Creatures of the Abyss by Murray Leinster — Read

When Terry awoke, next morning, the reflections of sunlight on water came in through the porthole of his cabin. He watched the shimmering contortions of the light spots on the wall. His thoughts went instantly back to the subject they'd dwelt on before he went to sleep. The man with the spectacles -- Dr. Morton, but his doctorate was in astronomy instead of medicine -- had said that Deirdre and his father had discussed enlisting him in the _Esperance's_ company a month ago. Deirdre'd come into the shop of Jimenez y Cia. only four days before. Some of the delay could have been caused by time spent in simple sailing from one place to another, mostly on wholly futile errands. They'd gotten a fish-driving paddle at Alua. That'd take some days of sailing each way. Apparently, they'd been fumbling at some vague idea of trying to find out what would produce the facts they'd noted. 'Very queer fish,' Davis had said of some of the catches _La Rubia_ had made. The abyssal fish mentioned last night would be very queer fish to catch in a lagoon. Yes.

He lay still, surveying other aspects of the situation. Davis had called on an aircraft carrier for electronic items, and the _Esperance_ was in constant touch with somebody by short-wave radio. It might be the same carrier. The Manila police department was on very cordial terms with Davis, and the staff of a satellite-tracking installation saved odd specimens of fish for him.