ooted four times for danger. The cabin was the home of a fairly
large moray eel! Both boys dropped their bars and grabbed for their
spear guns, but Scotty held up his hand in a sign to wait. Rick did so,
and saw the big eel emerge and swim rapidly toward the reef.

Scotty had shown wisdom. The moray is hard to kill, and this one would
have given them a battle that might have used up more air than they
could spare.

The water inside the cabin was murky. Rick looked at his watch. They had
only a few minutes left. He wrote on his slate, "Sty dwn til rsrve
wrning."

Scotty nodded agreement.

They watched as the water settled and the interior of the cabin grew
clearer. Evidently it had been a very small cabin. There was a rotted
frame that might once have been a single bunk, and a few broken, almost
disintegrated boards that might have been a table. Mattress and bedding
had long since vanished. Then Rick spotted a squarish shape under the
ruin of the bunk and motioned to Scotty. They went in after it.

The top crumbled under their touch and silt rose into the water around
them. But Rick persisted and felt fabric under his hands. He pulled it
out and recognized a seaman's jacket, brass buttons corroded and fabric
nearly rotted through. Apparently they had found a sea chest, but their
exploring hands discovered nothing but rotted fabrics.

Rick felt the warning constriction that told him he had only minutes
left. He pulled down the reserve lever of his tank and touched Scotty's
arm. He hooted twice for the ascent.

Back in the _Water Witch_, they connected their tanks to the compressor,
put the regulators on charged tanks, then tested their underwater
flashlights.

Rick said, "Do you realize I haven't taken a single picture?"

"Why not take some on the next dive?"

"Good idea." Rick went into the cabin and brought out his camera.

The camera was the same one he had adapted for night movies, during
their adventure known as _Smugglers' Reef_. He had built an underwater
case for it from stainless steel and Lucite. An intricate gear
arrangement allowed him to focus or change aperture underwater, and a
light meter in the rear of the case told him what setting to use. There
was an ordinary inner-tube valve projecting from one side by which the
case could be charged with compressed air to compensate for the pressure
of the water. The unit was battery-powered and had a bracket for
mounting the infrared light used for nigh