‘I SHOULDN’T GO IN THERE IF I WERE YOU,’ WARNED THE SEA HORSE
Raphael swam rapidly to a flight of landing stairs which ran down into the water, and hauled himself out. Shivering he turned toward a few concrete steps which led from the pier up to the door in the rock wall. The black cable he had determined to follow also rose out of the water and disappeared through this door.
This is the cable that the diver carried from the Council Chamber, thought Raphael with sudden inspiration.
Not knowing exactly what to do, the boy mounted the steps and hurried along a smooth concrete passageway which led directly into the castle itself.
Forgetting the might and cunning of the enemy in his impatience, he ran, his feet pattering along the corridor like rain upon a shingle roof. Ahead of him lights blazed, but no one stopped him, no one appeared. He climbed a long flight of marble stairs, and so came through a door of brass into the great central hall of the castle. It was a huge semi-circular room like a cathedral apse, lined with winking elevator shafts that rose toward the distant ceiling in blazing piers of metal.
Raphael hesitated for a moment and then followed the cable through an open door. The room into which he came was lined with rich imitation oak paneling, and contained a large mahogany-stained table. The cable ended here. In the center of this table rested a steel box japanned in black enamel. Halfway under the box lay a letter, thin and white, on the outside of which was printed in large letters RAPHAEL, and below this in writing, ‘In the event of his discovering this dictaphone.’
Raphael hastily tore open the letter, and read as follows:
Castle of the Sea
My dear Raphael:
Through my dictaphone I have discovered your plot to destroy me and my castle. As I quite realize your ability to carry out your plans so conveniently outlined, I have made mine in advance. Cassandra and I leave in a moment by submarine for a safer retreat from your unwished-for attentions.