CHAPTER 11. IS A STAIRWELL A WELL WITHOUT WATER?

Indy and Rene ceased arguing at once and headed for the door at a dead run. As they were leaving they passed Marion and Marcus coming in.
"What's the rush?" Marcus asked.
"The library!" Indy yelled, not breaking stride. The moonlight was casting a bright blue glow across the dig site and Indy could see a great deal of activity on the hillside to his right.
"They've got those damn lamps again." He cursed, running toward the recent dig. "Put them out, damn you." he hissed as he ran past each man with a light. The Egyptian workers were good at their job but now that they had found their goal they could see no need for secrecy. "Christ, the Nazi's will be all over us!" He cursed as the last light was finally extinguished. He couldn't believe the stupidity of these men.
Marcus and Marion had found Sallah and joined Indy, Rene and Robert at a clear patch of stone some ten metres by six, cleared of all sand and loose stone. Spaced evenly along the slab were the remains of four thick columns. Indy stood with his hands on his hips, pleased with the discovery.
"Now to find a way down." He said.
"What do you mean, down?" Marion asked. "I thought there would be a building. How can this be a library? There's nothing left."
Rene smiled. "That is not important. The main rooms were always lower down. It was cooler to work. The important books and scrolls would be in the lower chambers."
"That's right. And we have to find the way in." Indy added.
"Already done." Sallah answered from behind. Indy turned to see the man standing on a raised stone area surrounded by sand. Indy grinned and shook his head. "You guys deserve double pay." He said.
"It is just as well these men do not speak your language, my friend. They would hold you to that." Sallah chuckled. "Now, look." He pointed to a long, dark stairwell leading into the blackness below. The stone block that had been covering it was propped precariously on some smaller pieces of stone.
"When do you suppose anyone last went down there?" Marion asked nervously.
"We know tomb robbers found this place a few centuries ago," Indy replied. "They brought out the first writings describing the cats and the tomb of Cleopatra. Luckily for us, the robbers had the sense to hide the place again, or it would have been looted years ago and its whereabouts common knowledge."
"How do you know it isn't empty anyway?" Robert asked. Indy passed the young man a wooden torch, as yet unlit. "Now's when we find out." He said. "After you?"
Robert looked from Indy, to Marcus, then Rene and Marion. "No, Doctor Jones," He laughed nervously. "After you."
Indy grinned and descended the first twenty or so steps before lighting his torch. The others followed, all except Sallah, who magnanimously said he would wait outside and keep watch!
The stairwell was surprisingly sand free further down and the air had a dry, dusty smell to it. It was a long way to the bottom and Indy calculated they were well below the river level when they reached a level floor. He waited for the others to join him. They all stared around at what was a surprisingly small chamber with a few alcoves in each wall. All were empty.
"This can't be right." Marion cried. "There's nothing here!"
Indy lifted his hat and mopped his brow with it.
"Wait a minute. Think." He said, looking around the small room. "They wouldn't make a room this small, so far underground, without good reason."
Indy looked around, staring at the alcoves in turn. Something wasn't right.
"Indiana." Rene said, breaking his thought. "I have an idea. Bring all of the torches over here, to the bottom of the stairwell." Indy shrugged and motioned for the others to do it. They assembled in a group around Rene.
"Hold the torches close together, above the bottom step." He said. Again, Indy shrugged and they all did as Belloq asked.
Rene strained his eyes into the gloom, studying the flickering shadows. Then Indy saw what Rene was looking for. There, a few steps up from the bottom, was the faint outline of a hidden door on the stairway. The light, now all concentrated in one place, was casting a single, clear shadow in the fine gap between the door and the wall.
"Brilliant, Rene." Indy said, striding over to the doorway. "With the lights all scattered around, there was no shadow cast. No one would see the doorway if more than one light was brought down here."
"From one light, shall light dawn." Marcus suddenly said. "Remember? Abner's notes." Indy nodded. "Yeah. Strength in one, weakness in many." He added. "C'mon. Let's get that door open." He passed his torch to Marion who also took Robert's and Marcus'. She struggled to hold all five aloft and stepped back, giving them room. The five men put their shoulders to the door and pushed. There was a faint creak but nothing more. "Again!" Grunted Indy and they all pushed again, harder than before. For some time they pushed, heaved and grunted until they were all sweating in the cramped, smoky confined space. Marcus felt a tickle, as sweat ran down his arm. He turned his hand over absently, to mop the wet patch. There, disappearing up his sleeve, was a large black spider. He yelled in panic, flicking his arm, sending the spider flying across the chamber. Robert was on it in an instant, grinding it into the floor with his heel.
"Sorry, Indy." Marcus mumbled. They all turned back to the doorway and stared. "It shouldn't be this difficult. Not with so many of us." He said.
Then Marion grinned, suddenly understanding. "Here. Take these." She said, thrusting the torches toward Indy who took them, puzzled. Marion stepped forward and with a dramatic flourish, extended her forefinger and placed the tip in the middle of the door. She gave a gentle push. There was a barely audible 'click' and the door moved in a fraction, then sprang outwards a foot or so.
"Voila!" She exclaimed, looking at Rene, then Indy.
"Well I'll be....." Indy said, stunned. "A simple spring lock, opening outwards. And we were pushing hard against it. No wonder it wouldn't open! What gave you the idea?" He said, impressed with Marion's work.
"You did." She said simply. "You said it shouldn't be difficult, not with so many. What did dad's notes say? Strength in one, weakness in many." Indy smacked his forehead. "He wasn't talking about the light. He meant the door! Good old Abner."
Quickly, the torches were passed back to each of them and Indy pulled the door wide open. As they passed through, Indy placed a piece of loose rock in the opening to stop the door closing. "It may open easy from that side but who says it will from in here." He said.
There was a short flat area then more steps led downward to another, much larger chamber below. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Robert pointed up at the ceiling in the passage leading up behind them. At regularly spaced intervals were round, domed protrusions hanging downwards, like thick, squat stalactites. "What are they?" He said, as he stepped off the last stair to stand beside the others. Indy looked up at the shapes and yelled "Shit!" At the same time as there came a faint 'click' from the bottom step.
"Up the stairs! NOW!" He yelled, leaping up the steps, four at a time. The others, panicked by his words and actions, followed close behind, not sure what was wrong. They had hardly gone half way up the stairs when Indy came to a dead stop and hissed, "QUIET!"
Faintly at first, then growing louder, there came a deep rumbling sound which they could feel through their feet.
Indy turned and pushed them all back.
"Down the stairs! NOW!"
Frantically, they all scrambled down the stairs as the rumble became a deafening crescendo of noise in the confined space. They all fled into the open chamber at the bottom of the stairs and Robert stopped and turned just as Indy literally flew past him, grabbing his arm and virtually yanking him off his feet. Mere seconds later a five ton block of granite exploded from the stair way and landed exactly where Robert had been standing. He hardly had time to grab his breath, when Indy raced back past the block onto the stairs, yelling,
"Up the stairs! NOW!"
Still too confused to speak, and stunned by the turn of events, they all followed him, gasping, back onto the stairs. They didn't get far. Water. Water like they couldn't believe, was flooding down the stairs in an increasing torrent, pouring in waterfalls from holes in the ceiling where the clay domes had once been.
They struggled on, slower and slower, almost wading, now thigh deep in the fast moving flood. Then, a gunshot echoed in the stairwell above. "SALLAH!" Indy yelled above the noise of the floodwater. He took a split second decision, turned in the spray filled, choking stairwell and yelled,
"Down the stairs! NOW!"
Scrambling, falling over each other in almost blind panic, they made their way back into the chamber, past the block which was thankfully impeding the flow of water.
"What the hell has happened?" Marion yelled, as they all stood, coughing and gasping in the chamber, treading water as the amount increased inexorably around their legs. It was a losing battle.
"An old Egyptian trick..." Indy began.
"Yes, quite interesting, really." Marcus added. "It was usually sand. First noted in the tomb of..."
"Shut up, Marcus! We don't want a history lesson!" Indy yelled. "It's simple. Robert, you got off the last step after us. There must have been some kind of pressure operated lever that tripped when there was no one else on the stairs. That released the granite block down the stairway, breaking all those clay cones on the ceiling, releasing all the water.
"You mean were trapped?" Marion cried.
Indy looked grimly at Marcus.
"Worse?" Marion whispered.
"Someone up there fired a gun." Indy replied.
" Who? You mean we're stuck down here with all this water coming in!" Marion yelled, the panic obvious in her voice. She grabbed Rene's arm without thinking.
"How much will come down here?" Robert said, nervously, half afraid of the answer. Indy looked at him squarely.
"How much water is in the Mediterranean?" He said through clenched teeth.
The icy cold water was up to chest level and was rising fast.
"Do something, Indy, dammit!" Marion screamed as her torch died in the rising flood.