From the Ocean from teh Stars by Arthur C. Clarke Read Free Book Online Page A

going too fast and running into some thing. It takes a lot of experience to judge underwater visibility. See what I mean?"
    He banked steeply to avoid a towering mass of coral which had suddenly appeared ahead of them. If the demonstration had been planned, thought Franklin, Don had timed it beautifully. As the living mountain swept past, not more than ten feet away, he caught a glimpse of a myriad brilliantly colored fish staring at him with apparent uncon cern. By this time, he assumed, they must be so used to torpedoes and subs that they were quite unexcited by them. And since this entire area was rigidly protected, they had no reason to fear man.
    A few minutes at cruising speed brought them out into the open water of the channel between the island and the adjacent reefs. Now they had room to maneuver, and Franklin followed his mentor in a series of rolls and loops and great submarine switchbacks that soon had him hopelessly lost. Sometimes they shot down to the sea bed, a hundred feet below,
    then broke surface like flying fish to check their position. All the time Don kept up a running commentary, interspersed with questions de signed to see how Franklin was reacting to the ride.
    It was one of the most exhilarating experiences he had ever known. The water was much clearer out here in the channel, and one could see for almost a hundred feet. Once they ran into a great school of bonitos, which formed an inquisitive escort until Don put on speed and left them behind. They saw no sharks, as Franklin had half expected, and he commented to Don on their absence.
    "You won't see many while you're riding a torp," the other replied. "The noise of the jet scares them. If you want to meet the local sharks, you'll have to go swimming in the old-fashioned way—or cut your motor and wait until they come to look at you."
    A dark mass was looming indistinctly from the sea bed, and they reduced speed to a gentle drift as they approached a little range of coral hills, twenty or thirty feet high.
    "An old friend of mine lives around here," said Don. "I wonder if he's home? It's been about four years since I saw him last, but that won't seem much to him. He's been around for a couple of centuries."
    They were now skirting the edge of a huge green-clad mushroom of coral, and Franklin peered into the shadows beneath it. There were a few large boulders there, and a pair of elegant angelfish which almost dis appeared when they turned edge on to him. But he could see nothing else to justify Burley's interest.
    It was very unsettling when one of the boulders began to move, fortu nately not in his direction. The biggest fish he had ever seen—it was almost as long as the torpedo, and very much fatter—was staring at him with great bulbous eyes. Suddenly it opened its mouth in a menacing yawn, and Franklin felt like Jonah at the big moment of his career. He had a glimpse of huge, blubbery lips enclosing surprisingly tiny teeth; then the great jaws snapped shut again and he could almost feel the rush of displaced water.
    Don seemed delighted at the encounter, which had obviously brought back memories of his own days as a trainee here.
    "Well, it's nice to see old Slobberchops again! Isn't he a beauty? Seven hundred and fifty pounds if he's an ounce. We've been able to identify him on photos taken as far back as eighty years ago, and he wasn't much smaller then. It's a wonder he escaped the spear fishers before this area was made a reservation."
    "I should think," said Franklin, "that it was a wonder the spear fishers escaped him."
    "Oh, he's not really dangerous. Groupers only swallow things they can get down whole—those silly little teeth aren't much good for biting. And a full-sized man would be a trifle too much for him. Give him an other century for that."
    They left the giant grouper still patrolling the entrance to its cave, and continued on along the edge of the reef. For the next ten minutes they saw nothing of interest except a large