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THE CAVES OF FEAR
A RICK BRANT SCIENCE-ADVENTURE STORY
BY JOHN BLAINE
GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS
NEW YORK, N.Y.
COPYRIGHT, 1951, BY
GROSSET & DUNLAP, INC.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
_Printed in the United States of America_
[Illustration: At the base of the Black Buddha, a section of the floor
had swung upward.]
Contents
I CHANGES AT SPINDRIFT
II THE CIPHER MESSAGE
III HEAVY WATER
IV PROJECT X
V HONG KONG
VI THE GOLDEN MOUSE
VII THE JUNK WITH PURPLE SAILS
VIII LONG SHADOW
IX THE TRAIL TO KORSE LENKEN
X THE AMBUSH AT LLHAN HUANG
XI THE GOATSKIN WATER BAG
XII THE BUDDHIST MONK
XIII THE BLACK BUDDHA
XIV THE CAVES OF FEAR
XV THE LABYRINTH
XVI THE LAKE OF DARKNESS
XVII THROUGH A PAIR OF DARK GLASSES
XVIII THE HOSTAGES
XIX CANTON CHARLIE'S
XX HOME FLIGHT
THE CAVES OF FEAR
CHAPTER I
Changes at Spindrift
The sounds of hammer and saw had disturbed Spindrift Island for several
days, and Rick Brant was having a hard time getting used to it. The
noise didn't bother him. It was the idea behind the noise--the idea that
the close fellowship of the famous island was about to be intruded upon
by strangers.
He sat in a comfortable chair on the front porch of the big Brant house
and stared morosely at the Atlantic. He was a tall, athletic boy with
brown hair and eyes and a face that was usually pleasant.
"What's it going to be like with a mob of strangers galloping all over
the place?" he demanded.
Don Scott grinned lazily from the depths of his armchair. He was a husky
youth, perhaps an inch taller than Rick, with black hair and dark eyes.
"Since when do five people make a mob?" he inquired. "Besides, I think
adding more scientists to the staff is a good thing. So does Dad."
"I know it," Rick returned gloomily. "The others do, too. I'm a
downtrodden minority. No one sympathizes with me."
Scotty shook his head sadly. "Poor old Rick. Seriously, I don't get it.
You should be cheering the loudest. Think of what it means, pal! More
fields of science to explore, including one I never heard of before.
Maybe more expeditions, of different kinds than the ones we've been on
up to now."
"That's what I'm thinking about," Rick returned.
"Then why the gloom?"
"Because..." Rick stopped as the phone rang in the house.
Scotty got to his feet quickly. "I'll get it. Mom and Dad are down
watching the builders."
Rick smiled as Scotty went into the house. It pleased him to have Scotty
call Mr. and Mrs. Brant "Mom and Dad." It was a symbol of Scotty's
permanence in the family. No one had ever questioned Scotty's membership
in the Spindrift tribe since the day when the scrappy ex-Marine had
rescued Rick from a gang of thugs bent on destroying the Island
Foundation's moon rocket, and it was pleasant to think of Scotty as a
permanent brother. The two of them had been through some tight places
together and they were closer friends than brothers usually are. Like
Rick, Scotty was listed on the membership rolls of the Spindrift
Foundation as a junior technician.
Hartson W. Brant was listed as president, but it was Rick's pride that
he and Scotty had earned places because of their own worth, and not
because of their relationship with the scientist. However, their
abilities were not the same. Because of Rick's interest in science,
particularly electronics, he had become expert in intricate wiring and
he was rapidly learning about the design of equipment. Scotty's talent
was in the mechanical field. He could repair machinery and he was a whiz
with engines.
Thinking about work in the lab reminded Rick that he had an unfinished
project of his own on his workbench upstairs. He was half out of his
chair, determined to go upstairs and put the rest of the afternoon to
good use, when Scotty called.
"Rick! Hurry up."
He ran into the library and found Scotty holding the phone. "Here's a
funny one, Rick. The Whiteside telegraph office has a cable for you, but
they won't read it over the phone because it's all numbers. And it's
from Chahda."
Chahda, the Hindu boy who had been like a member of the family since he
joined a Spindrift expedition in Bombay, was back home in India. He had
left the boys in New Caledonia after a recent adventure in order to
visit his family.
"I'd better talk to them," Rick said. "Who's on the wire?"
"Bill Martin."
Rick took the phone. "Bill? This is Rick. What's up?"
"Got a cable addressed to you," Bill answered. "I'd rather not try to
read it over the phone because it's all numbers. Can you or Scotty pick
it up?"
"Where's it from?" Rick asked.
"Singapore. And it's signed by your Indian friend."
Singapore! What on earth was Chahda doing in Singapore? Rick couldn't
guess. "Bill, what kind of numbers are they?"
"Groups. Seven figures in each group. If you ask me, it's some kind of
code."
Rick thought quickly. "Barby's in Whiteside, Bill. She went over to a
movie right after lunch, and she should just about be getting out. You
can get her next door at the Sugar Shop, because she always stops in
there for a fudge sundae after the show. If she's already gone, phone
the boat landing. You ought to catch her one place or the other."
"I'll try," Bill promised. "If I don't catch her, I'll call you back."
"Thanks a million." Rick restored the phone to its cradle and looked at
Scotty. "What do you make of that?"
Scotty shrugged. "It beats me. I didn't know Chahda was planning to
leave Bombay. If it comes to that, I didn't know he knew anything about
codes."
"Neither did I," Rick agreed. "Remember he said something about a job in
his last letter? There was something secret about it he couldn't tell
us. Maybe that's why he's in Singapore."
"Could be. Anyway, we won't know for sure until we get the cable and
decipher it. If we _can_ decipher it, that is."
"We'll be able to," Rick said confidently. "He wouldn't send us one we
couldn't break."
Scotty nodded. "I hope you're right. Well, let's go back and get lazy
again."
"Not me." Rick started for the stairs. "I'm going to stop loafing and
get busy. The lenses for the camera arrived a week ago and I haven't
even looked at them."
"I'll go with you. I got some questions about these new people maybe you
can answer."
Upstairs in Rick's bedroom, Scotty sat down in the old leather armchair
while Rick opened up the doors that concealed his workbench. On the
bench was a camera with an odd-looking searchlight and telescope
attached. The searchlight gave off invisible infrared rays instead of
ordinary light, and the telescope was equipped with special lenses in
order to pick up the infrared. When the camera was loaded with special
film, it could take pictures in total darkness, provided the subject was
within range of the infrared light rays.
The camera had played a major part in solving the mystery of _Smugglers'
Reef_. With the evidence collected from Rick's pictures, the police had
broken up a ring of gunrunners. But Rick still was not satisfied with
the camera. He was always striving to find the simplest way of doing a
thing.
This time, he was planning to eliminate both the spring-driven dynamo
that powered the searchlight, and the infrared telescope. A new-type
battery in a small metal case already had been mounted under the camera,
far enough to one side so it wouldn't interfere with the tripod mount.
The battery would give ten hours of service, and it could be replaced in
a moment with a spare carried in the pocket.
To take the place of the telescope, Rick had ordered lenses made of the
special glass that could "see" infrared. He intended to put the lenses
in ordinary sunglasses frames, restore the regular view finder to the
camera, and turn the telescope over to Scotty. By using the eyeglasses
with special lenses he could see whatever the infrared searchlight was
lighting up without the need of looking through the special telescope.
Using the glasses and searchlight on the camera together, he could see
perfectly in the darkness, and he could take movies, too, if he wanted
to.
He went to work removing the telescope.
"I've checked," Scotty said. "That 'scope will fit the mount on my rifle
with no changes."
Scotty already had a telescopic sight on his rifle, and the telescope
from the infrared unit could be put in its place with a simple turn of a
screw. The infrared 'scope and light originally had been designed for a
rifle to be used by soldiers at night. Rick had simply adapted the unit
to his own needs.
"We can get in some night skunk hunting," Scotty said. "You put the
infrared on 'em and take their pictures and I'll sight in through the
special 'scope and shoot 'em."
Rick slipped the telescope out of its mount and handed it to Scotty. "If
there's one thing I don't need," he said, "it's a dead skunk. Couldn't
we hunt prairie moose instead?"
"What's a prairie moose?" Scotty demanded.
"A field mouse with horns."
Scotty groaned. "All right, scientist. Let's get serious and see if you
can answer this one. We have an archeologist, a naturalist, and a
cyberneticist coming. I think I know what the first two are, but what in
the name of a blue baboon is a cyberneticist?"
Rick put the camera view finder into place and began to adjust it. "A
specialist in cybernetics," he said.
Scotty waved his arms. "Now I know!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "Any
idiot knows what cybernetics is. Or what they are. Ten cents apiece at
any hardware counter. No family should be without a handy-dandy
cybernetic!"
Rick chuckled. "All right. Cybernetics is a combined study of machines
and the human nervous system. It's trying to figure out how machines and
humans are related. I don't know much about it myself, but I do know
this: the big electronic calculators that do problems in a few hours
that it would take humans hundreds of years to finish were the result of
cybernetics."
"The big brains!" Scotty looked awed. "I've read about them. And to
think we're going to have that kind of expert here!"
"With his wife and two kids," Rick added. "I wonder how Huggins will
like a crowd of kids trampling through his garden!"
Scotty laughed outright. "Here we go again! Listen, Rick, start making
sense. How can twins less than a year old trample anyone's garden?"
Rick didn't try to answer. He finished the adjustment on the camera and
put it back on the shelf, then started to work replacing the lenses in
an old pair of sunglasses with the special ones he had ordered. After a
moment, he asked, "Scotty, how would you like it if an expedition left
Spindrift and we weren't with it?"
Scotty stared. "My sainted aunt! Is that's what's been bothering you?"
Rick admitted it. He knew where he stood with the old gang, Hartson
Brant, Hobart Zircon, Julius Weiss, and John Gordon. He was far from
sure of how the new staff members would look on him and Scotty. He had
learned that some scientists had little patience with people who were
unfamiliar with their special fields, and he and Scotty were pretty
ignorant about the new sciences that would be represented. That was his
only reason for objecting when his father had decided to enlarge the
staff.
"I can see it now," he said. "The Foundation will be planning an
expedition, maybe to be headed by this new naturalist, and we'll be on
the outside looking in. And why? Because Dr. Howard Shannon prefers not
to be bothered by a couple of kids who wouldn't know one bug from
another."
"You're crossing bridges before you come to 'em," Scotty pointed out.
"For all you know, all three of these new scientists might be perfectly
swell gents, like Zircon, Weiss, and Gordon. Why borrow trouble in
advance?"
"I suppose you're right," Rick had to agree. "But I still can't help
thinking about it."
"Think all you like," Scotty said generously. "Me, I'm going to put my
little gray brain cells to work on Chahda's cable. Aren't you all fired
up with curiosity?"
Rick started to say he was, but no reply was necessary because just then
he heard the sound of the motorboat engine for which his ears had been
attuned. He put down the sunglasses and ran for the door. Scotty had
heard the engine, too, and was halfway down the hall.
It had to be Barby, Rick was sure. The other motorboat--the island had
two--was tied up at the pier, and they weren't expecting any visitors.
The builders had their own boat, a powered barge, anchored off Pirate's
Field.
The boys ran out on the front porch and around the house, then down the
long flight of stairs that led to the cove where the motorboat landing
was located.
It was Barby, sure enough, and she had the cable! She waved it wildly,
then gunned the boat around neatly so that it slid into the dock. Scotty
grabbed the bow line and made fast while Rick jumped for the stern line
and slipped it around a cleat on the landing.
Barby cut the engine and jumped to the dock, a slim, pretty girl, her
face flushed with excitement. "It's from Chahda," she said breathlessly,
"and it's in code!"
"We know," Scotty said. "Here, let's take a look at it."
Barby handed it to him. He scanned it wordlessly, then handed it to
Rick. "Son, we'll be doing right well if we make any sense out of that!"
"He wouldn't send us anything in a code we couldn't read," Rick
objected. "Let's see it. It can't be too hard."
But in the next moment he changed his mind. His lips pursed in a low
whistle. This was the cable:
RICK BRANT
SPINDRIFT ISLAND
NEW JERSEY, U.S.A.
5213039 6231581 1219456 2768612 2144644 9123299
3970731 6017747 1044914 3327116 6074193 4399693
0531612 1330552 3047171 3193986 8128912 7011716
0762878 3377335 3831075 5371011 3552684 3012963
3532456 8337373 9104476 1605588 2540551 2826677
9513148 3189710 4811223 5202998 5912492 3432174
3302710 7072010 1510108 4423007 3331954 7893623
L. CHAHDA