Rick Brant 8 The Caves of Fear Read online

  The Caves of Fear

  A RICK BRANT SCIENCE-ADVENTURE STORY, No. 8

  BY JOHN BLAINE

  CHAPTER I

  Changes at Spindrift

  The sounds of hammer and saw had disturbed Spindrift Island for several days, and Rick Brant was having a hard time getting used to it. The noise didn’t bother him. It was the idea behind the noise-the idea that the close fellowship of the famous island was about to be intruded upon by strangers.

  He sat in a comfortable chair on the front porch of the big Brant house and stared morosely at the Atlantic. He was a tall, athletic boy with brown hair and eyes and a face that was usually pleasant.

  “What’s it going to be like with a mob of strangers galloping all over the place?” he demanded.

  Don Scott grinned lazily from the depths of his armchair. He was a husky youth, perhaps an inch taller than Rick, with black hair and dark eyes. “Since when do five people make a mob?” he inquired. “Besides, I think adding more scientists to the staff is a good thing. So does Dad.”

  “I know it,” Rick returned gloomily. “The others do, too. I’m a downtrodden minority. No one sympathizes with me.”

  Scotty shook his head sadly. “Poor old Rick. Seriously, I don’t get it. You should be cheering the loudest. Think of what it means, pal! More fields of science to explore, including one I never heard of before. Maybe more expeditions, of different kinds than the ones we’ve been on up to now.”

  “That’s what I’m thinking about,” Rick returned.

  “Then why the gloom?”

  “Because . . .” Rick stopped as the phone rang in the house.

  Scotty got to his feet quickly. “I’ll get it. Mom and Dad are down watching the builders.”

  Rick smiled as Scotty went into the house. It pleased him to have Scotty call Mr. and Mrs. Brant “Mom and Dad.” It was a symbol of Scotty’s permanence in the family. No one had ever questioned Scotty’s membership in the Spindrift tribe since the day when the scrappy ex-Marine had rescued Rick from a gang of thugs bent on destroying the Island Foundation’s moon rocket, and it was pleasant to think of Scotty as a permanent brother. The two of them had been through some tight places together and they were closer friends than brothers usually are. Like Rick, Scotty was listed on the membership rolls of the Spindrift Foundation as a junior technician.

  Hartson W. Brant was listed as president, but it was Rick’s pride that he and Scotty had earned places because of their own worth, and not because of their

  relationship with the scientist. However, their abilities were not the same. Because of Rick’s interest in science, particularly electronics, he had become expert in intricate wiring and he was rapidly learning about the design of equipment. Scotty’s talent was in the mechanical field. He could repair machinery and he was a whiz with engines.

  Thinking about work in the lab reminded Rick that he had an unfinished project of his own on his workbench upstairs. He was half out of his chair, determined to go upstairs and put the rest of the afternoon to good use, when Scotty called.

  “Rick! Hurry up.”

  He ran into the library and found Scotty holding the phone. “Here’s a funny one, Rick. The Whiteside telegraph office has a cable for you, but they won’t read it over the phone because it’s all numbers. And it’s from Chahda.”

  Chahda, the Hindu boy who had been like a member of the family since he joined a Spindrift expedition in Bombay, was back home in India. He had left the boys in New Caledonia after a recent adventure in order to visit his family.

  “I’d better talk to them,” Rick said. “Who’s on the wire?”

  “Bill Martin.”

  Rick took the phone. “Bill? This is Rick. What’s up?”

  “Got a cable addressed to you,” Bill answered. “I’d rather not try to read it over the phone because it’s all numbers. Can you or Scotty pick it up?”

  “Where’s it from?” Rick asked.

  “Singapore. And it’s signed by your Indian friend.”

  Singapore! What on earth was Chahda doing in Singapore? Rick couldn’t guess. “Bill, what kind of numbers are they?”

  “Groups. Seven figures in each group. If you ask me, it’s some kind of code.”

  Rick thought quickly. “Barby’s in Whiteside, Bill. She went over to a movie right after lunch, and she should just about be getting out. You can get her next door at the Sugar Shop, because she always stops in there for a fudge sundae after the show. If she’s already gone, phone the boat landing. You ought to catch her one place or the other.”

  I’ll try,” Bill promised. “If I don’t catch her, I’ll call you back.”

  “Thanks a million.” Rick restored the phone to its cradle and looked at Scotty. “What do you make of that?”

  Scotty shrugged. “It beats me. I didn’t know Chahda was planning to leave Bombay. If it comes to that, I didn’t know he knew anything about codes.”

  “Neither did I,” Rick agreed. “Remember he said something about a job in his last letter? There was something secret about it he couldn’t tell us. Maybe that’s why he’s in Singapore.”

  “Could be. Anyway, we won’t know for sure until we get the cable and decipher it. If we can decipher it, that is.”

  “We’ll be able to,” Rick said confidently. “He wouldn’t send us one we couldn’t break.”

  Scotty nodded. “I hope you’re right. Well, let’s go back and get lazy again.”

  “Not me.” Rick started for the stairs. “I’m going to stop loafing and get busy. The lenses for the camera arrived a week ago and I haven’t even looked at them.”

  “I’ll go with you. I got some questions about these new people maybe you can answer.”

  Upstairs in Rick’s bedroom, Scotty sat down in the old leather armchair while Rick opened up the doors that concealed his workbench. On the bench was a camera with an odd-looking searchlight and telescope attached. The searchlight gave off invisible infrared rays instead of ordinary light, and the telescope was equipped with special lenses in order to pick up the infrared. When the camera was loaded with special film, it could take pictures in total darkness, provided the subject was within range of the infrared light rays.

  The camera had played a major part in solving the mystery of Smugglers’ Reef. With the evidence collected from Rick’s pictures, the police had broken up a ring of gunrunners. But Rick still was not satisfied with the camera. He was always striving to find the simplest way of doing a thing.

  This time, he was planning to eliminate both the spring-driven dynamo that powered the searchlight, and the infrared telescope. A new-type battery in a small metal case already had been mounted under the camera, far enough to one side so it wouldn’t interfere with the tripod mount. The battery would give ten hours of service, and it could be replaced in t moment with a spare carried in the pocket.

  To take the place of the telescope, Rick had ordered lenses made of the special glass that could “see” infrared. He intended to put the lenses in ordinary sunglasses frames, restore the regular view finder to the camera, and turn the telescope over to Scotty. By using the eyeglasses with special lenses he could see whatever the infrared searchlight was lighting up without the need of looking through the special telescope. Using the glasses and searchlight on the camera together, he could see perfectly in the darkness, and he could take movies, too, if he wanted to.

  He went to work removing the telescope.

  “I’ve checked,” Scotty said. “That ‘scope will fit the mount on my rifle with no changes.”

  Scotty already had a telescopic sight on his rifle, and the telescope from the infrared unit could be put in its place with a simple turn of a screw. The infrared ‘sco
pe and light originally had been designed for a rifle to be used by soldiers at night. Rick had simply adapted the unit to his own needs.

  “We can get in some night skunk hunting,” Scotty said. “You put the infrared on ‘em and take their pictures and I’ll sight in through the special ‘scope and shoot “em.”

  Rick slipped the telescope out of its mount and handed it to Scotty. “If there’s one thing I don’t need,” he said, “it’s a dead skunk. Couldn’t we hunt prairie moose instead?”

  “What’s a prairie moose?” Scotty demanded.

  “A field mouse with horns.”

  Scotty groaned. “All right, scientist. Let’s get serious and see if you can answer this one. We have an archeologist, a naturalist, and a cyberneticist coming. I think I know what the first two are, but what in the name of a blue baboon is a cyberneticist?”

  Rick put the camera view finder into place and began to adjust it. “A specialist in cybernetics,” he said.

  Scotty waved his arms. “Now I know!” he exclaimed triumphantly. “Any idiot knows what cybernetics is. Or what they are. Ten cents apiece at any hardware counter. No family should be without a handy-dandy cyberneticl”

  Rick chuckled. “All right. Cybernetics is a combined study of machines and the human nervous system. It’s trying to figure out how machines and humans are related. I don’t know much about it myself, but I do know this: the big electronic calculators that do problems in a few hours that it would take humans hundreds of years to finish were the result of cybernetics.”

  “The big brains!” Scotty looked awed. “I’ve read about them. And to think we’re going to have that kind of expert here!”

  “With his wife and two kids,” Rick added. “I wonder how Huggins will like a crowd of kids trampling through his garden!”

  Scotty laughed outright. “Here we go again! Listen, Rick, start making sense. How can twins less than a year old trample anyone’s garden?”

  Rick didn’t try to answer. He finished the adjustment on the camera and put it back on the shelf, then started to work replacing the lenses in an old pair of sunglasses with the special ones he had ordered. After a moment, he asked, “Scotty, how would you like it if an expedition left Spindrift and we weren’t with it?”

  Scotty stared. “My sainted aunt! Is that’s what’s been bothering you?”

  Rick admitted it. He knew where he stood with the old gang, Hartson Brant, Hobart Zircon, Julius Weiss, and John Gordon. He was far from sure of how the new staff members would look on him and Scotty. He had learned that some scientists had little patience with people who were unfamiliar with their special fields, and he and Scotty were pretty ignorant about the new sciences that would be represented. That was his only reason for objecting when his father had decided to enlarge the staff.

  “I can see it now,” he said. “The Foundation will be planning an expedition, maybe to be headed by this new naturalist, and well be on the outside looking in. And why? Because Dr. Howard Shannon prefers not to be bothered by a couple of kids who wouldn’t know one bug from another.”

  “You’re crossing bridges before you come to ‘em,” Scotty pointed out. “For all you know, all three of these new scientists might be perfectly swell gents, like Zircon, Weiss, and Gordon. Why borrow trouble in advance?”

  “I suppose you’re right,” Rick had to agree. “But I still can’t help thinking about it.”

  “Think all you like,” Scotty said generously. “Me, I’m going to put my little gray brain cells to work on Chahda’s cable. Aren’t you all fired up with curiosity?”

  Rick started to say he was, but no reply was necessary because just then he heard the sound of the motor-boat engine for which his ears had been attuned. He put down the sunglasses and ran for the door. Scotty had heard the engine, too, and was halfway down the hall.

  It had to be Barby, Rick was sure. The other motor-boat-the island had two-was tied up at the pier, and they weren’t expecting any visitors. The builders had their own boat, a powered barge, anchored off Pirate’s Field.

  The boys ran out on the front porch and around the house, then down the long flight of stairs that led to the cove where the motorboat landing was located.

  It was Barby, sure enough, and she had the cablel She waved it wildly, then gunned the boat around neatly so that it slid into the dock. Scotty grabbed the bow line and made fast while Rick jumped for the stern line and slipped it around a cleat on the landing.

  Barby cut the engine and jumped to the dock, a slim, pretty girl, her face flushed with excitement. “It’s from Chahda,” she said breathlessly, “and it’s in code!”

  “We know,” Scotty said. “Here, let’s take a look at it.”

  Barby handed it to him. He scanned it wordlessly, then handed it to Rick. “Son, we’ll be doing right well if we make any sense out of that!”

  “He wouldn’t send us anything in a code we couldn’t read,” Rick objected. “Let’s see it. It can’t be too hard.”

  But in the next moment he changed his mind. His lips pursed in a low whistle. This was the cable:

  Rick Brant spindrift island new jersey, U.S.A.

  5213039 6231581 1219456 2768612 2144644 912329R

  3970731 6017747 1044914 3327116 6074193 4399693

  0531612 1330552 3047171 3193986 8128912 7011716

  0762878 3377335 3831075 5371011 3552684 301296S

  3532456 8337373 9104476 1605588 2540551 2826677

  9513148 3189710 4811223 5202998 5912492 3432174

  3302710 7072010 1510108 4423007 3331954 7893623

  L. Chahda

  CHAPTER II

  The Cipher Message

  Barby, Rick, and Scotty were in the library when Hart-son Brant walked in. They were reduced to the point of staring at each other helplessly because of the magnitude of the task that confronted them.

  The famous scientist, who looked like an older version of his son, greeted them with a smile. “What is this, a meeting of the Silent Three? I can’t ever remember finding you all together when one of you wasn’t talking.”

  Rick handed him the cable. “What do you make of that, Dad?”

  Hartson Brant scanned it quickly. “From Chahda, in Singapore, and in cipher. Am I supposed to gather that you don’t have the key to the cipher?”

  “That’s right,” Scotty said. He held up a heavy volume called Cryptography for the Student. It was the only

  book on the subject in the scientist’s library. “We’ve been going through this, trying to find some -kind of clue. Honest, it’s impossible.”

  “There are so many codes and ciphers,” Barby added. “Dozens. And it says some of them can only be broken by days of work, by experts.”

  “There’s not an expert in the house, either,” Rick concluded. “I didn’t think, when Bill called us up about it, that Chahda would use a code we couldn’t figure out, but I didn’t expect a page like that.”

  Hartson Brant read through the cable again. “How do you know you can’t figure it out? Perhaps a little reasoning will clear the air. Chahda must have put a key in the message somewhere. How about this ‘L’ in front of his name?”

  “That’s right,” Barby said excitedly. “That must mean something, because his name is Chahda Sundararaman. There isn’t an L in it anywhere.”

  The scientist handed the cable back to Rick. “I’m about as curious as I can get,” he said, “but I refuse to think any more about it until you hand me the clear version. I agree that Chahda wouldn’t send a code you couldn’t solve, so my advice is put the code book away. You won’t need it, I’m sure. This isn’t any code you’ll find in there.”

  He started out of the room, then paused at the door, his eyes twinkling. “Will you have dinner at the table with us, or shall I ask mother to break out some emergency rations so you can stay on the job?”

  “We’ll eat with the family,” Scotty replied. “We can keep on thinking while we eat, can’t we?”

  Rick watched his father wink at Barby,
then walk toward the kitchen. “Dad’s right,” he announced. “He must be. So let’s put the book back and start figuring this out. The answer probably is easy as pie once we find the key.”

  “How about starting with that odd letter?” Scotty asked. “That has to mean something.”

  “L is the twelfth letter in the alphabet,” Barby offered. “Does that mean anything?”

  Rick shook his head. “Not to me. But let’s start from there, anyway. Maybe the twelfth group of numbers has a clue.”

  He counted rapidly across the number groups. “That group is 4399693. Now what?”

  Scotty suggested, “Substitute letters for the numbers. That would make it DCIIFIC. That doesn’t mean anything.”

  “Maybe you counted the wrong way,” Barby said thoughtfully. “Count down the columns instead of across.”

  Rick did so. “That’s 8337373. Substitute and it comes out ... let’s see ... HCCGCGC. Nothing there, either.”

  Scotty had a pad of paper and a pencil and was making idle doodles. “I’m trying to recall. When did Chahda learn anything about codes?”

  Rick thought for a moment. “He never did, that I know of,” he said finally.

  Barby stood up. “Well, I’m going to shower and change before dinner,” she announced. “But I’ll keep thinking. I have an idea that talking about it won’t help much. If Dad and Rick are right about his using a code we’re sure to know, it must be staring us in the face and we’re too blind to see it.”

  “Good idea,” Rick agreed. “Let’s break this up and each think about it. If we each search our memories, maybe we’ll come up with a clue.”

  Barby went upstairs and Scotty retired to his favorite seat on the porch. But Rick felt that he could think better on his feet. A glance at his watch told him he had over an hour and a half before dinner. He waved at Scotty and walked across the grass toward the gray stone laboratory buildings. Professor Weiss was in his office working on some mathematical theory he was developing. It was away over Rick’s head. For a moment he thought of posing the problem to the little professor, then thought better of it and passed by the lab on the south side. He skirted the woods and crossed Pirate’s Field, so called because local legend said the famed woman pirate, Anne Bonney, had once landed there with her gang of cutthroats. He paused for a moment and studied the fused sand left by the terrific heat when the first moon rocket was launched, but the barren patch gave him no inspiration.