Read The Legend of Red Horse Cavern Online
Authors: Gary Paulsen
The Legend of Red Horse Cavern (5 page)
Will was the first to come to his senses. “It’s impossible. Isn’t it, Grandfather?”
A mysterious look came over the elderly man’s face. “Our people say that when you look at things with the eye, it might be impossible. But when you look with the heart, all things are possible.”
SPELUNKING
The adventure of exploring caves is called spelunking. Experienced spelunkers never enter a cave alone. A party of three is the minimum, and they always leave word as to where they’re going.
From the moment you enter a cave make mental notes of landmarks. Whenever you turn off from the passage you are following, be sure to make some kind of arrow mark back to the exit that will not permanently deface the cave.
If you find yourself lost, sit down and keep calm. Reconstruct the route in your mind. See if you can locate your own tracks. Be systematic; explore one opening at a time.
If a passage doesn’t seem familiar, mark it so that you won’t try it again, and move on to the next one.
Should these clues fail,
do not panic
. Stay where you are, avoid wearing yourself out, and wait for the search party.
IMPORTANT
EQUIPMENT
When spelunking, always bring
the following with you:
Flashlight or Lantern
Rope
Matches
Candles
Drinking water
Light food
Don’t miss the exciting action coming soon!
Friends Brett Wilder and Tom Houston are video game whizzes. So when a new virtual reality arcade called Rodomonte’s Revenge opens near their home, they make sure that they are its first customers. The game is awesome. There are flaming fire rivers to jump, beastly buzz-bugs to fight, and ugly tunnel spiders to escape. If they’re good enough they’ll face Rodomonte, an evil giant waiting to do battle within his hidden castle.
But soon after they play the game, strange things start happening to Brett and Tom. The computer is taking over their minds. Now everything that happens in the game is happening in real life. A buzz-bug could gnaw off their ear. Rodomonte could smash them to bits. Brett and Tom have no choice but to play Rodomonte’s Revenge again. This time they’ll be playing for their lives.
“…
please anybody … fire … need help
.”
That’s the urgent cry thirteen-year-old Nikki Roberts hears over the CB radio the weekend she’s left alone in her family’s hunting lodge. The message also says that the sender is trapped near a bend in the river. Nikki knows it’s dangerous, but she has to try to help. She paddles her canoe downriver, coming
closer to the thick black smoke of the forest fire with each stroke. When she reaches the bend, Nikki climbs on shore. There, covered with soot and huddled on a rock ledge, sit two small children.
Nikki struggles to get the children to safety. Flames roar around them. Trees splinter to the ground. But as Nikki tries to escape the fire, she doesn’t know that two poachers are also hot on her trail. They fear that she and the children have seen too much of their illegal operation—and they’ll do anything to keep the kids from making it back to the lodge alive.
Devil’s Wall
.
Rick Williams and his friends J.D. and Spud—the Rock Jockeys—are attempting to become the first and youngest climbers to ascend the north face of their area’s most treacherous mountain. They’re also out to discover if a B-17 bomber rumored to have crashed into the mountain years ago is really there.
As the Rock Jockeys explore Devil’s Wall, they stumble upon the plane’s battered shell. Inside, they find items that seem to have belonged to the crew, including a diary written by the pilot. Spud later falls into a deep hole and finds something even more frightening: a human skull and bones. To find out where they might have come from, the boys read the pilot’s story in the diary. Could he have eaten a crewmate to survive? And if Devil’s Wall could force a trained pilot to do
that
, what dangers might the mountain hold for the Rock Jockeys?
Bobbie Walker loves working on her grandfather’s ranch. She hates the fact that her cousin Alex is coming up from Los Angeles to visit and will probably ruin her summer. Alex can barely ride a horse and doesn’t know the first thing about roping. There is no way Alex can survive a ride into the flats to round up wild cattle. But Bobbie is going to have to let her tag along anyway.
Out in the flats the weather turns bad. Even worse, Bobbie knows that she’ll have to watch out for the Bledsoe boys, two mischievous brothers who are usually up to no good. When the boys rustle the girls’ cattle, Bobbie and Alex team up to teach the Bledsoes a lesson. But with the wild bull Diablo on the loose, the fun and games may soon turn deadly serious.
Daniel Martin doesn’t want to go to Camp Eagle Nest. He wants to spend the summer as he always does: with his Uncle Smitty in the Rocky Mountains. Daniel is a slow learner, but most other kids call him retarded. Daniel knows that at camp, things are only going to get worse. His nightmare comes true when he and three bullies must ride the camp van together.
On the trip to camp Daniel is the butt of the bullies’ jokes. He ignores them and concentrates on the roads outside. He thinks they may be lost. As the van crosses a wooden bridge, the planks suddenly
give way. The van plunges into the raging river below. Daniel struggles to shore, but the driver and the other boys are nowhere to be found. It’s freezing, and night is setting in. Daniel faces a difficult decision. He could save himself … or risk everything to try to rescue the others, too.
Eleven-year-old Warren Trumbull has a strange job. He works for Prince Charming’s Damsel in Distress Rescue Agency, saving people from hideous monsters, evil warlocks, and wicked witches. Then one day Warren gets the most dangerous assignment of all: He must exterminate a Gorgon.
Gorgons are horrible creatures. They have green scales, clawed fingers, and snakes for hair. They also have the power to turn people to stone. Warren doesn’t want to be a stone statue for the rest of his life. He’ll need all his courage and skill—and his secret plan—to become a true Gorgon slayer.
The Gorgon howls as Warren enters the dark basement to do battle. Warren lowers his eyes, raises his sword and shield, and leaps into action. But will his plan work?
