SUNGLASSES AND ROCKETS Part 1 : New Moon

THE LAST STRAW

"Doctor," Darwin replied, "What happened with the detector?

Please! I thought, anguished.

"Forget it," he responded: "It's ruined."

The world came crashing down around me. I could go on no longer. It was too much.

"Darwin!" I exclaimed, almost fainting. "We have to talk to the doctor! We'll never find the entrance to the mine picking at the walls!" I shone my flashlight around the walls of the enormous gallery. "Look!"

"Maybe you're right..."

"Maybe?" I asked indignantly. "We have to get out of this prison as soon as possible, or we're going to die!"

I kept my flashlight on the one-and-only end of the cave. It was the entrance, which had been sealed up by the avalanche.

"Look here," I told my friend. "That's where we should pick! We should use the little energy that we have in order to escape! Besides, we have no water! There's only clay!"

Without waiting to hear Darwin's comments, I got down determinedly from the mound and went towards the doctor, who just then was going back to the shore of the almost rock-solid river of mud.

"Doctor!" I shouted. "Wait!"

The doctor stopped. He turned around, shining his light on me. I had to speak to him as soon as possible. The experiences I had been through the last few days had turned me into a wise man - at least, that's what I thought.

"Doctor Moses Masterton," I coolly announced. "We have to leave this cave as soon as possible! It's time to blow up the entrance to the cavern with explosives!"

"Gordo," he responded calmly, "blowing up the rocks covering the entrance with explosives would make the cavern collapse. Besides, we lost the plastic explosives."

"Well then, we should use the little energy we have left to pick at the entrance and open a passageway to the outside! We should escape!"

"That's not a good idea," he dismissed. "What we should do as soon as possible is find the entrance to the mine."

"How?" I answered. "The cavern is gigantic!"

"We'll find the entrance."

"But..."

"Rest, and then keep picking," he interrupted me.

It was impossible to reason with such a stubborn character. I should approach the subject differently. I should argue like a scientist. Use numbers.

"Okay," I said, "Just one thing still bothers me."

"Talk."

I lit up the walls of the enormous cavern. I accidentally came across Vanessa, who was already picking at the walls. Ah! Seeing that lovely woman in the middle of the murky darkness was true refreshment for the eyes.

"Well?" I heard the doctor say.

I got back my concentration.

"Yes, yes," I replied, clearing my throat. "We're at a longitude of about 600 feet of walls on either side in this immense gallery."

"I agree."

"And I suppose that the doorway isn't very much higher than the shore; which leaves us with a maximum height of 11 feet to find the entrance."

"I had thought of that."

"Then," I said, more confidently, "we have a leeway of 600 by 11 feet, which makes..."