"Only," Murgatroyd added, sobering, "I don't think we're through with our playmate yet, Perry. You've got him doubly sore at us now, for making him ridiculous. And he's not so scared that he won't do his damnedest to get even--if nothing else. And--glory but it would be tough to have him mixing in with something really colossal, wouldn't it? What we've got here could be good for all humanity--it could be neutral, or it could be bad. We don't know. But good or bad, depend on Kerwin to make it the latter, if he gets the chance!" Perry shrugged ruefully. "Yeah," he said. "That means we've got to work quick, Rod. One of us has got to go down there into the bore on a cable--find out just what we're up against in that quarter. Then there'll still be time to see if we can get digging options on the surrounding country--if it turns out to be advisable. Kerwin can't very well beat us to that, anyway. Now who'll it be that goes down there first?" Perry Wilcox drew a nickel from his pocket. He flipped it dexterously into the air, caught it and slapped it onto the back of his other hand. "Buffalo!" old Rod called. Perry raised his palm to reveal a shiny Indian head. "I win," he remarked, grinning. CHAPTER II Mystery Below Ground Lights were snapped on in the gathering darkness. Long lengths of drill-shaft were pulled out of the boring, whose dark maw hid the unknown. Perry put on a coverall garment of rubberized silk. Over his face he fitted an oxygen mask, and to his shoulders he attached several oxygen bottles. The air blow, after so many countless ages of stagnation, would probably be unbreathable. And though Perry had meant merely to unnerve Kerwin when he had mentioned the possibility of some kind of contamination, one could not quite be sure. It was best to have one's body encased in a sealed garment. When he had completed his preparations, there was even a small toolkit at his hip. Attached to an elbow there was a powerful electric lamp, fitted with a long cord by means of which it could draw power from the generator here on the surface. And there was a small phone incorporated into his headgear. With the phone, like a subsea diver, he could maintain communication with Rod and the rest of the crew here above ground. And of course he had his motion picture camera--strapped across his chest. With a stout steel cable fastened under his armpits, Perry clambered over the edge of the boring, and was lowered below. The trip down--nearly three hundred feet--was uneventful. The stillness in the narrow shaft, scarcely wider than his shoulders, deepened with the depth of his descent. There was only the scraping of his kit against the rough walls, and the sleepy trickle of seepage water.