ions of water drops over centuries past number. He was so
completely enthralled by the unearthly beauty of the place that he even
forgot his predicament for a few moments.

And then he noticed that his flashlight was growing so weak that it no
longer threw a clearly defined beam. It must have been getting weaker
for some time, he thought, but his eyes had adjusted themselves to the
failing light.

He looked at his watch, wondering that the flashlight batteries had run
down so soon. The watch had run down, too, and had stopped. He couldn't
remember. Had he wound it before coming to the cave? He was chilled now.
It was cold and damp in the limestone passages. He shivered and pulled
up his collar.

The panic rose up again. He didn't know how long he had been in the
cave. Had it been only a short while, or so many hours that his watch
had run down? He said to himself as calmly as he was able, "I'll have to
get where I'm going before the light fails altogether."

He began to run.

The illusion grew that he was trying to overtake the end of the
flashlight's beam. When he did catch up with it, that would be the end.
He had completely forgotten the infrared light on the camera, even
though the case banged against his side as he ran. He had been carrying
it for so long it had become a part of him.

He dodged through passages, rounded turns, leaped over stalagmites. Once
he had to crawl on his hands and knees under water-smooth limestone,
pushing his rifle ahead of him.

And all the time he was catching up to the end of the light. The radius
of illumination narrowed as the batteries failed, increasing the danger
of stumbling into a sudden crevice. Outside, the flashlight would have
been rejected long ago as a source of light. But far underground, with
no other light of any kind, it was still useful.

Running more slowly now, at a stumbling dogtrot, he broke into a cave
larger than any he had seen since the first one, at the end of the
passage from the Black Buddha. The feeble light failed to reach the
opposite wall.

Rick stopped, panting for breath. He knew he had to rest. He found a
natural seat next to a twisted pillar of limestone and sat down.

The light slowly faded until there was only the dimmest of red tints to
the bulb, and then that vanished too, and he was again in total
darkness. As he watched the light fade, he remembered the infrared. Now
he got the glasses from the case and put them on. He took the cam