They were safe in the black harbor of the cave.
* * * * *
When he turned to stare into the depths beyond him, at first he could
see nothing but a great orange ball, which was his photo-image of
the dazzling sunlight whence they had fled. Then tortured nerves
surrendered to the soothing dark and he could see that they stood
at the mouth of not a cave but a great, many-corridored cavern that
stretched--for all Mallory could tell--clear down into the murky bowels
of Venus.
Jonathan Lane was loudly exuberant.
"This is fine!" he declared. "We owe those grease-balls a vote of
thanks. This is an ideal refuge. Shady and cool and safe--and look! We
can even see the ship from the heights, here! If anyone--I mean, _when_
they come to rescue us, we can signal them."
Mallory hoped the slip had passed unnoticed by Dorothy. "_If_
anyone--" the skipper had started to say. Which meant that he, too,
had misgivings as to the likelihood of rescue. But that was a question
Mallory would not press. He hurdled the awkward moment with a swift
response.
"We'll have to have something to signal with, sir. Our bulger audios
won't operate that far, will they? We'll have to build a fire, or at
least have one ready to be kindled when they arrive."
"Right," agreed the skipper. "But we can't gather wood until those
protos have gone away. We'll take care of that later. Meanwhile--"
He glanced into the jetty depths beyond them. "It will be some hours
before we can expect to get relief. Time to waste. Why not amuse
ourselves by exploring this cave?"
"Explo--" began Tim. It was a childish idea. One _so_ ridiculous,
in fact, that it was on the tip of Mallory's tongue to make caustic
rejoinder to Lane's suggestion. But even as the comment trembled on his
lips, his eyes met those of the captain--and in Lane's shrewd, pleading
glance, Tim found a reason and an answer for this subterfuge.
Lane feared that very thing which he, himself, had dreaded. This cave
might be their refuge for a long, long time!
There might be no rescue party. If so, and since a trek across the
Badlands was suicidal, their only chance for ultimate salvation was to
find a place where they could live. This cave was such a place. If it
had water, and if it were undenizened by wild beasts; if in it, or near
it, they could find food....
He hoped his voice was not too suspiciously hearty.
"Great idea!" he agreed. "Splendid. It should be a lot of fun. What do
you say, Dorothy?"
Dorothy looked from her lover to her father, back to her lover again.
And her voice was grave and fearless.
"I say," she said quietly, "you are the two finest men who ever lived.
But you're not fooling me for a moment. I know very well why we must
explore this cave. And I say, let's start!" There came swift lightness
and heart-warming humor to her tone. "After all, if a gal has to keep
house in a place like this, she ought to know how many rooms it has!"
Tim looked at her long and gravely. And then,
"You," he said, "are swell. Once I called you wonderful. I didn't
really know--then."
"Wonderful?" snorted Captain Lane. "Of course she is! She's my
daughter, isn't she? Well, come along!"
Grinning, Tim fell in behind him. And into Stygian darkness, preceded
by a yellow circle from the flashlight of the _Orestes'_ skipper, moved
the marooned trio.
* * * * *
The main cave opened out as they picked their path forward; the walls
pressed back, the ceiling lofted, until they were standing in a huge,
arched chamber almost two hundred feet wide and half as high. This
amphitheater debouched into a half dozen or more smaller corridors or
openings; for a moment Captain Lane stood considering these silently,
then he nodded toward that on their extreme left.
"Might as well go at it in orderly fashion. We'll try that one first.
No, wait a minute!" He halted Tim, who had pressed obediently toward
the corridor-mouth. "Try not to be a groundhog all your life, Mallory!
You should know better than to stroll aimlessly around a place like
this. A confounded labyrinth, that's what it is! If we got lost down
here, we might spend the rest of our natural lives trying to find a way
out."
He slipped his needle-gun from his bulger belt, let its scorching ray
play for an instant on the rocky floor of the cavern. Hot rock bubbled,
and a fresh, new groove shone sharply in the shape of an arrow.
"Every time we make a turn we'll do this. Then we can retrace our
steps." Lane smiled sarcastically. "But a hot-and-cold engineer
wouldn't think of a thing like that, I suppose?"
Tim made no reply. But he reproached himself secretly for not having
considered this necessity; it did not make him feel much better that
Dorothy, standing beside him, pressed his arm in mute encouragement.
The corridor was a short one, opening into another cavern like that
which they had just quitted. Similar, but not quite the same. For as
Lane played his light about the walls of this inner, deeper, chamber,
all three adventurers gasped with the impact of sudden, breathtaking
beauty. The ebon walls, warmed by the light, flashed into a glittering,
scintilliscent miracle of loveliness; a galaxy of twinkling stars
seemed to appear from nowhere and hang in dark space burning and
gleaming.
"It--it's magnificent!" breathed the girl. "What is it, Daddy? Jewels?
It looks like the fabulous caves of Ali Baba."
It was Tim who supplied the answer. "They're not jewels. Just nitre
crystals protruding through a coating of black oxide of manganese. I've
seen the same thing on Earth--in the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky."
And they moved on. Deeper and yet deeper into the Lethean depths,
pausing from time to time to char a signpost for their retreat.
Miracles without wonder they saw. Domes huge enough to house a
spaceship, stalactites lowering like great, rough fangs from ceilings
lost in dizzy heights, twin growths springing, oftimes without apparent
reason, from the cavern floor--stalactites formed by centuries of slow
lime dripping from the roof. And gigantic columns, hoariest monsters of
all, columns of strange, iridescent beauty.
Once they passed a pit so deep, so dark, that even the skipper's
probing beam could not penetrate its majestic depths. From somewhere
far below came the whispering surge of churned water; in the light of
the flash there seemed to hover above the rim of this chasm a faint,
white, wraithly film. Lane frowned, unscrewed his face-port for an
instant, sniffed, and hastily ducked back into the bulger.
"Ammonia," he said. "I thought as much. Keep your bulger-ports closed.
Venus caves aren't Earth caves. Queer things here. No telling what
we'll bump into."
He didn't mention the all-too-obvious fact that so far they had not
"bumped into" that thing which they sought. A fuel supply, a water
supply, signs of an underground grotto wherein might be found food. Nor
had their winding way at any time moved them toward the surface, toward
a possible second exit from the caverns. Their movement was ever down,
deeper into the bowels of this weird, faery wonderland.
* * * * *
Once, for a heart-stopping moment, they thought they had found their
desire. Rounding a bend, they came upon a cavern alive with color;
towering vines and trees laden with great clusters of grapes; bushes
aflower with myriads of gorgeous buds. Dorothy sprang forward with a
cry of joy--but when she touched one of the mock roses it shattered to
fine, white, powdery snow; upon investigation the trees, the vines and
"grapes" turned out to be of the same, perishable nature.
And Tim remembered their name. "Oulopholites," he said. "Sulphate of
magnesia and gypsum. Mother Nature _does_ repeat herself, you see. She
uses the same forms, but these are lifeless mimicry." And he looked
at his watch. "Guess we'd better turn back, eh, skipper? We've been
two hours on the prowl, and there doesn't seem to be anything in this
direction. Shall we go back and try another corridor?"
Lane nodded slowly.
"I suppose so. But--Oh, while we're this far, we might as well peek
into that next cavern. Won't take but a minute. And if there's nothing
there--"
The words died on his lips. As he spoke them, they had moved through a
short archway; the yellow circle of his flashlight had swung about a
cavern larger than any in which they had yet stood. The floor of this
cavern sloped sharply downward, narrowing into a funnel. And at the end
of that funnel....
"Great gods of space!" whispered Captain Lane, awestruck. "Am I crazy?
Do you see what I see?"
For that upon which his lightbeam had ended, the incredible structure
from which its glow was now reflecting in shimmering clarity, was--_a
massive door of bronze_! Golden in sheen, strong and secure, obviously
the work of intelligent craftsmen, it met their wondering stares with
bland imperturbability.
And Tim gave a great shout.
"A door! Venusians! We're all right now. Food and rest ... they'll tell
us how to get back to civilization...."