hey started
for the surface, Rick switched on the camera and looked at his watch.

They had been under only ten minutes! And he had been waiting for the
warning constriction of air running out!

Zircon broke water and instantly submerged again. He led the way a few
feet under the surface to where he had seen Tony and Scotty, then led
Rick to the top once more.

Tony and Scotty saw them emerge and without a word turned and started
back toward the cottage, pushing their floats. Instead of bothering with
the snorkel, Rick kept the aqualung mouthpiece in place and swam a few
feet under the surface, guiding himself by the wake of the others. He
was tired--and relieved.

The group crossed over the reef and swam to the beach in front of the
cottage. There they gathered at the water's edge and stripped off their
gear. For long moments no one spoke, then Zircon asked, "See anything,
Rick?"

"A little. Enough to get an answer, I think. We haven't discovered a new
breed of octopus, because they were installing something in the cave.
Something that makes a noise."

"Do you know that, or do you infer it?" Tony asked.

"I didn't hear the noise, if that's what you mean. But what else could
it be?"

"Too bad," Scotty said. "Now we won't have a new species named after us.
Come on, give us the word. How was it?"

Rick said, with complete truth, "I was scared to death."

"And so was I," Zircon admitted. "At first the sensation of complete
blackness caused an emotional reaction. Then I began to see that we had
done a rather foolish thing. And I almost got us into trouble by
forgetting that we send up a constant stream of bubbles." He told them
of his plan to get under the cave, and of Rick's warning.

"We thought of your bubbles," Scotty told them. "I talked it over with
Tony, and came within an ace of diving after you, although I doubt that
I could have reached bottom and found you. But we watched, and we
couldn't see any bubbles at all. It was too dark, and we were right
where the water was breaking."

"My question is, did you get a picture?" Zircon wanted to know.

"I'm sure I did. The camera was going, and it probably saw much more
than I did--since cameras don't get scared. But it won't do us much good
right now. We can't develop the film."

The boys picked up the equipment and carried it to the _Water Witch_.
Rick turned off the compressor. He was too tired to wait until all tanks
were full. Time enough for that in