by Jude Watson
"A little sightseeing, a little relaxation, sure. But climbing into an old mine isn't my idea of recreation.""You don't have to come," Dan said. "You can wait for us at the pub."
"I'm not letting you go down alone," Shep said.
"I haven't been there for you in the past, but I can do it now." He grinned.
"I'm here to protect you against the ghost of Amelia Earhart.
Or the principal without a face."
"Assistant principal," Dan corrected."Here we are," Nellie said. She stopped at a shaft. An iron ladder led straight down to a bottom they couldn't see."Well, let's get to it," Shep said.
"If we don't come up in an hour, Jeff will come looking for us.
Unless he forgets."Shep balanced carefully and started to climb down. Dan went after him. His fingers slipped on the metal, and he gripped it harder, his heart pounding. Why did they
always end up underground? Caves, train tunnels, catacombs ... Were the Cahills vampires? Did they hate the sun?
Nellie swung down, and Amy brought up the rear.
It was a long way to the bottom. Darkness crept over them, but there was enough light from the top to barely make out the rungs.
Finally, Dan heard Shep's voice. "I'm there. It's about forty feet, I'm guessing." A light switched on.
When his feet finally hit the ground, Dan let out a shaky breath of relief. Not that he'd tell anyone how he felt. But he was creeped out by being so far below, down a little hole.They had all bought powerful lights in town, and Dan turned his on.
The glow illuminated the shaft. A forgotten lantern lay caked with dust in a corner. The walls themselves looked as though they'd been hacked and gouged out by hand.
"All right. If we follow the main tunnel and turn left, we should find Bob's mine," Shep said.
Dan felt his lungs begin to constrict. With every step they disturbed more dust, and he felt the familiar tightness in his chest. "Are you okay?" Amy whispered.
"Fine," he answered. He never liked to admit when he had trouble with his breathing.Nellie slipped the inhaler into his hand and he took a quick hit. He shot her a grateful look. The tunnel grew narrower. Every few feet they came to another spot that had been worked by a miner.
Dan had expected the walls to glitter in many colors like opals, but they were a dull, chalky beige.The tunnel narrowed further and then twisted sharply right. A pile of rubble lay in front of an opening."I think this is it,"
Shep said. He knelt down and peered over the rubble. Dan looked over his shoulder. Inside the opening was a small cavelike room. The floor was smooth and even. An old stained mattress on an iron bedstead was pushed into a corner. "He must have lived in the mine, as well as that room in Ken's house," Shep said.
Amy and Dan climbed in first. It was a bit brighter in here due to the ventilation shaft that spilled out dim light from a corner.
Amy bent down and picked up a newspaper. She shined her light on it. "It's from Adelaide. The date is 1951.
This must be it," she said. "Ken said that Fossie left here in the early fifties.
If he was a young man when he assaulted Mark Twain, he must have been close to ninety years old."Shep stepped inside. "Did you just say assaulted Mark Twain?"
He held up his hands. "Never mind. Don't tell me."
Dan swept his flashlight over the wall. "Amy, check this out," he said. "He wrote all over the walls." He'd thought it was a design at first, but he realized that it was the words ring of fire written in small, cramped handwriting.The words didn't stop.
Tiny, faded in places, in other places covered with dust, the words ran around the entire room, over and over and over, like crazy wallpaper covering every inch of the cavern.
Dan and Amy flashed their lights around."How long do you think it took?" Amy asked in a hushed voice."Years," Shep said, looking around.
"You'd have to be pretty crazy to do this," he said with a low whistle."Ring of fire," Dan said. "What does that mean?"
"An opal ring?" Amy asked. "They have glints of red and yellow all through them."
Shep went to the far wall and knocked on it. "This isn't solid. This must be the common wall with Ken's house."
He stepped closer and accidentally kicked an old toolbox caked with dust. He rapped his knuckles against the wall. "Yeah, this is just drywall. Funny..."
"Amy!" Dan shouted. "I found something. A date! It's carved into the rock."1937 M"
And an M next to it!" Amy exclaimed."It might mean that Amelia Earhart was a Madrigal," Dan said.
"He knew she was looking for him.
It was the year the Madrigal came."
"We don't know she was a Madrigal for sure," Amy argued. She
couldn't accept that about her childhood hero. "She could have been here trying to protect him from Madrigals.""Our parents must have seen this place," Dan said. "But how did they get in? And out?"
"Maybe Mom and Dad stayed in that room and broke through the wall overnight," Amy said. "Then they repaired it.""They could have left just a few nails and a hammer out," Shep said, "then pushed the toolbox through the opening. This toolbox doesn't look that old."
"It's not like he would have heard them," Dan said. "Ken can't hear, period.""Dad was a pretty good carpenter. So was Mom," Amy said. "They did a bunch of renovation work on our old house."
"Hey, maybe we're Ekats!" Dan whispered.
He moved closer to the ventilation shaft and gazed at the wall. "There's a drawing here and some kind of quote."Partially hidden within the streams of repeating words, they saw
:[Proofreader's note: RING OF FIRE is repeated many times. There is also a quote that says TAKE NOTE, TAKE NOTE., O WORLD, TO BE DIRECT AND HONEST IS NOT SAFE. The word SAFE is inside a rectangle with an arrow pointing from the word SAFE to the side of the rectangle. Next to the rectangle is a large triangle with arrows coming out of it.]
"That's kind of sad," Amy said. "Sounds like a Cahill philosophy to me," Dan murmured. "Just tell lies all the time."
"Look at the drawing. It looks like an upside-down ice cream cone. With arrows.""I prefer sprinkles myself," Dan said."I think this is a drawing of this room," Amy said. "I guess this gap here is where the door used to be."
"I hope he didn't quit his day job," Dan said. "He wasn't much of an artist.""To be direct and honest is not safe,'" Amy said. "I wonder why he wrote that."
"He didn't," Nellie said. "Shakespeare did. In Othello. I played Desdemona in my senior year. We set the play in the future and we all wore aluminum foil costumes. It was a blast."
"Wait a second," Dan said. He got down on his knees and started to search along the wall."What are you looking for?"
Amy asked."It's weird that he wrote the word safe right where he did. Maybe he wasn't talking about being safe. Maybe he was talking about a safe."Amy got down on the floor with Dan. They ran their hands along the wall in the corner."I found a seam,"
Amy said excitedly. "We need something for leverage."Nellie fished in the toolbox and came back with a chisel. Amy slowly worked at the seam.
She felt the rock beginning to give. Suddenly, it popped out into her hand.
Dan peered in. "There's an opening carved out."
He stuck his hand in. "I've got something!" His fingers closed around something smooth and cool. He withdrew a small metal box.
He opened it. Inside was a leather envelope with a leather cord that wound around it.
Slowly, Dan unwound the cord. He opened the envelope. It was empty. "NOT FAIR!" he yelled.
Amy slumped back in disappointment. "Somebody else got here first!"
"Like our own parents!" Dan tossed the leather envelope aside in frustration."Wait." Amy picked up the envelope. She could just make out some faded gold letters on it. "It's a monogram! RCH!"She looked up at Dan. "Amelia was searching for H, remember? This must be Bob Troppo's real name!""But how can we find out who he is?" Dan asked.
"We don't know where he was born or where he came from....""It's a place to start, anyw
ay." Amy scrambled to her feet.
"We need the laptop."Nellie suddenly put a finger to her lips. "I hear something," she whispered. "Something above ..."Dan moved closer to the ventilation shaft. He stood underneath it and looked up. He could hear the sound of voices, but he couldn't see anyone, just a faint circle of blue sky. "This is it," someone said. He saw a shadow and quickly jumped
back."Eww," someone said, a high-pitched whine.
"Don't put them near me."
"That sounds like Natalie Kabra," he whispered."I am surrounded by fools," a woman's voice said impatiently. "Hand me the jar."
"That's Isabel," Amy whispered.
Suddenly, something fell through the ventilation shaft. It was black and the size of a salad plate. Dan felt it brush his arm. He looked down and saw the biggest, hairiest spider he'd ever seen. It started to crawl up his arm toward his face. He screamed and backed up to the wall. He was too paralyzed to touch it.
Shep sprang over. "It's all right," he said. He brushed off the spider and it scurried away on the floor. "It's not poisonous."
"I-I think we should move away from the shaft," Amy said.
They all looked at her for a second. Then they quickly sprang back as a shower of spiders began dropping down onto the floor.
Soon there was a carpet of scurrying, hairy arachnids waving thick spider legs. Amy screamed."Get back!" Shep ordered. He swallowed and pointed to a hairy spider on the ground. "That's a funnel-web. And there's another one ..."Dan gulped. He was still shaking from his encounter with the plate-sized spider.
"The most venomous spider in the world?"
"It's all right, it's not aggressive," Shep said. "Just... don't... alarm it."
"H-how do you alarm a spider?" Amy squeaked."Should we reason with it?" Nellie asked shakily."Okay, here's the good news."
Shep scanned the floor rapidly. "I think I only see two.""You think?" Nellie asked, leaping away from one hairy specimen.
The funnel-web spider had scurried in front of the exit. It sat there for a moment, raising its hairy legs and tentatively exploring its new surroundings. The other funnel-web walked along the wall, and they backed away from it.
"Okay," Shep said, scanning the spiders as he kept his eyes on the funnel-webs. "Looks like there are only two funnel-webs, but there are a few red-backs. Not deadly, but they can give a nasty bite. We're going to have to get out of here. But no worries. We'll just-- "With a soft thump, another creature landed in the dust.
The snake curled around and raised its head.
They heard Isabel's laugh come down through the shaft. "Yoo-hoo!" she said. "Thought you might be lonesome down there.
We sent you some pets!"Dan swallowed. "Please don't tell me that's what I think it is....""Taipan,"
Shep breathed. "The most...""... poisonous snake in the world," Dan finished.
CHAPTER 17
The snake slithered across the small room.
Dan didn't think it looked happy about falling forty feet onto the floor."Don't panic. Just let it go about its business," Shep said in a whisper."I wouldn't dream of interfering," Nellie said, backing away.
"In its venom is a neurotoxin that can cause paralysis," Dan said. "But it also contains a myotoxin. Which means it can break down your muscle tissue ..."
"We really don't need the details," Nellie said. "Can't we condense it to -- don't let it bite ya?"
The orange-brown snake made its way slowly toward the exit to the main tunnel. Its tongue flicked out and in. It must have been seven feet long. They held their breath as its head rose. But it just curled up and rested on the mine floor.
They'd have to step over it in order to get out. Shep reached out and picked up a hammer. "It'll move eventually. We can wait."
Dan felt the familiar squeezing in his chest. His breath came out in a wheeze. He coughed, and Amy shot him a concerned look. "You okay?"
"Okay." He could barely get the word out."Dan! Your inhaler!" Nellie's voice was urgent. "It's in your pocket."
He reached into his pocket. Stuffed in there was the packaging from a candy bar, a cool rock he'd found in Shep's garden, and a chunk of granola bar he was saving for later. He tugged, and the inhaler popped out, flew in the air, and landed on the mine floor.
It rolled toward the snake.
Everyone's heart seemed to stop.
The only sound was Dan's labored breath.The inhaler stopped rolling just inches from the taipan.
Dan's wheezing got worse, and his hands flew to his chest."I'll get it," Nellie said."No." Shep's voice was quiet but rang with authority, and he was already moving.
He kept the hammer cocked into position in case the snake struck. Shep walked closer. The snake's tongue flickered.
Swiftly, Shep kicked the inhaler back toward Nellie. Then he jumped back as the snake moved. It slithered another inch or two, then stopped. Amy let out a shaky breath.
Nellie knocked a spider off the inhaler with her shoe. Quickly, she handed it to Dan.
He felt his lungs open. The rattling breathing eased. But his chest still felt tight. He still struggled. This was a bad one. There was so much dust in the air, and it wasn't helping his nerves to be in a cave full of poisonous creatures.
He leaned over as black spots swarmed in his vision. Panic makes it worse, he told himself."Just keep breathing, nice and slow, Dan-o," Nellie said.
She turned to Shep."We've got to get Dan out of here. He needs medical attention."Dan was scared that he didn't have the breath to say I'm okay.
A spider crawled up Amy's sneaker, and she yelped and jumped away."It's all right, it's not poisonous," Shep told her.
He called over to Nellie. "Get the toolbox. Careful, make sure there's nothing crawling in there."Gingerly, Nellie picked up the toolbox. She handed it to Shep."Let's pay Ken a surprise visit," Shep said.
"We just have to make a new door. Hang in there, Dan." He swung at the wall with the hammer. A chunk fell off onto the floor."Hand me a hammer," Nellie said. "I'll help."
"You two, keep your eyes on the taipan and the spiders,"
Shep said. "If they move this way, tell me."He bashed on the wall and it splintered into chunks. Nellie swung with powerful strokes.
Within a few minutes, they had cleared a hole in the wall big enough to step through.
Dan went first, and then one by one, they climbed into Ken's closet.
Dan sat on the floor, struggling to breathe."He needs a doctor," Nellie said anxiously.
"Call Jeff and tell him it's an emergency," Shep said. "And then tell him to call the police."* * *
By the time they reached the doctor, Dan was already feeling better.
He was given a checkup and a warning to stay out of the opal mines. Dan agreed immediately.
"That's the first time I've ever heard you say 'yes, sir' to an authority figure and mean it," Nellie said with a grin as they got back into Ken's car.
She slung an arm around his shoulders and even kissed the top of his head, but Dan didn't mind. "Don't scare me like that again, dude," she said. "Or else.""Yeah," Amy added. "Maybe we should leave mines off our itinerary for awhile."
She said the words lightly, but she still felt shaky from seeing her brother look so pale and sick.
Ken wasn't happy when he took a peek in his spare room and found out he'd lost a wall in the closet. Not to mention that a number of deadly creatures lay on the other side.
With the help of some experts in Coober Pedy, the snake and the spiders were trapped and taken away.
The police asked questions, but Dan and Amy had no answers.
Shep couldn't seem to lose his worried frown.
Finally, Jeff and Shep volunteered to take Ken down to the pub in order to calm him down.It had been one long day.
But Amy was itching to research the initials they'd found on the leather envelope. After a quick dinner, she fired up Dan's laptop."Okay," she said, her fingers poised over the keys. "What do we search for? Plugging in the letters RCH is going to
get us exactly nowhere."
"I think we should figure that the C maybe stands for Cahill?" Dan suggested.
Amy nodded. "I was thinking the same thing. And if we can place him in Sydney in 1896, let's say he was at least in his twenties? So that means he was born somewhere around ..."
"The 1870s," Dan said.
Amy opened a search engine. "Okay. Let's start with Robert Cahill something ... just in case Bob was his real name. I'll try ... Robert Cahill with Sydney and 1890." Amy groaned as a long list of hits popped up. "Nothing looks promising," she murmured."Try 'Darwin,'" Dan suggested. "It's a smaller city."
"Especially back then," Amy agreed.
Amy plugged in "Robert Cahill," "1890s," and "Darwin." Another stream of information came up.
She read down the list. "This isn't working, I'm getting all these references to Charles Darwin ... wait a second ..." Suddenly, Amy sat up straight. "This has got to be it! I have his name! It's… "
CHAPTER 18
"Robert Cahill Henderson," Isabel repeated into the cell phone. "Got it."She turned around to talk to the others in the backseat.
They'd left Coober Pedy at high speed, but she'd pulled off the road in order to take the call she'd been waiting for."It's about time somebody did something right. The Lucian stronghold used their mother computer to analyze all known Ekaterinas from 1840 to 1900.
The computer had a match for Coober Pedy and Cahill.
Apparently, even mute crazy fools have to use their real name on a mining claim. Robert Cahill Henderson is our man."
"So where do we go next?" Natalie asked, flipping her long silky hair over her shoulder. "I hope it's someplace with good shopping. Dubai?" she asked hopefully."Jakarta," her mother said."Where is that?" Natalie said, crashing back against the seat.
"It doesn't sound glamorous."
"Why am I paying for your education?" Isabel asked. "Jakarta is on Java.
Henderson took passage from there on a ship called the Lady Anne to Sydney in 1883." Isabel eyed Irina.
"What's your problemski, comrade? Are you worried about little Dan and Amy? They seem to have nine lives.
They survived. A little scare will keep them on their toes."Irina said nothing. At her feet was the empty jar and box that the Fixer had delivered to Isabel.
