Dolphin Island by Arthur C. Clarke Read Free Book Online

you were working with dolphins,
     though I can’t imagine how they found out.”
    “That’s easy to answer,” Dr. Keith interjected. “The dolphins we’ve released must
     have told them. Remember, Johnny recognized five of them from photographs I showed
     him when he first arrived.”
    Professor Kazan nodded.
    “Yes—and that gives us some valuable information. It means that the coastal species
     we work with and their deep-sea cousins speak the same language. We didn’t know
that
before.”
    “But we’re still in the dark about their motives,” said Dr. Keith. “If wild dolphins
     that have never had any direct contact with men go to all this trouble, it suggests
     that they want something from us—and want it badly. Perhaps rescuing Johnny meant
     something like, ‘We’ve helped you—now help us.’”
    “It’s a plausible theory,” agreed Professor Kazan. “But we won’t find the answer by
     talking. There’s only one way to discover what Johnny’s friends were driving at—and
     that’s to ask them.”
    “
If
we can find them.”
    “Well, if they really want something, they won’t be too far away. We may be able to
     contact them without leaving this room.”
    The Professor threw a switch, and once more the air was full of sound. But this time,
     Johnny soon realized, he was not listening to the voice of a single dolphin, but to
     all the voices of the sea.
    It was an incredibly complex mixture of hissings and cracklings and rumblings. Mingled
     with these, there were chirps that might have been made by birds, faint and distant
     moans, and the murmur of a million waves.
    They listened for several minutes to this fascinating medley of noises; then the Professor
     turned another switch on the huge machine.
    “That was Hydrophone West,” he explained to Johnny. “Now we’ll try Hydro East. It’s
     in deeper water, right off the edge of the Reef.”
    The sound picture changed; the noise of the waves was fainter, but the moanings and
     creakings from the unknown creatures of the sea were much louder. Once more the Professor
     listened for several minutes, then he switched to North, and finally to South.
    “Run the tapes through the analyzer, will you?” he asked Dr. Keith. “But I’d be willing
     to bet, even now, that there’s no large school of dolphins within twenty miles.”
    “In that case, bang goes my theory.”
    “Not necessarily; twenty miles is nothing to dolphins. And they’re hunters, remember,
     so they can’t stay in one place. They have to follow their food wherever it goes.
     The school that rescued Johnny would soon vacuum clean all the fish off our reef.”
    The Professor rose to his feet, then continued:
    “I’ll leave you to run the analysis; it’s time I went down to the pool. Come along,
     Johnny, I want you to meet some of my best friends.”
    As they walked toward the beach, the Professor seemed to fall into a reverie. Then
     he startled Johnny by suddenly and skillfully producing a string of rapidly modulated
     whistles.
    He laughed at Johnny’s surprised expression.
    “No human being will ever speak fluent Dolphin,” he said, “but I can make a fair attempt
     at a dozen of the commoner phrases. I have to keep working at them, though, and I’m
     afraid my accent’s pretty terrible. Only dolphins that know me well can understand
     what I’m trying to say. And sometimes I think they’re just being polite.”
    The Professor unlocked the gate to the pool, and then carefully locked it behind him.
    “Everyone wants to play with Susie and Sputnik, but I can’t allow it,” he explained.
     “At least, not while I’m trying to teach them English.”
    Susie was a sleek, excited matron of some three hundred pounds, who reared herself
     half out of the water as they approached. Sputnik, her nine-month-old son, was more
     reserved, or perhaps more shy; he kept his mother between himself and the visitors.
    “Hello, Susie,” said the Professor, speaking with