morning. Our diving too close to their gadget creates false sounds,
especially our bubbles. Therefore we are requested politely but firmly
to stay away."

Scotty whistled.

Rick laughed. "Quite a story," he said.

"I pointed out the obvious," Tony went on, "that it was strange they
should choose a stormy night. Their answer was that storms upset fish,
and they thought it possible that some sounds might be obtained only
under storm conditions."

"Very interesting," Rick remarked. "It's a good story, and if we didn't
know Steve was after at least one of those men, we'd probably believe
it!"

"Fish noises!" Scotty exclaimed. "If they knew we'd been snooping around
before, they'd probably claim that the octopus really did wail, and that
they were only recording him. Your gag about screaming squid and
burbling barracuda would appeal to them, Tony."

The archaeologist chuckled. "Anyway, we got out of that one pretty well.
I had a little trouble banging my tank. Didn't want to do it overtly, of
course. Finally I managed to get in position while we were swimming to
the boat, and I banged my tank against one of theirs. But how did you
know what to do?"

Rick explained briefly, then he broke into a smile again. "These guys
are smart," he declared. "I like that fish-recording story."

"It's appealing," Tony admitted. "I'm almost tempted to pay them another
call tomorrow to ask if they have captured for posterity the hunting cry
of the wild sea trout, or the love song of the gay sardine."

"But you won't," Scotty said practically. "You certainly came out of
that mess with a whole skin, Tony."

Rick laughed. "He's adventure-prone. And lucky. How do you beat a
combination like that?"

CHAPTER XVI

The Deadly Spring Gun

The storm blew itself out by noon of the following day, leaving an
overcast sky and heavy swells. An inspection with the binoculars showed
that all was quiet at the frogmen's house. Their boat was tied to the
pier.

"They probably recovered the brass ball during the night," Rick
observed, "or perhaps early this morning."

"The question is," Scotty remarked, "did they take the gadget to the
octopus cave?"

Tony joined them on the porch in time to hear Scotty's query. "I can
shed some light on that. It happens that I woke up at dawn and looked
out to see how the weather was behaving. The frogmen were anchored off
the eastern reef in the same place. We can assume that they picked up
the b