02 South Sea Adventure by Willard Price Read Free Book Online Page B

apparent reason for uneasiness.
    But the air was hot, the breeze was no longer refreshing. It seemed to come out of a steam bath. Or it was like the close, thick air in the bilge of a ship.
    It had no life in it. It nauseated you - it made you feel as if you would like to be rid of your breakfast.
    And the sky, instead of being blue, was a sort of white-black.
    Now, nothing can be white and black at the same time, yet that was the way of it. A sort of pallid darkness was filling the firmament and pressing down upon the ship and upon the spirits of those aboard her. The hour was twelve noon but you would have supposed it to be early dawn or late twilight.
    Hal stood near the binnacle, sextant in hand, trying to get a noon reading. Then with the Nautical Almanac he could compute the ship’s position.
    Hal had been studying navigation with a will. Not only was it a useful thing for anybody to know: it was especially important for him - if he was to carry out the secret instructions of Professor Richard Stuyvesant.
    A dozen times a day the figures he had never written down drummed in his mind - North Latitude 11° 34’, East Longitude 158° 12’ - the position of Pearl Lagoon.
    There was a puzzle he had not yet solved. How was he to reach the island without disclosing the secret of its position? If the captain and Crab and Omo went along, all
    three would learn the location of the pearl atoll.
    He thought he could trust Omo. He was not so sure of the captain and Crab. Could they be in with the gang that had threatened the professor and ransacked his files? Some remarks they had dropped made him suspicious.
    Anyhow, he would feel safer if they did not accompany him and Roger to Pearl Lagoon. But he could never reach the island without the help of someone who understood navigation.
    The answer was plain - he must understand it himself. He must learn to steer a vessel by sun, stars, and chronometer so he could bring it to that pinpoint in the sea, North Latitude 11° 34’, East Longitude 158° 12’.
    How he would get rid of the captain and Crab was a problem he had yet to figure out.
    Captain Ike broke in on his thoughts.
    ‘Having trouble?’
    ‘Can’t get the sun sharp,’ complained Hal.
    Captain Ike looked up. A whitish glow had taken the place of the usually clear-cut sun. In the increasing darkness, the sky looked like the face of a ghost.
    Captain Ike looked at the barometer. It usually stood well above thirty. Now it had dropped close to twenty-nine.
    ‘Looks like we’re in for a blow,’ said Captain Ike.
    It seemed an odd statement to Hal because the wind, instead of getting stronger, was growing weaker. Now it came only in fitful puffs. The sails sagged and slatted. The booms swung idly. The wind had failed altogether.
    ‘What’s the matter with everything?’ inquired Roger emerging from below where he had been resting from his bout with the octopus the day before. His body was covered with ring-shaped welts left by the beast’s vacuum cups. ‘I can’t seem to breathe.’
    It was as if a great blanket had been pressed down upon the ship and its occupants, smothering them under its folds.
    ‘Hurricane!’ declared Captain Ike. Never was there anything less like a hurricane than this breathless calm. ‘Omo, make everything tight! Crab, sails down!’ Crab stepped sluggishly towards the mainsail halyards. ‘Step lively!’ cried the captain. ‘There’s not a minute to lose.’ He with Hal and Roger tackled the jib and staysails. The halyard of the upper staysail jammed in the block. ‘Got to get up there and free it,’ panted the captain. He looked around for his crew. Omo and Crab were busy. He himself was a bit old and bulky to attempt the climb to the masthead. Roger was wobbly after yesterday’s tussle.
    Hal jumped to the ratlines and began to climb. Up past the lower crosstrees, past the crow’s-nest, to the peak. He loosed the halyard and the staysail came rattling down.
    Meanwhile things were