Carola Works It Out

She told herself to try to be calm and to think logically. Where could the others have been taken? The walls of the pass were too steep for the prisoners to have been taken that way. She herself had climbed the spur without much trouble, but she hadn't had three captives to deal with. That meant they could only have been taken in one of two directions: either further up the pass or back down the path.

If they had been taken further up the pass, wouldn't she have seen them from her vantage point? Not necessarily, if the kidnappers had timed it correctly, she realised. They could have arranged to come round the bend in the pass shortly after she had left her viewpoint to return to the camp. They could probably have estimated how long it would take her to cross the spur.

If her companions had been taken downhill, wouldn't she be able to see them and their captors? The path ran straight in that direction for some distance, and the moonlight was quite bright. They must have gone uphill.

The girls had not had packs, of course, but Matthias and Jarlath had. Carola took Jarlath's pack, for she would need food and water, and then set off in pursuit. She might be walking into a trap, but she felt she had no choice. She hoped that once she had got past the bend as the path rounded the spur that she might be able to see something. However, she found that the pass twisted again only a short distance further on, so that her view beyond that point was obscured.

Then she noticed that, on the opposite side of the pass to the spur, there was a narrow gully. It was possible that the others could have been taken that way, which led upwards, but not so steeply as to be unmanageable. Carola had to make a decision, with seemingly nothing to guide her.

1. She continued through the main pass.
2. She branched off into the gully.
3. Then she spotted a clue.

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