In a few moments they had completely bared the metal plate, and could now see it was about ten by four feet, and hinged on one side.
"Looks like a trap door."
"Sure does. Lend a hand—let's see if we can open it."
The crack along the edge was not wide enough for the gloved fingers of their suits, so Jon inserted his shovel tip in the crack as a prize. Jak did the same and after many attempts—for it was much heavier even than they expected—they managed to lift the edge a bit.
"Can you hold it alone a sec?" Jak asked.
"Try," Jon threw his whole weight on the end of the shovel handle, while Jak quickly found a small stone and wedged it in the opening. Then, with Jon moving his shovel farther and farther back along the edge, Jak pushed ever larger stones closely behind him, and they finally managed to get the cover high enough so they were able to tip it back, but only after considerable straining and puffing.
"What do you suppose is down there?" Jon hopped about, digging at the sand with his boot tip.
"Don't know, but it has sure been a long time since anyone used this." Jak spoke slowly.
"How can you tell?"
"Because of all the sand that's sifted in here, silly. You don't think this is just a box of sand, do you? It could have been here thousands and thousands of years."