The Plug at the Bottom of the Sea (7 page)

‘After a month he summoned his wise men back again, but none of them knew what to do. “We are men of peace,” they said, “and we don't know how to defend ourselves from this secret weapon.”

‘Only one small man with a very long beard which reached to the floor said, “There's one way to stop the wretched King
of the East. But it is so dangerous that I will tell you only if no other way is found.” So they all went back to their big room to think for one more day.

‘The next day many methods were brought before the king but they were all impossible for they were invented only to prevent the dangerous little man with his dangerous little plan from telling it to the king.

‘And so, at the end of the day, when all the wise men were tired and the king was sitting in the great cave of his iceberg without a plan, he called again for the little man. And the little man with the golden beard to the floor tapped in, leaning on his cane.

‘“There are some great caves through the centre of the earth,” said the little man. “If we dig an enormous hole through the ground to reach them we can put a plug at the end. Then we can dig away all the land around the plug so the water of the sea will be on top of the plug. This will be the deepest point in the sea. And the plug will rest on runners so that it can be pulled aside to let the water pass and flow through to the other side of the world. If that happens it will drown them.”

‘“But that is too horrible to even think about,” said King Geiges of the West, and they all agreed. But after another day more news came of the great march of King Cain of the East. So the king called them back to his great cave palace.

‘“Great wise men, you have thought for days of ways of making war, but you have thought of only impossible plans. Now, I am a peaceful man and we are a peaceful land, but we have decided to build the plug, which of course we will never use, for it is too terrible to even talk about.”

‘“But what if we are forced to use it?” asked all the wise men.

‘“That is too terrible to even think about, so we can't discuss it,” said the king.

‘They began to dig the hole and clear away the corner of the island continent so that the plug would be just off the island. Secret stairs and a secret slide were built down to the caves
to keep a guard at the bottom. The work went on and on, digging deeper and deeper, till one day a messenger arrived with the dreadful news. “The King of the East has found out about the plan. He has now built a plug on
his
side of the earth too.”

‘“Oh no,” cried King Geiges. “What have we done? What have we started?” He called in his wise men.

‘By now the tunnel and hole were finished and a plug had been made of solid gold, to protect all the gold of the country in the surest way. “All is ready,” said the small old man with the very long beard. “All is ready,” echoed the king's wise men, “as you wished.”

‘“I have sad news and need your advice,” he said. “The King of the East has blocked up the cave on the other side of the earth with his own plug and threatens to drown us all. What can we do?”

‘And all the wise men with all their long beards shook their heads and said, “Shocking, shocking,” but could give the king no advice. Finally the little old man with his beard of gold to the floor was called, and he came tapping in with his cane.

‘He said: “If all is ready, then the plug should be put in place and the water let into the hole. Then, when he and you have this danger over each other's heads …then you can make an agreement to each keep your own guard together in the centre of the earth with a palace of East and West …”

‘“That is a magnificent idea,” said the king and agreed immediately without discussing it with his other wise men. The following day, the great golden plug was lowered into the hole and tied to a great rope.

‘Everything happened as the little old man had said. The King of the East lowered his plug and both decided to build the underground palace of East and West. But—' Moses paused to puff—'the rope had been stolen.'

‘Stolen?' Craig and Cindy said at once.

‘Yes, because the little old man had taken the rope with fifty of the king's men and rowed it out to an island and there he had built a windmill'

‘But why did he take the rope?' asked Cindy.

‘And why did he build the windmill?' asked Craig, ‘and why didn't anyone stop him?'

‘Hold on, hold on. I'll tell you the rest.' Moses laughed. ‘The little old man built the windmill to be able to pull out the plug.'

‘Did he want to control the world?' asked Cindy.

‘No he wanted peace. So he took guards from the other kingdom and put them in charge of this windmill and guards from this kingdom and put them in charge of another windmill on the other side of the world.'

‘You mean there's another windmill?' asked Craig.

‘Yes, that's right.' Moses puffed.

‘But what happened then, when the guards of the eastern kingdom were at our windmill, and our guards were in charge of the eastern one?'

‘Nothing,' said Moses, smiling.

‘Nothing?' asked Cindy and Craig in the same breath.

‘The little man had built each windmill with one sail stuck in a rock so that it wouldn't move. But he kept the guards there to stop anyone who tried to come up and cut the rope or start a war.'

‘But why did he build the windmills in the first place, if he didn't want them to work?'

‘Ah, well, that's the final part of his plan. On each side there were those who were afraid of what the other side might do, so he made them believe the windmills worked. Actually neither side could do anything anyway, but it made them get together in the centre of the earth and talk.'

‘I don't understand at all,' said Cindy, shaking her head.

‘Oh, Cindy, it's so simple. He made everyone feel safe and happy, can't you see?'

‘But what happened to the two kings if everything was so happy and safe?' asked Cindy.

Moses smiled, ‘Well, there are those who said a great flood came just after that and washed everyone away, but
I really don't know 'cos that's as much as my daddy told me.'

They all sat around the fire looking at the licking flames as Moses threw on some large strings of seaweed and began to finish his food. He had been talking so much he had had no time to eat.

Suddenly there was a whoosh of flames. ‘What was that?' Craig shouted as a tower of flame shot into the sky lighting them all up like a fireworks explosion.

‘Just some fisherman's oil,' said Moses. ‘Nothing to worry about. It comes to the top of the sea, in places out in the middle of the ocean. Why I've seen oil catch fire when lightning strikes the water. Happened on a black rainy night. Whoosh, a tower of flames. Seen it I did.'

The flame suddenly died down as quickly as it had shot up. ‘It comes out of cracks in the rock.'

‘You mean there's oil in the sea?' asked Cindy.

‘There sure are plenty of things about the sea for you two to learn,' said Moses. ‘Take this bread. Do you know where it came from?'

They both shook their heads. ‘Seaweed,' he said, ‘special yellow seaweed that grows in the shallow rocks just off the island.'

‘And the cheese?' asked Cindy, expecting to hear about a special sea flower. But it was ‘only goat's cheese from a little goat' Moses kept on the island. ‘Must have got lost in the storm, I haven't seen him since that night.'

‘Moses, if the sails haven't moved for so long, how did you get in and out of the windmill?'

‘I was waiting for one of you to ask that question. It's the sign.'

‘The sign?' asked Cindy.

‘The sign is a trapdoor and goes out under the rope. There's a secret staircase out from that same place to the shore and a little cave, which is the way my dad showed us to get in.'

‘We didn't find that cave,' said Cindy, ‘and we didn't know
what was in the hole in the bottom of the sea. In fact, we never knew there was a hole at all.'

‘Or a plug,' added Craig.

‘Well, except for you two, there's only my brother and me who do know about it.' Moses nodded. ‘And as for my brother, I haven't seen him for years, so we may be the only ones to know about it.'

‘Then we're the only ones who know where the water has gone?' asked Craig.

‘Well, the only ones who know how to bring it back,' answered Moses.

‘But how do you know what to do?' asked Cindy.

‘You'll see if you come, but neither of you has filled your part of the bargain.'

‘Bargain?' asked Cindy.

‘I've told you the legend, but you haven't said you'll come.'

‘Let me speak with Cindy for a moment,' said Craig. He took Cindy away from the fire and whispered. ‘Now, Cindy, don't you be frightened. We're responsible and you heard what Moses said.'

‘What?' asked Cindy.

‘About our being the only three people who know about the water and the hole and the plug, so we've got to go.'

‘But will it be dangerous?' asked Cindy.

‘Oh, Cindy.'

‘Well, I …' Cindy could see that Craig would not be pleased if she was afraid to go. ‘All right,' she said, ‘we'll go to the plug, but …'

‘No buts,' said Craig. ‘All the way. Or you try to find your way back by yourself.'

‘But I can't find the way, alone.'

Craig shook his head, very slightly.

‘All right, then I'll come,' said Cindy, almost in tears.

Walking back to the fire, she asked, ‘Would you really let me go back alone, Craig?'

‘No, of course not, but we are responsible and I want to go anyway.'

‘Well?' said Moses, puffing away next to the small fire of almost dead red coals.

‘We've decided to come.'

‘Well, I'm glad about that. But you know it's not just fun and excitement. It's dangerous, so I hope you haven't forced Cindy to come.' He looked over at Cindy. ‘Craig hasn't forced you to come, has he?'

Cindy looked at Craig and then at Moses. ‘Oh no,' she said, ‘he just said he'd desert me if I didn't come.'

‘Cindy!' Craig glared at her.

‘Well, that's what you did say.'

‘Well, why don't you two sleep on the plan and decide in the morning when it's light,' said Moses. ‘As for me, I'm tired and I'm going to sleep up there on top of him.'

‘On top of him?' both Craig and Cindy said at once, looking at the whale.

‘Yep, and you'd better too. Put some sail over you and stick close together.' He climbed the rocks after stamping out the fire and jumped the last four feet onto the whale's head. The whale raised one eye suspiciously, but didn't flip his tail or roll over.

‘It seems safe,' said Craig to Moses.

‘Safe as a featherbed and twice as warm,' called out Moses in the dark. Craig and Cindy followed up the rocks and came to the jump. Craig took a few steps and jumped with a bundle of sail in his arms. Cindy, taking a deep breath, followed and landed on much harder skin than she had expected.

‘I thought he would be like a balloon, but he's just like a rock,' said Cindy. They walked down from the whale's head, trying to see where there would be less wind, for the cold night wind was blowing terribly. The moon was out and the clouds were racing by, as they looked over the massive body.

Suddenly, there rose up in front of them a great black tail: two points high in the air. The tail settled back down into the
water as silently as it had risen, not slapping, but as if the whale were just yawning and stretching before going to sleep.

‘It's gonna be cold tonight so let's get on this side of him, down on one of the flippers, far away from the tail.' The fin was wide and rested just above the black water with the cloud reflections racing by.

‘Will it be safe down here?' Cindy asked. ‘Do you think he's asleep?' but Craig did not answer. ‘Sh,' he joked as he spread out the sail, ‘he may have ears down here.' They both lay down with the wind whipping over their heads.

‘I hope he doesn't move,' said Cindy in a whisper.

‘And you hope,' said Craig teasing her, ‘that we get to the plug soon and find all the fish and the sailors and the ships. You want to get back to land safely, and get home. Mother and father must be worrying about us.'

‘You're a genuius, Craig. You guessed all my thoughts.' She fell asleep smiling.

Slivers of sunlight were slanting in Cindy's eyes from slits in the sail. She heard Moses call out, ‘Who goes there?' ‘Captain Tiny of H.M.S.
Lazy
' was the answer. What was this? thought Cindy, and where was she? She pulled off her sail blanket.

The sun was bright and the whale glistened like a giant golden pillow. Craig stood near the ear, looking out over the cliff to where Moses was shouting. Moses stood on the cliff, waving.

Out on the mud was a tiny man with a lifebuoy around his neck, wearing a captain's hat and coat. With a rope he was pulling a large sea chest, both taller and longer than himself, and, in the other hand, he carried a globe on a stand. His long moustache went up at the ends like two eels coming out of his mouth. They swung up and down as he walked, like an elastic seesaw.

‘Ahoy,' he cried.

‘Where's your ship?' asked Moses, laughing.

‘Wish I knew. Lost it in a storm. Thrown overboard. Woke up with no water. Queerest thing I ever saw. Lost a whole ship full of animals for a zoo.'

‘But if you were thrown overboard, how did you get that chest and the globe?'

‘Found 'em, I did, so I guessed my ship must be near here.
Has all my papers in it' he tapped the chest, ‘and in here,' he tapped the globe, ‘I have all my important possessions.'