Randy found an opening in the dense3 underbrush ahead of them. Jill and Ted4 followed him and his flashlight beam along the trail. Suddenly they saw him stop dead in his tracks. Ted walked abreast5 of him.
“What do you see?” Ted asked.
226
Randy did not reply but instead shot his light ahead into the darkness. Ted saw before them a huge cave entrance.
“I don’t know,” Randy answered in a quivery voice. “It seems like a good place to stay if it isn’t.”
Jill had joined them by now. She too had taken some of the load of the spare oxygen cartridges6.
“Are we going into that spooky place?” Jill asked.
“We can go up to it carefully and shine our light in,” Ted said. “But we’d better be ready to run if something comes charging out! I wish I had that gun now!”
Jill hung back as Randy and Ted moved stealthily forward toward the black cavern7 entrance. Randy had his light shining directly into it all the time they were moving. When they were at the threshold of the cave, they got a good view of the interior.
“It’s not deep at all!” Ted said. “It just goes back a little way.”
227
“Let’s go inside and see if there’s anything lying around,” Ted suggested. “If it’s a den, there ought to be bones and things.”
Cautiously they entered the cavern. Its ceiling reached high over their heads and the opening was festooned with trailing vines and creepers. Even the jungle growth seemed to have taken over, weeds and thick grass choking the floor. Boulders10 of all sizes were scattered11 around.
“It looks like it hasn’t been used for years and years,” Ted commented.
They flashed the light over the whole interior, but there was no sign of recent use. There was one other exit—a narrow passage at the rear.
“If we close up that rear opening with a big stone, it ought to be safe for us to stay here,” Randy said.
Ted agreed with him. They called Jill, and the three shoved a large red boulder9 in front of the narrow passage. They divided watches again, but before relaxing for the night, they replaced their air cartridges with new ones.
228
Randy took first watch this time. Ted was very tired from their exhausting race and had trouble falling asleep, but the next thing he knew, Randy was shaking him to change watch.
The rest of the night passed without further disturbance13. The boys got softhearted about calling on Jill for her turn, and rather than wake her, they stood her duty. Another change of air cylinders14 had to be made before morning. Ted was able to change Jill’s while she slept.
The orange glow of dawn was a welcome sight to the children. Things did not seem half so grim in the dawn as they had the night before. The sun’s feeble rays shone directly into the cave mouth. The boulder covering the rear opening was still in place.
Ted caught Randy’s eyes staring thoughtfully at the boulder. He wondered if Randy was thinking the same thing that he was: What was on the other side of that mysterious opening?
“Hadn’t we better be getting back to the open place?” Jill asked, as they were putting on fresh air tanks again.
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“The search party won’t be coming until a few hours yet,” Randy said. “Besides, it’s not very far.”
Ted knew then that Randy, too, was curious about the opening. He was stalling their return.
Ted then came right out with it. “I’d sure like to know what’s on the other side of that rock.”
“Why don’t we go and see?” Randy said eagerly.
“We could go just a little way,” Ted added, glancing at Jill, whose face showed doubt. “Just a few feet even.”
Jill gave in grudgingly15, but she got the boys to promise that they wouldn’t go far. “Don’t forget, we’ve got some food back there,” she reminded them, “and I’m getting hungry.”
They left the air cartridges in the cave and walked through the enticing16 opening, Ted in the lead. He flicked17 on his flashlight, for it was pitch dark. Ahead of him he saw a narrow passageway. Slowly he moved along it, Randy and Jill right behind him.
230
They felt themselves tumbling downward.
231
They were completely unprepared for the shock that next came to them. Suddenly the ground dropped away under their feet, and they felt themselves tumbling downward!
All three of them cried out in terror as they fell. Finally Ted felt his body striking a cushioned surface. Then he was rolling down an incline of the same soft material. Down, down, head over heels he went—deeper and deeper into the core of the red planet, it seemed.
At last his body stopped turning. Something crashed into him from behind. Then he heard heavy breathing and gasping18 and he knew that it was either Randy or Jill who had collided with him.
“Yes,” Randy’s voice came weakly.
“Jill!” Ted cried. “Where are you?”
“Here I am,” she answered, from a few feet away. “What happened to us?”
“I don’t know,” her brother answered dully. He felt around for broken bones, but he appeared to be uninjured.
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“Are you two all right?” he asked Jill and Randy.
They said they thought so. By now Ted could see their forms very faintly. There was light coming from somewhere. Their next task was to try to find a way out of this dismal20 place.
“I knew we should have gone back!” Jill complained bitterly. “Now we probably never will!”
“I’m sorry, Sis,” Ted said lamely21. “You were right. I’m sure glad we changed our air tanks before we left!”
“Let’s start looking for a way to the top,” Randy said. “The search party will never find us down here.”
They discovered that the flashlight had been smashed in the fall. They would have to depend now on catlike vision to show them the way. As nearly as Ted could make out, they were still in a corridor. It stretched mysteriously ahead of them, turning a bend about fifty feet away.
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“That seems to be the only way we can go,” Ted said, looking forward. “We certainly can’t climb back up the way we came down.” He looked behind at the steep, rugged22 incline they had so unexpectedly tumbled down. The slope was covered with a matting of lichens23 or moss24 that had broken their fall.
They walked along the corridor. Finally the light at the far end began to get brighter.
“It looks like daylight ahead!” Jill said hopefully.
They increased their pace in the hope of finding a way leading back to the surface of the ground. They made a final turn in the winding25 underground aisle26. Then the corridor abruptly27 blossomed into a mammoth28 open area, still underground.
The sight that faced them quickened their heartbeats and made their mouths sag12 open in amazement29. Before them stood a towering iron gate, through which they could see evidence of one-time human habitation!
“What in the world have we found?” Ted exclaimed.
“It must be a city!” Randy burst out. “It is! We’ve found an underground Martian city!”
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1
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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den
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| n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室 | |
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dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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ted
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| vt.翻晒，撒，撒开 | |
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abreast
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| adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地 | |
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cartridges
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| 子弹( cartridge的名词复数 )； （打印机的）墨盒； 录音带盒； （唱机的）唱头 | |
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7
cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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9
boulder
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| n.巨砾；卵石，圆石 | |
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boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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11
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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12
sag
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| v.下垂，下跌，消沉；n.下垂，下跌，凹陷，[航海]随风漂流 | |
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disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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14
cylinders
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| n.圆筒( cylinder的名词复数 )；圆柱；汽缸；（尤指用作容器的）圆筒状物 | |
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grudgingly
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enticing
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| adj.迷人的；诱人的 | |
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flicked
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| （尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的过去式和过去分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等） | |
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gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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shuddery
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dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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lamely
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| 一瘸一拐地，不完全地 | |
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rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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23
lichens
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| n.地衣( lichen的名词复数 ) | |
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moss
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| n.苔，藓，地衣 | |
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winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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26
aisle
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| n.（教堂、教室、戏院等里的）过道，通道 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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28
mammoth
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| n.长毛象；adj.长毛象似的，巨大的 | |
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amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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