Behind them they could hear a crashing and every now and then a shouted
word. Robin wondered what was being said, but Peter, sensing his
wonder, gasped out, "He's shouting ... the word for devils! When ... he
came to ... he believed himself ... in some sort ... of Troll
kingdom ... with me ... as a ... devil."
"Crazy! Stark raving mad!" shouted Robin back.
On they went. The helmet banging against Robin's back made him feel
clumsy and odd, yet he moved through the air with the agility of a
phantom.
Now, suddenly, there loomed a dark wall before them and they caught
themselves back just in time to keep from smashing headlong into it.
"The wall!" shouted Robin.
Peter pulled his arm, started hurrying along to one side. He gave a
sharp cry of relief, pulled Robin to him. "Here we are, the ledge. Go
on up!"
Peter started off. Robin followed as fast as was possible. There was
evidently a thin ledge running up the side of the cave. In places it
was a gentle slope angling upward, in other parts there was a sudden
step. In their haste there was no time to pick and choose their steps.
Several times Robin tripped, almost falling, but he had built up such a
momentum that he simply slammed and banged over the obstacles, charging
up the ledge with a luck and agility that would have made a mountain
goat jealous.
Behind them, at the base of the cliff, they now heard Von Borck's
roaring. "_Teufel!_" he was calling. Then suddenly from where the
madman stood, there beamed out a flash of yellow light. A flashlight,
thought Robin, he had a flash.
The beam passed rapidly over the cave wall seeking the escapers. Once
or twice they froze against the side as it passed over them, dashing on
as soon as it was gone. Then Von Borck's light caught them, held them.
"Keep running," yelled Peter, "it's not far now!"
The two kept up. Then there was a sharp report below them and something
went _spang_ on the rock wall near Robin. A bullet ... the mad rocket
pilot was firing at them.
Now they simply raced on, ignoring the German's wild shots. "Here we
are!" gasped Peter and seemed to melt right into the cliff face. Robin
saw the black opening in the next second and tumbled into it, to be
caught by his brother's arms.
For an instant they stood there in the darkness, catching their breath.
Then a light appeared in Peter's hand, and Robin saw that he held
an electric torch there, part of his space-suit equipment. The beam
illuminated a narrow, dark tunnel leading steeply upward apparently
through the solid rock.
"This way!" said Peter and started off. Robin followed him on into the
narrow path that would lead him at long last to the surface of the
Moon.
_16. On the Crater Floor_
The tunnel was very narrow, a mere crack in the wall, and Robin was
hard put to squeeze through in a couple of spots. But it was not too
long and, in a few minutes, Robin felt from the change in air and echo
that it had opened out into a wider area.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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