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He switched the direction of the screw again and took them carefully forward, nosing the Mary Lee closer to the dark, shining surface of the cave wall.
What he saw there made him start with surprise.
“Hey—there’s an opening!” he exclaimed.
“Of course there is!” Ellie returned. “What do you think I’ve been looking at?”
The narrow crack in the wall of the cave would have been easy to miss. A dark ribbon of water ran into it. The mixed currents made little whirlpool eddies on the surface.
Ellie climbed to her feet, balancing her boots on the plank. She raised the lantern up over her head and strained as though trying to make herself taller.
She was definitely going to end up in the drink.
“There!” she announced triumphantly.
She pointed at a curve of stone near the roof of the cave. Adam squinted at it, curiosity overcoming caution as he moved the boat even closer.
Three divots marred the otherwise smooth surface of the rock—two side-by-side with a third below.
“It’s a face,” Ellie declared.
“Is it?” Adam returned skeptically as he frowned up at the dots.
“Bates, this is clearly not natural. Look at the depth and the angles of the markings. They were chipped away using a harder material.” Ellie gazed up at the rough, almost human visage that gaped out from the wall. Her voice was tight with excitement. “Someone has been here before!”
?
Sixteen
Ellie hopped backdown to the deck and waited in silence as Adam studied the markings above the tunnel. They were clearly man-made… weren’t they? Admittedly, she was looking at them from four feet below—but when she shifted the position of her lamp, the hollows deepened, looking even more like a visage challenging them from the stone.
There had to be something worth investigating in the tunnel. The markings were clear evidence of site use, probably ritual in purpose. Why else would they be there?
Ellie itched with the need to investigate it.
Bates’s expression wasn’t promising. He eyed the divots a little grimly.
Ellie’s heart sank a bit, but she rallied against it.
“I know it’s risky to enter an unknown cave system without the proper equipment,” she hurriedly offered. “At the very least, we should have ropes and chalk, and perhaps a climbing harness. I recognize that there wouldn’t be any time for a legitimate survey of the interior—not if we’re to reach our own destination before the rains arrive. When I say it all aloud, I can hear that it all sounds a bit foolish, but—”
“You wanna go anyway,” Bates filled in quietly.
She did. She wanted to go terribly badly. The need was so intense that she had to take a breath to brace herself against it.
“It’s only that I’ve never actually been so close to something like this before,” she admitted.
Bates looked down at her. His expression was uncharacteristically serious.
“I just don’t want you to be disappointed.”
His words sounded a little bit like a warning… but they also weren’t a refusal.
Ellie’s hope sparked irresistibly, dancing around in her chest.
“I can assure you, I’m quite capable of moderating my expectations,” she promised.
She waited, burning with impatience but holding her tongue, as she sensed that to press him further wouldn’t help her cause.
