Rusty kneeled by the edge of the pit and shouted down into the darkness. “Cedric! Are you all right?”
There was no reply. Rusty lowered his torch as far down as he could, trying to see to the bottom of the pit, but the hole was evidently very, very deep. In spite of Rusty’s torch, the bottom was swallowed in darkness, and there was not even the flicker of light from Cedric’s torch below.
“Is he…?” Andy started. But he knew the answer before he even finished his sentence. There was no possible way anyone could survive such a fall.
The group lowered their heads. Even Bartlemore, whom Andy hadn’t noticed before, seemed at a loss for words. Betty and Dotty went over to Rusty and, in a very rare show of affection, wrapped their arms around him. Rusty looked overcome by grief.
Andy thought back to when he’d first met the highly educated man at his grandfather’s funeral. Cedric had been really friendly and had even gifted Andy with a jar of crocodile teeth, a cure for some mysterious malady only he seemed to know.
He’d been a good man, and even though Andy hadn’t known him very well, he immediately felt the loss. It seemed impossible to believe that one minute Cedric had been there, and the next he hadn’t. It had happened so fast!
Andy glanced over at Abigail and noticed how shaken she looked. He wished he had something to give her, like the comforting peppermint that she’d offered him, but he didn’t have anything. Instead, he moved closer to her and, after taking a deep breath, reached over and held her hand. Abigail looked startled at first. But she returned his gentle grip with a thankful squeeze.
They stood that way for a few minutes before Rusty announced in a hoarse voice that it was time to move forward. As a precaution, he suggested that everyone feel ahead in the darkness with anything they could find to test for traps. The conjoined twins tapped lightly with their katanas. Rusty had a hiking stick and waved it cautiously over the pathway ahead, scraping it gently on the floor. Because Andy and Abigail were in the middle of the pack, they weren’t as vulnerable. But just to be safe, Andy took out a rope from his bag. He offered one end to Abigail and tied the other around his waist.
“That way if one of us falls, the other has a chance to save them,” he said.
Abigail agreed and tied the end around her own waist.
The group moved even more cautiously now that they’d seen what terrible traps were in store for them. And if the going was slow, Andy didn’t mind too much. The phrase “better safe than sorry” had more meaning to him than ever now.
The tunnel twisted and turned, and several times the group was forced to choose between passages. Along the way they discovered three more of the hidden pits. Thankfully, due to their constant vigilance, nobody fell in. But each time they found one, they were all reminded of poor Cedric, and it cast a gloom over the expedition.
To Andy, it seemed like no matter which path they chose, they continued to head steadily downward. The lower they went, the closer and clammier the air grew. Andy shivered and zipped up the front of his leather flight jacket. As he continued to walk, he couldn’t keep the images of giant cobwebs out of his mind. The downward slope felt like a spiral that was drawing him closer and closer to something monstrous, like a spider lurking in the center of its lair.
After about two hours of walking, Rusty called for a halt. Andy was relieved to slip off the straps of his pack and give his aching shoulders a break. After untying the rope that he and Abigail shared, he slumped to the ground. As Andy sat down, he glanced behind him and noticed that Bartlemore and his cameraman were no longer with them. “Has anyone seen Bartlemore?” he asked.
The others turned to him with surprised expressions. They’d been so intent on watching out for pitfalls, nobody had even noticed that he wasn’t following them.
“He probably got lost in one of the side tunnels,” Rusty grunted. “Good riddance, I say.”
But Andy didn’t know how to feel about his disappearance. What if he’d fallen down a pit, like Cedric? He couldn’t remember exactly when he’d stopped hearing the sound of Charlie’s camera crank and Bartlemore’s footsteps.
He told me to leave him a trail marker, Andy thought. But now that it had come to it, he didn’t know whether he should. Rusty had seemed truly upset over Cedric’s disappearance. Would a traitor to the Jungle Explorers’ Society have felt that way? What if Bartlemore was wrong and the traitor was somebody else?
Andy wished he had his Zoomwriter pen. He could have used the wireless communication setting to send a telegraph to his grandfather and let him know that he needed help! He felt a renewed sense of loss at having left the valuable pen behind and smacked the side of his leg in frustration.
Abigail noticed and asked, “Something wrong?”
“I wish I still had my pen,” Andy replied miserably.
Abigail looked surprised. “You lost it?”
Andy nodded. “Back at the place we landed, where I missed the plane. I left it on the counter in the store.”
Abigail gave him a sympathetic look. “I’m sorry, Andy. I know how much that pen meant to you.”
Andy’s eyes burned, but he forced himself not to cry. “It’s just that Bartlemore’s missing and I don’t know what to do. Remember what I told you? About you-know-who being a spy?”
Andy gestured at Rusty with a tilt of his head.
Abigail shrugged and whispered, “I still say that Bartlemore was off his rocker about all that. Besides, he might just be lost in a nearby tunnel. It’s really a blessing in disguise. Ned
