"Let's take a walk down the mountainside," Sid urged.
"Be careful, for crap's sake! What happens if the ground gives way?" I cried.
"Ease up, brother," Jerry soothed. "This lava's had weeks to cool."
The textured, bluish-gray ice ceiling looked like a threatening springtime Midwest sky that deepened along with the darkness. Soon, the men illuminated their spelunking lamps and continued for another hundred feet, or so. Finally, Jerry activated a high powered halogen flashlight. Beyond, they could see a sharp drop-off, like a cliff to nowhere. From below they could hear the sound of cascading water.
"There must a fissure of some kind down there," Jerry surmised. "You can see where the flow has eroded the mountainside. It might be risky, but I want to take a closer look."
"Wait a minute
