‘Since you come from Gæa, the Queen Mother,’ replied the President in his best official manner, speaking very carefully, ‘you are more than welcome to the Sea. But here we are ignorant of the Earth, and such people as this Giant Sorcerer.
‘Besides this you are a man, and man has done us few favors. Instead he has destroyed many of our noblest sea families. For this reason our hearts are hard.’
‘But Mr. President,’ interrupted Raphael excitedly, ‘I don’t want very much help. All I need is a guard placed about the castle rock in case the Sorcerer should escape.’
The President was impressed. ‘Well, well,’ he muttered, ‘what you ask is little. And if we don’t love man, we should probably love a sorcerer even less.’ He sighed. ‘I don’t mean to be discourteous, but political life is full of difficult decisions, and times are not as easy as they used to be. What is more, we have our own wars to fight in the ocean, for most of us feed by war. However, I’ll help you now, if you will help us in the future.’
At this point Mrs. Whale burst in upon the conversation.
‘Oh, Albert,’ she cried, bumping him coyly, ‘you men are always talking business. You’ll forgive my interrupting, won’t you, Mr. Raphael? I’m sure Albert will scold me later. But I do want you to see our son before you leave. Children of the Sea so seldom have a chance to see the strange people who come from the Land. Especially live ones. They tell me that we were land folk at one time. My husband says that if this were known it would do him no end of harm politically.’
‘Now, now, little woman,’ interrupted her husband kindly, ‘run along. We have serious business to attend to.’
The President turned and beckoned with his fluke to the sea horse.
‘Mr. Equerry,’ he commanded, ‘summon the Grand Council.’
At a word from the sea horse, the Grand Council, which was made up of the House of Representatives as well as the Admiralty, gathered and stationed itself in a semi-circle about the President, the big fish nearest the ocean floor, the little fish above them like spectators in a vast theater audience. Raphael saw a porpoise, a manatee, a sawfish, a swordfish, a spearfish, a sailfish, a tarpon, a tuna, several kinds of sharks, besides a dolphin, a turtle, and numerous representative sea creatures he could not name.