02 South Sea Adventure Read Free

Crab who refused to be bothered with a real name, and the other a handsome brown giant named Omo, a native of the South Sea isle of Raiatea. He had come to San Francisco as a hand on a trading ship, had been bewildered by the rush of American life, and was now well content to be heading back towards the Polynesian islands.
    Captain Ike and his men would sleep in a snug cabin under the forward deck. Hal and Roger would occupy a still snugger cabin aft. Space had been stolen from it to afford more room for the huge specimen tanks that had been installed amidships. These filled the hold between the two cabins.
    It was not possible to use one giant tank for all specimens, for the big creatures would devour the little ones. They must be kept separate. And that meant many tanks, large and small. These various aquariums were covered with removable lids. Even when these covers were battened down air was admitted to each tank by a valve in the lid so devised that while it would allow air to go in it would not permit water to come out even in the roughest weather.
    In a tiny galley was a Primus stove and a stock of food. A storeroom was stuffed with supplies including equipment needed for gathering specimens, seines, gill nets, tow nets, scoop nets, poles and lines, and harpoons.
    High on the crosstrees of the mainmast was a platform that would serve as a crow’s-nest where a lookout might sit and watch the sea for game.
    Out ahead of the ship on the tip of her bowsprit was a pulpit - the sort in which a fisherman stands, harpoon in hand, watching for swordfish. It was thrilling to stand here with nothing but the sky above and the rushing sea beneath.
    From this point you could look straight down into water still undisturbed by the ship. If anything interesting came along you were in a position to get a preview of it.
    And who could tell what discoveries the two young explorers might make? The professor had said, ‘Probably more than half of the living things of the Pacific are still unknown to science.’
    This enormous ocean, eleven thousand miles across at its widest part, averaging three miles deep and at some points six times as deep as the Grand Canyon, sprinkled with tens of thousands of islands of which only three thousand have yet been named - what secrets it must still hold locked in its mighty deeps.
    Captain Ike stood at the wheel. His small blue eyes, as sharp as the eyes of a fox, peered out of a brown leather face at the wavering needle of the compass in the binnacle before him. He held the ship to a course southwest by south.
    ‘With luck,’ he said, ‘we could slide downhill all the way to Ponape.’
    ‘Why do they call this the downhill run?’ asked Hal.
    ‘Because we’re in the path of the trades. That doesn’t mean much to a steamer but it’s everything to a sailing ship. With the trade winds behind us we’ll make fast time. O’ course here in the horse latitudes they’re a bit temperamental, but when we get past Hawaii they ought to be mighty steady - barring accidents.’
    ‘What accidents?’
    ‘Hurricanes. They can spoil the best of plans.’
    ‘Is this the season for them?’
    ‘It is. But no telling. We might be lucky. Anyway,’ and he gave Hal a sharp glance, ‘what you’re after is worth the trouble.’
    Hal was suddenly suspicious. Was the captain fishing for
    information? Or did he already know more than he was supposed to know? He had been told only that they were after marine specimens. No mention had been made of pearls.
    Hal turned away and walked the deck. The buoyant exhilaration he had felt as the ship raced before the wind was dulled by worry.
    He had almost ceased to think of the menace that had threatened the expedition before it left home. There had been no sign that anyone had shadowed them at the airfield or on the plane or during the days in San Francisco. When they sailed out into the great freedom of the Pacific he felt that all evil plots had been left behind and that