The scientist strode toward the deeper darkness of the entrance and shot his light inside. The others took up the positions he had a.s.signed. Rick kept his flashlight beam moving around the big cave, watching for any sign of an enemy.

"Another pa.s.sage," Zircon said, and his voice echoed hollowly. "Cover our rear, Rick." They went into it single file, Rick walking sideways in order to keep looking back for a possible enemy. Then, as the others stopped suddenly, he fell over Chahda. He heard the scientist say, "Dead end. Nothing but a blank wall. Rick, lead the way out. We'll try the other."

The second pa.s.sage gave better results. It wound through the limestone for a short distance, then opened into a small cave filled with wonderful white rock formations.

"Stalact.i.tes and stalagmites," Zircon boomed. "I suspect we are getting into the deeper caverns, those hollowed out by water and not by man. The question is, which way do we go now?"

Rick took his eyes from the way they had come long enough to look around. The cave was like a junction room, openings branching off in all directions.

Scotty switched on his flashlight and began examining the cave floor.

"Look for signs," he directed. "If men have come this way, they must have left some traces."

Chahda hurried to look, too. Rick stood where he was, light and eyes going from one opening to another. He didn't intend to be caught off guard.

Scotty gave a grunt of satisfaction and stood up. "Candle wax," he announced. "And it leads through here." He pointed to a gap between two fluted columns, made by centuries of dripping water that had deposited countless grains of limestone.

Zircon immediately walked to the gap and peered through. "Come on," he said. "There's another cave beyond."

The next cave was larger, and nowhere in it was there evidence that man had occupied it. Rick looked around him, awed by the bizarre beauty of the place. From ceiling and floor limestone icicles strained toward each other. They were the stalact.i.tes and stalagmites Zircon had mentioned, formed over the centuries by slow drops of water, each of which left its tiny trace of limestone to help build up the formation. On one wall of the cave the water deposits had carved a waterfall, so perfect that it might have been frozen into white rock only moments before. And from every grain of stone their flashlight beams twinkled and reflected until it seemed the walls were crusted with jewels.

"More wax," Chahda called. He had found it near an irregular low opening in the cave wall, a tiny drop left by someone carrying a tallow candle.

Zircon went through the opening an inch at a time, on hands and knees.

The others followed, to find themselves in a cave almost identical to the one they had left, except for the stone waterfall. This cave, too, had walls broken in a number of places.

Rick and Zircon flashed their lights around, seeking the next step. Then Rick caught a quick glimpse of something red that moved! Quick as a flash he shifted his hand on the stock of his rifle, pointed it like a pistol, and fired. The red object vanished!

The thunderous echo of the shot reverberating through the cave drowned out his yell. He sprang through the entrance where he had seen the flash of red and found himself in still another cave. Scotty was right behind him.

"What is it?" Scotty demanded.

"I think it was a man," Rick said quickly. "He was wearing something red. Come on, he can't be very far from here."

"Which way?"

There was no way of telling which way the man had gone. There were a half dozen openings in the cave walls. Rick pointed at the two biggest.

"You take that one and I'll take this." Rifle ready and flashlight held in front of him, he ran through the break in the wall he had indicated.

Scotty hurried to the other.

If only they could get their hands on even one man, Rick thought, they might force him to serve as their guide! He pa.s.sed through another cave, choosing the biggest entrance on the opposite wall. As he went through it, he was certain he saw a movement, as though the quarry had just rounded a corner. He let out a yell and lengthened his stride. In a second he reached the corner, rounded it, and found himself in an odd cave with countless pillars, formed when stalact.i.tes from the ceiling and stalagmites from the floor had joined together. It was a veritable labyrinth. He started through it, got perhaps fifty feet, and stopped.

The man he had chased surely knew his way around the caves. There was no hope of overtaking him now. Better rejoin the others, Rick thought. It was senseless to get too far away from his companions.

He turned and started back, then hesitated, not sure of the way he had come. The corridors formed by the limestone pillars led in all directions.

"I must have come this way," he muttered, and started off. Then he stopped again, playing his light around. He couldn't be sure. Suddenly worried, he ran forward and was brought to a halt by a solid wall. He turned and hurried along it, seeking an opening. He found one, but smaller than the one through which he had come. He plunged on, found a big opening, and went through it into an irregular cave unlike any he had seen before. He turned to retrace his steps, and his eyes met a wall where the openings were separated only by glistening part.i.tions of limestone. He couldn't even be sure of the one through which he had just entered.

He licked lips that were suddenly dry. "I can't lose my head," he told himself sternly. "I've got to stay calm."

But in spite of his warnings to himself, he felt panic rising within him.

He was completely, hopelessly lost!

CHAPTER XVI

The Lake of Darkness

Rick sat with his back against the cold surface of a stalagmite column.

His head drooped with weariness and his throat ached from yelling. He had retraced his steps a dozen times or more. He had lost count. But none of the pa.s.sages took him back to his friends, nor had his yelling of their names brought a response.

He forced himself into a semblance of calmness and tried to think. What was he to do? He eyed the beam of his flashlight and realized that he ought to conserve the batteries. He turned it off, and dead, silent blackness closed in about him.

True blackness is rare. It cannot be found by closing shutters or curtains in a room, even at night. Some light always penetrates man-made rooms unless they are designed, as very few are, for total darkness.

Rick never had experienced it before, and it was frightening. He had to take a firm grip on himself to keep from getting panicky.

But if the underground caverns were completely without light, they were not completely without sound. As Rick sat quietly he began to hear the slow drip of water. It was the slow drip of centuries that had produced the weird limestone formations of the caves.

He began to talk quietly to himself, and the sound of his own voice was better than listening to the slow dripping of water.

"I can't stay here. The others wouldn't have any more chance of finding me than I have of finding them. But if I leave here, I'm taking a chance. I might go so deep into the caves that I'd never find my way out again, or see any of the others again."

He had visited some of the limestone caverns of Virginia, and he had read of the New York and Kentucky caverns. He knew that even in America there were endless series of caves that never had been fully explored.

This fabled Tibetan place might extend on forever.

"On the other hand," he continued to himself, "if I keep moving, I might stumble on the big cave under the Black Buddha again. It's less than a fifty-fifty chance. A whole lot less. But it's a chance and I'd better take it."

He didn't let himself think of what would happen if he failed to find his way back. He got to his feet and switched on his light again. By contrast with the total darkness, the reflection of the beam on the limestone walls was brilliant sunlight. He had to wait while his eyes adjusted themselves to the light. Then he flashed the beam around. There were pa.s.sages going in every direction.

"Which way do I go?" he asked himself.

It was a tossup. He remembered an old trick and spat into the palm of his hand. Then, with the forefinger of his other hand, he slapped the spittle sharply. The biggest drop flew between two limestone hour-gla.s.ses that formed one pa.s.sage. He hitched up the camera case on his shoulder, picked up his rifle, and started forward.

The caverns were endless. Walking slowly, to conserve his strength, he wandered through countless incredible rooms of gleaming stone. The dripping water had formed all manner of things. He saw animals, ships, mountain scenes, waterfalls, and cataracts, fairy grottoes, fish, distant houses ... all carved of shining stone by millions upon countless millions of water drops over centuries past number. He was so completely enthralled by the unearthly beauty of the place that he even forgot his predicament for a few moments.

And then he noticed that his flashlight was growing so weak that it no longer threw a clearly defined beam. It must have been getting weaker for some time, he thought, but his eyes had adjusted themselves to the failing light.

He looked at his watch, wondering that the flashlight batteries had run down so soon. The watch had run down, too, and had stopped. He couldn't remember. Had he wound it before coming to the cave? He was chilled now.

It was cold and damp in the limestone pa.s.sages. He shivered and pulled up his collar.

The panic rose up again. He didn't know how long he had been in the cave. Had it been only a short while, or so many hours that his watch had run down? He said to himself as calmly as he was able, "I'll have to get where I'm going before the light fails altogether."

He began to run.

The illusion grew that he was trying to overtake the end of the flashlight's beam. When he did catch up with it, that would be the end.

He had completely forgotten the infrared light on the camera, even though the case banged against his side as he ran. He had been carrying it for so long it had become a part of him.