Chapter 15

When he stopped for the day, he was feeling dog-tired by the time he was back home, and flopped into his easy chair. The girls brought him two of his babies to cuddle in his arms, and within moments he was dozing while still automatically holding the children securely. He was unobtrusively watched to make certain of that.

Hermione was so taken by the scene that she grabbed her phone and took a picture of the comatose Reg unconsciously holding his children, one in each arm. One of the two babies was her son William. Later they would wake him for food, then bed. The picture would be filed away for the future.

Next morning Reg was up bright and early, ready to get some more ploughing done. He polished off some oat porridge and had a cup of hot tea before setting off. Later in the morning, he got a call on his phone to tell him that the caving gear had arrived, so he completed his latest furrow to the end of the field, then drove to the field exit and home.

Once back at the house, Reg was persuaded to wait for lunch before gathering up the equipment for the cave exploration.

Frances told him, “We think you need to take this slowly, darling; no unnecessary risks. From what you said, the entrance is not large enough for a safe entry, so use your rock hammer, and a chisel if you need that, to widen the entrance to the cave. That will give you better light to see what you are facing, and allow all of you to get a better assessment of what is inside.”

“Yes, love. Anything else?”

“Yes. Once you put on your harness, ensure you are connected up to the caving rope before entering. Get Jessica to check it is secure. The other factor is to get the rope reel securely fastened to the ground, so that if you fall down a slope the reel will lock and stop you falling farther.”

“Okay, that seems sensible. I’ll do that.”

Lunch was very appetising; a warm bean salad. That doesn’t sound much, but it was scrumptious with whatever spices, mayonnaise or whatever had been added by the girls. That made him wonder: had the ladies included spices in their commercial collection of herbs, etc? He would need to check with them; spices were more difficult to identify because some come from nuts, roots, or bark, or various hard parts of the tree or bush, and one had to try them out to discover what specific amounts were needed to make the spice effective for flavour or colour. Even so, adding spices to the herb collection would be worthwhile.

Once the safety team were ready to go, we went. It was quite a long walk, but the ladies were admirably fit, able to manage with the trek to the ridge and down to the cave. Reg was able to spot the small cairn he had left as a marker, and they made their way over to it.

Examining the entrance, he agreed with Frances. The entrance had to be enlarged for safe ingress and exit later. The rock hammer came out and Reginald attacked the upper edges of the hole, eventually sitting on the lower edge while bashing the mix of soil and friable rock on the other side. Finally he had to stand inside the hole to continue enlarging the entrance, making it suitable for their purpose.

With that preparatory work done, Reg fastened himself into the harness, and then had the women tie the end of the rope securely with a clove hitch knot which they had practiced earlier. Next, the reel was carefully pinned to the ground a couple of metres downhill from the entrance. This made the lip where the rope went into the cave act as a gentle brake. They tested the security of the pin in holding the reel steady, and were satisfied that it was safe for Reginald to move into the cave.

Step by step he tentatively moved forward and down with the daylight behind his back, allowing him to inspect the interior space. It began as a small corridor, quickly widening and sloping down into the darkness. He switched on his headlight at the lower light setting, and swept the beam all around, seeking the extent of the cave. The surrounding walls were close enough to show up well.

There was a continuing path downwards, suggesting that at some time water had run inside, probably during rainstorms, then on some occasion a blockage had occurred at the top, closing off the entrance for a long time.

The roof varied in height, depending on the condition of the rock above, and there were thick stalactites extending down from the ceiling. The whole cave seemed to be a limestone cavern excavated over millions of years by water entering through cracks in the rock. As the water dissolved the limestone, it would have proceeded farther down, and might end in a simple set of cracks in a harder layer, or move into a deeper, water-filled tube leading to a surface outlet a long distance away. Such a water-filled cavern would not be possible to enter without diving gear. He would have to find out what was down here, before making any decisions about going farther.

Reg edged slowly forward and down, checking for his footing at every step of the way. The limestone beneath his feet seemed solid enough, for it had been a while since any real quantity of water he come into the cave. The rock was dry and did not appear to be slippery. At least it would remain dry until there was a rain shower above, with the entrance hole once more open to the elements.

He crept on, subconsciously keeping his head low, though the roof above him was actually getting higher up as he went down the slope. Ahead of him, while the cavern had widened, there was signs of another solid wall of stone facing him. As he got closer, it resolved itself. At this spot, the passage turned to his right instead of going straight on. This was what one could expect as water sought the easiest route downwards. Harder limestone forced the water to go to one side or the other, causing the passage in turn to follow the ancient progress of the water.

As he arrived at this face, his eyes widened, for the face had an almost glossy look, the whitish appearance of marble. When he walked up to it, he found it was indeed marble, almost totally white in colour, with various inclusions caused by impurities percolating into the marble while it was forming under heated conditions, such as a nearby volcano. The volcano or whatever had provided the intense heat was long gone, leaving the attractive marble rock instead of the original limestone.

There was probably a large expanse of marble here, extending back from the face that was showing. Reginald suddenly had a vision of a marble quarry, producing attractive stone for everything from pillars to slabs for enhancing important buildings.

He decided that Governor Kempe was going to be interested in a local source of good marble, even though his geology lessons had taught him that a marble quarry has about fifty per cent waste in getting out the best pieces for high quality usage.

He moved on after getting an eyeful of the marble, and looked to where the passage now led. It seemed to have a pile of debris where the cavern changed direction, so he directed his gaze at the debris, to check it out.

As expected, it was mostly broken rock, but there appeared to be some bones mixed in. Interested, he peered more closely, but other than recognising them as bones from some animal smaller than a human being, he could not identify them farther, and his head felt muzzy at the same time.

He was about to move on, when he heard a call from above. It was Sandra’s voice.

“Reg, dear? Are you all right? We haven’t heard from you.”

He called back, “Sorry about that, Sandra. I got too engrossed in viewing the cave. The cavern gets wider as you go in, with the pathway leading down at a shallow angle, then the cavern opens up for a while. There is a wall of marble straight ahead, and after that the passage gets narrower and turns to the right. How am I for rope, before I tackle the side passage?”

Her voice came back, “You are at about a third of the reel, so you have plenty left. Don’t go out of earshot, Reginald. We can always come back with a larger team and position someone down here if you are going into another passage where your voice may not be heard. Do you want try your phone to see if reception is still fine, for that is easier than calling?”

“This is using the rope as a connection, now that we are out of the line of sight for signals?”

“Yes, that is what it is for. Give it a try and if it works, you can move on a little further. If it doesn’t work, come back and we can work out a way we can hear you by shouting, using relays. That may have to be on another day, to get enough people for the relay.”

“Okay,” Reg shouted back. “I’ll set it up now, and ring through to Jessica.”

He fumbled a bit in the semi-darkness, but eventually got a signal indication on his phone, telling he had got through.

“Jessica?” he voiced.

“Reginald? You are a bit faint, but I can hear you. How far are you from Sandra?”

“At a guess”, he said, raising his voice, “About forty to fifty metres.”

“That makes sense,” she responded. “She is about twenty metres inside, and my estimate is around 60 to 70 metres of rope are payed out. Don’t go more than about another ten metres, take a look around, and make your way back. This is enough for today, my darling. I don’t want you taking risks.”

“Okay, will do.”

He edged into the more constricted passage for a few more metres, and shone the high power level of head light ahead of himself, up and to both sides. This showed him that this passage was fairly consistent in height and width, but led off into more blackness. He also noted that the air was definitely not as fresh as it had been earlier; his head was telling him that. He guessed that there was less oxygen down here, and that an oxygen mask might be needed to go further in safety.

He decided that going on without adequate technical support was foolhardy. He phoned back to Jessica. “Coming out. Tell Sandra I am on my way.”

Climbing back up to the surface was much more strenuous than climbing down into the cave. By the time his head came out into the welcoming fresh air, he was puffing hard, needing a rest until he got his breath back. Jessica noticed, and got him to sit down on the grass, putting her arm round him in support.

“Let your body relax, Reg. Give it a chance to recover, before we do anything else. Just talk if you want to. Did you see anything worthy of note?”

“Nothing until I found myself facing a wall of marble. That was a surprise.”

“Marble? Why would you find marble in a limestone cavern?”

“Chemically, they are much the same. The application of intense heat causes the limestone to change into marble; that’s all.”

“But where would the heat come from? And why is the rest of rock not changed, do you think?”

Sandra was listening as they talked, and suggested, “Would that be dependent on the direction the heat was coming from, Reg?”

“That is it, girls. The marble probably extends much farther back, away from where I was and nearer to the original heat source. It may be that it is easier to access the marble from the other side of the ridge, where our fields are. We will need to have a close look at our fields to see if there any any marble chips on the surface. If there are, that should indicate roughly where the marble lies under the surface.”

Jessica persisted.

“But where is the heat coming from?”

“Ah, that is not so certain,” Reg admitted. “It would have to be from far underground. Latent heat would come from far below, and crept up nearer the surface at some time in the past.”

“Are we in danger, then?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Reg confided. “If I remember my geology classes aright, the marble was formed many millions of years ago, so the heat source will be long gone, either moved to another location, or reverted to solid rock, just like a dead volcano can leave a thick core sticking out of the ground.”

“I am glad of that,” said Jessica. “I wouldn’t want to move again, so soon after settling here.”

“Talking of settling here, a little bird suggested you are looking to make a little brother or sister for Rex. Is that accurate, my lovely?”

“It is, if you are in agreement. I know that most of your other girls want more children, but I have a limited time to have a one or two more, before my ovaries pack up.”

“I want to help you out, Jessica. I think Rex could do with a younger sibling, so let’s make a start on that shortly.”

“Tonight?”

Reg laughed. “I wasn’t thinking of such an immediate start, but if you clear it with Frances, we can do our best to make it soon.”

“Goody!”, declared Sandra. “I am expecting already, so if you get pregnant quickly, we might have our babies around the same time.”

Reg patted Sandra on the shoulder.

“Glad to hear it, Sandra. You are not hoping for more frequent sex? Some of the girls found that once they were pregnant, they got more needy for sex; most of them did in fact, as I recall.”

Sandra told him, “Not for the moment, dear heart, though I never say no to the opportunity of some loving.”

“As always, clear it with Frances; she is the scheduler of our lovemaking. May I stand up again? I have had enough of a rest for now, but I don’t anticipate going back down there for a day or two, and only if I have a breathing unit to help. The air down at the lowest level is not very breathable.”