Danny Dunn and the Fossil Cave

by Raymond Abrashkin

  As he spoke, Danny let out a yell. His voice echoed in the chamber above the noise of the water.

  Joe sprang to his feet. “A stalactite’s got him!” he said.

  The others stood up, too. They could see Danny waving his light back and forth, as if to signal them.

  “I believe he’s found something,” said the Professor.

  He had, indeed, found something. When the others joined him, he pointed triumphantly. Behind the stalactites, which hung almost to the floor, was an opening. It was very small, but one person at a time could enter it on hands and knees.

  “It gets bigger after a little way,” he said. “If you shine your light in, you can see that it’s a kind of split in the rock, and there’s a ledge that goes up, almost like a stairway.”

  Dr. Tresselt immediately bent over to peer into the opening. “Ah, yes, I see,” he said. “Well, well. A most interesting formation…”

  He crawled through. At once, Danny followed.

  The Professor said, doubtfully, “I wonder if we ought to wait—”

  Dan’s face reappeared in the entrance. “Gosh, come on,” he cried. “It’s terrific! All sparkling—!”

  Professor Bullfinch nodded. “Very well,” he said. “I suppose we can push on for a while longer. Go on, Irene, and you, Joe. I’ll bring up the rear.”

  The ledge mounted steeply through a high, narrow crack in the stone. It was jagged and slippery, but they could find foothold enough to keep going up. The sides were streaked with white crystals that twinkled and flashed like snow under their lamps. They climbed for about five minutes, and then Dr. Tresselt, still in the lead, called back, “Be careful when you get up here.”

  “What have you found, Alvin?” shouted the Professor.

  “The ledge widens up here,” replied the geologist, “but one wall opens out. You’ll see when you get here. Just keep to the left and watch your step.”

  Danny clambered up the last few yards that separated him from where the geologist was standing. The rock face on his right ended in empty space. The ledge broadened out and sloped slightly inward, and there was enough room for him to stand safely beside Dr. Tresselt. As the others came up, Dr. Tresselt flashed his light out into the dark void on their right. “There’s our river again,” he remarked.

  Some twenty feet below where they stood was the water, a black mirror vanishing into a cleft in the stone.

  “You see, Dan?” said Irene. “That’s one reason it might be hard to get downstream in a boat. The river keeps going into tunnels like that one, where there wouldn’t be room for a boat to stay on the surface.”

  “You could use a submarine,” Danny said. “Or a skin-diver’s outfit. Don’t they sometimes do that, Dr. Tresselt?”

  “Yes,” said the geologist. “In a place in England which has the rather odd name of Wooky Hole, skin-divers have managed to get to almost a dozen caves which are strung out along an underground river, something like this one.”

  Danny said, “The ledge is still here, and it’s almost as wide as a sidewalk. Let’s keep going.” The Professor pulled out his watch and glanced at it. “We’ve been underground for almost an hour,” he said. “I know we ought to turn back but I must confess I find this absolutely fascinating. What do you say, Alvin?”

  “Oh, let’s go on for a bit,” said the geologist, turning to examine the wall behind them. “I’d like to see some more of these caves. You know, I suspect that a certain amount of mud was carried through here at one time. Look, there are some darker deposits in the limestone.”

  He chipped a few bits out with the sharp pick-end of his hammer, and then moved on after the young people.

  Danny had taken the lead, and he went along boldly, looking about with great interest. The ledge began to grow narrower. The walls fell away on either side and he found himself in a larger cavern, the roof of which vanished into darkness. The ledge ended at a gap, some nine feet wide and tapering toward the bottom, far below, where the river still trickled. The gap looked as though a giant had split the rock with his ax. On its other side was a fairly wide shelf, and then the mouth of another tunnel. The gap was spanned by a mass of rubble which had fallen from the roof and was jammed into the triangular space, and across the top of it, like a rude bridge, lay a slab of solid stone about two feet wide and several inches thick.

  Irene looked doubtfully at the block of stone. “What do you think, Dan?” she asked. “Will it hold us? Can we get across?”

  Danny scratched his freckled nose. “It’s got to,” he said. “I don’t want to go back until we’ve seen as much as we can.”

  He took off his knapsack, swung it by the straps and threw it across to the shelf on the other side. “There,” he said. “Now I’ve got to get across.”

  He stepped cautiously out on the slab. “Oooh, I can’t look,” said Joe.

  Dan held his breath, but nothing happened. Then he walked lightly and swiftly the rest of the way until he was standing beside his pack. “It’s easy,” he called. “Come ahead.”

  Irene tossed her own pack over to him, and walked across, trying not to look down.

  Joe said, “You know, I don’t really want to do this. Couldn’t I just wait here and sort of think about things while you’re exploring?”

  “What about those notes you’re taking for the story you’re going to write?” said Danny. “Are you going to say, ‘The expedition descended into the depths and left me behind because I was scared’?”

  “Not a bad idea,” groaned Joe. “Oh, all right. Catch the pack.”

  He threw it over and Danny put it beside the others. Then Joe, gritting his teeth, made the crossing.

  As soon as he had done so, he pulled out his notebook. Holding it on his knee, with his flashlight tucked under his chin, he began to write.

  Danny looked over his shoulder.

  “What is he saying?” Irene asked.

  Joe read aloud: “At eleven-fifteen A.M. I heroically led the expedition across an impassable bridge.”

  “I have a feeling there’s something wrong with that sentence,” Irene giggled.

  Just then, the two scientists emerged on the ledge on the other side of the gap.

  They were deep in talk. Danny was about to call out to them. Before he could do so, however, and without for a moment hesitating or stopping their conversation, Dr. Tresselt marched right out on the bridge, and the Professor followed at his heels. Neither of the men seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary, so absorbed were they in their discussion.

  “—the lime carbonate concretions would seem to indicate a steady flow of water down that fissure,” Dr. Tresselt was saying.

  “Perhaps,” replied the Professor. “On the other hand, isn’t it possible that it represents a fracture, possibly of seismologic origin, and that the concretions—”

  At this instant, there was a faint rumbling sound.

  “Hmm,” said Dr. Tresselt. “Did you hear that? Sounded like rock falling.”

  The slab on which they stood settled visibly. “An earthquake, perhaps?” said the Professor. “It appeared to me that the stone moved beneath my feet.”

  They both looked down.

  “This is most interesting,” Dr. Tresselt said, thoughtfully. “We appear to be standing on a mass of loose rubble. I have a feeling that our combined weights are unsettling it.”

  “I think, my dear Alvin,” said the Professor, “that we had better get off as quickly as—”

  And suddenly, everything happened at once. Irene uttered a scream. The two men were only a short distance from the shelf on which the young people were standing, and they both gave tremendous leaps. Joe grabbed Dr. Tresselt’s arm, and Danny caught the Professor. They were safe. But those jumps had given the slab a jolt which was too much for the loose rocks beneath. With a slow, ponderous crash, the whole mass collapsed.

>   CHAPTER NINE

  A Loss and a Decision

  The five stood huddled together, gazing at each other in dismay. Then they turned their lamps into the gap at their feet. Dust rose like smoke through the beams of light, but they could see clearly enough what had happened. The stones had sunk carrying the slab of rock with them, and it now lay wedged across the sloping walls of the chasm a good ten feet below.

  “I think,” said the Professor, “that that’s as far as it will fall. If we have some rope with us we can get down to it.”

  “We’ve got lots of rope,” Danny said. “But I wonder if it’s really firm. It would be awful to get down on it and have it slide another fifty feet, or break in half.”

  “There’s also the problem of getting up the other side,” said Dr. Tresselt, solemnly.

  Professor Bullfinch took out his pipe and lit it with a preoccupied air. “It looks as though we have a serious problem on our hands. In the first place, how much rope have we actually got?”

  “I have fifty feet of clothesline in my pack,” Danny answered. “Irene has some, too.”

  “Only about ten feet,” she said. “It’s all my mother could spare.”

  “Hmm. That should be enough.” The Professor blew out a plume of smoke. “I think the four of you could hold me on that line and lower me to the slab. If it seemed secure, one of the boys could come down and stand on my shoulders—Joe, I imagine, would be a bit lighter than Danny. He could get up to the top of the other side. There are several stalagmites over there to which a piece of line could be fastened, and we could all climb up.”

  “There’s one thing against that, Euclid,” said Dr. Tresselt. “It’s a dangerous stunt, balancing a boy on your shoulders, on a narrow slab of rock like that.”

  “There’s another thing against it,” Joe put in. “Me. I’m against it.”

  “I’ll do it, Professor,” Danny said. “And I’ll bet I don’t weigh much more than Joe does. He’s just stretched out more than I am.”

  “We may have to do that as a last resort,” said the Professor. “However, there is another alternative. We can go on through this tunnel in the hope of finding another way out. I can think of several caves—Howe Caverns, in New York State, for example—which have two or more entrances. It is just possible that there’s a way out on the other side of Sugarloaf.”

  “It’s a slim chance,” said Dr. Tresselt. “However, I think we ought to take it. If we can’t find another way, we can always return here and try your acrobatic method.”

  “Very well. Then let’s get started,” the Professor said. “How are the lights? Still holding up?”

  “Still bright enough,” said Dr. Tresselt. “A good thing we didn’t drop ours when we had to jump.”

  They bent to pick up their things. Suddenly, Joe let out a howl.

  “Great heavens!” exclaimed the Professor. “What’s the matter?”

  “Are you hurt?” said Irene.

  Joe was flashing his light here and there, and making so much noise that he didn’t hear them. Dr. Tresselt seized his arm.

  “Stop!” shouted the geologist. “Be quiet! Now, for goodness’ sake, tell us what’s wrong so that we can help you.”

  “You can’t help me,” groaned Joe. “Nobody can help me.”

  Danny patted his friend on the back. “Tell us, Joe,” he begged. “I’m sure the Professor and Dr. Tresselt between them can do something.”

  “They’ve already done it,” Joe said, growing somewhat quieter.

  “What?”

  “When they jumped, I caught Dr. Tresselt’s arms and we staggered backward. You and the Professor fell against us. Somebody’s foot must have hit my knapsack and knocked it off the ledge. It’s gone!”

  There was silence for a moment. Then Irene said, “Oh, Joe! All that yelling—? You can always get another knapsack. You can have mine if it will make you feel better.”

  “What good is yours?” said Joe. “All the food was in mine—all except a couple of chocolate bars I’ve got in my pocket. We’ll starve!”

  The Professor burst into laughter. Dr. Tresselt said, “I don’t really think we’ll be here long enough to starve, Joe. I’m sure we can either find another way out, or get back somehow across this gap.”

  “You don’t know me,” Joe said, tragically. “I can starve in a minute.”

  “Buck up, my lad,” said Professor Bullfinch, cheerfully. “Your hunger will give us a further reason for escaping. Meanwhile, put up with it as best you can.”

  Joe nodded. After a moment’s thought, he took out his notebook and wrote, “‘Weak, tottering, and famished though I was, I divided the last of my food with my friends, and we pressed on.’ There. A noble act like that makes me feel much better.” He pulled two candy bars from his pocket and offered them around.

  They broke off bits of the chocolate and munched them. Feeling much refreshed, Danny and Irene slung their knapsacks on their backs, and Joe offered to carry the C-ray for a while. Then Dr. Tresselt, holding his lantern high, stepped forward.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Danny in the Dark

  The shelf ended in a wall of stone, covered with folds and ripples made by the minerals washing down from the earth above. It looked like a curtain, but shone glassily where their lights struck it. A wide opening led them into another tunnel, and they began to descend again. Spikes and spires rose about them, and stalactites of all sizes hung from above.

  Danny said, “We ought to name these places as we go through them. Look there—those stalactites are like a row of teeth. We could call this the Dragon’s Mouth.”

  “Yes, what we really need is to make a map,” Irene suggested.

  “What for?” said Joe. “If we ever get out of here, I won’t need a map because I won’t come back.”

  “Why, Joe, this is a marvelous discovery,” Irene said. “These caves might become famous, like Luray Caverns or Mammoth Cave. People would come from all over America to see them.”

  “Gee, I never thought of that,” said Joe, enthusiastically. “Why, we could make a fortune. I can see it now: Pearson, Dunn, Miller, Bullfinch & Tresselt Caverns. ADMISSION ONE DOLLAR. Maybe we could just call them the Pearson Caverns, for short. Oh, boy! First, I’ll buy a gold-plated bicycle—”

  “Hold on a minute, Joe,” chuckled the Professor. “Don’t get too excited. In the first place, we don’t own this land. It belongs to the town. However, I should think Irene is right in one way. These caves are a real discovery. Midston should be grateful to you three. You might even get jobs as guides, if the caves should ever be opened to the public. However, before that happens, we have to find our way out of here.”

  “Yes, I almost forgot about that,” sighed Joe. “Why did you have to remind me?”

  “Have you been dropping the radioactive material as we go, Danny?” Irene asked.

  “No, not yet,” said Dan, climbing around a stalagmite that rose like a tree in the center of the tunnel. “So far, there’s been no chance of missing the way back. But it looks as though I’ll be using it soon.”

  “Why?”

  “The way divides up ahead. I can see another tunnel leading off to the left.”

  “Quite right,” said Dr. Tresselt. “Now, the question is, which one do we take?”

  They drew together, staring at the fork. The Professor said, “Perhaps we ought to send a scout a little way down to see what it’s like.”

  “I’ll go,” Danny cried eagerly, and without waiting for permission he darted ahead into the branching tunnel.

  “Just a minute—” the Professor began, but the boy was already out of sight around an angle of rock.

  This tunnel twisted back and forth, and it was very narrow, so narrow that Dan could reach out and touch the walls on either hand. They were different, too, from those in the passage he had just left: they we
re streaked here and there with dark red, as ominous as blood. There were no stone icicles or pillars, only the flat floor underfoot, and the cramped, winding walls that came together high above.

  Danny began to feel a trifle uneasy. He had started off full of excitement, but now that he was alone he was very conscious of the silence. It was absolute silence, in which there was only the soft padding of his footsteps. When he stopped for a moment, he was surprised to hear a dull pounding. It took him a few seconds to realize that it was the beating of his own pulses. He whistled a few notes, but they died away amongst the solid stone, and he soon gave it up; it made him feel even lonelier. He went on and the walls began to close together. The passageway grew narrower still and at last there was only a small crack, just barely wide enough for him to squeeze through.

  He stood still. The thumping of his heart shook his whole body, and his flashlight trembled in his hand. Maybe I’d better turn back right now, he thought.

  Then he pulled himself together. No! he said to himself. I volunteered for this, and shoved on in here even though the Professor tried to stop me. I’ll go on until I have to stop.

  He took a long breath and went on. Soon, he had to turn sideways, and the rough stone scraped his back and chest, bunching up the leather jacket he was wearing. He could feel it pull and scrape on projections of stone.

  All at once, there was nothing under his right foot.

  Nothing! Even as the thought flashed through his mind, his foot went down into empty air and he threw out his right hand to try to find some support. His flashlight went whirling away, and vanished into a huge black space, and in the same instant he realized that he was not going to fall. He was wedged tightly between the rocks by the folds of his jacket, and this held him securely in place.

  He was too frightened even to yell. He just stood still, clinging to a point of stone with his left hand, his breath caught in his throat. At the same time, his mind was busy counting: one, two, three, four, five… and then he heard the faint clatter as his flashlight hit bottom somewhere far below.