"Aha!" said the Phoenix, with a mysterious smile. "All will unfold in time. Rest a.s.sured that the Plan is brilliant. In one stroke of genius it solves everything. Tactics, my boy! Napoleon had nothing on me."
"But what _is_ it, Phoenix?"
"Tut, my boy," said the Phoenix in a maddening way. "Control your impatience. You will see. Now, we shall have to buy some things, so we shall need money. Let me see.... Several of the Leprechauns have large pots of gold.... No, I fear they would not part with so much as a penny. Tightfisted, my dear fellow!--you never saw such misers.
Hmmm.... Well, there are the Dragons, of course; they guard heaps of treasure in caves. But no--they are excellent chaps in most respects, but frightfully stuffy about loans and gifts. No.... The Djinn? No, his money is all tied up in Arabian oil speculation. Aha! Why didn"t I think of that before? The Sea Monster, of course!"
"Do Sea Monsters have money?" asked David.
"No, but the Sea Monster should know where pirate treasure is buried--quite in its nautical line. We shall visit the Monster, my boy. Tomorrow, of course--I could not fly a foot today to save my life. My muscles are killing me!"
"Oh, poor Phoenix!" David said. But he was so excited that he could not feel much pity. Pirate treasure! They were going to dig for pirate treasure!
"We shall need a spade. I trust you will arrange for it, my boy?"
"Of course, Phoenix," said David, jumping to his feet. "I"ll get everything ready right away. Don"t move till I get back."
"Impossible, my boy." The Phoenix groaned as it shifted into a more comfortable position.
David raced home to collect the necessary things for the trip.
Remembering how cold it had been last time, he took his leather jacket out of the closet, and a pair of gloves and a scarf. For the Phoenix he borrowed a bottle of liniment and took all the cookies from the cooky jar. And he picked the shortest of three spades in the garage.
During the rest of the day he ma.s.saged the Phoenix"s back and wings with the liniment. He was exploding with curiosity about the Plan, of course. But the Phoenix would only smile its smuggest smile and tell him to "wait and see, wait and see"--which almost drove David mad.
Tomorrow took its time, the way it always does when you are anxious to see it arrive, but it finally came. And David found himself with the spade held tightly under one arm, his jacket zipped up to his chin, gloves on, and scarf knotted, all ready to go.
"To the west, this time," said the Phoenix, as David got up on its back. "This is the Monster"s Pacific season, you know. Ready, my boy?
Splendid! We are off!"
Over the mountains and desert they sped, over the sh.o.r.e, out across the ocean. For a long time they hurtled through a huge blue loneliness, dark blue below, lighter blue above. Once they pa.s.sed over a ship, a pencil dot trailing a pin-scratch of white. Another time they startled a high-flying albatross, which gave a frightened squawk and plunged down out of sight with folded wings. Aside from that, there was nothing to see until they reached the islands.
The Phoenix slowed down to a glide and dropped lower. "These are the coral atolls of the Pacific, my boy," it called over its shoulder.
"That lake in the center of each island is called the lagoon."
David was enchanted by the atolls. They were made of tiny islets, strung together like the beads of a necklace. And the colors! The dark blue of the sea became lighter around the islands, melting from sapphire to turquoise to jade. The atolls were ringed with dazzling white surf and beach, and they all had cool green swaths of palm trees and underbrush. And each lagoon also had its varying shades of blue, like the outer sea.
"I fear we may have trouble, my boy," said the Phoenix, as they scanned the empty beaches. "The Monster shifts about from island to island to avoid discovery. We shall just have to search."
And search they did, atoll after atoll, until at the end of an hour they were rewarded. David suddenly spotted a dark object stretched out on the beach of a lagoon, and at the same time the Phoenix said "Aha!"
triumphantly. They began to spiral down.
The Sea Monster was immense. Its body could have filled the living room at home. Its neck was twenty feet long, and so was its tail (which ended in a barbed point). It had huge seal-like flippers, and its polished brown hide was made up of scales as big as dinner plates.
"Wake up, Monster!" The Phoenix cried. "We--"
The next instant they were lost in a cloud of flying sand and spray, through which could be heard a prodigious splash. When it had cleared, they found themselves alone on the beach. The only sign of the Sea Monster was a great furrow in the sand, which led down to the agitated water.
"Golly, that was fast!" David marveled, as they shook the sand from themselves. "Do you think it"ll come back, Phoenix?"
"Of course, my boy. Curiosity, if nothing else, will bring it up again. In the meantime, we might as well sit down and wait."
They sat down and waited. David took off his jacket. For fifteen minutes they heard nothing but the murmuring of the surf and the rustling clatter of palm fronds. At last there was a slight splashing noise from the lagoon.
"There," David whispered, pointing.
Thirty feet offsh.o.r.e, an ear was being thrust cautiously above the rippled surface. It twitched once or twice, then pointed quiveringly in their direction.
"Come out, Monster!" the Phoenix shouted. "It is I, the Phoenix."
The Sea Monster"s head appeared slowly, followed by several yards of neck. It peered at them short-sightedly, weaving its head from side to side to get a better view. David saw that it had two short, straight horns just in front of its ears, eyes that were soft and cowlike, and a most expressive set of whiskers. The whiskers were now at a doubtful, half-mast angle.
"Ah, Phoenix," said the Sea Monster at last in a mild voice. "Can"t you remember to wake me a bit more gently? I thought you were--"
"Come on out," said the Phoenix firmly, "and stop looking like a lost sheep."
"Uh--what about--uh--that?" said the Sea Monster hesitantly, pointing one ear at David.
"This," said the Phoenix, "is David. He is getting an education. I a.s.sure you that he will not bite."
The Sea Monster swam toward them, heaved itself out of the water, and offered its huge flipper for David to shake.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
"Sorry I rushed off like that," it said. "The trouble is, I"ve had such a bad case of war nerves. Why, sometimes I jump out of my skin at nothing at all."
"Were you in the war?" David asked.
"Ah, _was_ I," sighed the Sea Monster. It flopped down comfortably on its belly, curled its tail around its front flippers, and sighed again. But David noticed that its whiskers had perked up to a quite cheerful angle. The Sea Monster was obviously delighted to have someone listen to its troubles.
"Yes," it said, heaving a third sigh, "I was. From the very beginning, much against my will. Guns all over the place! Terrible!"
"Did they shoot you?" David asked, horrified.
"Well, _at_ me, anyway. I"m thankful to say they never hit me, but there were some pretty near misses. All the oceans were simply packed with ships. I couldn"t lift my head out of water without bringing down a perfect rain of sh.e.l.ls and bullets."
"The _intelligent_ thing in that case," the Phoenix broke in with a sniff, "would have been to stay _under_ water."
"Thank you, Phoenix," said the Sea Monster dryly. "But I _do_ like to breathe now and then. Anyway, I wasn"t safe even under water. They"d drop depth charges on me. One ship even launched a torpedo at me!"
"How awful!" said David.
"Tut! my boy," said the Phoenix. "I have no doubt our friend is stretching the truth shamelessly. You need not look so smug, Monster.
You were not the only one in the war. _I_ have gone through anti-aircraft fire a number of times. Some of it was very severe. In fact, once I--"
"Once I had the whole North Atlantic fleet after _me_," the Sea Monster interrupted proudly.
"And _I_ remember the Franco-Prussian War!" said the Phoenix. "Which, I daresay, you do _not_."