第30章

GASPING FOR AIR

For an instant after the electrical charge had been fired nothing seem to happen.The giant starfish still enveloped Ned Newton in its grip, while Tom and his two companions stood tensely waiting and those in the submarine looked anxiously out through the thick glass windows.

Then, as the powerful current made itself felt, those watching saw one of the arms slowly loosen its grip.Another floated upward, as a strand of rope idly drifts in the current.Tom saw this, and called through his telephone:

"He's feeling it! Go to him, boys! Koku, you with the axe!" They needed no second urging.

Springing toward the monster, Koku with upraised axe and Norton with the lance, they attacked the starfish.Hacking and stabbing, they completed the work begun by Tom's electric gun.With one powerful stroke, even hampered as he was by the heavy medium in which he operated, Koku lopped off one of the legs.Norton thrust his lance deep into the body of the monster, but this was hardly needed, for the starfish was now dead, and gradually the remaining arms relaxed their hold.

Pushing with their weapons, the giant and the sailor now freed Ned from the bulk of the creature, which floated away.It was almost immediately attacked by a school of fish that seemed to have been waiting for just this chance.Ned Newton was freed, but for a moment he staggered about on the floor of the sea, hardly able to stand.

"Are you all right, Ned? Did he pierce your suit?" asked Tom, anxiously through the telephone.

"Yes, I'm all right," came back the reassuring answer."I'm a bit cramped from the way he held me, but that's all.Guess he found this suit of rubber and steel too much for his digestion."Slowly, for Ned was indeed a bit stiff and cramped, they made their way back to the submarine, passing through a vast horde of small fishes which had been attracted by the dismemberment of the monster that hadbeen killed.

"There'll be sharks along soon," said Tom to Ned through the telephone."They're not going to miss such a gathering of food as these small fry present.And sharks will present a different emergency from starfish."Tom spoke truly, for a little later, when they were all once more safely within the submarine, looking through the windows, they saw a school of hungry sharks feeding on the millions of small fish that gathered to eat the creature that had attacked Ned.

"What did you think was happening to you out there?" asked Tom, when the diving suits had been put away.

"I didn't know what to think," was the answer."I was prospecting around, and I leaned over to pick up a particularly beautiful bit of coral.All at once I felt something over me, as a cloud sometimes hides the sun.I looked up, saw a big black shape settling down, and then I felt my arms pinned to my sides.At first I thought it was an octopus, but in a moment I realized what it was.Though I never thought before that starfish grew so large.""Nor I," added Tom."Well, you've had an experience, to say the least." They remained a little longer in the vicinity, Tom and his officers making observations they thought would be useful to them later, and thenthe submarine went up to the surface.

They cruised in the open the rest of that day, recharging the storage batteries and getting ready for the search which, Tom calculated, would take them some time.As he had explained, it would not be easy to locate the Pandora in the fathomless depths of the sea.

Ned and Mr.Damon did some fishing while they were on the surface, and, as their luck was good, there was a welcome change from the usual food of the M.N.1.Though, as Tom had installed a refrigerating plant, fresh meat could be kept for some time, and this, in addition to the tinned and preserved foods, gave them an ample larder.

"When are we going to begin the real search for the gold?" asked Mr.Hardley that evening.

"I should say in another day or two," Tom answered, after he hadconsulted the charts and made calculations of their progress since leaving their dock."We shall then be in the vicinity of the place where you say the Pandora went down, and, if you are sure of your location, we ought to be able to come approximately near to the location of the gold wreck.""Of course I am sure of my figures," declared Mr.Hardley."I had them directly from the first mate, who gave them to the captain.""Well, it remains to be seen," replied Tom Swift."We'll know in a few days.""And I hope there will be no more taking chances," went on the gold- seeker."I don't see any sense in you people going out in diving suits to fight starfish.We need those suits to recover the gold with, and it's foolish to take needless risks."His tone and manner were dictatorial, but Tom said nothing.Only when he and Mr.Damon were alone a little later the eccentric man said:

"Tom will you ever forgive me for introducing you to such a pest?" "Oh, well, you didn't know what he was," said Tom good- naturedly.

"You're as badly taken in as I am.Once we get the gold and give him his share, he can get off my boat.I'll have nothing more to do with him!"Not wishing to navigate in the darkness, for fear of not being able to keep an accurate record of the course and the distance made Tom submerged the craft when night came and let her come to rest on the bottom of the sea.He calculated that two days later they would be in the vicinity of the Pandora.

The night passed without incident, situated, as they were, on the sand about three hundred feet below the surface; and after breakfast Tom announced that they would go up and head directly for the place where the Pandora had foundered.