“I am here,” he said. “I heard you. I knew you were friends. What are you doing up here at night?”
Jack came out from his hiding-place. He told Beowald in a few words all that had happened. The goatherd listened in amazement.
“Ah, so that is why I thought the stone men came to life at night!” he said. “It was robbers I heard coming forth from the temple, and not the stone men. There must be a deep cave below the floor of the temple. I will come with you to find it.”
The goatherd led the way to the cave. The moon went in again behind a cloud, and the boys were glad to be with Beowald for the last piece of their climb. They could not have found their way otherwise. But darkness did not matter to the blind youth. He found his way as surely as if he were seeing the path in daylight!
They came near to the temple, treading very cautiously. Not a sound was to be heard. “We’d better creep into the cave whilst the moon is behind a cloud,” whispered Jack. “Paul, ask Beowald if he thinks any robbers are about now. His ears are so sharp that surely he would know.”
Paul whispered to Beowald in the Baronian language. The goatherd shook his head. “There is no one near,” he said. “I have heard nothing at all, and my ears would tell me if a robber was in the cave. I should hear him breathing.”
The boys crept silently into the dark cave. When they were in, the moon shone out and lighted up the strange stone face of the big statue at the back. It seemed to look sneeringly at the three boys.
Jack went up to the image, and ran his fingers down the crack that he had seen widen into a split when the statue divided into halves. He wondered how he could find out the working of the strange image. There must be some way of opening it, both from above and below. What was it? He must find it, or he would not be able to find the place where the robbers had taken Ranni and Pilescu.
But no matter how he felt and pushed and pulled, the crack remained a crack, and did not widen into a split. The other two boys tried as well, but they had no more success than Jack. They looked at one another in despair.
“Let my fingers try,” said the voice of Beowald. “My eyes cannot see, but my fingers can. They can feel things that only the whiskers of a mouse could sense!”