Part 12 (1/2)
Swi on a table They were the shoe type, put on like a pair of slippers Rick identified an underwater ca fins and outside controls, and a number of face masks with built-in snorkels Boxes stacked on the floor carried labels that identified them as midseason suits of French h-priced show-rooreed
They wandered back down to the beach and found that this area of the island was apparentlycoconuts that had washed in The sea shells were larger, and they found a feorth picking up
Scotty beckoned and pointed to a piece of wood, nearly buried in the sand ”What do you make of this?”
Rick exareento the rusty remains of an ancient hand-fashi+oned nail He looked up with sudden excitement ”It's a section of a shi+p rib And a pretty old one, too” His finger indicated the shred of metal ”Copper Or used to be” He broke it off ”Co time, perhaps even centuries”
The boys stared out at the reef, both half afraid to put their thoughts into words Finally Scotty asked, ”Do you re tidal waves down here recently?”
Rick tried to recall ”No Why?”
”Well, the _Maiden Hand_ has been under the water out here for a couple of centuries--and in pretty deep water, too It would take some disturbance that could reach down a hundred and twenty feet to break off a chunk”
Rick grinned ”You're right But we haven't anything to lose by taking a look, have we?”
They trotted down the beach toward their own house at a half run Rick looked at his watch ”At least one pair of tanks should be full by now, and there's plenty of time for a dive Coe on the first two tanks in series, and found theed, as Rick had predicted Then they ran for the house
Zircon and Tony were gone and there was a note on the living-roo the southern end Be back in an hour or two_”
”Shall ait?” Scotty asked
”No need We can take our floats Let's get going”
They changed to trunks Then, since they would not have anyone on the surface to keep track of time or depth, strapped on wrist watches, coht belts were put on, then the boys added s underwater Knives, s completed their equipment
”Shall alk up the beach, or swim?”
”Swim,” Rick said promptly ”This stuff is too heavy to carry co mouthpieces on top of theirsnorkels they avoided the effort of lifting their faces out of water to breathe and conserved the air in the tanks With effective but effortless leg strokes theyrapidly
As they approached the shi+p rib that Scotty had found they turned and swaht out toward the reef, crossed it, then ca,” Rick suggested, and Scotty nodded
Aqualung mouthpieces replaced the snorkels, and each boy tested his flow of air, checked to be sure his un, and set his watch The watches, designed especially for underwater swi, had an outer dial that could be set to show elapsed diving time
Rick hooted and pointed down Scotty nodded and they subht of air in their tanks, they were just heavy enough to sink slowly After the dive, when the air in the tanks was nearly exhausted, they would weigh about five pounds less and have a slight positive buoyancy that would help thes and tied their float lines, being careful not to cut their hands Rick suddenly wished they had brought canvas gloves Scotty still wore a single rubber one
Then, with a few strong kicks to overcome their inertia, they started down the face of the reef It fell off sharply for about forty feet, then radually until sand bottom was reached at about ninety feet
Rick felt the sensation of thrusting his face into a wedge as the pressure increased He sed a couple of ti to hurt He exhaled through his nose and equalized the pressure inside the rouper saw thee ress Tiny demoiselles fluttered around them, and a pair of red squirrelfish watched froroas spectacular, with fantastic shapes and colors