Chapter 6
Inside the “ring”
The underground river was in quite another tunnel and the tunnel through which the trio came joined this tunnel of the river at this point. Katrina pointed to a rough raft on the banks of the river and shouted something which was quite lost in the deafening roar of the river. But the boys understood
The trio scrambled onto the raft and Katrina took long bamboo sticks, which were lying on the banks, and gave two of them to the boys. And they set off.
They didn’t need to pole along for the current took the raft and made it shoot along at an alarming speed. The bamboo sticks were only for guiding the raft.
The river wasn’t straight always. It took several sharp turns now and then and thanks to Katrina’s skillful guiding (which was due to experience), there were no mishaps.
Presently, they spotted a small speck of daylight a long way ahead. It grew bigger and bigger, as the trio came nearer and nearer. After a few minutes, rather suddenly, they came out of the dark tunnel into bright sunshine!
The noise decreased at once as they came out into the open river. And then, the boys noticed something; in the tunnel, the river seemed to be very narrow, though it filled the tunnel from one side-wall to the other. But now, it was ten times wide! The boys looked around curiously; in the tunnel it was narrow and then suddenly it widened! It seemed all queer just then.
As they came out of the tunnel, the current suddenly increased and then slowed down and they were now going at the speed of a normal bicycle. Katrina kept the raft right in the middle of the river.
Harshit sat thinking for a moment and then opened his satchel. He took out the knife and the long rope (which was fifteen feet!) He tied one end of the rope to the handle of the knife and dipped it into the water.
“Whatever is that for?” asked Sumit, surprised.
“Is it for an anchor or something?” added Katrina, stopping her rowing for a moment.
“Checking the depth of the river,” said Harshit.
The rope went on disappearing into the blue water, till more than half of it was underwater. And then the knife touched the bottom and Harshit tightened his grip on the rope. He began to haul the rope back into the boat.
At last the knife came out of the water and Harshit estimated the depth by seeing how much of the rope was wet.
“Golly! It must be around ten feet!” said Harshit at last.
“Gosh!” exclaimed Sumit peeping out of the raft to look at the water. “What if someone fell into this river? Wouldn’t he go quite a long way down?!”
SPLASH! Sumit had fallen into the water; but fortunately he got hold of the raft’s edge before it was too late.
“Are you off your head, Sumit!” said Harshit.
“Maybe to see if it was really a long way down,” said Katrina, grinning.
Sumit was holding on to the raft for dear life, but judging by the expression on his face, he might just as well have been in a water park having a water ride!
“Yahoo!” yelled Sumit, “Yippee! You guys don’t know what you’re missing! This is awesome!”
“Hold on tight, Sumit,” said Harshit, laughing, “if you really enjoy riding like that; I’ll tie you to the raft, then there won’t be any danger.”
As soon as Sumit was securely tied to the raft, he let go of the raft and began to splash around with his hands, yelling with delight!
“THIS IS FUN!”
It did look like fun; and Sumit’s face was so full of enjoyment, that Harshit and Katrina decided to try it themselves.
Soon all three were laughing and yelling, tied securely to the raft. The current was taking them with quite a speed.
Sometimes they swam pushing the raft before them.
At last, they were tired and just floated behind the raft contentedly.
They floated along looking at the trees on the land and the birds flying around them, high above in the sky.
Presently, Katrina climbed on to the raft and turned it to the land, and now, they could see the land clearly.
Harshit and Sumit were so contented, that they didn’t notice Katrina climbing back onto the raft and then guiding it to the land.
‘Course, as they approached the land, it became shallower; till Harshit and Sumit (who were floating behind the raft on theirs backs) quite unaware of their surroundings, were startled when they ran aground and found themselves lying on the muddy river-bed on their backs.
Katrina giggled. And Sumit was quite angry with her for not warning him. Harshit and Sumit had to wash their muddy backs in a stream that was joining the river near here.
After the washing, the boys scrambled out of the stream and looked around them.
The river bed was consisted of brown, muddy clay; beyond which the “clay” became drier and crisper, and was dotted here and there with pebbles. Further on, there were stones as well as pebbles and still further, the pebbles and stones were joined by huge rocks and trees.
And these trees were only a small part of a great forest or rather a jungle, to be precise. The trees were close together and as you looked through between the trunks of the trees, you could see nothing except total darkness, though here and there a stream of sunlight managed to “squeeze” through the dense foliage, to light up the dark jungle.
Katrina took the lead, quite naturally, and the boys followed (naturally, ‘course).
She went straight toward the edge of the dark jungle and Harshit at once suggested holding hands in case anyone got lost. The other two agreed; so Katrina held Sumit’s left hand and Harshit held Sumit’s right one and in this way they entered into the dark jungle.
The jungle was very dark but the surroundings were lit up by a yellowish-greenish light, quite enough for their needs, besides, Katrina knew the way very well and led the other two very confidently, so the boys couldn’t help following without a word.
It was silence mostly, but now and then, a bird let out a “squeal” or a dog-like bark came ringing through the woods.
The journey was long and tiring but was exiting and lively from the beginning to the end. And that end came when they came to a clearing. The trio blinked, as they came into broad sunshine so suddenly. Katrina led them to a hut in the center of the clearing. It was surrounded by an old wood fence. And the gate looked as though it would fall if anyone blew at it.
The boys saw that the gate was locked, but that was no great problem for half of the fence was already on the ground in a pile and the other half looked as if it would tumble down any moment. So they just went through one of the gaps in the fence and walked to the hut. The hut was an old shanty made in ancient times. Its walls were made of stones cemented with mud which then hardened as it got baked by the sun. The roof was just a thatched roof.
The hut was apparently deserted ages ago. When the trio entered, they saw a heap of tools like hammer, a saw, an axe, a tool that looked like a pick-axe and so on, in a corner. Another corner held a sort of a fire-place. Some wooden boxes were lying around (and they seemed to be newer than the other things), evidently used for stools and some cooking utensils (pottery) were stacked in a cupboard. A sort of a bed was lying in a corner, which had broken into a hundred pieces when Sumit sat on it, who found himself flat on the ground at once.
“This is my lodgings,” said Katrina. She went towards the fire-place and soon she had a good blazing fire with a kettle of water on it. They had black tea with some bread from Harshit's satchel. It was refreshing.
“I wish we had milk to make the tea instead of water,” said Sumit longingly, as they came out of the hut into the open. “And there is,” said Katrina. She whistled loudly with her mouth and two goats came clattering out of the jungle to Katrina. At first, Sumit’s and Harshit's face looked alarmed, but as there were only two goats, there was no “tragedy” this time. Katrina milked the goats and gave the milk in two tumblers to Sumit and Harshit. Sumit, who had drunk the milk of his own goats a hundred times before, gulped the warm milk down at
once, enjoying it immensely. But poor Harshit couldn’t help making a wry face, for goat’s milk is always a shock at first for those who had been accustomed to cow’s milk. Katrina saw it and grinned – a sort of boyish grin.
“You haven’t drunk goat’s milk before, I guess,” she said. “Well, you’ll get accustomed to it if you drink it every day.” At this, Harshit's face looked so alarmed that Katrina laughed. “Oh, you needn’t look so alarmed; I’m not going to make you drink it!”
That day, they went exploring the vicinity, and collected some fruits. Katrina entrusted them to Sumit to carry, but somehow half of the fruits disappeared on the way. “Most likely, it’s in Sumit’s tummy,” said Harshit, and it was, even though the expression on Sumit’s face looked as if he was innocent boy, quite incapable of such a thing.
It was soon time for Sumit to go, and the trio went back to the raft. The boys helped Katrina pole up the river, and soon they were inside the tunnel, in the heart of the mountain. Presently, they came to the place where they had to land, and then, not long afterwards, it was time to part and Sumit went on his way with his goats and Harshit and Katrina retreated into the “ring” of the Andhar-ana-mana Mountains.
They didn’t pole along downstream for the current was carrying them along well enough, but Katrina had to use the pole for steering. They were soon trudging through the jungle, rather blindly, for it was very dark now. They walked along like this for hours till a doubt crept into Harshit's mind.
“Katrina, we should have been at the hut by this time, surely,” he said to Katrina. Katrina said nothing. She hadn’t the heart to say that they were lost.