Dolphin Island

There was no doubt that the dolphins heard that, for they became quite excited. Even to Johnny’s ears, the buzzing of the communicator was clear enough, though he knew that he could hear only the low-frequency sounds that it was making, not the ultrasonic noise that conveyed most of the meaning to the dolphins.

FRIEND went up again, and again Johnny pressed the button. This time, to his delight, both dolphins started to move toward him. They swam to within only five feet and remained there, looking at him with their dark, intelligent eyes. He had the distinct impression that they had already guessed the purpose of this experiment, and were waiting for the next signal.

That was the word LEFT, which produced a wholly unexpected result. Susie immediately swung around to her left, Sputnik turned to his right, and Professor Kazan started calling himself “idiot” in each of the fourteen languages he spoke fluently. He had just realized that if you give an order, you should make sure that it has only one interpretation. Sputnik had assumed that Johnny meant his own left; the more self-centered Susie had assumed that he meant her left.

There was no ambiguity about the next order—DOWN. With a flurry of flukes, the dolphins dived to the bottom of the pool. They remained there patiently until Johnny gave the signal UP. He wondered how long they would have stayed there if he hadn’t given it.

It was obvious that they were enjoying this new and wonderful game. Dolphins are the most playful of all animals, and will invent their own games even if none are shown to them. And perhaps Susie and Sputnik already realized that this was more than fun—it was the beginning of a partnership that might benefit both races.

The first pair of cards went up—GO FAST. Johnny pressed the two buttons one after the other. The second buzz had scarcely ceased to sound in his ears before both Susie and Sputnik were racing across the pool. While they were still traveling at high speed, they obeyed RIGHT and LEFT (their rights and lefts this time), checked for SLOW, and came to a halt for STOP.

The Professor was wild with delight, and even the unemotional Dr. Keith was grinning all over his face as he recorded the scene, while Mick was leaping about the edge of the pool like one of his ancestors at a tribal dance. But suddenly everyone became solemn: the DANGER! card went up.

What would Susie and Sputnik do now? wondered Johnny as he pressed the button.

They just laughed at him. They knew that it was a game, and they weren’t fooled. Their reactions were far quicker than his; they were familiar with every inch of the pool, and if there had really been danger here, they would have spotted it long before any sluggish human intelligence could have warned them.

Then Professor Kazan made a slight tactical error. He told Johnny to cancel the previous message by signaling NO DANGER.

At once the two dolphins flew into frantic, panic-stricken activity. They tore around the pool, leaped a good six feet in the air, and charged past Johnny at such speed and at such close quarters that he was scared they would accidentally ram him. This performance lasted for several minutes; then Susie stuck her head out of the water and made a very rude noise at the Professor. Not until then did the watchers realize that the dolphins had been having some fun at their expense.

There was still one signal to test. Would they take this as a joke or treat it seriously? Professor Kazan waved the HELP! sign. Johnny pressed the button and went down, blowing an impressive stream of bubbles.

Two gray meteors raced through the water toward him. He felt a firm but gentle nudge, pushing him back to the surface. Even had he wished to, he could not have stayed under; the dolphins were holding him with his head above the water, just as they had been known to support their own companions when they were injured. Whether that HELP! was genuine or not, they were taking no chances.

The Professor was waving for him to return, and he began to swim back to shore. But now the dolphins’ own exuberance had infected him. Out of sheer high spirits, he dived down to the bottom of the pool, looped the loop in the water, and swam on his back, facing up at the surface. He even imitated the animals’ own movements, by keeping his legs and flippers together and trying to undulate through the water as they did. Although he made some progress, it was at about a tenth of their speed.

They followed him all the way back, sometimes brushing affectionately against him. As far as Susie and Sputnik were concerned, he knew that he need never press the FRIEND button again.

When he climbed out of the pool, Professor Kazan embraced him like a long-lost son; even Dr. Keith, to Johnny’s embarrassment, tried to clutch him with bony arms, and he had to side-step smartly to avoid him. As soon as they had left the silence zone, the two scientists started chattering like excited schoolboys.