Chapter 14 – The Case IV

"It's a shame that Cornwall Search and Rescue Team can't assist," Joe muttered. "At least now. The Bodmin team is down in Falmouth training, and the Redruth bunch are up north on another call. Missing hiker on the Coast Path."

I blew air from my nose, irritated, as I dug through the emergency kit in Joe's Rover. There were a few things that might be useful: a tow strap, plus a small first aid kit and a mylar rescue blanket. There was also an LED torch and spare batteries. I gathered these things in a pile, while Joe nattered on.

"Or Fire Service," Joe whined. "They're coming, so they say, but the closest pumper is disabled, and their backup is responding to a pileup on the A39." He kicked at the hard ground. "I don't envy… uhm," he stared at me, "you goin' down into that hole, Doc."

I grunted at him. "What's this?" I asked, pointing to a tarp draped over something.

"Junk. Road debris. I been meanin' to get it to the tip."

I pulled the fabric aside. There was a pile of rags and cans, a dented metal bin, a bike helmet which was scraped and dented, paint spattered gloves, and other rubbish. On an impulse I wiggled my hands into the gloves. They were tight but I could wear them. There was also a small rucksack.

I shook dust and dirt out of the sack then put the useful things in it.

Joe was at the front then walked back with a roll of duct tape. "Maybe you need this?"

I took it from him. "Useful."

Joe picked up the battered helmet. "Tried this on? Rocks, Doc. Rocks falling? Might not be good for your head."

Scornfully I put the filthy thing onto my head. I tugged at the chin strap to buckle it tight. "Hm. Seems to fit."

Joe picked up the small LED torch and with the duct tape strapped it to the side of the helmet. "Headlamp. Keeps your hands free."

It would help. "Yes, right Joe."

Joe stood there and then stepped forward to give me a hug, which I brushed off. "Dynamic Duo, you and me!" he said, "Better take care of yourself, Doc. I don't know what I'd do without you."

Ignoring his words took up the rucksack and went to my car, where Louisa was sitting. She got out as I got there, and she giggled when she saw me.

"Sorry Martin. All this," her hand waved up and down. "Not your usual attire."

I opened the boot. "I have some water in here." A one-liter bottle was stored there for emergencies. I put that in my sack, along with rolls of gauze, medical tape, a sling, and an inflatable splint. I added more bandages, a suture kit, plus antiseptic. I hefted Joe's heavy flashlight then tucked it into an outside pouch on the pack.

Louisa watched all this. "Quite an expedition."

I sighed. "When will help arrive?"

"I called Pipper again, and she said the villagers were just gathering. Chippy Miller, Eddie Chegwin, Mike Chub, Al and Bert Large, Rusty Armistead, and a few others. Half-hour maybe, until they arrive. More like forty-five minutes by the time they get organized."

I looked into all the compartments of my medical bag and added a Spencer-Wells forceps to my gear. "Too long," I grunted, as I hoisted the rucksack onto my back, buckling the straps tight. It would not do to have it shifting about. "Best be going, then. The Marrak boy may be hurt. Certainly lost."

Louisa stared at me. "Oh, and here," She held out a wrapped granola bar. "I know it's probably not the sort of thing you would eat, but if you are gone long, it may be useful."

I took it from her and tucked it into my inside jacket pocket. "Thank you." She was giving me a strange look. "What?"

She stepped towards me and gave me a hug. "Oh Mar-tin." She rested her head on my shoulder.

It felt good to have her arms holding me but her swollen belly was in the way. "Louisa…"

She pulled back a little and looked at my face. "Yes?"

I cleared my throat. "If anything should happen…" Any further words caught in my throat.

She nodded then her lip caught in her teeth. "You'll be fine," she said to me softly.

There was a lot I should have said, could have said. About her, our baby, how Edith didn't mean anything to me, how I'd valued just getting a glimpse of her made my day. So many things about the village, and not all of it bad. I turned away from her and made my way to the mine pit.

Penhale stood fifteen feet back from the edge, shaking his head. He turned at my approach. "I don't envy you, Doc. I'd give it a go but for the fear of heights thingy."

"Acrophobia."

"Yeah, that." Joe rubbed his hands together. "You all set?"

I glanced at the top of the ladder just inside the metal cage. I'd rather try to clamp an artery with my fingers in the back of a swaying ambulance while the patient tried to bleed out. "Hm." I had a thought. "Louisa?"

She had followed me towards the mine. "Yes, Martin?"

I emptied my pockets of billfold, car keys, and mobile. "You'd better have these."

She took them from me, and her cool fingers held mine for a moment. "Yes. Uhm, Martin, please don't take any chances… that… you know."

"Dangerous?" Joe laughed. "I'm sure the Doc's thought of that."

I was about to descend a hundred feet into a disused mine in search of a missing ten-year-old who was of fragile physical and mental state even on a good day. Below would be the danger of noxious gases, radon exposure, the risk of falling or being hit by falling rocks. Falling off that long ladder was the least of my worries. And I would still have to find that foolish boy.

I blurted out, "Louisa, in one of the card slots of my billfold is a business card. It's has the name of my solicitors', if…" I cleared my throat, "if you should have a need to contact them."

Her face went white and her green eyes stared into mine. "Oh Martin…"

The moment was broken by Penhale coughing. "Sorry. Dusty here," he said, but I saw him wipe his eyes.

"Right," I said. "I'll go now."

The opening in the wire mesh was about four feet tall and three across, so I slithered through it, holding onto the metal which framed it.

Joe stood well back, afraid to come very closer to the pit opening. Louisa stood closer as I maneuvered my feet onto the ladder.

Louisa said softly, "Go down into the crater of Snaefells Jökull, which Scartaris's shadow caresses just before the calends of July, O daring traveler, and you'll make it to the center of the earth. I've done so. Arne Saknussem."

"What?"

Louisa smiled. "What Dr. Lidenbrock deciphered from the 16th Century runic text. Jules Verne – Journey to the Center of the Earth." She was smiling in an odd way. "Best of luck down there."

My feet found the ladder rungs easily enough and I made it a point not to look down, but to focus on the ladder rungs. In reply I said to her, "First you will come to the Sirens who enchant all who come near them. If anyone unwarily draws in too close and hears the singing of the Sirens, his wife and children will never welcome him home again, for they sit in a green field and warble him to death with the sweetness of their song."

"What's that?" Joe asked.

"The Odyssey," Louisa answered him. "The warning about the sirens to Odysseus."

"Hm. Never met him." Penhale shook his head in bewilderment. "You two are doolally."

Accompanied by thoughts of this literary nature I descended one rusty rung after the other, gingerly placing my weight on each one, while I held tight to the vertical members.

I counted rungs as I went, and after one hundred and eighteen, my feet felt solid rock beneath them. I was now at the bottom of the shaft and stood in a large cavern. The walls were many feet across, hollowed out ages ago. The floor was nearly level, but for scraggly ferns subsisting on meager sunlight and a muddy pool of water. Small broken stones provided plenty of opportunities to turn an ankle, as I cautiously moved a few steps.

I took air into my lungs and called out "Frank Marrak!" My voice echoed back many times until it faded away. I heard no reply. "Of course not," I muttered.

I was facing three tunnels in the wall opposite the ladder, and marks of ancient picks and man-pounded chisels marred the rock faces around them. Fortunately, the small footprints from the mud around the pool led directly to the center tunnel.

I looked up and saw Louisa looking down at me. "It appears that Frank's gone into the center of three tunnels!" I shouted up to her.

She waved in reply.

"I'll go in there!" I yelled up to her again.

Taking a deep breath, I went to center tunnel, which was easily three times my height and almost as broad. You could have driven a locomotive through it. Sunlight penetrated a few yards inside the opening and then faded into a Stygian blackness.

"Right," I whispered. "I hope you're not too far away, Mr. Marrak."

So, I followed the footprints into the blackness, with the light on my helmet making a glowworm's difference.