CHAPTER XIII
The Black Buddha
Long ago, according to the tale Chahda had heard from his IndianBuddhist friends in the monastery, a High Lama and some of the chiefpriests of Korse Lenken forsook their vows and went in for piracy withthe monastery as headquarters.
For years they flourished, robbing travelers and even swooping down onChinese cities across the border. The name of Korse Lenken was knownthroughout the East as a place of terror. Between attacks, the High Lamaand his priests made mockery of the religion of Buddhism that they weresworn to uphold, and they built a huge caricature of Buddha, all inblack and with the face of a demon.
Then, went the legend, as they dedicated the great statue to the hordesof the mountain underworld, the Lord Buddha himself appeared in the skyand stretched his hands over them. The vast multitude of robbers fell totheir knees and lifted their hands for mercy. And Lord Buddha, thegentle and merciful, gave them mercy. His voice rang through themountains like the winds of heaven: "Live! Live unharmed. But live infear! It is written."
Buddha, so went the legend, then vanished. A great wind sighed throughthe valley, and bolts of light flashed from heaven. It grew black, blackas the darkest night. And when the blackness cleared and the wind died,new mountains stood where the High Lama and the multitude had been.
The lamas who had remained faithful to the teachings of Buddha laboredto build a new monastery, and as the years passed they heard mutteringsin the earth. Then one day a repentant lama, who had been one of themultitude, came forth, an old man. The High Lama and the robbers stilllived, he said. But they lived in the blackness under the new mountain,in vast caverns where no light ever came. And there were _things_ in thedarkness. Things they could not see, but of which they were terriblyafraid. As Lord Buddha had said, they lived in fear.
The little group was silent as Chahda finished reciting the legend. Thenthe Hindu boy added, "Of course this is long ago. So very long. Maybe itis only a story. And maybe not. The monks of Korse Lenken do know thereare big caverns, and they know of this Black Buddha. I know of itmyself. But more than that I do not know."
"And it is from the Caves of Fear that the heavy water is presumed tocome," Zircon finished. "That is quite a tale, Chahda. But how do we getto the Caves of Fear?"
"The entrance is somewhere in the Cave of the Black Buddha," Chahdasaid. "At least, that is what the monks have told me. Also, they showedme how to get there. But I did not go in." He shuddered a little. "Whoknows if the old High Lama might not be waiting? I thought better I waitfor you."
Rick felt the weirdness of the tale, too, but he made a joke. "I didn'tthink hobgoblins would frighten you away, Chahda."
Chahda didn't smile. "People who live in the East do not laugh athub-gubbles, Rick."
"I was just trying to be funny," Rick apologized. "Well, what do we donow?"
"We look in the caverns for the source of the heavy water," Zirconstated. "And the sooner we start, the better. Chahda, have you seen menwith water bags heading out of here? Men with anything at all suspiciousabout them?"
The Hindu boy nodded. "I have seen such men. Once I saw ten men going upthe trail to the outside with such bags. The bags were all they had. Iam sure the bags had heavy water. If not, why so many?"
Zircon told him of the plastic-lined bags they had found and of theirsuspicions.
Chahda saw the implications instantly. He grinned. "We find out plentymore about these water bags, you bet! I think I go right now and findout if any more men with bags go by today." He hurried off, getting intohis monk's costume as he went.
Rick watched him go, shaking his head with admiration. "He's a wonder,"he said. "I'll bet Bradley thinks so, too."
"Anyone would," Scotty agreed. "He gets things done. Wish I could saythe same for us. All we've done so far is travel while he did the work.Why don't we get busy?"
"Busy how?" the scientist asked.
"Couldn't we look into this cave tonight? I don't see that waiting untilmorning will help much. If it's a big cave, there won't be light in it,anyway."
Rick thought Scotty had something there. He pointed out that plenty oflights were in their packs, and that they had the dark-light camerabesides.
Hobart Zircon thought it over, then agreed. "There's another advantage,"he added. "Starting out tonight, we'll attract less attention. We gothere about dark, so the people of the area don't know we're here.They'll know in the morning, though, and we'll have a thousandsight-seers hanging around, unless they're greatly different from theother Eastern people I've met. And the less anyone knows about ourinterests, the better."
Sing nodded agreement. "That is right. By morning many people will cometo see the strangers. I doubt if they have seen very many white menbefore." The Chinese guide paused. "But I don't know if I like the ideaof going into strange caves while it's dark. As your little friend says,anything is possible in this part of the world. Even hobgoblins."
"We wouldn't want you to come, anyway, Sing," Rick said. He looked atZircon for agreement. "It would be better if you took care of ourequipment and sort of acted as rear guard. We'll need someone to standby in case we don't come out of the cave again."
"Afraid the hobgoblins will kidnap us?" Scotty asked.
"Not hobgoblins. But if the heavy water is there, some of Long Shadow'smen will be, too. We probably can take care of ourselves. Only supposethey catch us by surprise?"
Zircon agreed. "Rick is right. And even if there is no one in the cave,there remains the possibility of accident. I think we'll do well toleave Sing here. Then, if we're not out in twenty-four hours, he cantake steps to get us out."
"That's wise," Sing nodded.
They were debating what to take with them when Chahda returned. Hereported that some of the lamas had seen men with goatskin water bagslate in the day, men that they knew to come from outside the valley,traveling from the general direction of the Cave of the Black Buddha. Itwas such water-carrying groups that had made Chahda sure that the cavewas the source. There was no other near-by place that was possible.
"That settles it," Rick said. He told Chahda what they had in mind.
Chahda glanced at the sky. "Moon in a little while," he said. "With nomoon, we could not even get there. Too rough. But if no clouds come, wecan go."
Rick was a little surprised that Chahda hadn't objected in view of hisapparent dislike of the whole idea. Then he realized that the littleHindu boy wasn't made that way. He might be afraid, but he would go.That was true bravery.
After some discussion, they decided not to take their full equipment,but merely to use the trip to locate the entrance to the Caves of Fear.Once the way was found, they could return and load up with gear andprovisions. However, each of them took a few emergency rations, a fullcanteen of water, their weapons, and flashlights. Chahda was given a bigelectric lamp to carry. Rick slung the dark-light camera over hisshoulder while Scotty changed his rifle sight for the infraredtelescope.
The moon was up by the time they were ready. They shook hands with Singand started off, Chahda leading.
The way led across the valley at a slight angle, heading toward theriver. At first it was smooth going, with only high grass underfoot.Rick was enjoying himself. The moon gave light to the valley center, butthe sides, under the sheer mountain walls, were shrouded in shadow. Thepeaks themselves, snow-capped to the west, were bright.
Then Chahda cut back away from the river toward the nearest mountainwall. The way began to get rougher, with hillocks to climb and rockyoutcroppings to skirt.
Soon they were out of the grassland entirely, walking through rockmasses. Now and then they went from the moonlight into dense shadow andhad to use their flashlights. Except for their flashlights, no man-madelight disturbed the wild scene. They had been traveling for some time.It was late and not even a fire in front of a herder's tent could beseen. By Rick's watch, it was almost eleven.
It was closer to midnight when Chahda stopped. He pointed to a rockydefile. "This is as far a
s I went before. My friend who showed me saidthe cave is there."
Zircon took the lead. Behind him, Rick put his own flashlight away andheld his rifle ready for use. Scotty, too, was ready. Chahda, crowdingRick's steps, had the big light ready to turn on.
Zircon's beam picked out rocky walls that rose for a hundred feet. Hepicked his way over tumbled rock, the others following. The way took asharp turn, then came to a dead end.
"Nothing here." Zircon's light covered the area a foot at a time. Therewas no opening.
"Maybe we missed it," Scotty suggested. "Let's go back, and examineeverything on the way."
They reversed their steps. All of them used lights now, and the combinedbeams illumined the steep walls brightly.
"Take a look at that," Scotty said suddenly. His light was on a pinnacleof rock that appeared to have some sort of opening behind it. He movedin, cautiously, the others close behind. There was an opening, sureenough, where the pinnacle leaned against the main rock wall. There wasjust barely room to squeeze through. Zircon almost got stuck.
Once past the opening, a new trail seemed to open up. And at its end anaperture in the rock wall loomed black before them.
"That must be it," Rick said, and his voice echoed hollowly.
Scotty moved ahead to the entrance and flashed his light inside. Thebeam was lost in the blackness beyond. "It's big," he said, and thewords rolled around in the emptiness.
Rick felt a shiver run down his back. "What are we waiting for?" hedemanded roughly. "Let's get inside."
The opening wasn't large. Zircon had to duck going in. Rick was rightbehind him, Chahda bringing up the rear. Just inside, they stopped, alllights going.
The cave was tremendous. The level rock floor stretched away from them,and when they shot their lights upward, a vaulted dome reflected thebeams a good hundred feet overhead. Slowly they moved away from theentrance, lights busy searching the cave. There was nothing near theentrance but rock, solid and smooth. And it was so quiet Rick thought hecould hear his own heartbeat. Then his light beam picked up a greenreflection on the far side of the cave.
"There's something there," he exclaimed. In spite of himself, his voiceshook.
"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 ofdead black with live green eyes.
They went toward it, all lights on the thing, and as they made out moredetails, Rick shuddered. The Buddha was completely the opposite of everyother Buddha he had seen. Instead of the bland, quiet look of peace,this thing had its mouth open, showing sharp ebony teeth. It leered overa nose like a pig's, and its body was gross and misshapen. It was, Rickthought, toad-like. It quite frankly gave him the willies. Hisimagination gave it life, so that the obscene lips smirked, and almostseemed to drool.
Something white at the base caught the light beams. In a moment theystood 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 Scottyhissed, "Put 'em out!"
Blackness flooded in on them. Rick strained his eyes to see, his ears tohear. He tried to control his breathing, sure that its sound could beheard forty feet away.
Then he saw a horizontal thread of light about three feet long againstthe wall behind the statue. It spread upward slowly, forming arectangle. Rick watched it, his palms wet on the rifle as he tucked theflashlight away and gripped the weapon tightly.
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 thebottom of the rectangle. It rose and rose until it almost filled theframe, and the blackness was in the form of a man, almost, except thatit was too long, too thin.
The four stood as though hypnotized for a dozen heartbeats, then Zirconcame to life. He jumped forward with a great roar.
"Long Shadow!"
The light vanished and again blackness closed around them.