The Mystery of the Monster Mountain - M. V. Carey [24]
“Hello!” he cried. “Hello up there! Are you there?”
Nothing moved near the rim of the crevice.
After a few minutes, Bob decided that the animal was gone. He held up his directional signal and shouted, “Help!” Then, to be sure that the unit had registered his alarm, he shouted twice more. If Pete and Jupe were within two miles of him, he knew that their units would pick up his signal.
He activated his unit so that it sent out its directional beep to guide his friends to the crevice. Then he sat down on the snow and waited.
It seemed to Bob that he waited hours. But it was only fifteen minutes before Pete looked down into the fracture. Jupiter’s round face appeared a moment later.
“Bob, are you all right?” asked Jupiter.
“How the heck did you get down there?” Pete wanted to know.
“I fell,” said Bob.
“No kidding!”
“You’d have fallen, too, if you’d seen what I saw,” declared Bob.
“What did you see?” asked Jupe.
“Some animal — something big. I don’t know what it was. It came up behind me and … look, let’s go into the details later. Right now, I need to get out of here.”
Jupiter measured the depth of the crevice with his eye. “Rope,” be decided, “We’ll need a rope.”
“I’ll get it,” Pete volunteered. “I saw some yesterday when we were looking for the key. There’s a coil of clothesline in one of the kitchen cupboards.”
“You can make better time than I can,” said Jupiter. “You’re the athlete in the group. Get back to the inn as fast as you can and get the rope. I’ll stay here with Bob.”
Pete nodded. “Watch yourself,” he cautioned.
“Don’t worry,” said Jupiter.
Pete sprinted off through the trees and Jupe crouched at the edge of the crevice.
“What did you see?” he asked Bob again.
“Honestly, Jupe, I can’t be sure. It happened so fast. I heard something behind me, and something touched me, and I turned around and … well, I saw eyes — really strange eyes. It was practically breathing in my face. I yelled, and I think it yelled.
Then I fell.”
“Another bear?” said Jupe.
“Jupe, I really don’t think so.”
Jupe stood up and began to walk slowly along the edge of the fracture, peering at the ground.
“Jupe?” Bob called. “You still there?”
“I’m here,” Jupe’s voice floated down. “I can see your tracks on the ground up here. Whatever came up behind you should have left a track, too. If it was a bear, we’ll find the same kind of track we found on the meadow.”
“If it wasn’t a bear.” said Bob, “we may have found what we came looking for.”
Jupiter didn’t answer right away.
Bob waited, then called, “Jupe?”
“I can’t believe it!” exclaimed Jupe.
“What is it?” called Bob.
“Bob, are you sure it wasn’t a man who came up behind you?” Jupe’s voice was squeaky with excitement. “A very big man in his bare feet?”
“I didn’t see any feet, and if that was a man I may resign from the human race,”
said Bob.
“That’s amazing,” said Jupe. “Someone — some very big person — has been here in bare feet.”
Bob thought again of Gabby Richardson and his tales of monsters on the mountain. Hadn’t there been one story about a trapper who found the print of a naked foot high up, on the edge of a glacier?
“Jupe?” cried Bob. “Hey Jupe, be careful, huh?”
Jupe didn’t answer, but Bob heard him give a little gasp.
“Jupe?” shouted Bob.
Still there was no answer, but Bob heard a branch break in the woods, and then a shushing, swishing sound from the edge of the crevice.
“Jupe, what are you doing up there?” Bob was shouting, and he felt the back of his neck prickle with fear.
The scraping, sweeping sound above ceased and there was complete silence. Bob called again and again, but Jupe didn’t respond.
Filled with a dread that was almost panic, Bob tried to find a foothold in the walls of the crevice. There was none. He looked around for something — a fallen branch, anything — that he could use to try to climb out of the pit. There was nothing but the snow and the sheer walls of earth.
Bob finally stopped calling. He stood at the bottom of the pit and waited and listened.