Dolphin Island - Arthur C. Clarke [43]
It had been built twenty years ago by a scientist at the Naval Research Laboratories, who couldn't understand how dolphins managed to swim as fast as they did. According to his calculations, their muscles should not be able to drive them at much more than ten miles an hour— yet they could cruise comfortably at twice that speed.
So the scientist had built a model dolphin and studied its behavior as it swam up and down, loaded with instruments. The project had been a failure, but the model was so beautifully made and performed so well that no one had had the heart to destroy it, even when its designer had given up in disgust. From time to time the Lab technicians dusted it off for public demonstrations, and thus the Professor had come to hear of it. In its small way, it was quite famous.
It would have fooled any human observer, but when it was lowered into Snowy's tank, before scores of fascinated spectators, the result was an utter anticlimax. The whale took one contemptuous glance at the mechanical toy and then ignored it completely.
"Just what I was afraid of," said the Professor, without too much disappointment. Like all scientists, he had long ago learned that most experiments are failures, and he was not ashamed to make a fool of himself, even in public. (After all, the great Darwin once spent hours playing the trumpet in a vegetable garden, to see if sound affected plant growth.) "She probably heard the electric motor and knew the thing was a fake. Well, there's no alternative. We'll have to use real dolphins as bait."
"Are you going to call for volunteers?" asked Dr. Saha, jokingly.
The joke, however, backfired on him. Professor Kazan considered the suggestion carefully, then nodded his head in agreement.
"I'll do exactly that," he said.
Chapter 17
"There's a general feeling around the island," said Mick, "that the Prof has gone stark, staring mad."
"You know that's nonsense," retorted Johnny, springing to the defense of his hero.
"What's he done now?"
"He's been using that brain-wave gadget to control Snowy's feeding. He tells me to offer her one kind of fish, and then Dr. Saha stops her from eating it; after he's given her several jabs, she doesn't even try any more. He calls it 'conditioning.' Now there are four or five big jacks swirrirning round in the pool, but she won't look at them. She'll eat any other fish, though."
"Why does that make the Prof crazy?"
"Well, it's obvious what he's up to. If he can keep Snowy from eating jacks, he can keep her from eating dolphins. But what good will that be? There are millions of killer x whales—he can't condition them all!"
"Whatever the Profs doing," said Johnny stubbornly, "there's a good reason for it. Wait and see."
"All the same, I wish they'd stop bothering Snowy. I'm afraid it'll make her bad-tempered."
That was an odd thing to say about a killer whale, thought Johnny.
"I don't see that that matters very much," be said.
Mick grinned rather shamefacedly and scuffed the ground with his feet.
"You promise you won't tell anyone?" he asked.
"Of course."
"Well, I've been swimming with her a good deal. She's more fun than your little tadpoles."
Johnny stared at him in utter amazement, quite ignoring the insult to Susie and Sputnik.
"And you said the Professor was mad!" he exclaimed, when he had got his breath back.
"You aren't pulling my leg again, are you?" he added suspiciously. By now he could usually spot one of Mick's jokes, but this time he seemed to be serious.
Mick shook his head.
"If you don't believe me, come down to the pool. Oh, I know it sounds crazy, but it's really quite safe. The whole thing started by accident: I got careless one day when I was feeding Snowy, slipped on the edge of the pool, and