Chapter XIV
The Fourth DimensionRama and I were up early the next morning. It was a
weekday, and there were few people around. The sun
wasn't out; in fact, it looked like it might rain.
We had our breakfast and decided to take a ride to a
nearby town, Jauja. On our way, we saw the site of
ancient Inca caves. Rama said many groups had gone
into the caves to study them, and some had never come
out again. One person from a missing group who did
return came out of the caves with his clothes torn,
unable to speak, and completely insane. He was carrying
two pieces of corn made out of pure 24 karat gold.
"These caves are said to connect with a network of
roads running underneath the whole Inca Empire,"
Rama explained.
I remained silent as she told me this story, because I
remembered that on one of my previous visits to Peru,
while in the city of Cuzco, I'd been told that two young
men had gone into a church in downtown Cuzco, where
they found a secret entrance to a cave. They went into
the caves and disappeared. When one of them finally
emerged, he was foaming at the mouth and was clutch
ing some pieces of pure gold, babbling about finding a
whole underground city beneath the Andes Mountains.
At that time, everyone dismissed the story and forgot
about it.
"Would you like to take a look?" Rama asked.
"Well, maybe from the outside," I said.
As we approached the cave entrance, Rama told me
about a book coming out, The Gold of the Gods, by Erich
Von Daniken, that would explain how the Incas were
related to the stars and life on other planets. She
suggested I read it.
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