It Came from Beneath the Sea Page #5

American Museum of Natural History

just under 100 feet in length.

It came from the waters

off the coast of Maine.

Our Navy has never encountered

one of those marine monsters before.

How do you account for that?

They only live at the extreme

depths of the sea, Admiral.

They almost never come up

unless they're disturbed.

Disturbed?

By what?

Hydrogen bombs.

H - bombs have been blamed for

every freak accident that's happened

since, up to and including

marine monsters being disturbed.

Not disturbed,

Mr. Chase, hungry.

Six days ago, we gave this

fellow here a radioactive meal.

Not a fatal dose, however.

Now, here is what he likes best,

his regular diet of small fish.

Now watch.

Ordinarily, cephalopods are not

timid about catching a good meal.

This fellow seems to be

having difficulty, however.

Why? We checked our answer

with Professor Imoto in Tokyo.

He concurs.

Certain species of fish

seem to be gifted

with their own natural Geiger counter.

NORMAN:
So the giant fish's dinner

knows when it's coming and swims away?

In that case, he'd starve

to death very quickly.

Unless he finds some

other creature to live on.

What creature, for instance?

Some higher form of life.

Animals, possibly.

Or even man.

Gentlemen, let's put together a

hypothesis from what we know.

In this area lie the Marshall Islands,

where the H-bomb

experiments took place.

Wind and north

equatorial current

account for a drift of

radioactivity in this direction,

contaminating marine life

on the way.

Here lies the great Mindanao Deep,

a chasm in the floor of the ocean

so vast it has never been explored.

This is where our monster

must have lived until recently,

when he became radioactive

and began to warn

his natural prey

out of the surrounding waters.

He had to find other food or die.

Forced to rise to the surface,

he hunted along

the Japanese current.

There is evidence that he

was swept in this direction.

What evidence?

Well, you may have read

it yourself in the papers.

About a month ago, part of the Japanese

fishing fleet disappeared in these waters

without a trace.

Siberian seal fishing has been

reported unaccountably bad.

But the Japanese fishermen may

have gone down in a typhoon.

Who knows what's really

happening in Siberia?

There was an encounter here with

Commander Mathews's submarine.

Or are you going to

question that as well?

I have to question all of it.

Perhaps Professor Joyce has

another opinion to advance.

No, I'm afraid not.

We've had too little sleep

in the last few days.

If there's anything further you

want to discuss, let me know.

That won't be necessary. Thank you.

You've given us enough

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