Chapter 52. Staircase
Island of Boyuca. Bay of Honduras.
“Directions. Of course,” said Morse. “I think you’ve got something there, Charlie. Does anyone have a compass?”
“You think I’d climb mountains and go through jungles without a compass?” asked Mountain Man Pete. He looked in his bag and quickly pulled out a compass. “Let’s see….From where we are, north is toward the far wall; west is to the left sidewall; east is to the right sidewall; south is back down the cave passage the way we came.”
“OK, Ka’-an,” said Winston. “So if we start on the Ocelot, what direction is he?”
Ka’-an replied, “The astrological symbols go east, north, west, south, in that order. So let me see….Crocodile is east…. That means Ocelot is North.”
“Are you sure?” asked Zach.
“Yes, I am sure,” said Ka’-an.
“Look,” said Winston. “That makes sense. Cabot started with the Ocelot, then went north to the next tile, which is correct. The next tile was the Deer. I am hoping that the Deer is a West sign. Ka’-an?”
“Let’s see…. yes, you’re right. It is. Here, let me write it on paper. Ka’-an got out a piece of paper. Shine the light over here.” Calculating, Ka’-an wrote up the following on the scrap of paper:
EAST—Crocodile, Snake, Water, Powerful Reed, Earthquake
NORTH—Wind, Death, Dog, Ocelot, Knife
WEST—House, Deer, Monkey, Eagle, Rain
SOUTH—Lizard, Rabbit, Grass, Vulture, Flower
Ka’-an studied his list. “So the Ocelot sends us North to the Deer. The Deer sends us West to the Monkey. The Monkey is a West sign, so that sends us West to the Eagle. So are we all agreed that I should step on the Eagle?”
Winston studied the list, just to make sure. “Looks right to me. Just to be sure, let’s tie a rope around Ka’-an, and then if something bad happens, we can yank you back. And when you step on the tile, I would crouch down as much as you can, so if those spears come flying by, they might go over your head.”
“That’s comforting,” joked Ka’-an. Ka’-an walked over to the Eagle tile. Crouching down, he gingerly stepped on the Eagle tile. Again, the loud crunching sound bellowed through the cavern, as the column of stone beneath the tile quickly descended beneath Ka’-an’s feet, finally locking just above the Monkey tile. Ka’-an was standing about ten feet down in the hole. His friends pulled him back out with the rope.
“What’s next?” asked John Morse.
“The Eagle is a West sign, so we go West again into the corner, on the Wind tile.” Again crouching low, Ka’-an jumped onto the Wind tile, and again the stone column beneath him descended, this time to a point about seven feet below the ground.
“We’re making progress,” said Morse. “This is excellent.”
“Ka’-an, stay where you are. I am going to jump,” said Zach. “Wind is a North sign, so the next move is North to the Death sign.” Zach Morse leaped across Ka’-an’s hole and safely landed on the Death sign, crouching low. Again, the ground crunched a loud groan, and the stone column beneath Zach’s feet lowered, to a point about four feet above the surface. Zach lowered the rope from his square, and brought Ka’-an ’ up to his tile.
“Your turn,” said Zach, gesturing.
The group continued following the directions on the tiles, until the staircase actually began to rise above the ground. Ka’-an turned to his colleagues. “John, your theory is correct. We are going up.” Zach and Ka’-an continued to lead the way, as the staircase rose and wound through the cavern. In this way, the group of adventurers made its way up a twisting and turning staircase that stretched almost seventy feet high:
As they neared the cave opening in the northwest corner of the cave, Zach and Mountain Man Pete stood on top of the Eagle tile, 65 feet above the cave floor. The Eagle sign instructed them to go west. They had only two more tiles to go. The rest of Zach’s companions were on the staircase below him. Zach prepared himself to go down again, lowering himself on the rappelling rope, with Pete holding him from above. Ka’-an, who was standing on the step below Pete, was leaning over, looking at Zach’s progress. As he looked down, he saw Zach descending the 65 feet to the Crocodile tile below. Crocodile tile. Something about that didn’t look right. Ka’-an quickly checked his map. The Crocodile was an East sign. That would send him back to the square Pete was on, resulting in no progress. That couldn’t be right. Zach went lower still, and he was about ten feet from the surface. Something is wrong, Ka’-an thought.
“Wait! Stop!” Ka’-an yelled. Pete held on to the rope. Zach’s feet were about three feet from landing on the Crocodile.
“What’s going on up there?” asked Zach.
“It’s a trap!” exclaimed Ka’-an. “Bring him back up!” Pete groaned. Bringing him back up was easier said than done.
“Hey, Zach, sit tight for a minute!” yelled Pete. “Hey, Ka’-an, what gives?”
Professor Morse was concerned. He did not want his son in danger. “What is it,
Ka’-an?”
“He is about to land on the Crocodile. That is an East sign. East would send him right back the way he came to the tile Pete is on. You can’t have one tile pointing west and then the next tile pointing east. It results in no solution, so it can’t be right.”
“I see your point,” said Morse. He thought for a minute. “There’s only one answer I can think of,” said Morse. “You have to skip the Crocodile square, and land on the next square to the west. The next square west is a Knife sign, which is north, and that puts us north right into the exit. That has to be the answer.”
“You sure about this, John?” asked Pete, groaning under the weight of holding Zach.
“I am pretty sure,” said Morse. “But I don’t want him getting hurt. Zach!” he called down to his son. “Do you think you could throw your backpack onto the Knife square?”
Zach looked over. “Yeah, I think I could do it.”
“OK, Pete, here’s what we’re going to do. On three, Zach throws his backpack onto the Knife square, and at the same time you yank him upward as hard as you can.”
“OK,” said Pete.
Zach eyed the holes in the cave wall nervously. If they were wrong…
Ka’-an called out the command. “One, two, …three!” On the count of three, Zach threw the bookbag and it landed on the Knife square. Pete yanked him up hard, but no spears came out of the walls. Instead, a column of rock beneath Zach’s bookbag started to rise out of the ground, finally coming to rest two feet below the cave exit. Pete, with the help of the other men, used the rope to hoist Zach up from his position near the ground. Collapsing on the stairway in perspiration, the men took a deep breath, happy that the gamble had paid off. Now they just had to get across to the last stair, somehow leaping across a four foot chasm, to a spot three feet higher than their current position. It might be possible, with a strong running leap, to catch the top of the stair on the other side. But there wasn’t much space on each tile to get a running start, and a chance of a miss was pretty high.
The men sat down on the ground, looking through their book bags and trying to think of a way to fashion something to get across the divide. They threw out ideas for several minutes, but nothing seemed promising. Fashioning a grappling hook from John Cabot’s bones was the most they had come up with after ten minutes. As the men debated, Bolinda stared from the edge out over the divide. She was a star basketball player back in the day. She had the leaping ability. One strong leap. She could do it. Just as she got the courage to try the death-defying leap, she looked downward, seeing just how far she would fall before she died. As she looked downward, she noticed something strange. The crocodile was not there anymore. Sixty-five feet below her, there was a new tile there now, depicting the Flower sign. Where did it come from? Did it slide out of the wall? She called over to the men.
“Hey, I think you guys need to see this. Look down there. The Crocodile has changed. It is a Flower now.”
“She’s right,” said Ka’-an. “Lower me down. I am going to check it out.”
“What if you’re wrong?” asked Zach. “Those spears could come out of the wall.”
“I don’t think that is a problem,” said Ka’-an. “When that column over there by the exit went up, that created a wall. Even if the spears came out of the wall, that column of rock would block it.” The men agreed that was a good idea. Pete lowered Ka’-an on the rope down to the tile that used to have a Crocodile on it, and now had the Flower sign. When he landed on the tile at the ground level, nothing happened. The Flower tile was a South sign, so Ka’-an went south one square. He stepped on a Deer tile and nothing happened. He was still at ground level. The Deer is a West sign, so Ka’-an went west. Nothing happened again as he stepped on a tile with a Monkey on it. The Monkey tile was another west tile, so Ka’-an went west again. He gingerly stepped on the next tile, a Death sign, and nothing happened. The Death sign directed him north. He was now on the opposite side of the column of rock which had risen to the exit, so he could not see his friends any longer. As he looked at the column of rock from the opposite side of where his friends were, he noticed hand holes in the rock proceeding upward. He put a hand in and pulled himself up. He looked around. Nothing happened. He put his foot in one of the holes. Using the hand holes, he climbed up the face of the rock column, 68 feet up to the top. As he crested the top, he saw his friends on the other side.
“Hello!” he called out.
“How did you get over there?”
“I climbed up. There are hand holes on the other side of the column.”
Pete called out, “Is there anything in the cave exit that you could tie a rope around?”
“Let me check,” said Ka’-an. Ka’-an looked out the cave exit. He saw a strong tree just outside the cave. He ran back in.
“Yes, there is a tree up here. Throw me the rope.”
Pete heaved the rope across the divide and Ka’-an caught it. He went outside the cave and secured the rope around a strong tree. As he crossed the threshold back into the cave, he stepped on a large, flat rock which seemed to depress and click as he went across it. He stopped for a second, puzzled, and ran back into the cave. Just then, some of the rock columns began to move. The ones near the front of the cave which had gone downward were now starting to go up. It looked like the entire room was “re-setting,” starting from the beginning. Pete went into action, running the rope around each person’s waist once. John Morse was wearing a belt, so as a precaution, Pete put a carabiner through his belt and latched it onto the rope.
“We’re going to jump. Hang on and don’t let go! Ready, 1, 2, 3!” All six of the remaining group dove off at the same time, and the rope went swinging to the opposite side, with each member banging their shoulder into the rock wall. Pete’s boot scraped against Bolinda’s hand, causing her to let go of the rope with one hand. Zach grabbed her, though, and the group of six dangled in mid-air, flailing, and holding onto the rope for dear life.
“OK,” said Pete, “Now move your feet against the rock wall like this.” Pete showed everyone the position. “Now using your arms, climb up like this.” Pete showed everyone the maneuver. He was the fastest one to the top, so he was able to help pull up on the rope to bring everyone to the top. As each man got over the ledge, he grabbed onto the rope to pull up the next person. John Morse was the last one, and he was having trouble. This was more strenuous exercise than he was used to. Zach looked over the edge with concern.
“He’s not going to make it, Pete.”
“I’ll get him,” said Pete. Pete quickly re-secured the ropes, and went over the edge. Suddenly, John Morse lost strength and plummeted toward the ground. Zach gasped. The carabiner on John Morse’s belt caught him, however, leaving him dangling precariously in mid-air by his belly. Pete went down the side of the rock wall like Spiderman, and clipped onto John Morse.
“Hold on, John.”
John Morse, ashen-faced from his fall, desperately grabbed onto Pete’s shoulder. Using his bear-like strength and his mountaineering skill, Pete, with the help of the other men at the top of the ledge, managed to muscle the professor over the ledge. The group of seven smiled. They had just passed the first of the Trials of Xibalba.