The Cave

‘We found the cave. We were hiking on Mount Hardwick. Jerry found it by accident when we were collecting wood for the campfire. We had heard the legend. A gold fossicker had been trapped here by a flash flood in the 1890s, and they said he had his gold stash with him. It would be worth a lot of money if anyone found it.’

‘But how do we know it’s the right cave.’

‘We don’t, mate, but it wouldn’t hurt to check it out.’

Terry and Leon had their LED headlamps. There was no-one around, so they decided to leave their rucksacks near the pile of wood for the fire.

‘We can light the fire later. Let’s spend maybe half an hour searching the cave.’

They decided to do this and eagerly crouched down and made their way through the rocky entrance. Expecting to have to crawl all the way, they were surprised to find the cave opened up into a large auditorium about five metres long, where they could easily stand.

‘Let’s check all the crevices in the walls.’

They began carefully searching.

‘Look – an old backpack.’

 Terry reached for it but as his hand closed around the strap the backpack disintegrated in his grasp.

‘Watch out! What’s inside it?’

‘Unfortunately, only a tobacco pouch, a tin dish, billycan and knives and fork.’

Leon was excited, nevertheless.

‘Wow, I wonder how old these things are, and who left their things behind.’

‘Could have been a gold fossicker or an explorer.’

‘If he was a fossicker, surely, he’d have been near the stream. I don’t think he’d climb into a cave.’

‘Unless it was pouring rain.’

‘Oh Ok, let’s go a bit deeper.’

Their search was fruitless. They carefully walked around the cave, and eventually found a small semi-concealed entrance to another cave.

‘You game to continue?’

‘Why not, we’ve got our torches.’

And so, they continued into the deep cave. Their find this time was very exciting. The remains of a campfire, another rucksack, two tin mugs and another billycan.

Leon began checking all the nooks and crannies around this second cave. Terry wondered that this rucksack was quite sturdy and did not fall to pieces. He searched all the little pockets but found only an old pack of chewing gum.

Disappointed they had not found another cave off this one, they made their way back through the entrance to the larger cave. It was dark and dank, and this time they searched its wall more carefully.

‘Look Leon,’ cried Terry, and they both stared excitedly at the skeleton, and the remains of cloth draped over it.

‘I wonder if this is the old guy who had the gold?’ Now their investigation was more careful than before. They reached into every crevice and their fingers traced the rocks, looking for a sign of the gold. They were getting hungry and it was six-thirty when they completed the search.

‘Well, no gold,’ said Terry sadly. ‘I wonder who died here and why. The entrance is easy to find and sunlight shines in for a few metres, and surely he would have had a torch.’

‘But we didn’t find one.’

‘No…’replied Terry hesitatingly.

‘Oh well, no gold for the intrepid adventurers. Let’s light a fire and have dinner. Now we have a good dry cave to spend the night in.’