Progress was as slow down here as it was up top. They first had to make sure that the buttresses planted along the tunnel were sound. Emmaline comforted herself that they had been standing for maybe a hundred years, so she and Rispoli would have been mightily unlucky to have them fall on their heads at precisely this moment. But anyway, each was checked as they moved along.
The question had been floated as to whether to bring in a specialist team, but consensus was that getting in specialist miners or cavers would take too long. Besides, there might be nothing down here but lost hopes from a century ago.
That theory was revised somewhat by the discovery of the supplies. Cans of soda, bags of crisps and snacks that most definitely did not exist a century ago. Including a number of Chunky Peanut Butter KitKats. Someone had been down here. Recently.
Emmaline, with Rispoli following, increased her pace, calling out the names of the family but getting nothing but an empty echo in return. There was a chance that they had stumbled upon the tunnel and decided to go for a stupid and reckless adventure. But that didn’t account for the fact that the cupboard had been replaced over the entrance.
From behind her, Rispoli called out again. His heavy voice bounced straight back at them. They had reached a dead end, but a dead end littered with empty chocolate bar wrappers, metal detectors and a pair of ear-defenders. And something else. Two machines that although ingrained with soot and dust, were very much modern in design. One looked like a red bin with a short conveyor belt underneath it; the other some sort of grinding machine with wheels and a hammer. Both were attached to a small generator. It was a processing line of some sort. The bin was full of small rocks.
‘What do you think?’ he asked.
‘Looks like a mining operation. Small scale. Load the rocks to crush them and then feed the material into this bin using the looped hose to wash and recycle the water.’
‘Looking for gold?’
‘Probably given the area we’re in.’
‘There can’t be much.’
‘Enough to warrant trying. Enough to warrant leaving the machines behind.’
‘Unless they’re planning to come back,’ said Rispoli.
‘If they do they are in for a surprise,’ said Emmaline. ‘Get Forensics in here. Check the equipment, check the rubbish left behind. Let’s find out who these people were.’
‘What if it was the family?’
‘It means we still have the same question to answer. What happened to them?’