Dolphin Island - Arthur C. Clarke [17]
"My feelings are quite hurt. I've never been able to get near Sputnik—and you did it the first time. You seem to have a way with dolphins; have you ever kept any pets before?"
"No, sir," said Johnny. "Except polywogs, and that was a long time ago."
"Well," the Professor chuckled, "I don't think we can count them."
They had walked on for a few more yards, when Professor Kazan started speaking in a completely different tone of voice, addressing Johnny very seriously as an equal, not as a boy forty years younger.
"I'm a scientist," he said, "but I'm also a superstitious Russian peasant. Though logic tells me it's nonsense, I'm beginning to think that Fate sent you here. First, there was the way you arrived, like something out of a Greek myth. And now Sputnik feeds out of your hands. Pure coincidence, of course, but a sensible man makes coincidences work for him."
What on earth is he driving at? wondered Johnny. But the Professor said no more until they were about to re-enter the Tech Block. Then he suddenly remarked, with a slight chuckle, "I understand that you're in no great hurry to get home."
Johnny's heart skipped a beat.
"That's right, sir," he said eagerly. "I want to stay here as long as I can. I'd like to learn more about your dolphins."
"Not mine," corrected the Professor firmly. "Every dolphin is a person in his own right, an individual with more freedom than we can ever know on land. They don't belong to anyone, and I hope they never will. I want to help them, not only for science, but because it's a privilege to do so. Never think of them as animals; in their language they call themselves the People of the Sea, and that's the best name for them."
It was the first time that Johnny had seen the Professor so animated, but he could understand his feelings. For he owed his life to the People of the Sea, and it was a debt he hoped he could repay.
Chapter 8
Around Dolphin Island lay a magic kingdom, the reef. In a lifetime, one could not exhaust its marvels. Johnny had never dreamed that such places existed, crammed with weird and beautiful creatures in such multitudes that the fields and forests of the land seemed dead by comparison.
At high tide, the reef was completely covered by the sea, and only the narrow belt of white sand surrounding the island was left exposed. But a few hours later, the transformation was incredible. Though the range between high and low tide was only three feet, the reef was so flat that the water withdrew for miles. Indeed, in some directions the tide retreated so far that the sea disappeared from sight, and the coral plateau was uncovered all the way to the horizon.
This was the time to explore the reef; all the equipment needed was a stout pair of shoes, a broad-rimmed hat to give protection from the sun, and a face mask. The shoes were far and away the most important item, for the sharp, brittle coral could inflict scars that easily became infected, and then took weeks to heal.
The first time that Johnny went out onto the reef, Mick was his guide. Because he had no idea what to expect, everything was very strange—and a little frightening. He did well to be cautious until he knew his way around. There were things on the reef—small, innocent-looking things— that could easily kill him if he was careless.
The two boys walked straight out from the beach on the western side of the island, where the exposed reef was only half a mile wide. At first they crossed an uninteresting no man's land of dead, broken coral—shattered fragments cast up by the storms of centuries. The whole island was built of such fragments, which the ages had covered with a thin layer of earth, then with grass and weeds, and at last with trees.
They were soon beyond the zone of dead coral, and it seemed to Johnny that he was moving through a garden of strange, petrified plants. There were delicate twigs and branches of colored stone, and more massive