by Gary Paulsen
The wall was slimy with bat guano. He made a face but kept going until he reached the first passage. That’s when he heard the voices.
“Get the girl’s pack and put some of the money in it. I’ll put the rest in this bag.”
Will moved down the passage toward the voices. He looked out from behind a large stalagmite. The two men were taking the money from the old trunk and stuffing it in bags.
At first he couldn’t find Sarah. Then he spotted her. She was sitting on the floor near the side of the small cave. When she raised her head, Will drew a sharp breath.
One side of her face was a mass of purple bruises, and both eyes were black.
Will’s eyes narrowed. They’ll pay, he thought. Reaching in his pocket, he drew out some of the pebbles. He waited until he was sure the men weren’t looking and then threw one.
It hit Sarah. She grabbed her shoulder and looked in his direction. Slowly she began to inch toward the opening.
Will took out his bottle and slid the matches out of his pocket. He had intended for Sarah to keep coming until she was out of danger, but the short man turned and caught her.
“What do you think you’re doing? Get back over—”
Will lit the bandanna. He stood up and threw it at the short man’s feet. It exploded into a ball of flame, setting the man’s clothes on fire. Shorty screamed and rolled on the floor.
Sarah jumped to her feet and ran to Will. He grabbed her hand and bolted.
Scarface was right behind them.
Will veered to the left and ducked into one of the passages leading away from the palace room. Sarah stumbled and fell. Will pulled her up. They could hear the big man closing in on them. Will took another left turn and then another. Scarface’s footsteps echoed in their ears.
CHAPTER 5
Sarah’s heart was pounding. She leaned against the wall of the dark passageway and whispered, “Do you think we’ve lost him?”
“For now.” Will sat down. “Are you okay?”
“Fine.”
Will struck a match and looked at her face. She turned away. “They weren’t too happy about my helping you escape.”
He reached in his backpack and handed her an apple. “Hungry?”
“Starved.” Sarah took a bite and spoke with her mouth full. “What do we do now?”
“Keep moving. I think I burned the short guy pretty bad. He won’t be going anywhere for a while. All we have to do is stay out of Scarface’s reach until the sheriff gets here.”
“The sheriff?”
“I sent up both of those flares. Somebody’s bound to see them and come looking.”
Sarah was silent except for the noise she made chewing her apple.
“I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering what will happen if they don’t come. Don’t worry, they’ll be here. By now your mom has called out the National Guard. They’re probably just waiting for a signal.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I am right. Want another apple?”
Sarah shook her head. “No, we’d better save them in case—you know, in case help is slow in coming.”
“What’s the story on these guys? Did you find out anything?”
“Not much. They’re the ones who robbed the armored truck. Scarface was bragging that they got away with close to a million dollars. They were planning on staying up here until things cooled down and then taking off for Mexico.”
Will stood up. “And then we came along and messed things up for them.” He listened in the darkness. “I don’t hear anything. Scarface must have made a wrong turn back there.”
Sarah wiped her hands on her jeans. “I hope he fell into that bottomless pit.”
“Speaking of that, from here on we’re going to have to be more careful where we step or we’ll be the ones at the bottom of the pit.”
“Whatever you say. You’re the captain of this expedition.” Sarah stood. “Where to now?”
“I’d really like to find that other entrance. So far we’ve taken a left at every passage. I figure if we keep it up, it’ll be easier to find our way back—if we have to.”
Will turned on his flashlight to get a look at the passage they were in. It looked like all the rest. He quickly turned the light off. “Come on. Stay next to the wall, and take it easy.”
They stepped out into the darkness.
CHAPTER 6
It was another dead end. They had hit several during the hours they had been walking and had to turn back each time. Will flashed his light around the room. “This is as good a place as any to stop. We’ll rest here for a while.”
“Will, have you been paying attention to the number of times we had to go one passage farther than the first left?”
“I’ve been trying to. Why?”
“This place is really getting to me. I don’t like the idea of spending the rest of my life down here.”
Will sighed. “Relax, Sarah. Just lie down and go to sleep.”
“Humor me and tell me how many times.”
“Okay. Three. We’ve hit three dead ends.”
“It’s four, Will.”
“I knew that. I was just checking to see if you were on your toes.”
“What if we can’t find our way out?”
“Don’t be dumb, Sarah.”
“We could die in here looking for the way out.”
“We could also die from a bullet or from stepping in a bottomless hole. Right now all we need to worry about is staying as far away from those two crooks as possible.”
“I guess you’re right.” Sarah reached around in the dark to clear a place to lie down. “Will?”
“Go to sleep, Sarah.”
“Shine your light over here.”
Will took his light out of his pocket and pointed it in her direction.
Sarah had her hand on a human skull. She gasped and quickly pulled it away. “Ugghh!”
“Gross. Looks like the last guy who spent the night here stayed permanently.” Will flashed his light around the room. “Where’s the rest of his skeleton?”
Sarah stared transfixed at the skull. “It’s him. It’s Red Horse. We’ve solved the legend after all these years.”
“It can’t be him. The statue is supposed to be hidden with the head, remember?” Will aimed the light at the skull. The eyes seemed to glow at him. Slowly he reached down and picked it up. Something fell out.
A small golden man.
They both stared at it. Sarah gently held it in the palm of her hand. “So this is what all the fuss was about.”
“It’s not very big.”
Sarah ran her finger over the statue. It was shaped like an Apache warrior with his hands raised in prayer. “It was probably all they had.”
Will knelt beside her. “I can’t wait to see Grandfather’s face when we show him this. We’ll never hear the end of the legend now.”
Sarah smiled grimly. “You mean if we get to show him.”
Will put his hand on her shoulder. “No. I mean when. Don’t worry. One way or another we’ll get out of here.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of—that one way or another business.” Sarah shivered then laid down on the cold, hard ground and tried to sleep.
CHAPTER 7
Sarah sat up and stretched. She looked around the dark cave. “I was hoping I’d wake up and all this would be a bad dream.”
Will was pacing back and forth. She watched him for a few minutes. “What are you thinking about so hard?”
He stopped. “I was thinking that maybe you’re right. Maybe we have gone too far back. Chances are the goons are long gone by now. Why would they wait around? For all we know they left last night and we’re hiding back here for nothing.”
Will handed Sarah an apple. “What do you think?”
“We could check it out. If they’re still here, we can always come back.”
“True.” Will zipped his pack. He flashed his light on for a second. “Let’s go.”
Sar
ah held her apple in one hand and the back of Will’s shirt in the other. Will moved slowly, feeling each step before he took it. Four times he turned at the second passage, this time to his right, hoping to make up for all the dead ends they had run into earlier.
Will flashed his light around the walls of the fourth passage. Nothing looked familiar. He listened hard. Nothing. There was an eerie silence in the cavern.
“It doesn’t make sense, Sarah. By now we should be close to the front of the cave.”
“Face it, Will. We’re lost. The best we can do is to keep wandering around, hoping to find a way out.”
Will tried to backtrack in his mind. Where had he gone wrong? “Come on, Sarah. Somewhere between here and Red Horse’s cavern we missed a passage.”
Sarah fingered the statue in her pocket. “Maybe we shouldn’t have taken it.”
“What?”
“The statue. Maybe we should have left it for Red Horse.”
“Sarah, I think this damp air is affecting your brain.”
“It just doesn’t seem fair. He’s been looking for it all these years, and we find it by accident.”
“Maybe we’ll run into him and you can just hand it over.”
“Will?”
“Yeah.”
“Are you scared?”
“Would you believe me if I said I wasn’t?”
“No.”
“I’m scared, Sarah. Bad. But it doesn’t do either of us any good to think about it.” Will turned into the next passage. He flicked his light on. “Finally I recognize something. Remember that green pool, Sarah?”
She nodded. “I remember it but I couldn’t tell you from where. How far do you think we are from the front now?”
Will turned the light off and scratched his head. “It’s hard to say because we were moving so fast. But it couldn’t be more than four or five turns. From here on I’d better not use the light. Talk only if it’s an emergency.”
Sarah grabbed the back of his shirt again.
He took a couple of steps. “I’ve got an idea.” He slipped his belt off and handed one end to her. “Hang on to this. It’ll give us both more room to move.”
They continued silently down the passageway, feeling along the wall for the next turn. Will stepped with his right foot. Suddenly there was nothing under him. The ground had disappeared. He lost his balance and fell forward, tottering on the edge of a bottomless hole.
Rocks around the rim of the pit began to crumble and break loose. As Will tumbled, Sarah fell with him. Her jeans ripped, and her knees were bleeding. The belt began to slip through her fingers. Sarah grabbed the belt with both hands and held on, keeping Will from falling over the edge. He dropped to the ground beside her shaking. “I—I thought it was the end.”
Sarah held on to him. His breathing was short and ragged, and he fought to even it out.
“It’s the statue, Will. Look at everything that’s happened to us since we found it. Red Horse doesn’t want us to have it.”
“No. He’s helping us, Sarah. I could have died just now but I didn’t. Don’t you see? Red Horse is trying to win back his honor.”
CHAPTER 8
“Here’s some medicine for that burn. I stole it from a farmhouse down the canyon. The people were gone. They’ll never miss it.”
The short man raised himself up onto one elbow. “If I ever get a hold of those two kids, I’m gonna skin them alive. The boy first.”
Will pulled Sarah down behind a massive stalagmite. He held his fingers to his lips.
“He really did a number on your legs. You’ll be lucky if you can still walk.”
“I can walk. And I’ll catch that kid if it’s the last thing I ever do.” Shorty put some salve on his badly burned legs. “Did you check the back entrance?”
“I came in that way. Those kids haven’t found it. Nothing’s been disturbed. They’re still in here somewhere.”
“Good. Keep checking. There are only two ways out of here.” He patted his gun. “I hope they choose to come this way.”
Scarface sat on a boulder. “Why don’t we take the money and run? Those kids aren’t worth fooling with.”
Shorty gave him an angry look. “Because I said we stay. I’m not gonna let some runts mess this up for us. If we move now we’ll miss our Mexico connection. No. We’ll sit tight. And in the meantime, we’ll catch those kids.”
Will jerked on the belt. Sarah followed him away from the palace room into a dark side passage. He leaned close and whispered, “We have to find that other entrance. When Scarface goes to check it, I’ll follow him.”
“What about me?”
“We won’t make as much noise if only one of us goes. As soon as I find it, I’ll come back for you.”
“I don’t know, Will. Why don’t you stay here? I can follow him just as well as you can.”
“Because I’m the captain, remember? Don’t worry. They won’t think to look for you in here. It’s too close. Just stay out of sight until I get back.”
Sarah was about to argue when they heard footsteps. Will moved to the front of the passage and pressed against the wall. He saw a light. Scarface passed right in front of him.
Will waited until the man was far enough ahead. Then he stepped out into the darkness and followed the sound of the footsteps, all the while trying to form a map of the trail in his head.
Scarface stopped suddenly. He turned and flashed the light behind him. Will froze. The light traveled up and down the shiny walls. When Scarface was satisfied that no one was there, he moved on.
Will let his breath out and started moving. So far the path to the second entrance had been easy to follow. It was almost straight with only one turn at the second passage.
The big man stopped walking. He had reached what appeared to be a dead end. He pointed his light at the center of the room. Two ropes dangled from the ceiling. Scarface aimed the light at the top of the ropes.
A door.
There was a wooden door in the ceiling. Will smiled to himself. He couldn’t wait to get back and tell Sarah. They were almost home.
Will had hidden himself behind a large boulder. He watched as Scarface checked the floor for tracks. The man made one last sweep of the room and started back.
This time Will waited until he could barely hear the man walking before he came out of hiding. He had the map in his head, and he didn’t need to listen for the footsteps. All he had to do now was find Sarah and get out of here.
Cautiously he felt his way along, not putting any weight on his feet until he was sure there was ground underneath. His sneakers were noiseless as he walked.
Only a few more yards to go.
In front of him he heard an excited voice. A man was yelling. “I’ve got one of them.”
CHAPTER 9
Sarah was restless. She moved closer to the front of the cave to listen. There wasn’t much to hear. Occasionally the short man groaned and cursed, but that was all.
She could hear footsteps. That must mean Scarface was on his way back. And Will wouldn’t be far behind. Silently she moved back into the passage. As she walked, something fell out of her pocket and clanked noisily on the stony ground.
It was the statue. She stood as still as possible, hoping that no one had heard it.
The footsteps came right up to her cave and stopped. Scarface pointed the light at her and smirked. “Well, well. Missed me so much you just couldn’t stay away.”
She tried to run, but he was faster. He dragged her into the palace room, where Shorty was resting, and threw her in a heap at his feet.
“Brought you a little present.”
Shorty swung his legs around and stood over her. “Where’s the boy?”
Sarah’s voice was trembling. “We got separated. I don’t know where he is.”
“She’s lying. You can bet he’s around somewhere close. Go find him.”
Will stepped back into the darkness. His mind was racing. How could this have happened? What should he do
? He no longer had the ingredients for a homemade bomb. In fact, he had precious little left in his pack at all. A couple of apples, candles, and rope.
Rope.
Quietly he eased his way back up through the jet black passageway to the cavern where he had nearly fallen into the pit earlier. He took one of the ropes out of his pack and tied one end securely around a boulder.
He flashed his light to see what he was doing and then loosely wrapped the other end around the top of a jagged stalagmite.
Will took a deep breath and headed back the way he had come. The sound of Scarface’s footsteps was coming closer. He swallowed hard and jumped out into the middle of the path.
Scarface raised his gun and fired. The bullet ricocheted off the walls. Rock chips flew as it hit again and again.
Will quickly moved into the next passage. He ducked behind an outcropping of rocks. Silently he picked up one of the rocks and waited.
The big man flashed his light around the room. His gun was poised, ready. “I know you’re in here, boy. Don’t worry. I’m not gonna kill you. At least not right now. The boss wants to have a little talk with you first.”
Will stood up and aimed his rock at the man’s flashlight. He let it fly. It hit its mark. The light fell from Scarface’s hand and shattered on the ground.
“I guess you think you’re smart, don’t you, kid? Well, you’re not. This just makes things more interesting.”
Will knew better than to answer. He slid out of his hiding place and headed for the next passage. When he was far enough in front, he spoke out. “You’ll never catch me. You’re too dumb—and ugly.”
Scarface immediately moved in the direction of the voice. He was not accustomed to the darkness the way Will was, and he stumbled several times. Will heard him curse and smiled.
Always staying just far enough ahead that he was sure a stray bullet wouldn’t hit him, Will kept making noise, leading his enemy on.
Scarface kept coming.
When he reached the cavern where he had left his rope, Will positioned himself to the side of the stalagmite. He picked up the end of the rope and held it loosely in his hands.
