," Rick mused.

"We've got all we need," Scotty answered. "What pieces are missing?"

"Well, I'm curious about the chicken. I think we hit it when we decided
they wanted to scare us out of the octopus-cave area, but it would be
nice to know for sure. And why did they take the sonar equipment to the
eastern reef during the storm?"

"Probably to make a recording as a routine check. They couldn't assume
all sub activity was taking place to the west."

"But how can we be sure?"

"We can't. We can only try to figure out what happened, based on what
information we have. For instance, there must have been a sonar unit
near where we swam at St. Thomas. It's the only thing that could have
got the shadow so excited. But what difference does it really make? We
know most of the story, and we can guess the rest."

"Steve may be able to fill in some pieces later," Rick observed. He
liked to have a thing wrapped up neatly, with no loose ends hanging.
Still, that was almost impossible in a case like this.

Jimmy Kelly called, "You boys ready to go?"

"Whenever you are," Rick called back. He picked up his heavy three-tank
block from where it rested against the rail and handed it to Scotty.
While his friend held the rig, Rick got into it. Then he performed the
same service for Scotty. The tanks were heavy.

Tony and Zircon, similarly equipped, came out of the amidships cabin
with Steve Ames. Jimmy had loaned equipment from the frogmen's supplies,
to enable the group to work around the wreck longer.

The search party assembled on the landing stage. Jimmy had split his
teams into two groups. They would dive in relays.

"We'll look the situation over, then get to work," Jimmy instructed.
"How many have wrecking bars?"

Four of the UDT gang held them up.

"All right. Turn and turn about. Work for ten minutes then pass them to
your mates. Watch your hoses, especially when working inside. Okay.
Let's go."

They slipped into the water four at a time, Rick and Scotty in the first
four. Once in the water, the weight of the heavy tanks vanished. The
boys had removed weights from their belts to allow for the extra tanks
and for more than ten additional pounds of air on the descent.

A pair of frogmen payed out a heavy rope, taking the reel down with them
in order to provide a direct link from wreck to ship. On the way up the
divers would pause at knots in the rope to decompress, allowing time for
compressed nitrogen to get out of