Hunter's Quest

Chapter Twenty-two

Kristie studied Jason's expression change as he contemplated the path ahead. "What is it?" she asked.

He shook his head and said, "We'd better get going. We have a cave to explore and I don't want to be coming back down this path in the dark."

There was more, but he seemed reluctant to talk about it. Worry for his friend weighed heavily on him and that might be all of it.

The shrubs disappeared as the path skirted a curve of the hill. On their right the land rose sharply above them, while on the left it fell off. The trail was a good three feet wide here, broad enough to let them walk comfortably with no serious danger of a fall, and there was another foot or so of underbrush between the edge of the path and the drop-off.

They rounded a rocky outcropping of the hill and were rewarded with an incredible panorama of the valley below. A river wound through the tree-encrusted gap. Slanting rays of sunlight skewed off the water in an odd, orangey glow. If they'd had time, Kristie would have enjoyed stopping to admire the view.

She looked up at Jason, ready to share her enthusiasm, and realized he wasn't enjoying it at all. He stayed close to the side of the path nearer the rising wall and didn't look out. From behind and to the side of him, she could see only the angle of his jaw and the tip of his nose, but even in that small bit of profile his tension showed. It was in the way he held his shoulders rigid as well.

Kristie remembered his reaction to being on the roof of his boarding house. He wouldn't admit his unhappiness about heights as she'd acknowledged her fear of bees. Nor was there anything she could do to help him past this. He'd make his way, doing what he had to and wouldn't ask for assistance or expect it. He had experience in facing things he was afraid of and going on.

They shouldn't be far from the cave opening now according to Meg's directions. Moving carefully, they rounded another rocky outcropping, ducking under an overhang, to find the cave's mouth immediately on their left. It was little more than a triangular slit in the rocky face of the hill, almost ten feet high but only three feet wide at the base.

Jason pulled a flashlight out of his waist pack and turned it on. Before they went in, he sent her a look that combined reassurance, warning, and hope. She nodded.

The air inside the cave was considerably cooler and damp, producing an uncomfortable, clammy feeling on her skin. She stayed close behind Jason, following the narrow beam of light once they were beyond the sunlight's reach. The passage narrowed as they proceeded, but not enough to squeeze them. The ceiling lowered, however, forcing Jason to stoop uncomfortably.

A hundred yards in, a passage branched off to the left. They stopped and debated, but agreed to keep to the main corridor until they found where it went. They could come back to the side passages later. They passed two more openings, although a quick shine of the flashlight showed one blocked by a rockslide just six feet in.

The trail kept going for a considerable distance, heading downward. Kristie started to worry about how far it would go and how difficult it might be to find their way back out.

She almost stumbled against him when Jason stopped abruptly. She looked around him. A couple of feet ahead the floor ended. The passage they followed was bisected by a cavern with a river running along its bottom. She crept forward and looked down. The water level was about fifteen feet below if she could judge distances correctly with only the flashlight's glow to provide the light. The cavern was ten feet wide and the passage continued, a little narrower, on the other side.

When she moved back from the edge, Jason swept the area with the flashlight's beam.

"Unless they've got a way to get across, that's it for this passage." His words echoed oddly off the stone walls.