Never was there so gratifying a sight as the shaft of sunlight filtering down through the entrance. Fumbling, eager hands fastened onto the rope ladder and Jim White hungrily climbed over the rocky ledge to the warmth and cheer of the New Mexico sunshine.
“I waited a minute till my bones thawed out. Then I turned and stared back into the cave. It had beaten me—driven me out. I stared at it the way I’d stare at a stubborn bronco, telling myself that someday I would conquer it!”
Riding back to camp, busy with thoughts of the adventure and pondering about the possible extent of the cave, Jim White felt an increasing desire to see it all. He must see it, he felt, but wondered if it wouldn’t be better to get someone to go back with him. Somehow the mammoth, buried fairyland wouldn’t seem so overwhelming if someone else were along to relieve the silent, dark loneliness. The boys at camp, however, refused to take seriously Jim’s account of the bats and the glittering under-ground palace. The more he talked of it, the more they howled their disbelief.
“When they found out I was serious, they decided I had just naturally gone ‘plumb loco’, or else I’d set out to be the world’s champion cow-punchin’ liar! Try as I would, I couldn’t find a single cowboy who would agree to go with me. They just weren’t the least bit interested!”
JIM AND THE KID SPEND THREE DAYS IN THE CAVERNS
At the Lucas X-X-X Ranch there was a Mexican boy about fifteen years old who worked steadily and said little. He couldn’t speak much English, and the cowboys were not gifted with much Spanish. Jim White never did know the boy’s real name or what became of him finally, but during those days called the young Mexican, as did the others, the “Kid”.
One day, the Kid called the exploring White aside and overcame language difficulties enough to offer his company on that risky trip into the cave! Jim accepted the offer readily enough! To return to the scene of his lonely adventure had by now become a consuming desire. Among Jim White’s acquaintances, if only “the Kid” would make the exploration with him, it was still a lot better than going alone.
Elephant Ears in the Queen’s Chamber
Five days from his first trip into the cave, Jim White and the Kid set out with a couple of crude torches, a canteen of water, a sack of grub and a can of kerosene. Right up to the moment of departure, White expected his volunteer-companion to get cold feet and back out of the project, but at last they were headed together toward the Big Hole.