"Of course we think there's something special about the noise these paddles make. Maybe a special wave-form?" "Possibly," he admitted. "But--" "We want something else to do the same trick on a bigger scale. Directional, if possible. Not a paddle, of course. Better. Bigger. Stronger. Continuous. We want to drive fish and this paddle's limited in its effect." "Why drive fish?" asked Terry. "Why not?" asked the girl. She watched his face. He frowned a little, considering the problem the girl posed. "Oh, _ellos_ might object," he said absently. "Who?" "_Ellos_," he repeated. "It's a superstition. The word means 'they' or 'them.' Things under the ocean who listen to the fish and the fishermen." "You're not serious." It was a statement. "No," he admitted, still eying the paddle. "But the modern, businesslike fishermen who buy submarine ears for sound business reasons call them _orejas de ellos_ and everybody knows what they mean, even in the modernized fishing fleet." "Which," said the girl, "Jimenez y Cía. has had a big hand in modernizing. That's why I came to you. Your name is Terry Holt, I think. An American Navy Captain said you could make what my father wants." Terry nodded suddenly to himself. "What you want," he said abruptly, "might be done with a tape-recorder, a submarine ear, and an underwater horn. You'd make a tape-recording of what these whackings sound like under water, edit the tape to make the whackings practically continuous, and then play the tape through an underwater horn to reproduce the sounds at will. That should do the trick." "Good! How soon can you do it?" she asked. "I'm afraid not at all," said Terry. "I find I've been a little too efficient in updating the fishing fleet. I'm leaving the city for the city's good." She looked at him inquiringly. "No," he assured her. "The police haven't asked me to leave. They're glad I'm going, but they're cordial enough and it's agreed that I'll come back when somebody else finds out how _La Rubia_ catches her fish." "_La Rubia?_" "_The Redhead_," he told her. "It's the name of a fishing boat. She's found some place where fish practically fight to get into her nets. For months, now, she's come back from every trip loaded down gunwale-deep. And she makes her trips fast! Naturally the other fishermen want to get in on the party." "So?" "The bonanza voyages," Terry explained, "started immediately after _La Rubia_ had submarine ears installed. Immediately all the other boats installed them. My former partner sold them faster than I could assemble them. And nobody regrets them. They do increase the catches. But they don't match _La Rubia_. She's making a mint of money! She's found some place or she has some trick that loads her down deep every time she puts out to sea." The girl made an interrogative sound.