Galvanized into action, but still confused, the manager gave the
orders. A fast motor boat that had been hauled ashore and pot into a
shed when the Silver Menace blocked the river was hauled out. A heavy
submarine siren was hastily unearthed from one of the workshops, and
Davis drove the workmen to the task of fitting a sling on the boat by
which the siren could be lowered over the bow. A heavy crane was run
up and the motor boat made fast, in readiness to be lifted overboard.
Every one worked with the utmost speed of which they were capable.
Davis was not his usual good-natured self now. He drove his workmen
mercilessly. Hardly had the last of their preparations been completed
when a heavy truck rumbled into the yard. Gerrod had commandeered the
truck and worked wonders. A grand piano had been lifted bodily into
the big automobile. As the truck stopped he was lifting the lid that
protected the keys. An electrician stood by the siren, with the tuning
apparatus exposed. Hardly had the engine of the truck been shut off
when they were busy tuning the blast of the siren to match the tinkling
sound of the piano. It took a heart-breakingly long time to get the
pitches precisely alike, but then the launch swung high in the air and
alighted on the surface of the jelly below. The electrician in the
launch pressed the button that would set the siren at work sending out
its blast of sound waves through the water.
Those on the bank watched in agonized apprehension. The siren sank
into the jelly like mass. No audible sound issued from it, once it was
submerged, but when the curious sound waves issued into the water from
the giant metal plate that in normal times carried warnings to ships
at sea a change was visible in the jelly. Where ever the curious water
sound traveled the silvery jelly clouded and abruptly turned to liquid!
Almost instantly the space between the two wharves, in which the
launch lay, was free of the horrible stuff. Gerrod shouted excitedly.
Davis swore happily. Nita pushed anxiously forward.
"We've got to get to daddy!" she cried desperately. "We mustn't waste a
second! Not an instant!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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