"Thousands of feet beneath the summit of Buda the cave sumps at a lake. The water had receded a few feet to reveal a mouse-hole-shaped opening just at the waterline. Deep claw marks in the mud indicated that perhaps a crocodile really did live there. We swam across the cold black water and ducked into the mouse hole. We found ourselves inside a passage where the water was chin deep, and often the ceiling was so low we were forced to duck beneath the water to continue onward. The roof was covered with dripping muddy slime that told of frequent and recent flooding. A quarter of a mile inside the passage Chris stopped suddenly and hissed, -¿I hear moving water.' Chris is a wonderful guy, one of my dearest friends and an extraordinarily talented caver but at his mellowest looks like Kevin Bacon on nitroglycerin. When he gets excited you get the distinct impression he might explode; right now his fuse was lit.