Part 19 (2/2)

Darkness-blackness!-the worst thing of all. The beam of my flashlight was strong enough for only a limited area, and I hoped the batteries were new. I mustn't lose my head. AIL I had to do was wait for help to come. Both Caleb and Sam knew where I had ridden. However, it might be a long while before one of them decided that I'd been away an unreasonable length of time.

Black silence seemed to have a pressure of its own on my eardrums. I moved the beam of light about me cautiously. A false step in any direction might plunge me into some unseen shaft. Yet to sit down and wait in patient surrender was beyond me at that moment. If I moved, if I took some action, perhaps I could hold off a terror that waited for me, just beyond the edge of reason. As a child I knew I'd been horribly afraid of this mine-perhaps only because it was a black pit in the mountain that my father must have shown me. Later it had become the place in which I feared that he had died. But these were thoughts that I must not let in.

At least I wasn't in total ignorance of how the mine lay as if tunneled into the mountain. The book on Morgan mines that I'd studied had shown a diagram of the Old Desolate, its upper pa.s.sages like veins striking out from the top of a main artery that thrust its way deeply into the earth. There had been brief 225.

descriptions of mining operations in the pages I read, and the writer had used the terms of miners. Knowledge that I'd never expected to need.

My flashlight beam picked out the narrow entrance pa.s.sage where I stood, sloping straight into the mountain. The floor was strewn with debris as I moved farther in, seeking for a way to reach Red. He was quiet now, probably losing hope as I didn't come to him. There were chunks of fallen rock, rotting timbers, an old pickax and other discarded tools left along the way.

Ahead the blackness seemed complete, and I could smell danger in the very odor of dampness and rotting wood, though here near the entrance the air wasn't especially bad. Not yet. Somewhere ahead I knew there would be a deep shaft dropping to the next levels, and down there, deep in the total blackness of the mountain's heart, there would be catwalks along the connecting winzes-the pa.s.sages-as the book had indicated. At the lowest levels there would probably be water. All of the mine was a honeycomb under my feet, perhaps ready to collapse at any point, to crumble in upon itself. I remembered Jon pointing out the Glory Hole, where men had died in such a collapse, and wondered if that would be my fate. Ladders down the shafts would be rotten now, unless they were of metal, and I could only hope that Red hadn't fallen down there.

The flash beam suddenly cut into an emptiness of s.p.a.ce, and I realized that the narrow entrance tunnel I followed had suddenly opened into a vast room with rock walls and high ceiling.

I knew what this was. The main shaft of the mine had not been sunk from outside, with the A-frame and hoist placed over it outdoors, as was usually the custom. Here it must have been necessary to tunnel in for a distance before the shaft was sunk, so that a huge room must be hollowed out to accommodate the hoist that would pull up the big ore buckets and the cage that would take men up and down.

226.

In the tiny piercing light I could use against the black dark, I made out the rotting frame and the pit that opened beneath it, almost at my feet. I stepped back in sudden terror and bit my lip, tasting blood.

This time my voice cracked as I shouted, ”Red! Red, are you down there?”

My blessed dog answered mournfully from another direction, and I stepped well away from the edge of the pit. I mustn't let panic take over in this horrible place.

Somehow I needed to find the right tunnel in order to reach Red. With his furry body in my arms we could console each other until help came. We weren't in here forever. This I must believe in defiance of voices that whispered in my mind, Forever, forever!

I played my light ahead and called to Red until I could feel sure I had located the pa.s.sage that would lead me to him. It was disturbing that his barking still seemed so far away. A dog might penetrate into a cluttered pa.s.sageway a great deal farther than I could possibly go. But at least I must try.

The light beam told me that slabbing had been done to some extent in here. I could see what the word meant nowthe shoring up of walls and ceiling with supporting timbers, so that the core of rock that held the ore could be removed without the tunnel collapsing. But the book had told me more than I wanted to know. When slabbing failed, as sometimes happened, those beneath could be buried under tons of earth and rock. The manic voices of terror whispered in my mind again.

Dampness and old rot had surely taken their toll, and the slightest disturbance might cause everything to fall in upon me, burying me here in this mountain tomb. Forever. Forever.

”Stop it!” I told myself, but I didn't speak the words aloud because terror lay in the very sound of harsh echoes. I knew the direction now, and I could let the echoes sleep.

This was the way. A small, more crowded pa.s.sage than the m 227.

others. A pa.s.sage whose opening was partially blocked Red could have squeezed through, but not I. Yet I had to reach him.

I stuck my flashlight in my pocket, and working carefully in the dark, I began to pull away fallen rock and litter from the opening. My hands were quickly cut, but that didn't matter. All that mattered was to reach Red, so that we could comfort each other. To be alone in this place, with nothing alive near me, was the most terrible threat of all. Or at least nothing alive that I wanted to be near.

There hadn't been a real cave-in at the entrance to the pa.s.sage, and in a little while I'd made a way I could get through. I used my flash again and saw that the way beyond was not entirely blocked. Blackness stretched ahead into limbo, and I wondered what creeping things might hide away in here. Snakes, Jon had said. And surely rats. But to sit still and wait would be worse than trying to reach my dog.

Now the ceiling was fairly low, as though the tunneling here had not been completed, and I would have to crawl. I dropped to my hands and knees, doing without light again, though the absence of it was always frightening. The walls seemed to close in on me as I crept along, cold and hard and even more alien in the dark.

Once, when I'd turned on the light, something skittered out of my way. No more than a black shadow, but a shadow that would have sharp teeth, I was sure. For a few moments of shuddering I couldn't go on. But I must.

Crawling was more difficult than walking. There was no mud, but there were still clumps of fallen rock and fragments of splintered wood. The cold of deep earth seemed even more penetrating now, and the air was growing stale and unpleasant -a dirty smell, but at least untainted by the odor of gas. There was still oxygen to breathe. Perhaps the opening of the door had filled the tunnels with fresh air for a little while.

228.

I was still fearful of every shadow that might move when my light was on, and even more terrified of what I might put my hand upon in the dark. Both my hands and knees hurt, but that didn't matter. In my own mind lay the greater dangers. If death came from rock above me, it would be quick. Only in my imagination, in the thought of not being found, lay utter horror.

Red's whimpering seemed closer now. I spoke to him softly, told him I was coming, and again I.moved on, reaching one cautious hand along the pa.s.sage floor and then another. I used my light only now and then, conserving its battery being all-important now. There might be hours ahead for me in this place. One glimpse from the beam showed that the walls had moved apart a little, as though a more complete job had been done at this point.

Obviously this hadn't been a large operation, like the rest of the mine. Perhaps this vein had run out quickly and been soon abandoned. I came to a spot where supporting timbers were falling into decay, and I knew they might crash down upon me if they were jarred. I thought again of all those who had been buried in mines during the years of the gold and silver madness.

But still I must move ahead. Gingerly I made my way past the place of danger, and the going became easier. The smell , was all-pervading now, smothering me in its thick, earthy odor. I could understand about claustrophobia.

My hand, testing the ground ahead, touched something different, something hard and rounded, with sharp-edged hollows in it. Not a rock. My flesh knew and recognized and recoiled in horror. It was time for light.

The beam played over what was left of what had once been a man. The white skull, the rib cage, the long leg bones and folded arms-all laid out in orderly fas.h.i.+on where he had been left, here in the mine. Left, not trapped.

1.Suddenly I was sure, without any doubt. I knew who this man had been. It had to be Noah Armand. More had happened at Morgan House than they had wanted me to guess. Noah, too, must have died, and they had brought him here, left him to the tomb of the mountain. Perhaps it hadn't been my father they meant after all when they had stood in the hallway talking about the mine.

Red barked faintly, questioning, pleading.

”I'm coming,” I called.

With the light turned off, I moved carefully, clinging to the side of the tunnel farthest from what lay there, working my way past horror. Only when I was safely beyond did I turn on the light again. Ahead the tunnel took a turn, and as I followed the bend around, my flash showed me Red, lying on his side, his leash caught beneath a chunk of broken rock.

At the sight of me he thrashed and yelped and tried again to free himself. I crept to him and wrapped my arms about his wriggling body while he reached for my face with an ecstatic tongue and s.h.i.+vered with joy.

The air was better now, and I breathed more deeply. Perhaps there was a way out. Perhaps Red hadn't come in through the main door of the mine, but had found another opening in the hillside. Hope took the place of terror, and I let the flashlight burn while I tried to free Red's leash. Now I saw what had been done. No accident has caused this securing of the leather strap. It had been drawn under the big chunk of rock so that only fingers could release it.

Someone had found Red in his wandering. Someone had placed him in this pa.s.sage and seen to it that he could never extricate himself. Then the message had been sent to me, the mine door left open, knowing that Red's barking would lead me in. I held him tightly and pressed my face against his head that was no longer silky and clean.

”We've got to get out of here,” I told him, wincing a little as I looped the leash around my wrist. I didn't know how much more laceration my hands and knees could take, but I had to go on. Then, as I started to crawl again, the sound of shouting reached us from a distance-from outside the mine. Red barked furiously, and I shouted back, recognizing the voice.

”Jon! We're in here! Jon, come and help us out!”

His next shout was much closer. ”Keep on yelling so I can locate you, Laurie.”

We filled the tunnel with sound, and the echoes no longer mattered. In a few moments Jon was crawling through the far pa.s.sage.

By the time he reached us, I was weeping in relief. He sat on the floor of the tunnel, drew my head against his shoulder, and let me cry. His arms were around me and his cheek was against my hair. It was wonderful to just let go and stop struggling for my life. And most of all it was wonderful to have Jon hold me. I had come to my own moment of truth.

I'd loved him since I was a little girl, and I loved him now. I had been looking for him in other men through all my years as a woman, yet I wouldn't have dared to tell him this. I could only cling to him and weep in relief.

”That's enough,” he said after a moment. ”You can finish your bawling outside. Are you all right, Laurie? Can you crawl a little farther?”

I could have crawled anywhere, and Red and I crept after him as he led the way out. Around the next bend we could see daylight, and the air was fresh. Weed growth and the gnarled roots of a fallen pine tree almost blocked the entrance, but Jon squeezed past and pulled us both after him into the suns.h.i.+ne.

The sight of Sundance tethered nearby was very welcome, and the high thin air had never tasted so sweet. I flung myself on the gra.s.s with Red beside me. For these few moments I wanted only to know that I was safe and with my love. This in- tensity of feeling was all I could bear for now. Horror lay just bevond, where reason started, but I still held it away.

”Do you see where you are?” Jon asked after I'd rested for a few minutes.

He was sitting on the gra.s.s beside me, not touching me now, but waiting for me to recover with more patience than I might have expected.

<script>