By this time I was eager to go below and explore our discovery. "Who'll go with me?" I asked. No response.
"Well, then I'll go alone," I declared.
And with that I fastened the rope around my waist, made sure it was securely fastened to the ground a few feet outside the opening, and got ready to go below.
2
A Big Cave is Discovered
The three of us talked over the matter of my descent and several safety precautions were formulated. About this time I decided I would be much happier about the whole thing if I could persuade one of the others to go below with me. At least one should remain on the surface at all times in case anything should go wrong.
"Sam," I said, "how about you coming down with me?"
He seemed to want to see what would happen to me first, I guess, so I then asked him if I went first would he follow. He said nothing.
"We'll only stay down for a short while," I assured him. "Perhaps a half hour or so."
Sam did not like the idea of going down in such a place. I told him it was easy, so I made arrangements to go down into this cavity and I did.
After getting down in there I could look back out and talk to him, so I finally persuaded him to come down, which he did. That left Brown on top.