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Show 7 , Three college spelunkers find Miemselv.es entombed a mile inside the earth; here is their personal Cave . ' " story an eternity of blackness, stillness, despair v ffcM between us, then sat upright. "Listen," he said. Something was moving above us. Suddenly the sound rushed at us with startling sharpness. "Rock fall!" Jim shouted. Instinctively we drew back against the wall. But the rocks crashed harmlessly down the other side of our trap and splashed into the large subter ranean pool that formed the floor of this pit And then nothing. Noise was. cut off as if somebody had flicked a switch. No echo, no reverberation. I wondered if we could ever hear rescuers or if we did, whether we could ever call them to usl We leaned back wearily, shivering as we had been since entering thecave how long ago? My jaw was.50 re from chattering teeth, and I stroked. VOID Lookout Mountain . . I 1 Udg i ... I m v. in Lookout Mountain at least two days or was it three or four? Cut off from light, sound, even fresh air, we had no idea how long we had been entombed almost a mile inside the earth. E HAD BEEN TRAPPED fM lo theoulside pwjyfifi An d we agreed not to tear at "the limestone walls that formed our prison, nor turn on each oth'er in insane frustration; Bill was the most casual of us, and his cooTappraisal of a somber future calmed rather than frightened me. We were sitting on-- a shallow ledge we had hacked from the mud walls. Jim stirred restlessly '...' f . i !f - v I rj S,a,a9mite$ TTTE trained our flashlights v Z treacherous climb to safety. With our flashlights we took a new look at our surroundings. We were caught in ji room between the sheer drop of the hole and the pool level. We couldn't stand in the water long without being dragged under with cramps, and we couldn't climb up our rope. From the pool, a steep muddy bank rose to form the base of. the room. "Let's try scrambling up that slope," Jim said. "We won't freeze anyway." But it was just more disappointment We'd dig our hands in the mud and try to pull ourselves up. We could make a few feet, but as we would increase our weight, the silt would slip out between our fingers until we had and were sliding lback into nothing but our-fist- s the water. We finally collapsed in exhaustion, half on the bank and half in the numbing water. 60-fo- ot wn -- -- mHE void closed in around us and added to our light-once- ur flash were off, not even a draft of air to give us lights a sense of the outside. It was as if the world had been extinguished, and we'd somehow been wer looked completely. Our deep breathing condensed in heavy clouds on Jim, and he VV shinnied upward hand over hand. The line dangled too far from the pit's wall for Jim to brace his feetnrbuHieasarskilledlimberrand-w- e didn't expect trouble. About 15 feet up, though, I saw Jim's hands slipping on the hemp. "This rope is wet," he called. "Can't get a grip." Our flashlights cast sharp shadows on his face, and they deepened as he strained to hold. on. Then he gave a half angry cry. His hands drew away from the rope, and he plunged into the water. Bill and I found him with the beams of our flashlights. He was flailing at the water. "Cramps!" he gasped. "My arms are frozen!" We dove over to Jimand heloTTum while he worked his arm muscles loose from racking pain. Bill wanted to try next, but we wouldn't let him. Our hands and clothes were filmed with slime, and even the escape rope was, soaked from the moisture-laden air. Worse, the cold had sapped our strength and chilled our muscles until they would" knot under the slightest exertion. Yet we had that -- befOTeouraeesWitho-afr away the fog, it just, got heavier I waved my hands to dispel it. "We've gotta get out of this place," I said. "Even the air is-dea- "We've got to get up thatank," Bill said. He pulled, an army-surplknife bom his belt and handed it to Jim, the strongest of us. "Maybe you could drive this into that bank and pull yourself up on it," he continued. Jim plunged,it into the bank over his head, and with his feet braced on our shoulders laboriously dragged himself up the slope. The moment he relaxed, he would start slipping back, but he man-age- d to dig his heels in well above the water and hold on. He dropped a small line to us and helped drag us out of the pool, too. We kept this up, but each foot we gained pulled our muscles into tighter bands, and you could tell when a shooting cramp would knife through us (Continued) Family Weekly, July 8,1962 z o 60-fo- ot maderpledgestimatrairth invit-inglyJbef- ore 'r ' ' .1 20 feet mile until we came to a chimneylike hole that dropped down to the subterranean pool that had fascinated us for months. We had lowered the hole by rope and swum in the frigid waters for only 15 minutes before our troubles started to pile up. First it was cramps. They stabbed at us so violently we almost doubled up in water far over our heads. We forced ourselves to shallower water, and Jim Mason grabbed the end of our rope which was secured to a rock in the cave above. "Better start up while we can," he said. our-selvesdo- 1 , vt ' Leage Jim Mason and myself are students at Emory University in Atlanta, and Bill Bartee attends Presbyterian College in Clinton, S. C. This was supposed to be just an overnight exploration for us. We had entered the mountain through a three-fotunnel, clambered along for about a seryatively so we wouldn't be driven to panic if not rescued right away. We had pledged, too, not to think of what might happen if rescuers didn't reach' us in time. I hadn't been able to keep my mind oftthat idea, but I didn't Jcnow ilrny fellow spelunkers, Jim Mason and" Bill Bartee, were being haunted, tooWe had been silent for hours. . "Whatever happens," Bill said softly so as not to wake Jim Mason, who was dozing between us, "we don't want to lose our heads. If we're going to . . . well, going to die here, let's do it quietly, like men."-nodded.' We agreed we wouldn't try to climb that treacherous rope that dangled us, leading 60 feet upward from this subterranean well to a cave which, in turn, led - ,' 20 feet .... bej-escued- Martin Huddles ton "We had - E ot w - I ' - ",. 1 since we had been trapped a mile inside Lookout Mountain in northwestern Georgia two days of torment and frustration Inade bearable by tlie . But now that certainty that we would was certainty waning. Everything had gone wrong- maybe the rescue would go wrong, tod. .M. t- 'J 4 my cheek for relief. I was startled at the length of my beard. I knew it had been at least two days By MARTIN HUDDLESTON as told to Jack Ryan JS 20 feet " vvg Hi t |