11 Diving Adventure

  Diving Adventure

  By Willard Price

  Chapter 1

  Undersea City

  About to descend to the sea bottom, they strapped on their gear - face mask, scuba tank, weighted belt, and fins.

  ‘Ready?’ asked Dr Dick.

  ‘Ready,’ Hal said.

  Ready for the great adventure. Hal Hunt and his younger brother, Roger, had made many dives in the past. But never to an underwater city. They looked over the rail of the research ship, Discovery, but could not see to the bottom. The idea that there were streets, houses, parks, factories down below seemed utterly fantastic.

  ‘Over we go,’ said Dr Dick, and they dropped from the deck into the tropical waters of the Great Barrier Reef.

  They sank rapidly through shoals of brightly coloured angelfish. Deeper, the many colours merged into a rich blue. They began to see the roofs of Undersea City. They felt like aviators winging down from the sky to a busy town.

  Dr Dick began to swim and signed to them to follow. He led them to a broad avenue and they slowly dropped into it, until their feet touched the ground two hundred feet below the surface of the Pacific. A sign told them that this was Main Street. They half walked, half swam, among other men who were doing the same.

  All were light on their feet. In fact, it was a little difficult to stay on the sea floor. They floated rather than walked.

  The weight of the lead in their belts held them down, but was nearly offset by the density of the water. The result was that the least extra pressure of a foot against the earth sent them soaring like birds.

  Mischief-loving Roger could not refrain from trying out his powers of flight. With a sudden push of his foot he bounced himself upwards a dozen feet and came down like an acrobat to stand on Hal’s shoulders.

  Hal, surprised, unable to see straight above him because of the mask, didn’t know what had struck him. It might be a dangerous fish. He reached up to push it away. His hand encountered Roger’s ankle.

  He closed his hand on the ankle, brought the rascal down, turned him over, and stood him on his head. Dr Dick looked on with tolerant amusement as the boy got back on his feet.

  At the corner of Main and Research Streets Dr Dick stopped at a house somewhat larger than the others. Like all the rest, it stood on stilts about seven feet high. There were no steps up to the front door - in fact, there was no front door. Dr Dick went beneath the building. Then, with a thrust of his fins, he sent himself up until his head went through a hole in the floor. He clambered up into the house. The boys followed.

  There was no water in the house. The boys and their leader removed their masks and tanks.

  Roger’s eyes were wide open in disbelief. He stared at the hole in the floor.

  ‘Why doesn’t the water come up into the house?’ he squeaked.

  Hal laughed. ‘You sound like Donald Duck,’ he said. But so did he.

  Dr Dick smiled. ‘You’ll have to learn to keep your voices low. The reason they are so high is that the air supplied to the houses down here is not like the air you breathe up above. There, it has a lot of oxygen and nitrogen in it. At this depth so much of those gases would be poisonous. Here you are breathing mostly helium and it’s the “squeak gas” - but you’ll soon learn to talk low.

  ‘Now, you asked why doesn’t the water come up into the house. It’s because we keep the air pressure in the house exactly the same as the water pressure outside.’

  Roger looked blank.

  On a side table was a pitcher of drinking water. Dr Dick took a glass, turned it over, pressed the open end down into the water..

  ‘You see what happens,’ he said. ‘No water goes up into the glass. The air in the glass keeps out the water. Every house, office, and shop in town is kept dry in the same way. So long as the air is as strong as the water, the water is kept out. There’s a dressing-room yonder. You’ll find towels and some dry clothes.’

  The boys stripped off their gear and swimming trunks, towelled themselves dry, and dressed. They came out to find the living-room empty. Dr Dick called to them from another room. They went into what appeared to be an office. Dr Dick sat behind a large desk.

  Alan Dick was a kindly man, with a twinkle in his eyes, but looked just what he was - a distinguished man of Science, Director of the Undersea Science Foundation which had built Undersea City and was in charge of its many experiments. ‘Well,’ he said. ‘How do you like it in our new world?’ ‘It’s amazing,’ Hal said. ‘A very strange world to us.

  Perhaps you’d better start by briefing us on what we are supposed to do.’

  Chapter 2

  Treasures of the sea bottom

  ‘Let me tell you first,’ said Dr Dick, ‘what we are trying to accomplish here. Then I’ll tell you how you fit in. We’re here to study the best ways ta use the fabulous riches of the sea.

  ‘The world needs these riches. The land is not producing enough. After all, only one quarter of the world is land. All the rest is sea. We have dug out of the land a large part of the valuable metals. You don’t hear any more about a Gold Rush in California or Australia - the gold is gone.

  ‘The silver mines are being exhausted. Copper mines are dying out. There is a severe shortage of magnesium. A single big aeroplane needs a ton of it. There are five million tons of magnesium in every cubic mile of sea water.

  ‘Manganese is necessary to make steel. Much of the sea floor is covered with potato-shaped lumps of manganese.

  ‘There’s plenty of nickel and cobalt in the sea. There are great reservoirs of oil beneath the sea floor. There are vast stores of potash, platinum, titanium, sulphur, zinc, uranium, bromine, tin, and diamonds.’

  ‘Why isn’t something being done about it?’ Hal asked. ‘Why aren’t the mining companies interested?’

  They are,’ said Dr Dick. ‘Deeply interested. Many British and Russian firms and more than a thousand American companies are digging the sea bottom. They want to know how to do it better. Some of the big ones are paying us to find out. That’s the reason why our Undersea Science Foundation was formed.’

  ‘And now tell us what we can do to help,’ Hal said.

  ‘In a way,’ said Dr Dick, ‘your job is the most important of all. There’s just one thing that the world needs more than metals.’

  ‘And what is that?’

  ‘Food. Eighty per cent of all animal life is in the sea. And ninety per cent of the vegetation. And yet only one per cent of human food comes from the sea. That’s a problem for naturalists like you. How can we get more out of the sea? How can we make the sea produce the kinds of food that people like? We have something to learn from the Orientals. The Chinese have been running fish farms for centuries. The Japanese make seaweed farms - seaweed is a good food. They grow millions of oysters in their oyster beds. And the oysters produce millions of cultured pearls that bring a good price all over the world.

  ‘Whales should be protected so they can breed freely. The meat and oil of one whale is worth thirty thousand dollars. The Lapps don’t go out in the wilds when they want a reindeer. They raise their own. We don’t depend upon finding a wild sheep when we want some mutton. We have our flocks. We cultivate the earth. Why not cultivate the sea?’

  Hal’s eyes were shining. ‘Now I begin to see what you want of us.’

  ‘Of course you do,’ Dr Dick smiled. ‘We’ve followed your career with interest. Your father is a famous collector of animals and has sent you to many parts of the world to take land animals and creatures of the sea alive for zoos and aquariums so you have had a lot of experience as a naturalist. And we need a naturalist to head up these studies.’

  ‘But why me?’ Hal asked. ‘There are many naturalists much older and more experienced.’ Hal wish
ed at that moment that he was a lot more than nineteen years of age.

  ‘You have more experience,’ Dr Dick said, ‘out in the wilds than a naturalist twice your age gets in the laboratory with his eye glued to a microscope. Don’t be ashamed of your youth. It’s just what we need - work undersea is much tougher than up yonder and takes plenty of physical strength and endurance.’ He looked Hal over. ‘You look as if you could stand the gaff. And your brother too. How old are you, Roger?’

  ‘Fourteen.’

  ‘Big for your age. You look as if you could take on a gorilla single handed. You both understand the arrangement I made with your father. Besides helping us, you will be allowed to collect rare fish for his aquariums. So your career as take-‘em-alive men will not be interrupted. Of course we will provide you with food and lodging. Perhaps you would like to see now where you will live. Your cottage is just round the corner on Barracuda Street. Let’s go.’

  Changing back into their diving gear, they dropped through the ‘front door’ and swam round to Barracuda Street.

  Chapter 3

  Home beneath the sea

  Entering their cottage through the hole in the floor, the boys found themselves in a comfortable living-room that opened into a kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms.

  ‘How do you like it?’ Dr Dick asked.

  ‘It’s groovy,’ Roger exclaimed.

  ‘Wonderful,’ said Hal. ‘Who would ever imagine a place like this at the bottom of the sea! But we don’t need so much space. Two bedrooms - one would be enough.’

  ‘And one will be all you will have,’ Dr Dick said. ‘You see, there isn’t enough housing to go round, so it’s necessary for us to double up a bit. I hope you don’t object to sharing your cottage.’

  ‘Not at all,’ Hal said. ‘In fact, we’ll enjoy having company.’

  ‘I think you’ll find Mr Kaggs good company,’ said the director. ‘He’s a well-educated man of the highest moral principles.’

  Hal knitted his brows. ‘What did you say his name was?’

  ‘Kaggs.’

  Hal was trying to remember. ‘Is he - a preacher?’

  ‘Why yes. How did you know? The Rev. Merlin Kaggs. He’s the pastor of our church.’

  ‘Merlin Kaggs,’ said Hal. ‘Yes, we know him.’

  ‘Fine. That makes it all the better. Since you are already friends you should get along very well together.’

  Hal thought bitterly, I’d rather share the cottage with a snake. But something kept him from saying it.

  Roger was not so discreet. Isn’t that the guy who —’

  ‘Pipe down,’ said Hal sharply.

  He, or Roger, could ruin Kaggs’ reputation with ten words. Kaggs was no holy man. He was a criminal with two murders to his credit. He pretended to be a missionary, went about with bis hands clasped in prayer, and quoted the Bible while plotting to steal and kill. He had schemed to steal a pearl farm and because the boys stood in his way he had left them to die on a desert island.’ Yes, Hal remembered the ‘Reverend’ Merlin Kaggs only too well.

  But perhaps the rascal had reformed. Dr Dick thought well of him. He was honoured in this submarine community. Hal was no tattletale. He believed in giving every man the benefit of the doubt. He must keep quiet -at least until he had had a chance to talk with the fellow and find out whether he was the thief and killer he had always been, or was now a new man.

  Thinking these thoughts he stood by a Plexiglas window looking out into the strangest street he had ever seen - a street swarming with fish.

  ‘What made you choose this spot for your town?’ he asked Dr Dick.

  The director came to the window. ‘There’s part of your answer,’ he said, nodding at the fish. ‘Sea life is more plentiful in tropical waters than anywhere else. And coral reefs attract fish. They eat the coral animals and they love to hide in the holes in the reef. The Great Barrier is the largest coral reef in the whole world - one thousand two hundred and fifty miles long - and harbours the world’s richest sea life. The sea floor is full of minerals. So it’s the ideal place for a study of oceanic resources.’

  Roger was peering out of the window. ‘What’s that small building behind the cottage?’

  ‘That, my boy, should be of special interest to you. That’s your garage. Your car has already been parked in it.’

  ‘My car?’

  ‘Well, not exactly. Underwater, it’s better than a car. Really, a diving boat. You’re our official errand boy, you know. You will carry messages, tools, supplies from one part of the town to another. You know how to drive a car?’

  ‘Of course.’

  ‘Then you’ll have no trouble with the glass jeep.’

  ‘Glass? How could it be glass?’

  ‘Something new,’ said Dr Dick. ‘Other diving boats are made of steel - the Diving Saucer, Deep Star, Deep Diver, Midget Sub, Cachalot, Sunfish, and the rest This is the first to be made of glass.’

  ‘Why glass? I should think glass would break,’

  ‘On the contrary, glass will resist sea pressure better than steel. The more you compress it, the stronger it becomes. Also, it has some fibreglass and plastic in it. Naturally, it’s much lighter than steel. And salt water doesn’t corrode it, so it can stay under water for weeks or years without damage. And the most wonderful thing about it is that you can see through it - ahead, behind, up, down, everywhere.’

  ‘Great,’ Hal said. ‘Who was smart enough to invent that?’

  ‘The first was built by a physicist named McLean -the same man who invented the air-to-air missile. Director of the Naval Ordnance Test Station. He was awarded the Rockefeller Public Service Award of ten thousand dollars for his invention. Ours is not like the original. We have improved it a lot for our own use. But it’s still glass.’

  ‘Will it actually go deep without breaking?’ Hal wanted to know.

  ‘We think it can go to the deepest trenches of the ocean, thirty-six thousand feet down - nearly seven miles. That seems hard to believe, doesn’t it? It hasn’t been tested yet at such depths. Anybody who wants to take his life in his hands can go down with it that deep and see what happens. I wouldn’t care to be the one. Here’s a manual that tells you how to operate it.’ He handed Roger a small booklet. ‘And now if you will excuse me I must get back to the office.’

  Roger studied the manual, then popped out to the garage to examine the glass jeep.

  Hal, left alone, thought sourly about Kaggs, though happily about the work that lay ahead of him.

  Roger came back full of enthusiasm. ‘Greatest thing you ever saw. Want to take a spin?’

  Hal was a little apprehensive. ‘Sure you can manage?’

  ‘It doesn’t look too difficult. Let’s try it out.’

  Chapter 4

  The Glass Jeep

  It was the strangest garage they had ever seen. It was open to the sea and full of water. A large window in the roof let in light.

  At first Hal could see no glass boat. Then he realized that he was looking straight through it. It had just enough positive buoyancy to hold it against the roof of the garage.

  It was like the house - the front door was a hole in the bottom.

  The glass diving boat resembled a large egg, about six feet long. The small end was the bow. There was a low seat in the rear for the two occupants. The boat looked rather like a large shiny bug because the four short jet-pipes projecting from it were like legs, and a jointed arm stretched out ahead with jaws at the end ready to bite. This was the ‘grab’ that could be used to seize objects, animals, or fish.

  They swam up and crawled in through the hole. The inside was dry and full of air. Roger closed the hatch.

  ‘How do you get it out of the garage?’ Hal asked. ‘1 don’t see any propeller.’

  ‘It works by jets - something like a jet plane.’ Roger was in his element. He enjoyed teaching his elder brother. ‘Each of those pipes is a jet, but they spout water instead of air. So they’re called hydrojets. Hydro means wat
er.’

  ‘Yes, I know,’ said Hal impatiently. ‘Get on with it.’

  ‘The rear jets push the thing forward. The left forward jet turns the bow to the right. The right jet turns the bow to the left. You can go up by pointing both forward jets down. You go down by pointing them up. You can even back up - by turning the back jets off and pointing the front jets straight forward.’

  ‘Yes, but how do you operate these jets?’

  ‘Simple. See this lever? Push it up and you go up. Down, and you go down. Left, you go left, and right you go right. Over here into reverse and you go back.’

  ‘And that button?’

  That works the grab. Pull it out and the jaws open. Push in, and the jaws close.’

  ‘Sounds pretty simple,’ admitted Hal. ‘I wonder if it’s as simple as you think. Let’s go.’

  Roger started the motor. The glass jeep slid out of the garage and headed straight for the next house.

  ‘Look out, we’re going to crash.’

  Roger seized the steering lever. In his excitement, he pushed it the wrong way. The boat plunged towards the downstairs window.

  In a panic, he jammed the lever to the right. The jeep turned smartly right, and threatened to take off the heads of some of the men passing along the street. Roger pushed the lever up and the jeep climbed like a scared cat.

  It taught Roger two things. One, be sure you know what you’re doing. Two, this jeep was like something alive. It could turn on a sixpence, shoot up like a meteor, drop like a falling star.

  ‘It beats a car forty ways,’ he said.

  Now they were passing over the roofs of Undersea City. All the roofs were flat - they did not need to be gabled since they never had to shed rain or snow. Both the roofs and the walls were covered by seaweed and molluscs, food for the thousands of fish. Clouds of fish parted before the bow of the glass jeep.

  Columns of bubbles rose from the buildings and from the aqualungs of swimmers and pedestrians. A building marked air was evidently the point from which pressurized helium breathing gas was distributed by underground conduit.