NIGHT BENEATH THE SEA 355 



though attracted by the activity around the Hght but not dar- 

 ing to approach. Their very vagueness caused the queer feel- 

 ing in the pit of my stomach to arise once more, and rather 

 than tempt any larger animal to join the activity of the lung- 

 ing houndfish, I felt with my fingers for the flash button and 

 switched off the current. 



The blackness that followed was more intense than any that 

 had gone before. Hordes of scurrying silversides and anchovies, 

 frantic with panic, brushed against my arms and against my 

 exposed legs, sending tiny cool currents across my flesh. For 

 several seconds I could feel their bodies, and then the tickling 

 of their fins ceased and I hung once more in lifeless space. 

 Slackening the grip of my fingers, I allowed the strands of the 

 rope to slide slowly past. Down, down, until with a slight bump 

 I felt the pressure of sand beneath my feet. Here I let go, and 

 leaning slightly against the tide walked several feet. 



Once more I turned on the light. Its beam glared across the 

 bottom casting long shadows, throwing the tide ridges into 

 high relief and bringing into prominence objects that I had 

 never seen before, though I had dived at this place a dozen 

 times. Deep craters, which in the light of day would not have 

 been conspicuous, pitted the bottom everywhere. Holes in the 

 sand were visible as round black patches and from some of 

 these little currents, laden with specks of silt and tiny plank- 

 ton, could be seen pulsing in and out. Their molluscan or 

 crustacean owners, whichever they were, were busy at work 

 sucking in and expelling the water by which they derived 

 their oxygen and food. 



In order to get a better look at one of these underwater 

 ventilating systems I slid to my knees and then lay on my 

 stomach, arching my back so the water would not enter the 

 helmet. I had hardly settled myself when there suddenly ap- 

 peared a strange apparition. Its head was clad in plates of mail 



