CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Tom and Becky in the Cave

At first, Tom and Becky had walked with the other children around the rooms of the cave, but soon they'd become tired of playing with them and so they decided to walk to other parts on their own. When they found a little waterfall, Tom walked behind it and held his light there so Becky could see the water clearly. But while he was behind the waterfall, Tom found a hole that led to another part of the cave he'd never seen before. When he told Becky about this she seemed interested, so he put a mark on the wall to help them find their way back and they started down into the hole. As they walked, Tom kept making marks on the wall. Soon they found themselves in a large room with bats hanging from the ceiling. As soon as they entered, the bats started flying about, screaming. Tom and Becky ran into a smaller room to get away. In here was a small pool of water.

Sitting by the pool, they started to realize just how quiet the cave had become. Becky said:

"I haven't heard any of the other children for a while now."

"We're pretty far below them now, so we shouldn't be able to hear them."

"Do you think we can find our way back, Tom?"

"I think so, but I don't want to see those bats again. Let's try another way."

"OK, but let's not get lost!"

As they started to walk again, they didn't seem to recognize any of the rooms they entered. Becky became very frightened and started crying.

Tom shouted, but there was no reply. The quiet made Becky even more frightened. And even Tom now became afraid.

"Let's just go back through the room full of bats. If we keep going this way, we'll just get lost."

But Tom said, "I'm so stupid, Becky! Ever since we started walking again, I haven't made any marks on the walls."

"Oh no, Tom, we're lost! We're going to die in this horrible cave! We should never have left the others!"

She fell to the floor crying loudly. Tom sat down next to her and hugged her, trying to calm her down. He apologized to her for not being more careful. But she admitted that it was just as much her fault as it was his. They began walking again, and as they did, they talked about their friends, school, their families, and the sunlight. They started to walk again. Each had a light. Now they decided to use only one light, and to save the other. Becky cried so much that she soon became tired and laid down to sleep for a while. Once she had finally fallen asleep and stopped crying, Tom started to feel a little better.

An hour later, when she woke up, Tom saw that she was going to cry again, but before she did, he said to her, "Don't worry, I'm going to get you out of this cave. Just follow me."

Though she started walking again with Tom, she didn't really believe that he would succeed in finding the way out.

After another hour had passed Becky said,

"Tom, I wish we had something to eat!"

Luckily, Tom had put some cake in his pocket earlier at the picnic. He broke it in half and gave one piece to her. Tom took Becky's hand after she'd finished eating and said to her:

"Now, I don't want you to worry too much, but we're almost out of light. So, we should stay here by the water."

Becky began to cry again, but suddenly stopped to say, "Surely the village people will look for us. Maybe they're looking right now as we speak."

"Of course, when your mother realizes you haven't come home she'll have everyone looking for you."

Becky started crying again. "Oh, Tom! She won't notice anything for at least another day, because I was supposed to stay at the Harper's after the picnic!"

And just after she had said this, their light went out and they both sat crying in the quiet darkness. After a while, they both fell asleep. When they awoke, they realized that they now were losing track of time. Not only did they not know the hour, but also they didn't even know which day it was. Tom guessed that it was Sunday. Becky didn't even try to guess; she just sat in the darkness as if she were waiting to die.

Soon they were hungry again. Tom took some of the small crumbs of cake that remained in his pocket and gave half to Becky.

As they ate, a shout was suddenly heard from far away. Tom jumped to his feet and started shouting back. Then there was another distant shout. Tom pulled Becky up and they began trying to walk toward the shouting, but soon they found that they couldn't walk any further, because the path ended. If they hadn't been careful, they could have fallen down the edge of the rock to their deaths. Now the shouting started to move farther and farther away until it could no longer be heard.

Sadly, they returned to the pool of water and waited, hoping other shouts would be heard. They slept again and when they woke up they found that they were again very hungry.

Tom decided to look around a bit. He thought that just sitting there and waiting for someone to find them was a bad idea. He took some string from his pocket and tied one end of it around a rock near the pool. Then with the other end of the string in one hand and Becky's hand in the other, he started to explore the area. A few minutes later, Tom found a hole in the floor. He then lay down and tried looking through the hole. But as soon as he put his head down inside he immediately saw a hand appear just next to his face. The hand was carrying a light and behind the hand suddenly appeared the face of Indian Joe! Tom didn't move; he just stared straight ahead with his eyes as wide as they could get. Luckily, Indian Joe was equally frightened by seeing someone, so he ran away.

Tom got back on his feet, and pretended that he hadn't seen anything special. He suggested that they return to the pool and rest for a while. Later on, after he had calmed down from his encounter with Indian Joe, Tom wanted to start looking around again.

But Becky was weak now from hunger. She asked Tom to promise to come back after he'd looked and hold her a while before she died. Tom kissed her and promised that he would. Then he got to his feet, and with the string in his hand, began again his search for a way out.

(end of section)