Bailey and the Santa Fe Secret by Linda McQuinn Carlblom Page B

better in complete darkness.”
    Elizabeth tucked her phone in her pocket. Hand in hand, the girls walked along the rocked-in mouth of the mine.
    “I don’t see any light anywhere, do you?” Bailey asked.
    “Unfortunately, no.” Beth sighed.
    “I know! Let’s back up and look from further away,” Bailey suggested. “Maybe we’re just too close to it to see it shining through.”
    The girls linked arms and stepped about ten paces back, then started walking the distance of the wall again. Bailey tried so hard to see something that she started seeing weird colors in front of her eyes.
    “There!” Elizabeth said. “I think I see something.”
    “Where?”
    “I’m pointing to it.” Elizabeth put Bailey’s hand on her arm and had her follow it to her pointing finger. “Put your head by mine and look down my arm.”
    Bailey did as she was told, her eyes following where she felt Elizabeth’s finger pointing. There it was—a tiny pinpoint of light between two rocks.
    “I see it!” Bailey squeezed Elizabeth’s arm. “Now let’s walk toward it, not taking our eyes off it until we’re there.”
    Gingerly, they made their way to the speck of light, wire in hand.
    “It’s up higher than I thought,” Elizabeth said, as they approached. “I hope we’ll be able to reach it.”
    As they got closer, the light disappeared.
    “It’s up too high!” Bailey said. “We can’t even see it when we’re this close.”
    “Okay,” Elizabeth said. “We just need to back up and find it again. Then one of us will stay back here and the other will have to go toward it.”
    “But we can’t even see each other!”
    “I’ll turn on my phone and light up the mine long enough to see which way you need to go, and I’ll direct you toward it,” Elizabeth said. “We’ll see if you can climb up the rock wall and stick the wire through it.”
    “It’s worth a try,” Bailey said.
    The two backed up to where they could spot the tiny dot of light. “There it is.” Elizabeth flipped open her phone and turned it in Bailey’s direction. “Now you walk until you get to the rocks.”
    Bailey followed her friend’s instructions, darkness surrounding her as she moved farther from Elizabeth’s phone light. Hands outstretched, she soon felt the cool rocks. “I’m there.”
    “Start climbing. I’ll tell you which way to go.”
    Bailey put the wire in her mouth so she’d have both hands free for climbing. Elizabeth closed her phone for a second to see the pinpoint of light better. Then she opened it again to spot Bailey on the wall. “Move a little to your right. You’re almost right underneath it,” she instructed. “You’ll need to climb up about three feet.”
    Bailey thought of Elan scaling Puye Cliff.
This should be nothing compared to that
. Placing her foot on a rock she couldn’t see, she felt for a place to grab with her right hand. She moved her other foot up to another rock and then reached for a handhold with her left hand. Little by little she moved higher.
    Elizabeth shone the phone light. “You’re there! It’s just above your head. Stick the wire in!”
    Holding on to a rock with her left hand, Bailey took the wire from her mouth with her right hand and felt for the hole. She poked over and over, only to feel the wire hit hard rock. “I can’t find it, Beth! And I can’t hold on much longer.”
    Suddenly, another low rumble began, and Bailey heard a strange creaking. She climbed down a few feet, then jumped from the wall and ran to where she hoped Elizabeth was. The ground began to shake and roll. Dirt and rocks fell around them, and Bailey heard rocks from the mine entrance shift. Frantically pawing the air to find her friend, she yelled, “Beth!”
    “I’m here!” Their hands swept the air until they found one another. Huddling together, they covered their heads with their arms. Seconds later, the trembling stopped and the mine was silent. Bailey and Elizabeth slowly unfolded themselves