It was yellow light, eerie as a will-o'-the-wisp and scarcely stronger. Then, as Rick watched, a shadow rose up in a black narrow path from the bottom of the rectangle. It rose and rose until it almost filled the frame, and the blackness was in the form of a man, almost, except that it was too long, too thin. The four stood as though hypnotized for a dozen heartbeats, then Zircon came to life. He jumped forward with a great roar. "Long Shadow!" The light vanished and again blackness closed around them. CHAPTER XIV The Caves of Fear Instantly all lights were directed at the back of the cave. Zircon rushed around the statue and stopped short as his light found only rock walls. "He has to be here somewhere," the scientist bellowed. "Hunt for him!" Rick stood for a moment estimating the direction from which the light had come. He walked to the part of the wall on which they had seen the shadow, and stood with his back to it. He flashed his light straight ahead, and it fell on the broad back of the Black Buddha. The others had followed his line of thought and were watching. "Look for a door," Scotty said. He hurried to the back of the statue and began examining it with his light. Rick joined him. Zircon got out a jackknife and began to probe into cracks. Chahda got down on hands and knees and felt along the base. The back of the statue was seamed with cracks, but they ran helter-skelter without apparent order. The illumination against which the shadow was cast had been rectangular. "There isn't a straight line in the bunch," Rick said, disappointed. "What now?" "There must be a way to open the door, wherever it is," Zircon stated. "That's what we must look for, I think. It may be on the statue itself, on the floor, or on a wall near by. Rick, you and Scotty take the statue. Chahda and I will take the walls and floor." "What are we hunting for?" Scotty asked. "I don't know. Perhaps a knob, perhaps a keyhole. Look for anything unusual." Rick and Scotty began at opposite sides of the statue's back and started working toward each other, examining every inch of the black stone minutely. Zircon and Chahda started side by side on the wall behind the statue and worked away from each other. Rick used his jackknife to probe every suspicious crack or chip, but without success. He and Scotty covered the back as high up as they could reach without finding a thing. Zircon and Chahda worked along the wall until they were thirty feet apart, then the scientist called a halt on the theory that the secret lock wouldn't be that far from the door. The door was either in the statue's back or near its base. While Zircon and Chahda started examining the floor, Rick and Scotty started on the statue's sides. There was more decoration along the sides, so they had to go more slowly and carefully. After a while, Chahda called, "Something here."