"Let's just go back to the last marking. We had to have missed something." They retraced their steps until they reached another fork in the tunnel. Stones were plainly piled, indicating the incorrect direction they'd just come. They looked at one another in astonishment.
"That way must have been right," Cynthia said. "There's no other choice. Perhaps we didn't go far enough."
No. Dean was sure they had not passed an unmarked turn. He then glanced up at the wall where the nearly illegible chalk marking clearly pointed, not in the direction of the stones, but in the opposite direction! A cold chill washed over him. Cynthia came to the same conclusion. Someone had deliberately mis-marked their return route.
With renewed caution, the pair followed the chalk arrow, not the stones, expecting any minute to find someone barring their return. They neither saw nor heard anything, and after negotiating the remaining correctly marked turns, were in sight of daylight. They stumbled from the mine, hugging one another in the sunshine, thankful that the frightening ordeal was over. It was still barely mid-morning.
They brushed the mud from their clothes and sat for enough minutes to regain their composure. There was no sign of anyone else about. When their breath returned to a more normal cadence and they were no longer perspiring, they rose to leave. As they moved down the trail to their parked Jeep, they heard the sound of a vehicle approaching. Before they could get out of sight, Joseph Dawkins' rental Jeep pulled up below them, cutting new destruction through the flowers. He was alone, and as he alighted from his vehicle carrying his cardboard sign, he spotted them. They waited until he climbed up the slope to where they stood.
"What in hell are you doing up here?" he asked with no humor in his voice.
"Just poking around," Cynthia answered, trying a smile that wasn't returned.
"Did you go inside?" he asked.
Dean saw no reason to lie. "Yup. It's pretty messy."
"This is private property. You have no business up here. You're trespassing."
"It wasn't posted," Dean said.
"It's going to be. Keep the hell out and stop snooping. I've got someone coming up here to seal the place off."
He turned and without hesitation, began the short ascent to the mine without even inquiring about directions. This isn't his first time here, Dean thought, but they took his exit as their cue to leave.
"Do you think he was the one who switched our markings in the mine?" Cynthia asked as they hurried back to their Jeep. "He could have left and come back again."