“Now, you’re going to get it!” Artem whispered, his heart beating wildly.
The charges lay on the ground, spewing smoke. The priests recoiled, but then an unexpected thing happened, something the explorers would never think was possible: one of the priests bent forward quickly, snatched one of the charges from the ground, straightened up, and with a wide sweep of his arm, hurled it back behind the rock barrier separating the explorers’ hiding place from the rest of the ledge!
“Look!” Lida screamed.
The explorers’ weapon had been turned against them! Petrified with terror, they watched the same priest stoop over to pick up the other charge. But this time, he did not manage to throw it back at the strangers — the charge went off, flashing red flames, shaking the mountain and sending pieces of rocks and priests flying down the slope in a cloud of black smoke…
But what happened to the charge that had been thrown back at the strangers by the priest?
They saw the charge fly over their heads, as the priest had thrown it too hard. It fell somewhere behind them among the rocks. They could not see the place where it landed; only a thin wisp of smoke indicated its location. A moment later it exploded thunderously in wliat seemed a more powerful explosion than all the previous ones.
And lo and behold: the crags wavered and…
Eyes wide with horror, the explorers gaped at the terrible change the explosion had wrought in the mountain: immense masses of rock, now unbalanced, were about to collapse and bury them under thousands of tons of stone.
Then the rocks began to fall! First they wavered, then moved slowly as though sliding apart, and then suddenly, they crashed down, falling onto the ledge a short distance from the explorers, and breaking into thousands of pieces, showering them with stones.
The explosion not only disturbed the balance of the rocks on the face of the mountain, it caused some shifting of the stone below the surface.
As the explorers watched in awe, a crack opened in the face of the cliff. The cliff seemed to have been cleft in two by a deep black gap that widened before their very eyes. The two huge rocks that flanked the gap on either side began moving inwards as though pushed by an invisible gigantic hand; as their tops met, the immense slabs stopped, keeping all other rocks from sliding down. The gap looked very much like the mouth of a cave.
Ivan Semenovich looked around, and to his great consternation and dismay, he heard the battle cry of the priests. Apparently they had not been intimidated by the terrible explosions and falling rocks. It could only mean that the priests figured it was better to risk storming the ledge and to face all the hazards awaiting them there, both natural and supernatural, than to fall into the hands of the insurgents burning with vengeance. The explorers were virtually defenseless now — Artem had only one charge left; and there was no one to help them. By the time Ronis’s men got here, everything would be over… So, there was no option left but…
“My friends!” Ivan Semenovich shouted. “Follow me! Follow me!”
And he rushed to the gap — whatever awaited them there in the bowels of the mountain was better than the prospect of being seized by the bloodthirsty priests, seething with rage.
It seemed to Artem as he started to run that the great slabs flanking the gap were tottering. He stopped for a moment to get a better look. Yes, they were definitely sliding!
There was nothing else to do but hope they would not collapse for another minute, but, of course, they could give way under the immense weight of the other rocks pressing on them from above, any moment, either squashing the explorers or closing the gap.
“Quickly! Quickly! The rocks can fall in any moment!” Ivan Semenovich shouted.
But his friends hardly needed any urging. Dmitro Borisovich and Lida ran right behind the geologist, with Artem who carried the bag and a spear, bringing up the rear, Diana at his side. They raced as fast as their legs would carry them, jumping over big pieces of rock. Quickly!
A moment later they were inside the gap; they had disappeared into the darkness as though they had been swallowed up by it. They were not a moment too soon, as another party of priests had scrambled onto the ledge. Howling wildly and brandishing their weapons in a frenzy, they rushed after the strangers. But the latter had already made it through the gap into what turned out to be a cave. But which way should they go in this pitch-black darkness? The only source of light was the gap through which they had come in. And the enemy would be there in a few seconds! Ivan Semenovich was the first to stop as he ran smack into a stone wall, hurting his leg. It was impossible, quite impossible to move quickly in this utter darkness which seemed especially impenetrable after the light outside, subdued though it was. And the enemy would surely find some way of locating the explorers in the limited space of the cave!
Still out of breath after running, Ivan Semenovich said between gasps:
“Artem… give me… give me… the charges…”
“But 1 have only one left, Ivan Semenovich!”
“All right… give it to me… And all of you… move on… further away from the gap… I’ll stay behind for a while.”
“But…” Artem began to object, but was silenced by the angry and peremptory voice of the geologist who snapped: “Move on, I tell you! None of your lip! Move on!”
He snatched the charge from Artem’s hands, turned, and ran back toward the gap through which the voices of their pursuers could be already heard. Ivan Semenovich stopped, lit a match and put it to the fuse. As it began to smoke, the geologist looked back, but his friends were not to be seen in the blackness of the cave. Then, with a wide sweep of his arm, lie cast the charge into the gap. He followed it with his eyes as it flew — a little black thing with a tiny dot of fire at its end, then he turned and ran to catch up with his friends.
A few moments later the blast wave hit him in the back, almost knocking him down. He ran on under the impetus, stumbling against stones, and at last he tripped on a rock and fell.
The continuous thunder of crashing rocks filled the cave. The light that filtered through the gap, disappeared as the two gigantic stone slabs fell in the swirling billows of black smoke and dust; the gap was completely sealed with rocks falling from above, now that the slabs holding them back and supporting them were gone. A huge pile of stones grew at the place where only a short while ago, there had been a gaping crack.
The cave the explorers had found themselves in, was securely cut off the Scythian world. There was no more danger of being attacked by the priests. The deafening noise of the falling rocks subsided; only the reverberating echo could still be heard dying away, and an occasional stone clacking as it rolled down.
Soon everything grew absolutely still; not a sound could be heard from the outside either. An impenetrable darkness enveloped Ivan Semenovich.
He scrambled to his feet, wiped the sweat from his brow, and heaved a sigh of relief. But which way was he to go to join his friends?
It was quite futile to try to see anything in the darkness — he could not see his hand in front of his face. Where were his friends? Hopefully they were not hurt in the explosion or in the subsequent avalanche of rocks and stones.
Suddenly a bright white flame sprung up somewhere in the distance. It must be a miner’s lamp! Ivan Semenovich remembered Artem boasting he had managed to preserve one lamp through all their tribulations. So, if he still had it in the bag Ivan Semenovich had seen him running with, he must have lit it, good boy!
The light made it possible to see some of the surrounding rocks. Even the first look revealed they were not just the usual jagged pieces of stone — they were conical-shaped stalagmites rising from the floor of the cave. And yes, some gigantic stalactites could be discerned hanging from above! Another stalactite cavern? Or was it, by any chance, the same one they had come through before their fantastic adventures had begun?