thick stick, it was against the
rules of the town to throw dead fish in the streets.

"At last, to our unutterable joy, the old man turned and moved off with
us towards the harbor. He walked so slowly, muttering to himself all the
way and watching the man in blue out of the corner of his eye, that I
wanted to bite his finger to make him hurry up. Both Clippa and I were
actually at our last gasp.

"Finally he reached the sea-wall and giving us one last sad look he
dropped us into the waters of the harbor.

"Never had we realized anything like the thrill of that moment, as we
felt the salt wetness close over our heads. With one flick of our tails
we came to life again. The old man was so surprised that he fell right
into the water, almost on top of us. From this he was rescued by a
sailor with a boat-hook; and the last we saw of him, the man in blue was
dragging him away by the coat-collar, lecturing him again. Apparently
it was also against the rules of the town to throw dead fish into the
harbor.

"But we?--What time or thought had we for his troubles? WE WERE FREE!
In lightning leaps, in curving spurts, in crazy zig-zags--whooping,
shrieking with delight, we sped for home and the open sea!

"That is all of my story and I will now, as I promised last night, try
to answer any questions you may ask about the sea, on condition that I
am set at liberty as soon as you have done."

The Doctor: "Is there any part of the sea deeper than that known as the
Nero Deep--I mean the one near the Island of Guam?"

The Fidgit: "Why, certainly. There's one much deeper than that near the
mouth of the Amazon River. But it's small and hard to find. We call it
'The Deep Hole.' And there's another in the Antarctic Sea."

The Doctor: "Can you talk any shellfish language yourself?"

The Fidgit: "No, not a word. We regular fishes don't have anything to do
with the shellfish. We consider them a low class."

The Doctor: "But when you're near them, can you hear the sound they make
talking--I mean without necessarily understanding what they say?"

The Fidgit: "Only with the very largest ones. Shellfish have such weak
small voices it is almost impossible for any but their own kind to hear
them. But with the bigger ones it is different. They make a sad, booming
noise, rather like an iron pipe being knocked with a stone--only not
nearly so loud of course."

The Doctor: "I am most anxious to get down to the bottom of the sea--to
study ma