The cave was now empty. Jack got up cautiously and crept to the entrance. The mist was almost gone. Not a sign of the strange men was to be seen.
“They must have gone off to rob someone again!” thought the boy. “I’ll take a good look round the cave now I’m here and find out where those men came from. There must be some hidden entrance at the back. Possibly there’s a big cave farther in, where they live. This is awfully exciting!”
But before he could put on his torch and look round he heard the sound of shouts outside.
“Jack! Jack! Where are you?”
It was Ranni’s voice. Jack ran out of the old temple-cave. Ranni was some way down the mountain-path. The boy shouted loudly.
“Ranni! I’m here, quite safe! I got lost in the mist.”
“Come along quickly, before the mist comes again!” ordered Ranni.
“But Ranni, wait! I’ve made a discovery!” yelled Jack.
“Come along at once,” shouted Ranni, sternly. “Look at the mist coming up. It will be thicker this time. Come now, Jack.”
There was nothing for it but to go to Ranni. Jack leapt down the path, and as soon as he reached the big Baronian, he began to tell him what he had seen. But Ranni, anxious about the returning mist, paid little heed to the boy’s excited chatter, and hurried him along as fast as he could go. Jack had no breath left to talk after a while, and fell silent. He could see that Ranni was cross with him.
The others had reached the castle safely. Ranni hurried Jack inside the door, just as the mist swirled up again, thick and grey.
“And now!” he said sternly, turning to Jack. “Will you kindly tell me why you left us all? I had to go back and find you, and I might have hunted the mountain-side for hours. I am not pleased with you, Jack.”
“I’m sorry, Ranni,” said Jack, humbly. “I just went to pick some raspberries, that’s all. Ranni, I saw the robbers!”
“I do not want to talk to you,” said Ranni. “You have displeased me.” He went to his own room, leaving Jack behind.
Jack stared after the Baronian, rather hurt, and feeling decidedly small. He went to find the others.
“Jack! What happened to you?” cried Nora, rushing to him. “We lost you, and Ranni went back.”
“I’ve some news,” said Jack, and his eyes gleamed. “Strange news, too!”
“What?” cried everyone.
“I wandered about a bit, when the mist overtook me,” said Jack, “and suddenly I found I was back at the old temple. So I went in out of the mist, and sat down to wait till it cleared. I dozed off for a bit — and suddenly I awoke and found the cave becoming full of voices! I heard more and more of them, and then a man went to the entrance of the cave and looked out — and it was one of the robbers!”
“Jack! Not really!” cried Peggy.
“Yes, really,” said Jack. “When the mist cleared a bit, they all went out of the entrance, and I saw the wolves’ tails they had, dyed red. They did look extraordinary.”
“Did they come into the cave to shelter then?” asked Mike.
“No — that’s the funny part,” said Jack. “They didn’t! I feel absolutely certain that they came into the cave by some secret way — perhaps at the back of the temple. I believe there must be a big cave further in, where they live.”
“So those footprints we saw must be theirs, after all,” said Paul. “Oh, Jack — this is awfully exciting, isn’t it! What did Ranni say when you told him?”
“He wouldn’t listen,” said Jack. “He was angry with me.”
“Well, he’ll soon be all right again,” said Paul, cheerfully. “Ranni’s temper never lasts long. I know that.”
Paul was right. Ranni forgot his anger in a very short time, and when he came into the children’s room, he was his usual smiling self. The boys went to him at once.
“Ranni! We know where the robbers hide!”
“Ranni, do listen, please. Jack saw the robbers.”
This time Ranni did listen, and what he heard made him call Pilescu at once. The two men were eager to hear every word that Jack had to tell.
“It looks as if we shall be able to round up the robbers quickly now,” said Ranni. “Good! You must be right, Jack — there is probably a secret entrance somewhere in the cave, leading from a big cave farther in.”
“We must make a search as quickly as possible,” said Pilescu. “Ranni, the moon is full tonight. You and I will take our most powerful torches and will examine that temple from top to bottom tonight!”
“Oh, Pilescu, let me come too?” begged Jack.
“And me!” cried Mike and Paul together.
Pilescu shook his big head. “No — there may be danger. You must stay safely here in the castle.”
Jack was angry. “Pilescu! It was my discovery! Don’t be mean. You must take me with you. Please!”
“You will not come,” said Pilescu, firmly. “We are responsible for your safety in Baronia, and you will not be allowed to run into any danger. Ranni and I will go tonight, and tomorrow you shall hear what we have found.”
The two men went out of the room, talking together. Jack stared after them fiercely. The boy was almost in tears.
“It’s too bad,” he said. “It was my discovery! And they’re going to leave me out of it. I didn’t think Ranni and Pilescu would be so mean.”
The boy was hurt and angry. The others tried to comfort him. Jack sat and brooded for a little while and then he suddenly made up his mind.
“I shall go, too!” he said to the others, in a low tone. “I shall follow them and see what they find. I won’t miss this excitement.”
“But you promised not to go out alone,” said Mike, at once. All the children thought the world of their promises and never broke one.
“Well, I shan’t be alone — I shall be with Ranni and Pilescu, and they won’t know it!” grinned Jack, quite good-tempered again now that he had thought of a way to join in the adventure. For adventure it had become, there wasn’t a doubt of that!
The others laughed. It was quite true. Jack would certainly not be alone!
So, that night, after they had gone to bed, Jack kept his ears pricked to listen to any sounds of Ranni and Pilescu leaving. The moon swam up into the sky and the mountain-side was as light as day. The boy suddenly heard the low voices of the two Baronians, and he knew they were going down the passage to make their way to the great front door.
He had not undressed, so he was ready to follow them. After them he went, as quietly as a cat. The others whispered to him:
“Good luck!”
“Don’t let Ranni see you or you’ll get a spanking!”
“Look after yourself, Jack!”
The big front door opened, and shut quietly. Jack waited for a moment, opened it, and crept after the two men. He had to be careful to keep well in the black shadows, for it was easy to see anyone in the moonlight.
Up the mountain track behind the castle went Ranni and Pilescu. They did not speak, and they made as little noise as they could. They kept a sharp look-out for any sign of the robbers, but there was none. Word had come to the castle that evening that a company of local people, returning from market, had been set upon and robbed that afternoon, and the two Baronians had no doubt that the robbers were the men that Jack had seen in the cave.
“If we can find the entrance to their lair, we can get soldiers up here, and pen the whole company in, and catch them one by one as they come out,” said Ranni, in a low tone. Pilescu nodded. He heard a sound, and stopped.
“What is it?” whispered Ranni.
“Nothing,” answered Pilescu, after a pause. “I thought I heard something.”
He had! He had heard the fall of a stone dislodged by Jack, who was following them as closely as he dared! The boy stopped when Pilescu stopped, and did not move again until the two men went forward.
In about an hour’s time they were at the old temple. The moon shone in at the ruined entrance. Ranni gave a startled exclamation as he went in, for the moon shone full on the face of the old stone image at the back. It seemed very lifelike!
“Now,” said Ranni, flashing his torch round the cave. “You take a look that side and I’ll take this. Examine every inch of the rock.”
The moon suddenly went behind a big cloud and the world went dark. Jack took the chance of slipping into the cave without the two men seeing him. He thought he could hide behind the images, as the men worked round the cave. He stood behind one near the entrance and watched Ranni and Pilescu examining the rocky wall, trying to find some hidden entrance to another cave beyond.
“I can find nothing,” said Pilescu, in a low voice.
Jack stood behind the statue and watched, hoping that one of the men would discover something. How he wished he could help too — but he was afraid of showing himself in case Ranni was angry again.
He stared at the big squatting statue at the back of the cave. The moon had come out again and was shining full on the image. As Jack watched, a very strange thing began to happen!
The statue’s face began to widen! It began to split in half! Jack stared in astonishment and horror. What could be happening? Was it coming alive? Were those old tales true, then?
Then he saw that the whole statue was splitting slowly and silently in half. The two halves were moving apart. It all happened so smoothly and silently that Ranni and Pilescu heard no sound at all, and had no warning.
Jack was so amazed that he could not say a word. The statue split completely in half, the two halves moving right apart — and then, from the floor of the flat rock beneath, a man’s shaggy head appeared, full in the moonlight — the head of one of the robbers!
Jack gave a yell. “Ranni! Pilescu! Look out! The robbers are coming! Look at the statue!”
Ranni and Pilescu, amazed at Jack’s voice, and at what he said, swung round quickly. They stared in the utmost amazement at the split statue, and saw the head and shoulders of the robber below. With a wild yell the robber leapt up into the temple, calling to his friends below:
“Come! Come! Here are enemies!”
In half a minute the cave was full of robbers. Ranni and Pilescu, taken completely by surprise, had their hands bound. They fought and struggled fiercely, but the robbers were too many for them.
Ranni remembered Jack’s voice, and knew that the boy must be somewhere about. He must have followed them! Ranni called out in English:
“Don’t show yourself, Jack. Go and give warning to the others.”
Jack did not answer, of course. He crouched down behind a statue, watching the fight, knowing that it would be useless to join in, and hoping that the robbers would not see him.
Before his astonished eyes, the boy saw the wolf-tailed men force the two Baronians down through the hole beneath the great statue. Every robber followed. Then the statue, smoothly and silently as before, began to move. The two halves joined together closely, and the image was whole once more, its cracked face shining in the moonlight.
“No wonder there was such a crack down the middle of it!” thought the boy. “It wasn’t a crack — it was a split, where the two halves joined! Golly, this is awful. I wonder if it’s safe to go.”
He waited for a while and then stole quietly out of the cave, looking behind him fearfully as he went. But no robber was there to follow him. The boy sped swiftly down the track in the moonlight, anxious to get to the others.
They were all awake. Jack got them into his room and told them hurriedly all that had happened. Paul was shocked, and anxious to hear about Ranni and Pilescu, whom he loved with all his heart.
“I am going to rescue them,” he announced, getting into his clothes at once.
“Don’t be an idiot, Paul,” said Mike. “You can’t go after robbers.”
“Yes, I can,” said Paul, fiercely, and his big dark eyes gleamed. “I am a Baronian prince, and I will not leave my men in danger. I go now to find them!”
When Paul got ideas of this sort into his head, there was no stopping him. Jack groaned. He turned to the girls.
“We’d better go with Paul and keep the idiot out of danger. You go and wake Tooku and Yamen and tell them what has happened. They will think of the best thing to do. Don’t frighten Paul’s mother, will you?”
Paul was already out of the front door, running down the steps in the moonlight. Ranni and Pilescu were in danger! Then he, their little prince must rescue them. Mike and Jack tore after him. A big adventure had begun!