THE MAGIC LABYRINTH

The River poured out in a vast and thick stream to descend swiftly down a gentle slope. The roar of water and wind was deafening, Jbut at least it was warmer here. Joe, the veteran of the passage through the cave, led the way. A rope was tied to his waist and tied to the wrists of the others.

Warned by Joe to hang on tight, they went around the corner into the Brobdingnagian hole. Alice slipped and fell off the ledge and was pulled, shrieking, back up. Then Nur, even smaller than she, was blown off, but he too was hauled to safety.

The torches of the Egyptians had been extinguished by the wind when Joe had led them through the bellowing cave. Now, he could see, though not very far. Also, he shouted back to Burton, this ledge was broader than the one on the right.

"Boy, ve'd have been thyit out of luck if the Ethicalth had melted down the ledgeth! I guethth they thought that no vone vould ever get thith far after they took the ropeth avay and plugged the tu

Burton only heard part of what Joe said but filled in the rest.

They had to stop twice to eat and sleep. Meanwhile, The River gradually dropped away and finally disappeared. Burton, curious to know how deep it was, sacrificed a spare lamp. He counted seconds as its beam turned over and over and became a thread of light before it plunged into the blackness. It had fallen at least three thousand feet.

At last, the grayness that heralded the end of the cave appeared. They came out into the open air, misty but brighter. Above them was a sky which blazed with a multitide of giant stars and gas sheets. The thin cloud closed around them but didn't block their view of the mountain wall to their right. They were almost on the lip of the abyss at the bottom of which The River ran.

"Ve're on the wrong thide here," Joe said. "Ahead, on thith thide, a mountain blockth uth. If ve could only get acrothth to the right thide. But then maybe the Ethical left a vay for uth on thith thide."

"I doubt it," Burton said. "If he did, we'd have to circle completely around the i

"Unlethth vhat?"

"Unless X made two caves and put boats there, too."

Nur said, "One rough ledge they might overlook. But two?"

"Yeah," Joe said. "Tell you yhat. The two thideth of The Valley here get very clothe at the top. The vallth mutht arch over, lean out. There'th only about tventy feet betveen the edgeth at the top. Here. Let me thyow you."

He walked slowly ahead and after about sixty feet stopped.

His beam, added to theirs, clearly showed the other side of the gap.

"God Almighty!" Aphra said. "The Ethical surely didn't expect us to jump across it?"

"The other Ethicals wouldn't think anybody would dare it," Nur said. "But I think X expected us to, yes. I mean, he knew that at least one, maybe more, of any party that got this far would be able to leap across. After all, he picked some very athletic people. Then that person or persons would tie a rope to a rock, and the rest would go over on it."

Burton knew that he couldn't jump that far. He might get close, but close wasn't good enough.

Joe was stronger than two Hercules melded, but he was far too heavy. Ah Qaaq and Gilgamesh were also very strong but too squat and heavy. Good long jumpers weren't built like them. Turpin was tall but too muscular. Nur was very light and had a surprising wiry strength, but he was too short. The two white women and de Marbot were also too short and weren't good jumpers. That left Frigate, Croomes, and Tai-Peng.

The American knew what Burton was thinking. His face was pale. He was even better at long jumping then he'd been on Earth and had once leaped there to an unofficial distance of twenty-five feet during a practice jump but a wind had been behind his back. His normal distance was about twenty-two feet on Earth and twenty-three here. Nor had he ever jumped under such bad conditions.

"We should have brought along Jesse Owens," he said faintly.

"Hallelujah!" Croomes shrieked, startling the others. "Hallelujah! The Lord saw fit to make me a great jumper! I'm one of His chosen! He saw to it that I could leap like a goat and dance like King David for His glory! And now He gives me a chance to jump over the pit of Hell! Thank you, Lord!"

Burton moved close to Frigate and said, softly, "Are you going to allow a woman to jump first? Show you up?"

"It wouldn't be the first time," Frigate said. He shrugged. "Why shouldn't I let her go first? The problem here is not one of sex but of ability."

"You're scared!"

"You bet I am. Anybody but a psychotic would be."

He went to Blessed Croomes, though, and questioned her about her record. She said that she hadn't done much jumping on Earth, but, when she was living in a state called Wendisha, she had made twenty-two feet a number of times.

"How did you know it was that?" Frigate said. "We had an exact system of measurement on the Rex, but very few places would have such."

"What we did," Croomes said, "was guess what a foot was, It looked pretty close to me. Anyway, I know that I can do it! The Lord will buoy me up on the wings of my faith, and I will skip over it like one of His sweet gazelles!"

"Yeah, and you'll fall short, too, and smash your brains out against the edge of the gap," Frigate said.

"Why don't we mark out a distance?" Nur said. "Then you three can practice-jump, and we'll see who's the best."

"On this hard rock? We heed a sand pit!"

Croomes said that they should throw a lantern over to the other side to provide a marker. Frigate cast one attached to a rope, so that it lit near the edge, rolled back, then stopped on its side several inches from the dropoff. Its beam pointed at them over the black abysm.

He pulled it back with the rope and threw it again. This time it rolled, but by whipping the rope he got it to an upright position and the light shone at right angles to them.

"Okay, so it can be done," Frigate said. "But I'll pull it back now. Nobody can jump until he's had a good night's sleep. Anyway, I'm too tired now to try it."

"Let's line up the run path with lanterns," Blessed said. "I'd like to get a good idea of how it'll look."

They did so, and Frigate and Croomes paced to where they would start their run, if they did. The marker for the leap was a lantern a few inches from the edge.

"It has to be a one-time thing," Frigate said. "We'll really have to warm up first. This cold air.... On the other hand, the air is thi

Burton had said nothing to Tai-Peng since he wished to give him a chance to volunteer. The Chinese had been watching the procedure. Now he strode up to Burton and said, "I am a mighty jumper! I'm also sadly out of practice! But I will not allow a woman to be braver than I! I will make the first jump!"

His green eyes shone in the lantern beam.

Burton asked him what distance he'd cleared.

"More than that!" Tai-Peng said, pointing at the gap.

Frigate had been throwing pieces of paper up in the air to test the wind. He came up to Burton then, saying, "It blows on our left side and so it'll carry us a little to the right. But the mountain blocks most of it. I'd say it's a six- or seven-miles-an-hour wind."

"Thanks," Burton said. He kept his gaze on the Chinese. Tai-Peng was very good in athletics but not as good as he claimed to be. No one was that good. However, it was his life he was risking, and no one had asked him to do so.