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.Perhaps some day, one of them would risk a nibble, and then the whole pack would move in…There was one serious difficulty about exploring the reef: it was too big.Most of it was far beyond comfortable swimming range, and there were areas out toward the horizon that had never been visited.Often Johnny wished he could have gone farther into unknown territory, but he had been forced to save his strength for the long swim home.It was on one of these weary return journeys, as he helped Mick to push the surfboard loaded with at least a hundred pounds of fish, that the answer occurred to him.Mick was skeptical, but agreed that the idea would be splendid—if it worked."It's not going to be easy," he said, "to make a harness that will fit a dolphin.They're so streamlined that it will slide off them.""I'm thinking of a kind of elastic collar, just ahead of the flippers.If it's broad enough and tight enough, it should stay on.Let's not talk about it, though—people will only laugh at us."This was good advice, but impossible to carry out.Everyone wanted to know why they needed sponge rubber, elastic webbing, nylon cord, and oddly shaped pieces of plastic, and they had to confess the truth.There was no hope of carrying out the first trials in secrecy, and Johnny had an embarrassingly large audience when he fitted his harness on Susie.He ignored the jokes and suggestions from the crowd as he buckled the straps around the dolphin.She was so trusting that she made no objection, being quite confident that Johnny would do nothing to harm her.This was a strange new game, and she was willing to learn the rules.The harness fitted over the front part of the dolphin's tapering body, being prevented from slipping back (so Johnny hoped) by the flippers and dorsal fin.He had been very careful to keep the straps clear of the single blowhole on the back of the head, through which the dolphin breathed when it surfaced, and which closed automatically when it dived.Johnny attached the two nylon traces to the harness and gave them a good tug.Everything seemed to be staying in place, so he fastened the other ends to Mick's surfboard and climbed on top of it.There was an ironic cheer from the crowd as Susie pulled him away from shore.She had needed no orders; with her usual swift grasp of the situation, she understood exactly what Johnny was trying to do.He let her drag him out for a hundred yards, then pressed the LEFT button on the communicator.Susie responded at once; he tried RIGHT, and again she obeyed.The surfboard was already moving faster than he could have swum, yet the dolphin was barely exerting herself.They were heading straight out to sea, when Johnny muttered: "I'll show them!" and signaled FAST.The board gave a little jump and started to fly across the waves as Susie went into top gear.Johnny slid back a little, so that the board planed properly and did not nose down into the water.He felt very excited and proud of himself, and wondered how fast he was traveling.Flat out, Susie could do at least thirty miles an hour; even with the drag of the board and the restriction of the harness, she was probably touching fifteen or twenty.And that was quite a speed, when you were lying flat on the water with the spray blowing in your face.There was a sudden "snap," the board jerked wildly to one side, and Johnny flew to the other.When he came to the surface, spluttering, he found that nothing had broken; Susie had just popped out of her harness like a cork out of a bottle.Well, one expected these little technical difficulties on the first trials.Though it was a long swim back to shore, where lots of people would be waiting to pull his leg, Johnny felt quite content.He had acquired a new mastery over the sea, that would allow him to roam the reef with far greater ease; and he had invented a new sport that would one day bring pleasure to thousands of men and dolphins alike.Chapter 15Professor Kazan was delighted when he heard of Johnny's invention; it fell neatly into line with his own plans.Those plans were still rather vague, but they were beginning to take shape, and in another few weeks he would be able to go to his Advisory Committee with some ideas that would really make it sit up.The Professor was not one of those scientists—like some pure mathematicians—who are unhappy if their work turns out to be of practical value.Though he would be quite content to study the dolphin language for the rest of his life, without attempting to use his knowledge, he knew that the time had come to apply it.The dolphins themselves had forced his hand.He still had no idea what could, or even what should, be done about the killer-whale problem.But he knew very well that if the dolphins expected to get much help from mankind, they would have to prove that they could do something in return.As far back as the 1960's, Dr.John Lilly, the first scientist to attempt communication with dolphins, had suggested ways in which they might co-operate with man.They could rescue survivors from shipwrecks—as they had demonstrated with Johnny—and they could help immeasurably in extending knowledge of the oceans.They must know of creatures never seen by man, and they might even settle the still-unsolved mystery of the Great Sea Serpent.If they would help fishermen on a large scale, as they had done occasionally on a small one, they might play an important role in feeding the Earth's six billion hungry mouths.All these ideas were worth investigating, and Professor Kazan had some new ideas of his own.There was not a wreck in the world's oceans that dolphins could not locate and examine, down to their ultimate diving depth of at least a thousand feet.Even when a ship had been broken up centuries ago and covered with mud or coral, they could still spot it.They had a wonderfully developed sense of smell—or, rather, of taste—and could detect faint traces of metal, oil, or wood in the water.Dolphin trackers, sniffing like bloodhounds across the sea bed, might revolutionize marine archaeology.Professor Kazan sometimes wondered, a little wistfully, if they could be trained to follow the scent of gold…When he was ready to test some of his theories, the Flying Fish sailed north, carrying Einar, Peggy, Susie, and Sputnik in newly installed tanks.She also carried a good deal of special equipment; but she did not, to his bitter disappointment, carry Johnny.OSCARhad forbidden it."I'm sorry, Johnny," said the Professor, glumly examining the typed card that the computer had flicked at him."You've A for Biology, A-minus for Chemistry, B-plus for Physics, and only B-minus for English, Mathematics, and History.That really isn't good enough.How much time do you spend diving?""I didn't go out at all yesterday," Johnny answered evasively."Since it never stopped raining, I'm not surprised.I'm thinking of the average day.""Oh, a couple of hours.""Morning and afternoon, I'm quite sure.Well, OSCAR has worked out a new schedule for you, concentrating on your bad subjects.I'm afraid you'll slip back even further if you come cruising with us.We'll be gone two weeks, and you can't afford to lose any more time."And that was that.It was no good arguing, even if he dared, for he knew that the Professor was right.In some ways, a coral island was the worst place in the world to study.It was a long two weeks before the Flying Fish came back, after making several stops at the mainland.She had gone as far north as Cooktown, where the great Captain Cook had landed in 1770 to repair his damaged Endeavour.From time to time, news of the expedition's progress came over the radio, but Johnny did not hear the full story until Mick reported to him on his return [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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