The three of us talked over the matter of my descent and several safety precautions were formulated. About this time I decided I would be much happier about the whole thing if I could persuade one of the others to go below with me. At least one should remain on the surface at all times in case anything should go wrong. "Sam," I said, "how about you coming down with me?" He seemed to want to see what would happen to me first, I guess, so I then asked him if I went first would he follow. He said nothing. "We'll only stay down for a short while," I assured him. "Perhaps a half hour or so." Sam did not like the idea of going down in such a place. I told him it was easy, so I made arrangements to go down into this cavity and I did. After getting down in there I could look back out and talk to him, so I finally persuaded him to come down, which he did. That left Brown on top. We prowled around in there for some time, exploring the cavity, being, as I remember, 75 or 100 feet deep. When we got ready to climb out of our descension, Sam said to me: "How are we going to get out of here?" [Illustration: A portion of the author's original manuscript.] I told him that was easy. He said, "Go ahead." "No," I said. "You go first and then I will come out. It is easy for me." Well, Sam made a trial to go out, but made a complete failure, coming back down the rope in spite of me, and said, "I guess we are in here for good." I told him I could go out in less than two minutes. He said, "Let's see you." So, out I went. Sam would not try any more, so I sent Mr. Brown to Carlsbad to get a rope long enough that I might make a rope ladder out of it and lower it down to Sam. Carlsbad was 28 miles away and, of course, travel was very slow with horse and wagon. I knew Brown wouldn't get back before the next day. I called to Sam: "I'm sending Brown to Carlsbad to get enough rope for a ship's ladder. You'll be able to climb that all right and get out." "How long do I have to stay down here?" was Sam's retort. "Until he gets back with the rope," I answered. "Probably tomorrow." "You mean I have to stay down here all night?" Sam's voice quivered with fear. "Unless you have some idea of how to get out," I replied. I brought my wagons and mules over to the hole and proceeded to get ready to spend the night there. In spite of Sam's anxiety he said he was hungry so I got some food from one of the wagons and lowered it down to him on the end of a piece of fishline. He still had the lantern with him. I don't know how much he relished his meal, but of course he had no choice; so, by the light of the lantern he ate his supper, such as it was. Above, I fared somewhat better. Sam was quite scared, and he remained squarely below the opening, which, by the way, was not over two feet in diameter. He had no desire whatsoever to take the lantern and go exploring by himself. I really do believe he meant it when he said he thought he was in there for good.