“They’re worse than sharks,” Rawlins told them. “Bite anything and savage as tigers. Good to eat though.”
But the boys found the other wonders and beauties even more interesting than the fishes. Gigantic cup-shaped sponges grew upwards for six or seven feet. Immense sea-fans and sea-plumes formed a forest that might have been of futuristic palms. Huge orange, green and chocolate domes of brain corals were piled like titanic many-colored fruits. There were great toadstool-like mushroom corals of lavender, pink and yellow and everywhere, above all, the wide-branching, tree-like madrepores or stag-horn corals of dull fawn-brown. Back and forth among this forest under the sea darted schools of tiny jewel-like fishes; great pink conchs crawled slowly about; a little flock of butterfly squids shot past, gleaming like bits of burnished metal in the light; ugly long-legged giant spider crabs scuttled into their shelters among the corals and everywhere the ocean’s floor was dotted with huge starfishes, brilliant sponges, big black, sea-cucumbers and crabs and shells by hundreds.
“Jove, it’s the most wonderful sight I’ve ever seen!” declared Mr. Henderson who, with Mr. Pauling, was also gazing at this wonderland beneath the sea.
“Yes, simply marvelous!” agreed the other. “Boys, I’m mighty glad I gave in. I wouldn’t have missed this for anything. No wonder you’re fascinated by a diver’s life, Rawlins!”
“But I want to see that wreck!” cried Tom. “Do you suppose it’s gone?”
“Ought to be pretty close to it by now,” said Rawlins. “Yes, there ’tis! See it, boys? Look, over beyond that big bunch of sea-fans!”
The boys strained their eyes in the direction Rawlins pointed, but could see nothing that even remotely resembled a wreck.
“No, I can’t see it,” admitted Tom, at last.
“Neither can I,” said Frank.
“Why it’s plain as can be,” declared Rawlins. “Can’t miss it.” Then, an idea occurring to him, he burst into a hearty laugh. “Why, I suppose you’re looking for a ship!” he cried. “Masts and stern and rails and all! Nothing like that, boys. This old hooker’s been down here a couple of hundred years and more. She’s just a mass of coral now. See that sort of mound there—that one with that lop-sided stag-horn coral growing out of one side?”