“I’m going to see,” said the little prince, who seemed that night to be more than a small boy. He was a prince, he was growing up to be a king, he was lord of Baronia, he was going to take command and give orders! Jack pulled him back as he was about to go down into the dark hole.
“Wait! We might all fall into a trap. Don’t do anything silly. We shan’t help Ranni and Pilescu by being foolish.”
“I will go to rouse the local people and to bring help,” said Beowald. “I would like to come with you, but I am no good in a strange place. My feet, my ears and my hands only help me when I am on my mountain-side. In a strange place I am lost.”
“We will go down the hole and find out what we can,” said Jack. “You get the others and follow us as soon as you are able to. The girls will have told Tooku and Yamen by now, and maybe they will be on the way here with one or two of the servants. I expect Paul’s mother will send for some soldiers, too.”
Beowald did not understand all that Jack said, for the boy did not speak the Baronian language very well as yet. Paul quickly translated for him, and Beowald nodded his head.
“Do not fall into the hands of the robbers,” he said. “Why do you not wait here until I come back?”
“I go to rescue my men,” said Prince Paul haughtily. “Where they go, I follow.”
“You must do as you wish,” said the goatherd. Jack slid down into the hole, and took hold of the rope. He went down and down, whilst Mike shone his torch on to him. Beowald waited patiently, seeing nothing, but knowing by his ears all that was happening.
The hole went down for a long way. Jack swung on the rope, his arms getting tired. Then he found that there were rough ledges here and there on the sides of the hole, on which he could rest his feet now and again, to relieve his arms.
The hole came to an end at last. Jack felt his toes touching ground once more. He let go the rope and felt round with his hands. He could feel nothing. The hole must have come out into some kind of cave. The boy could hear no sound of any sort, and he thought it would be safe to switch on his torch.