listened for a moment, but the rain beating down made it impossible for
her to distinguish any other sound.

She lay down flat on the wet ground, and crawled forward for a few
feet, then listened again. At first she heard only the rain and the
wind, but after a little wait there was a muffled bang as if a bomb had
exploded deep down in the earth, and the ground beneath her trembled.

Lucia sprang to her feet and ran terrified back to the cave. It was
fortunate that she was as sure-footed as her goats, for the way was
steep and slippery, and she did not pause to take care.

Over in the cave, with her hand on Beppi's curly head, she sat down to
think. Her mind was not capable of arriving at any logical
explanation. Two thoughts stood out clearly and beyond doubt. First,
the enemy was doing something of which the Italians were unaware, and
second, the Italians must be warned before it was too late. That she
must warn them she realized at once, but the way was not easy to
determine.

The mountains were tricky. From one side they might look deserted, and
yet a whole army could be in hiding just over the other side. The
giant peaks formed formidable and wellnigh impassable barriers between
one range and the next. Lucia had seen the troops disappear that
morning, as if the great rocks had opened and devoured them, and she
knew that at this moment they might be within a half a mile of her, but
where to begin to find them she did not know.

The close proximity of the Austrians frightened her, and she was afraid
to go off at random, or even to call. Throughout the night she tried