“He thinks the mirror is wonderful. He is in the mirror as well as outside it,” translated Ranni with a grin. “He says it would be a good thing to have it, because then if he is hurt or wounded, it will not matter — the man inside the mirror, which is himself too, will be all right, and he will be him instead.”
Everyone smiled to hear this. The man had never seen a mirror before, he had only caught sight of himself in pools. It seemed as if another himself was in the strange gleaming thing that the red-haired man was offering him. He stood in front of the mirror, making awful faces, and laughing.
Ranni asked him again if he would show them the way to the Secret Mountain if he gave him the mirror. The man nodded. The mirror was too much for him. Why, he had never seen anything like it before.
“Tell him we will start tomorrow at dawn,” said Pilescu. “I want to make sure that we have everything we need before we set off. Also I want to look at the engines of the White Swallow and our own plane to see that they are all ready to take off, should we find Captain and Mrs. Arnold, and want to leave in a hurry!”
The children were in a great state of excitement. They hardly knew how to keep still that day, even when the great heat came down, and they had to lie in the shade, panting and thirsty. It was so exciting to think that they really were to set off the next morning to the strange Secret Mountain.
“I’m jolly glad Ranni and Pilescu are coming with us,” said Nora. “I do love adventures — but I can’t help feeling a little bit funny in the middle of me when I think of those strange folk that live in the middle of a forgotten mountain.
The Coming Of Mafumu
Pilescu and Ranni tinkered about with the White Swallow, which stood not very far off, and with their own plane most of the day. The children, of course, had thoroughly examined the White Swallow, feeling very sad to think that Captain and Mrs. Arnold had had to leave it so mysteriously.
Mike had thought that there might have been a note left to tell what had happened, but the children had found nothing at all.
“That’s not to be wondered at,” said Pilescu. “If they had had time to write a note, they would have had time also to fly off in the plane! As far as I can see there is nothing wrong with the White Swallow at all — though I can see where some small thing has been cleverly mended. It seems to me that Captain and Mrs. Arnold were taken by surprise and had not time to do anything at all.”