The Plug at the Bottom of the Sea (12 page)

‘The same person who put the spears in piles?' asked Cindy.

‘That's right.' Moses nodded.

‘Well, if that bar is so heavy, then he must be a giant.' Cindy shivered.

‘Let's not worry about a giant, just keep moving before we freeze with these wet clothes on,' said Moses.

They were all shivering and the map shook as Moses took it out to see if it had been ruined. It was wet although he had put it well inside his clothes. In the candlelight the leather was darker with the water, but the lines were still there.

‘Now we'll go through this Chamber of Questions to the Chamber of Peace and then through the Chamber of War to the last one—the Chamber of Knowledge. We'll have to stick close together and walk along next to the walls. There may be lots of holes and perhaps quicksand.'

Moses bent down and felt around in his pack and finally pulled out a lot of white sticks. ‘Now, Cindy, you're in charge of these candles and, Craig you take the string.'

‘String?'

‘There are a lot of passages down here and this is the only way you'll know your way out. And just in case something should happen and we become separated, this will tell you the way back to the hole and the rope.'

Moses lifted his sack to his shoulder leaving the broken seaweed sled on one side.

‘Here we go. You'll get warm if you keep moving. We may find we can get a fire out of old ships if we can find them down here.' Moses puzzled to himself for a minute, as he looked at the ceiling. ‘Strange, that water was freezing and I'll bet that's
not a rock but an icicle,' and he reached up and broke it off. It began to melt in his hand. ‘Ice.'

‘Captain Tiny, the sled for your trunk is still all right so you pull Mrs Mermaid,' ordered Moses, looking down at the little captain, shivering with his long moustaches wiggling up and down. He was too cold to protest. In the stream the penguin splashed and flapped, happy to be back where he belonged.

Craig tripped on something in the dark but he couldn't make out what it was. He reached down and picked up the large soft leather map of the caves. Moses must have dropped it by mistake. Or maybe Moses didn't need it since he knew the direction so well, for he'd had this old map since he was a baby. Maybe he left it behind or just threw it away. Craig wondered all these thoughts to himself.

Now Craig had never seen a map like this one made of leather although he had a whole collection of maps back home. He had maps of the seas, of shipping lanes and air routes, and maps of each nation, and a large wall map of the world. But Craig had no map of the middle of the earth. And he was pretty sure it was unique. If Moses didn't need it or want it, then he'd love to have it for his collection. If Moses needs it I'll have it ready, Craig thought. After all he dropped it or left it behind. He's had the map all his life. He must know the way by heart. Craig slipped it into his shirt. It was cold. It's a good thing I found it for, even if Moses doesn't need it, I might if I get lost.

He started to move down the long tunnel far behind the others. It was so high he could not see the ceiling, only rows of icicles, high up the walls, shining in the candlelight as they walked. Many tunnels and caves led off the big tunnel.

Craig took a candle from his pocket, lit it, and tipped melting wax into a shell until the candle would stand.

Light wobbled over the green mossy walls, flickering in corners, suddenly shining in pools of water on the floor or in the stream which ran down the side of the tunnel.

Suddenly Craig, still clutching his shell candleholder came
around a bend to find himself face to face with a giant skull under a bright metal helmet.

Craig was so frightened he stopped sharp. The melted wax from the candle slid down onto his fingers. At that moment Craig was sure he'd been touched by the fingers of death. These fingers slid round his hand, hot and wet, as the candlelight lit up the holes in the eyes and the skull. ‘Oh no,' Craig tried to say, but his lips wouldn't move. His jaw wouldn't move. Just then a heavy hand rested on his shoulder.

Craig was so terrified he dropped the candle. All went dark, the skull and helmet disappeared. The hand disappeared as well. Craig began to run with his hands out in front of him down the tunnel. In the dark he couldn't see the walls or pools of water. He splashed through them and brushed against a wall. The moss came off in his hands.

Suddenly he fell. It was cold and he felt water flowing. Then a hand reached out and touched his shoulder. A match scratched and flared in front of him showing the red beard of Moses and those deep eyes looking at him.

‘What happened to you?' Moses laughed. ‘I saw you looking at that skull and when I tapped you on the shoulder, you jumped as high as a wave and flipped that candle in the air.'

‘Oh, M-M-M-Moses, am I glad to see you.' Moses helped him out of the stream.

‘Now, Craig, don't you go running off this time. Just give me one of your matches.'

‘But I ran out of matches,' said Craig, shivering again.

‘Oh, this is a fine mess,' said Moses. ‘Well, everyone shout out where you are.' Everyone answered and slowly came up till they could all touch each other. Craig felt the little beak of the penguin tap his hand. It tickled.

‘Now,' said Moses, as he always did when he began to say anything to the group. ‘We haven't got any light. No matches that is. I've got lots of candles but we'll have to feel our way along in the dark till we find some wood from a ship, or something like that. I have some tools we can make fire with, so
don't get worried. But now, more than ever, it's important to
stay together
.' Captain Tiny at any other time would have shouted and complained, but he was still shivering, so the little group held hands and beaks as they felt their way along the walls down the tunnel.

The walls began to feel smoother and the floor became flat stones. The helmets and spears hanging from the walls became more and more familiar to their fingers groping along the walls. The sound of rushing water in the side caves grew louder as the streams all seemed to flow into the stream in their tunnel.

Their steps suddenly sounded very loud and hollow as if they were in a great cave. As they felt their way around a corner in the walls, their footsteps became very loud and the sound of rushing water frightened Cindy as she held on to Mrs Mermaid's tail and the penguin's flipper.

As they came round the corner they entered a gigantic lighted cavern shaped like an oyster shell. ‘This is it,' said Moses. ‘The Chamber of Peace. Pearly white for oysters.'

‘That blue light in the water—what is it?' asked Captain Tiny, his moustache quivering. Sure enough there was light from the water that filled the chamber floor. It was reflecting from the white ceiling. There were no helmets on the walls, no spears. In fact there was nothing on the walls at all. But the wide water had piles of dark things in it up to the ceiling in places.

‘The light seems to come from the water all right, but what are those black piles in the water? They don't look like …' He stopped. What did they look like?

‘They're statues,' said Cindy, seeing the head of a figure on the pile.

‘Statues they are,' said Captain Tiny, as they walked out into the great cave on the little walk above the water. The water on either side was glowing blue and many white things darted through it.

‘Those must be electric eels,' cried Moses. ‘That's what lights up the cave.' Everything was cold and blue, with many statues
all round of old men in long robes and babies in their mothers' arms.

‘Do these eels give you a shock?' asked Cindy, as she watched the penguin jump away from the water he had been looking in. Moses touched a candle to the water and it lit. ‘Well, they use their spark to kill other fish so maybe they are dangerous for us too. Better not fall in the water.' They wandered through the great cavern between the statues with their candle shining off faces and arms of metal. Finally, they came to a large group of figures pushing a flag up in the air.

Here, suddenly, they were facing an old man whose face in the blue light from the water looked like the wrinkled map of leather. His eyes were as dark as the burnt holes in the map and he had a white beard to the floor. His mouth opened slowly between his beard and his moustache and a very old cracked voice, like a rusty door hinge, creaked out.

‘More of you? Oh, how many more of you are there?'

‘More of who?' asked Captain Tiny. ‘There are no more of us.'

‘You are more of the men from the West caught by the flood.' And without waiting for a reply he took out a little book from his robes and turned the pages after wetting his thumb and finger with his lips. ‘Now,' he said, just as Moses always did, ‘I must have your names for the record.'

‘What record?' asked Craig, looking into the little black book.

‘Why, for the list of all those brought here by the flood. Now, after I get your names you can run along to the giant chamber where there are fires and maybe some food left, though I doubt it. I thought we had everyone, tut, tut.' The old man tapped his feather pen on the black book and when no one said anything, he waved the feather at Moses to give his name. ‘Now, son, don't be shy.'

‘But we did not come down with the flood,' said Moses.

‘Oh, come, come, come,' creaked the old man's voice, and he tapped the point of his feather again. ‘Of course you did.'

‘But we just came down the hole.' Moses laughed. ‘We walked across the bottom of the sea to the hole and we came down just this afternoon.'

‘Just this afternoon?' his tiny face opened in a questioning look. ‘Nonsense. Since the flood?' They all nodded. ‘Well, I'll be the King of the East. You mean you have come from the land to save your people?'

‘Well, not exactly from the land, but from the sea, and from an island,' added Moses.

‘You mean no one on land knows about the flood?' asked the old man, stroking his long white beard with his feather.

‘Well, I imagine they do, but we are the only people who know about the plug and the hole,' said Captain Tiny, trying to get attention. ‘I happen to be the …' But the old man interrupted him.

‘I happen to be speaking to your father,' said the old man curtly, looking up at Moses.

‘My father?' exploded Captain Tiny. ‘Why, you old goat. You old seaweed. He's not my father, even if he is a bit bigger than me!'

But the old man interrupted him again. ‘Why did you come down?' he asked as he counted them. ‘There are only four of you. How could only four of you hope to help?'

‘There are eight of us,' said Cindy.

‘Eight?' asked the old man, nodding his head at each one of them as he counted again.

‘She means Mrs Mermaid, the sea horse, the penguin, and the seagull,' said Moses.

‘Oh, I see.' The old man smiled, and he checked these off in his books. ‘Have to have the names of all of you. Oh, you still haven't told me, why did you come down here?'

‘We wanted to get the water back,' answered Moses.

‘The water? Why it's on the other side of the world. You should go and talk to them about that, not come down here,' creaked the old man, shaking his head.

‘How do you know the water's on the other side?'

‘Because, little girl, I opened the other plug and let it go in there. As soon as I heard that the plug of the West had been pulled up, those were my orders—to
pull out the other plug as soon as possible
,' he quoted. ‘Those were my orders,' he repeated. ‘But now the plug closed itself again. I don't know why. It's stuck fast too. But I only followed my orders.'

‘What orders?' asked Craig.

‘Why, from the king, of course.'

‘But the king has been dead for thousands of years,' said Moses.

‘No,' said the old man, shaking his head.

‘You mean he's alive?' asked Cindy.

‘I have never seen him, but I've lived here all my life underground, and his orders were told to me by my father, and I have carried them out.'

‘Does your father see the king?' asked Cindy.

‘My father is dead,' said the old man sadly.

‘I'm sorry,' said Craig. ‘Did he see the king before he died? Are you sure the king is still alive?'

‘Why, my father and his father before him took their orders from the king. Of course I am sure.' The old man suddenly stopped and stroked his beard. ‘But tell me, how is it you know of the plug and the hole?'

‘Well,' said Moses. ‘My father and his father and …' They all laughed.

‘But how did one of your great-grandfathers know about the plug?' asked the old man in such a squeaky voice they could hardly understand him.

‘Because I am descended from the first King of January.'

‘From the first King of January!' repeated the old man delightedly. His eyes lit up like jewels.

‘Moses—you didn't tell us.'

‘I didn't think it was important, Cindy.'

‘Why of course it's important. It means you're a prince or a king or something!' Cindy cried, happy to be near someone of royal blood.

‘Oh no.' Moses laughed. ‘We are all descendants of Adam and Eve, but we are not all the kings of Paradise, or of the Garden of Eden. There's been no such king for too long.'

‘Ah, but there is a king of this kingdom.' The old man smiled.

‘Who is it?' asked Moses.

‘A man who came in the flood two days ago. He had a map of the caves and only descendants of the royal family have these maps,' answered the old man.

‘What is the name of this king?' Moses' eyes flashed excitedly and his fingers twisted his beard.

‘His name is Noah.'

‘My brother's name is Noah. Father gave us both maps of this kingdom,' said Moses quickly. ‘Where is this King Noah? I must see him. He's my twin.'