Daylight!

"I suppose if it wasn't possible for us to crank Clara up, then she had no choice," Astra replied. "From what we could see of the sides of the shaft as we were ascending, climbing it must be quite difficult. I hope she makes it up OK."

It took several more minutes for Clara to reach the top of the shaft. Fred and Astra grabbed her arms and helped her out. She was breathing heavily from the climb. "Phew!" she said. "That was harder work than I thought it would be."

"It doesn't seem right that you were the one who had to climb up, being a woman," Fred said.

Astra and Clara exchanged an annoyed glance, which fortunately Fred did not notice. "Well one of us had to," Clara said. "And since escaping this way was my idea, it seemed right that I should be the one. Also I was the only one able to find pants to fit me, which protected me from getting my legs grazed. I think it must once have been possible to crank the cart from up here as well, but unfortunately that's no longer the case... I have my breath back now. Let's get moving. We should be fairly safe now, but the sooner we can get well away from the caves the happier I'll be."

As they started walking along a fairly level and quite high tunnel, Astra said: "Why did you winch the cart back down again before climbing up?"

"Two reasons. First, if the Dragazons should happen to come to the bottom of the shaft in their search for us - which since few if any of them know of it isn't very likely - then if the cart is there they are likely to assume that we didn't escape this way. But more importantly, the cart would have effectively plugged the top of the shaft and I wouldn't have been able to get past it."

The tunnel turned through almost ninety degrees, and then they found themselves squinting, as the exit was only a short distance ahead and daylight was pouring in. They made their way to the exit and looked out. As Clara had said would be the case, they were high up above a canyon. A track in poor condition - not having been used since the mine closed - led down to the canyon floor.

1. The canyon seemed to be deserted.
2. Unfortunately there was a contingent of Dragazons on the canyon floor far below, whether hunting for them or just foraging for supplies they could not tell.
3. They couldn't see as far as the canyon floor, because of a thick and rather chilly fog - or more accurately low cloud. Visibility was reduced to well under a hundred yards. The sooner they could get beneath it, the happier they would be.

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