Jack Odin descended into the cavern--or what Keefe had called the Hole--for
less than a hundred yards before his strong flashlight sent its lancing
beam into a stone wall. At his feet was a crevice which went straight down
as though it had been measured by a giant square. He got to his knees and
looked over. Playing his light around he detected a few ledges like narrow
steps far below. It was pitch-dark down there, and not even his strong
light could reach to the bottom. He tried tossing a few pebbles into it;
listening he heard the faint rattle of their fall, but could not be sure
whether they had landed on one of the ledges or had reached bottom.
Looking about him, he found a weathered bit of limestone that thrust itself
up like a small table. It did not look very substantial but it was his only
hope. Odin had crammed his ammunition, food and canteen into a knapsack.
Looping the rope through it and his rifle strap, he lowered them over until
he felt the rope slacken as his gun and supplies rested upon the first
ledge. Releasing one end of the rope he carefully drew it back.
* * * * *
Now he knotted the rope about the stone and let the two lengths of it trail
down toward the ledge. He had kept his flashlight which he thrust into his
belt. One other thing, a little miner's cap and light, now came into use.
It was warm down there, and as soon as the cap with its lighted lamp was on
his head, sweat began to pour down his neck. Suddenly he remembered a scene
he had witnessed one morning in West Virginia--so long ago that it should
have been forgotten. His car had stalled in a tiny town one evening. He had
slept in the only hotel, but had got up before daybreak so he could start
an early search for a mechanic. Looking up toward the hills he had seen a
silent procession of lights going upward to some unknown mine. There was
something grotesque about those climbing lights; the identity of the men
was lost, and this was a crawling thing up there on the hillside. For a
moment he felt himself feeling infinite pity for all the men everywhere who
spent their days in the dark.
Then he laughed. Better feel a bit sorry for Jack Odin too. Getting ready
to lower himself over a precipice, and not having the slightest idea when
he would reach bottom. Or whether there was any bottom at all. The
blackness beat at the little light. A startled bat left its upside-down
perch and fluttered against his face, clicking its teeth in warning.
Well, one could stay here and think until doomsday. So, with a shrug of his
big shoulders, he got a firm grip on his doubled rope and slid over the
edge. He went down and down until his shoulders ached. Once he got his
feet down on an outcropping but dared not brace himself there for fear of
loosening his rope from its unsteady mooring above. Then, at last, he came
to the ledge with only a few feet of his doubled rope to spare.
After resting the little cap and lamp in a secure cranny he lay flat on his
stomach for a few minutes, gulping great draughts of air and trying to rub
some feeling back into his aching shoulders. Then he got up and started
looking about for some anchorage. Some twenty feet away, he found a little
spur of rock.
The second ledge was negotiated in the same fashion as the first. It
was scarcely four feet in width. Leaning over it, with his powerful
flashlight spraying a beam of light downward, he saw that there were
no more ledges between him and the floor of the crevice below. Not
even a single out-cropping. The wall was smooth and glassy as though
at one time, for ages and ages, water had flown down it and had left
a glossy coating upon its face.
Moreover, when he awkwardly dangled his rope into the abyss with one hand,
and kept his light upon it with the other, he found to his disappointment
that not even a single length would reach to the dimly-seen floor below.
He sat there for a while, chewing at a bit of jerked beef, trying to get
his strength back, racking his brains for a plan. But he could think of
nothing except getting back to Opal. Then, at last, with a sigh and maybe
a curse at the things that happen and maybe a bit of a prayer, he began to
tie a loop, lasso fashion, in his rope. Finding another spur of rock became
a problem. This ledge was smooth. But in time he found one and drew his
loop tightly about it. Rolling the knapsack up into a ball and tying it
securely, he threw it over the brink. Listening, he heard it land and
bounce two or three times. The gun was slung over his shoulder. The miner's
cap and lamp went back upon his head. He stuffed his pockets full of
ammunition and slid over the edge. Once he nearly lost his grip on the
single strand and slid downward for a yard or two with the rough coils
taking the hide off his palms. But he held on. And at last he was dangling
at the end of the rope like a plumb-bob. Carefully he tightened his grip
with his right hand and let go with the left. His shoulder creaked, and
fangs of pain struck at his wrist and elbow.
* * * * *
But he hung on. Playing the flashlight below him, he saw that the floor of
the crevice was still many yards away. It seemed to be of sand, but he was
not sure. Limestone could be deceiving. Putting the light back in his belt,
he began feeling along the wall. It was smooth. Finally, reaching down as
far as he could, he found a little hole scarcely large enough for one hand.
There was no time left to consider. Getting his fingers into it he turned
loose of the rope and dropped down. It felt as though his left shoulder was
tearing loose, but he held his grip. Kicking about he found a toe-hold in
the wall--and finally another grip for his hand.
In this way, Odin went down for nearly a dozen yards. But at last he could
find neither a grip for his hands nor a rest for his feet. He did not care
now. The pain in his shoulders was becoming unbearable. Taking one great
gulp of air, he released his hold on the wall and thrust his body out into
space. The little light in his cap went out. Odin fell through darkness.
He fell into soft sand, doubling up as his feet touched it. Odin rolled
over and over, losing both flashlight and gun as he tumbled. Then he came
up against hard rock, with most of the wind knocked out of him, and lay
there gasping, feeling about him with frantic hands for the light and the
gun.
* * * * *
The old terror of the dark swept over him as he clutched this way and that
and found nothing. Then he got a grip on himself and laughed at his
fears--remembering that he had matches in his pockets.
The spurt of a match showed him his miner's cap not five feet away. He must
have missed it by inches as he was clutching about in the dark. He lit it
and soon found gun and flash.
Pointing his light upward, he could faintly see the knotted end of his rope
swinging back and forth up there against the precipice. It was his only
link with the outside world, and it was far out of reach. He shrugged and
played the light about the cavern into which he had ventured.
The walls of the crevice into which he had fallen were never over ten
feet apart and in spots were less than three. But the sandy bed sloped
noticeably downward, so downward he went. Only pausing occasionally to
take a mouthful of water from his canteen or eat a bite or two. His
watch had been broken in that last fall. He threw it away.
The air grew hotter. So hot at last that Odin had to pause more often
and rest upon the sand. But it too was hot, as though it had never known
anything but this one temperature.
Stumbling along, his nostrils and chest burning, and something thumping in
his ears, he finally fell to his knees. Jack Odin lay there for a long
time. But the floor of the cavern still led downward. So, with nothing else
left in his mind, he got to his knees and crawled on.
That last determination saved him. A cool breath of air struck him in the
face. He toiled downward and was soon in a wider cavern that was so cold
that he was shivering. He rested again and then went on. The cold grew
worse.
Odin came to a tunnel of ice. The faint smell of ammonia set him to
coughing. It was nearly as uncomfortable here as the heat had been a few
hours before. But he kept on. Finally, there was no ice left on the walls
about him. The air grew warmer.
Soon the walls opened out until he could scarcely see them with his
flashlight. Playing it upward he could only get a faint reflection from the
stalactites hundreds of feet away.
At length Odin came to a vast room where his light could reach neither
walls nor ceiling. But in the center of it was a tiny pool, rimmed by white
sand and a shell-like lip of limestone. He got to his knees and tested the
water. It was clean--but old and old and old. Filling his canteen, he
opened his knapsack and prepared a hearty meal. He was dog-tired but
before he slept he walked around the little pool. He had heard of fish
being found in underground caverns--or even the fossils of things that had
once been there. But here Odin found no sign of life. Nothing except traces
of the vast underground river that must have once swept through here long
ago.
It was a desolate feeling to stand there with his beam of light pushing the
dark away. Alone in a place which apparently had never known the beat of
life before. And then Odin saw it--
A footprint. A small footprint which must have been made by someone who
wore moccasins or sandals. He recognized it at once. He had seen hundreds
of those footprints!
A Neebling had been there. How long before he did not know. But, certainly,
Odin's theory had been right. The cavern led the way to Opal. Jack Odin was
not sure how many times he ate and slept as he toiled his way downward. The
long dead river had carved cunningly and beautifully upon the walls of the
tunnel. And the dripping waters of centuries had fashioned pedestals,
carvings, and statues that were beautiful indeed. Ordinarily he would have
been interested in these, for Jack Odin was a man who loved beautiful
things, but now he had but one idea: To go on.
Occasionally he found more footprints. But always near the scattered
pools. The dwarfs must have kept against the walls and come out upon the
sand only to quench their thirst. He wondered about that. And a possible
answer came to him. They had been there without a light--feeling their way,
almost--although he knew that they could see in the dark to a certain
extent. He wondered at their courage. Here, with two lights, the staring
darkness and the silent empty spaces were making him shaky.
The descent became sharper. At times he slid down long grades of limestone.
Now and then he came to sharp drops where little waterfalls had once been.
But there was usually sand below and he was able to leap down without much
harm, other than a jolt or two.
But once he came to one of these drops that must have measured a hundred
feet. He found a few rocky steps where the little precipice met the wall
and clambered down, but it was rough going, and he had to make a jump for
it at the last.
* * * * *
Picking himself up and dusting the sand from his clothes he thought he saw
a white gleam over against the wall. His light found a squat skeleton
sitting there grimacing at him. He touched the skull and it fell to powder.
Here was one of the dwarfs--a Neebling--but the bones did not belong to
this age; the poor fellow must have lain there for centuries.
Doctor Jack Odin was never able to get all of his medical training out of
his mind. Examining the skeleton he found that both legs had been broken.
Apparently, the little man had been climbing up or down the precipice Odin
had just negotiated and had slipped and fallen. His legs shattered, and
infection setting in, the Neebling had crawled against the wall to die.
Odin could imagine him doing that last task silently. They were akin to the
animals that they loved, the Neeblings. They did not complain.
* * * * *
Hours and hours later, as Odin toiled his way downward, he became aware of
a growing stench in the stale air. Even this was welcome, for he was
becoming obsessed with the idea that the cavern had not changed since the
long-ago river had died, and that nothing in it could change. It was an
odor of rottenness. Where there was decay, life had also been.
By the time he reached the next pool the putrescence which hung on the
stale air was almost sickening. There he made his second discovery. A
saurian of some sort, with squat legs and long, fanged mouth, had died
there. Half-decayed, it made a little phosphor glowing in the dark and its
long teeth flashed as he played a beam of light over it.
Noisome as it was, the sight of it made his heart quicken, for here was one
of the things of Opal. It must have crawled up here from that silent sea.
Then a feeling of gloom and dread swept over him. What had happened down
there to make this thing leave its home and crawl here to die!
Odin went on and on, and the smell of the thing behind him slowly faded
from the air.
Then, as he rounded a corner, Odin blinked his eyes. Far ahead of him was a
red glow. Taking a deep breath, he thought he smelled smoke. Or was it
sulphur? He had never been able to get one grim possibility out of his
mind. What if some of the fires and lava streams of inner earth should lie
between him and the world of Opal?
He had gone too far to turn back. So Odin went on cautiously. As he neared
the red glow, he saw that it was only a campfire dying down to coals. But
from the darkness came such a clamoring of hisses, groans, and screeches
that he could feel goose-pimples popping out on his arms.
His rifle held a clamp for his flash. Making gun and light ready, he
advanced cautiously, still unable to determine what was happening except
that one hell of a fight was going on. Then a coal burst into quick flame
and he could see the struggle. A broad-shouldered man, stripped to the
waist, was fighting with one of the saurians. He had closed its long mouth
with a huge hand and was striking again and again at the white throat with
a broad-bladed knife. The thing was screeching and clawing at the man's
arm. Its razored tail was lashing forward--and the man was dodging it as he
kept backing in a circle and thrusting the head upward and backwards. Both
brute and man were streaming blood. The man made no sound other than an
occasional savage grunt as his blade struck deep through the horny hide of
the thing. The Saurian became wilder with each blow.
It was a long shot. But Jack Odin made it. Both man and reptile quickened
into momentary stone as his light centered its beam upon them. Odin aimed
and fired. The heavy bullet shattered the top of the saurian's head.
Then Odin was running forward, calling out in the language of Opal. The
broad-shouldered man kicked the wriggling carcass of the thing out of the
way and threw a few sticks upon the coals. They flamed up. The man sat down
calmly, though still gasping for breath, and began to wipe the blade of his
knife upon his thigh.
He had regained some of his breath when Odin reached him. Rubbing a gashed
forearm and smiling as though such a meeting were an every-day occurrence
he called out cheerfully.
"Ho, Nors-King. I knew you would come. Sooner or later you would be here
and we would go hunting together."
The man was Gunnar, successor to Jul, and Chief of the Neeblings!