Free New Adventures of the Mad Scientists' Club by Bertrand R. Brinley, Charles Geer Page B

direct
communication with the mobile rescue unit as well as a guideline for finding
their way back out through the channel. The two deputies each carried an extra
set of scuba gear, and all four were equipped with a flashlight and a knife.
            The TV
director was in a better humor now, and kept getting in the way and delaying
things as he tried to get as much of the action as he could on film. He started
giving directions as to just how each man was to go down the path and get into
the water, until Chief Putney pulled him gently aside and assigned two officers
to keep him company for the duration of the operation.
            Jeff
waded into the water first. "Keep a tight line," he told the deputy
behind him. "There are a lot of sharp rocks jutting out from the walls.
We'll stay right on the bottom as much as possible. There's good white sand on
the floor of the passage, and it's easier to see." Then he fitted his mask
to his face, blew out a lungful of air, and opened the valve of his air tank.
One by one the others followed him as he let himself out into deeper water and
dove for the bottom. Soon there was nothing to be seen but a trail of air
bubbles on the surface of the creek and the communication wire flapping up and
down as it unreeled itself from the spool Mortimer was carrying.
            For the
watchers on the shore there was nothing to do but wait, now, while the four divers
probed the darkness of the underground channel. Everybody except the men in the
mobile rescue van had crowded along the bank, pushing and shoving each other in
an effort to get a better vantage point from which to watch the dark patch
under the cliff where the trail of bubbles had disappeared. Two people slipped
and tumbled down the bank into the waters of the creek. Except for shining
flashlights in their eyes, nobody paid much attention to them. The TV director
was moaning about not being able to send a TV camera into the cavern with the
divers. But Chief Pixley solved his problem by offering him a set of diving
apparatus so he could take the camera in himself. The director decided that it
wasn't that important.
            Henry
and the rest of us stayed glued to the side of the mobile rescue van, alongside
Mayor Scragg. We knew that the first word from the four divers had to come in
there through the communication line they had taken with them. It seemed like
hours, but it was really only ten minutes later that the deputy monitoring the
phone line waved frantically for silence.

           
"Hello! Hello!" he said. "Is that you, Foster?" He listened
for a moment. "Roger! We'll stand by. We're all ready up here."
           
"They've gotten through to the cave, and they're looking for the boys
now," he told the Mayor.
           
"Just ask them if there's a submarine in there," said Mayor Scragg,
looking suspiciously at Henry.
            The
deputy whistled down the phone line again. "Hello, Foster! The Mayor wants
to know if there's a submarine in there."
           
"Yeah, there's a submarine here all right," came the answer,
"but there's no sign of any kids. We've looked all over the place. There's
just nobody in here."
           
"Say that again."
            "I
say there's no sign of any kids in here. I think there's something fishy about
this whole thing."
           
"Did you hear that, Mr. Mayor?" said the deputy. "Foster says
there's nobody in that cave!"
           
"Nobody in there!" exclaimed the Mayor.
           
"Nobody in there!" echoed Henry.
            The
Mayor turned and looked at Henry. "Mulligan," he said.
           
"But there's got to be somebody in there!" Henry protested. "We
talked to them on the intercom."
           
"Mulligan!" said the Mayor.
            Henry
turned and ran. He headed for the intercom jack at the base of the cliff, with
the rest of us hightailing it after him. The Mayor and Chief Putney came
puffing up the path behind us.
           
"Jeff! Jeff!" Henry hollered