They rested there for a while. Paul was terribly tired by now. Mike looked at his watch. It was four o’clock in the morning! The sun would be up outside the mountain — but here it was as dark as night.
“I feel so sleepy,” said Paul, cuddling up against Mike. “I think we ought to have a good long rest.”
Jack got up and looked around the broad platform for a more comfortable resting-place. He gave a shout that quickly brought the others to him.
“Look,” said Jack, shining his torch on to a recess in the wall of the tunnel at the back of the platform. “This is where the robbers must sometimes rest before going on to wherever they live!”
In the recess, which was like a broad shelf of rock, lay some fur rugs. The boys cuddled into them, snuggled up to one another, closed their eyes and fell asleep at once. They were tired out with their night’s travel.
They slept for some hours, and then Jack awoke with a start. He opened his eyes and remembered at once where he was — on the inside of the mountain! He sat up — and suddenly saw the platform outside the recess where the boys were, was lighted brightly. Voices came to him — and he saw a flaring torch held high. What could be happening now?
The other boys did not wake. They were too tired to hear a sound! Jack leaned out of the rugs and tried to see who was holding the torch. He had a nasty shock — for it was held by one of the robbers! When Jack saw him turn round and his red wolf-tail swing out behind him, he knew without a doubt that the robbers were there within a few feet of him.
The boy tried to see what they were doing. They were at the edge of the river, at the end of the rocky platform. As Jack watched he saw two more men come up from the ledge that ran beside the river. It was plain that the broad platform they were on narrowed into the same sort of ledge that ran beside the upper part of the river. The men were coming up from lower down — and they were dragging something behind them, something that floated on the water. Jack could not see what it was, for the light from the torch flickered and shook, making shadows dance over everything.
The men called to one another hoarsely. They did something at the edge of the water, and then, without a glance toward the recess in which the boys were sleeping, they turned and made their way up the tunnel through which the boys had come, keeping along the ledge in single file. They were going up to the temple-cave, Jack was sure.
“Going to rob people again, I suppose!” thought the boy, excitedly. “They’ve taken Ranni and Pilescu somewhere further down, and tied them up, I expect — left them safe, as they thought. Golly, if only we could find out where they are, we could rescue them easily now that the robbers have left them for a while.”