When the Gregory Yacht left Los Angeles in search of the Magic Island and Mrs. Gregory's long-lost little daughter Joan, they anticipated plenty of trouble and were not long in finding it. They planned and executed one escape, only to be brought back to the strange island of Euclidia, where their position is now worse than ever, as they're confined in steel cells on one of the lower levels of this mad scientific colony. G-47, master scientist and ruler of Euclidia, has just paid them a visit, not a pleasant one. Mrs. Gregory, Joan, Jerry, and Captain Bradford stand listening to a new threat. The signal to submerge the island of Euclidia is sounding, and with it, another signal which only Joan understands. Jerry, Tex, and Pat find it hard to believe Joan as she explains the second signal. There's that blame gone again. The island will be moved. You mean that, Joan? They will actually move this huge island? Yes, mother. Well, golly whiskers. That's a pretty big order, Joan. This island is a hundred feet high and several hundred feet in diameter. And it weighs more than one million tons. Yet it will be moved. It is moving now. Well, how do they move it? There are immense cantilever-activated units of the worldly articulated caterpillar type, which simply progress slowly but steadily along the ocean floor. An island that weighs a million tons walking around on the floor of the ocean? This is a nightmare. Yet it's real. Horribly real. I can feel a steady vibration now. The entire place seems to be rocking gently from side to side. That is a fair layman's description of the action. Oh, yeah? Well, a layman's description is plenty good enough for me now. I don't need a lot of scientific languages to tell me that we're sunk. We are not sunk, Jerry. We are submerged. Well, sunk or submerged, we're underwater just the same, and I'm no fish. I know how you feel, Jerry. We don't seem to be able to do very much about it. So let's try to take it as calmly as we can. But Tex, this means the end of everything. When the island is moved, our position is changed. No one will find us, and all of Johnson's work to bring aid will be lost. That's about it, Pat. Then... then there's... there's nothing we can do. Oh, Joan and I'll get you out of this. Don't worry about that. Well, of course we're glad to have your spirit so high, Jerry, and you have done a great deal. But do you know what you're going to do about this? No, not yet. But I'll figure it out. We'll all work on it, Jerry, and something surely must come out of it. Jerry and I were fortunate in discerning certain possibilities on our tour of the island previous to our recent ill-fated escape attempt. Perhaps we could do as well if the attempt were repeated, though our activities would have necessity be directed along different lines. She means that we can try it again, but we'll have to get a new angle. Oh, thank you, Jerry. Got any ideas, Joan? Nothing of value at the moment, but Jerry and I may be able to discover something. May we go and carefully observe everything in this portion of the island? You may be running into danger, dear. How? We're locked in this little bunch of steel rooms. How are we going to get hurt any more by looking around than we would by just standing still? I think Jerry's right, Pat. Let them go. They did all right for us before, and if they can't get out, nothing can get in to hurt them. Don't stay away too long, will you? Oh, it won't take us long to look this little place over, and we'll be back as soon as we find anything that looks like news. Do not worry, Mother. We will return soon. That's funny. What, Tex? That hollow echo of their steps on the steel floor, but the echoes are gone from the rest of the room. Why, yes, so they are. Our voices are perfectly normal. Yet the steps continue to echo. Oh, this is certainly a weird island. Tex, now that the children are out of hearing, what do you really think about our chances? Not any too good, Pat. In fact, hopeless. No, Pat, it isn't quite that bad. Oh, yes, it is. You might as well admit it. They've locked us in these steel apartments in one of the lower levels and taken our homing pigeons. Without our only means of communication and locked up in a steel room below the surface of the sea, what possible chance could we have? We escaped before, didn't we? Yes, from the surface of the island, with the help of our pigeons and Johnson and another boat. Yes, and Johnson is still free. He must be nearly to Los Angeles by this time, and our rescue may be only a matter of days or weeks at the most. There's no reason to try to deceive me, Tex. We're all in this together. You and Jerry are in the same hopeless position just because you wanted to help me. And even Joan is in danger because of my attempt to take her back to our world. She was comparatively happy here with these Euclideans until we came. She knew nothing of our world, and her mother was only a name to her. Now we've brought to her all the promise of the love and brightness in our world, the promise that it would one day become her world, and we can't make good on that. It's rather a miserable failure, Tex, for all of us, and it's all my fault. Now, Pat, that's no way to talk. Look how Jerry and Joan keep their heads up. They know as much about the danger here as we do. Surely we can do as well as those kids? Oh, Jerry's fine. He's been such a help and comfort to me. But I... I promised his father that I'd take care of him. Take care of him by getting him imprisoned under the sea in an artificial island, people by mad scientists. Why, take care of him. Pat, stop that. You're not going to help things by going to pieces. We'd better be putting all our energy on some plan to get out of this place. But it's all so hopeless. We haven't even tried to get out since they put us in these steel cells. We haven't studied the old sailor's diary. You're right. That diary may contain something of value to us. No doubt of that, after the old man tried so hard to get it to us. And where is the old man now? Where is he? Why, he's... Well... Exactly. But we have his diary, and it's supposed to contain a detailed description of nearly everything on this island. He couldn't use that knowledge to make his own escape. Pat, I've never known you to act just like this. You sound so absolutely hopeless about it all. Oh, perhaps I'm over-tired. I've... I've never felt quite this hopeless before. I'm sorry, Tex. You've been so sweet all these years, waiting for me to find Joan, waiting for me to do this and that, and now... Oh, Tex, it looks as if we've waited too long. Oh, nonsense, Pat. Keep your chin up. We'll get out of this somehow. You've been a very wonderful person through it all. Fourteen years of waiting for Joan, and now you have her. It's not right that we shouldn't get back to our world to enjoy our lesson. We will get back. Mrs. Gregory? Was that Jerry? Sounded like it. Mother? Yes, that was Joan. Come here a minute. Where are you? Down at the end of this steel hall. Come on, take a look at what's happening here. Hurry up and come in, will you? Coming, Jerry. It doesn't sound as if anything serious was wrong, but it isn't. Jerry would be so impatient. Now, Mother, you and the Captain must not be too badly frightened by what Jerry and I have discovered. We mustn't what? You two won't get scared if we show you something, will you? What in the world has come over you, Jerry? Captain Bradford and I are not apt to be frightened by anything you take so calmly. What is it? It may be a great moment to all of us, and it may be a mental enlargement of a minute accidental circumstance brought about by our proximity to countless things beyond the comfortable grasp of tired minds. In either event, it will avail us nothing to give it undue consideration. Joan means we may be making a mountain out of whatever they make mountains out of, but she's afraid it's as bad as it looks. Well, for heaven's sakes, Joan, what is all this? You show them, Jerry. I will watch in the corridor. No use doing that. Everything we're saying is being heard anyhow. I expect that's true enough, but get on with it, kid. What stirred you all up? Well, take a look on the floor, down here in the corner of the cell. On the floor? Yes, and if you look close, right up against that wall, you'll see where there's a little moisture coming in, water or something, but it isn't any accident, I'll bet. See how steady it drops through that fine hole? Just as if the hole had been drilled there to let the water in. Yes, I see it now. But what could it mean? It could mean a great many things, most of which I'd just as soon not think of now. Well, I've got an idea what it is, and that's the reason Joan and I didn't want to tell you about it at first. If it's anything that important, we should know about it at once. I'll say so. Come on, let's have it, Jerry, and hurry it up. Well, Joan says that she heard some funny stories about people who had been put in these lower-level cells. Stories about water running into the place in a stream like this one, no bigger than a pinhole, and maybe it takes weeks or months or maybe a year, but finally the water gets so deep in here that you have to stand up to keep your head above it. And when you can't stand it any more, you tell those crazy Euclidians whatever it is they want to know. But, Jerry, you say Joan spoke of others who had been put down in here, and these rooms slowly flooded? Who were they? There is no longer any need to worry about our conversation. You will note that our voices no longer echo. That would mean that the directional rays are focused upon our chambers, and everything we say or do will be heard and seen in the central communication chamber. Well, as long as we can speak right out and meet them, I'd like to know a whole lot more about this water running in here on the floor. You've heard something of it, Joan? I have heard many discussions between G-47 and his assistants relative to the prisoners in these cells. All of them were people of importance in the scientific world, or high officers in the armies and navies of countries of the orderly world. All of them had some secret that the Euclidians wanted to learn. And when this water would rise to the level of the prisoner's mouth, they would learn what they desired. It wouldn't have to wait that long for me. Joan, my dear, do you think we are being subjected to that punishment now in order to secure the captain's formula for the Euclidians? I'm sure of it, Mother. We will never be allowed to leave these rooms until G-47 knows all there is to be known of the universal solvent. About how long will it take to fill this room, Joan? That I do not know, Captain, but it will take only a few hours for the water to lie on the floor to the depth of an inch in this room, and closing the room off will do no good, as the water will simply pass into the next room when it reaches the depth of one inch. The sensible thing to do would be to give up my formula right now and take our chances on what they would do with us after that. It might be just as well, Captain. Now, don't you do it, Tex. We've still got plenty of time to figure some way out of this. I'm inclined to agree with you, Jerry, though I must admit I haven't the faintest idea as to how to go about it. But, Pat, you're all in danger. Not as great danger as we would be once these Euclideans had taken all they wanted from us. You're right, Mrs. Gregory. That formula is all they're saving us for. And let's hang on to it as long as we can. Somebody knocking on the whole door. That is strange. The Euclideans do not knock. But no one except the Euclideans would have the freedom of these chambers. You three stay where you are. I'll find out. Oh, be careful, Tex. Don't worry. I'll watch everything. Something funny going on here. Notice how quickly the Captain's steps stop making any noise? No one on Euclidia ever knocks at a door. I do not like this. Oh, you children are overly excited. Well, maybe. But just the same. Hey, Tex. Tex! Captain Bradford! Jerry, Tex doesn't answer. Do you think that something...
