“I breathed it, too,” said Drew, “but the gas does not seem to be so powerful here above the water.”
“No,” said Panton. “I could just make out a crack or two through the coral. We’re clear now.”
“Yes,” said the mate, looking back at the effervescing water, “and the bottom is alive again.”
He was right, for the peculiar display of animal and vegetable growth was plain to see once more. Great sea slugs crawled about on the bottom with gigantic starfish, and actiniae of vivid colours spread their tentacled blossoms.
“Best way this of getting through the mist, eh, Lane?” cried Panton.
“But there is no mist over the sea,” said Lane.
“No, I suppose the passage through water makes the gas invisible,” said Panton. “Isn’t this somewhere near where we started, Mr Rimmer?”
“No, sir, ’bout a mile farther on. Keep a look-out and you’ll see the opening in the cocoa-nut grove, and the marks of the boat’s keel upon the sand.”
They were not long in reaching the spot, and there the boat was run right up over the soft beach in among the tall stems of the nearest cocoanuts, and carefully made fast.
“But suppose savages come and find it?” suggested Oliver.