By the time Climpson and Odham MacGuinness had reached the fallen oak Jolly was nowhere to be seen, although they didn’t need to follow the mysterious gouged earth, or Jolly’s drips of urine  to guess where he had bolted; a large burrow easily big enough for a large grown man to crawl down, gaped at the base of the cavity created by the upturned root ball. Exchanging a brief apprehensive glance with each other O.M and Climpson knelt down and began to make their way into the hole.

Within a few feet the burrow began to widen enough for both men to be able to crawl side by side. Curiously  instead of soil beneath their hands the two men began to feel the unmistakable cool hardness of brick. Intrigued, Climpson pulled out a small lantern from the rucksack and lit it. As the lantern’s glow began to illuminate the space around them both men drew a sharp intake of breath. A few short yards in front of them the floor fell away into a large gaping hole in the floor, into which - without the light from the lantern to reveal it- one or both of them would have undoubtedly plunged. Gingerly they edged towards the lip of the hole and peered down into it’s darkness. Although the lantern couldn’t throw enough light to  reveal the depth of the hole, it did serve to show them a makeshift ladder crafted from stout tree branches and lashed with twine, propped against the edge in front of them and descending downwards.

Climpson, being the lighter of the two was the first down the ladder which, despite it’s appearance was surprisingly sturdy. By Climpson’s estimation the climb down was about twenty five feet. At the bottom, instead of the small burrow above him, Climpson now found himself  standing in the middle of a vast cavern.  Not wishing to be alone any longer than was necessary Climpson whistled up to his companion that it was safe to descend. Although in the darkness Climpson could not see his friend, the ladders straining against his hands told him that OM was also on his way down.

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When the two were both rejoined they tried, by the lanterns to take stock of their eerie new surroundings; that they were standing in one of Schusters tunnels was beyond doubt but neither of them could possibly have imagined how vast some of Schusters tunnels could have been. To their left they could clearly see a  very distant arch of light about  a quarter of a mile away; obviously one of the tunnels entrances. O.M took the lantern from Climpson and carefully made his way to one side of the tunnel. After a few feet the lantern  revealed in it’s circle of light a solid brick wall which eerily arched upwards above O.M’s head and was swallowed up into the darkness. Placing his back to the wall O.M pigeon stepped back past the ladder until he reached again a solid wall. The width of the tunnel appeared to be some twenty feet. Again O.M placed his back to the wall and paced back to the ladder, a distance just short of ten feet. The hole through which they had entered the tunnel was roughly at the apex of the tunnel. Seemingly when the oak tree above them had been upturned and it’s great root system disturbed, it had rent a large hole in the roof of the tunnel creating this unplanned opening. This surmise was borne out by brick and rubble detritus which was scattered loosely around the ladders base. This brief reconnoiter complete, O.M began to look around at the rest of the cavernous space.

Even without the sure knowledge that Jolly was also down here with them in this damp subterrania, there was plenty of other evidence that would have informed them they were not alone...a long line of candles flickered in the cool dank air, their lonely lights stretched a good thirty feet before eventually being swallowed up in the darkness. The faint sound of footsteps came from the direction in which the candles led, galvanising OM and Climpson into movement. 

They had only taken a few steps when Odham MacGuinness drew his companions attention to a parallel set of wheel ruts in the ground. It seemed as though something of great weight had been pushed or pulled along the tunnel on some from of trolley, and judging by the freshness of the ruts, fairly recently.

Puzzled and full of trepidation, Climpson and Odham MacGuinness began to walk along the  path made by the flickering candles, towards the sound of scrabbling footsteps and who knew what else.....