CHAPTER VIII
ASTOUNDING DISCOVERIES
Perhaps it may seem as if the boys had met with success too easily andhad accomplished far more in a short time than would be possible. But asa matter of fact they had encountered innumerable difficulties, had madenumbers of mistakes, had been faced with failure or negative resultstime after time and would have given up in despair had it not been forthe encouragement of Mr. Pauling and Mr. Henderson and the never-ceasingoptimism of Rawlins. Indeed, Rawlins had done fully as much to make theunder-sea radio a success as had the boys.
Although he did not or could not become an adept at radio and insistedthat it was all Greek to him, yet he was a born inventor and amechanical genius. He had been diving since he was a mere boy, hisfather and grandfather had made deep-sea diving their profession, and hefelt as much at home under water as on land. Hence, to him, there wasnothing mysterious or baffling about the depths and he could see novalid reason why anything that could be accomplished on shore should notbe accomplished equally well under water. He had distinguished himselfby devising a submarine apparatus for taking motion pictures at thebottom of the sea and it was while engaged in making a sub-sea film thathe had invented and perfected his remarkable self-contained diving suit.To him, with his experience, the shortcomings of the suit--the danger ofthe chemicals flaming up if they came in contact with water--were of nomoment, for, as he had explained to the boys, he automatically shut thevalve if for any reason he removed his lips from the breathing tube, theaction being as natural and unconscious as holding one's breath whenswimming under water.
But he at once realized that if the suits were to become a commercial orpractical thing, or if the under-sea radio was to be used, it would benecessary to make the apparatus absolutely safe and fool proof. Hetherefore set to work at once to devise an entirely new system andabsolutely refused to allow the boys to don suits and go down until hehad thoroughly tested out and proved the new equipment. It was not aneasy matter, but in the end he succeeded, and, risking his own life inthe experiment, he gave the safety suit a most severe tryout. Itfulfilled his greatest expectations and feeling sure that no matter howcareless or inexperienced the wearer might be there could be noaccident, as far as the suit and oxygen generator were concerned, he wassatisfied.
He freely expressed his satisfaction and his indebtedness to the boys,insisting that if it had not been for them and their radio he neverwould have improved the suit and made it practical for any one to usewithout danger. In addition, there were innumerable other changes andalterations which had to be made to adapt the suits to radio work, andso, by the time the boys were ready to make their tests, they were usingsuits which bore but little resemblance to those Rawlins had first shownthem.
Upon the helmets were the odd grids of wire at right angles like somegreat crown; the compressed air receptacles containing the sending setswere attached to the shoulders like old-fashioned knapsacks, and thefront of the helmet resembled some grotesque monster's head with theprotuberance which contained the compact little receiving set like ahuge goiter. Indeed, as Henry had remarked when he first saw Rawlinsappearing dripping from the river, they looked like weird and fearfulsea monsters. So, if the reader imagines that the boys and Rawlins hadhad an easy time or that their success was of the phenomenal kind whichoccurs only in fiction, he is greatly mistaken and the impression is duewholly to the fact that their failures and troubles have not beenchronicled.
And now, having explained this, let us return to the boys when, theirsub-sea sending set complete, the test was about to take place. As Tomsank beneath the water and slowly descended the ladder he was moreexcited and thrilled than ever before, for he was about to try anexperiment which, if successful, would mark a new era in radio telephonyand he was keyed up to a high pitch when at last he dropped from thefinal rung of the ladder and settled, half-floating like some big,ungainly fish upon the river bottom. Through the half opaque green waterhe could see the irregular, grotesquely distorted and hazy form ofRawlins appearing gigantic and phantomlike. He might have been fifteenor fifty feet away, for despite the fact that Tom had been down severaltimes he could never accustom himself to the deceptive effects ofdistance under water and when he stretched his hand towards theindistinct figure he gave an involuntary start when he found Rawlinswithin arm's length. As his hand touched the clammy rubber surface heuttered an exclamation of surprise and the next instant gave a joyfulyell, for at his ejaculation he had heard Rawlins' voice in his earsasking, "What's wrong?"
"For heaven's sake, don't yell so!" came Rawlins' words in response toTom's, "Hurrah, it's working!"
"I'll tell the world it's working!" continued the diver, "but don'tshout. I'm talking in my lowest tones. Here, how do you like this?"
Tom's ears were almost split as a thunderous bellow filled his helmet,and involuntarily he clapped his hands to the outside of his helmet overhis ears.
"That's a lesson," he said in his lowest tones. "Sorry I didn't know,Mr. Rawlins. It won't happen again. I guess these helmets act likesounding boards or something. Hello, there's Frank's voice."
Clear and distinct they could hear Frank asking if there was trouble andTom barely checked another outburst as he realized that the boys onshore could talk with them and could hear what was going on under thewater.
"We can hear everything you say," went on Frank's voice. "Can you hearus and each other?"
"Gee, you bet we can!" replied Tom. "Isn't this just great?"
"Say, are you whispering?" inquired Frank. "I can hardly hear yourvoice."
"No, but don't shout so," answered Tom. "Down here everything justroars. We have to talk low or we'll deafen each other. I'll bet we don'tneed head phones on our ears under water."
"Henry's going to talk with you," Frank announced, "he's just crazy totry."
For the next half hour the boys talked back and forth between theworkshop and the bottom of the river and then Rawlins and Tom ascendedthe ladder and removed their suits.
For fully five minutes, the boys pranced, danced, hurrahed, yelled,laughed and made such a racket celebrating their success that it was awonder the river police did not break in thinking a horde of Indians hadtaken possession of the dock. And if the truth must be told, Rawlins wasjust about as excited and acted as crazily as the youngsters.
But at last they calmed down and Frank, mad to go down, donned Tom'ssuit.
"Try it without the phones," Tom advised him. "Then you can talk loudlyenough to be heard up here without deafening Mr. Rawlins."
To Tom, listening at the set on the dock, it seemed little short ofuncanny to hear Rawlins and Frank talking from under the water, andindeed, it impressed him as even more remarkable than hearing those onshore when he was below the surface.
Both Rawlins and Frank assured him that the sets worked far betterwithout the receivers on their heads, and even when Frank spoke in hisloudest tones Rawlins replied that it did not deafen him as before.
"Now let's try tuning, Frank," said Tom. "I'm going to vary my wavelength and see if you can pick it up. Then change yours and I'll see ifI can get you."
As Tom spoke, he altered the sending waves slightly and breathlesslywaited. Presently Frank's voice came in.
"Got it!" he exclaimed. "Had a bit of trouble at first, but it's allright now. Now see if you can get this."
As he spoke his words ended in a high, shrill squeal, but an instantlater, as Tom turned the knob on his tuner, the words suddenly returnedin a most startling way, the squeal seeming to change magically intowords.
"Hurrah, I got it!" cried Tom jubilantly. "Come on up, Frank, Henrywants a chance."
"You've certainly struck a wonderful thing here," declared Rawlins, whenhe and Henry came up and had removed their suits. "How far do yousuppose it will work?"
"That's something we'll have to find out," replied Tom. "But the soundscome so loudly I'll bet it's good for a long distance. Somehow or otherwe get sound a lot louder inside a helmet than outside. I don't just getth
e reason, but I expect it's either because the whole air vibrates tothe diaphragm of the receivers inside the helmet and no sound waves arelost or else because the helmet itself acts like a sounding board ormaybe there are some sort of amplified waves set up."
"I guess it's the air being inclosed," said Rawlins. "When I used towear a regular suit and used an ordinary phone under water it was thesame way, but I never thought of it in connection with radio. The wholething gets me, there's millions in this if we can patent it. Let's godown once more and give her a real tryout. We'll take a hike down rivera few hundred yards and see if the boys get us. If they don't we'll comeback and keep trying and if they do we'll go on down as far as we can.Then, if we find it's O. K. we'll try to get your folks to let you godown to Nassau and we'll show the world, I'll bet."
"That's a good idea," agreed Tom. "You keep listening and now and thentalking, Frank, and as soon as we lose your voice we'll send and thenwalk back until we get you again. That way we can find if we can hearfarther than you can or whether it's the other way about."
Donning their suits, Tom and Rawlins once more descended the ladder andhalf-floating, half-walking turned downstream. Rawlins had alreadycautioned Tom to keep close to his side and to hold to his hand, for,with the mud stirred up by their feet and carried by the current withthem, it was impossible to see more than a few feet and Rawlins knew thedanger that lay in becoming separated.
Even with the radio connecting them with the boys on the surface Tommight easily get confused and hopelessly lost if he strayed or wascarried from sight of Rawlins and while Tom knew that, by turning onmore oxygen, he could bob to the surface, yet danger lurked in this ashe might emerge in the path of some steamer or motor boat and be rundown or torn to pieces with the propellers. As long as they kept closeto shore, following the docks and piers, there was no danger, for theonly vessels in the vicinity were canal boats and barges which were notin use, the piers for several hundred yards having been used merely forstorage and as warehouses for some time. Moreover, by keeping under thedocks they were perfectly safe and Rawlins had no intention of going outinto the channel with its swift currents and constantly passing tugs,ferryboats and small craft. So, half feeling his way and moving by thediver's intuitive sixth sense of direction and holding to Tom's hand,Rawlins moved slowly down the river.
Frank's words were constantly in their ears and now and then theyreplied, and somehow to Tom there was a most remarkable sensation ofmaking no progress whatsoever. There was nothing visible by which togauge their motion and, as the voice through the set continued to soundexactly the same and did not grow fainter with distance, he seemed to bestanding still, although exerting himself and constantly stepping orrather pushing himself forward. He was so intent on this and sointerested in the novel experience that he scarcely realized thatFrank's voice had suddenly grown faint and was interrupted by an oddbuzzing sound which instantly brought back the memory of the sounds theyhad heard when listening to the mysterious speaker with their loopaerials. He was just about to speak and ask Frank if he could hear whenhe felt Rawlins jerk his arm. He floundered forward and the next instantwas dragged between the spiles of a dock where the water was dark withshadows.
"What,--what--" he began, but instantly checked his words as a low "Ssh!"from Rawlins reached his ears. Not knowing what had happened or whyRawlins had suddenly acted in this strange manner, confused andbewildered, Tom peered about through the murky water. At first he sawnothing save the surrounding spiles, seeming to move and sway in dim,shadowy forms--the bottom of a canal boat with yard-long streamers of seaweeds waving from its barnacle-encrusted planks; a piece of trailing,rusty cable; a few rotting, water-soaked timbers protruding from themud; and a shapeless mass which might have been almost any piece ofjetsam cast into the river. Then like phantom shapes, so indistinct,hazy and formless that he was not sure they were not shadows in thewater, he saw two figures--two moving things that, for a brief instant,he thought must be huge, dull-green fish nosing about the mud. And then,as he gazed fixedly at them from between the spiles, a strangeunreasoning fear clutched at his heart and he felt an odd, pricklysensation on his scalp and at the back of his neck, for the moving,sinister, unnatural things were approaching, moving noiselessly, slowly,but certainly towards him as though they had scented his presence andwere bent on hunting him out.
What were they? What strange, unknown, impossible sea monsters werethese? He was frightened, shaking, and in his terror had forgottencompletely about the radio outfit. Glad, indeed, was Tom that Rawlinswas beside him, that the diver was armed--for Rawlins, he knew, neverwent down without a hatchet in his belt ready for use in case of anemergency such as fouling a rope or timber. But why didn't Rawlinsspeak? Why had he ordered him to be silent? The sea monsters could nothear; what was the reason?
And then, so suddenly that it came as a shock, he realized that theapproaching forms, the grotesque shapes, were no sea creatures, nogigantic savage fish, but men! Men in diving suits much like their own.Men walking in the odd, half-sprawling, half-floating, forward-leaningposture he knew so well. But great as was Tom's relief at this discoveryhis wonderment was doubly increased. Who were they and what were theydoing here? Why had Rawlins drawn him into hiding? What did it all mean?Then, just as he was about to disregard Rawlins' whispered orders andask, the two figures disappeared. Without reason, without warning, theyvanished from sight as if by magic.
So dumbfounded was Tom that involuntarily he uttered an ejaculation ofsurprise and fairly jumped when, faint but clear, he heard Frank ask,"What's that you said?"
But before he could reply, Rawlins was speaking. "Come on!" hewhispered, his voice being as low as if he feared the others might hearand, quite forgetting that he was under water, cut off from allconversation with other human beings save the boys. "Come on, I don'tknow who they are, but there's something funny. They've got suits likemine and the Lord knows who they are or how they got 'em. I'm going tofind out where they went."
Slipping between the spiles with their slimy, weed-grown surfaces,Rawlins, holding to Tom's hand, struggled forward into the lighterwater. Beside them rose a dark wall of masonry and reaching this Rawlinsproceeded to feel his way along it. Before they had traveled ten feetthe diver uttered a sharp ejaculation. Beside them in the wall, loomed ahuge, black hole, the mouth of a great sewer.
"They went in here," whispered Rawlins. "Come on!"
A moment later they were in utter blackness, feeling their way forwardalong the walls.
And now, very thin and faint, Tom heard Frank's voice again. "What onearth's the matter?" he asked. "I haven't heard a word from you two forfive minutes. Can you hear me?"
Tom was about to answer for they were evidently at nearly the limit ofreceiving range and his mouth opened, his lips formed the words of hisreply, but no sound issued from them. Clear, loud and harsh, gutturalwords rang in Tom's ears. This was not Frank's voice nor Henry's; thewords were not even English. Amazed and uncomprehending Tom wasspeechless and then, among the incomprehensible foreign syllables, camea word he recognized, the one word "Oleander!"
Instantly he knew that by some strange freak, by some mystifyingcoincidence he was again hearing that unknown man to whom he had sooften listened. It seemed strange, weird, uncanny to have it coming tohis ears here in the old disused sewer, but after all, he reflected, whynot? Rawlins had heard it once before, there was nothing remarkableabout it and he was on the point of asking his companion if he had heardand of trying to tell Frank, when once more his words were stayed.Before him the stygian darkness suddenly grew light, a brilliant beamstabbed down from overhead and through the strangely illuminated waterTom saw the two men in diving suits standing beneath a square openingdown which a ladder was being thrust. But why, he vaguely wondered, wasthe water so transparent? How was it that he could now see clearly formany yards? And then, with a start, it dawned upon him that he was notlooking through water, that there was nothing between him and the trapsave air. He was standing with head and should
ers out of water.
And now the gruff, guttural words were once more beating in his ears andthe next instant he saw the strange divers seize a dangling rope, tippedwith a great iron hook, dip it under the water and then, as the hookagain ascended, he saw a dripping, cigar-shaped object like a torpedoslowly rise from the water and disappear in the opening above. Closebehind it the two divers followed up the ladder, the ladder was drawnup, the light snapped out and the next instant Tom and Rawlins were oncemore in absolute darkness.
"What does it all mean?" exclaimed Tom, finding his voice at last.
"What does what--" commenced Frank's voice, only to be overwhelmed anddrowned out by Rawlins' louder words.
"Search me!" replied the latter. "Something rotten going on here. Don'tknow what, but I intend to find out. Did you hear them talking?"
"Hear them?" replied Tom not understanding. "Of course not. But I heardthat same chap you heard the other day--talking Dutch or something."
"That was them!" announced Rawlins decidedly. "Tom, they've gotunder-sea radio, too. It's those chaps we've been hearing, I'm beginningto get it. That word Oleander. That's a password--a countersign. Just assoon as they spoke it the door opened. There's some deep mystery here.What the deuce that torpedolike affair was I don't know. Perhaps they'retrying to blow up some building. This sewer is under a busy part of thecity. Hear those trucks and surface cars overhead?"
Absolutely dumbfounded, heedless of Frank's insistent but weak voice inhis ears, striving to grasp all this astounding statement of Rawlins',Tom stood speechless for a moment. And then an idea flashed through hismind.
"Gosh!" he exclaimed. "Say, Mr. Rawlins, they'll find us. If they've gotradio they can hear us too! Say, perhaps they're listening to us now.Come on, let's get out of here."
Rawlins' surprised whistle came shrilly to Tom's ears.
"You're right!" replied the diver. "We're in a dangerous place. Come on.Let me go first."
Crowding past Tom, Rawlins hurried as fast as the constantly deepeningwater and the darkness would permit and presently, though to Tom itseemed hours, a lighter space appeared ahead and a few moments laterthey once more were standing at the bottom of the river.
They had turned to retrace their steps towards their own dock and werefollowing along the old wall when once more they were halted in theirtracks. Again to their ears, borne to them by the radio waves, came theharsh foreign words.
So close did the words sound in their ears that instinctively, withoutstopping to think that the speakers might be hundreds of feet or evenyards distant, the two crouched back in a recess of the masonry,flattening themselves against the slime-covered, weed-draped stones andgazing apprehensively towards the spot where the old sewer pierced thewall.