Ghost Cave

by Barbara Steiner

  “I have a super sense of direction,” bragged Eddie.

  Marc didn’t say any more. He was guessing.

  They scooted under the low overhang for about thirty feet, then the passageway opened again to a chamber about the size of Marc’s bedroom. A breeze strong enough to ruffle his hair blew through the room.

  “There is another opening,” Eddie said with excitement.

  “How can you tell, standing in here?” Hermie had decided it was time to eat. “I didn’t have any breakfast,” he said, in case anyone was against stopping again. He had carried a huge paper sack until they got to where they’d left their packs overnight. Then he’d emptied the contents of the sack into his pack and slung it over his shoulders.

  “The air’s coming in with such a strong breeze,” Marc answered, looking at Hermie’s food. His stomach growled at the sight.

  “I forgot about bringing food,” Eddie admitted, watching Hermie open a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and take a big bite of it. Grape jelly stuck to the side of his mouth.

  Marc had swallowed a glass of milk and eaten an apple on his way over to Hermie’s, but that seemed like days ago. “Me, too. Have any extra, Hermie? I thought I’d be too excited to eat, and I hadn’t thought about doing more exploring or being in here all day.” Marc had actually been too excited to think, let alone eat.

  “What would you guys do without me?” Hermie grumbled. “You may be expert cavers, but as expedition planners, you flunk.”

  “I came out the window.” Eddie wet his finger and tested the air. “Gramma was already in the kitchen. She’d have fainted to see me up so early.”

  Marc had another excuse. “I had my mind on escaping Mooney.”

  Hermie pulled out two more sandwiches. “Well, I planned on sharing. I have some bologna sandwiches, too, and fruit, and a bag of leftover popcorn from last night. My parents always make popcorn when they’re watching television.”

  Marc laughed. “Any iced tea or root beer?”

  “Too heavy. Where’s your water bottle?”

  “Still in here from Monday night.” Marc uncapped the bottle and took a swig to wash down the peanut butter. It tasted stale, but wet enough to satisfy his thirst.

  After their small feast, Marc felt better and got up to lead. “Come on. Let’s find the other entrance.”

  For an hour they wandered, partly following the draft which mixed musty cave air with fresh outside breezes. They paid little attention to the passing of time, but Marc felt confident he was mapping the cave in his mind. There were so many turns and twists, though, that sometimes he found loose rocks and made tiny cairns, or formed arrows pointing the way they’d come.

  “Remind me to push these rocks to the side when we come back,” he said.

  “How come?” asked Hermie, watching Marc form an arrow with pebbles.

  “It messes up the natural look of the cave.”

  “I like the idea of arrows pointing us all the way home.” Hermie patted Bluedog. “Don’t you, Blue?”

  Bluedog whined and looked at them as if to say, “Aren’t you guys tired of being in here yet?”

  “That was a definite yes,” translated Hermie.

  Several times they had to choose between two tunnels. Twice they crawled a few feet, but they always came out to a place where they could stand. Some of the tunnels got very narrow, but none were so tight as to be scary.

  “Boy howdy, this is some cave,” Marc said. “We could spend all summer in here.”

  “You can spend all summer in here,” Hermie said, but so far he hadn’t complained about any of the crawling.

  Once, looking up, Marc spotted a small cluster of bats hanging upside down. He tugged at Hermie’s arm and pointed.

  “Wildlife,” said Hermie, grinning. “Neat. Will they bother us?”

  “Of course not. They’re not vampire bats,” laughed Eddie. “They’re big brown bats.”

  “Are there little brown bats?” asked Hermie, looking up.

  “Yeah, but they live farther north. Bats don’t come very far into a cave. There must be a hole to the outside somewhere near here.” Eddie started looking.

  “They can come in through small openings, though,” Marc reminded Eddie. “I think we’d better go back the way we came in. We might never find another entrance our size. And it’s noon.”

  “I can’t keep up with the time underground, not seeing the sun move,” Hermie said. “I guess my stomach would remind me, though.”

  “I wouldn’t want to rely on your stomach, Hermie.” Marc smiled. “It would always be lunchtime.”

  “Yeah, it is right now. Let’s eat the other sandwiches. Then I won’t have to carry them any farther.”

  They agreed, and when Marc bit into the bologna and cheese sandwich, he was grateful to Hermie again. “Every expedition needs a member who’s aware of his stomach, Hermie. You can be ours. You get three stars for stomach awareness.”

  “What time did you get up to fix all this food?” asked Eddie.

  “I made it last night.” Hermie peered into his sack again. “I couldn’t sleep, so I got up to eat. While I was in the kitchen, I decided it was as good a time as any to prepare for today. Mom was watching television, so she wasn’t in there asking questions about so much food.”

  “Thanks, Hermie,” Marc said. “I’ll never tease you again about how much you eat.”

  “Or about losing weight, when you get stuck in a narrow crawl.” Eddie took the last bite of his sandwich and licked his fingers.

  Bluedog wasn’t worried about anyone saving scraps, because Hermie had even included a small steak bone for her to chew on. Her gnawing helped fill the silence.

  “How far do you think it is to the entrance?” asked Hermie.

  “Not that far in a straight line,” Marc said, “but we didn’t come in a straight line. It will take us almost the same amount of time to go back as it did to get here.”

  “You sure you know the way?” asked Hermie for the millionth time.

  “We’re sure, Hermie,” Eddie said. “Jeez.”

  Marc led when they started again. Before long, though, they came to a dead end. It didn’t look familiar at all. Marc felt a shiver creep slowly up his back. “We weren’t here before.”

  “Maybe we crawled out of one of those tunnels along here someplace.” Eddie shined his light along the cave floor as they retraced their steps. “Here it is.” He flattened himself in the dirt and wiggled into a hole he’d found.

  Hermie and Marc crouched down, ready to follow, but Eddie’s feet never disappeared. He wiggled out, a funny look on his face. His hair was full of dust. “It stops. Let’s look around some more. I thought you marked all the places we came out of,” he said to Marc in an accusing voice.

  “I did. You saw me.” Marc stood up and looked along the base of the wall for another tunnel. Let’s retrace our steps slowly. I know we crawled just before we found the bats.”

  “Here it is,” said Hermie. Marc could hear the relief in his voice. Marc had gotten turned around before in a cave. He’d learned not to panic, but Hermie didn’t have the same experience.

  Eddie went first again, turned, and called back to them. “Come on. I think we’re on the right track now.”

  Hermie wiggled through, followed by Bluedog, who looked at Marc as if to say, “Do I have to do this?”

  “Go on, Blue.” Marc encouraged her and followed behind, pushing the dog when she stopped scrambling. Hermie pulled her from the other end. Eddie, still dubious about caving with a dog, went on without waiting for them to help her.

  “Wait up, Eddie,” Marc called, when he stood up. “Don’t get too far ahead of us.” Marc tried to shake off the funny feeling he’d gotten when they were back at the dead end, but he couldn’t. More than anything, he wanted them to stick together.

  “That tunnel seemed tighter than before,” Hermie commented.

  “That’s because you ate two sandwiches,” Marc teased.

  “Well, I
carried them all this way. I earned them.”

  Twice more they crawled in close succession, then the cave walls pinched down again. “We only went through crawl spaces this tight three times,” Marc remembered. “And I’m not counting the slab we waddled under.”

  “This is going to sound silly.” Hermie broke the silence that followed Marc’s observation. “But I held my breath every time we crawled. I was that scared, but I hated to admit it. I had to stop and breathe halfway through the last two crawl spaces. They must have been longer—different ones.”

  “Why didn’t you say so?” Eddie turned to Hermie angrily.

  “I’m saying it now. I—I didn’t think it was important. I might have forgotten. I might have breathed without knowing it. It’s silly. Don’t pay any attention to me. I just followed you two. We—we aren’t lost, are we?”

  “Of course not, Hermie,” Marc reassured Hermie—and himself. “It’s easy to get turned around in the dark. We must have come through a tunnel we didn’t see earlier. All we have to do now is go back.” Marc made it sound easy. He didn’t want Hermie to be as worried as he was getting.

  They went back. But they couldn’t find any other trail except those they had taken to reach yet another crawl. Marc left Eddie, Hermie, and Bluedog sitting or leaning on the cave wall when they reached a spot that looked familiar to them.

  “You stay here. I’ll look around.” Marc flashed his light in all directions and followed up a passageway where he had to turn and slide sideways to get through.

  He might not feel good about what was happening to them, but no way was he giving up. He knew Hermie, and even Eddie, were depending on him. He did have the most cave experience. But it came to him as he walked slowly and looked in all directions, searching for something—anything—that looked familiar, that he didn’t have the same feeling about this cave as he had about others he had explored with his father. Was it because his dad wasn’t here? Was it the strange, massive formations? The lack of delicate soda straws and beautiful calcite flowers he’d seen in other caves? This cave seemed to be more of a home for gnomes and witches. Every cave had its own distinct personality, and this one was definitely spooky.

  “Boy howdy!” he whispered. Eddie was right. His imagination was running away from him about ninety miles per hour. Not a good sign, thinking about weird stuff that could be in there with them.

  He opened his eyes wider. They felt dry and gritty. He sniffed the air. It was mustier here. The draft had stopped. He tried to remember when he had first become aware of the breeze swirling around them. Then his light spotted another crawl space. Here was the one they’d come through to get off track.

  He hurried back. “This way, Eddie, Hermie. I’ve found it.” He heard the relief in his own voice now. It was definitely time to get out into the sunshine.

  They practically ran back to where Marc had been exploring. There was a narrow slide-through to get there. Marc watched as Hermie barely pushed through, belly touching the wall on one side, rear end scraping against the other.

  Eddie had slid through first. They caught up just in time to see him disappear into a hole near the floor. Marc knelt down to follow, but Eddie wiggled back out. “Dead end. It plugs up.”

  Marc had been so sure he was right this time. He’d ignored the fact that they hadn’t come through the narrow spot, that there was no pile of rocks by the tunnel. Now his confidence was really shaken, but he turned around and started back without saying a word. He couldn’t panic. Rule one: Carry enough light. Rule two: Don’t let yourself panic. Marc wrote rule three at that moment: Don’t think about how much time you’ve spent since lunch taking wrong directions; don’t think about the fact that it’s almost three o’clock.

  “Let’s backtrack all the way to where we ate lunch,” Marc suggested when Hermie and Eddie caught up with him.

  “Do you know how long we’ve spent messing around here?” Eddie said, breaking Marc’s new rule three.

  Usually Marc never worried about time. It didn’t seem to matter. But if it took them five hours to get to their lunch spot, it would take them five hours to get back to the entrance—after they found the way. That would get them home at nine o’clock tonight. Even Marc’s dad, even Pops and Gramma couldn’t help but notice that. And Hermie would be conspicuously absent from supper.

  “Do you have a better suggestion?” Marc put Eddie on the spot. If he was dying to take the lead, Marc would pass it over willingly.

  “No.” Eddie’s face in the dim light of their carbide lamps was serious. His hair stuck out in all directions where the Brylcream held it stiff and greasy. It was full of cave dust. Suddenly Marc had this vision of him as an old man. But he didn’t think Eddie would appreciate his mentioning that right then.

  “How will we know when we find the lunch spot?” Hermie’s voice wavered.

  “I left my candy wrapper there,” Eddie admitted.

  Marc always picked up his trash. He’d noticed that Eddie usually did, too. For once Marc was glad he’d been careless.

  “Bluedog probably left her bone,” said Hermie. “Find your bone, Bluedog, find your bone.”

  Bluedog cocked her head and gave Hermie a puzzled look. They tried to laugh.

  They couldn’t find the candy wrapper. Or the bone. Once they stopped and refilled the lamps with carbide so they wouldn’t go out. No one said a word as they performed the simple chore. After another hour, they had to admit they were in trouble. Marc didn’t see how he could possibly have gotten this turned around.

  The cave was the kind spelunkers call a maze. It twisted and turned and doubled back on itself time after time. But they’d always taken the obvious tunnel, the biggest one. And even mazes usually doubled back until they came to the main trails again.

  The one thing keeping Marc from complete panic was that the draft started to blow steadily again, fresh and cool. But, taking a deep breath, he knew he had to face facts.

  “I guess we’re lost, guys,” he said aloud, facing the truth himself and making Eddie and Hermie face it with him.

  “Lost?” Hermie repeated.

  The word echoed around them, bouncing off the cold, bumpy walls. Lost … lost … lost …

  14

  THE BEADED MOCCASIN

  “Lost?” Hermie slid down the cave wall and crumpled into a heap as he said the word again. “I don’t want to be lost in here.” Maybe Bluedog heard the way Hermie’s voice quivered. She came over and licked his hand.

  “Shut up, Hermie,” Eddie said. “No one wants to be lost. This isn’t that big a cave, Marc. How can we be lost?”

  “Maybe it’s not big, but it winds around a lot. We must have taken some turn we never saw earlier. It threw us totally off track.”

  “This is your fault, Marc. You said you could keep the directions in your head, so I stopped drawing the map.” Eddie’s voice revealed his fear, but he turned it into anger, instead, and blamed Marc.

  Marc did feel responsible for Hermie and Eddie, but he didn’t like Eddie’s saying it was his fault they were lost. Eddie had done almost as much spelunking with Pops as Marc had with his dad.

  “Look, you know this can happen, Eddie,” Marc leveled with him. “We can’t panic. We have to sit down for a minute and decide on a plan. It may take us longer than we’d like, but we will get out of here.”

  “Want some popcorn while we think?” Hermie tried to be helpful in the only way he could.

  “Maybe we should ration what food and water we have left,” Marc said, and was immediately starving. He pushed away the thought of eating, digging in his pack for a stick of gum.

  “We’re not going to be in here for days, are we?” Hermie sounded panicky again.

  “Of course not,” Marc told him, and wished he believed it himself. “But if we could find a spot that looked familiar, I’d feel better.”

  “This is a bunch of horse pucky. Sitting here isn’t doing us any good.” Eddie got up and started forward. Marc knew they had to stay tog
ether. He pulled Hermie to his feet and followed Eddie. He liked Eddie searching better than Eddie sulking.

  Looking carefully at every wall as they walked, they wandered in the cave. Bluedog was sticking tight to Marc’s leg again. She whimpered. When he heard that, Marc had to fight down pure gut-fear that grasped and twisted his stomach.

  He got colder and colder, but the palms of his hands started to sweat. He rubbed them on his jeans and pounded both arms to get them warm.

  “I’m cold,” said Hermie.

  “Me too,” Marc told him. “Rub your arms and keep moving.”

  Eddie had gotten ahead of them. Now he returned. Marc didn’t like what he saw on Eddie’s face. “This tunnel stops up ahead. There’s no way out. I looked everywhere.”

  “It can’t stop! We got in here somehow!” Marc shouted without meaning to.

  “Well it does! Go see for yourself, Marc, if you don’t believe me.” Eddie crumpled down and buried his face on his knees.

  Marc believed Eddie, but he had to look. He took off the way Eddie had come. Sure enough, the tunnel came to an abrupt end with a breakdown. Marc shined his headlamp up and down the walls, and into every crevice.

  There was no crawl, nothing that even hinted of a way out. The walls were damp, and a tiny drop of water slid down to a slimy puddle on the floor. There was no air moving in the dead end, and there was a heavy, musty cave smell. Marc started to shiver like crazy. Icy fingers clutched the back of his neck. His teeth started to chatter. He took a deep breath and clinched his teeth tight. He couldn’t go back to Hermie and Eddie until he got hold of himself. Not to mention Bluedog. He’d even gotten his dog stuck in this crazy mess.

  “Anything?” Hermie asked hopefully, when Marc returned.

  “No, it’s obviously a dead end. We’ll have to go back the way we came.” Walking was better than sitting down and giving up.

  “That’s a dead end, too,” Eddie said. “We’re never going to find a way out. And it’s all your fault, Marc!”

  Eddie jumped to his feet and started swinging at Marc, fists flying. Marc jumped back, trying to catch hold of Eddie’s arms. “Stop it, Eddie, stop it!”