Scotty moved ahead to the entrance and flashed his light inside. The beam was lost in the blackness beyond. "It's big," he said, and the words rolled around in the emptiness. Rick felt a shiver run down his back. "What are we waiting for?" he demanded roughly. "Let's get inside." The opening wasn't large. Zircon had to duck going in. Rick was right behind him, Chahda bringing up the rear. Just inside, they stopped, all lights going. The cave was tremendous. The level rock floor stretched away from them, and when they shot their lights upward, a vaulted dome reflected the beams a good hundred feet overhead. Slowly they moved away from the entrance, lights busy searching the cave. There was nothing near the entrance but rock, solid and smooth. And it was so quiet Rick thought he could hear his own heartbeat. Then his light beam picked up a green reflection on the far side of the cave. "There's something there," he exclaimed. In spite of himself, his voice shook. "We'll soon see," Scotty said. Their voices rumbled through the cave, echoing and re-echoing. Zircon gave a sudden exclamation. "Chahda! Where's the big light?" The Hindu boy had been playing the bright beam on the walls to one side. Now he swung it squarely ahead, and Rick gasped. The Black Buddha! It seemed to crouch against the far wall, a giant, loathsome thing of dead black with live green eyes. They went toward it, all lights on the thing, and as they made out more details, Rick shuddered. The Buddha was completely the opposite of every other Buddha he had seen. Instead of the bland, quiet look of peace, this thing had its mouth open, showing sharp ebony teeth. It leered over a nose like a pig's, and its body was gross and misshapen. It was, Rick thought, toad-like. It quite frankly gave him the willies. His imagination gave it life, so that the obscene lips smirked, and almost seemed to drool. Something white at the base caught the light beams. In a moment they stood before a pile of bones, heaped against the statue's left side. Zircon's light swept them. "Human," he said. Rick's scalp tightened. Next to him, Chahda let out his breath in a sigh that was nearly a moan. In the second that they stood silently looking at the pile of bones, there came a slight sound from somewhere behind the Black Buddha. Instantly their lights swept in the direction of the sound, until Scotty hissed, "Put 'em out!" Blackness flooded in on them. Rick strained his eyes to see, his ears to hear. He tried to control his breathing, sure that its sound could be heard forty feet away. Then he saw a horizontal thread of light about three feet long against the wall behind the statue. It spread upward slowly, forming a rectangle. Rick watched it, his palms wet on the rifle as he tucked the flashlight away and gripped the weapon tightly.