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Descending slowly, testing each foothold fir down three abreast, ht Loch coht of his own, but Bill-E refuses to relinquish either of his torches I’ve been to his house I know that Ma and Pa Spleen keep several torches around the place, ever fearful of power cuts, determined never to be left stranded in the dark He could have easily brought another torch for Loch A ht? I don’t enquire

It’s stuffy down here, warht it would be stale and thin, but there’s a good supply of it Easy to breathe

Part of me knows this isht, the face, the whispers, the throbbing today It wants me to assert myself, demand we make for the surface, tell Dervish, leave all this for experienced potholers to explore

But a larger part thinks it’s thrilling We’re the first humans to co and this wasn’t used by Lord Sheftree, maybe we’re the first people to ever find it Maybe it will turn out to be an aet to na a celebrity’s girlfriend

You’re an idiot, the cautious part of runt back

I lose track of time pretty quickly Have we been down here ten minutes? Twenty? The hands ofto start fiddling around in the dark, rolling upboth hands on the rock face and all o carefully, one hold at a time Foot-hand-foot-hand-foot-hand-foot Bill-E and Loch are the saht wrist by a strap The light bounces off the rocks I’d have to stop, turn around, lean back and point the light down to get a clear viehat lies beneath But I’ht of slipping sliding tu into the unknown

Foot-hand-foot-hand-foot-hand-foot-ha-

I touch ground Or a very large overhanging rock Can’t tell yet "Wait," I call softly to the others, who are slightly higher than me "Let me feel around a bit I think" I extend my foot outwards More rock I tap it-solid Gently lower ht to the wall Gradually letting rip and stand unsupported The ground holds andup asp

A cave Not the largest I’ve ever been in, but a reasonable size Lots of stalactites and stalaght I should have heard the noise before now, except

"Grubbs," Loch hisses "Are you OK? What is it?"

"I’m fine," I whisper, then raise ht on the floor aroundsure I’ve truly struck bottom I spot the shovel which Bill-E dropped "It’s OK," I tell my friends "You can come down"

They detach theht froaze around in aonder

The formations are beautiful, some of the most incredible I’ve ever seen Water drips slowly from the tips ofI recall lectures from a couple of class trips to caves It can take thousands of years for spikes to form Thousands more for them to alter If I lived to be a hundred and came back here just before my death, this cave would probably look no different than it does right now

"It’s a a step forward, head tilted back, looking up to where the roof stretches ahead high above us "How can this have been here all this ti?"

"The world’s full of places like this," Bill-E answers even though I wasn’t really asking him "We only see a fraction of what’s on offer People find new caves, mountains, rivers, all the ti the lorious, la-dee-da-dee-dum But I don’t see any treasure"

"Peasant!" Bill-E snarls "This is the treasure You couldn’t buy a cave like this, not with all the gold and diamonds in the world"

"I don’t want to," Loch says sourly "What good’s a daold and jewels" He looks around and spits "If there are any"

Bill-E turns, teht, Bill-E Not about the cave not being worth anything-it’s a for a different sort of treasure We should check to see if it’s here If it isn’t, that doesn’t matter-we’ll still have found the cave But if there’s treasure too, all the better"

Bill-E relaxes "Yeah, let’s look The cave isn’t that big If there’s treasure, it shouldn’t be too hard to find"

We move forward, three explorers in wonderland Even Loch looks ih he isn’t bloay by the cave’s beauty in the saers coiant, solid structures which join the floor and ceiling One is wider than the three of us put together, aa couple of massive chimneys

"I’ve never been down a cave without a guide, or in such a se Quiet Peaceful"

"Hey," Loch grins "You know my favourite bit when I’hts out so you can see what it looks like pitch black"

"No way!" I say quickly

"Uh-uh!" Bill-E chimes in

"What’s the hs "Scared of the dark?"

Bill-E and I share a look Neither of us wants to switch the torches off But Loch’s sly

If we don’t e, we’ll never hear the end of it

"Go on," I ulps and turns one light out, then the other

The cave feels ination but I believe I can sense shapes in the shadoaiting to form fully in the darkness so they can leap forward and pounce on us unseen My finger hovers over the switch onto look like a coward and not wanting to fall prey to forces of ical malevolence

Before I can make a decision, Loch does it for er down hard and jerks it backwards, quenching the light

My heart races My breath stops The walls seerind shut around er’s numb from where Loch pressed down on it I can’t find the switch! I can’t turn the light on! The shapes are co! In a second or two they’ll be upon us, all claws, sharp teeth and

Bill-E switches one of his torches on He’s chuckling weakly "That was cool"

I look around-nothing The cave looks exactly the saer I force a short laugh and switch my torch on, then press ahead with Bill-E and Loch We continue exploring

After half an hour I don’t feel too hot It’s nothing to do with the temperature of the cave-it’s warmer down here than it was on the surface-but with the time I check h above, hidden fro, and tonight it’s as full as it’s ever going to be

I get the saht before, only stronger, relentless In horror e into olves unless they sight the moon-if it’s hidden by clouds, or they’re locked away, it doesn’t affect them But that’s rot The h any wall or covering and work her wicked char about the treasure and whether or not it’s here Loch doesn’t think it is-we’ve been around the cave a few ti-but Bill-E still insists it could be

"You don’t think Lord Sheftree would have left it lying on the floor for anyone to stuues "He’d have thought about so down like we have, or h some other entrance he didn’t know about He’d have hidden the treasure, stuck it out of sight, so that even if a stranger wandered in by accident, they wouldn’t find it, not unless they actively searched for it"

"So where do you think it is, geniass?" Loch sneers "We’ve looked everywhere Unless it’s invisible treasure, I don’t think-"

"We’ve looked nowhere," Bill-E shouts, and his voice echoes tinnily back at us "Soht be hollow," he says, quieter this tiht be buried in one of themites," Loch says dubiously

"We have time," Bill-E smiles "And maybe it’s not down here at all" He points up at the walls "There are ledges, holes and tunnels, er caves This could be nothing e, interlinked caverns We’ve lots of exploring still to do We’ve only scratched the surface"

"Let’s do it another tih I’o home"

"Not yet," Loch snaps "I don’t have to be horoan

"Well, Gran and Grandad will be expecting me back soon," he says "But it’s not like I’ve never been late before I’ll tell them I ith you, that we lost track of time-which isn’t a total lie"

I want to screahhaer The throbbing’s back, stronger than ever We need to get out now, quick, before

Or ained the monsters in the dark? Maybe it’s just my sickness that we have to fear and this is only a beautiful, eerie cave

Even so, if I turn into a olf here, that’s h for any pair of huround with a supernaturally strong wolfen beast, Bill-E and Loch wouldn’t last five o We’ll come back tomorrow and explore fully But it’s dark up top-it’s night We said we’d go when the hts and try a different approach "We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves If we come home late, caked inquestions"

"He’s got a point," Bill-E concedes "Gran and Grandad put Sherlock Holmes and Watson to shame We should play it safe, act nor here a lot"

"OK," Loch sighs "But one more search before we leave" He points to the top of the waterfall, where it co out of the sheer rock wall fifteen e holes We can climb up pretty easily I want to have a peek at theo"

"I dunno," Bill-E says "They’re fairly high and that wall’s steeper than the one we climbed down"