The Secret of the Dark by Barbara Steiner

Author:Barbara Steiner
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 9781480438873
Publisher: Open Road Media

CHAPTER

10

I PROBABLY hesitated only for a split second. But in that time I lived a nightmare of falling, falling, falling. Into the darkness. Into the cold, damp space of the drop-off. Finally bouncing on the bottom like the rock whose rattle, rattle, splat could hardly be heard.

“Keep going, Valerie,” Neal called. “Don’t stop.” He pointed his light at me to give me some confidence.

Rick shined his lamp from his side of the drop-off. I kept going.

“Why’d you stop?” Rick asked, catching me as I fell forward into his arms.

“My light went out. It scared me.”

We stepped back from the smooth, rounded ledge so Neal could follow. Rick pulled my headlamp from its bracket. “You scared me. The tip must be clogged.”

“Didn’t you ream it out before we started, Biddleman?” Neal was angry.

“I’m not the boy scout you are, Gallagher.”

“Well, do it now. Valerie could have fallen.” Neal took my arm. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah. I just froze for a minute. Let’s go on. I don’t want to think about it.” I couldn’t think about it and keep going.

Rick took out a tiny wire, ran it through the tip of my lamp, then lit my lamp from the flame of his lamp. He placed it back on my hat and winked at me. I guess what had happened didn’t worry him, but it sure scared me.

We wandered till we reached the gallery floor. It was sandy and dry. Rick led us up one branch off the large area to show us a delicate formation he called calcite soda straws. From the ceiling hung hollow white tubes.

“See the drop of water right there on the end?” Rick pointed to one straw. A crystal droplet paused, got larger, longer, then dropped to the floor. “Each drop leaves a minute bit of calcite. It builds up over the formation after thousands of years.”

We sat by the calcite straws to eat our lunch and leaned against the cave wall where it was dry and had no formation to destroy. I wished I’d brought more food since the walking had made me hungry. I dusted dried mud from my hands and then gobbled the cheese and crackers.

“How deep do you think the drop-off is?” Neal asked.

“I can stand below and look up and my light won’t reach the ledge. Maybe sixty feet or better, I’d guess.”

I shivered, not wanting to think about the drop-off, my near accident. I liked the big room. After we finished eating, we walked more, our lights revealing igloos, more mushrooms, polar bears, lots of shapes your imagination could identify.

“I like it here where it’s flat. Being underground is scary, but I could get used to it if there weren’t cliffs and drop-offs.”

“Lots of caving is like mountaineering,” Neal said. “We should have had a rope for that crossing up there.”

“Too much weight to carry for one bad place,” Rick disagreed.

“Not if it keeps you from falling.”

A thought hit me as we talked about the crossing. “Do we have to go back

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