A year ago there had begun to be reports of discolorations in certain ocean currents. The first observation of the kind had been made in the Kuro Siwo current in the North Pacific an unusual muddiness flowing north-east, becoming less discernible as it gradually widened out along the West Wind Drift until it was no longer perceptible by the naked eye.
'Samples were taken and sent for examination, of course, and what do you think the discoloration turned out to be?' said Dr Matet.
Phyllis looked properly expectant. He told her:
'Mainly radiolarian ooze, but with an appreciable percentage of diatomaceous ooze.'
'How very remarkable!' Phyllis said, safely. 'Now what on earth could produce a result like that?'
'Ah,' said Dr Matet, 'that is the question. A disturbance on a quite remarkable scale even in samples taken on the other side of the ocean, off the coast of California, there was still quite a heavy impregnation of both these oozes.'
'That's astonishing, isn't it?' said Phyllis. 'The effects ?'
'One cannot hope to foresee more than the most obvious effects. Some changes in fish migrations are already becoming noticeable, and a certain increase in sea vegetation along the course, as one would expect. Naturally, with the water diatomaceously richer '
He went on for some time, with Phyllis trying not to look too much as if she were grasping straws behind him. At last he said: 'This, obviously, is of immense interest and the greatest importance, but naturally the most interesting question to us is why it should happen at all, and is continuing to happen. What, in fact, can have occurred that could be responsible for sending this sediment from the greatest depths to the surface in such amazing quantities?'
Phyllis felt that it was time she made a contribution.
'Well, there was that atomic bomb off the Marianas. I should think that would have made quite a stir down below,' she said.
Dr Matet regarded her severely. 'That bomb was dropped after the phenomenon had been observed, and in any case it is highly doubtful whether the results of a disturbance there would have been concentrated into the Kuro Siwo.'
'Oh,' said Phyllis.
'It is, as you know, an actively volcanic area,' Dr Matet launched off again, 'so that one's natural inclination would be to attribute the disturbance to the opening of some new vent, or vents, on the sea-bottom. The seismograph records, however, give no support to that view. No major seismic shock has been registered '
Phyllis went on listening patiently while he demolished earthquakes as a possible cause.
'And yet,' she remarked at the end of it, 'something not only was, but still is, going on down there?'
'Something is,' he agreed, looking at her. Then, with a sudden descent to the vernacular, he added: 'But, to be honest with, you, Lord knows what it is.'
He went on. Phyllis learned that, since then, similarly unexplained somethings had been throwing up deep-sea sediments into the Monsoon Drifts, off Guatemala; and also across the other side of the isthmus into the Mosquito Current. A thickening of the waters in equatorial mid-Atlantic had been observed, and the most recent report was of ooze appearing in the West Australian Current. There were also several minor irregularities of the same kind. Phyllis did her best to list them for possible reference, but just before she left she managed to put in a question on the aspect which seemed to her most interesting and important.
'Tell me this, Dr Matet,' she asked. 'Do you think it is serious I mean, is it a thing that worries you?'
He smiled at her. 'It doesn't keep me awake at night, if that's what you mean. No, our worry about it, if you can call it that, is that we don't like having to admit that we are utterly baffled in our own bailiwick. As for its effect well, I should think that might be beneficial. There is a great deal of nutritious ooze lying wasted on the sea-bottom. The more of it that comes up, the more the plankton will thrive; and the more the plankton thrives, the more the fish will thrive; consequently the price of fish ought to go down, which will be very nice for those who like fish of which I am not one. No, what troubles me is that I feel I ought to be able to answer a simple "why?" on the matter after all, I am supposed to have been an expert for a number of years now '
'Too much geography,' said Phyllis, 'and too much oceanography, and too much bathyography: too much of all the ographies, and lucky to escape ichthyology.'
'Tell me,' I said.
She did, with notes. 'And,' she concluded, 'I'd like to see even Mrs Hawkes scribe a script out of that lot.'
'H'm,' I said.
'There's no h'm about it. Some kind of ographer might give a talk on it to highbrows and low listening figures, but even if he were intelligible, where'd it get anybody?'
'That,' I remarked, 'is the key question each time. But little by little the bits do accumulate. This is another bit. You didn't really expect to come back with the stuff for a whole script, anyway. He didn't suggest how this might link up with the rest of it?'
'No. I said it was sort of funny how everything seemed to be happening down in the most inaccessible parts of the ocean lately, and a few things like that, but he didn't rise. Very cautious. I think he was rather wishing he had not agreed to see me, so he stuck to verifiable facts. Eminently non-wheedlable at first meeting, anyhow. He admitted he doesn't know, but he is not going to make any guesses that might send his reputation the way Bocker's has gone. What it amounts to is that he'd like it to be volcanic, but it can't be because of the evidence, and it's not likely that it is due to an explosion, or series of explosions, of any kind because it keeps on coming up in a more or less steady flow which suggests that the force at work is both immense and continuous. Now you have a shot at it.'
'Look,' I said. 'Bocker must have got to know about this as soon as anyone did. He ought to have some views on it, and it might be worth trying to find out what they are. That select Press-Conference of his that we went to was almost an introduction.'
'He went very coy after that,' she said, doubtfully. 'Not surprising, really. Still, we weren't among the ones who panned him publicly in fact, we were very objective.'
'Toss you which of us rings him up,' I offered.
'I'll do it,' she said.
'I suppose it's being a victim of the charm myself that stops me being jealous of the supreme self-confidence it inspires,' I said, 'Okay. Go ahead.'
So I leant back comfortably in my chair, and listened to her going through the opening ceremony of making it clear that she was the EBC, not the BBC.
I will say for Bocker that having proposed his mouthful of a theory and then sold it to himself, he had not ratted on the deal when he found it unpopular. At the same time he had no great desire to be involved in a further round of controversy when he would be pelted with cheap cracks and drowned in the noise from empty vessels. He made that quite clear when we met. He looked at us earnestly, his head a little on one side, a lock of his grey hair hanging slightly forward, his hands clasped together. He nodded thoughtfully, and then said:
'You want a theory from me because nothing you can think of will explain this phenomenon. Very well, you shall have one. I don't suppose you'll accept it, but I do ask you if you use it at all to use it anonymously. When people come round to my view again, I shall be ready, but I prefer not to be thought of as keeping my name before the public by letting out sensational driblets is that quite clear?'
We nodded.
'What we are trying to do,' Phyllis explained, 'is to fit a lot of bits and pieces into a puzzle. If you can show us where one of them should go, we're very grateful. If you would rather not have the credit for it, well, that is your own affair, and we'll respect it.'