Chapter 17

CHAPTER 17 "Are you out of your mind?" Dan spun around. In the setting sun, he saw Nellie in silhouette. With her current hairstyle, she looked like a tiny stegosaurus mounted on a human body. "He winked," Dan said. "Meaning it's okay to do this." "You are out of your mind," Nellie said. "He winked because he likes your sister. Amy is being held captive by the mad chess fiend of South Africa." Dan looked over her shoulder. Through the window he could see the older man was chatting, fixing something on a stove, while Amy and Kurt sat playing chess. When they weren't looking at the board, they were sneaking glances at each other.

"They're perfect together," Dan said. "And he was exaggerating about this mine. These guys get all nervous about this stuff for insurance reasons." "Do you even know what that means?" Nellie asked. "No," Dan said. "But hey, it's been here since the eighteen-hundreds, right?" Nellie thought a moment. Then she reached around, unhooked her backpack, and pulled out a flashlight. "Take this. If I hear one pebble come loose, I pull you up for safety reasons. Duck down into the shaft. Do not fall. If you find something written on the wall, I will help you write it down. If you don't, that's it. We're out of here. Got it?" Dan grabbed the flashlight. "You are awesome." "I know. Now hurry." Dan ran toward the shack and darted around back. In the center of a fenced-in area was a wide hole with the top of a frayed rope ladder bolted to the rim. He gulped. "This ladder is looking a little vintage." Nellie peered over. "Okay, Plan B. You lean over and look. That's it. I'll hold your legs. Hurry!"

"Right." For a moment Dan froze. The last time he was in a mine, in Coober Pedy, Australia, he had encountered poisonous spiders and a deadly snake. Not to mention asthma. You're not actually going in, he told himself. Just dipping down a little. Swallowing hard, Dan got on all fours at the edge of the hole. He could feel Nellie's hands gripping his ankles as he flicked on the flashlight. The hole was wide enough for one person. The walls were slick, as if painted with shellac. The rope ladder hung down, disappearing into nothingness and swaying slowly on the current of some invisible breeze. An acrid, vaguely rotten stench wafted upward. My fetid hidey hole in Witbank's mines… Churchill had written. "What do you see?" Nellie hissed. "Hold tight," Dan said. The rock walls were rough and pocked, and a jagged crack ran down the opposite side. Dan thought he could spot some writing, but it was just the accumulation of gravelly dirt on a narrow

ledge. "I hear something!" Nellie said. "Make it fast!" Nada. Dan exhaled. It was too dark, too much pressure. "Beam me up, Scotty," he said. The words caught in his mouth. His flashlight was angled inward now, shining on the wall just below him. And there, carefully carved into the rock about four feet directly underneath him, were several lines of writing. "Wait! I got it!" Dan cried. "Lower me a little! I see something!" Nellie inched forward. Dan sank lower into the shaft. Pebbles shook loose from the rim and rained downward into the hole— into silence. Dan never heard them reach bottom. Dan squinted, reaching down with the flashlight to the writing on the wall. It was too hard to read. A rubbing. That would do the trick. "Pull me up!" Dan said. In a moment, Dan was over the edge of the

hole. "Okay, Nellie, I need to go back down, this time with a sheet of paper and pencil. There's writing down there, and I can get it by rubbing it." "Now I know you're crazy," she said. "Checkmate!" Amy's voice echoed from the hut, followed by a laugh from the old man and a playful moan from Kurt. "We have a few more minutes," Dan said. "He's going to ask for a rematch." "How do you know?" "It's a guy thing!" Nellie sighed. Rummaging around in Dan's pack, she pulled out a pencil and a notebook, ripping out a sheet. "Okay, but be quick." Maneuvering the light, the pencil, and the paper wasn't going to be easy. "I'll need spares," he said. "In case I drop something." With a look of exasperation, Nellie tore off more sheets and found two other pencils. Dan stuffed them into his pants pocket and held on to the originals. Clasping the flashlight in his mouth, he said,

"Chhochhay, chech go!" Dan stretched out on his stomach at the hole's edge. He felt a shudder and heard the sound of pebbles slipping down the wall beneath him. He moved left, until he gripped what felt like solid rock. "Chhere!" Dan said, inching over the edge. "Just a minute, dude, you have something sticky in your pack," Nellie said. "I'm getting it off my—" Suddenly, the ground beneath Dan fell in an explosion of black soil. He felt himself drop abruptly. And then he was hurtling down into the darkness, his mouth open in a silent scream. "GOTCHA!" "YAAAAGH!" Dan thought his left leg was going to be pulled out from its socket. He was hanging by it, with Nellie's hand clasped around his ankle. His arms flailed. Pen and paper fell. The flashlight flung away, casting a wild, brief light