Atherton #3: The Dark Planet (No. 3) Read Free Page B

farther it would be to its
    source. It looked like it might be a long way.
    Edgar had come to where the sides of Atherton curved more
    sharply toward the bottom. It would be tougher going from here
    on out with a far greater chance of losing his grip. Still, Edgar
    decided to go a little bit farther, because Samuel had been
    partly right, too. Edgar was searching for something--he was
    always searching--and he had a deep feeling that climbing
    would bring him to something more. His heart told him that Dr.
    Harding, the maker of Atherton and so much more, had left him
    something else. He remembered the voice of Dr. Maximus
    Harding:
    I made you, Edgar. Just as I made Atherton.
    Edgar held this thought firmly in his mind as he felt his aching
    hands and forearms. Maybe he'd pushed hard enough on his
    first attempt at scaling these new, unknown places.
    I don't want them to worry, Edgar reasoned to himself. He
    touched the side of Atherton with what one might describe as
    affection. "I won't be gone long," he said aloud. "You'll see me
    again."
    He started back toward the flat surface of Atherton, racing up
    the side with alarming speed and skill. Edgar wanted to return
    in the light of day so that he could see the surface and better
    make his way to the very bottom. His fingers tingled with
    excitement at the thought of spending an entire day exploring
    this hidden world, a world only he could see.
    This place is mine and mine alone, he thought.
    When Edgar came to where he thought he should see the rope
    hanging and did not find it, he climbed faster. They had
    discovered him missing. Edgar felt terrible that Isabel and
    Samuel might think he'd fallen or been trapped below.
    As he neared the top he glanced up and saw the silhouettes of
    two small heads--but a moment later they were gone.
    By the time he had finally pulled up his head and shoulders and
    looked over the top edge of Atherton, Samuel and Isabel had
    moved back by the rock, their arms folded over their chests. And
    what was worse, the old, stooped figure of Dr. Kincaid stood
    with them--and he did not appear the least bit happy.
    Edgar scrambled the rest of the way back onto Atherton and
    walked toward the three figures in the dark. "It's not as hard as I
    thought it would be," he began, hoping to head off questions
    before they started. "And I didn't go very far. Honestly--it was
    easy."
    "We were worried about you," said Isabel. "I mean really
    worried. How could you leave the rope like that?"
    Edgar wanted them all to understand that he felt safer when he
    was climbing than almost any other time. "You don't need to
    worry about me. At least not when I'm hanging on to a rock
    wall."
    "Not very different from walking, right?" asked Samuel. He was
    closer to the truth than he might have imagined. As he and
    Isabel came toward Edgar they all smiled at one another at last.
    That is, until they saw that Dr. Kincaid had turned away and
    begun the journey back home without them. There was a grave
    tone in his voice when he uttered the only words he would say
    on the long walk.
    "All of you come with me. I have something to show you."
    CHAPTER 2THE DARK PLANET
    There was a fire burning at the entrance to the cave Dr. Kincaid
    lived in. Soft light drifted into the opening that led inside, but Dr.
    Kincaid's closest companion was nowhere to be found.
    "Where's Vincent?" asked Isabel. "He wouldn't just leave a fire
    burning like that, would he?"
    Dr. Kincaid ignored her question. The long walk in the middle of
    the night had made the bottoms of his old feet ache. He
    slumped heavily on a wooden bench and waved his walking
    stick in the direction of a row of low, fat boulders on the other
    side of the fire.
    "Sit down--all of you."
    Edgar, Samuel, and Isabel did as they were told, wondering just
    how much trouble they were in.
    "Vincent likes to scout at night," said Dr. Kincaid, returning to
    Isabel's question now that the pressure was off his feet. "He's
    been going out