Warlock

through Bortello Straits into the Northern Sea which eventually flowed into the Salamanthe. Striking south, they eventually reached the coast of Oragonia, moving faster than any of the strange fish they viewed along the way. They handled the huge vessel with ease, the sleep-teach tapes having made sub-surface sailors of them in a short time.
        
        From the moment they had boarded the vessel, Shaker Sandow had been prowling from one end of her to the other. He slept little, unable to rest easily in such a wonder-packed machine. He spent time before the amber portals, looking out upon the sea bottom, watching octopodial creatures half as large as their ship, smaller fish, great kelp beds waving as if in a breeze.
        
        Thirty-six hours after their departure, at three o'clock in the morning, he was busy playing with the garbage disposal unit in the small galley where foods other than the protein cubes were prepared. The disposal unit seemed to sum up the richness of the science of the ancient men who had constructed the dragon. To think that such an ingenius and complicated device had been built for such a mundane problem as trash accumulation was more than a little awe-inspiring.
        
        Four feet above deck level in the galley, against the outside bulkhead, stood a bronze pipe ten or twelve inches in diameter, with a heavy, hinged lid and screw clamps to keep the weighty cover in position. Because the dragon had been meant to remain underwater for months at a time, this had taken the place of nighttime disposal dumps made when the vessel surfaced. The bronze tube went to the bottom of the submarine. On the lower end, there was a heavy water-tight hatch much like the one in the galley, with inter-connecting controls that made it impossible for both to be open at the same time-and thus flood the ship. The garbage, then, was placed in tough plastic sacks and weighted with stones which were kept for this purpose only. The galley hatch was closed after a few sacks of trash, and the stuff was pumped out under pressure, then the outer door closed again. It was necessary to weight the bags to keep them from floating to the surface and thus give clue to the position of the dragon.
        
        A bag full of nothing but stones had been forced out the tube, and the Shaker was watching the red and green safety lights above the disposal unit with childlike intensity, when Tuk appeared in the doorway.
        
        “Ah, there you are, Shaker!” the red-haired youth said swinging through the open hatch.
        
        “Here I am,” Sandow affirmed. “And there are you And do you make a habit of stealing quietly through the corridors trying to scare the wits out of tired old men?”
        
        Tuk smiled. “Aye, that I do. If the tired old men are too frisky yet to hie themselves to bed.”
        
        “I have been to bed,” Sandow said. “And I find it unappealing.”
        
        “That's because you don't take the proper company with you,” Tuk said, grinning.
        
        “Aye, and what would I do with the proper company if I had her longside me 'neath the sheets? I have long since lost my vitality.”
        
        Tuk laughed, then grew more serious as he seemed to remember what he had come for. “The commander sent me with a message, and when I could not find you in your bed, I began a search of the ship.”
        
        “Message?”
        
        “We are off the coast of Oragonia at a point some three miles from the harbor of their capital, Blackmouse. The harbor lanterns are visible, but little else.”
        
        “I suppose the war resumes for us,” Sandow said.
        
        “Aye, Shaker, it does.”
        
        “Let us go then and watch the dragon spit its fire.”
        
        They left the galley and the marvelous garbage disposal for the fore quarters of the long ship.
        
        Richter and Crowler and Mace and Gregor, plus half a dozen other Darklanders were waiting on the guidance deck, before the two amber windows of the vessel. They were riding on the surface, the windows just above the slopping darkness of the sea. All lights in the main cabin had been extinguished so that they did not present a display for anyone who might be watching from the docks. The only illumination came from the pulsing scopes of the instruments, the lightly glowing panels of dials and gauges. These threw their