He was scared too, but he nodded. Together they began the long descent into darkness.

They noticed the increase in pressure immediately. It was an abnormal increase, as if the water here was twice as heavy as it should be. There was a stifling, overpowering sensation in the water, almost a vibration, that made the divers' limbs tremble and their hearts race. It grew worse with each foot of descent, and after only twenty feet both men felt the need to stop and rest.

Now the water had a slick, oily feel to it. There were strange currents and invisible movements within it, and several times Howard felt something brush against his legs, but saw nothing. Once he could have sworn that something nipped and pulled at one of his flippers, but when he looked , whatever it had been was gone.

The stench had gotten worse. The pungent odor of rotting death innumerable was mingled with the scorching bitterness of a palpable, hungry evil that had been and always will be. The scent seemed to creep in through the respirator, through the plugs, through the wet suit itself, and soak into his body. It made Howard feel unclean inside, as if he had swallowed something unimaginably fowl and repugnant which would live and grow within him from now on. He looked at Hariss, saw his eyes wide and white behind the goggles, and knew he felt the same thing. Howard saw that the patrolman was breathing much too fast so he patted him on the arm and signaled him to slow down. After a moment Bill nodded. His breathing slowly returned to normal.

They continued their descent. Oddly enough the going became easier now. It was as if they had passed through a barrier and whatever had been repelling them before was now attracting them, pulling them down. They sank quickly. Thirty feet. Forty feet. Fifty feet. Then they saw the false bottom of the lake, the plateau.

They found what they were looking for almost immediately.

The yellow bus was lying on its side only a few feet from the pit. In the dim glow of the torches Howard could only see a small part of the pit closest to him, but he knew from prior experience that it formed roughly a circle in the center of Bottomless Lake. It was as if, after the lake had been formed, some monstrous force had taken up a Herculean drill press and bored out the center until there was nothing but an endless hole. Or maybe an incredibly dense meteor had sliced through the earth's crust and created a hole that went down to...where? He remembered when, several years ago, two scientists from the state university had come here with a lot of electronic equipment to measure the depth of the lake. They took a boat out one morning, played with their sonar instruments a while, then left in a hurry. They said their equipment was faulty. But they never returned. Howard wondered again if their machines had really been out of order. Or if they had perhaps discovered something that made them want to be somewhere else. How deep was the pit? What was down there--besides the bones of Arnold? Howard Phillips felt his flesh crawl in anticipation of the terrible.

Holding their torches ahead of them, the two divers swam out to where the bus lay on the edge of the precipice. As they came closer they slowed, and when they were over it they stopped and treaded water. They could only stare. For long moments Howard forgot to breathe. He heard but did not notice the constant rush of bubbles coming from his companion.

The top of the bus had been ripped open as if it had been made of tin foil. All the windows were broken out. The sides were bent and mangled and in some places just gone. Were it not yellow, it would be hard to identify what kind of vehicle this had been.

The interior was empty save for a few shards of twisted metal which might once have been seats.

Suddenly, a shattering bellow ripped through the depths of Bottomless Lake. It came from the pit. Like the thunder of all the gods in the universe arising and howling for vengeance. Slowly, it waned and changed into a continuous clamoring screeching that was expelled noxiously from ten thousand unhuman throats.

The surface of the earth had not heard the voice from the pit