By RALPH B. FIELDS
(The writer of this article presents it as a factual story; the editor’s present it as received. It is amazing!)
“In Beginning this narrative and the unexplainable events that befell my friend and myself, I offer no explanation, nor do I even profess to offer any reason. In fact, I have yet to find a clue that will, even in part, offer any explanation whatever.
Yet as it did happen, there must be some rhyme or reason to the whole thing. It may be that some one can offer some helpful information to a problem that just should not exist in these times of enlightenment.
To begin with, if we had not been reading an article in a magazine telling us about the great value of guano (bat droppings in old caves) that have accumulated over a great number of years, we would have continued to wend our merry way through life without ever having a thing to worry ’bout.
But having read the article and as we were at the time living near a small town called Manten in Tehama County, California, we thought that that would be a good country to explore for a possible find of this kind. After talking it over for some time and as we had plenty of time just then, we decided to take a little trip up the country just back of us. As we were almost at the foot of Mount Lassen, that seemed the best place to conduct our little prospecting tour. So collecting a light camping outfit, together with a couple of pup tents to sleep in, we started out on what we expected to be a three-or-four-day jaunt up the mountain.
I guess we covered about ten or twelve miles on the third day and it was fast approaching time to begin to look for a place to spend the night, and the thought was not very amusing and it had turned a little colder and we were well over seven thousand feet above sea level.
We soon found a sheltered place beneath a large outcrop of rock and set about making a camp. As I was always the cook and Joe the chore boy, I began getting things ready to fix us some grub and Joe began digging around for some dead scrub bush to burn. I had things all ready and looked around for Joe and his firewood. But I could see no sign of him. I began calling to him and he soon came into sight from around the very rock where we were making our camp. And I knew he was laboring under some great excitement as his face was lit up like a Christmas tree.
He had found a cave. The entrance was on the other side of that very rock. He was all for exploration right away. But I argued that we had better wait till morning. But he argued that in the cave it was always night and we would have to use flashlights anyway so what would be the difference? Well, we finally decided that we would give it at least a once-over after we had had a bite to eat.
It wasn’t much to call a cave at first as it had a very small entrance, but back about twenty feet it widened out to about ten feet wide and around eight feet high. And it did reach back a considerable distance as we could see at least a hundred yards and it appeared to bend off to the left. The floor sloped slightly down.
We followed to the bend and again we could see a long way ahead and down.
At this point we became a little afraid as we were some way into the mountain. The idea of being inside so far seemed to make us a little afraid. But we reasoned that inasmuch that there were no branches or connecting caves we could not get lost and therefore had nothing to be afraid of. So we went on. We found no sign of anything that we could imagine to be our much sought guano nor signs of any animals being inside the cave.
I don’t know how far we went, but it must have been a mile or two, as we kept on walking and the cave never changed its contour or size. Noticing this I mentioned it to Joe. We stopped to examine closer by the light of our larger flashlights. And we discovered an amazing thing. The floor seemed to be worn smooth as though it had been used for a long time as a path or road. The walls and ceiling of the cave seemed to be cut like a tunnel. It was solid rock and we knew that no one would cut a tunnel there out of rock as there had been no sign of mining operations. And the rock in the walls and ceiling was run together like it had been melted… Or, fused from a great heat.
While we were busy examining the cave in general, Joe swore he saw a light way down in the cave. We started down the cave once more and found a light. Or I should say the light found us as it was suddenly flashed into our faces. We stood there blinded by it for a minute until I flashed my light at its source and saw we were confronted by three men.
These men looked to be about fifty or a little younger. They were dressed in ordinary cloths such as is worn by most working men in that locality. Levi type pants and flannel shirts and wool coats. They wore no hats. But their shoes looked strange as their soles were so thick they gave the impression of being made of wood.
We just stood there for a minute or two and looked at them. We had no idea there was anybody within miles of us and there stood three men looking at us in a cave a mile or so in the depths of o1d Mount Lassen.
I was scared. We were unarmed. And we knew nothing about these men. One of them spoke to us. He asked us what were looking for. I told him, but I could see he didn’t believe it. We both tried to convince him, but he just smiled. We had a little argument with him, but fearing they might be some criminal gang in hiding, we came to the conclusion that we had better retreat. Turning to go we were confronted by two more of them.
I can’t find any way to express the fear and utter helplessness I felt in finding our retreat cut off. I do remember having remarked to Joe…
“Well, it’ looks like we are behind the well known eight-ball.” I sure didn’t feel as jovial as I spoke either. One of the strangers told us, “I think maybe you had both better come with us.”
We were in no position to argue, though we both would have liked to do a little of that right there, but we had no way of enforcing our arguments. Where could a hero gain any credit in a place like that? So we permitted the five to escort us deeper into the depths of old Lassen.
They had led us farther down and I guess we had gone a couple more miles when we came to the first thing that really amazed us… We came to a place where the cavern widened out a little and we saw some kind of machine, if it can be called that. Though I had no chance to examine it closely at the time, I did later and it was a very strange contrivance. It had a very flat bottom, but the front was curved upward something like a toboggan. The bottom plate was about eight inches thick and it was the color of pure copper. But it was very hard tempered. Although I have had a lot of experience with metals and alloys, I had no opportunity to examine it closely enough to determine just what it was, I doubt very much if I could. It had a seat in the front directly behind a heavy dash-board affair and there was a dial shaped in a semi-circle with figures or markings on it. I had not the slightest idea what they stood for, but they were very simple to remember. (See cut.)
If there was a motor, it was in the rear. All I could see was two horse shoe or magnet shaped objects that faced each other with the round parts to the outside. When this thing was in operation, a brilliant green arc seemed to leap between the two and to continue to glow as long as it was in operation. The only sound it gave off was a hum or buzz that sounded like a battery charger in operation.
The seat in the front was very wide. The only method of operation was a black tear-shaped object which hung from the panel by a chain. One of these
men sitting in the middle, took this thing and touched the sharp end to the first figure on the left side of the dial.
When he touched the first figure, the contraption seemed to move almost out from under us. But it was the smoothest and quietest take-off I ever experienced. We seemed to float. Not the slightest sound or vibration. And after we had traveled for a minute he touched the next figure on the dial and our speed increased at an alarming rate. But when he had advanced the black object over past the center of the dial, our speed increased until I could hardly breathe. I can’t begin to estimate the distance we had traveled or our speed, but it was terrific. The two horseshoe objects in the rear created a green light that somehow shone far ahead of us lighting up the cavern for a long way. I soon noticed a black line running down the center of the cavern and our inner-mountain taxi seemed to follow that.
I don’t know how long we continued our mad ride, but it was long enough for us to become used to the terrific speed and we had just about overcome our fear of some kind of a wreck when we were thrown into another spasm of fear.
Another machine of the same type was approaching us head on. I could see our captors were very nervous, but our speed continued. As the other machine became closer, our speed slowed down very fast and we came to a smooth stop about two feet from the front of the other machine.
Our machine had no sooner stopped than our strange object in their hands. It resembled a fountain pen flashlight with a large, round, bulb-like affair on the back end and a grip something like a German luger. They pointed them at us. After seeing what had happened to our erstwhile captors I thought that our turn was next, whatever it was. But one spoke to us.
“Are you surface people?”
“I guess we are, as that is where we came from very recently.”
“Where did the hairlike find you?”
“If you mean those guys there,” I pointed to the five motionless figures, “back there a few hundred miles.” I pointed toward the way we had come in our wild ride.
“You are very fortunate that we came this way,” he told us. “You would have also become hairlike and then we would have had to kill you also.” That was the first time I had realized that the others were dead.
They put their strange weapons away and seemed friendly enough, so I ventured to ask him the who and why of everything we had run into. I told him of our search for guano and how we had encountered the five hor1oks, as he called them. And also asked him about the machines and their operation and could we get out again? He smiled and told us.
“I could not tell you too much as you could not understand. There are so many things to explain and you could not grasp enough of what I could myself tell you. The people on the surface are not ready to have the things that the ancients have left. Neither I nor anyone in any of the caverns know why these things work, but we do know how to operate some of them. However, there are a great many evil people here who create many unpleasant things for both us and the surface people. They are safe because no one on the surface believes us or them.
Neither I nor anyone in any of the caverns know why these things work, but we do know how to operate some of them. However, there are a great many evil people here who create many unpleasant things for both us and the surface people. They are safe because no one on the surface believes us or them.
That is why I am telling you this. No one would believe that we exist. We would not care, but there are many things here that the outer world must not have until they are ready to receive them, as they would completely destroy themselves, so we must be sure that they do not find them. As for the machine, I don’t know how it works. But I know some of the principles of it.
It works simply by gravity. And it is capable of reverse. The bottom plate of it always is raised about four inches from the surface of the floor.
That is why there is no friction and has such a smooth operation. This object suspended from this chain is pure carbon. It is the key to the entire operation. As I told you before, I cannot explain why it runs, but it does. We want you two to return to where you came and forget about us. We will show you how to operate the sled and we want you never again to enter the cave. If you do and you do not encounter the horloks, we will have to do something about you ourselves, so it would not be advisable to try to return at all events. One thing I can tell you. We never could permit you to leave another time.”
He explained to us the operation of the machine and in some way reversed its direction. So thanking them, we seated ourselves in the sled, as he had called it, and were soon on our way back.
Our return trip was really something we enjoyed as I was sure not to advance the carbon far enough on the dial to give us such terrific speed, but we soon found ourselves where we started from. The sled slid to a smooth stop and we jumped out and started up the cave afoot…
We must have walked a long way coming in, for we thought we never would come to the surface. But at last we did. And it was late afternoon when we emerged… We lost no time in making our way down
the mountain and Joe tells me that he isn’t even curious about what is in that cave.
But I am. What is the answer to the whole thing? I would like to know. We had been told just enough for me to believe that down there somewhere there were and are things that might baffle the greatest minds of this earth. Sometimes I am tempted to go back into that cave if I could again find it, which I doubt, but, then I know the warning I heard in there might be too true, so I guess I had better be of the same mind as Joe. He says:
“What we don’t know don’t hurt us.”
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