Gone to Ground (8 page)

Proving once again, as she thought later, that she was not cut out to be a dancer, the only part she got right was the shriek, which came out as loud and as high as a train whistle, reverberating off the walls of the small cave. The rest of her moves were closer to those choreographed by the Three Stooges than by any ballroom dancer. She missed her grab at Mark’s shirt, tangled her legs and wound up flat on the floor of the cave, looking up at the startled face of O’Reilly, and listening to the hysterical laughter of her beloved first born.

Sitting up she saw Mark doubled over laughing, and a growing suspicion began to invade her mind. Eyes narrowing, she looked at O’Reilly, and saw that his surprise was giving way to amusement, though he wasn’t convulsed as was his young companion.

“Mark.” Teeth gritted, glaring at her son, Maggie growled his name with a warning tone that should have sent him running in fear of his life.

The tone and the glare had no noticeable affect on him, and Mark continued to snort and sputter with laughter at the spectacle of his mother sitting on the floor.

The sight of Mark laughing freely began to melt the anger she’d felt after such a scare, though she didn’t lessen the intensity of her stare one iota. “Mark, if you want to live to your next birthday, you are going to come over here right now and help me up. Do you understand?” Maggie spoke in a low voice, full of menace.

“Yes, ma’am,” Mark said in a mock contrite manner, still choking on the laughter that kept bubbling to the surface. He walked over to his mother and held out his hand to assist her to her feet. Maggie reached up her hand, and just as Mark took it, she jerked backward, yanking him off balance and down into her lap. Into his ear she growled, “If you ever,
ever
scare me that way again, sir, I will personally rub hamburger into your hair and stake you out in front of a mountain lion’s den. Got it?”

The laughter flooded over again, but Mark managed to spit out a second, “Yes, ma’am,” before clambering to his feet and offering her his hand a second time. Maggie accepted and rose to her feet where she faced O’Reilly, who seemingly had enjoyed the interaction between mother and son immensely.

She shot him another glare from slitted eyes, whereupon he struggled to wipe the smile off his face, turned and started walking toward the far entrance of the cave, calling back in gruff tones, “Enough of this goofing around, we’ve got to get going.”

Falling into line behind him, Mark, followed by Maggie, headed out. Every once in a while, however, Maggie swore she could hear a strangled burst of laughter, quickly smothered, and she couldn’t tell if it came from Mark or from O’Reilly.

The pathway they took seemed to be slanting slightly upward, higher into the cliff’s face, and when Maggie questioned him, O’Reilly affirmed that yes, they were moving up toward the plateau. The smooth floor was primarily composed of the solid rock of the mountain, as well as dirt and various stones, from pebbles to large boulders, that had fallen from the roof. Here and there patches of sand glimmered in the yellowish light from the flashlight.

Several times they came upon openings to other caves on the right, or tunnels that led deeper into the ground, but each time they passed by, stopping briefly to make an arrow with some of the small loose rocks scattered along the floor. Finally, after it seemed they had walked for a hundred miles at least, O’Reilly began carefully examining the walls along the left hand side of the cave they were in, obviously looking for something. At one point he shut off his flashlight, bidding the others to do the same. Maggie, expecting that absolute darkness that one finds in caves and mines, was surprised to see a soft glow from somewhere ahead near floor level.

Moving slowly, O’Reilly scanned the floor of the cave, stopping suddenly at a crack in the sandstone next to the wall.

“This is it,” he said triumphantly.

“This is what?” Maggie asked doubtfully.

“Do we go down that hole?” chimed in an excited Mark.

O’Reilly nodded, knelt down on the cave’s floor and began to wriggle into the small opening feet first.

“Wait just a minute, here.”

O’Reilly stopped and looked up at an agitated Maggie. “Yeah, it’s fine. Trust me.” He grinned and proceeded to worm his way into the small opening.

Mark, looking ready to burst from excitement, looked back at his mother with a imploring expression. Maggie hesitated, then, as O’Reilly’s head disappeared into the hole, she released a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding, and nodded for Mark to follow.

Mark wasn’t about to wait for his mother to change her mind and practically dove into the hole head first, slithering on his stomach as though he were the snake he’d imitated so successfully earlier. Watching her son’s feet disappear into the hole, Maggie paused, then shook her head, got down to her hands and knees and proceeded to inch her way into the roughly triangular gap.

The passageway was straight and approximately ten feet long. Once Mark exited in front of her, Maggie could see a soft light, strong enough to make her flashlight unnecessary. At the end of the crack, she found herself in a horizontal cleft in the wall of a cave, about three feet above ground level. The cave itself was relatively small, about fifteen feet by twenty-five or so, and she could see the source of the light coming from a small opening in the wall directly opposite her.

O’Reilly was standing in the middle of the cave, next to Mark who was turning around taking in his surroundings with an astonished look on his face. Looking around herself as she clambered down from the ledge, she felt she had to agree with Mark, the cave was a source of amazement.

The sunlight admitted through the opening lit the cave with a soft glow that was reflected off millions of tiny crystals in the sand on the floor and throughout the walls, creating a shimmery effect. O’Reilly was telling Mark something about ancient waterways wearing down the sandstone and other soft rocks, while leaving a large vein of granite complete with quartz crystals to create the walls of the cavern. Whatever it was, the effect was stunning, she thought.

Maggie started to walk around the cave, when something caught her eye. Walking across the sandy floor, Maggie approached the far wall, reaching up to touch the shapes carved into it.

Mark, noticing his mother’s reaction started to hurry over, calling out, “What is it, Mom? Are they Indian petroglyphs? We learned about those in school. That would be so awesome. Do you think this was some sort of sacred spot or something?”

A smile crossed her face as she ran her hand gently over the rough wall. “No, it’s not Indian petroglyphs,” she said. She looked back at her approaching son and saw O’Reilly watching her with a smile on his face. “And I don’t think it’s a sacred spot to anyone, unless it’s to two young boys.” she said, meeting O’Reilly’s eyes and resting her hand on the characters carved into the walls, characters that made out the words,
Jimmy O’Reilly
and
Jason O’Reilly.

“Terrible what kids will do,” O’Reilly said ruefully, nodding toward the words.

“This is where your brother and you would come?” Mark asked excitedly.

“Yeah, this was a favorite place. Got us in a bit of trouble though. Want to see why?”

Mark eagerly turned away from the carved words and headed back over to where O’Reilly was standing, followed more slowly by Maggie. O’Reilly turned and, beckoning to them, moved toward the opening that let in the sunlight.

The crack was roughly triangular, three feet high and four feet across at the base, and about five feet off the ground. Underneath several rocks had been piled to allow a shorter observer to climb up and look out the opening.

Mark scrambled excitedly up on the rocks and leaned out the gap, exclaiming as he did so. “Mom, we’re right above the house. I can’t see it, but I can see the barn and the animals and all the rest of the pasture. This is so cool!”

Maggie stepped up beside Mark and looked out onto the meadow, noting the view this secluded spot gave them. She acknowledged to herself that O’Reilly had been right on the money thinking that this would give them the perfect hideout within a hideout. She’d never really noticed this little opening far up in the cliff before, and she was sure that if they were careful, no intruders would be able to see them from the floor of the valley. At the same time they would be able to spy on anyone who entered the pasture area.

Looking back at O’Reilly with a quizzical expression on her face she asked, “What got you into trouble in this place? Was it because you weren’t supposed to go into the caves?”

“No, we were allowed to explore a little, as long as we used obvious markers to indicate where we were going, took plenty of batteries for our flashlights, and weren’t gone over a half hour at a time. No, we got in trouble for something a little different than that.” There was a half embarrassed look on his face.

“Okay, give,” Maggie commanded. “What were the sins of the O’Reilly brothers? What do I have to watch out for?” A huge grin split her face.

“Well, you see Jason and I found this place on one of our visits to Hideaway with our dad. He was working this pasture and he brought us with him for a sort of a treat. We spent several days headquartering in the house. We thought it was pretty neat that we could see the people and they didn’t see us, and that’s where the idea came from.” He hesitated.

“The next time we came, we brought a package of water balloons we’d picked up on a trip into town, and several canteens.”

“Somehow I think I know what’s coming,” Maggie said in failing tones while Mark watched O’Reilly, avidly listening.

“Yeah, well, we got up here and filled the balloons. It wasn’t easy without a hose and some real water pressure, but we managed.”

“How?” asked Mark, excitement growing. “Those balloons are tough. I’ve tried to fill them without a tap or hose and haven’t been able to do it.”

Maggie put her head in her hands, shaking it in despair, and slumped in a sign of defeat. With a glance at her, O’Reilly continued in contrite tones belied by the smile on his face .

“I guess it’s sort of gross, but we would fill our mouths with the water, then blow it into the balloons.”

“Awesome!”

Maggie just groaned at the image of mayhem to come as a result of Mark’s new education.

“Well, it took awhile, but we eventually got several balloons filled enough. Then it was just a matter of waiting.” O’Reilly laughed at his recollections. “Mom had come with us that time, and she was a horrible practical joker. So, we waited until she came out of the house and was headed for the clothes line with some stuff she’d washed. Then ‘bomb’s away.’ Unfortunately for us, our aim was pretty good, and Mom and the blankets got splattered with mud and dirt.” He shook his head. “Mom liked a good joke, but not when it meant destroying all the work she’d done trying to wash those blankets by hand. When we got up the courage to come out of the caves, we ended up being assigned to do the camp’s laundry for the next two weeks, and Dad made sure that the laundry was plenty dirty.”

During the story Maggie had started laughing, and by the end she had tears trickling out of her eyes at the vivid mental image of O’Reilly’s mother dodging when the balloons started falling. Regaining control of herself, she fixed Mark with a look, knowing the signs of a ten-year-old making plans.

“You, my friend, had better think twice before you throw anything out this hole,” she said, nodding toward the crack in the wall. “If I find anything falling on my head, I won’t just rub hamburger in your hair and stake you out in front of a mountain lion’s den. I will douse it in A-1 and hand the lion an engraved invitation.”

“Okay, Mom,” Mark sighed exaggeratedly with head bowed, then looked up at her from the corner of his eye. “You know, you’re no fun at all.”

“Yeah, and just you remember that, lion bait.”

“Okay, okay, I got it!” Mark laughed, throwing his hands up in mock surrender.

Turning back toward O’Reilly, Maggie said, “Now let me get this right. You think we ought to provision this cave, and use it as a fall back should the Enforcers find the valley and try to capture us.”

“This cave is really an ideal place,” O’Reilly averred. “These cave networks go on for miles and it would be easy for someone to get lost, but this chamber isn’t very far from the opening, meaning that we wouldn’t have far to carry things. Or, we could hoist supplies up using a rope and save even more time. Most of the floors are rock so footprints won’t be an issue, and the opening to this cave pretty small.”

“Tell me about it.”

“It would be easy to defend if necessary, though it could also be easy to lay siege to. I’ll have to think about how to handle that possibility. In addition, we would be able to keep an eye out for what is happening in the pasture below, and to know when they leave.”

Feeling a sense of deflation over the scenario that O’Reilly described, Maggie nodded. “Okay, you’re right. I guess we’d better start getting the things up here that we’d need should the worst happen.”

“Well, I’d say the first thing that needs to happen is for me to take the horses, head out to the nearest ranch and gather whatever supplies I can carry. The horses’ feet are taken care of and most of the other urgent issues have been dealt with. Lets say I head out the day after tomorrow.”

Maggie nodded, “Sounds good,” but all the way back to the opening of the cave Maggie had the feeling that O’Reilly had been leaving something out. Something about why he felt this hideaway within a hideaway was so important, and she determined to question him more thoroughly before he left.

Maggie sighed, turning over again, wishing for her soft euro top mattress sitting presumably unoccupied at home in Prescott. She’d worked all day yesterday to pry out the secret she knew O’Reilly was keeping. He would be leaving in the morning. Whatever it took, she thought, he would have to tell her before he left tomorrow. With that thought circling through her mind, she finally drifted off to sleep.