The of the sun touched the and it, out of sight.
There were in the sky, and the harbor
water them in of color. The _Esperance_
swayed very and very on the low swells. In minutes
two of the members of the ship's company got the up
with professional efficiency. One of them below, and the
_Esperance's_ engine to rumble. Davis took the wheel, and
the small to move toward the open sea while Nick played a
salt-water on the it fast. The twilight
of the itself into night. Lights and
glittered and on the water.
Terry 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 that I'm the ship's
cook, and the boys aren't professional sailors, and my father
isn't--"
"Isn't in this for money," said Terry. "It's for
something else. And I don't think it's 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 the again, and presently to
where Davis sat 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, all the mystery. Part of it was
Deirdre's idea. She it would make our more
interesting, so you'd be more likely to take it up. But when I think
about explaining, I immediately."
Terry sat down. The _Esperance_ on. Her and 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 her with
underwater ears and a radar, at least. Was there anything else?"
"No," said Terry curtly. "Nothing else."
"She the of a of fish," said Davis. He frowned. "Some
of them you might call very fish. You haven't anything about
that?"
"No," said Terry. "Nothing."
"I think, then," said Davis, "that I'd not myself to
scorn. I'd like to be able to read her skipper's mind, though. But it's
possible he thinks he's lucky. And it's possible he's right."
Terry waited. Davis 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 less and less smooth. There were little sounds
of against the yacht's bow. The of her engine was not
intrusive. The increased. Davis gave a of
having said all he to say for the time being. Terry stirred.
"You want me to a gadget," he said. "To drive fish. Would you want
to give me some details?"
Davis considered. A of 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 we've got so far. There is one I'd
give a to have! You know, a depth-finder. It sends a of sound
down to the and times the echo back. Very much like radar,
in a way. Both send out a and time its return."
Terry nodded. There was no 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 under me. If I had a of ships doing the same thing, we
could profiles and have a map of the bottom."
"That's right," Terry.
"What I'd give a for," said Davis, "would be a depth-finder that
would send spot-pulses, like does. Aimed sound-pulses. And an
arrangement so it the like the
sky. One make a of the in and heights,
mapping and underwater. Could something like that be
done?"
"Probably," Terry told him. "It might take a good 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 would like to
have a picture of the at a spot there!"
Terry said nothing. He'd been angry, then mollified, and now he
felt to angry again. There was nothing in what was
wanted of him, after to him 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 forward. Four came up
out of the forecastle. The up and filled. The engine stopped.
The motion of the changed. More came aboard, but the movement
was steadier. Davis came and took the wheel once more.
"I think," he said, "that we're acting in a way to--hm--be annoying. I
ought to my cards on the table. But I can't. For one thing, I
haven't a full hand yet. For another, there are some you'll
have to out for yourself, in a like this."
"Such as--"
"Well," said Davis with a air, "take those _orejas de
ellos_, for an example. _Ellos_ are to be some of beings
at the of the sea who to fish and fishermen. It's a
superstition pure and simple. Suppose I said I was the
possibility that there were such--beings. You'd think I was crazy,
wouldn't you?"
Terry shrugged.
"What I am in," said Davis, "has it for
me to some parts from the in harbor
back yonder. Nick called them by short-wave, they sent the parts ashore
and gave them to Deirdre, and she them out to you."
Terry blinked. Then he realized. Of course, that was where just about
any for would be found--in the
electronics stores of a flattop! They needed to have such at
hand. They'd them in store. Davis said drily, "They wouldn't
supply parts to a who was gods or
devils. So what I'm with isn't a superstition. Right?"
"Y-yes," Terry.
It was true. The Navy would not for a crackpot
civilian. It was not likely, either, that Horta would have so
definitely that the Philippine Government wanted somebody with Terry's
qualifications to go for a on the _Esperance_.
Deirdre put her up through the after-cabin hatch.
"Dinner is served," she said cheerfully.
"The wheel," said Davis to Terry.
He forward. All four of the non-professional came with him
when he returned.
"This is the of the gang," said Davis. "You met Nick. The others
are Tony Drake, Jug Bell, and Doug Holmes." He an gesture
as they hands in turn. "Harvard, Princeton, Yale--and Nick's
M.I.T. It's your turn at the wheel, Tony."
One of the four took over. The others after Davis and Terry.
Terry was silent. Davis had wanted to that he was being
informative, and yet he'd said nothing about the or
the purpose of the _Esperance's_ complement.
Dinner in the after-cabin was almost as to Terry. Seen at
close range across a table, the four men not
possibly be anything but college undergraduates. They were to
Davis as an older man and they to be a little about Terry,
because he was older than themselves but not an honorary
contemporary. They Deirdre with the possible
approval.
Conversation began, at but only preposterous.
There was an about the of porpoises,
based on of their brain structure. Tony observed
profoundly that without an thumb not lead
to artefacts, and hence no and no great intelligence
was possible. Jug the of brain as an
indication of intellect. Intellect would be to a which
could neither make use a tool. Doug that the point was
absurd. He pointed to children once as but actually
having high I.Q.'s. They had intellects, though they had been useless
because of their to communicate. But Nick that
without they'd have nothing to talk about but food, danger, and
who where with for what. All of which, he observed, needed no
brains.
Davis amusedly. Deirdre in the that without
hands or an poetry, and Jug
protested that that was nothing to use a brain for--and the talk turned
into a about poetry. Doug that the
finest possible were for the and
appreciation of true poetry. Then Davis said, "Tony's still at the
wheel."
The died and the crew-cuts themselves to eating,
so one of them through and him.
Afterward, Davis settled to a short-wave tuning
process to music from an distance. Deirdre Tony
his and talked with him while he ate it. Terry and
paced and as the _Esperance_ on through the night.
He couldn't make out anything at all about the or the purpose
behind the _Esperance's_ and purpose. He about
the whole business. Like most technically-minded men, he become
absorbed in a problem, if it was a device difficult to design
or a design that somehow didn't work. Such him. But
the _Esperance's_ was not with a problem like that. There
was no pattern in their talk or to match the way a technical
mind would go about a solution. The problem was bafflingly
vague, yet there _was_ one.
_La Rubia_ was an in it. Possibly Davis' mention of a
partial map of the of the Luzon Deep in somewhere. Davis
had spoken of _orejas de ellos_ with some familiarity, but no
Navy ship would in the of a fisherman's
superstition in which didn't any longer. The
Philippine was modern and efficient. Fishermen used
submarine ears without fears, and if they to
imaginary _ellos_ it was as an American would say "knock on wood," with
no that it meant anything.
Whatever the _Esperance's_ purpose was, there was nothing about
it--not if a with and vacuum
tubes to try to help, and the police of Manila Terry
tactfully--through Horta--to join the yacht, and no less than a Navy
Captain had named him as someone to be recruited.
Deirdre came and replaced Tony at the wheel. The _Esperance_
sailed on. A last-quarter moon was now low on the eastern
horizon. It larger and nearer to the earth than when from
more climes. The wake of the in the moonlight.
The wide of its top
and its on the deck. The only on the ship was the
binnacle lights and the red and green lights. Deirdre the
_Esperance_ on course.
Terry up to where she sat, the wheel.
"I've been making guesses," he told her. "Your father.... I that
his has been by something, and he's to track
it down. I that at some time or another he's gotten
bored with making money and to have some fun."
Deirdre nodded.
"Very good! Almost true. But what he's in is a
good more than fun."
Terry in his turn.
"I that too. And it's likely that you've got a
volunteer of a professional one these men
consider it a into the absurd, and they'll
keep their mouths if something out to be classified
information."
"My father's doing this on his own!" said Deirdre quickly.
"There's nothing official about it. There isn't any classified
information about it. This is a private from the beginning!"
"But in the end it may turn out to be something else," said Terry.
"Y-yes. We don't know, though. It's to know!
It's--ridiculous!"
"And my for your being so with me is that you and
your father that I out for myself I'd
think it if you told me."
Deirdre did not answer for a moment. There was a movement Terry,
and Davis came on deck.
"That was good music!" he said pleasedly. "You missed some very
interesting sounds, Deirdre! You too, Holt."
"He's decided," said Deirdre, "that we're a little of our
enterprise and won't tell him about it for he'll laugh at
us."
Terry protested, "Not at all! Nothing like that!"
"When some forty-odd people have been killed by something inexplicable
at one time that we know of," said Davis, "--and we don't know how many
others have been killed at other times, or may be killed by it in the
future--I don't think that's a laughing matter."
He what should be the direction of the land. A light showed
there and vanished, then came on again and vanished. A minute later it
showed and disappeared, then came on again twice. It was very away.
Davis said in a different tone, "We can now, Deirdre. You
know the new one."
The _Esperance's_ the star at which it had been aiming.
It to another. Davis moved about, the alone. On
the new the over a little more and the water
rushing past her had a different sound. The sky larger and
more than it from a city. The yacht's wake streamed
behind her in a of brightness. Even the moon was strange.
It had the cold of something very near and menacing. It
looked as close as when through a of power.
The _Esperance_ very on the waste of waters.
Next morning, of course, the of was gone. There was
neither land any ship in sight, but and squawked
overhead, and the to and in the sunshine. Just
before the a metal plate in the had been up, and
a new, stubby, rose almost as high as the crosstrees. A
tiny basket-like object at its upper end. It was a
radar-bowl, and somehow it was not unusual, in the manner in
which it was mounted. Yet, such a was reasonable
on a with many lines that be fouled. Anyhow,
the was with affairs, and so it was company.
The work on the was in progress. Doug and Jug scrubbed
the deck. The other crew-cuts gave of from time to time,
appearing and vanishing. Davis at the wheel. Terry
felt useless, as well as puzzled.
"Can I do anything?" he asked awkwardly.
"You're your own boss," said Davis.
"Then I might as well see what can be done about that submarine
noisemaker."
"If you like it," said Davis, "fine!"
But he did not urge. Terry waited a moment. There was a of
contagion of purposefulness in this small group on the
_Esperance_. They had something they were trying to do, and it seemed
important to them. But Terry was an and would one until
he active in their joint effort.
He got out his and materials and spread them out. There was no
need to a recorder, since there was one among the supplies. The
rest wouldn't be difficult. He a space and
set to work. The he'd was essentially
simple. A ear was to up sounds. He had to
modify a and it in a water-tight housing, with
certain special that would make it directional. The
recorder would take the pick-up and register it on magnetic tape, while
playing it for listening. Then he had to a
machine for playing the under water. That a
unit for a horn, to the sound. It isn't
difficult to make a under water. One can two together
under the surface and a can it a mile or more away. But a
horn to is more difficult to build. It needs
extra power. A sound-truck in a city, with all the traffic
noises, will turn no more than fifteen of electricity into noise.
But much more power would be needed to produce a under
water.
Terry the into a ear--an _orejas de ellos_. Then
he to an to up the of the
sounds already for re-use under the sea. He had the parts. It was
mostly just labor. He sat cross-legged in the sunshine, not far
from the _Esperance's_ winch.
Nick came up from and aft. He spoke to Davis. Terry couldn't
hear what was said, but Davis gave orders.
The _Esperance_ over; away, away over. The four crew-cuts
adjusted the for maximum of the on the new direction
of motion. The to tear through the water like a racing
boat. Terry had to some of his smaller parts which started for
the scuppers. He looked up. Deirdre said cheerfully, "Our picked
up a that's _La Rubia_ on the way to Manila. We don't
want her to see us."
Terry blinked.
"Why?"
"We're going to take a look at the spot where we think she her
fish," said Deirdre. "It's that she so many, but
what's is the of fish she at times."
"How?"
Deirdre shrugged. Then she said irrelevantly, "_La Rubia's_ skipper
would like to have the only in the world, as you've to
know, and he doesn't think of radars, his own and possible
competitors. But there are of others. We're a on
somebody's radar-screen right now. In fact, we're to be. So
when my father got in _La Rubia_ and her--catches, he was
able to have somebody notice where she goes every time she away
from the fleet. And so he was told. It was all unofficial,
of course."
Terry over his again while the _Esperance_ along over the
off-shore swells. There was no land in anywhere. An albatross
glided overhead for a time, as if the _Esperance_ as a
possible of food. When Terry looked for it later it was gone.
Once there was a in many wave-flanks, and a small of
flying fish out of the sea with hazy, fins, and dived
back into the sea many yards from where they started.
But nothing of any anywhere. Terry and
soldered and tested. By he had a powerful amplifying
unit, set up to any the tape-recorder into it. Deirdre
prepared a meal. The of the _Esperance_ was supplied
with all of food. After the the course
again to a line which would her original at
some point.
Terry himself fuming. He'd set to work to make something that
Davis wanted, but his most questions still ran
against a blank to answer. Both Davis and Deirdre had spoken of
oddities in the of _La Rubia_. There not possibly be any
reason for them to to tell him what they were. Terry worked
himself into irritability, how he to come on the
_Esperance_ but not that he would be as someone who
wasn't allowed to know what else most did.
In the there was music in the forecastle, and Doug
came out and settled himself on the with a book of poetry.
Presently Nick sat close by Terry and as he
put mysterious-looking together into
incomprehensible groups. When he had finished, Terry did not his
handiwork. The unit came last. The part had to be
enclosed, water-tight, with a to the water on one
side and its parts protected from all on the other. The
device looked cobbled, but it worked, and in the
air.
Now he the ear into the recorder. He it
overside and the of the sea: the of sea
water against the _Esperance's_ hull, splashings, and very
faint, from who-knew-what.
"Watch the volume, will you?" Terry pointed out the Indication that
should not be exceeded. Nick nodded. "I'm going to the paddle
overside and see what we in the way of noise."
Nick hesitated. Then he said uneasily, "Wait a minute."
He to Davis, at the wheel. Deirdre joined
the two of them in a very discussion. Then she walked
over to Terry.
"I to say it," she told him with concern, "but my father
thinks it would be to try out the in water. Do you
mind?"
"Yes," Terry. "I do mind, since I'm not allowed to know the
reason for that or anything else."
He put away his and the parts. He pointed to the machines
he had already built.
"This is what your father wanted, I think. After it's I'll ask
you to put me ashore."
He below, where he to himself. But no one came, either to
inform him of Davis' reasons, or to tell him to do as he pleased. He
felt like a child who isn't allowed to play with other children; who is
arbitrarily from the purpose and the of his fellows.
Thinking in such terms did not make him any better. His irritation
increased. The _Esperance_ was in an enterprise that these
people very much doing. He'd joined them to accomplish
it, and they wouldn't tell him what it was. He hadn't the to
be with just blindly. And somehow the that
Deirdre was and a participant in the his an
insult.
He about Deirdre that urgent that a man may about one
or two, or at most three girls his whole lifetime. It wasn't a
romantic interest, at this stage, but he wanted to look well in her
eyes, and he was in anything she said and did. If
he left the _Esperance_ and to know her, he he'd be nagged
at by the that he'd a very mistake. He didn't want to
stop her. But he to be patronized.
He saw an open book on the after-cabin table and at
it. There were three or four and a newspaper stuck
into its pages. The book itself with at post-graduate
levels--which meant that it a good about electronics.
Still fuming, Terry at the pictures. The was of a
spherical object of plastic and of small size.
It had a number of visible through the
transparent case. It looked as if it might be an device
itself, but there was no of lead-in contacts, and the parts inside
made no at all. The second and third were of a similar
yet different object. The fourth photograph was a picture of
what looked like water, taken from a plane. The in
one corner. The center of the picture was an irregularly-shaped of
white. On close it appeared to be foam. But it looked as if
it were up in above the surface. If the water around it was
ocean--and it was--and the visible crest-lines were of waves--and they
were--that of must have been hundreds of yards in and
piled many high on the surface. Foam not in such masses
in the open sea. It would not last if it did.
On the of this picture a date had been inked--three days
before--and a position in of and longitude.
Terry to the rack. He out a and looked up the
position. Someone had a pencil-dot there. It was close to Thrawn
Island, on the very of the Luzon Deep, that submarine
chasm in which the entire Himalayan be without showing
a single above the surface.
He to the clipping. It was Manila, two years earlier. It
was an article on a report by the of a
sailing ship that stopped by Manila. Sailing ships are in
modern times. This ship reported that she had another of her own
kind at sea. The two ships to speak to each other. And
the one which came into Manila that when the other was
no more than two miles away, white appeared on the sea
just in of her. A of white up
and spread, up about thirty on the water. The of the
other ship entered the patch. And her tilted
downward, her forward, and the entire ship into
the white stuff, as if she had over a precipice. She did
not sink. She dropped. She "fell" under water--under the foam--her sails
still spread. One she proudly. The next she was
gone.
The position of such an was given. It was
almost the same as the position on the photograph of
foam taken from the air. At the of the Luzon Deep.
Terry that his had evaporated. The for it still
remained, but now he wanted to know more about this and about
the of plastic with those designed but enigmatic
inclusions. The plastic objects had a purpose. He wanted to know what.
And the news clipping....
Having that he would ask to be set as soon as
the fish-driving unit was tested, he was to take it back. He
stayed below, now angry at himself again. Nobody came below. Deirdre did
not to cook. Night fell. Well after he movements
on deck, and presently a voice which distant. The
_Esperance's_ abruptly. The quality of her motion altered
once more.
He abovedecks. Twilight was long over, but the moon was not yet up.
Here and there a wave-tip frothed, and appeared. Here
and there a of light be under water, where
some fish darted. But those were rare. Despite the yacht's
shining wake and the wave-tips, the sea was than usual.
Nick's voice came from aloft, and and to come from
the stars.
"... to port.... Two points ..."
Terry see the and against the stars, with
a small dark to it: Nick. The to swing.
On one she heavily. The her squarely, and
they did. Figures moved about the deck, or
tightening them. Nick's voice again, from overhead.
"Stea-a-a-dy!"
The _Esperance_ to turn. Rushing, water in the
air. The upon the of the yacht, which was sweeping
along on a wind.
For a while no one talked. Tony at the wheel, with Davis nearby,
by the light. Terry see Davis into the binnacle,
then at the ahead, and then aloft, where Nick to
swing among low-hanging stars.
"Ri-i-i-ght!" he called from high overhead. "Steady as she goes."
The _Esperance_ on, over the seas. Waves came out of
nowhere, the and then by--to nowhere. It was
hard to that the actually moved forward. She to
stay in the one spot. But there was a winding, wake,
and there was under her forefoot.
Then a appeared on the sea, at the limit of vision. It
spread out more as the _Esperance_ approached. Presently it was
clearly visible.
Dead ahead, the of the an incredible
spectacle. Until then there had been just a in the water,
where some fish away from the yacht's bulk. But here the entire
surface of the water with thousands and thousands of fish. They
were packed in a circle about a mile wide. When the
_Esperance_ got close enough, she up into the wind to look.
From a spot fifty yards ahead, the sea was alive with a frantic
dartings of things. They were crowded, packed almost
fin-to-fin. And it was not a surface only. From the yacht's
deck the of light were visible down, as as the clear
water would let them be seen. They a of chaos.
The circle, to an depth, was packed solid with agitated
fish. At that of the were splashing
in a frenzy. Solid from the water.
Some again and again, until they the spot where the
flashes were thickest, and got in the of their fellows. A
few to the sea. They to away in
stark terror. But those were only a few. The of fish
milled the circle. There were porpoises, darting
about as if all normal behavior, not trying to
feed on the fear-maddened all about them.
