Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17 The snake slithered across the small room. Dan didn't think it looked happy about falling forty feet onto the floor. "Don't panic. Just let it go about its business," Shep said in a whisper. "I wouldn't dream of interfering," Nellie said, backing away. "In its venom is a neurotoxin that can cause paralysis," Dan said. "But it also contains a myotoxin. Which means it can break down your muscle tissue…" "We really don't need the details," Nellie said. "Can't we condense it to— don't let it bite ya?" The orange-brown snake made its way slowly toward the exit to the main tunnel. Its tongue flicked out and in. It must have been seven feet long. They held their breath as its head rose. But it just curled up and rested on the mine floor.

They'd have to step over it in order to get out. Shep reached out and picked up a hammer. "It'll move eventually. We can wait." Dan felt the familiar squeezing in his chest. His breath came out in a wheeze. He coughed, and Amy shot him a concerned look. "You okay?" "Okay." He could barely get the word out. "Dan! Your inhaler!" Nellie's voice was urgent. "It's in your pocket." He reached into his pocket. Stuffed in there was the packaging from a candy bar, a cool rock he'd found in Shep's garden, and a chunk of granola bar he was saving for later. He tugged, and the inhaler popped out, flew in the air, and landed on the mine floor. It rolled toward the snake. Everyone's heart seemed to stop. The only sound was Dan's labored breath. The inhaler stopped rolling just inches from the taipan. Dan's wheezing got worse, and his hands flew to his chest. "I'll get it," Nellie said.

"No." Shep's voice was quiet but rang with authority, and he was already moving. He kept the hammer cocked into position in case the snake struck. Shep walked closer. The snake's tongue flickered. Swiftly, Shep kicked the inhaler back toward Nellie. Then he jumped back as the snake moved. It slithered another inch or two, then stopped. Amy let out a shaky breath. Nellie knocked a spider off the inhaler with her shoe. Quickly, she handed it to Dan. He felt his lungs open. The rattling breathing eased. But his chest still felt tight. He still struggled. This was a bad one. There was so much dust in the air, and it wasn't helping his nerves to be in a cave full of poisonous creatures. He leaned over as black spots swarmed in his vision. Panic makes it worse, he told himself. "Just keep breathing, nice and slow, Dan-o," Nellie said. She turned to Shep. "We've got to get Dan out of here. He needs medical attention." Dan was scared that he didn't have the breath to say I'm okay.

A spider crawled up Amy's sneaker, and she yelped and jumped away. "It's all right, it's not poisonous," Shep told her. He called over to Nellie. "Get the toolbox. Careful, make sure there's nothing crawling in there." Gingerly, Nellie picked up the toolbox. She handed it to Shep. "Let's pay Ken a surprise visit," Shep said. "We just have to make a new door. Hang in there, Dan." He swung at the wall with the hammer. A chunk fell off onto the floor. "Hand me a hammer," Nellie said. "I'll help." "You two, keep your eyes on the taipan and the spiders," Shep said. "If they move this way, tell me." He bashed on the wall and it splintered into chunks. Nellie swung with powerful strokes. Within a few minutes, they had cleared a hole in the wall big enough to step through. Dan went first, and then one by one, they climbed into Ken's closet. Dan sat on the floor, struggling to breathe.

"He needs a doctor," Nellie said anxiously. "Call Jeff and tell him it's an emergency," Shep said. "And then tell him to call the police." By the time they reached the doctor, Dan was already feeling better. He was given a checkup and a warning to stay out of the opal mines. Dan agreed immediately. "That's the first time I've ever heard you say 'yes, sir' to an authority figure and mean it," Nellie said with a grin as they got back into Ken's car. She slung an arm around his shoulders and even kissed the top of his head, but Dan didn't mind. "Don't scare me like that again, dude," she said. "Or else." "Yeah," Amy added. "Maybe we should leave mines off our itinerary for awhile." She said the words lightly, but she still felt shaky from seeing her brother look so pale and sick. Ken wasn't happy when he took a peek in his spare room and found out he'd lost a wall in the closet. Not to mention that a number of deadly creatures lay on the other side. With the help of

some experts in Coober Pedy, the snake and the spiders were trapped and taken away. The police asked questions, but Dan and Amy had no answers. Shep couldn't seem to lose his worried frown. Finally, Jeff and Shep volunteered to take Ken down to the pub in order to calm him down. It had been one long day. But Amy was itching to research the initials they'd found on the leather envelope. After a quick dinner, she fired up Dan's laptop. "Okay," she said, her fingers poised over the keys. "What do we search for? Plugging in the letters RCH is going to get us exactly nowhere." "I think we should figure that the C maybe stands for Cahill?" Dan suggested. Amy nodded. "I was thinking the same thing. And if we can place him in Sydney in 1896, let's say he was at least in his twenties? So that means he was born somewhere around…" "The 1870s," Dan said. Amy opened a search engine. "Okay. Let's start with Robert Cahill something… just in case Bob was his real name. I'll try… Robert Cahill with