The gallery ended abruptly. An open mine-shaft barred their way.

It was a double shaft, with space for two elevators, but neither lift was on their level. Sounds of pursuit came from the gallery behind them.

Heydrick leaned over and looked down the shaft. A floor below was the open-platform lift.

"Jump for the cable," he ordered. "Try to slide down it."

"You first," she said. "I'm a sissy." Heydrick jumped and his stomach wrenched with nausea. Then the cable was burning through his hands. His feet stung as they came down solidly on the metal flooring. The girl was right behind him. He found the control lever and jammed it all the way over.

The car dropped under them with sickening speed.

A blaster beam flamed briefly above them, and the discharge set a chorus of echoes bouncing back and forth in the old mine-shaft.

"Hang tight," he shouted. "I don't know how far down this shaft goes. If we hit bottom at this speed, we'll flatten out like saucers."

A mushroom of brilliant light expanded above them. The car jerked and grated on the rock walls, then went down in a free fall, the cable trailing slack above them.

Down the shaft hurtled the old lift, air whistling eerily round its edges.

"They've blasted the cable!" Heydrick cried. "Now we are in for it." He leaped to the brake lever and tugged at it. The bar was rusted fast. Ria tried to help. With their combined weight and effort, the bar gave a little. Inch by inch, it moved. The clamps started taking hold of the side walls and a shriek of protest came from rock and metal. The elevator slowed slightly. Too late.

With a grinding rasp of smashed metal, it struck. Ria was hurled clear, but Heydrick was trapped.

The metal cable came down, coiling and snapping like a whip. A stiff spiral of it covered Heydrick, pinning him fast to the floor. He wiped a smear of blood from his face and tried vainly to lift the heavy strands. They refused to budge.

Ria knelt beside him and tried to shift the coils, but it was no use.

"You'd better go," he said roughly. "They'll be down as soon as they can get to the other elevator ... to make sure of us."

 Prev. P 15/19 next