than us, but...was he battling the situation in a somehow safe and comfortable position as we were? After all, Bryan was our guest, and we were responsible for his well-being and whereabouts.

But come on! Let's get back to reality, to the flow of the story, however shattering it may be. It was a damn reality that we had naively made a large number of serious mistakes, and just to mention a couple, here you have them; first of all, and being it no excuse that we were at the height of our summer season, we absolutely ignored all the elementary signs that weather gives. We, the members of group number two, who entered the cave around 2:30 P.M., had never bothered glimpsing up to the sky to catch some indication of what must of been, by then, very obvious signs of an approaching heavy rain. (Rain started about 3:30 P.M. and was very heavy and steady for at least two hours). And as a second BIG mistake, without hesitation, I must point out, ignoring all established rules, we divided ourselves into four non-linked groups, as follows: Bryan, climbing up to the surface, just by himself; Carlos enjoying his solo cigarette, down at the -210' line; Lorry, up on the surface, with no one to talk or rely on and, worst of all, those not-so- experienced young cavers trying to reach at all costs, the bottom of the cave. The bottom, just to say a few words, is a deep narrow sump at the end of a forty-five foot high, seventy-five-degree incline pit that lies one hundred and fifty feet past a tight crawl and an eight-foot vertical wall. So it wasn't just that simple.

After carefully reading all of the preceding quotations, I believe you will agree with me, without any second thought, that is was only through God's immense mercy that this story had the end that it had, instead of a much more tragic one. Having made a few points less confusing, let me now proceed with the telling as it was.

The sounds, the shaking and rattling and trembling of the whole cave, and the height and dark chocolate color of the wild, raging waters, all of it led to only one very great concern: was this just the beginning of something really immense, or was his the actual peak of the nightmare? This, I guess, was the main thought running through our minds, as we all four kept tightly close to maintain our body heat, and to somehow feel a little bit less vulnerable. Our basic concern, right at that instant was..Oh God, where were Randall and Primo, those two trapped so close below us? Would or had they become the first two victims of this unexpected blow of nature? Down below, the exit doors had been shut, and we knew nothing, except that somebody had left the faucet wildly open.

We kept together even tighter, all four of us, in just about six square feet of a very slippery patch of hard mud, having to shout to barely communicate, all hands joined in an everlasting prayer, with the wild, raging flood waters rushing by us, at a distance of no more than a foot away, at a speed that must have been thirty miles an hour! Were we all doomed? Weren't Bryan and Primo and Randall already a part of history? Weren't we also just about to be brushed away and sucked into that awesome final sump? Honestly, with the dim light of only one carbide lamp permanently on guard, at it's lowest rate, we could almost swear that we hadn't seen any human corpse go by us, so Bryan was either still holding alive somewhere or his dead body lay