Free Frog Whistle Mine by Des Hunt Page B

were signs of new chipping, maybe as recent as today.
    ‘What are you going to do?’ asked Rose.
    ‘Check the other branches,’ he replied, grimly.
    They backtracked to the wagon. Tony took the left-most branch, the one that led to the glow-worms.
    Not far along, they came to a recent sand fall showing footprints. There were two sets: one leading in and one leading out—whoever it was had left. Tony quickly went back to the wagon to check the last place where they hadseen the prints in the main tunnel—there was now a set heading out.
    ‘He’s gone,’ he said when he got back to Rose.
    ‘Good,’ was all she said, but Tony could see her body relax and her breathing settle.
    ‘C’mon. Let’s have a look at these glow-worms.’
    They had not gone far before tiny pinpricks of light could be seen on the roof. The tunnel was now only limestone, with muddy tidemarks showing where it sometimes flooded.
    Not much further on, their torches picked up a wall of limestone seemingly blocking the way. Tony was gazing at the glow-worms as he walked when Rose yelled out in alarm. ‘Watch out!’
    He stopped dead, just centimetres short of where the path disappeared into a black hole.
    They stood shining their lamps into the hole. The bottom was several metres below.
    Then they heard the talking—a murmur of conversation, distorted by echoing from the rocks.
    ‘I’m going down there,’ said Tony.
    ‘No! Tony, no.’
    ‘I’m going down,’ he said, loudly, as if trying to convince himself. ‘I want to know what’s going on.’ Then more gently: ‘You’ll be okay. You’ve got a light. Just scream if anything happens.’
    ‘I’ll be able to do that all right,’ she said with feeling.
    The way was steep but not difficult. The layered nature of the limestone provided plenty of foot and handholds.At one stage he paused and looked up: the hole continued up past the path to a roof covered in thousands of glow-worms.
    All the time the talking was getting louder, yet not loud enough for the people to be directly below him. They had to be up some sort of side passage.
    The bottom was a tiny beach of sand, trampled with footprints, yet only a few people could have fitted on it. At one side was a small stream. The murmuring came from where the water flowed into a hole in the rock. Tony moved to investigate, his heart almost beating in his mouth. He shone the light into the hole—nothing—except more limestone and the talking.
    Maybe there was another chamber; one with a different entrance. There was just enough space to squeeze along a little, and he did so, as far as he could. There was still nothing to see, but the noise was very loud as if it were right by him.
    Then he burst out laughing—loud and long.
    ‘What is it?’ Rose yelled.
    ‘Water flowing down a small waterfall,’ he called back. ‘There’s nobody here.’
    ‘Then come back up. It’s scary here by myself.’
    ‘Yeah, in a minute.’ He wasn’t going back up until he had explored further. The footprints must have led there for some reason.
    He found the reason tucked beside a group of old stalagmites poking up through the sand. There were brown bottles of various liquids, some yellow cans, a gas burner,and flasks in a range of sizes. It was a laboratory of some sort.
    He put his hand near the gas burner—it was still hot. It had just been turned off. Around the ground were crystals of uranium ore. Tony guessed it was a laboratory to extract uranium.
    When he got back to the top, Rose was plainly pleased to see him. ‘Don’t ever do that again,’ she said quietly. ‘It was horrible being up here and not knowing what was happening to you.’
    ‘I was OK.’
    ‘Did you find anything?’
    ‘Yes,’ he said, smugly.
    ‘Well? Are you going to tell me?’
    ‘I found all the equipment used to extract uranium from those crystals.’
    ‘What? Why would he want to do that?’
    ‘I don’t know yet. But I bet he’s up to no good.’
    They then set