"Good Gracious!" cried Michael, as he, too, listened. "I can even hear the fish swimming!"
"Don't be so silly! What nonsense you talk! Nobody ever heard a fish swim!"
Jane and Michael glanced round hurriedly. Whose voice was that? And where did it come from?
"Well, don't stand goggling at each other! Come on in!" the strange voice cried. And this time it seemed to come from the Shell.
"It's perfectly simple! Just shut your eyes and hold your breath — and dive!"
"Dive where?" said Michael disbelievingly. "We don't want to hit our heads on the hearth-rug!"
"Hearth-rug? Don't be so silly! Dive!" the voice commanded again.
"Come on, Michael! Stand beside me! At least we can try!" said Jane.
So, holding the Cowrie Shell between them, they shut their eyes and drew in their breath and dived as the voice had told them. To their surprise, their heads hit nothing. But the roaring sound from the Shell grew louder and a wind ran swiftly by their cheeks. Down they went, swooping like a pair of swallows, till suddenly water splashed around them and a wave went over their heads.
Michael opened his mouth and gave a splutter. "Oh, oh!" he cried loudly, "it tastes of salt!"
"Well, what did you think it would taste of? Sugar?" said the same little voice beside them.
"Are you all right, Michael?" Jane called anxiously.
"Ye-yes," he said bravely. "As long as you're there!"
She seized his hand and they dived together through rising walls of water.
"Shan't be long now," the voice assured them. "I can see the lights already."
Lights in the water — how strange! thought Jane. And she opened her eyes for a peep.
Below shone a ripple of coloured flares — blue, rose and silver, scarlet and green.
"Pretty, aren't they?" said the voice in her ear. And, turning, she saw, looking gleefully at her, the round, bright eye of a Sea-Ttout. He was perched like a bird on the bough of a tree, whose branches were all of crimson.
"That's coral!" she cried in astonishment. "We must be down in the deeps of the sea!"
"Well, wasn't that what you wanted?" said the Ttout. "I thought you wished you could see the sea!"
"I did," said Jane, looking very surprised. "But I never expected the wish to come true."
"Great Oceans! Why bother to wish it, then? I call that simply a waste of time. But come on! We mustn't be late for the Party!"
And before they had time to wonder where the Party was, he swept away through forests of coral and they dived behind him with the greatest of ease.
"Jumping Jellyfish!" cried a frightened voice. "What a start you gave me! It looked like a net!" A large fish darted through a curl of Jane's hair and hurtled away, looking very upset.
"That's the Haddock. He's nervous," the TYout explained. "He's lost so many old friends up there—" he pointed his fin up through the water, "and he's always afraid it's his turn next."
Jane thought how often she had eaten haddock for breakfast and felt a little guilty.
"I'm sorry—" she began to say, when a loud rough voice interrupted her.
"Move along, please! Don't block up the sea-lanes! Why can't you keep your fins to yourself!" A huge Cod shouldered his way between them.
"Cluttering up the Ocean like this! It's disgraceful! I'll be late for the Party!" He flung an angry glance at the children. "And who are you, anyway?" he demanded.
They were just about to tell him their names when the Ttout swam up beside the Cod and whispered in his ear.
"Oh, I see! Well, I hope they've got money to pay for their tickets!"
"Well — no—" Jane fumbled in her pocket.
"Tch, tch, tch! It's always the way. No method in anyone's madness. Here!" The Cod whisked a couple of flat white discs from a pocket under his tail. "Sand dollars," he explained importantly. "I always keep a few about me. Never know when I may need 'em." He tossed the dollars at the children and floundered away through the coral.
"Silly Old Codger!" remarked the Trout. "You needn't worry about your tickets. You're Guests of Honour. You'll get in free."
Jane and Michael looked at each other in surprise. They had never before been guests of honour and they felt very proud and superior.
"Who'll get in free, I'd like to know? Nobody's going to get in free while I'm around in the Ocean. Nor out, either, if it comes to that!" a grating, sawlike voice informed them.
Jane and Michael spun round. A pair of staring eyes met theirs, and a set of hairy, hungry feelers reached out in every direction. It was an Octopus.
"Yum, yu-u-um!" said the Octopus, leering at Michael. "Bobby Shafto's fat and fair — and just what I need for my Supper!" He reached out one of the dreadful feelers and Michael gave a squeak of terror.
"Oh, no, you don't!" the Ttout said quickly. And he whispered a word to the Octopus as Jane whisked Michael away.
"What? Speak up, can't you? I'm hard of hearing! Oh, I see. They belong to — all right, all right!"
The Octopus drew in his feeler regretfully. "We are always delighted," he went on loudly, "to have among us at High Tide anybody belonging to—"
"What in the Sea is all that chatter? I never get a moment's peace!" a querulous voice broke in.
The children turned in its direction. But all they saw was one small claw waving from inside a shell.
"That's the Hermit Crab!" the TVout explained. "Lives by himself and does nothing but grumble. Shuts up like a clam if anyone speaks to him. But, come! We must hurry. The music's starting."
Soft sounds of music came to their ears as they followed him through a tunnel of rock. A faint glow shone at the end of the tunnel and the music grew louder as they swam towards it. Then suddenly their eyes were dazzled as a flood of brilliance broke upon them. They had reached the end of the shadowy tunnel and before them was the loveliest sight the children had ever seen.
There lay the stretching floor of the sea, sown with soft lawns of greenest seaweed. It was threaded with paths of golden sand and dappled with flowers of every colour. Up from the sand stretched trees of coral, and plumes of sea-fern lolled on the water. The dark rocks glittered with shining shells and one of them, the largest of all, was covered with mother-of-pearl. Behind this rock lay a deep dark cavern, as black as the sky on a moonless night. And far within it faint lights twinkled as though stars shone in the depths of the sea.
Jane and Michael, at the tunnel's edge, looked out and gasped with delight.
Nothing in that bright scene was still. The rocks themselves seemed to bow and swing in the endless ripple of water. The small fish fluttered like butterflies between the swaying flowers. And festoons of seaweed, slung from the coral, were hung with a thousand swinging lights.
Chinese lanterns! thought Jane to herself. But, looking closer, she saw that the lights were really luminous fish. They hung by their mouths from the strings of seaweed and lit up the lawns with their brightness.
The music was playing more loudly now. It came from a little terrace of coral where several Crabs were playing on fiddles. A Flounder was puffing out its cheeks and blowing down a conch shell; while Cornet fish played on silver cornets and a Bass beat time on a big bass drum. About the players swam the bright sea-creatures, darting between the rock and the coral and leaping and plunging in time with the music. Mermaids in necklaces of pearl swam daintily round among the fish. And the silver sheen of tail and fin went sparkling everywhere.
"Oh!" cried Jane and Michael together, for it seemed the only thing to say.
"Well, here you are at last!" said a booming voice, as a big Bronze Seal came flapping towards them. "You're just in time for the Garden Party." He offered a flipper to each of the children and waddled along between them.
"Do you often give Garden Parties?" asked Michael. He was wishing he, too, could live in the sea.