‘I don’t know.’ He looked down the long tunnel, lifting his torch and throwing the powerful beam into the inky blackness. ‘Take a look at that. Your guess is as good as mine.’
The beam of the torch rested on what looked like a heap of rags. I peered at it; saw bits and pieces of what once had been a lounge suit.
‘There’s a skeleton under those clothes,’ Dedrick said, and I heard his breath whistle down his nostrils. ‘We left him here for not more than twelve hours, and that’s what he turned into: rags and bones, and not a damn thing else.’
‘Who is it?’ My voice sounded hollow.
‘Never mind who it is.’
I decided it couldn’t be anyone else but Lute Ferris.
‘It’s Ferris, isn’t it?’
‘Just another guy who was a nuisance,’ Dedrick said, and wiped his face with his handkerchief. ‘Something’s eaten him.’ He looked uneasily into the darkness. ‘There’s some kind of animal down here: maybe a lynx.’ He took another flashlight from his hip pocket and tossed it to me. That’ll keep you company. If you hear Barratt coming, put it out of sight He’d murder me if he knew I’d left you a light.’
‘Well, thanks,’ I said, and flung the beam of the torch he had given me on to his face. ‘Why not go the whole way and let me free? You’re hating this, Dedrick. Come on; you might still beat the rap, and if you get me out of this, I’ll do what I can for you.’
‘Not a chance,’ he said. ‘You don’t know Barratt. He’s the last man anyone in their right minds would cross. So long, Malloy. I hope it’s quick.’
I sat still, watching the beam of his torch growing smaller and smaller as he walked down the long tunnel. And as the light grew fainter, the darkness around me came down with a choking thickness that brought me out into a cold sweat. I snapped on the torch. The white light sent the heavy, solid blackness back, almost as if it was alive. But it crouched just beyond the beam, waiting to pounce on me again.
My first move was to examine the chain locked around my middle. It was too strong to snap, and the padlock was solid and heavy. I traced the chain to the wall. It was fastened to a staple, embedded in solid rock. I caught hold of the chain in both hands, braced one foot against the wall and strained backwards. Nothing happened. I braced myself again and pulled until my sinews creaked. I might just as well have tried to pull over the Empire State Building.
I flopped back on the rock floor, panting, my heart going like a steam-hammer. If I was to get out of here, somehow or other, I had to work the staple loose. No one would ever think of looking for me here. Paula would go to the apartment house on Jefferson Avenue. She might find Maxie. But that wouldn’t get her very far, or me either. She’d go to Mifflin. But what could Mifflin do? Why should anyone look for me in the shaft of a disused, ruined mine?
I was getting into a panic now. It was like being buried alive. My eyes kept going to the heap of tattered clothes lying about ten yards from me: all that remained of Ferris.
There s some kind of animal down here.
All right, I admit it. I was ready to run whimpering into a corner if I could have run. I was ready to yell for help at the top of my voice if it would have done any good. I’ve had the shakes more than once in my life, but nothing like the shakes I was getting now.
For about a minute I sat as still as death, getting hold of myself, telling myself not to dive off the deep end, calling myself every insulting name I could think of, while I fought off the panic that sat on my shoulder and leered into my face. I fought it off, but it left me sweating and cold and as limp as a length of boiled string.
I got out my cigarettes, split half of them before I could get my ringers round one of them. I got it alight, and lay back against the wall, drawing in smoke, and blowing it out again while I stared at the white light of the torch that stood between me and the darkness.
I had no idea how long I was going to be down here. The battery wouldn’t last much longer than a couple of hours of continuous burning. I’d have to conserve it, even if it did mean sitting in the dark.
I counted my cigarettes. I had seventeen. Even that little red spark could be comforting, and while I smoked the torch would have to go out.
So I put it out.
Back came the choking, heavy darkness so thick I could feel it, and with it came my panic, nudging my elbow, making me sweat again.
I sat there in that awful dank darkness for what seemed an hour, smoking the cigarette, watching the glowing end, con-centrating on it and trying to forget the black walls that pressed in on me.
When I couldn’t stand it any longer, I switched on the torch. I had sweated right through my clothes, and my watch told me I’d been sitting in the darkness for eight minutes.
I began to get worried then: really worried. If I was ready to walk up a wall after eight minutes of darkness, what would I be like in an hour, a day or even two days?
I put the torch on the floor by my side and laid hold of the chain again. I pulled and jerked at it in a mounting frenzy, until I heard myself yelling curses at it. I stopped that, and sat down again. I felt as if I’d run ten miles; even the muscles in my legs were fluttering. Then I heard something.
Up to now the only sound in this old shaft, a hundred feet below ground, had been my breathing, the thump-thump- thump of my heart and the fainter tick of my watch. But now a new sound made me turn my head and look into the darkness.
I listened, holding my breath, my mouth half open, my heart hammering. Nothing. Slowly I reached for the torch, sent the beam down the long tunnel. Still nothing. I turned off the light and waited. Minutes ticked by. Then it came again: a gentle rustle, something moving cautiously, a pebble dislodged: sharp, violent sounds in the silence; sounds that wouldn’t have been heard except for the quiet of this shaft where a feather settling on the ground would have been a disturbance.
I touched the button on the torch. The beam cut into the darkness like a razor cutting into flesh.
For a split second I saw something that looked like two glow-ing sparks: something that could have been the eyes of some animal; then they vanished, and I was struggling up on my knees, leaning forward, peering, trying to see.
You’ll find I’m good at paying off old scores. I gave him full marks. Those few seconds were, up to now, about the worst seconds I have ever lived through, and the thought that it wasn’t over gave me a sick feeling in my belly. I lit another cigarette, and kept the light on. I decided I’d keep it on until it went out, then I’d make the best of it, but so long as the light was on, I felt pretty sure whatever it was out there in the darkness would keep its distance.
I sat there smoking, listening to the thud of my heart and trying to think how to get the staple out. But my brain felt as if it was wrapped up in cotton wool. My thoughts kept darting into the darkness; useless and frightened.
Then I saw the red embers again; just out of reach of the light of the torch. I didn’t move, but kept my eyes on the two fiery beads that hung in the darkness, watching me.
More minutes ticked by. I couldn’t make up my mind if they were coming closer or I was imagining it. So I waited, cold, stiff, scared, holding my breath for as long as I could, breathing silently through my open mouth when I had to.
They were coming closer: very cautiously and silently, and something was beginning to take shape. I could make out a ferret-shaped head and the outline of a sleek, round back. Still I didn’t move. One of my legs had gone to sleep, but I scarcely noticed it. I wanted to see what I was up against. I hadn’t long to wait. Into the beam of the torch moved a rat. Not an ordinary rat, but a monster: a nightmare of a rat, almost as big as a full-grown cat, measuring at a guess over two feet from nose to tail.