Mike and Jack soon caught up with Paul. The boy was struggling up the steep track as fast as he could go. He had no clear idea as to exactly what he was going to do. All he knew was that he meant to find Ranni and Pilescu and rescue them from the robbers.
“Paul! You’re going the wrong way,” panted Jack, as he came up to Paul. “You really are an idiot. You’d be lost in the mountains if we hadn’t come after you. Look — you go this way, not the one you’re taking.”
Paul was glad to have the others with him. He pulled his fur-lined cloak around him, for he was cold. The others were wearing theirs too. They climbed steadily up the mountain-side, the moon showing them the way quite clearly. Mike hoped that clouds would not blow up, for it would be impossible to find their way in the dark. He thought of Beowald, the blind goatherd. He did not mind the dark. It made no difference to him at all!
Up they went and up, and an hour went by. Paul did not seem to be at all tired, though Jack’s legs ached badly. But then he had already been to the temple-cave and back once before that night!
They came near the cave, and trod softly, keeping to the shadows, in case any of the robbers should be about. Suddenly a figure showed itself from behind a rock! Quick as lightening Jack pulled the other two down beside him in a big shadow, and the three of them crouched there, their hearts beating painfully. Was it a robber, left on guard? Had he seen them?
The moon went behind a small cloud and the mountainside lay in darkness. Jack strained his eyes and ears to find out if the night-wanderer was anywhere near.
Then he heard the plaintive notes of the little flute that Beowald played! It must be the goatherd, wandering at night as he so often did.
“Beowald!” called Jack, softly. “Where are you?”
The moon sailed out from behind the cloud and the boys saw the goatherd seated on a nearby rock, his head turned towards them.
“I am here,” he said. “I heard you. I knew you were friends. What are you doing up here at night?”
Jack came out from his hiding-place. He told Beowald in a few words all that had happened. The goatherd listened in amazement.
“Ah, so that is why I thought the stone men came to life at night!” he said. “It was robbers I heard coming forth from the temple, and not the stone men. There must be a deep cave below the floor of the temple. I will come with you to find it.”
The goatherd led the way to the cave. The moon went in again behind a cloud, and the boys were glad to be with Beowald for the last piece of their climb. They could not have found their way otherwise. But darkness did not matter to the blind youth. He found his way as surely as if he were seeing the path in daylight!
They came near to the temple, treading very cautiously. Not a sound was to be heard. “We’d better creep into the cave whilst the moon is behind a cloud,” whispered Jack. “Paul, ask Beowald if he thinks any robbers are about now. His ears are so sharp that surely he would know.”
Paul whispered to Beowald in the Baronian language. The goatherd shook his head. “There is no one near,” he said. “I have heard nothing at all, and my ears would tell me if a robber was in the cave. I should hear him breathing.”
The boys crept silently into the dark cave. When they were in, the moon shone out and lighted up the strange stone face of the big statue at the back. It seemed to look sneeringly at the three boys.
Jack went up to the image, and ran his fingers down the crack that he had seen widen into a split when the statue divided into halves. He wondered how he could find out the working of the strange image. There must be some way of opening it, both from above and below. What was it? He must find it, or he would not be able to find the place where the robbers had taken Ranni and Pilescu.
But no matter how he felt and pushed and pulled, the crack remained a crack, and did not widen into a split. The other two boys tried as well, but they had no more success than Jack. They looked at one another in despair.
“Let my fingers try,” said the voice of Beowald. “My eyes cannot see, but my fingers can. They can feel things that only the whiskers of a mouse could sense!”
This was perfectly true. The blind youth’s fingers were so sensitive that they could tell him more than the eyes of others could tell them. The boys watched Beowald run his fingers down the crack in the middle of the statue. They watched him feel round the staring stone eyes. They followed his quivering fingers round the neck and head, touching, feeling, probing, almost like the feelers of an enquiring butterfly!
Suddenly Beowald’s sensitive fingers found something and they stopped. The boys looked at him.
“What is it, Beowald?” whispered Prince Paul.
“The statue is not solid just here,” answered the goatherd. “Everywhere else it is solid, made of stone — but just behind here, where its right ear is, it is hollow.”
“Let me feel,” said Jack eagerly, and pushed away the goatherd’s fingers. He placed his own behind the right ear of the statue, but he could feel nothing at all. The stone felt just as solid to him there as anywhere else. The other boys felt as well, but to them, as to Jack, the stone was solid there. How could Beowald’s fingers know whether stone was solid or hollow behind a certain spot? It seemed like magic.
Beowald put his fingers back again on the spot he had found. He moved them about, pressed and probed. But nothing happened. Jack shone his torch on to the ear. He saw that it was cleaner than the rest of the head, as if it had been handled a good deal. It occurred to him that the ear itself might be the place containing a spring or lever that worked the statue so that it split in half.
The left ear was completely solid, Jack saw — but the right ear, on the contrary, had a hole in it, as have human ears! Beowald found the hole at the same time as Jack saw it, and placed his first finger inside it. The tip of his finger touched a rounded piece of metal set inside the ear. Beowald pushed against it — and a lever was set in motion that split the stone image silently into half!
Actually it was a very simple mechanism, but the boys did not know that. They stared open-mouthed as the statue split completely down the crack, and the two halves moved smoothly apart. Beowald knew what was happening, though he could not see it. He was afraid, and moved back quickly. He half-thought the statue was coming alive, when it moved!
“Look — there’s a hole underneath the statue, in the middle of the low rock it sits on,” said Jack, and he shone his torch down it. The hole was round in shape, and would take a man’s body easily. A rope, made of strips of leather, hung down the hole from a staple at the top.
“That’s the entrance to the robber’s lair!” said Jack, in a low voice. “No doubt about that! I bet their cave is below this one, in the mountain itself.”
“I’m going to see,” said the little prince, who seemed that night to be more than a small boy. He was a prince, he was growing up to be a king, he was lord of Baronia, he was going to take command and give orders! Jack pulled him back as he was about to go down into the dark hole.
“Wait! We might all fall into a trap. Don’t do anything silly. We shan’t help Ranni and Pilescu by being foolish.”
“I will go to rouse the local people and to bring help,” said Beowald. “I would like to come with you, but I am no good in a strange place. My feet, my ears and my hands only help me when I am on my mountain-side. In a strange place I am lost.”
“We will go down the hole and find out what we can,” said Jack. “You get the others and follow us as soon as you are able to. The girls will have told Tooku and Yamen by now, and maybe they will be on the way here with one or two of the servants. I expect Paul’s mother will send for some soldiers, too.”
Beowald did not understand all that Jack said, for the boy did not speak the Baronian language very well as yet. Paul quickly translated for him, and Beowald nodded his head.
“Do not fall into the hands of the robbers,” he said. “Why do you not wait here until I come back?”
“I go to rescue my men,” said Prince Paul haughtily. “Where they go, I follow.”
“You must do as you wish,” said the goatherd. Jack slid down into the hole, and took hold of the rope. He went down and down, whilst Mike shone his torch on to him. Beowald waited patiently, seeing nothing, but knowing by his ears all that was happening.
The hole went down for a long way. Jack swung on the rope, his arms getting tired. Then he found that there were rough ledges here and there on the sides of the hole, on which he could rest his feet now and again, to relieve his arms.
The hole came to an end at last. Jack felt his toes touching ground once more. He let go the rope and felt round with his hands. He could feel nothing. The hole must have come out into some kind of cave. The boy could hear no sound of any sort, and he thought it would be safe to switch on his torch.
He switched it on, and saw that, as he had imagined, he was in a cave, through the roof of which the hole showed, dark and round. “I wonder if this is the robbers’ lair,” thought the boy, flashing the torch around. But there was nothing at all in the rocky cave, whose rugged walls threw back the gleam of the torch.
Mike’s feet appeared at the bottom of the hole and the boy jumped down beside Jack. Then came Paul. They all stood together, examining the cave.
“It doesn’t look as if anyone lives here at all,” said Mike. “There are no beds where you might expect the robbers to sleep, not a sign of any pot or pan. I don’t believe this is their lair.”
“Well, what is it, then?” demanded Jack. “I saw them go down here, didn’t I? Goodness knows how Ranni and Pilescu were taken down, with their hands tied! Where can they be?”
“They’re nowhere here at all,” said Paul, flashing his torch into every corner. “It’s odd. What can have become of them?”
It really was a puzzle. Jack began to go round the little cave, his footsteps echoing in a weird way. He flashed his torch up and down the walls, and suddenly came to a stop.
“Here’s another way out!” he said. “Look! It’s quite plain to see. I’m surprised we didn’t see it before when we shone our torches round.”
The boys looked. They saw that halfway up the opposite wall of the cave was a narrow opening. They jumped on to a ledge and peered through it. It was plain that it led out of the cave, and was a passage through the rock.
“Come on,” said Jack. “This is the way the robbers must have gone. I’ll go first!”
He was soon in the passage that led from the cave. He flashed his torch in front of him. The way was dark and rough, and the passage curved as it went, going downwards all the time. Where in the world did it lead to!