“Yes,” I said; “but did—do you think—”
He looked at me without answering, and just then there came from behind us a loud “Ahoy!”
“Ahoy!” shouted back Uncle Bob; and as we turned in the direction of the cry we could see Uncle Jack waving his white handkerchief to us, and we were soon after by his side.
They gripped hands without a word as they met, and then after a short silence Uncle Jack said:
“We had better get on and descend on the other, side.”
“But Uncle Dick!” I cried impetuously; “are you not going to search for Uncle Dick?”
The brothers turned upon me quite fiercely, but neither of them spoke; and for the next hour we went stumbling on down the steep slope of the great hill, trying to keep to the sheep-tracks, which showed pretty plainly in the moonlight, but every now and then we went astray.
My uncles were wonderfully quiet, but they kept steadily on; and I did not like to break their communings, and so trudged behind them, noting that they kept as near as seemed practicable to the place where the mountain ended in a precipice; and now after some walking I could look back and see that the moon was shining full upon the face of the hill, which looked grey and as if one end had been dug right away.
On we went silently and with a settled determined aim, about which no one spoke, but perhaps thought all the more.
I know that I thought so much about the end of our quest that I kept shuddering as I trudged on, with sore feet, feeling that in a short time we should be turning sharp round to our left so as to get to the foot of the great precipice, where the hill had been gnawed away by time, and where the loose earth still kept shivering down.