by Enid Blyton
“We heard tales in the town,” said Tooku, to Ranni and Pilescu. “Many travellers have been robbed. These robbers take goods but not money. They come down from the mountains like goats, and they go back, no man knows where!”
“Have the villagers searched for their hiding-place?” asked Ranni. “Have they hunted all about the mountain-sides?”
“Everywhere!” said Yamen. “Yes, not a place, not a cave has been forgotten. But nowhere is there a sign of the fierce robbers with their red wolves’ tails!”
“Poor Yamen!” said Nora. The frightened woman was sitting in a chair, trembling. Pilescu bound up Tooku’s arm. It was not broken, but badly gashed. The children felt very sorry.
Paul’s mother soon heard of the disturbance and she was angry and upset. “To think that such things should happen in Baronia!” she cried. “I will send word to the king, and he shall send soldiers to search the mountainside.”
“The mountain-folk themselves have already done that,” said Ranni. “If they have found nothing, the soldiers will find even less! It is a mystery where these men come from!”
“Perhaps they come from the Secret Forest!” said Jack. The others laughed at him.
“Idiot! Come from a place where nobody can go to!” said Mike.
“You children will not stir from this place without Ranni or Pilescu!” said Paul’s mother.
“Madam, they have already promised not to,” said Ranni. “Do not be anxious. They are safe with us. We have always our revolvers with us.”
“I wish we hadn’t come here now,” said the Queen, looking really worried. “I wonder if we ought to go back. But I hear that it is hotter than ever in the big palace.”
The children had no wish to return when they heard that. “We shall be quite safe here,” said Paul. “The robbers will not dare to come anywhere near this castle, mother!”
“Silly child!” said his mother. “Now that they know we are here, and that travellers will go to and fro, they will be all the more on the watch. They will haunt the road from here to the high road, and from here to the next village. I must get some more servants from the big palace. We must only go about in small companies, not alone.”
This was all very exciting. The boys talked about the robbers, and Mike felt three or four times an hour to see if his big scout-knife was safely in his broad belt. Paul thought of all the terrifying things he would do to the robbers if he caught them. Mike thought it would be marvellous to shut them all up in a cave somewhere. Jack pictured himself chasing the whole company down the mountain-side.
The girls were not so thrilled, and were not much impressed when the three boys promised to take care of them.
“What could you do against a company of robbers?” asked Nora.
“Well, this isn’t the first time we’ve had adventures, and had to fight for safety,” said Mike, grandly.
“No, it’s true we’ve had some exciting times and very narrow escapes,” said Peggy. “But I don’t particularly want to be chased and caught by robbers, even if you boys rescue me in the end!”
“Perhaps it’s the stone men in the cave that come alive and rob people!” said Paul, with a grin.
“I’d like to go and have a look at those statues again,” said Jack. “Ranni, can we go tomorrow? It’s only about an hour’s ride.”
“I don’t want to go too far from the castle,” said Ranni. “Well — we’ll go as far as that old temple if you really want to. Though why you should want to see ancient statues, broken to pieces, when you’ve already seen them once is a puzzle to me!”
The children set off the next day to go to the old temple. They were on foot, as it really was not a great distance away, and Ranni said it would be good for them to walk. So up the mountain they trudged.
It was late afternoon when they started. They had their tea with them. The sun shone down warmly and the children panted and puffed when they went up the hillside, so steep and stony.
“There’s the old temple,” said Jack, at last, pointing to the ruined archway, hewn out of the mountain rock. “It really is a funny place. It seems to be made out of a big cave, and the entrance is carved out of the mountain itself. Come on — let’s go in and have another look. Nora, you come this time, and Peggy. You didn’t come last time.”
“All right,” said Peggy. “We’ll come.”
They all went into the old temple, and switched on the torches they had brought. Once again they gazed on Beowald’s “stone men,” and smiled to think of his idea that the statues had once been wicked men, turned into stone.
The biggest statue of all, at the back of the cave, sat on his wide flat rock, gazing with blank eyes out of the entrance. He seemed to be in much better repair than the others, who had lost noses, hands and even heads in some cases. Jack flashed his torch around, and suddenly came to a stop as he wandered around.
“Look here!” he said.
The others came to him and looked down at the ground, where his torch made a round ring of bright light. In the light was the print of a small bare foot. Jack swung his torch here and there, and on the floor of the temple other footprints could be seen — all small and bare, the toes showing clearly.
“Someone comes here quite a lot!” said Jack.
“More than one person,” said Mike, kneeling down and looking closely at a few prints with his torch. “These are not the prints of the same person’s feet. Look at this print here — all the toes are straight — but this one has a crooked big toe-print. And that one is a little larger than the others.”
“It couldn’t be Beowald’s prints, could it?” asked Nora, remembering the bare feet of the goatherd.
“No. His feet are much bigger than those shown in these prints,” said Mike. “I remember thinking what big feet he had.”
“Well — could it be the robbers’ footprints?” cried Peggy, suddenly.
“It might be,” said Jack. “But they are plainly not here — not living here, I mean! Anyway, they would be discovered easily enough if they did live here. Beowald would know.”
Ranni called the children. “Come along. Tea is ready. We must hurry now, because it looks as if a mist is coming up.
The children hurried out of the dark temple into the bright sunshine. They sat down to have their tea, telling Ranni and Pilescu what they had seen. But the two big Baronians were not much impressed.
“The prints are probably made by the feet of the goatherds sent to search every nook and cranny of the mountain-side, to look for the robbers’ hiding-place,” said Ranni.
This was disappointing. The children had quite made up their minds that they must belong to the robbers! Mike pointed down the hillside.
“Look at the clouds down there below us,” he said. “They seem to be creeping up towards us.”
“They are,” said Pilesco, beginning to gather up the tea things. “Come along. I don’t want to get lost in a mountain mist!”
They all set off down the mountain-side. Jack suddenly spied some juicy wild raspberries, and slipped off the path to get them. Before he had eaten more than a dozen he found himself surrounded by a thick grey mist!
“Blow!” said Jack, making his way back to the path. “I can’t even see the others now! Well, I know the path, that’s one thing!”
He shouted, but could hear no answer. The others had gone round a bend, and could not hear him, though usually a shout in the mountains echoed round and round. But the thick mist muffled the sound, and Jack could hear no reply to his yell.
“I’ll just go on and hope to catch the others up,” thought the boy. He set off, but after a while he had no idea of the right direction at all. The mist became thicker and thicker and the boy felt cold. He pulled his fur-lined cloak round him, and wondered what to do.
Something familiar about the rocky face of the mountain caught his eye. “Well — look at that! I’m right back at the old temple!” said Jack, in astonishment. “I’ve doubled back on the path somehow, and reached the templ
e-cave again. Well, I can’t do better than shelter inside till the mist clears. Maybe it won’t be long. They come and go very quickly.”
He went inside the cave where the old stone images were. He found a corner where he could sit, and he squatted down to wait. He yawned and shut his eyes. He hoped Ranni and Pilescu would not be very angry with him.
He dozed lightly, whilst the mist swirled round outside. He was awakened by the sound of voices, and sat up, expecting to see the other children coming into the temple to look for him. He half got up — and then sank back in the greatest astonishment.
The cave was full of strange, hoarse voices, speaking in the Baronian language, but using a broad country accent that Jack could not understand. It was dark there, and the boy could not see the people to whom the voices belonged. He dared not switch on his torch.
Then one of the men went to the entrance of the cave and looked out, calling back that the mist was still there, but was clearing rapidly. Jack looked at him in amazement. He was small and wiry, and wore no clothes at all except for a strip of skin round his middle. The boy crouched back in his corner, suddenly scared.
The mist thinned outsided the cave, and the man at the entrance was joined by others. They went out, and Jack saw that each man had a wolf’s tail behind him, dyed red. They were the robbers!
There were many of them. Where had they come from? They had not been in the cave when the boy fell asleep, and if they had entered, he would have heard them. Where had they come from? There must be some secret entrance in the temple itself. But where could it be?
The Amazing Statue
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.