"Now whatever you do, don't submerge," warned Samuel, holding his tin box for especially fragile specimens high above his chest to keep it dry. "Just slow and steady, m'lass, so we'll have time to observe and admire and make notes of any strange growths and creatures as we ride along." "Creatures!" exclaimed Tandy, twisting round. He was perched on Nikobo's head, his paints held carefully in his lap. "Would there be any wild animals in a sea forest, Master Salt?" "Sea Lions, likely," predicted Samuel, peering round eagerly as Nikobo paddled between two slippery barked sea trees into the murmuring forest itself. Except for the fact that the floor of this curious sea wood was the blue and restless sea, it might almost have been a forest ashore. The trees, tall, straight and stately, towered up toward the sky. Staring down into the clear green water, Tandy saw their trunks going down, down, down as far as he could see. "Rooted in the very ocean bed," marveled Samuel Salt, touching one lovingly as they passed. "What splendid masts these would make, Mates! Avast and belay, Nikobo, I believe I'll just take a cutting or two." "Ha, ha!" roared Ato, peering over Samuel's shoulder. "So now we're going to grow our own masts." Samuel himself, leaning far out over Nikobo's back, severed three young shoots from the sea tree and popped them happily into the aquarium. Vines that were really of coral ringed the gigantic trunks like bracelets, and the leaves of the trees were long ribbons of green and silver that whipped and fluttered like banners in the morning breeze.