Astounding Stories of Super-Science, May, 1930.
by Various.
Into the Ocean"s Depths
A Sequel to "From the Ocean"s Depths"
_By Sewell Peaslee Wright_
[Ill.u.s.tration: The two shark-faced creatures were dragging at my arms and legs.]
[Sidenote: To save Imee"s race of Men-Who-Returned-To-The-Sea, two Land-Men answer the challenge of the dreaded Rorn, corsairs of the under-seas.]
I read the telegram for the second time. Then I folded it up, put it in my pocket, and pressed the little b.u.t.ton on my desk. My mind was made up.
"Miss Fentress, I"m leaving this afternoon on an extended trip. The Florida address will reach me after Thursday. Tell Wade and Bennett to carry on. I think you have everything in hand? Is everything clear to you?"
"Yes, Mr. Taylor." Miss Fentress was not in the least surprised. She was used to my sudden trips. The outfit got along perfectly without me; sometimes I think my frequent absences are good for the business.
The boys work like the devil to make a fine showing while I"m away.
And Miss Fentress is a perfect gem of a secretary. I had nothing to worry about there.
"Fine! Will you get my diggings on the phone?" I hurriedly put my few papers in place, and signed a couple of letters. Then Josef was on the wire.
"Josef? Pack my bags right away, will you? For Florida. The usual things.... Yes, right away. I"ll be leaving by noon.... Yes, driving through."
That was that. There were a few more letters to sign, a few hasty instructions to be given regarding one or two matters that were hanging fire. Then, on my way to my bachelor apartments, I read the telegram through again:
THINK IT WORTH WHILE IF YOU FEEL ADVENTUROUS AND HAVE NOTHING PRESSING TO COME TO THE MONSTROSITY STOP MAKE YOUR WILL FIRST STOP SHALL LOOK FOR YOU ANY DAY AS I KNOW YOU ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR EXCITEMENT AND NEVER HAVE ANYTHING IMPORTANT TO DO SO DON"T BOTHER TO WIRE STOP PERHAPS WE SHALL SEE HER AGAIN
MERCER
I smiled at Mercer"s frank opinion of my disposition and my importance to my business. But I frowned over the admonition to make my will, and the last telling statement in the wire: "Perhaps we shall see her again." I knew whom he meant by "her."
Josef had my bags waiting for me. A few hurried instructions, most of them shouted over my shoulder, and I was purring down the main drag, my duffel in the rumble, and the roadster headed due south.
"Perhaps we shall see her again." Those words from the telegram kept coming before my eyes. Mercer knew what he was about, if he wanted my company, when he put that line in his wire.
I have already told the story of our first meeting with the strange being from the ocean"s depths that, wounded and senseless, had been flung up on the beach near Warren Mercer"s Florida estate. In all the history of civilization, no stranger bit of flotsam had ever been cast up by a storm.
Neither of us would ever forget that slim white creature, swathed in her veil of long, light golden hair, as she crouched on the bottom of Mercer"s swimming pool, and pictured for us, by means of Mercer"s thought-telegraph (my own name for the device; he has a long and scientific t.i.tle for it with as many joints as a centipede), the story of her people.
They had lived in a country of steaming mist, when the world was very young. They had been forced into the sea to obtain food, and after many generations they had gone back to the sea as man once emerged from it. They had grown webs on their hands and feet, and they breathed oxygen dissolved in water, as fishes do, instead of taking it from the atmosphere. And under the mighty Atlantic, somewhere, were their villages.
The girl had pictured all these things for us, and then--nearly a year ago, now--she had pleaded with us to let her return to her people. And so we had put her back into the sea, and she had bade us farewell. But just before she disappeared, she had done a strange thing.
She had pointed, under the water, out towards the depth, and then, with a broad, sweeping motion of her arm, she had indicated the sh.o.r.e, as though to promise, it seemed to me, that she intended to return.
And now, Mercer said, we might see her again! How? Mercer, conservative and scientific, was not the man to make rash promises.
But how...?
The best way to solve the riddle was to reach Mercer, and I broke the speed laws of five states three days running.
I did not even stop at my own little shack. It was only four miles from there to the huge, rather neglected estate, built in boom times by some newly-rich promoter, and dubbed by Mercer "The Monstrosity."
Hardly bothering to slow down, I turned off the concrete onto the long, weed-grown gravel drive, and shot between the two ma.s.sive, stuccoed pillars that guarded the drive. Their corroded bronze plates, bearing the original t.i.tle of the estate, "The Billows," were a promise that my long, hard drive was nearly at an end.
As soon as the huge, rambling structure was fairly in sight, I pressed the flat of my hand on the horn b.u.t.ton. By the time I came to a locked-wheel halt, with the gravel rattling on my fenders, Mercer was there to greet me.
"It"s ten o"clock," he grinned as he shook hands. "I"d set noon as the hour of your arrival. You certainly must have made time, Taylor!"
"I did!" I nodded rather grimly, recalling one or two narrow squeaks.
"But who wouldn"t, with a wire like this?" I produced the crumpled telegram rather dramatically. "You"ve got a lot to explain."
"I know it." Mercer was quite serious now. "Come on in and we"ll mix highb.a.l.l.s with the story."
Locked arm in arm, we entered the house together, and settled ourselves in the huge living room.
Mercer, I could see at a glance, was thinner and browner than when we had parted, but otherwise, he was the same lithe, soft-mannered little scientist I had known for years; dark-eyed, with an almost beautiful mouth, outlined by a slim, closely cropped and very black moustache.
"Well, here"s to our lady from the sea," proposed Mercer, when Carson, his man, had brought the drinks and departed. I nodded, and we both sipped our highb.a.l.l.s.
"Briefly," said my friend, "this is the story. You and I know that somewhere beneath the Atlantic there are a people who went back to whence they came. We have seen one of those people. I propose that, since they cannot come to us, we go to them. I have made preparations to go to them, and I wanted you to have the opportunity of going with me, if you wish."
"But how, Mercer? And what--"
He interrupted with a quick, nervous gesture.
"I"ll show you, presently. I believe it can be done. It will be a dangerous adventure, though; I was not joking when I advised you to make your will. An uncertain venture, too. But, I believe, most wonderfully worth while." His eyes were shining now with all the enthusiasm of the scientist, the dreamer.
"It sounds mighty appealing," I said. "But how...."
"Finish your drink and I"ll show you."
I downed what was left of my highball in two mighty gulps.
"Lead me to it, Mercer!"