Free Flight of the Eagles by Gilbert L. Morris Page B

another teenager—and probably a spoiled one, at that—was going to be on the Quest. But as he greeted the Sleeper, Josh tried to hide his thoughts. He smiled quickly and said, “Hello. I’m Josh Adams, and this is Sarah Collingwood.”
    â€œI’m Dave Cooper,” replied the Sleeper.
    They shook hands awkwardly.
    After a pause, Dave prompted, “Well, I guess you’ll have to tell me what’s going on.”
    Sarah began to explain.
    Josh grumpily thought that she elaborated and exaggerated too much. Showing off, he thought.
    â€œYou see, Dave, there are seven of us, we think,” Sarah was saying. “We have to wake up all of them. Now that there are four of us—”
    â€œWhere’s the other one?” Dave asked.
    â€œWell, a man named Elmas—wait a minute, I’ll have to tell you about the Sanhedrin—”
    â€œWe’d better get to the others,” Josh interrupted. “It’s going to take a while to tell all this. You can tell it as we go, Sarah.”
    They left the capsule and made their way toward the Jaws of Fate. Sarah led the way, rapidly telling Dave all the story. Josh trailed behind.
    When they got to the Jaws of Fate, Dave and Sarah passed through easily, but just as Josh cleared the opening, the Jaws snapped together, barely missing him.
    â€œWhat—what was that?” Dave whispered, swallowing as he stared at the massive steel teeth.
    â€œOh, nothing,” Josh said casually, though his voice was not quite steady. “Let’s get going.”
    By the time they reached the others, Sarah had explained the Quest to Dave.
    She had also prepared him for what he would see. Thus Dave showed no fear when Volka suddenly stepped toward them.
    The giant grunted. “I see you got him.”
    â€œHow’s Crusoe?” Josh asked at once. “And Mat?”
    â€œI think Mat is better. Crusoe—not so good.”
    The old man, in fact, looked terrible. He was pale, and his heart seemed to be skipping a beat now and then.
    Josh said worriedly, “He’s really sick. I don’t see how we can travel until he gets better. He needs some rest and something to eat.”
    Josh tried to think, but the ordeal in the Ghost Marsh had drained him mentally as well as physically. “I just don’t know what to do,” he muttered wearily and slumped to the ground.
    None of the group spoke for a moment.
    Then Dave said slowly, “Well, of course I’m in the dark about most of this, but you all look beat to me. I don’t think any of you could get very far without some rest and food—especially Mr. Crusoe.”
    â€œWe know that. I just said so,” Josh snapped. “Where can we get something to eat? That’s what we need to know.”
    â€œFrom the cave,” Dave said. “Didn’t you see the room next to where I was? They showed it to me before I went to sleep.”
    â€œI didn’t notice,” Josh said, trying to dismiss the information.
    â€œIt’s full of all kinds of stuff—food, clothes, supplies.”
    The others began to look a little more encouraged.
    â€œSay,” Dave said, suddenly, “I’ve got an idea! Why don’t we go back and stay in the cave? It’s safe there— especially with those jaws! And we can rest and get some food inside us. I’m starving, myself.”
    Dave organized them into some kind of order, with Volka carrying Crusoe, and the rest taking the few supplies. Soon they were moving toward the cave.
    Sarah pulled at Josh’s arm.
    â€œDave is pretty super after all, isn’t he? He sure learned everything quickly enough. And now he thought of the cave. I think we’ll be all right now.”
    â€œIt’s going to take more than Mr. Wonderful to get us through,” Josh grumped.
    Sarah looked at him in amazement. “What’s wrong? Don’t you like Dave?”
    Josh could not answer