"I made it all right," I replied. "Come on down, and bring that torch that is in the back of the wagon. It's black as night down here."
Lynn ran to the wagon to get the torch as Andy prepared to come down the ladder. He came down more quickly than I did, probably because I had blazed the way and he knew it was safe.
Before I knew it, Lynn had entered the opening and was coming down the ladder. In my excitement I forgot to ask him to remain outside for safety's sake. If the rope ladder should slip or in any way become insecure, we could never have gotten out and would surely have died in the cave.
But my attention was certainly not on safety at that moment. I was much too excited about what we would find.
We lit the torch, but the cave was so large that the light of our one torch didn't help much.
Our first concern was whether or not a bear or some other wild beast might attack us. We searched the floor of the cave for tracks, but not a sign of man or beast did we see. The floor of the cave seemed devoid of any evidence of any walking creature having preceded us into this mammoth underground cavern.
Occasionally a bat would sail by, missing us by inches.
With the dim light of the torch we looked around and were struck speechless by the immensity of the great cave. We inched along over the floor of the cave which at times was rocky and difficult. We encountered large boulders and had to climb over them.
"What do you make of it?" asked Andy
"Biggest thing I ever saw underground," I answered. "Seems like we're suddenly in another world. Notice that peculiar odor?"