"No."
"But I did leave dem on de road to go back, and dey did go. Dey must be back."
"But they're not back. And I want to hunt them up," said Frank.
"Where was the road where you say you left them?"
"I will go myself and show you de ver place," said the guide. "Do not fear. Dere can come no harm. It is not possibile."
With these words the guide set forth to take them', to the place. These words of the guide added; if possible, to the deep distress and dismay of Uncle Moses. He was only conscious now that the boys were without any guide in some unknown, perhaps dangerous place. If he feared while he supposed that they had a guide, his fears under these new and worse circumstances were far greater.
On the way the guide explained all about it. He told about the tunnel, about the path which he had recommended as a short cut. He declared that it was perfectly straight, and that it was impossible for any one to get lost between Albano and the place where he left them. There was no place, he declared, for them to get lost in. It was quite open—a little valley—that was all.
But this gave no comfort to poor Uncle Moses. He walked along looking ten years older, with his face full of grief. At length the guide came to the path along which he had sent David and Clive, and turning into this, he walked along in the direction where he had seen them go.
"We haf now," he said, "to walk to de hotel at Albano, and you sall find dey did come back, and will be dere at dis moments."
"What a joke it would be," cried Frank, "if they have got back, and have started off after us! I wonder whether they would. Not they. I don't believe it. They're starving, and will think of nothing but their dinners."
But poor Uncle Moses refused to see any "joke" at all. It was a deeply solemn reality to his poor, distracted breast.