It was hard to tell what kind of a light it was, so great was the refraction of the water, but there was something there. It was little more than a lessening of the deep gloom that otherwise surrounded them on all sides. Gerry got to his feet and picked up his rubber saddle which he had been using as a pillow under his helmet.
"We'd better investigate," he said. "Wake Closana."
They saddled their dolphins and rode out at an easy pace, holding the big fish down with a tight rein. As they rode the glow ahead of them became more definite. It seemed to come from a long row of twenty or more lights. Then they were near enough to see each other in the reflected glow.
"It's some kind of a ship," Gerry said. "Those lights are her port holes!"
"It's more than that!" snapped Angus. "It's the Viking! I know the lines of her stern anywhere, even in this sunken and God forsaken spot!"
The space-ship lay quietly in the soft mud of this part of the ocean bottom. All her port holes of transparent duralite were glowing with the reflected light from inside. The twisted wrecks of her helicopters were still visible on top of the hull, but otherwise she did not appear to be damaged.
Gerry was in the middle as the three of them rode their dolphins up close to one of the big windows of the control room. The ship had evidently survived the fall into the water, for they could see dim figures moving about inside.
"I told you that duralite hull could stand a little thing like a fall into the ocean!" McTavish exulted.
As they crowded their finny steeds close to the glass of the control room window, Portok the Martian came to peer out. His red-skinned face went pale as he saw them, and even through the ship's hull their audiphones picked up his agonized cry.
"Steve! Tanda! I just saw the ghosts of Norton and McTavish looking in the window!"