“Now cometh the hard part,” Joe said, wiping the sweat off his face and his grotesquely long nose.
The tunnel was just large enough for Joe to crawl up it, but his shoulders would rub against the sides and his head against the ceiling unless he lowered it. It went at an approximately 45-degree angle upward.
“Wrap clothth around your kneeth and handth,” Joe said. “Othervithe, you’re going to rub them bloody. You’ll probably do tho anyvay.”
Frigate, Alice, Behn, and Croomes returned just then with canteens refilled at The River. Joe half-emptied his.
“Now,” he said, “ve thyould vait avhile until everybody’th taken a good healthy thyit. Vhen I vath vith thothe Egyptianths, ve neglected that precauthyon. Halfvay up, I couldn’t thtand it no longer, tho I emptied my bowelth.”
He laughed thunderously.
“You thyould have heard thothe nothelethth little fellowth cuthth! They carried on thomething terrible. They vath hopping mad with no room to hop! Haw, haw!”
He wiped the tears from his eyes. “Jethuth! Did they thmell bad vhen they finally crawled out! Then they got even madder when they had to vath themthelveth off in The River. That vater’th ath cold ath a velldigger’th athth, ath Tham uthed to thay.”
More tears flowed as he thought about Clemens. He snuffled, and he wiped off his proboscis on his sleeve.
Joe hadn’t exaggerated the hardships. The tunnel was at least one mile long, every inch forward was an inch upward, and the air became increasingly thinner, though it howled through the shaft, and they had to drag their very heavy packs behind them. Moreover, for all they knew, the other end might have been plugged also. If it were, they would have to return to the base of the cliff.
Their joy at finding that the tunnel wasn’t sealed renewed their strength for a while. However, the palms of their hands, their fingers, their knees, and their toes were skinned, bleeding, and hurting. They were unable to walk steadily for some time.
The wind was stronger and colder here despite its thinness. Joe sucked the oxygen-scarce air into his great lungs.
“Vone good thing about it. Ve only need one drink, and ve’re loaded out of our thkullth.”
They would have liked to make camp there, but the place was too exposed.
“Cheer up,” Burton said. “Joe says that it’s only .a ten-mile walk to the next cataract.”
“The latht vone, the biggetht. You think the otherth vere noithy. Vait until you hear thith vone.”
Burton strapped on his pack and staggered on, his knees feeling as if they’d rusted. Joe came close behind him. Fortunately, the tableland was comparatively level and free of rock rubble. However, Burton had only the tremendous thunder of the falls to guide him through the fog. When the sound became stronger, he veered back to the left. When it was weaker, he went back to the right. Nevertheless, he was probably making a fifteen-mile hike out of a ten-miler.
All had to stop often because of the lack of oxygen and to make sure that no one straggled. Every fourth person in the line kept his lamp on until Burton stopped and swore.
“Vhat’th the matter?”
“We’re not thinking straight in this air,” Burton said, gasping. “We only need one light. We’re wasting electricity. We can use a rope for all to hang onto.”
With the line tied around his waist and the others grasping it, they went on into the cold grayness.
But after a while they were too weak to go a step more. Despite the wind, they lay down on and under cloths and tried to sleep. Burton awoke from a nightmare and turned his light on his watch. They’d been here ten hours.
He got them up, and they ate more than the rationing schedule allowed for. An hour later, the blackish face of a rock wall loomed out of the mists. They were at the foot of another obstacle.
42
JOE MILLER HADN’T COMPLAINED MUCH THOUGH HE HAD groaned softly for the last half of the hike. He was ten feet tall and weighed eight hundred pounds and was as strong as any ten of Homo sapiens put together. But his giantism had disadvantages. One was mat he suffered from fallen arches. Sam often called him the Great Flatfoot, and with very good reason. It hurt Joe to walk much, and when he was resting his feet still often hurt.