“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.