CHAPTER VIIWONDERFUL UNDER-THE-SEA SIGHTS
The submarine was moving slowly forward, so that they were being treated to a constant change of scene. It was like a vast panorama being unrolled before their eyes, and for their especial benefit. The three boys clung to their ports of observation, and continued to gaze at the marvelous sights as though fascinated.
They could see as plainly as though looking into one of those aquarium tanks with the glass sides, where all manner of curious fish swim idly back and forth, and rub their noses vainly against the transparent barrier.
“Such gloriously colored fish I never saw before!” Ballyhoo was saying, and the others could easily echo his words, for they discovered some new object of interest with almost each passing minute.
Sometimes these denizens of the depths were of a brilliant scarlet hue; then again they seemed to possess most of the colors of the rainbow, delicately shaded. Others had long waving tails, andoften the boys would discover some ugly looking monster that seemed quite out of place in such splendid surroundings, like an ogre at a feast of fairies.
“There, I saw a shark swing past!” exclaimed Ballyhoo, later on, perhaps with an odd shiver passing over him, for sharks always brought up that little adventure of his.
Jack had already commenced to arrange his camera. Before now he had tried it for height, and hence knew just how to proceed so as to get the proper results.
“Some of these things seem too fine to be lost,” he told Oscar, who had his station close beside him. “And as we sink a little lower I begin to notice those waving fields of submarine flowers, or weeds, or plants, whatever you can call them. Any time now we’re apt to run into a field that I’d like to get a picture of.”
Oscar said nothing to discourage him. In fact, he, too, felt that it was high time they were remembering that the main object of their coming to this part of the Caribbean Sea had been to secure wonderful pictures of the ocean depths and its denizens, rather than to share in the treasure that was the magnet drawing Captain Shooks.
Up in the bow no doubt the skipper was at his post. His was the hand that controlled the destiny of the undersea boat now. It required another sort of education than that of the ordinary pilot’s to manipulate the wheel when once down in those depths, where buoyancy could be so easilyaltered. To rise or fall was possible by the mere touch of a finger, it seemed, so delicately were they poised there.
Now it became necessary to come to a full stop on account of some obstacle ahead in the shape of an undersea cliff that barred progress. This must be surmounted by pumping out some of the water ballast so that they would rise above its summit, or perhaps it might be deemed advisable to turn aside, and pass around the obstruction.
From time to time Jack’s exclamations, and the sound of his cranking, announced that he was busily engaged at his labor of love. If he could only catch some of those wonderful vistas of waving plants, and floating fish with their goggle-eyes, he felt he would be amply repaid for all his work.
“Another shark!” announced Ballyhoo, who seemed to have a good eye for those savage monsters of the deep, “and let me tell you he’s some size in the bargain. Oh! get him in the picture, Jack, because we seem to have stopped right here for some reason or other. Don’t you see, he must be one of those leopard sharks we’ve heard Uncle Abner tell about, for he’s all spotted.”
“I can hardly believe that,” Oscar told him, “because, unless I’m mistaken, he also said that species was only to be found away over in the East Indies. But that chap was a dandy, all right, and I hope you got him, Jack.”
“Whee! there’s another right now!” cried Ballyhoo, “and as sure as you live, boys, he acts like he meant to knock a chip off the shoulder of hisfirst cousin, too. See him make that furious rush for Mr. Spot, will you? Oh! we’re going to be treated to a regular shark duel, that’s what we are! Be sure and don’t miss that, on your life, Jack. It’s all been staged just for our benefit. Those monsters knew it was a chance of a lifetime for them to get in the spot-light!”
While Ballyhoo rattled along at this rate, events outside were taking on a sanguinary hue. Something had happened to anger both of the huge sharks, and they continued to make savage attacks on one another. Their teeth must have been busily engaged in these frequent contacts, for the boys soon saw that they began to show the marks of many terrible wounds.
By now the whole crew of the submarine must have learned of what was taking place close by, for they crowded to the various glass-covered openings in the endeavor to see what they could of the affair. It enlisted their sympathies, even as a group of Cubans might take a lively interest in a cock fight, or ten thousand Mexicans gather to watch a bull match his horns and muscles against the agility of his human baiters in the arena.
Back and forth the pair swam, tearing at each other as though anxious to take advantage of this unusual flood of light visiting their undersea range. One was a little larger than the other, and, of course, the boys immediately allowed their hopes to rest upon the smaller shark.
Indeed, it soon began to prove that this one wasthe more agile of the two, and could get away with less punishment after some of their terrific rushes. From this fact the spectators expected that in the end the battle would result in the vanquishing of the larger spotted fish, which appeared a trifle sluggish in its movements.
“You see,” said Ballyhoo, who noted all these points with the eye of a professional, “it’s a heap sight better to be quick and spry than big and powerful. That spotted shark could just lie on the other and squeeze him to death, but he’ll never get the chance. Oh! my stars! what a smash that was, and both of them took a hunk away! Why, they’ll be all torn to pieces if they keep it up much longer.”
“It’s getting near an end right now,” asserted Oscar. “That spotted one is showing signs of being almost all in. A few more such clashes and his name will be Dennis, you mark what I’m telling you, boys.”
“I do believe Captain Shooks has stopped the boat just on purpose to let us get a picture of the shark duel!” cried Jack, who was turning his crank, and at the same time trying to watch what was going on outside, a rather difficult task, all things considered.
“He knows what this must mean to us, that’s right,” asserted Ballyhoo. “Here they come again at it, hammer and tongs. They make me think of some things I once saw in the stock yards I visited with my father when I was smaller, for this is butchery, if ever there could be such athing. I’m hoping deep down in my heart that both of them get wiped out, for I haven’t any use at all for sharks! Ugh!”
That seemed to be the concluding round to the battle. The two sharks stayed close to each other, and continued to snap viciously; but the jaws of the big spotted one lacked something of their former vigor. Indeed, it could be seen that this fish was at the end of his rope, for he swung this way and that, as though unable to guide his course.
Even as the spectators continued to stare through their glass-covered windows, arranged for this very purpose, and well protected against all pressure to be met with down at the depth to which the boat could be lowered, they saw the larger shark give a last flip with its tail, and then roll over, belly up.
“That settles him, all right!” Ballyhoo was heard saying quite revengefully, just as if he had taken a vow upon himself never to spare a shark when he had a chance to annihilate such a creature.
“But the victor is almost as badly off, you notice,” Oscar called out. “See how he wobbles as he starts to swim away. The chances are a hundred to one he’ll be attacked by another of his kind before an hour goes by; and if that happens it’s good night to the game little chap.”
“Well, it was a pretty fast scrap while it lasted,” Ballyhoo asserted, “and if we’d staged it ourselves we couldn’t have done it any better. The luck of the Camera Boys still holds good,seems like. Everything comes our way, given time.”
“I only hope my pictures turn out first class,” Jack was heard saying. “You see, I’ve never had any experience taking such through a heavy glass like these observation windows or big bull’s-eyes are made of. Still, everything looked perfectly natural to the eye, as far as I could make out. How about that, boys?”
Oscar, wishing to satisfy the anxiety of the operator, hastened to assure him that all was well.
“If that’s all you’ve got to bother you, Jack, just take it for granted it will be the boss picture,” he went on to say. “Of course, a whole lot depends on whether your focus was good, and if the rising and falling motion of the boat didn’t interfere with first-class work.”
“I’m not afraid of that part,” the other asserted, which ended the talk on that particular subject.
“Now the engines have started up again, you notice,” Ballyhoo announced glibly. “The show being over, that act of it anyway, we mean to commence going on again. What comes next, I wonder? Some terrible monster of this under-the-sea land will perhaps try to knock a hole in the side of our craft, thinking it’s a big whale come down to look the ground over. Be ready for anything, Jack. We’re in this business for thrillers, just remember.”
“And I imagine we’ll have all we want of the same before we’re through with it,” Jack told himin return, as he once more took up his station at his post, and made ready to turn on the “hand power” when the right occasion arose.
Now that they were moving back and forth, they discovered new and entrancing objects to admire. Captain Shooks was evidently carrying out his announced programme when he said that his line would be to drop down and “comb every foot of the sea bottom around Coco,” looking for some sign of that long-lost vessel, the fame of whose treasure-trove had come down in some musty document.
The Company believed there might be an element of truth in the story, and until a thorough investigation had been made the first project of the list would not be abandoned.
Some times they were so near the sea bottom that they actually cruised amidst those strange trees such as mortal eye had possibly never before beheld, their greenish trunks bending as the submarine’s nose touched them, just as though they were great canes, and as pliable as reeds.
Other moving objects were encountered from time to time, giant crabs, and singular looking creatures to which the staring boys could give no distinguishing name, because they had never before seen anything similar, nor did they remember having read of such grotesque objects.