‘If only we’d thought of bringing a rope,’ I said bitterly to Ganatus.
‘The rock face is smooth,’ he admitted, ‘but it can be climbed.’
‘In this heat? It’s twice as bad as it was yesterday.’
He nodded and fell silent.
‘We’ll just have to wait for nightfall,’ I murmured, and he looked at me.
‘Night? And those creatures?’
I shrugged irritably and moved away, staring through the pipes at the lake. It was totally calm now and all traces of the battle had disappeared. Barbara touched my arm and handed me a drink of water. It was warm but I was grateful for it. I nodded and turned away, my mind busy with the problem of reaching the caves above us.
‘Ian…’
I turned back to her and looked at her straight in the eyes.
‘Look, Barbara, just because I was lucky with that… that thing from the lake doesn’t mean you have to apologize.’ She opened her mouth to speak but I went on quickly: ‘I know… there isn’t anything to say sorry for. All right! Let’s just finish this business and get back to the Ship and the Doctor.’
She said, ‘And then what?’
‘I don’t know. Let’s hope he can take us back to Earth again – if you think the world’s big enough for the two of us!’
At that moment Kristas appeared carrying a huge creeper over his shoulder which trailed after him like a huge snake.
‘We needed some sort of rope,’ he said quietly and dumped it down at my feet. I was only half aware that Barbara hadn’t looked at him at all but was still staring at me. Then she walked away. Oh, well, I thought, you can’t be liked by everybody. I took Kristas’s hand and shook it as hard as I could and I suppose it must have felt like a feather caressing a battleship. It was a bit ridiculous anyway. Even at full stretch, my hand couldn’t close around the palm of his.
He smiled at me then shaded his eyes and looked upwards at the place where the pipes came out of the mountain.
‘One of us must climb up with the creeper,’ and he looked at me with a slight twinkle in his eyes. ‘I suggest the strongest of us. Either you or me.’
‘I don’t fancy pulling a great hulk like you up on the side of a mountain. You’ll have to go.’ He nodded gravely as if there were really any choice at all between us. He could have picked me up and thrown me like a cricket ball if he’d wanted to.
‘The trouble is,’ I went on, ‘the heat, Kristas.’
‘Worse trouble at night.’
He picked up the creeper, tested it with his huge hands and began to coil it.
‘If one of us – and I’m willing to try – can make the slow climbing journey the others can be brought up with speed.’
‘All right, Kristas, if you promise me you’ll give up if the sun gets too much.’
There was a short pause as he went on coiling the rope through his left hand and over his shoulder.
He said, ‘It’s curious how everything we do I now see in terms of a struggle. I did not realize it before. The sun will be a worthy opponent.’
He walked away and started up the mountain. I joined the others and we watched him anxiously. The first hundred and fifty feet or so were easy with plenty of foot-and handholds, but after that the rock face was smoother. I saw him stop at one point, ease off his sandals and hurl them down to us. The sun glistened on his skin and I knew the deadly process was working. Heat and strenuous exercise bringing out the perspiration which promptly dried in the heat, and however toughened the skin surface was the merciless sun would roast and shrivel it, flaking away each successive layer until it burned its way through to the shrinking flesh beneath.
Now Kristas reached the worst part of all. The mountainside suddenly inclined outwards slightly and even a professional mountaineer with hammer and metal supports, ropes and tackle and climbing boots would have taken as much time as he could. But time was the last thing Kristas could spare. He settled himself securely under the great lip of the rock and looked down at us.
‘Can you hear me?’ he shouted, and I waved my hand. ‘There’s a piece of rock to one side of me. I’m going to loop the creeper over it.’
‘It looks too risky,’ I shouted up to him but he started to pay out the creeper until he held the two ends in his right hand. With the other he took the slack end and bracing his back against the rock threw forward. It caught first time and Ganatus and his brother grinned at each other. Barbara stood beside us, shading her face with both hands as she watched. I saw Kristas pulling on the creeper as hard as he could and felt the sweat springing out on the palms of my hands. If Kristas fell there was only one destination and that was the lake spreading out beneath him – the lake with those monsters. I clamped my teeth together and shut out the thought.
He swung away from safety and started to climb up the creeper laboriously. It meant that he had to hold both ends in one hand as he reached upwards with the other and only those huge fingers of his could have done it. A few minutes later his arm wrapped itself round the little knob of rock and he pulled himself up into the entrance of the cave. We all jumped up and waved our arms at him as he unhooked the creeper and pulled it up beside him. His arm appeared briefly in reply and then one end of the creeper snaked down towards us. It was too short by about fifty yards, of course, but we collected together our food and water-bags and the fire-box and began to scramble up the mountain. I chose the last position this time and the two brothers helped Barbara up first. We had one or two tricky moments where the going became smoother but then it was only a short way to reach the end of the creeper that dangled down so temptingly. One by one, Kristas pulled us up on to the ledge.
I stood there with Kristas for a few seconds.
He said, ‘I wouldn’t mind going for a swim.’
I looked down into the lake with its clear, sun-tinted surface. Now and again I could just catch the movement of some vast shape too deep to disturb the surface.
‘One day you will bathe in that lake, my friend. Or your children will. But you’ll have to do a lot of fishing first.’
He chuckled and we moved into the blackness of the cave. At least it was cool inside and the fire-box gave us an excellent light. The difficulties began when the pipes we had hoped to use as a guide all the way suddenly plunged straight into a wall, whereas the cave itself bent to the right. We had no alternative but to follow the cave, but I began to worry about changing direction so sharply and said as much to Antodus.
‘I suppose we all hoped that the Daleks had cut a way through the mountain,’ he replied, ‘but it’s becoming obvious that these are natural caves.’
We suddenly entered a small chamber and found we had three ways from which to choose. I counted my supply of the Doctor’s matches and found I had four left. I gave one each to Barbara, Ganatus and Kristas.
‘Antodus, you take the fire-box and you and Kristas take the right hand.’ They nodded and moved off and I lit a match.
‘Barbara and I will try the centre,’ said Ganatus. He lit his match and started off. Barbara and I looked at each other briefly.
‘We’ll all meet back here and report progress,’ I murmured. She nodded briefly and followed him.
The left-hand mouth lasted for about twenty paces then began to close in. Finally it came to an end, so there was nothing else for it but to go back to the starting place.
I sat there for a few minutes, wondering whether I ought not to follow one of the other pairs, when Kristas appeared and his account was very similar to mine: a narrowing passage which ended in a blank wall of rock. We collected the creeper and provisions and followed Barbara and Ganatus.
This was much more promising at first, developing from a tunnel just high enough to walk in (Kristas had to move along bent double) into a broad channel about twenty feet wide and too high for us to estimate.
Suddenly we heard the sound of falling rocks ahead of us and Barbara’s voice calling out. We started to run up the tunnel towards her. The light of the fire-box
picked her up hurrying towards us and I moved on ahead of the others.
‘It’s Ganatus,’ she sobbed. ‘He’s fallen and both our matches are lost.’
‘It’s all right, Barbara,’ I said gently. ‘Show us where.’
She led the way forward and the tunnel began to narrow down until the familiar blank wall of rock began to appear before us. Barbara turned sharply to her right and squeezed herself through a slim little crevice.
‘Through here. He said he’d found something and then his foot must have slipped. I tried to catch him but then we both dropped the matches and I couldn’t see any more.’
I squeezed in after her, wondering how Kristas was ever going to get through, and Antodus passed me the fire-box. I saw a wide fissure, pushed my head through it and held out my hand with the lighted match as far as I could. I was looking into an enormous chamber about twenty feet from its floor level and there was another small glow beneath me. It was Ganatus who was just in the process of sitting up. Beside him was one of the matches.
‘Are you all right?’ I shouted. He looked up and rubbed his shoulder.
‘Yes. Lucky I didn’t break anything. At least, I don’t think I have.’
He picked up the match and got to his feet.
‘Hang on a moment and I’ll pass the creeper down.’
‘I think it would be better if you all came down with me,’ he answered. I considered for a moment then mentally agreed. The chamber looked as if it had possibilities.
The hardest part was just as I’d thought it would be, getting Kristas through the little crevice. Eventually we did, with much pushing from Antodus on his side and pulling from Barbara and me. Then Kristas held the creeper while we all lowered ourselves to the floor of the cavern and finally he jumped down beside us. Twenty feet or so was child’s play to him.
I had now lost my sense of direction completely. It seemed to me that we had been turning right all the time and I was terrified that we would find ourselves back where we started again. It was with immense relief that I found the cavern began to bend away to the left. Ganatus and I were leading at this point and as we moved out into a short passage we nearly fell into a chasm that appeared at our feet. We set the fire-box down and Ganatus sat with his feet over the edge.
‘There’s a ledge on the other side,’ he murmured.
‘How about going down and up the other side?’
He picked up a piece of rock and let it fall. The wait seemed eternal and when we did hear the rock hit something it wasn’t reassuring. It was a loud splash and none of us fancied any deep diving at this stage of the game.
‘We’ll just have to jump it,’ I sighed. ‘Well, at least we’ve got the creeper.’
‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘you can throw it over to me when I’m on the other side.’
‘You,’ I said definitely, ‘can throw it over to me.’
Barbara brought us each a cup of water and some of the Doctor’s compressed fruit and we all chewed silently.
‘Of course,’ murmured Kristas, ‘you could let me go first.’
‘I’ve no way of knowing how firm that ledge is,’ I answered. I drank the last of the water in my cup and got to my feet. ‘Let me have as good a run as possible. Antodus, you’re in charge of the lighting arrangement. Hold the fire-box up as high as you can.’
He nodded and moved to the left edge of our side, holding up the fire-box. I examined the ledge and searched above it for any handholds. There didn’t seem to be much help there. The ledge itself was about a foot wide and I could see that it continued on to the left then disappeared round a corner. I walked back along the passage, braced myself and ran back past them all and jumped. I over-jumped it slightly and the side of my right knee cracked against the rock. I nearly rebounded backwards, but my feet found the ledge firm enough and I scrabbled around desperately with my hands, just catching on to a jutting piece of stone that saved me. I shook my head and told my nerves to settle down.
‘Throw over the creeper, Kristas.’ I leaned against the wall and caught it easily. I passed one end of it round my waist then threw the other end back.
‘Kristas, we’ll have Barbara over next. Hold the creeper round your waist and she can cross hand over hand.’
I wiped my hands carefully on my trousers, suddenly aware of how torn they were. Barbara moved up beside Kristas and looked down into the chasm.
‘We won’t drop you,’ I heard him say gently and she gave him a tight little smile. Then she sat on the edge of the chasm, gripped the creeper above her head and started to swing over. Hand over hand she came, as if she had done it all her life, and when she was a yard away she pulled over her legs and rested them on the ledge and levered herself upwards. I caught her round the waist and pulled her beside me thankfully. Then I felt the muscles tightening in her back and she moved away from me. Isn’t there enough to do, I thought angrily, without all this ridiculous hatred.
‘There isn’t any need to make it quite so obvious,’ I breathed furiously. She didn’t say a word and as her face gleamed whitely with only the pale glow from the fire-box to illuminate it, I wasn’t sure whether there was a smile on her face or not. A sick fury made me press my lips together and it didn’t help when I heard a bellow of laughter from the other side of the chasm.
‘What is it,’ I called out sharply.
‘We’re just trying to decide,’ chuckled Ganatus, ‘whether you really want us to cross over or not.’
After the silence, I said, ‘Rope coming over,’ and their laughter died away. I suppose they were afraid they had offended me or something. Perhaps they thought my sense of humour was a little on the weak side but I didn’t feel like explaining.
Personal thoughts were rubbed out as one by one the others made the crossing. Antodus came next, after handing over the fire-box to his brother and then, as soon as he had a firm foothold, Ganatus threw it to him and made his way over. Kristas, let me draw in the creeper and without taking any sort of run at all simply leapt off and landed lightly beside me.
‘What we should have done,’ I said seriously to him, ‘was lay you across the chasm and walk over.’ I had recovered my temper at the successful way we had beaten the obstacle and besides I wanted to make up for being so surly with them.
‘We might have tried that,’ Kristas replied, ‘but then somebody might have trodden on my head.’
‘They wouldn’t have hurt their feet very much.’
He grinned at me and took the fire-box from Antodus.
‘All right, Ganatus, you lead on with Barbara. You follow,’ I said to Kristas, ‘and let’s hope we find the pipes again soon.’
They disappeared round the bend in the rock and I heard Ganatus call out that the ledge was widening out. I hitched the creeper over my shoulder more securely and beckoned with my head to Antodus. Kristas had turned the corner with the fire-box so we both lit the last of the everlasting matches and started to follow.
I was just going to turn the corner when Antodus stumbled over his feet and his hand clutched at my shoulder. The creeper unwound and I grabbed at it and pushed myself against the rock, filled with a fear of falling. He tried to regain his balance but failed and just as I twisted to catch hold of him he hung suspended for a second then fell over the edge, his fingers just gripping hold of one end of the creeper.
‘Hold on to it!’ I cried as it snaked away, pulling at one of my ankles and nearly taking me over the edge as well. I slid down on one side as Antodus screamed out for help and I realized, with a dreadful shock, that it was the first time I had ever known one of our companions admit to any sort of fear at all.
‘Kristas!’ I shouted and struggled to get a better hold on the creeper. Another yard or so of it slid through my hands and I tried digging my nails into it. I felt one of my feet slipping over the side of the ledge. I daren’t let go of the creeper and yet I knew I had to stop the way my body was being inched towards the gaping hole of the chasm. Of course I’d had to drop the match and the p
itch blackness didn’t help.
‘Ganatus! Kristas!’ I shouted again and I heard their voices answering me. The rope began to swing, dragging me nearer to destruction.
‘Try and get a foothold, Antodus!’
His voice reached up at me from the darkness beneath.
‘My hands are slipping. Can’t… hold… on.’
Suddenly light appeared as Kristas and Ganatus came around the corner, the former holding up the fire-box.
‘Pass the rope under your arm if you can,’ I called out. Ganatus edged his way nearer to me and was just about to help me back when the creeper gave a jerk and at the same time there was a long, drawn-out scream and I tumbled backwards. Ganatus knelt beside me and hauled in the creeper unbelievingly. He leaned over the edge and called out his brother’s name and just at that moment we all heard the splash as the body hit the water and the beginnings of another scream was cut off almost as soon as it began. There was a second or two’s silence then a terrible threshing began, a noise much louder than one man’s desperate struggle for life could have made and, as if we needed any confirmation, the terrible screech of some water creature echoed and re-echoed about us. We all waited there in absolute horror as the sounds began to die down and finally there was a little series of splashes and everything became quiet. Ganatus was lying full length along the wider part of the ledge now and trying to stare through the pitch blackness beneath him.
‘Antodus!’ he called out and when there was no reply he shouted the name again and again. I looked up at Kristas and then at Barbara who had followed them back and now leaned against the rock wall. Her whole body was shivering and her lips were drawn back in tragedy and horror. Eventually Ganatus gave up and buried his face in his hands and sobbed, his whole body racked with emotion. I stared ahead of me dumbly, all purpose gone, despair bringing out all the weakness of my muscles and joints that determination had forced me to forget. It was Kristas who took command and he lifted Ganatus up and told Barbara to carry the fire-box ahead of us. He nudged my shoulder with his foot and I got to my feet silently and followed him.
Doctor Who and the Daleks Page 13