by John Blaine
Rick nodded, disappointed. He turned back to the statue and took a step forward into space!
A wild yell burst from him as he felt himself falling, then Scotty had him by the jacket and was hauling him back. Rick collapsed on the stone floor, his heart pounding. The others shot their flashlights into the place where he had stepped.
A section of the floor had swung upward, right at the base of the statue. It yawned open, and from its lip a flight of steps led downward.
“It worked,” Chahda said. “But was so silent we never hear it!”
Scotty gripped his rifle and snapped off the safety catch, then holding the weapon in one hand like a pistol, he took his flashlight in the other hand and started down. Zircon was right behind him.
Rick got to his feet and felt for the dark-light camera. It hadn’t been jarred because his body had cushioned it. But he wanted to be sure the strap was still secure on his shoulder. Satisfied that all was well, he started down the steps after Zircon. He didn’t fancy going into the underground part of the cave, but there was no choice. This was what they had come for.
There were ten broad stone steps carved from the rock. Rick shot his light around and saw that a heavy beam ran from the underside of the trap door down to the bottom of the stairs where it ended in a stone block. It was a counterbalance, the weight of the stone evidently just enough heavier than the door so that moving the latch would let it swing open. The latch itself was a piece of metal, probably bronze, that slid in a channel carved in the underside of the door. Rick guessed that the sideways pressure of the blade in the slot had let the door open rather than the downward shove Zircon had given. A cord of leather ran from the latch back along the corridor so that anyone entering the rock tunnel could tug on it and open the door without climbing the stairs.
Rick joined Zircon and Scotty at the bottom of the steps. Chahda was right behind him. The stairs ended in a long, low passage, just high and wide enough for a man to pass. It was perhaps fifty feet long, and it ended in blackness that indicated a bigger passage, or another cave, beyond. Rick touched the walls and noted the marks of ancient chisels. The passage had been cut in the living rock.
“Have your rifles ready,” Zircon directed. “Chahda, you have the big light. Lead the way and we’ll cover you.”
Chahda switched on his big light and took the lead. The others, rifles ready for instant use, followed close behind. Big Zircon held his weapon over Chahda’s shoulder as the Hindu boy walked slowly down the passage.
In a moment they were at the entrance to the next passage or cave. Chahda peered in, turning his light from side to side. Zircon, looking over his head, said, “A large cave beyond. Very large. Chahda, do you see anything?”
Chahda shook his head. “Only rock. Nothing inside I can see.”
“All right. Go ahead.”
The Hindu boy stepped into the cave, the rest following. Rick saw that Zircon hadn’t exaggerated. The cave was even larger than the one that held the Black Buddha. Chahda’s big light picked out the opposite wall dimly.
The scientist brought his own light into play, turning it on the walls nearest them. “Odd,” he muttered. “The character of the rock changes completely. This is almost surely limestone.”
Rick had to grin. Even chasing Long Shadow through an underground cavern couldn’t quiet Zircon’s scientific curiosity. “What do we do now, professor?” he asked.
Zircon looked up from his examination of the whitish rock. “Eh? Oh. Sorry, Rick. Why, I suppose we explore a bit more. I don’t think we’d better go far, however. Now that we know that Long Shadow is here, we had better return to camp and get extra food, batteries, and ammunition. However, I would like a look at the opposite side. There must be further passages, because this cave obviously doesn’t contain our friend.”
“Suppose . . .” Scotty started to say.
Rick never found out what Scotty was going to say, for at that moment the four whirled as something grated behind them. They were in time to see metal rods slam home across the entrance through which they had cornel
Rick and Scotty reached the entrance first. Each of the boys grabbed one of the rods and tugged. They were rigid.
“We’re locked in!” Rick’s voice was harsh.
“Let me look,” Zircon said quietly.
The boys stood back while he made a careful inspection. From floor to top of the passage entrance the metal bars blocked the way. They were about an inch thick, spaced only six inches apart. They had shot out of holes in one side of the passage and lodged in corresponding holes on the opposite side.
None of them had noticed the holes. They had been too curious about what lay beyond the passage.
Zircon put his massive strength against one of the bars. It didn’t move. He tried to slide it either way. There wasn’t even a fraction of an inch of slack.
He turned, and at the expression on his face a shiver slid down Rick’s spine. Long Shadow had caught them neatly.
They were trapped in the Caves of Fear!
CHAPTER XV
The Labyrinth
Zircon led the three boys to the center of the big cave, then spoke in a whisper. “I see no need in advertising our plans to the enemy. Keep your voices down. Now, what are we to do?”
“Long Shadow must be watching us from somewhere,” Scotty said uneasily. “But from where?”
“The walls are uneven,” Rick pointed out. “There could be peepholes anywhere. But what I’d like to find is the place with the controls for that gate! It can’t be far from the entrance.”
“Is true,” Chahda agreed. He turned the big light on the barred entrance, then played it back and forth across the walls on that side of the cave. There was no break anywhere.
“Turn it on the other side,” Zircon ordered.
Chahda did so. Now that they were closer to the far wall, openings could be seen. There were two, both of them door size. Except for the entrance through which they had come, they were the only openings in the cave.
Rick spoke up, and he was surprised that there was no shakiness in his voice. “Look, gang. If we stay here waiting for Long Shadow to open up, we might stay forever. I’d rather push on, at least for a little way.”
Zircon looked at Scotty. “You’re the military expert. What chance have we in a fight?”
Scotty shrugged. “In an open fight, we have a good chance. Our rifles are better than any I’ve seen around here, and we can fire a lot faster. But if they start potting at us from around corners and through holes in the rock . . .” He didn’t have to finish.
“Better we go ahead,” Chahda said.
Zircon hesitated. “If this is the only entrance to the caverns, as seems quite likely, Long Shadow has trapped himself as well as us. He’ll have to open up to get out.”
Rick didn’t think so. “There’s no opening under the Black Buddha except the one we came through. But we didn’t look around the passage very thoroughly, so there might be a door of some kind.”
“You’re right,” Zircon agreed. “Very well. Let’s try going on. Rick, you bring up the rear, and keep looking back.”
Rick objected. “Wouldn’t it be better for me to go ahead and use the infrared beam with the glasses? Then I could see perfectly.”
The scientist considered. “It would be better if the caves ahead are large, yes. If they are not, our flashlights will do just as well. I think we’d better save the infrared battery as long as possible. Incidentally, do you have a spare?”
“At camp,” Rick said. It had been planned as a brief trip of exploration. He hadn’t thought spare batteries would be necessary. Now he blamed himself for being so shortsighted. It was always best to be prepared for anything.
“Can’t be helped now,” Scotty said. “And speaking of batteries, we’d better use only two flashlights at a time, one in front and one in back.”
“Excellent idea,” Zircon approved. “I’ll take the lead. Scotty next, then Chahda, with Rick as rear guard. Now, w
hich of the entrances do we try first? I vote for the one on the right.”
The scientist strode toward the deeper darkness of the entrance and shot his light inside. The others took up the positions he had assigned. Rick kept his flashlight beam moving around the big cave, watching for any sign of an enemy.
“Another passage,” Zircon said, and his voice echoed hollowly. “Cover our rear, Rick.” They went into it single file, Rick walking sideways in order to keep looking back for a possible enemy. Then, as the others stopped suddenly, he fell over Chahda. He heard the scientist say, “Dead end. Nothing but a blank wall. Rick, lead the way out. We’ll try the other.”
The second passage gave better results. It wound through the limestone for a short distance, then opened into a small cave filled with wonderful white rock formations.
“Stalactites and stalagmites,” Zircon boomed. “I suspect we are getting into the deeper caverns, those hollowed out by water and not by man. The question is, which way do we go now?”
Rick took his eyes from the way they had come long enough to look around. The cave was like a junction room, openings branching off in all directions.
Scotty switched on his flashlight and began examining the cave floor. “Look for sign,” he directed. “If men have come this way, they must have left some traces.”
Chahda hurried to look, too. Rick stood where he was, light and eyes going from one opening to another. He didn’t intend to be caught off guard.
Scotty gave a grunt of satisfaction and stood up. “Candle wax,” he announced. “And it leads through here.” He pointed to a gap between two fluted columns, made by centuries of dripping water that had deposited countless grains of limestone.
Zircon immediately walked to the gap and peered through. “Come on,” he said. “There’s another cave beyond.”
The next cave was larger, and nowhere in it was there evidence that man had occupied it. Rick looked around him, awed by the bizarre beauty of the place. From ceiling and floor limestone icicles strained toward each other. They were the stalactites and stalagmites Zircon had mentioned, formed over the centuries by slow drops of water, each of which left its tiny trace of limestone to help build up the formation. On one wall of the cave the water deposits had carved a waterfall, so perfect that it might have been frozen into white rock only moments before. And from every grain of stone their flashlight beams twinkled and reflected until it seemed the walls were crusted with jewels.
“More wax,” Chahda called. He had found it near an irregular low opening in the cave wall, a tiny drop left by someone carrying a tallow candle.
Zircon went through the opening an inch at a time, on hands and knees. The others followed, to find themselves in a cave almost identical to the one they had left, except for the stone waterfall. This cave, too, had walls broken in a number of places.
Rick and Zircon flashed their lights around, seeking the next step. Then Rick caught a quick glimpse of something red that moved Quick as a flash he shifted his hand on the stock of his rifle, pointed it like a pistol, and fired. The red object vanished!
The thunderous echo of the shot reverberating through the cave drowned out his yell. He sprang through the entrance where he had seen the flash of red and found himself in still another cave. Scotty was right behind him.
“What is it?” Scotty demanded.
“I think it was a man,” Rick said quickly. “He was wearing something red. Come on, he can’t be very far from here.”
“Which way?”
There was no way of telling which way the man had gone. There were a half dozen openings in the cave walls. Rick pointed at the two biggest. “You take that one and I’ll take this.” Rifle ready and flashlight held in front of him, he ran through the break in the wall he had indicated. Scotty hurried to the other.
If only they could get their hands on even one man, Rick thought, they might force him to serve as their guide! He passed through another cave, choosing the biggest entrance on the opposite wall. As he went through it, he was certain he saw a movement, as though the quarry had just rounded a corner. He let out a yell and lengthened his stride. In a second he reached the corner, rounded it, and found himself in an odd cave with countless pillars, formed when stalactites from the ceiling and stalagmites from the floor had joined together. It was a veritable labyrinth. He started through it, got perhaps fifty feet, and stopped. The man he had chased surely knew his way around the caves. There was no hope of overtaking him now. Better rejoin the others, Rick thought. It was senseless to get too far away from his companions.
He turned and started back, then hesitated, not sure of the way he had come. The corridors formed by the limestone pillars led in all directions.
“I must have come this way,” he muttered, and started off. Then he stopped again, playing his light around. He couldn’t be sure. Suddenly worried, he ran forward and was brought to a halt by a solid wall. He turned and hurried along it, seeking an opening. He found one, but smaller than the one through which he had come. He plunged on, found a big opening, and went through it into an irregular cave unlike any he had seen before. He turned to retrace his steps, and his eyes met a wall where the openings were separated only by glistening partitions of limestone. He couldn’t even be sure of the one through which he had just entered.
He licked lips that were suddenly dry. “I can’t lose my head,” he told himself sternly. “I’ve got to stay calm.”
But in spite of his warnings to himself, he felt panic rising within him.
He was completely, hopelessly lost!
CHAPTER XVI
The Lake of Darkness
Rick sat with his back against the cold surface of a stalagmite column. His head drooped with weariness and his throat ached from yelling. He had retraced his steps a dozen times or more. He had lost count. But none of the passages took him back to his friends, nor had his yelling of their names brought a response.
He forced himself into a semblance of calmness and tried to think. What was he to do? He eyed the beam of his flashlight and realized that he ought to conserve the batteries. He turned it off, and dead, silent blackness closed in about him.
True blackness is rare. It cannot be found by closing shutters or curtains in a room, even at night. Some light always penetrates man-made rooms unless they are designed, as very few are, for total darkness. Rick never had experienced it before, and it was frightening. He had to take a firm grip on himself to keep from getting panicky.
But if the underground caverns were completely without light, they were not completely without sound. As Rick sat quietly he began to hear the slow drip of water. It was the slow drip of centuries that had produced the weird limestone formations of the caves.
He began to talk quietly to himself, and the sound of his own voice was better than listening to the slow dripping of water.
“I can’t stay here. The others wouldn’t have any more chance of finding me than I have of finding them. But if I leave here, I’m taking a chance. I might go so deep into the caves that I’d never find my way out again, or see any of the others again.”
He had visited some of the limestone caverns of Virginia, and he had read of the New York and Kentucky caverns. He knew that even in America there were endless series of caves that never had been fully explored. This fabled Tibetan place might extend on forever.
“On the other hand,” he continued to himself, “if I keep moving, I might stumble on the big cave under the Black Buddha again. It’s less than a fifty-fifty chance. A whole lot less. But it’s a chance and I’d better take it.”
He didn’t let himself think of what would happen if he failed to find his way back. He got to his feet and switched on his light again. By contrast with the total darkness, the reflection of the beam on the limestone walls was brilliant sunlight. He had to wait while his eyes adjusted themselves to the light. Then he flashed the beam around. There were passages going in every direction.
“Which way do I go?” he asked himself.
It was a tossup. He remembered an old trick and spat into the palm of his hand. Then, with the forefinger of his other hand, he slapped the spittle sharply. The biggest drop flew between two limestone hourglasses that formed one passage. He hitched up the camera case on his shoulder, picked up his rifle, and started forward.
The caverns were endless. Walking slowly, to conserve his strength, he wandered through countless incredible rooms of gleaming stone. The dripping water had formed all manner of things. He saw animals, ships, mountain scenes, waterfalls, and cataracts, fairy grottoes, fish, distant houses ... all carved of shining stone by millions upon countless millions of water drops over centuries past number. He was so completely enthralled by the unearthly beauty of the place that he even forgot his predicament for a few moments.
And then he noticed that his flashlight was growing so weak that it no longer threw a clearly defined beam. It must have been getting weaker for some time, he thought, but his eyes had adjusted themselves to the failing light.
He looked at his watch, wondering that the flashlight batteries had run down so soon. The watch had run down, too, and had stopped. He couldn’t remember. Had he wound it before coming to the cave? He was chilled now. It was cold and damp in the limestone passages. He shivered and pulled up his collar.
The panic rose up again. He didn’t know how long he had been in the cave. Had it been only a short while, or so many hours that his watch had ran down? He said to himself as calmly as he was able, “I’ll have to get where I’m going before the light fails altogether.”
He began to run.
The illusion grew that he was trying to overtake the end of the flashlight’s beam. When he did catch up with it, that would be the end. He had completely forgotten the infrared light on the camera, even though the case banged against his side as he ran. He had been carrying it for so long it had become a part of him.
He dodged through passages, rounded turns, leaped over stalagmites. Once he had to crawl on his hands and knees under water-smooth limestone, pushing his rifle ahead of him.
