فصل 63

CHAPTER 63

THE GLOWING POOL

NEREZZA SHOUTED ACROSS THE glowing pool, his voice echoing in the cave: “Tell them to hurry! it’s taking too long!”

Cheeky O’Neal only grunted. There was nothing he could do to speed the process. The men were working underwater in gold suits and breathing through tubes, which was hard enough; on top of that they had to do everything by feel, the brilliant light underwater forcing them to keep their eyes closed. They had to feel around blindly for the starstuff, then use gold buckets to scoop it up and pour it into the gold-lined chest that had been lowered to the bottom. From time to time they surfaced to rest and report their progress. Despite Nerezza’s fretting, they were doing well. They believed they’d gotten most of the starstuff off the bottom; the chest was three-quarters full.

And the divers felt wonderful. So did Cheeky, and the other men in the cave, except for Nerezza. The starstuff-laced water lifted their spirits, erased their aches, filled them with energy. O’Neal marveled at its powers. Nerezza had warned him, however, that any man who was exposed directly to the starstuff without the protection of a gold suit would die within seconds. The men were to make absolutely certain that the chest was securely shut before they hauled it up from the bottom of the pool.

From the looks of things, that time would be soon. The underwater glow had dimmed considerably. O’Neal looked across at Nerezza. The captain—and the people who’d hired him—had gone to enormous effort and expense to get this starstuff. The chest alone must have cost a fortune. O’Neal wondered what the starstuff would be worth, and how a man like him might use it. It was something to keep in mind.