told me about the main truck, Roger."
"Just the top of the main mast, Brainless." Giving Tandy an affectionate little shove, Roger soared into the rigging and Tandy went joyfully off to have another look at the forest Samuel had insisted on naming after him. He had taken great pains with the painting and printing when he sketched it on the map, and now with a sigh of complete satisfaction he stood regarding the sea chart. Then, suddenly remembering he had promised to water Samuel Salt's plants, he jog trotted contentedly down to the hold.
The tumbleweeds in their small red pots grew so rapidly Samuel had to cut them back every day. These Tandy watered very sparingly, snapping his fingers at Mo-fi, who was gravely chinning himself on a branch of his artificial tree. The slips of the sea trees in their covered aquarium required no attention at all. Ato had planted all the vegetable and fruit vines from Peakenspire on the rail outside the galley, so that left only the creeping vines from Patrippany Island to care for. He had just picked up one of the small potted creepers when a sharp rap tap under his toes made Tandy leap straight up in the air. Someone was knocking on the bottom of the boat.
"Ato! Captain! ROGER!" shrilled the little boy, scurrying up from the hold faster than he had ever done before.
"Su—su—SOMEBODY'S knocking on the bottom of the boat." Before he could explain, or tell them anything further, a perfectly terrific knock from below made theCrescent Moonshiver from end to end. Samuel and Ato, leaning over the port rail, turned round so suddenly they bumped their heads smartly together. Next with a scrape, screech and splintering of timber, a giant white horn came tearing up through the decks.
"Whale! Whale!" croaked Roger, falling off the main truck and coasting crazily down to the deck. "Wha—what ever'n ever's that?" he quavered, pointing a trembling claw at the rigid white column between the main and mizzenmasts. Samuel did not even try to explain, for at that instant the ship began to rise, to fall, to lash and plunge both up and down and east and west. Hooking his arms through the rail, Tandy blinked, gasped and shudderingly waited for theCrescent Moonto fly asunder.
"Narwhal, Mates!" panted Samuel Salt, throwing himself bodily upon the wheel. "Horn like a—uni—corn—branch of the Odontocetes and—"
"Oh—you—don't say—it—is!" chattered Ato, who was lying on his stomach bouncing up and down like a ball at each frightful lunge of the monstrous fish. "Well, it's spiked us—is that a horn or a ship's mast? Oh woe, oh! What'n salt'll we do now?"
Samuel had not the heart to answer, for he had all he could do to hang on to the wheel as the ship, like a wounded animal, reared and plunged, thrashing the sea to a fury of foam and spray. Nikobo, diving precipitously off her raft, began to squeal in high and low hippopotamy, making brave but ineffective lunges at the lashing giant beneath the ship.
"Su—suppose it su—submerges?" wailed Ato, who had managed at last to seize a rope from the end of which he banged and slammed continuously up and down against the deck. "Oh, my stars! Oh, my spars! Oh, my beams and—" Tandy never heard Ato's last anguished cry, for at that moment a savage shake of the Narwhal's head sent him flying into the sea. Coming up coughing and choking, Tandy instinctively began to swim and for the first time became aware of the creeping vine he still had clutched tightly in one hand. And in that instant and in that whirl of danger, disaster and destruction, the little boy suddenly grew calm and purposeful. This vine—well, why would this powerful vine from Patrippany Island not work as well under water as on land? The chances were that it would. Swimming boldly back to the ship, Tandy took a quick dive, hurling the vine pot and all in the general direction of the Narwhal. No sooner had the vine touched the water than it began to open, creep and grow and, spraying out a hundred strong tentacles, it seized and bound the plunging monster in a secure and inescapable cradle of leafy wood.
Gasping and sputtering, but with his heart pounding with joy to think he had really saved Samuel's beautiful ship, Tandy rose to the surface. Nikobo, letting off shrill blasts of anger and fright, came paddling anxiously toward him. But giving the hippopotamus a reassuring wave, Tandy seized the end of a rope ladder and pulled himself up to the deck.
Samuel, though battered and bruised, still clung to the wheel, and Ato, almost pounded to a jelly, had rolled into the scuppers where Roger was fanning him vigorously with a butter paddle. The Read Bird, having wings, could have left the ship at any time, but had clung bravely to his post, preferring to go down with the ship and his shipmates. Now all three of them stared in dazed silence at Tandy as he climbed back over the rail, for in the terrible confusion and excitement no one had seen him go overboard.
"Tandy! Tandy! Where've you been?" With outstretched arms Samuel Salt rushed groggily forward. "Shiver my liver! Why's everything so quiet? Could it be that you single-handed have destroyed that ship-shaking menace?"
"I don't think he's destroyed, Master Salt," answered Tandy, limping happily to meet the Captain, "but he's caught fast as a lobster in a lobster pot and can't move at all."
"Caught?" rasped Samuel, running across the deck to peer over the rail.
"By the creeping vine," explained Tandy, and in short, breathless sentences he told them all that had happened after he was flung into the sea.
"Well, bagpipe my mizzenmain sails!" gasped Samuel Salt, staring at Tandy with round eyes. "This is the strangest and happiest day of my life. You've saved the ship and the whole expedition, my boy, and all we have to do now is cut loose from this cavorting unicorn of the sea and sail off with the largest ivory horn in captivity. An ivory mast, blast my buckles! Wait till the Ozites see us sailing up the Winkie River with four masts instead of three! Ahoy, below! Ahoy, Kobo! Can you dive with me beneath this ship?"
"Dive and stay under as long as you can," vowed the hippopotamus, shaking the water out of her eyes and looking cheerily up at the Captain. "You see, I was right about those creeping vines, now wasn't I?" Nikobo, having done a little investigating on her own account, was well nigh ready to burst with pride at Tandy's quick action and the way in which the vines had overcome their gigantic foe.
"RIGHT!" boomed Samuel Salt, hurrying off for his oxygen helmet and powerful diamond toothed saw. Ato was too bruised and exhausted to rise, but Tandy and Roger, perching on the ship's rail, watched Samuel in his queer diver's helmet climb down the rope ladder and clamber up on the hippopotamus. Next minute Nikobo had disappeared under the surface and presently from the slight shiver and shake of the boat they knew that Samuel was determinedly at work cutting them loose. Fortunately there was room between the ship's bottom and the whale's head for Nikobo to swim about, and so splintering sharp was Samuel's saw that in less than five minutes he had cut off the great column of ivory level with the ship's bottom, carefully calking the edges with material he had brought down. In its tight and live wood crate the Narwhal could not stir an inch, and, while the cutting of its horn was not painful, it blubbered and spouted so terrifically that Samuel and Nikobo heaved tremendous sighs of relief when the dangerous operation was accomplished.
Backing off a few paces, Nikobo began butting the crated sea beast with her head till she had driven it out from beneath the boat. Roger and Tandy, with little shrieks of wonder and excitement, saw the crated fish like some queer and monstrous mummy rise to the surface and go floating sullenly away toward the east. Now that they had a full view of the Narwhal they saw that it was three times the length of theCrescent Moon.
"A great wonder Sammy didn't tie it to the ship and tow it along," sighed Ato, who had at last got to his feet and draped himself weakly over the rail. "Some fishin'—eh, Mates?"
"But look at the beautiful mast we have!" cried Tandy, waving to Nikobo and the Captain as they came cheerfully alongside.
"Huh! you're as bad as Sammy," grunted Ato, rubbing his bruises sorrowfully. "And of course a mast was just what we were needing! Whale of a mast! Mast of a whale! HUH!"
"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 theCrescent Moonwas 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 theCrescent 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'llclimb 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 theCrescent Moonfrom 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!
Come see the curious high air manster.Admission, 1 pearl, 5 corals and a clam!
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 theCrescent 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.
Tandy was so exhausted from his dreadful experiences at the bottom of the sea hole he spent the rest of the morning flat on his stomach on deck making lively sketches from memory of the City of Seeweegia. Of the sea hole itself not a sign nor vestige remained. The sea, tumbling through the breach made by Nikobo, had closed it up forever and ever. Ato had Roger fetch bandages and witch hazel down to the raft and it took him two hours to bind up the cuts and hurts of the faithful hippopotamus. Then climbing wearily up the rope ladder to the deck, he spent another hour rubbing himself with oil and liniment, muttering darkly about reckless collectors who got themselves and their shipmates collected.
"What would WE have done if you'd never got out of that air bowl?" scolded Ato, waving the bottle of liniment at the Captain, who was cheerfully changing into dry clothes. "YouknowIknow nothing about navigation nor one sail from t'other."
"Ah—but what you know about sauces!" retorted Samuel, rolling his eyes rapturously. "Of course, I'll grant a ship cannot sail on its stomach, but if the worst had come to the worst, you could have left a note for the sails on the binnacle. 'If it comes up a blow, tie yourselves up.' Ha, ha! Tie yourselves UP!" Jamming his feet into his boots, Samuel blew a kiss to his still muttering shipmate and tramped down to the hold to settle his jellyfish boy in one of the large aquariums. The water boy, about half the size of Tandy, was a jolly enough looking specimen, but kept opening and shutting his mouth like a fish and staring anxiously from his captor to Mo-fi in the cage opposite. Whistling happily and unmindful of the cuts and bruises he had suffered, Samuel filled the bottom of the aquarium with pebbles and shells, put in several seaweed plants he'd fished up in the nets, and soon had the little stranger as happy and cozy as a clam. Giving him and Mo-fi a wafer of fish food, the Royal Explorer of Oz went above to have a look at the weather, for he did not like the way the ship was pitching.
In spite of the desperately fatiguing morning they had had, it seemed the voyagers were in for some further excitement. The sky had grown dark and threatening. Dark clouds in ever-increasing numbers scudded along from the east; the sea, rough and angry, was full of racing little whitecaps. Nikobo's raft plunged and rocketed up and down like a bucking bronco, flinging the hippopotamus from side to side and bringing her with squealing protests up against the rail first on one side and then on the other. Fearing for her safety, Samuel with Tandy's help rigged a temporary derrick to the mizzenmast, hove his vessel to, and bidding Nikobo swim round to the side, cleverly hoisted her to the main deck by a hook caught through her harness. Nikobo took it all quite calmly, coming down with a thankful little grunt, glad to be with her shipmates in the gale that was lashing the sea into a rolling, tossing fury of mounting gray water and foam.
The wind had risen now almost to hurricane proportions, and taking in all sail and with only a tarpaulin lashed in the main rigging, Samuel prepared with bared poles to ride out the storm. Ato, always ready and helpful in a crisis, trudged up and down the heaving decks with pails of hot soup and coffee, and after a hasty lunch, all hands fell to closing ports, battening hatches and removing from the decks all loose gear and equipment. As it was impossible to shove Nikobo through the door of the main cabin, Samuel lashed her tightly to the mizzenmast and with an old sail round her shoulders the hippopotamus anxiously watched the mountainous waves breaking over the bow and running down into the scuppers. It was all so wild and new, so dangerous and exciting, Tandy begged Samuel to let him stay on deck. Much against his better judgment, Samuel finally gave his consent, tying Tandy fast to Nikobo and the mizzenmast. If anything happened to the ship, reflected Samuel, fighting his way back to the wheel, the hippopotamus could keep Tandy afloat and take care of him besides.
Ato and Roger, not being needed on deck and not caring for storms, shut themselves up in the main cabin for a game of checkers. But checkers and board soon flew through the air, and the two had all they could do to hang on to their chairs as theCrescent Moonpitched headlong into the cavernous hollows and struggled up the mountainous ridges of the great running seas.
In the splendid white marble Palace in the splendid White City of Ozamaland the nine Ozamandarins sat in solemn conference.
"This time we have succeeded," stated Didjabo, chief of the nine Judges of the realm, "this time we have succeeded and our plans may now be accomplished. Last time, we merely destroyed the King and Queen, neglecting to do away with the Royal Off-spring, Tazander Tazah, and for that reason we failed utterly. So long as this boy survived, the natives insisted on considering him their rightful King and Ruler. But, hah! that prophecy we invented about an aunt carrying him off was a clever and useful idea—eh, my fellow Zamians? Now as the child, with a little help on our part it must be confessed, has really been carried off and destroyed, we can blame these same silly females, and they and all the royal family can be tossed into the sea to pay for this heinous crime. Ha, ha! Quite an idea, a famous idea!" murmured Didjabo, and the eight Ozamandarins nodded their narrow heads in complete and satisfied agreement. "Leaving the throne clear for us—the Nine Faithful Servants of the People!" Again the Ozamandarins nodded, but Didjabo, slanting his cruel little eyes up and down the long table, was already making plans to destroy the lot of them and have the whole great country for himself.
"But how can we be sure the boy is destroyed and out of the way?" questioned Lotho, the second Ozamandarin in point of rank and power.
"Because," Didjabo curled up his lips in a hard little smile, "the Old Man of the Jungle has brought us proof. Boglodore! BOGLODORE! It is our wish that you appear before us."