THEGREATREEF 283 



by color and beauty. Everything appeared relaxed, at ease, 

 swaying back and forth with the water. 



I worked my way into the coral down an avenue of limpid 

 blue. On the way I was surrounded by a large school of flashy 

 blue and golden snappers. They darted fearlessly between my 

 legs and under my arms. I amused myself by carving up 

 anemones with my knife and feeding them the pieces. They 

 greedily snatched the fragments from my fingers and crowded 

 closer. 



Then, when I leaned over to dig at another I suddenly 

 suspected that something was wrong; an instinctive sixth sense 

 caused me to look up. The snappers, like the parrotfish some 

 minutes before, had all deserted me and were swimming off in 

 between close-set barriers of the coral. I peered about for 

 the cause of their fright but saw nothing. But presently, far 

 off in the hazy distance, I recognized the same dim gray shape 

 that had alarmed the parrots. With my mouth I squirted a 

 quantity of salt water on the glass of the helmet to secure 

 better vision, as it had become slightly clouded from my warm 

 breath. The shape was still indistinct but it was surely moving 

 closer and closer. Slowly and leisurely it emerged from the 

 blue depths and flowed up a narrow misty valley. I glanced 

 at the bottom of the boat suspended from the rolling silvery 

 ceiling. The air line and rope curled down into the water be- 

 side it, but it was too far away to attempt to reach it. What- 

 ever the thing was, it could get there quicker than I. 



I sat tight, one hand clutching a sea fan and the other on 

 the life line ready to go. The gray form came closer, swept 

 up the valley and then turned toward the reef. Then, al- 

 though the object was still blurred from the distance, I could 

 see what it was. It was a tremendous shark, species unknown. 



I remembered the warning words of the sailboat captain, 

 and grinned a sickly grin into the emptiness of the helmet. 



