Dragging their feet towards their sides of the cave, they quickly got into the warm cozy comfort of their sleeping bags. As soon as their head touched the soft bags as they lay down, all of them dozed off. By 10 p.m. some of the boys were snoring. Sherpa was wide awake and he kept the fire burning slowly to ensure no wild animals would come this way. The fire would scare them.

Luke and Sherpa had decided to keep watch for 3 hours each. Sherpa was on the first watch from 10 p.m. to 1.30 a.m. Luke would have taken over after 1.30 a.m. to 5 a.m.

After 4 hours, Sherpa got up from his watch position at the entrance of the cave and went to wake up Luke. Luke awoke, but was highly annoyed with Sherpa, as to why he had kept watch for 4 hours. Anyway, he told Sherpa to sleep; as now he would keep watch and would keep watch till early morning.

Luke sat near the cave entrance where Sherpa had been sitting. A lot of things were on his mind. He also felt that there was something wrong about the dried gra.s.s placed conveniently inside the cave and the twigs outside. Then fact that the cave looked as if no one had ever entered it. It was quite uncanny.

At around 4.30 a.m. Zia woke up.She saw the figure of Luke silhouetted against the fire at the entrance of the cave. She thought that she would give him company and talk to him about things that were on her mind.

"Good morning Luke, mind if I join you?" she asked as she joined him.

Luke couldn't see her but heard her voice and his heart missed a beat. Zia wanted to join him at his watch. "How romantic!"

"Good morning, shouldn't you be asleep, are you not tired."

"No, I have rested and feel ok. I got up early, seeing you sitting her on watch and I thought I'd join you and discuss some things that are on my mind."

"Ok, sit down and tell me what is troubling you?" replied Luke feeling concerned.

Zia sat down besides Luke about a few inches away. She turned towards her left side so that she was facing Luke while she spoke to him.

The fire they had lit last night had almost died down. It would be daybreak soon Luke thought that he also needed to talk to her but was it the right time, or should he wait for tomorrow? He was caught up in his thoughts.

"I just need an opinion that when you and Sunny inspected the cave, you did not find any footprints etc indicating it had never been used. But then how come the dried gra.s.s was kept on the side and twigs outside the cave?" she pondered aloud and added, "I feel someone deliberately kept the twigs outside and the dried gra.s.s inside for us to use. After keeping these things and cleaning the footprints etc, he or she left via the tunnel in the adjacent cave which you have closed by placing the tent bags at the narrow entrance of the tunnel from the cave side."

"I may be wrong but I have a hunch that we are not alone here, someone is watching over us. Not in a malevolent way but in a benevolent way."

"This someone knew we had taken a wrong turn and that we would not be able to reach the village no matter what we did. Apparently he, on his own, or his friends or helpers went ahead of us to make these tiny arrangements so that we would spend the night comfortably."

"You may feel that I am crazy, but I honestly think we need to inspect that tunnel just to see where it goes. It is a mystery as to who is our helper and why is he helping us? Does he think we are dumb that we cannot figure out about the gra.s.s and the twigs placed in and outside a cave that is supposed to have never been used?"

While Zia was saying this she unconsciously grabbed Luke's arm and was shaking vigorously to make him see her point of view.

Luke looked at her and then at his held arm trying to figure out what was the matter with Zia. She had been aloof throughout Monday while they on the way to the camp. It was only Tuesday morning that she acknowledged his protective att.i.tude when he had fired at the bear who was trying to rip the tent which accommodated Danny and Ben. Anyway, it was a start towards the right direction. At least acknowledgement was something. Something is better than nothing.

Zia soon realized that she had got carried away and had grabbed him arm. Feeling embarra.s.sed she quickly removed her hand and apologized at the same time.

"It is ok, I needed to be shaken up so that I do not doze off," he laughed. "Besides it is not every day that a pretty girl find the courage to shake me." He grinned.

"You are too much, everything in life is a joke for you. Have you not understood what I am trying to say?"

"Zia, Zia don't get annoyed. I had the same feeling as you about this place. Before we leave this place, Sherpa and I will go and investigate."

"No way, what if something happened to you both? We all will be left here and how will we get back?"

"I will leave the satellite phone with you. You will need to connect with that person to locate the coordinates of our position. A rescue team will come."

"No nothing doing, we will all go together into the tunnel and see where it leads to at the other end or into another cave. Who is there at the end of the tunnel? What is his purpose here? Is he on a special project alone or with his team?"

"Ok, Zia, it can be dangerous. These persons or person can be scientists working for the government or against the government. They can be spies too from another country doing some experiments here. It could be anything."

"I understand what you are implying Luke but we all need to know. Even the students are not dumb. Most of them must have figured that there is something fishy about that tunnel and its connection to the dried gra.s.s, twigs and the unused cave. They are highly intelligent kids. They might be thinking of investigating the tunnel."

"Ok Zia, we will talk it at breakfast time and let's see what the students say. After all, if only a few people go there can be the risk of them not coming back to the cave. In that case the others can be safe."

"But, if they know we are all together, then if they mean harm, none of us is safe. I also feel that these persons are benevolent as they have not harmed us but have shown us to the cave indirectly." Luke a.s.sured her.

It was almost 5 a.m. and there was slight light all around. Soon it would be time for all to get up and light the fire for bed tea and breakfast.

Luke was not such a bad person thought Zia. He joked about everything. She had underestimated him as a person as well as a colleague. He was highly learned and working in a college, she was still trying to get an appointment as a lecturer in a college but was still at a struggling stage. Luke was a Ph. D. in Thermodynamics and as per the information he had provided about himself while they had stopped for lunch yesterday, he was very knowledgeable.