hundred pounds. You should see the really big ones up north. My
grandfather hooked an eight-hundred-pounder off Cairns.”
“But you don’t believe him.” Johnny grinned.
“But I do,” Mick said, grinning back. “
That
time he had a photograph to show it.”
As they swam back to the edge of the reef, Johnny glanced down once more into the
blue depths, with their coral boulders, their overhanging terraces, and the ponderous
shapes swimming slowly among them. It was a world as alien as another planet, even
though it was here on his own Earth. And it was a world that, because it was so utterly
strange, filled him with curiosity and with fear.
There was only one way of dealing with both these emotions. Sooner or later, he would
have to follow Mick down that blue, mysterious slope.
Chapter 9
“You’re right, Professor,” said Dr. Keith, “though I’m darned if I know how you could
tell. There’s no large school of dolphins within the range of our hydrophones.”
“Then we’ll go after them in the
Flying Fish
.”
“But where shall we look? They may be anywhere inside ten thousand square miles.”
“That’s what the Survey Satellites are for,” Professor Kazan answered. “Call Woomera
Control and ask them to photograph an area of fifty miles radius around the island.
Get them to do it as soon after dawn as possible. There must be a satellite going
overhead sometime tomorrow morning.”
“But why after dawn?” asked Keith. “Oh, I see—the long shadows will make them easy
to spot.”
“Of course. It will be quite a job searching such a huge area, and if we take too
long over it, they’ll be somewhere else.”
Johnny heard about the project soon after breakfast, when he was called in to help
with the reconnaissance. It seemed that Professor Kazan had bitten off a little more
than he could chew, for the island’s picture-receiver had delivered twenty-five separate
photographs, each covering an area of twenty miles on a side, and each showing an
enormous amount of detail. They had been taken about an hour after dawn from a low-altitude
meteorological satellite five hundred miles up, and since there were no clouds to
obscure the view, they were of excellent quality. The powerful telescopic cameras
had brought the Earth to within only five miles.
Johnny had been given the least important, but most interesting, photo in the mosaic
to examine. This was the central one, showing the island itself. It was fascinating
to go over it with a magnifying glass and to see the buildings and paths and boats
leap up to meet the eye. Even individual people could be detected as small black spots.
For the first time, Johnny realized the full enormous extent of the reef around Dolphin
Island. It stretched for miles away to the east, so that the island itself appeared
merely like the point in a punctuation mark. Although the tide was in, every detail
of the reef could be seen through the shallow water that covered it. Johnny almost
forgot the job he was supposed to be doing as he explored the pools and submarine
valleys and the hundreds of little canyons that had been worn by water draining off
the reef shelf at low tide.
The searchers were in luck; the school was spotted sixty miles to the southeast of
the island, almost on the extreme edge of the photomosaic. It was quite unmistakable:
there were scores of dark bodies shooting along the surface, some of them frozen by
the camera as they leaped clear of the sea. And one could tell from the widening Vee’s
of their wakes that they were heading west.
Professor Kazan looked at the photograph with satisfaction. “They’re getting closer,”
he said. “If they’ve kept to that course, we can meet them in an hour. Is the
Flying Fish
ready?”
“She’s still refueling, but she can leave in thirty minutes.”
The Professor glanced at his watch; he seemed as excited as a small boy who had been
grandfather hooked an eight-hundred-pounder off Cairns.”
“But you don’t believe him.” Johnny grinned.
“But I do,” Mick said, grinning back. “
That
time he had a photograph to show it.”
As they swam back to the edge of the reef, Johnny glanced down once more into the
blue depths, with their coral boulders, their overhanging terraces, and the ponderous
shapes swimming slowly among them. It was a world as alien as another planet, even
though it was here on his own Earth. And it was a world that, because it was so utterly
strange, filled him with curiosity and with fear.
There was only one way of dealing with both these emotions. Sooner or later, he would
have to follow Mick down that blue, mysterious slope.
Chapter 9
“You’re right, Professor,” said Dr. Keith, “though I’m darned if I know how you could
tell. There’s no large school of dolphins within the range of our hydrophones.”
“Then we’ll go after them in the
Flying Fish
.”
“But where shall we look? They may be anywhere inside ten thousand square miles.”
“That’s what the Survey Satellites are for,” Professor Kazan answered. “Call Woomera
Control and ask them to photograph an area of fifty miles radius around the island.
Get them to do it as soon after dawn as possible. There must be a satellite going
overhead sometime tomorrow morning.”
“But why after dawn?” asked Keith. “Oh, I see—the long shadows will make them easy
to spot.”
“Of course. It will be quite a job searching such a huge area, and if we take too
long over it, they’ll be somewhere else.”
Johnny heard about the project soon after breakfast, when he was called in to help
with the reconnaissance. It seemed that Professor Kazan had bitten off a little more
than he could chew, for the island’s picture-receiver had delivered twenty-five separate
photographs, each covering an area of twenty miles on a side, and each showing an
enormous amount of detail. They had been taken about an hour after dawn from a low-altitude
meteorological satellite five hundred miles up, and since there were no clouds to
obscure the view, they were of excellent quality. The powerful telescopic cameras
had brought the Earth to within only five miles.
Johnny had been given the least important, but most interesting, photo in the mosaic
to examine. This was the central one, showing the island itself. It was fascinating
to go over it with a magnifying glass and to see the buildings and paths and boats
leap up to meet the eye. Even individual people could be detected as small black spots.
For the first time, Johnny realized the full enormous extent of the reef around Dolphin
Island. It stretched for miles away to the east, so that the island itself appeared
merely like the point in a punctuation mark. Although the tide was in, every detail
of the reef could be seen through the shallow water that covered it. Johnny almost
forgot the job he was supposed to be doing as he explored the pools and submarine
valleys and the hundreds of little canyons that had been worn by water draining off
the reef shelf at low tide.
The searchers were in luck; the school was spotted sixty miles to the southeast of
the island, almost on the extreme edge of the photomosaic. It was quite unmistakable:
there were scores of dark bodies shooting along the surface, some of them frozen by
the camera as they leaped clear of the sea. And one could tell from the widening Vee’s
of their wakes that they were heading west.
Professor Kazan looked at the photograph with satisfaction. “They’re getting closer,”
he said. “If they’ve kept to that course, we can meet them in an hour. Is the
Flying Fish
ready?”
“She’s still refueling, but she can leave in thirty minutes.”
The Professor glanced at his watch; he seemed as excited as a small boy who had been
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