Bailey and the Santa Fe Secret (12 page)

“I remember hearing about miners who were trapped in a mine and tapped on a pipe until rescuers found them,” Elizabeth said while she and Bailey rested.

“Wish we had a pipe to tap on,” Bailey said. “We’ll have to think of something else.”

“We could always yell,” Elizabeth said.

“But what if we’re running out of air in here?” Bailey asked. “We’ll use it up even faster if we yell.”

“Better than not doing anything,” Beth said.

“Yeah, but maybe there are other options we haven’t thought of yet.”

They sat in dark silence.

“‘When I am afraid, I will trust in You.’” Elizabeth spoke quietly, as if to herself.

“Huh?”

Elizabeth spoke louder. “‘When I am afraid, I will trust in You.’ Psalm 56:3.”

“Where’d that come from?” Bailey asked.

“My mom used to tell me that when I was only about three years old,” Elizabeth said. “I was very afraid of the dark when I was little, and when she tucked me in at night, we’d say that verse together. It was the first verse I ever learned.”

“Cool. Are you afraid now?” Bailey asked.

“Yes, but that verse came back to me just when I needed it.”

“Mind if I borrow that verse and make it mine, too?” Bailey asked.

Elizabeth laughed. “Help yourself!”

More dark silence.

Bailey spoke. “We have to get out of here so we can tell Halona her mine is real. Are there any sticks or something we could use to poke between the rocks?”

Elizabeth walked around, shining her phone close to the mine floor. A thick wire bar about three feet long was laying about five feet away. “Yes!” She jumped up and grabbed it.

“Now all we have to do is find a place to stick it through,” Bailey said.

“I don’t know if there is a place,” Elizabeth said. “I don’t recall seeing any light peeking through those rocks, do you?”

“No, but God just provided us with a wire, so maybe He’ll show us a place to put it.” Bailey took Elizabeth’s hand and they walked to the blocked off entrance. “Put your phone away so there’s no extra light in here,” Bailey said. “We’ll see the light shining through better in complete darkness.”

Elizabeth tucked her phone in her pocket. Hand in hand, the girls walked along the rocked-in mouth of the mine.

“I don’t see any light anywhere, do you?” Bailey asked.

“Unfortunately, no.” Beth sighed.

“I know! Let’s back up and look from further away,” Bailey suggested. “Maybe we’re just too close to it to see it shining through.”

The girls linked arms and stepped about ten paces back, then started walking the distance of the wall again. Bailey tried so hard to see something that she started seeing weird colors in front of her eyes.

“There!” Elizabeth said. “I think I see something.”

“Where?”

“I’m pointing to it.” Elizabeth put Bailey’s hand on her arm and had her follow it to her pointing finger. “Put your head by mine and look down my arm.”

Bailey did as she was told, her eyes following where she felt Elizabeth’s finger pointing. There it was—a tiny pinpoint of light between two rocks.

“I see it!” Bailey squeezed Elizabeth’s arm. “Now let’s walk toward it, not taking our eyes off it until we’re there.”

Gingerly, they made their way to the speck of light, wire in hand.

“It’s up higher than I thought,” Elizabeth said, as they approached. “I hope we’ll be able to reach it.”

As they got closer, the light disappeared.

“It’s up too high!” Bailey said. “We can’t even see it when we’re this close.”

“Okay,” Elizabeth said. “We just need to back up and find it again. Then one of us will stay back here and the other will have to go toward it.”

“But we can’t even see each other!”

“I’ll turn on my phone and light up the mine long enough to see which way you need to go, and I’ll direct you toward it,” Elizabeth said. “We’ll see if you can climb up the rock wall and stick the wire through it.”

“It’s worth a try,” Bailey said.

The two backed up to where they could spot the tiny dot of light. “There it is.” Elizabeth flipped open her phone and turned it in Bailey’s direction. “Now you walk until you get to the rocks.”

Bailey followed her friend’s instructions, darkness surrounding her as she moved farther from Elizabeth’s phone light. Hands outstretched, she soon felt the cool rocks. “I’m there.”

“Start climbing. I’ll tell you which way to go.”

Bailey put the wire in her mouth so she’d have both hands free for climbing. Elizabeth closed her phone for a second to see the pinpoint of light better. Then she opened it again to spot Bailey on the wall. “Move a little to your right. You’re almost right underneath it,” she instructed. “You’ll need to climb up about three feet.”

Bailey thought of Elan scaling Puye Cliff.
This should be nothing compared to that
. Placing her foot on a rock she couldn’t see, she felt for a place to grab with her right hand. She moved her other foot up to another rock and then reached for a handhold with her left hand. Little by little she moved higher.

Elizabeth shone the phone light. “You’re there! It’s just above your head. Stick the wire in!”

Holding on to a rock with her left hand, Bailey took the wire from her mouth with her right hand and felt for the hole. She poked over and over, only to feel the wire hit hard rock. “I can’t find it, Beth! And I can’t hold on much longer.”

Suddenly, another low rumble began, and Bailey heard a strange creaking. She climbed down a few feet, then jumped from the wall and ran to where she hoped Elizabeth was. The ground began to shake and roll. Dirt and rocks fell around them, and Bailey heard rocks from the mine entrance shift. Frantically pawing the air to find her friend, she yelled, “Beth!”

“I’m here!” Their hands swept the air until they found one another. Huddling together, they covered their heads with their arms. Seconds later, the trembling stopped and the mine was silent. Bailey and Elizabeth slowly unfolded themselves from their fetal position.

“I think that was an aftershock,” Elizabeth said. “It didn’t feel as strong as the first one and didn’t last as long.”

“I heard a creepy creaking when I was up on the wall, so I jumped down,” Bailey said. “I was afraid the whole mine was going to collapse on us!”

Elizabeth looked toward the rock wall where Bailey had been seconds before.

“Oh my goodness! Bailey, look at the entrance!”

Bailey looked, shocked at what she saw. Narrow slivers of light streamed through the rock wall in three places. “God is making a way out for us!” Bailey still quivered from the quake.

“Or at least making it easier to get a signal out to people who can help us,” Beth said. “Do you still have the wire?”

“Yeah. I hung on to it when I jumped down.”

“Good. Let’s see if we can find something to tie on to it. We can use it as a flag to stick through a crack between the rocks.”

“Okay,” Bailey said, “but don’t you think we should try to move more rocks? We might be able to get out now.”

“I think we should do both,” Elizabeth said. “Let’s make a flag to hang out one of the openings first. Then if someone comes looking for us while we’re working on the wall, they’ll see where we are.”

“Good thinking,” Bailey said. “That way
it
can be working while
we
work!”

“Exactly.” Elizabeth paused. “The brighter the flag, the better.”

“I don’t know if we have anything bright to use.” Bailey tried to see through the blackness. “It’s too dark to find anything.”

Beth aimed her phone light all about the mine but didn’t see anything in the dim light that they could use. “I’m going to shine the light closer to the ground while I walk around to see if I can find something.”

Bailey followed behind, and the two walked slowly, painstakingly, looking for any scrap of brightly colored fabric that could be used as a flag, without going further into the mine. “Whoa! Look at this!” Bailey held up a blue rock about the size of a walnut. “Turquoise!”

Elizabeth brushed some dirt off it and held her phone close to look it over. “It’s beautiful! Must be plenty of turquoise left in this mine if it’s just lying around like that.”

“Yeah. Here’s another piece!” Bailey felt like cheering. She put the rock in her pants pocket and continued searching. “I don’t think we’re going to find anything we can use for the flag,” Bailey said finally.

“I don’t think we are either.” Elizabeth started to put her phone away.

“Wait!” Bailey said.

“What? Did you see something?”

“Your shirt! It’s red!”

Elizabeth pointed the light on herself and laughed. “I forgot what I wore today!” Beth suddenly grew quiet.

“You won’t have to take it off,” Bailey said, realizing what was troubling her friend. “Let’s just rip off the pocket.”

“You’ve got a deal!” Relief flooded Elizabeth’s voice. She put her fingers into her pocket and pulled. The pocket tore halfway off. Another tug and it was in her hand. “I got it!”

“Good job!” Bailey said. “Should we just poke the wire through it or tie it on?”

“I think we should tie it so it doesn’t fall off as easily. Hand it to me, and I’ll do the tying.”

Bailey stuck out her hand, but Elizabeth didn’t take it. “Here.”

“Where?” The girls searched for each other’s hands, and then Elizabeth found the wire. She held it between her knees as she tied the red pocket to the end. “I’ll try to tie it from the corner so more of the pocket will hang out.”

“Good idea,” Bailey said.

“There. I think I got it. Do you want me to climb up to put it in one of the openings, or do you want to?”

“Doesn’t matter,” Bailey answered. “I guess you can since you already have it.”

“Here. You hold the light.”

Bailey held up the phone, which dimly lit Beth’s path. “I’ll direct you like you did for me. Let’s just pray the battery doesn’t die on us.”

“Okay. Let me know if I’m getting off course.” Beth started climbing the wall. “At least that one hole isn’t quite as high as the others. I’ll try for it.”

“You’re doing good,” Bailey encouraged. “A little to your left.”

“The trick is going to be squeezing the flag through that slit.” Beth climbed a little higher. “I see it. I think I can reach it from here.” She took the wire, flag end first, and tried to poke it into the tiny space where the light shone through.

“That’s it!” Bailey said.

“It’s not going in.” Elizabeth pushed it again and felt the wire go through the hole. “It’s going!”

“It is, but the flag isn’t,” Bailey told her. “It’s scooting down the wire instead of going through the hole with it.”

Elizabeth groaned. “I need to come down. I can’t hold on anymore.” She started her descent, then jumped when she was close enough to the ground.

“I’ve got an idea,” Bailey said when Elizabeth was down from the wall. She shivered in the cool, damp air. “We could tie the pocket to the wire, then bend the end of the wire back over the flag so it can’t slip off.”

“Let’s try it,” Elizabeth said.

Bailey held the phone light while Beth tried to secure the flag with the wire. After she bent the wire over the flag, she twisted it over the remaining wire below the red pocket. “There. That should do it.”

“Want me to try taking it up this time to give your arms a rest?”

“Sure.” Elizabeth took the phone back.

Once more, Bailey started up the rock wall that blocked the mine exit. “If this doesn’t work, I’d say we should start moving rocks and making noise so people will hear us.”

“Me, too.” Elizabeth kept her eyes on Bailey in the dim light. “But I sure hope it works this time.”

Hand, foot, hand, foot. Bailey made her way up the wall, wire and flag between her teeth.

“Almost there. Only about one more step and then reach.”

A dot of light shone in Bailey’s eyes, and she blinked against the unaccustomed brightness. She took the three-foot wire from her mouth. “I found it!”

“Good. I’ll be praying down here while you try to stick the flag through.”

Bailey pushed the wire flag first into the bright light. It resisted, bending the wire. She continued to twist and push until it suddenly flew through, almost making her lose her balance on her foot-and handholds. “I did it! It’s through!”

“Awesome! Way to go!” Elizabeth clapped her hands as Bailey made her way back down. “Now, we start tearing down the wall.”

“I need to rest a minute,” Bailey said. “My arms and legs are shaky from all that climbing.”

“That’s okay,” Elizabeth said. “You rest. I’ll get started.”

“I’ll make noise while you move rocks in case anyone’s within earshot.”

“Perfect!”

Elizabeth worked on the wall, one rock at a time. Each one took a considerable amount of time as she wiggled and pulled, moving it only fractions of an inch at a time.

Bailey took her noisemaking job seriously. “Help! We’re in this mine! Help! Come find us!” Finally, she stopped yelling and listened. Nothing.

“Beth?” Bailey’s voice was quiet.

Elizabeth continued working on the wall. “Hmm?”

“What if they don’t find us? And what if we can’t get the wall moved?”

Elizabeth stopped her work and climbed her way back to Bailey in the dark. “Give me your hand.”