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.