Sunde stared at me. 'Gawd!' he said. 'This ain't like you, Mr Gansert. 'Ow many rucksacks d'you see?'
'Three,' I answered sleepily. But some little thought was nagging at my mind, burrowing up into consciousness. Then I got to my feet. 'My God!' I said. 'Three. There should be four.'
He nodded. 'That's roight. They bin ahead o' us.'
'Lovaas?' I asked.
'That's roight. Came in by the winder. Opened it by that broken pane.' He looked at me sharply. Then he dropped his pack to the floor and burrowed deep into one of the pockets. 'Ere, you 'ave a nip o' that, guv'ner,' he said, handing me a flask. 'Oi'm gonna 'ave a look ra'nd.'
I unscrewed the cap and took a swig at the fiery liquor. It was brandy. The fire of it warmed me deep inside. Sunde was back in a few minutes. 'Place is empty,' he said. 'No sign of a struggle. Everyfink in order. There weren't no trouble.' He scratched his head and took a swig at the flask. 'The way I see it, Olsen went part of the way down with Peer an' the others an' then coming back 'e saw Lovaas an' party before they saw 'im. Probably 'e 'ad glasses.' He looked across at me. 'Ow yer feelin', eh?'
'Better,' I said. 'Much better.' What he said seemed to make sense. And it cheered me. For it meant that there was still hope of our getting to Farnell before Lovaas. Farnell warned was a vdry different matter to Farnell lying in a saeter, unsuspecting. I looked into the embers. 'He can't have left long,' I said. 'The fire is too bright.'
'Ere, take anuvver swig o' this.' He passed the flask across to me and, putting his gun down on the table, got out a knife and began cutting bread and butter and cheese from the food on the table. 'We'll 'ave a bite to eat. Then we'll get movin'.'
Get moving! My limbs cried out in one great ache at the thought. But he was right. Our only hope of catching up with Lovaas was to get moving and keep moving. 'All right,' I said and got stiffly to my feet.
And at that moment a voice said, 'Sta stille!'