The Boggart and the Monster by Susan Cooper

making a speech,
“before we see this amazing tape, I want you to know how utterly delighted I am that your trust in this project has been rewarded.”
    Mr. Kalling nodded his white head impatiently.
“Happy for sight of the Worm,”
he said.
    But Harold wasn’t to be rushed. He hadn’t finished. He
was
making a speech.
    â€œWithout your faith and your financing, none of our research would have been possible,”
he said solemnly, each word weighing at least fifteen pounds.
“No other man on this planet could have had the foresight and the imagination to set up the Kalling-Pindle operation. I want you to know that what you are about to see now — the shattering images that we all witnessed yesterday — these are the justification and reward for your generosity. And they will engrave your name in the annals of scientific history.”
He paused, looking misty-eyed at Mr. Kalling, and then suddenly his face split into a great joyous grin and, to everyone’s great relief, he was his bouncy enthusiastic self again.
“Hit it, Chuck!”
he said.
    The lights went out, and the television screen grew bright, and turned green. Chuck sat back from his dials, to watch.
    Something made Emily put her right hand into her pocket. She found the little cockle shell there, pressing into her fingers, and for an instant had an odd impression that it had summoned her. She clutched it instinctively as she gazed at the screen.
    â€œThis is the laser image,”
Harold whispered.
“Gradually you’ll see the creature coming toward us,getting closer, becoming clearer. And then we switch to video from the surface — and my God, Axel, it’s such a sight!”
    They all stared at the green rectangle. It glowed at them, and flickered a little. But nothing appeared on it at all.
    They waited. And waited. The screen remained blank.
    Harold said impatiently,
“What’s wrong, Chuck?”
    Chuck peered at his dials. He pressed a button, he turned a knob. The green square flickered, but remained empty.
    â€œFor Pete’s sake,”
said Harold.
“We watched it over and over, last night, and it was fine. Is this the right tape?”
    â€œYes,”
said Chuck. He swallowed hard. Emily began to feel sorry for him. His fingers moved desperately to and fro, and he switched the television off, then on again. The picture vanished and then grew, still green, still empty.
    â€œOh dear!”
Emily said.
“There’s still nothing there!”
    â€œWe can see that!”
said Chuck nastily, and her sympathy for him dwindled. Minutes went by as they stared at the blank screen. Irritably Harold pushed Chuck aside and played with the controls himself, but nothing changed. Finally there was a click, and the screen changed from green to black.
    â€œThis is impossible!”
Frenziedly Harold rewound the tape and began trying again, to be faced once more with the same unchanging flat green image. He groaned, and clutched his thinning grey hair.
    Emily realized suddenly that her fingers werehurting from the pressure of the cockle shell. She let it go, and took her hand out of her pocket.
    Axel Kalling said gravely,
“But you took pictures of Worm, did you not, Harold?”
    â€œIt was there on the screen, I swear it was!”
said Harold Pindle, distraught. He looked wildly around him.
“Wasn’t it, kids?”
    His distress was so acute that none of them could bear to try to explain to him about the erratic behavior of boggarts.
“We did see it, all of us, Mr. Kalling!”
said Jessup bravely.
“A real plesiosaur, humongous, all dripping — and Jenny was out there and she smelled it, it smelled of fish!”
    â€œIt was just like the pictures of Nessie,”
Tommy said.
    â€œIt really was!”
Emily said.
    Axel Kalling turned his well-cut white head to Mr. Maconochie.
“Well, Mr. Maconnie? Did you too see this Worm?”
    Mr.