“Let me see if I can help you,” said his brother. “You heard Don describe the way he got in, or rather fell into, this place. Did you come in that way?”
Richard Sturdy shook his head.
“I’m sure I didn’t,” he answered. “I’d probably have some scratches and bruises to show for it just as the boys have.”
“Don’t you recall the one rock balanced on the other where we came in?” persisted the captain.
“All Greek to me,” was the reply.
“I see,” said the captain. “Now, Richard,” he went on solemnly, “the lives of all of us are in your hands. Somewhere, somehow, you found an entrance into this place. We’ve searched for it in vain. Our provisions will last for only a short time longer. When they are gone we shall starve. Try, Richard, try to remember. Concentrate your mind on it. Make a supreme effort.”
“I will,” promised Richard Sturdy, deeply moved. “Oh, if my mind were what it used to be! But I will make a desperate effort.”
“Good!” encouraged the captain. “In the meantime we’ll call it a day and settle down to sleep, so that you can think undisturbed.”
A quiet word to the others and the talk subsided, and they stretched out in slumber.
But Richard Sturdy lay awake far into the night cudgeling his brain in vain, and it was only toward morning that he fell exhausted into a deep sleep.