where it had not showed before.
“Look,” said Mac, puzzled. “Whether Nellie was ever in here or not, we dinna know. But we do know that Smitty was in. The whole crew saw him come in. Now—where’s his body?”
Josh shook his head. It was quite a puzzle. The end of the bore should be blank rock at the point where the work had stopped. There was no way out there for a floating corpse. There was no place for it to float to but, eventually, back toward the entrance.
Yet there was no corpse in evidence. And surely this one should be big enough to see.
It was then that Josh saw the end of the fissure. The fissure was widening where it hit the top of the water and disappeared from sight.
The roof was still dripping from the slightly higher level of the water a short time before.
“The flood was higher, before we came in,” Josh observed. “It’s possible Smitty’s body jammed up through that fissure. I’ll go and see.”
“I’ll go!” said the Scot quickly.
“No. I’m thinner than you. I can go through a narrow place easier.”
“Whoosh!” complained Mac. “Ye’re just takin’ the dangerous part, that’s all.”
But Josh’s logic was unanswerable. So, biting his lips, with only his head above water, Mac saw the Negro draw a deep breath and disappear under water, swimming toward the unseen spot where the fissure probably widened.
So that made two who dove into the black depths—and didn’t come back. First Smitty, then Josh. For Josh did not reappear.
Mac watched with growing fear, as the minutes lengthened.
“Josh!” he yelled. “Josh!”
He dove in himself, and hunted for the broader part of the fissure in the roof. He couldn’t find it. He dove a score of times, and still couldn’t locate any such place.
Apparently the roof as well as the end wall was blank, with no place to admit a human body. Yet Josh was gone, seemingly through solid rock.
The reason Mac couldn’t find the broader part of the fissure was that the fissure, after extending under water so it couldn’t be seen anymore, turned almost at right angles. So the place where a body could go up was at least eight feet to the right of where you would expect it.
Mac hadn’t found it because his sense of direction was too good. He had dived too accurately for the place where the fissure should be—and wasn’t.
Josh had found it with the first groping upthrust of his hands, because he had gotten off-line and didn’t know it.
His hands had gone up into air, felt the sides of the fissure, and then his head had emerged.
He trod water and breathed air again, with his head stuck up through the crack in the tunnel roof. The air seemed plenty fresh. What had he blundered into? Was there another opening in the glass mountain, right above the line where the tunnel was being bored, that no one had known of till now? It looked like it. Josh began worming up the fissure to find out.
He was able to crawl up it, like a small bug up a crack in a thick floor, for fifteen feet or so. Then his bleeding hands felt the upper edge of it.
He pulled himself up—and instantly tentacles coiled around him with crushing force. He yelled once, then hadn’t the strength to yell any more. Utter horror filled him—grabbed like this by some vast monster in the heart of Mt. Rainod. But his yell saved him.
“Oh, it’s you, Josh,” the monster said. “Glad you sounded off. I thought you were one of the gang.”
Josh and Mac had come into the water-filled bore equipped with small phosphorus pellets, about the size of cherries, which were the refined and perfected products of Mac’s pharmaceutical laboratory. Their function was to glow when wet.
Josh took one of these from his dripping pocket and dropped it. It glowed like a little, cold lantern, revealing a small cavern that seemed to be merely an enlarged space in a tunnel of unguessable length, for there was a hole out of each end.
In the center of the space were Smitty and
“Look,” said Mac, puzzled. “Whether Nellie was ever in here or not, we dinna know. But we do know that Smitty was in. The whole crew saw him come in. Now—where’s his body?”
Josh shook his head. It was quite a puzzle. The end of the bore should be blank rock at the point where the work had stopped. There was no way out there for a floating corpse. There was no place for it to float to but, eventually, back toward the entrance.
Yet there was no corpse in evidence. And surely this one should be big enough to see.
It was then that Josh saw the end of the fissure. The fissure was widening where it hit the top of the water and disappeared from sight.
The roof was still dripping from the slightly higher level of the water a short time before.
“The flood was higher, before we came in,” Josh observed. “It’s possible Smitty’s body jammed up through that fissure. I’ll go and see.”
“I’ll go!” said the Scot quickly.
“No. I’m thinner than you. I can go through a narrow place easier.”
“Whoosh!” complained Mac. “Ye’re just takin’ the dangerous part, that’s all.”
But Josh’s logic was unanswerable. So, biting his lips, with only his head above water, Mac saw the Negro draw a deep breath and disappear under water, swimming toward the unseen spot where the fissure probably widened.
So that made two who dove into the black depths—and didn’t come back. First Smitty, then Josh. For Josh did not reappear.
Mac watched with growing fear, as the minutes lengthened.
“Josh!” he yelled. “Josh!”
He dove in himself, and hunted for the broader part of the fissure in the roof. He couldn’t find it. He dove a score of times, and still couldn’t locate any such place.
Apparently the roof as well as the end wall was blank, with no place to admit a human body. Yet Josh was gone, seemingly through solid rock.
The reason Mac couldn’t find the broader part of the fissure was that the fissure, after extending under water so it couldn’t be seen anymore, turned almost at right angles. So the place where a body could go up was at least eight feet to the right of where you would expect it.
Mac hadn’t found it because his sense of direction was too good. He had dived too accurately for the place where the fissure should be—and wasn’t.
Josh had found it with the first groping upthrust of his hands, because he had gotten off-line and didn’t know it.
His hands had gone up into air, felt the sides of the fissure, and then his head had emerged.
He trod water and breathed air again, with his head stuck up through the crack in the tunnel roof. The air seemed plenty fresh. What had he blundered into? Was there another opening in the glass mountain, right above the line where the tunnel was being bored, that no one had known of till now? It looked like it. Josh began worming up the fissure to find out.
He was able to crawl up it, like a small bug up a crack in a thick floor, for fifteen feet or so. Then his bleeding hands felt the upper edge of it.
He pulled himself up—and instantly tentacles coiled around him with crushing force. He yelled once, then hadn’t the strength to yell any more. Utter horror filled him—grabbed like this by some vast monster in the heart of Mt. Rainod. But his yell saved him.
“Oh, it’s you, Josh,” the monster said. “Glad you sounded off. I thought you were one of the gang.”
Josh and Mac had come into the water-filled bore equipped with small phosphorus pellets, about the size of cherries, which were the refined and perfected products of Mac’s pharmaceutical laboratory. Their function was to glow when wet.
Josh took one of these from his dripping pocket and dropped it. It glowed like a little, cold lantern, revealing a small cavern that seemed to be merely an enlarged space in a tunnel of unguessable length, for there was a hole out of each end.
In the center of the space were Smitty and
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