Dolphin Island (3 page)

He had barely time to savor the beauty of the dawn when he saw something that robbed
the morning of all its hope. Heading straight toward him out of the west, with a speed
and purpose that chilled his blood, were dozens of gray, triangular fins.

As those fins sliced toward the raft, cutting through the water with incredible speed,
Johnny thought of all the gruesome tales he had read about sharks and shipwrecked
sailors. He drew himself up into as little space as possible, at the center of the
packing case. It wobbled alarmingly, and he realized how small a push would be needed
to turn it over. To his surprise, he felt little fear, only a kind of numbed regret
and a hope that, if the worst came to the worst, it would all be over quickly. And
it seemed a pity, too, that no one would ever know what had happened to him….

Then the water around the raft was full of sleek, gray bodies, switchbacking along
the surface in a graceful rollercoaster motion. Johnny knew almost nothing about the
creatures of the sea, but surely, sharks did not swim in this fashion. And these animals
were breathing air, just as he was; he could hear them wheezing as they went by, and
he caught glimpses of blowholes opening and closing. Why, of course—they were dolphins!

Johnny relaxed and no longer tried to hide himself in the middle of his raft. He had
often seen dolphins in movies or on television, and he knew that they were friendly
intelligent creatures. They were playing like children among the wreckage of the
Santa Anna
, butting at the floating debris with their streamlined snouts, making the strangest
whistling and creaking noises as they did so. A few yards away, one had reared its
head completely out of the water and was balancing a plank on its nose, like a trained
animal in a circus act; it seemed to be saying to its companions, “Look at me—see
how clever I am!”

The strange, unhuman but intelligent, head turned toward Johnny, and the dolphin dropped
its plaything with an unmistakable gesture of surprise. It sank back into the water,
squeaking with excitement, and a few seconds later, Johnny was surrounded by glistening,
inquisitive faces. They were smiling faces, too, for the mouths of the dolphins seemed
to be frozen in a kind of fixed grin—one so infectious that Johnny found himself smiling
back at them.

He no longer felt alone; now he had companionship, even though it was not human and
could do nothing to help him. It was fascinating to watch the leathery, dove-gray
bodies moving around him with such effortless ease as they hunted among the debris
of the
Santa Anna
. They were doing this, Johnny soon realized, purely out of playfulness and fun; they
were more like lambs gamboling in a spring meadow than anything he had ever expected
to find in the sea.

The dolphins continued to bob up and to look at him from time to time, as if making
sure that he had not run away. They watched with great curiosity as he pulled off
his sodden clothing and spread it to dry in the sun, and they seemed to be giving
the matter careful thought when Johnny asked them solemnly: “Well, what shall I do
now?”

One answer to that question was obvious: he had to arrange some shelter from the tropical
sun before it roasted him alive. Luckily, this problem was quickly solved; he was
able to build a little wigwam from some pieces of driftwood which he lashed together
with his handkerchief and then covered with his shirt. When he had finished, he felt
quite proud of himself, and hoped that his audience appreciated his cleverness.

Now he could do nothing but lie down in the shade and conserve his strength while
the wind and the currents carried him to an unknown fate. He did not feel hungry,
and though his lips were already dry, it would be several hours before thirst became
a serious problem.

The sea was much calmer now, and low, oily waves were rolling past with a gentle,
undulating motion. Somewhere Johnny had come across the phrase, “Rocked in the cradle
of the deep.” Now he knew exactly what it meant. It was so soothing, so peaceful here
that he could almost forget his desperate position; he was content to stare at the
blue sea and the blue sky, and to watch the strange yet beautiful animals that glided
and swooped around him, sometimes hurling their bodies clear out of the water in the
sheer joy of life….

Something jolted the raft, and he awoke with a start. For a moment he could hardly
believe that he had been sleeping and that the sun was now almost overhead. Then the
raft jerked again—and he saw why.

Four dolphins, swimming side by side, were pushing the raft through the water. Already
it was moving faster than a man could swim, and it was still gaining speed. Johnny
stared in amazement at the animals splashing and snorting only inches away from him;
was this another of their games?

Even as he asked himself that question, he knew that the answer was No. The whole
pattern of their behavior had changed completely; this was deliberate and purposeful.
Playtime was over. He was in the center of a great pack of the animals, all now moving
steadily in the same direction. There were scores, if not hundreds, ahead and behind,
to right and left, as far as he could see. He felt that he was moving across the ocean
in the midst of a military formation—a brigade of cavalry.

He wondered how long they would keep it up, but they showed no signs of slackening.
From time to time, one of the dolphins would drop away from the raft, and another
would immediately take its place, so that there was no loss of speed. Though it was
very hard to judge how fast he was moving, Johnny guessed that the raft was being
pushed along at over five miles an hour. There was no way of telling, however, whether
he was moving north, south, east, or west; he could get no compass bearings from the
almost vertical sun.

Not until much later in the day did he discover that he was heading toward the west,
for the sun was going down in front of him. He was glad to see the approach of night,
and looked forward to its coolness after the scorching day. By this time he was extremely
thirsty; his lips were parched and cracked, and though he was tantalized by the water
all around him, he knew that it would be dangerous to drink it. His thirst was so
overpowering that he did not feel any hunger; even if he had some food, he would be
unable to swallow it.

It was a wonderful relief when the sun went down, sinking in a blaze of gold and red.
Still the dolphins drove on into the west, beneath the stars and the rising Moon.
If they kept this up all through the night, Johnny calculated, they would have carried
him the best part of a hundred miles. They
must
have a definite goal, but what could it be? He began to hope that there was land
not far away, and that for some unknown reason these friendly and intelligent creatures
were taking him to it. But why they were going to all this trouble he could not imagine.

The night was the longest that Johnny had ever known, for his growing thirst would
not allow him to sleep. To add to his distress, he had been badly sunburned during
the day, and he kept twisting and turning on the raft in a vain attempt to find a
comfortable position. Most of the time he lay flat on his back, using his clothes
to protect the sore spots, while the Moon and stars crept across the sky with agonizing
slowness. Sometimes the brilliant beacon of a satellite would drift from west to east,
traveling much more swiftly than any of the stars, and in the opposite direction.
It was maddening to know that up on the space stations were men and instruments that
could easily locate him—if they bothered to search. But, of course, there was no reason
why they should.

At last the Moon went down, and in the brief darkness before dawn the sea once more
came alight with phosphorescence. The graceful, superbly streamlined bodies all around
the raft were outlined with fire; every time one of them shot into the air, the trajectory
of its leap was a glowing rainbow in the night.

This time Johnny did not welcome the dawn; now he knew how pitiful his defenses were
against the tropical sun. He re-erected his little tent, crept beneath it, and tried
to turn his thoughts away from drink.

It was impossible. Every few minutes he found himself picturing cold milk shakes,
glasses of iced fruit juice, water flowing from faucets in sparkling streams. Yet
he had been adrift for not more than thirty hours; men had survived without water
for much longer than that.

The only thing that kept up his spirits was the determination and energy of his escort.
The school still drove on into the west, carrying the raft before it with undiminished
speed. Johnny no longer puzzled himself about the mystery of the dolphins’ behavior;
that was a problem that would solve itself in good time—or not at all.

And then, about midmorning, he caught his first glimpse of land. For many minutes
he was afraid that it was merely a cloud on the horizon—but, if so, it was strange
that it was the only cloud in the sky and that it lay dead ahead. Before long he could
not doubt that it was an island, though it seemed to float clear of the water, and
the heat haze made its outlines dance and shimmer against the skyline.

An hour later, he could see its details clearly. It was long and low and completely
covered with trees. A narrow beach of dazzling white sand surrounded it, and beyond
the beach there seemed to be a very wide, shallow reef, for there was a line of white
breakers at least a mile out at sea.

At first Johnny could see no signs of life, but at last, with great relief, he spotted
a thin stream of smoke rising from the wooded interior. Where there was smoke there
were human beings—and the water for which his whole body was now craving.

He was still several miles from the island when the dolphins gave him a bad shock;
they were turning aside as if to by-pass the land that was now so close. Then Johnny
understood what they were doing. The reef was too great an obstacle; they were going
to outflank it and approach the island from the other side.

The detour took at least an hour, but Johnny’s mind was at rest, now that he felt
sure that he was nearing safety. As the raft and its untiring escort swung around
to the western side of the island, he saw first a small group of boats at anchor,
then some low white buildings, then a collection of huts with dark-skinned people
moving among them. There was a fairly large community here, on this lonely speck in
the Pacific.

Now at last the dolphins seemed a little hesitant, and Johnny got the impression that
they were reluctant to go into the shallow water. They pushed the raft slowly past
the anchored boats, then backed off as if to say, “It’s up to you now.”

Johnny felt an overwhelming impulse to say some words of thanks, but his mouth was
too dry for speech. So he stepped quietly off the raft, found himself in water only
waist deep, and waded ashore.

There were people running along the beach toward him, but they could wait. He turned
toward the lovely, powerful creatures who had brought him on this incredible journey,
and waved them a grateful farewell. Already they were turning back toward their home,
in the deep water of the open sea.

Then something seemed to happen to his legs, and as the sand came up to hit him, dolphins,
island, and everything else vanished from his consciousness.

When Johnny awoke, he was lying on a low bed inside a very clean, white-walled room.
A fan was spinning above his head, and light filtered in through a curtain-covered
window. A cane chair, a small table, a chest of drawers, and a washbasin completed
the furniture. Even without the faint smell of disinfectant, he would have known that
he was in a hospital.

He sat up in bed, and immediately yelped with pain. From head to foot, he seemed to
be on fire. When he looked down at his body, it was an angry red, and patches of skin
were peeling off in large flakes. He had already received some medical attention,
for the worst places had been liberally covered with white ointment.

Johnny gave up the idea of moving, at least for the time being, and collapsed back
into bed with another involuntary cry. At that moment the door opened, and an enormous
woman came into the room. Her arms were like bolsters, and the rest of her was built
on the same scale. She must have weighed at least two hundred and fifty pounds, yet
she was not unhealthily fat—she was simply huge.

“Well, young man,” she said. “What’s all the noise? I never heard such a fuss about
a little sunburn.”

A broad smile spread across her flat, chocolate-brown face, just in time to check
Johnny’s indignant answer. He managed a feeble grin in reply, and submitted while
she took his pulse and temperature.

“Now,” she said, as she put away the thermometer, “I’m going to send you to sleep,
and when you wake up, all the pain will be gone. But before I do that, you’d better
give me your address so we can telephone your family.”

Johnny stiffened, despite his burns. After going through all this, he was determined
not to be sent home by the next boat.

“I haven’t any family,” he said. “There’s no one I want to send a message to.”

The nurse’s eyebrows rose a fraction of an inch.

“H’mm,” she said, in a skeptical tone of voice. “Well, in that case, we’ll give you
your nightcap right away.”

“Just a minute,” pleaded Johnny. “Please tell me where I am. Is this Australia?”

The nurse took her time in answering as she slowly poured a colorless fluid into a
measuring glass.

“Yes and no,” she said. “This is Australian territory, though it’s a hundred miles
from the mainland. You’re on an island in the Great Barrier Reef, and very lucky to
have reached it. Here, swallow this—it doesn’t taste too bad.”

Johnny made a face, but the nurse was speaking the truth. As the medicine went down,
he asked one more question.