Dark Day in the Deep Sea

drowning!”
    He is?
thought Jack.
    Jack tried not to panic. The octopus arm around his middle felt firm, but he could tell that it wasn’t trying to strangle him. It actually felt like it was hugging him, circling him like an inner tube, holding him above the water.
    Jack saw the creature’s huge yellow eyes fixed on him. As Jack stared back into his eyes, he knew what Annie was saying was true. The creature wasn’t trying to hurt him. Instead, the octopus looked concerned. He looked curious, too, and even a little shy.
    Staring back into the eyes of the octopus, Jack found himself smiling. As he and Annie kept bobbing up and down in the arms of the octopus, all of Jack’s fear vanished. This was the weirdest rescue he’d ever experienced.
    “Hi, you,” Annie said to the octopus. “We come in peace.”
    Jack felt so dazed he started laughing. Annie laughed, too. Even the octopus looked amused.
    Their laughter was interrupted by the blare of a horn. Jack heard men shrieking and shouting. He looked up and saw the HMS
Challenger
heading toward them.

Sailors were on the top deck. They were yelling and pointing.
    The giant octopus loosened his hold on Jack and Annie.
    “The ship!” Jack gurgled before slipping under the water. His head popped back up. “Swim to the ship!” he shouted to Annie.
    Jack and Annie started swimming. The sky was still covered with clouds and the sea was still rough. But arm over arm, they swam until they got close to the ladder on the side of the ship.
    “Ahoy!” someone shouted from above. Jack looked up and saw Henry and the professor standing at the top of the ladder.
    “Climb up!” yelled Henry.
    “Hurry, children! Hurry!” cried the professor. “Before it comes back!”
    Jack swam as fast as he could to the ladder. He and Annie got there at the same time. They pulled themselves onto the ladder and climbed. When they reached the top, Henry and the professor helped them onto the deck. Henry wrapped wool blankets around them.
    “Thank goodness you are saved!” said the professor.
    “I thought you were below in the hold!” said Henry. “How did you end up in the water?”
    “The storm … the waves …,” gasped Jack, shivering.
    “The waves threw us overboard,” said Annie.
    “Why were you up on deck?” said Henry.
    “I was—I was seasick!” said Jack.
    “I followed Jack, and big waves came crashing down and washed us into the water!” said Annie.
    “Our life vests saved us at first,” said Jack. “But then they came off!”
    “Then the octopus saved us,” said Annie.
    “That monster
saved
you?” asked the professor.
    “No, no,
not
a monster,” said Jack, “a giant octopus!”
    “Yes, the monster of the deep! I do not think it saved you, boy,” said the professor. “It is a miracle it did not eat you and your sister alive!”
    “No, no, he’s—he’s
not
a monster. He didn’t try to do any of that—” said Jack.
    “He
did
save us!” said Annie. “He held us up above the water.”
    “Really!”
said Jack. “He kept us from drowning. Then he got scared away by the ship.”
    “We didn’t even thank him, Jack,” said Annie. “We didn’t say good-bye.”
    Jack and Annie looked back at the water.“Hey, what’s going on over there?” said Annie. She pointed to the rear of the ship. Sailors were facing the sea, yelling and shouting.
    “What are they yelling at?” Annie asked.
    Jack and Annie threw off their blankets and took off across the deck. They saw Joe and Tommy standing at the edge of the crowd.
    “What are they doing?” Annie yelled. “What’s going on?”
    “They snared it in the net!” shouted Tommy.
    “We’ve caught the beast at last!” shouted Joe.
    “Caught it?” Annie looked at Jack.
    “Come on!” Jack cried. He and Annie pushed their way through the crowd.
    “Children, stop!” the professor shouted, hurrying after them. “Don’t get in the way!”
    But Jack and Annie squeezed through the crowd of sailors and scientists until they got to the railing of the ship. They looked down.
    The giant octopus was tangled in a net. His arms were churning the seawater into foam.

    His body had turned bright red. A cloud of dark ink billowed around him.
    “You’re hurting him!” yelled Annie. “Leave him alone!”
    “Move away!” yelled a sailor.
    Some of the sailors were yelling mean things at the octopus. Others seemed terrified. Even the captain was caught up in the panic. “Stand back!” he shouted.