*****
You've hiked through Snake Canyon once before while visiting your Uncle Howard at Red Creek Ranch, but you never noticed any cave entrance.  It looks as though a recent rock slide has uncovered it.

Though the late afternoon sun is striking the opening of the cave, the interior remains in total darkness.  You step inside a few feet, trying to get an idea of how big it is.  As your eyes become used to the dark, you see what looks like a tunnel ahead, dimly lit by some kind of phosphorescent material on its walls.  The tunnel walls are smooth, as if they were shaped by running water.  After twenty feet or so, the tunnel curves.  You wonder where it leads.  You venture in a bit further, but you feel nervous being alone in such a strange place.  You turn and hurry out.

A thunderstorm may be coming, judging by how dark it looks outside.  Suddenly you realize the sun has long since set, and the landscape is lit only by the pale light of the full moon.  You must have fallen asleep and woken up hours later.  But then you remember something even more strange.  Just last evening, the moon was only a slim crescent in the sky.

You wonder how long you've been in the cave.  You are not hungry.  You don't feel you have been sleeping.  you wonder whether to try to walk back home by moonlight or whether to wait for dawn, rather than risk losing your footing on the steep and rocky trail.

[If you decide to start back home, turn to page 4.]

As you start walking back toward the ranch, you notice the trail seems very different than you remember it, though of course moonlight can play tricks on your eyes.  But you suddenly realize you are not walking on the trail at all, but on what seems to be a dried-up river bed.  You hurry back to the cave entrance.  You look around you and realize the whole landscape has changed.  While you were in the cave, torrents of water have washed out the trail; yet there is not so much as a puddle left.  You shiver.  It is cold, much colder than it should be at this time of year.  You take a jacket out of your backpack and put it on, but you are still freezing.

At least the world about you seems brighter.  It's getting light in the east.  The sun will soon be up.  You look at your watch.  It has run down, though you wound it only a few hours ago.  Nothing seems to make sense anymore.

You know you should get back to the ranch as quickly as possible, yet somehow you feel the only way to change things back to the way there were is to re-enter the cave.

[If you continue toward the ranch, turn to page 8.]

As it gets lighter, you realize you can't be on the right track.  The canyon seems shallower than it was.  The river bed is strewn with boulders that were never there before.  The cold wind chills you to the bone; yet it's the middle of summer.  As you climb to higher ground to get a better view, you notice patches of snow.  From the top of a ridge you survey a barren plain, frozen lakes, and, in the distance, a massive range of snow-covered mountains.  You begin to realize you are not merely lost -- you are lost in time, and you have somehow been transported to an Ice Age that occurred many thousands of years ago.

You walk toward one of the cliffs that borders the canyon, seeking shelter from the wind, and notice an entrance to another cave.  You are tempted to go inside, but you feel you should keep moving in hopes of somehow reaching familiar country.

[If you enter the cave, turn to page 17.]

As you enter the cave, you see a flickering light ahead and you smell smoke.  You make your way along a winding passageway and enter a large chamber.  Fires rise out of earthen vessels.

Several short, stocky people with straight black hair and primitive faces are painting pictures on the walls of the cave.  They are dressed in animals skins.  In a corner of the cave are beds of straw.

You stand, slightly afraid, as the save people drop their work and run over and stare at you in disbelief.  The largest man is carrying a long vine.  He steps forward as though he might seize you and tie you up.

[If you stay and try to make friends, turn to page 26.]

You make friendly gestures.  The man holding the vine steps back and smiles.  The people talk to you in a friendly fashion, but you cannot understand what they are saying, nor can they understand you.  You feel awkward, but happy to be safe and warm for the moment.

Several people have gone back to working on their paintings.  You decide to try communicating through drawing.  You begin to draw a picture of yourself eating.  The cave people laugh, but one of them brings you a slice of half-cooked meat.  It doesn't taste very good, but you are so hungry you don't mind.

Gradually, you make friends and learn a few words.  Some of the people go hunting and come back with game.  Others make clothing from animal skins.  you help with cleaning and cooking and each day paint a picture on the walls.  The others are fascinated by your drawings of airplanes, ships, and cars -- things they see only as abstract designs, for they have no way of knowing what function they could serve.

One day a group of other people visit.  you have never seen them before, but your friends welcome them warmly, holding a great feast in their honor.  after everyone is through eating, the conversation intensifies.  You can tell that the cave people are talking about a serious problem.  Then, one by one, they drift off to sleep.  You walk outside to see if you can learn anything.  The ground is covered with deep snow.  A bitter cold wind blows the snow in whirling clouds.

Next morning, the people pack up their belongings and they urge you to do so also.  Some migration is obviously intended -- no doubt to a warmer climate.  You feel you should go with the cave people, but you have a great longing to return to your own home, and your only hope of doing so is to find your way back to the Cave of Time.

[If you try to find your way back to the Cave of Time, turn to page 47.]

You pack up your few belongings.  The one you prize most is a knife carved from the tusk of a wooly mammoth.  You wave goodbye to your friends and trudge through the snow, trying to retrace your steps back to the Cave of Time.  Though the wind is colder than ever, the bright sun stirs your hopes.

You have become much more rugged from living with the cave people, and your crude animal-skin clothes keep you surprisingly warm.  You find your way down into the canyon and in a few hours reach the entrance to the cave, now almost covered with blowing snow.

You are exhausted from the long trek, and your eyes are watering from the cold wind.  You hardly notice the large, gray shape only a few yards from the entrance to the cave until you hear the deep, guttural growl of a wolf.  Now you stare directly into its cold, cruel eyes.  You feel that at your slightest movement it will spring at you.  You must think what to do before you move.  You probably could outrun the wolf to the cave.  It might hesitate before following you -- and five you enough time to escape -- or you could try to knife the wolf in the throat as it leaps at you.

[If you prepare to fight, turn to page 50.]

Holding your knife with its long ivory blade pointing upward, you advance very slowly, step by step, toward the wolf, which stands growling softly, apparently confused by your boldness.

Then it springs.  You lunge with your knife, twisting your body to avoid its awesome fangs.  Your knife cuts through nothing but air, but the wolf succeeds only in tearing off your bearskin coat.  It stops for an instant to sniff at the coat, and you turn and plunge your knife into its neck.  The wolf twists, looks at you with hate in its eyes, and falls limp, its spinal cord severed.

Now you are a true Stone Age hunter.  You skin the wolf and walk into the cave.

You follow the right-hand tunnel, thinking you may find your way back to your own time, but suddenly you feel yourself falling -- faster and faster into what seems a bottomless pit.

[Turn to page 81.]

You feel yourself slowly regaining consciousness. You are in your bed at Red Creek Ranch, looking up at Uncle Howard. Standing nearby is a friend of his who is a doctor.

"You took quite a bad fall climbing on those rocks up in the canyon," Uncle Howard says. "Doc Parsons tells me he doesn't know why you didn't break any bones. We were real worried about you -- thought you got lost in one of those caves up there."

You feel a bit dizzy and weak, so you just smile and say nothing. Probably no one would believe you anyway. Years later, though, you write a book about your adventures in the Cave of Time.

The End