But it was the mountain itself that held the children’s eyes. It was so steep. It looked quite impossible to climb. It rose up before their eyes, enormous, seeming to touch the sky. They were very near to it, and Nora was quite frightened by its bigness.
The tribesman frowned as he looked at it and muttered strings of queer-sounding words to himself. He was plainly going no further. Only the money he had been promised had made him come so far. He slid down the tree and spoke rapidly to Ranni.
Ranni told him where he would find his reward, and the man nodded, showing all his white teeth. He called to Mafumu, and the two of them disappeared into the bushes.
“Hie, Mafumu — say good-bye!” yelled Jack, very sorry indeed to see the merry little fellow going. But his uncle had Mafumu firmly by one ear and the boy could do nothing.
“Well, he might at least have said good-bye,” said Peggy. “I did like him. I wish he was going with us.”
“Did Mafumu’s uncle give you any idea at all as to how we might get into the mountain?” Mike asked Ranni. Ranni shook his head.
“All he would say was that we should have to walk through the rock!” he said. “I don’t think he really knew what he meant. It was just something he had heard.”
“Walk through the rock!” said Jack. “That sounds a bit like Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves. Do you remember — the robbers made their home in a cave inside a hill — and when the robber chief said ‘Open Sesame!’ a rock slid aside — and they all went in!”
Pilescu and Ranni did not know the tale, and they listened with interest.
“Well, the way in may be by means of a moving rock,” said Ranni. “But, good gracious, we can’t go all round this enormous mountain looking for a moving rock! And if we did find it, I’m sure we should not know the secret of moving it!”