Free 04 Volcano Adventure by Willard Price Page B

Then the sea went black again. But the two-mile-high column always glowed with the light given off by the streams of white-hot lava shooting up into it.
    The Lively Lady was no longer moving forward, but she was not lying still.’ She hopped and leaped like a frightened deer. Every explosion of the volcano sent tidal waves rushing over the sea. They picked up the ship and tossed it into the air, then let it fall deep into a trough. They collided with the ocean’s own waves and sent up great jets of spray.
    Crash! The Worst explosion yet shook the sea.
    ‘I’m afraid that will start a big roller,’ said Dr Dan. ‘Better lash yourselves to the rail or the rigging.’
    They made themselves fast and waited. Several minutes passed.
    ‘Guess it was a false alarm,’ said Hal.
    ‘Don’t be too sure. It takes a little time for it to get here.’
    ‘Look!’ cried Roger. ‘What’s that coming?’
    It was like a moving wall. It towered black against the column of fire. It seemed as high as the masts. It was bending over the ship.
    The men curled themselves into balls to withstand the shock. The wall of water broke over them. Hal’s lashings were torn apart and he was swept across the deck to the rail. There he clung desperately. The ship lay over on her beam ends. Would she completely turn turtle?
    She would not. The brave little ship righted herself and the water drained away from her deck.
    ‘Boy, was that hot!’ cried Roger, when he could get his breath. ‘I feel like a boiled eel.’
    He got no answer through the dark from his brother. He called anxiously.
    ‘Hal, are you there?’
    Hal, who had been bruised when flung against the gunwales, replied rather weakly, ‘Yes, I’m here. But I came near leaving you for good.’
    ‘Tie up again,’ warned Dr Dan. ‘There’s more to come.’
    The following waves were smaller but just as hot. They scalded the skin and made the men choke and gasp for breath.
    Then something solid struck Roger in the face. He grabbed it. It-lay limp in his hands.
    ‘Now they’re throwing fishes at us,’ he called.
    ‘Yes,’ answered Dr Dan. ‘I’ve had several of them. Hang on to them. We’ll cook them for breakfast.’
    ‘But why are they coming aboard?’
    ‘They’re paralysed by the heat. It makes them float to the surface. This would be a wonderful place for a fleet of fishing schooners just now. They could get thousands of tons of fish with no trouble at all. Do you hear the birds?’
    The air was full of the scream of gulls and terns as they wheeled about over the dark waters.
    ‘They’ve come to pick up the fish. But it’s a dangerous place for birds, too. I think they are going to be sorry that they were so greedy.’
    The sky was turning from black to blue. As the dawn came a strange scene was revealed to the men on the Lively Lady. The giant of steam, gas, smoke and flying lava towered to the sky. It was made up of rolling billows and puffy pillows like a thunder cloud, but whoever saw a thunder cloud standing on the water and rising two miles high? Its hair was braided with snaky shafts of lightning and thunder rolled down its sides.
    The sea was not made of waves as the sea should be. It was humping and jumping, sending up hills of water with sharp peaks. Steam drifted from the peaks. The whole sea was bubbling with the escape of gases-from beneath. Geysers of gas and steam shot up here and there.
    Not far away a big whirlpool swept round and round. A wall of water circled it and at its centre was a deep hole. If a ship as small as the Lively Lady got caught in that whirl it would go straight down to Davy Jones’ Locker.
    ‘I never saw so many fish in my life,’ exclaimed Roger. On every side were the upturned white bellies of fish that had given up their fight for life in the scalding water. Most of them were small, a foot or two in length.
    ‘The small ones feel it first,’ said Dr Dan. ‘The big fellows can stand it a while longer. There’s one