Page 39 (2/2)
“I don’t know the answer to that, but one thing’s for certain: We’ve got a cave” Sam pointed, then turned the rudder and steered toward the cliff face, throttling down as he drew alongside it
The water here, ave off a faint iridescent shienerally indicated an outflow of fresh water Sa at his feet, pressed them to his eyes, and dipped his face into the water, which, despite being warmed by the sun all day, felt cool on his skin Dozens of fish darted this way and that, squabbling over invisible bits of nutrients being stirred up by the freshwater current
Saertip into the water and brought it to his lips It tasted only about a third as salty as true seawater
“Underground river?” Remi asked
“Has to be,” Sa the water from his hair
Though it was an uncommon phenomenon, sea caves in this area did on occasion link up with both solutional and fracture-guided caves, which in turn joined underground inland streams
“I’ll have to look at a e I wouldn’t be surprised if this system dumps out there Or even down to Salt Lake”
“Neither would I, but if you don’t mind I’d prefer we put that adventure on our ‘someday’ list”
“Deal” Sah tide was thirtyto explore the cave, they’d have to do it within the next hour lest they find the the full force of the outflow Ideally, they would enter at the end of the inflow, use the forty-five- to sixty-minuteof relatively calm current to explore the cave, then ride the outflow back out The problem was, this was not a typical closed sea cave The source of the underground river inside would create volatile currents that could either trap them inside or suck them into fracture tunnels that led into the bowels of the island Neither option appealed to Sam
He put the question to Remi, who replied, “I’d rather ait, but I know that look in your eye: You want to go in”
“Better we find out noe’re on the right track We’ve got seventy-five feet of rope We tie one end to a banyan root out here, the other end to et into trouble, I can haul myself out”
“And if you bonk your head and are out cold?”
“Every sixty seconds I’ll give the line three tugs I hy”
“Time limit?”
“Ten minutes, not a second more”