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of time. But without one of his compact diving lungs for Seryi, she stood an excellent chance of
drowning.
Doc Savage wrestled with the problem for many minutes.
Then & without expression on his face & he slipped into the intensely black water.
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"Gosh, Doc!" Monk Mayfair said when the Bronze Man climbed aboard the Helldiver. "We
thought for a while there that you weren't coming."
Doc ignored the homely chemist and sought out Baker Eastland. He found him conversing with
Johnny Littlejohn.
"Eastland, is this blackness in the water the result of your Fish Frightener?" Doc asked, brittle-
voiced.
"Why, yes. It's a toxic solution, rather like the Shark Chaser invented during the War. If you
recall, Shark Chaser was developed for use by pilots if they went down in water infested with man-
eaters. It was a compound which acted on the shark's highly sensitive sense of smell, driving it away.
Sharks are ordinarily fearless. But certain natural scents -- such as the smell of dead shark -- for some
reason drive them away like a skunked hound."
"Shark Chaser is larger copper acetate," Doc said, "with enough black dye mixed in to temporarily
turn seawater black."
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"The dye was for psychological effect," Eastland supplied. "It didn't affect the sharks. But it made a
pilot -- bobbing in the water while he waited for the rescue plane -- feel somehow safer."
"Even an unlimited quantity of copper acetate would not produce the widespread denuding of ocean
life that we witnessed during our Pacific crossing," Doc pointed out.
"True. My Fish Frightener is an improvement upon Shark Chaser, not merely a larger application
of the same chemicals. As you know, one of the drawbacks of Shark Chaser is that it creates a
stationary underwater cloud. A fast-swimming shark can sometimes pass through it unaffected.
"I'm an ichthyologist. But my specialty is ichthyotoxism -- poison fish. It was while experimenting
with a new and different kind of shark repellent that I made the breakthrough that led to the Fish
Frightener. I discovered the existence of a Red Sea fish -- the frilly flatfish -- that secretes a powerful
natural milk which sharks find so unappetizing that they will spit the fish out rather than endure it.
Because it's an organic toxin and not manufactured, it was a thousand times more powerful than copper
acetate and not easily diluted in saltwater.
"The sea is full of creatures possessing such natural defenses against predators. Rays, blowfish,
scorpionfish, toadfish, stonefish, even some species of shark and catfish. I collected as many as I could;
extracted the various toxins; and concocted a kind of witches' brew. It was vile stuff, almost impossible
to work with. But I found a way to concentrate it into a dry chemical for easy storage and dispersal.
When drawn into the naris -- or nostril -- it causes virtually all species of fish to succumb to blind,
unreasoning panic."
"What is the significance of the puffer?" Doc asked. "Its natural toxins are poison to humans, not
inimical to sea life."
"That is some quirk of Wood's -- or Jonas Sown as you call him," Eastland explained. "While I've
been his prisoner, he has revealed certain things to me. As you know, when disturbed the puffer inflates
its body in order to appear larger and more formidable than it is. Sown adopted the inflated puffer as the
symbol of his master plan. He has a taste for puffer flesh, too. Despite -- or maybe because of -- the
risks involved."
"That explains why he painted its image outside our Headquarters," Johnny interjected. "It was the
perfect pictorial representation of piscatorial apprehension."
"So the Fish Frightener works through action on the olfactory receptors of sea life. Is that it?" Doc
asked.
Eastland nodded.
"Mixed with seawater, it creates a solution that stimulates an overpowering fear reaction in all fish
and other underwater life. Provided that they have brains and any type of nervous system. It turns the
water temporarily black because the dry chemical itself is black. But the blackness thins out quickly."
"I tested the waters of Tokyo Bay and found no chemical trace. Why is that?"
"After a few days, the solution disperses. The spent toxic material precipitates to the ocean floor and
eventually disintegrates," Eastland explained. "There would be no trace unless perhaps you tested the
silt of the seafloor."
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Doc Savage nodded. He recalled the floating black specks that swirled along the ocean floor as they
had made their trans-Pacific run. It was the most likely of several theories that he had come up with to
explain the phenomenon.
"Then Sown is probably introducing the stuff into the sea through vents in the junk's hull."
"That's my guess," Eastland said. "What are we going to do? We're back where we were an hour-
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