by Gary Barnes
“No,” answered Larry.
“Watch this,” said Clayton.
Clayton turned his flashlight off and a faint bluish glow was emitted by the slime.
“That’s amazing. What do you think it is?” inquired Welton.
Clayton turned his flashlight back on and the glowing ceased.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to take a sample of it back to the lab and check it out,” replied Clayton.
Clayton fumbled in his pocket for another sample vial. He pulled a couple of them out then stopped in surprise. One of the vials he had just taken from his pocket was also glowing with a faint bluish glow.
“Well, I’ll be!” exclaimed Welton.
Clayton trained his flashlight onto the vial and it immediately ceased to glow. Then he deflected the beam away from it and it resumed its glow.
“It appears to be the same stuff. And you got that one from the hunting site didn’t you?” inquired Welton.
“That’s right,” replied Clayton as he opened an empty vial and scooped up the small quantity of slime from the cave floor.
“So there’s a connection between the missing hunter and whatever made this crater?” Welton asked.
“Apparently so – and I’ve a hunch that there’s also a connection here with the two missing swimmers from Johnson Shut-Ins, and possibly with the monster Johnny saw,” added Clayton.
Welton whistled in amazement.
“Gentlemen, since we’ve ruled out every other possibility, I think we have to accept the fact that we are standing at the crash site of an alien space craft,” announced Clayton.
“I’m inclined to agree with you. That was the same conclusion I had arrived at earlier but just needed some more evidence. I think that we now just might have that evidence,” stated Welton.
Kneeling, Clayton extended the fingers in his right hand and used the distance between the tips of his thumb and little finger as a makeshift measuring tape. Then he proceeded to approximate the length of the animal’s stride. “Five spans, that means the distance between the animal’s front and rear paws was about four feet. These tracks match the ones I saw at the hunter’s site. The animal is missing half of its right front foot. Only those tracks are considerably larger, indicating a tremendous growth rate. If this is the same creature it would have tripled its size in just a few months. . . . Gentlemen,” he concluded, “I think that something survived the crash.”
“Wow!” interjected Larry.
Clayton continued with his conclusions. “This stream is fed from the continental aquifer, so whatever entered this river could conceivably have access to virtually any major waterway in the country.”
“And you think that could be dangerous?” inquired Welton.
“I think it could be disastrous . . . Let’s get back to the lab and see just what this stuff is,” Clayton urged.
=/=
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Fears Cave
The next morning Johnny, Frankie, and Austin, decided to go spelunking in Fears Cave. Johnny had previously made numerous trips to the cave but had never ventured more than a few hundred yards inside. He was always afraid of being caught.
Years earlier, in the 1940s, the land around the cave had been part of the farm owned by Johnny’s great-grandfather. One hundred years before that, Johnny’s 5th-great-grandfather, James Monroe Fears, moved his family from Peducka, Kentucky, to the Current River area of the Ozarks of Southern Missouri and staked out a homestead. In the mid 1840s the cave had served as the temporary family home for almost a year while they built a log and sod cabin, cleared farm land and planted their crops. From that time forth the cave had been known as Fears Cave by the locals.
All of Johnny’s older relatives had shared wonderful stories with him about their exploring experiences inside Fears Cave. Now, however, the cave was part of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways park system. It was located at Owl’s Bend about ten miles east of Eminence, just off Highway 106 where it crossed the Current River, about a half-mile upstream from Blue Spring.
At various times during the Civil War both the North and the South had mined sodium nitrate, or saltpeter, from the abundant supply of bat guano in Fears Cave for use in the manufacture of gun powder. Unfortunately this activity created a misunderstanding in the minds of historians who generally confused it with Powder Mill Cave which was located a quarter of a mile farther upstream along the Current River and higher up the bluff wall, making it much less accessible to tourists. It too had been used for the mining of saltpeter and was located much closer to the mill operations established along the riverbank. The confusion was further compounded by misnaming the creek that sprang from the mouth of Fears Cave. It was called Powder Mill Creek.
In the late 1960s, the Fears family was forced to abandon the farm due to economic conditions coupled with the federal government’s massive land seizures for the creation of the park. Once they and other local citizenry left the area the park service eradicated the name Fears Cave and replaced it with the misnomer, Powder Mill Cave - much to the consternation of the Fears family.
Shortly after the creation of The Ozark National Scenic Riverways Park, the park service, under the direction of the Environmental Protection Agency, sealed the entrance to Fears Cave with a lattice work of steel bars to preserve its pristine condition and to provide a roosting place for several species of endangered bats. There are over 350 known caves in the park, of which fifteen were similarly sealed and gated. The park service estimates that there are probably twice that many caves awaiting to be discovered. The park also contains over 300 known springs.
Though the park follows the shoreline of the Current River for over 125 miles, as well as the Jack’s Fork River for over sixty miles, the width of the park is restricted to only a few miles on either side of the two rivers. Consequently, it is speculated that there are over a thousand other caves, sinkholes and springs remaining to be discovered in the vast regions of Ozark back-country outside of the park boundaries. The federal Cave Resources Protection Act however, restricts unapproved publication of cave locations, reflecting the preference of many cave owners not to reveal exact cave sites, since abuse and vandalism of caves by trespassers often occurs.
*
The sun shone brightly, though the sky was dotted with massive billowy cumulus clouds. A red, beat up, pickup truck threaded its way down the narrow, winding road as it approached the Current River Bridge at Owl’s Bend. The driver, Mac Dace, had given a lift to Johnny and his friends, who had started hitchhiking as soon as they reached the edge of town.
The boys were huddled together in the back of the pickup’s open bed discussing the events of the previous day at Johnson’s Shut-Ins. That topic had been the focal point at the barbershop as well as many informal discussions up and down Main Street. Everyone seemed to have his own opinion as to the cause of the missing bodies of the girl and diver.
Certainly tragedy was not foreign to Eminence. To have two missing bodies where recovery should have been so easy, though, was a baffling mystery. Johnny’s account of the man-eating monster was quickly making the rounds and in the minds of many of the town’s citizens, it settled the question.
“Johnny, did you really see a man-eating monster?” asked Frankie with much concern in his voice, dreading to know the truth, yet unable to conceal his anxiety.
“I guess not. Sheriff Akers says that the diver hit a rock and made a big blood cloud. It all happened so fast. He said that the light, shadows, bubbles, and the blood just played tricks on my mind. I guess he’s right. After all, who ever heard of a man-eating monster?” Johnny asked rhetorically.
Austin, who was sitting slightly behind Frankie, made a vicious looking face, bared his teeth, opened his eyes very wide and brought his hands up near his face with his fingers curved like giant claws. He then tapped Frankie on the shoulder and let out a blood-curdling roar. Frankie squealed as he jumped in surprise while Johnny and Austin reeled with laughter.
&nbs
p; Frankie, embarrassed, mumbled, “How much farther to the cave?” regretting that he had ever brought up the subject of the monster.
“Just to the other side of the bridge,” replied Austin.
“Thanks for bringing me guys,” stated Frankie. “I’ve never been in a cave before. My parents think it’s too dangerous, so I didn’t tell them we were coming.”
“You’ll like Fears Cave, it’s sweet,” said Johnny.
“Yeah,” added Austin. “We’ve been in it lots of times. My dad said it’s got more than eight miles of tunnels in it and it’s real easy to get lost.”
“Really?” muttered Frankie, starting to get a little scared but hesitant to show his fear, for fear of being teased. “Then how do we keep from gettin’ lost?”
“Well, there’s a river that flows out of it, so I figure we just follow it in. That way we can’t get lost, ‘cause all we have to do is just turn around and follow it back out again,” Johnny answered.
“Good thinkin’,” Frankie sighed, beginning to feel a little better, but still wanting to change the subject. “Hey, Austin, can you really hypnotize people?”
“Of course he can,” Johnny exclaimed.
“I’ll bet he can’t do it to me!” boasted Frankie, trying to sound a little more self-confident.
“Yes I can! Just you wait ‘till we’re inside the cave,” replied Austin.
As the truck approached the Owl’s Bend bridge, Johnny gazed over the sidewalls of the truck bed at the blue water flowing thirty feet below. The majesty of the lazy bend in the river and the grandeur of the tree covered bluff wall on the far side was not lost on him, even though he was such a young boy.
Reaching the other side, the pickup pulled off to the side of the road and the boys jumped out of the truck bed.
“You boys have fun now, ya hear?” shouted the driver as the pickup slowly drove off.
“Thanks for the ride Mr. Dace,” Johnny yelled back, waving at the departing pickup.
One of the nice things about living in such a small community was that everybody knew everybody. People were not afraid to interact with each other. That usually kept most people in line. To a kid, however, such openness made it hard to get away with anything. If they did anything wrong their parents would immediately hear about it from twenty different sources. That was probably the true meaning of the saying, It takes a village to raise a child. It’s not that the village was actively involved in the child’s raising, they were just all aware of what was going on and not afraid to speak up about it to the child’s parents. But they left it to the parents to deal with the child, considering it none of their business once the report had been made. The boys knew that reports of their spelunking activities would eventually make it back to their parents. For the moment, however, the allure of the adventure was worth the price it would exact.
The boys picked up their backpacks and headed into the dense forest at the side of the road. The foliage was very thick but they only had to walk a short distance to reach the bank of Powder Mill Creek. From there they continued along the gravel bar which formed the stream’s bank. The creek was not more that three feet deep at the center and barely twenty feet wide. Its slow gentle current was ideal for rock skipping. As the boys walked along the bank they had a contest to see who could get the most skips from a single rock. Jubilantly they hurled their stones upstream. Austin was the undisputed champion from previous such contests, with eight skips to his name, and he was not about to let his title be taken by anyone. As fortune would have it, his title remained unchallenged.
After hugging the stream for a few hundred yards the trail suddenly jogged to the right and ascended a steep but low hill, the face of which had been eroded by the stream, creating an earthen embankment dropping about fifteen feet from the hilltop to the shallow water below. Arriving at the top of the hill the boys stopped for a breather. That’s when they saw it.
There, before them, stood two of the most glorious, the most magnificent trees the boys had ever seen.
The first tree majestically stood not more than twenty feet from the edge of the embankment. Dangling from its lofty branches, over forty feet up and hovering near the edge of the embankment, hung a grapevine. The inch-and-a-half in diameter vine was perfect for swinging and was so long that its end just cleared the ground.
The second tree grew right at the edge of the embankment and slightly to the left of the first tree. The eroded embankment, however, had eaten away much of the supporting soil, causing the second tree to tilt at an angle that jutted it out over the edge of the embankment. About fifteen feet up the trunk grew a limb that ran parallel to the embankment.
Twelve-year-old boys do not need a lot of encouragement to do some pretty foolhardy things. And there before the three boys loomed an opportunity that they simply could not resist.
Austin was the first to give it a try. He grabbed the grapevine about five feet up from its end and yanked on it several times to test its strength. Then he hung on it with his dead weight and asked the other boys to join him.
Satisfied that it was securely attached to the tree tops he backed-up about fifteen feet and then sprinted toward the edge of the cliff. At the edge he took a flying leap, swinging out over the stream below. It was exhilarating. He swung out much father than he thought he would and without even thinking about it he let go of the grape vine with his left hand and reached out to touch the second tree’s limb that grew parallel to the embankment. He tapped it with his knuckles then quickly grabbed the grapevine again and swung back to the embankment where his friends awaited. Letting go of the grapevine he dropped to the ground, laughing exuberantly.
Needing no coaxing, the other boys followed Austin’s lead in short order. All three of them spent the next several minutes taking turns swinging out and rapping the parallel limb. Nevertheless, the challenge was soon gone and the boys started looking for something a little more dare-devilish.
“Hey, I’ve got an idea,” shouted Johnny. He grabbed the grapevine and swung out toward the parallel limb as hard as he could. Only this time, instead of rapping the limb with the knuckles of his left hand, he let go of the grapevine with both hands. His body’s forward momentum sailed him through the air until he was within range. He then grabbed the parallel limb with both hands and hung there, dangling thirty feet above the stream below while the empty grapevine swung back without him.
“Okay Austin, it’s up to you! Come and rescue me!” shouted Johnny.
“All right, here I come!”
Austin grabbed the grapevine and ran as fast as he could, propelling himself from the edge of the cliff with all the force his legs could muster.
He swung out toward Johnny and came within inches of colliding with him. Johnny released his grasp on the parallel limb with his right hand and reached out to grab the grapevine. Clutching it tightly, he released his grasp on the parallel limb and grabbed the grapevine with both hands. Both boys swung back to safety.
“Hey, that was cool,” Austin laughed.
“My turn,” announced Frankie as he grabbed the grapevine and ran toward the edge of the cliff.
Frankie was considerably chubbier than the other boys and could not run nearly as fast. Reaching the edge of the embankment he lunged forward, swinging out over the stream. He saw the parallel branch coming closer and closer. Frankie released his grasp on the grapevine and reached for the limb. Only then did he realized that he wasn’t going to make it. He had miscalculated. Rather than letting go of the grapevine while he still had forward momentum, he had let go at the height of his swing, when his forward momentum had stopped. Now he was falling straight down. Frantically he grasped for the grapevine. Clutching nothing but air, he continued to fall. The contortions of his face registered pure terror.
Then to his amazement his right hand struck something solid. It had connected with the very end of the grapevine. He quickly grabbed the tip of the grapevine, holding on tightly with both hands as he began his swing back.
Although he had succeeded in rescuing himself from falling thirty feet into the shallow creek below, Frankie’s troubles were far from over. As his return velocity began to increase he realized that he was dangling below the bottom end of the grapevine and that the vine was so long that its end just cleared the rim of the embankment. He, however, would not.
No sooner did this realization sink into Frankie’s mind than his body slammed into the side of the embankment. The grapevine was ripped from his hands and he began to slide down the face of the embankment. He clutched for anything, trying to gain purchase, but the loose dirt and rocks gave way in his grasp and he continued his rapid descent down the embankment’s face.
Fortunately, the embankment was not perfectly vertical. It had a slight grade to it which cushioned Frankie’s fall to a degree. Nevertheless, he slammed into the shallow water at the bottom with a tremendous splash.
The empty grapevine swung past Johnny and Austin. They stared at each other momentarily then scampered to the edge of the embankment and peered over it to see what had happened to their friend. When they saw that Frankie was sitting in the water up to his shoulders, covered with mud and dirt, but unhurt, except for his pride, they burst into uncontrollable laughter.
“It’s not funny, guys,” Frankie yelled back, even though he too was beginning to see the humor in the situation.
Eventually Johnny and Austin regained their composure and they backtracked down the trail to the stream. They jumped from rock to rock to cross the stream in a shallow section, then made their way over to where Frankie had crawled out and was lying on the ground drying out in the brilliant sun. Except for a few scrapes and bruises, and a little damage to his ego, he was okay.
As they sat together on the gravel bar, the three boys laughingly recounted Frankie’s near-tragic experience. However, as boys often did, Austin and Johnny embellished and expanded it, making the experience even more comical than it actually was, and laughing at Frankie’s expense.