After hitching the mules to the trunk of a cedar tree, tugging the straps once to ensure that the straps were secure, Clara tramped back through the ferns toward the cave. She was dressed in a felt hat, a navy cotton shirt buttoned to the collar, brown linen trousers with a knife and a flint tucked into a sheath on the belt, and a pair of leather boots spattered with drops of paint. She could smell rain on the wind.
Theodore was waiting for her at the entrance to the cave, gripping the handle of a lantern.
“A proper adventure,” Clara said.
“Let’s just be careful,” Theodore said.
She stepped with him into the cave.
Beyond the entrance the cave expanded into a rocky oblong chamber with a craggy granite ceiling that hung low overhead. The air in the cave had a dampness. A scent of dust. A whiff of stone. Taking the lantern, she ventured deeper. Theodore hobbled along behind her, breathing heavily. She’d hoped to discover something in the cave, maybe even just a deer bone or a turtle skull or the skin of a snake, but there was nothing to see in the cave except for pebbles. As the sunshine became fainter the flickering amber light of the lantern seemed to brighten. Pebbles ground under the soles of her boots.
At the rear of the chamber the cave appeared to terminate in a glossy granite wall split down the center by a jagged crack.
After hesitating a moment, she crouched by the fissure, setting down the lantern.
Peering into the fissure, she stared at the darkness in the space beyond the reach of the light.
She realized she could feel a breeze.
“Looks a tight fit,” Theodore said.
She felt a nervous excitement.
“Let’s keep going,” Clara said.
And then, glancing back at him with a grin, she squeezed into the fissure.