“Sh—“—Doris’ hand went up. “It’s that strange whisper again!”
“Whispering waters!” Mildred murmured. “How mysterious!”
Low as her tone was, the whisperer apparently caught it, for—still in that hoarse whisper—there came back:
“So we are mysterious! How very grand! And it was a lady who spoke!”
Once again Dave’s voice broke in upon the whisperer: “Doris!” Tenseness was evident in his tone. “Doris!—Tell them to hold us right where we are!”
“Hold it!” Doris called to the windlass man, instantly.
“Hold it,” came back the quick acknowledgment.
“All this,” Doris said to Mildred, “is most provoking. You are just dying to know what strange things are happening below, what marvelous discoveries are being made—but the only part you have in it is listening and waiting!”
Down in the steel ball, Dave had caught a movement to the right, away from the cliff. Switching his light in that direction he had discovered a huge, dark object moving slowly through the water.
“It’s that ‘thing’!” he told himself. “The very thing I’ve seen before!”