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.Ralph Gill, will be willing to help youPage 24ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlall he can.I will too.So if you'll just let us know when and how you want togo about your job-"He let the sentence hang in mid-air."Well, sir," Ken said, "we think it would be a good idea if we just took ageneral look around the site today.We'll want to interview you and Dr.Gill,of course, but we don't want to take up your working time for that.""We might have a talk at our lodgings this evening," Talbott suggested."Fine," Ken said."We're staying at Mrs.Brown's, on Sagebrush Avenue," Talbott went onhelpfully."You can't miss it.It's the only boardinghouse in town.""Fine," Ken repeated."Shall we say eight thirty?""Fine," Ken said again, controlling his impatience to explore the dig."Excellent." Talbott nodded."By the time you come back up here tomorrow,then, you'll know better what you're looking at.So this afternoon we'll justgive you a quick survey.Is that the plan?"A HUNDRED CENTURIES TOO LATE 59"That would be perfect, so far as we're concerned," Sandy assured him."Well, come along then." Talbott turned toward the path."Don't forget thatplaster, Gus," he reminded his foreman.Parks nodded and started toward the station wagon."One thing I'd like to do today," Sandy said, as they toiled up the path, "isto get a good look at the cave itself, so I'll know the kind of photographicequipment I might want to bring tomorrow.""I shouldn't think it would give you any special trouble," Talbott said."Oh, no," Sandy agreed."I don't think it will, either.But any dark place-anyplace that has to be artificially lighted-"Talbott turned his head."But it's not in the least dark," he said."It isn't?" Sandy was puzzled."You mean the entrance to the cave is so largethat the whole interior is brightly lighted?"Talbott's sudden laugh startled them both.He paused on the steep path andturned to look back at them."It's the word cave that has confused you," hesaid."Oh, it's true there was a cave here, perhaps as recently as tenthousand years ago.But the roof long ago collapsed entirely, completelyfilling in what was once an opening in the hillside.Now we're digging out allthe fallen rock and other debris, and getting down to the original cave floor.But our dig is actually just a huge open pit.That's why I was puzzled for amoment when you spoke about darkness.The fact is we sometimes have to stretcha tarpaulin over the area where we're actually digging, to give us a littleshade from this hot desert sun."60 THE MYSTERY OF GALLOWS CLIFFNeither of the boys could speak for a moment."I see," Sandy said finally.Talbott grinned."You both look as if I'd just ruined your whole story," hesaid, "as if you'd expected to be writing about some fantastic undergroundcavern, complete with tunnels and secret passages and what not.You're ahundred centuries too late for that."Ken managed to grin back at him."I'm afraid we were looking forward tosomething a little more mysterious than a wide-open pit.""Yes," Sandy said, "we were.We certainly were."CHAPTER VISURPRISE FOR SANDYthat afternoon on El Diablo always remained a kind of blur in the boys' minds.They could remember reaching the top of the path, on the heels of the agileDr.Talbott, to find themselves on a flat area that looked as if it had beenhacked out of the hillside by the strokes of some gigantic ax.It measuredabout a hundred feet on its outer rim, and ran back twice that distance to therough-hewn rock wall that rose almost vertically above its far side.In the center of the area was a pit fifty feet long, half as wide, and almosttwenty-five feet deep at its far end.The nearer portions of the excavationPage 25ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlwere less deep, the shallower ones leading to the deeper ones like a series ofhuge descending steps.Ladders led down to the deepest level, which, thearchaeologist had informed them, was probably the actual floor of the cave atthe time when it had served as a habitation for prehistoric Stone Age men.Itwas on that level that bones and stone tools at least twelve thousand yearsold had been found.Ken and Sandy could remember climbing down those ladders, and listening to along enthusiastic lecture by Dr.Talbott, interrupted now and then by6162 THE MYSTERY OF GALLOWS CLIFFcomments from his eager young assistant, the round-faced Dr.Ralph Gill.Theycould recall handling the stone tools that were shown them, and they hopedthey had made appropriate remarks over finds that Talbott and Gill obviouslythought were extremely important.They could remember climbing up the ladders again, and making their politefarewells to the two scientists.But until they slithered down the path totheir car, carefully edged it out of its parking space, and looked at theirwatches before starting on the zigzag road down El Diablo, they didn't knowhow long they had been on the hill."Two whole hours!" Sandy muttered under his breath."Two totally wastedhours-just because I thought I had such a bright idea! A tunnel to Mexico! Imust have a tunnel in my head!""Save the dramatics," Ken told him."In the first place we would have had tocome up here, whether you'd had your idea or not.Mort and Ramon are the oneswho said we had to have a cover, and our assignment here is just that.We wereall set to do a story on this dig, even before you had your idea.So don'tpretend that things are worse than they are.""They couldn't be," Sandy said morosely."And Mort and Ramon-that's anotherthing.Now we've got to tell Ramon-and Mort too, if he passed the word on tohim-that my brilliant inspiration has fallen on its face."Til do that," Ken said quickly."Well stop at the first phone we come to, andI'll call Ramon.""Thanks," Sandy muttered."Don't thank me," Ken told him."It's the least I can do.They wouldn't knowabout it if I hadn't opened my big mouth this morning."SURPRISE FOR SANDY 63Ken was guiding the car around the first of the hairpin turns as he finishedspeaking.He didn't talk any more after that, in order to concentrate on hisdriving.And Sandy roused himself enough to watch his own side of the narrowtrail and warn Ken when the convertible's wheels were getting dangerouslyclose to the edge.But once they were at the bottom of the zigzagging road, and had bounced overthe desert trail to the paved highway, Sandy again voiced his disgust."I don't see how I can put in another couple of hours with Talbott and Gilltonight," he said."It's not that the stuff isn't interesting-it is [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]