"Maybe we can find a key," said Sophie.
She began to search in the crevices of the stonework foundation.
"Oh, let's go back to the tent instead," said Joanna after a few minutes.
But just then Sophie exclaimed, "Here it is! I found it!"
She held up the key triumphantly. She put it in the lock and the door swung open.
The two friends sneaked inside as if they were up to something criminal. It was cold and dark in the cabin.
"We can't see a thing!" said Joanna.
But Sophie had thought of that. She took a box of matches out of her pocket and struck one. They only had time to see that the cabin was deserted before the match went out. Sophie struck another, and this time she noticed a stump of candle in a wrought-iron candlestick on top of the stove. She lit it with the third match and the little room became light enough for them to look around.
"Isn't it odd that such a small candle can light up so much darkness?" said Sophie.
Her friend nodded.
"But somewhere the light disappears into the dark," Sophie went on. "Actually, darkness has no existence of its own. It's only a lack of light."
Joanna shivered. "That's creepy! Come on, let's go..."
"Not before we've looked in the mirror."
Sophie pointed to the brass mirror hanging above the chest of drawers, just as before.
"That's really pretty!" said Joanna.
"But it's a magic mirror."
"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?"
"I'm not kidding, Joanna. I am sure you can look in it and see something on the other side."
"Are you sure you've never been here before? And why is it so amusing to scare me all the time?"
Sophie could not answer that one.
"Sorry."
Now it was Joanna who suddenly discovered something lying on the floor in the corner. It was a small box. Joanna picked it up.
"Postcards," she said.
Sophie gasped.
"Don't touch them! Do you hear--don't you dare touch them!"
Joanna jumped. She threw the box down as if she had burnt herself. The postcards were strewn all over the floor. The next second she began to laugh.
"They're only postcards!"
Joanna sat down on the floor and started to pick them up. After a while Sophie sat down beside her.
"Lebanon ... Lebanon ... Lebanon ... They are all postmarked in Lebanon," Joanna discovered.
"I know," said Sophie.
Joanna sat bolt upright and looked Sophie in the eye.
"So you have been here before!"
"Yes, I guess I have."
It suddenly struck her that it would have been a whole lot easier if she had just admitted she had been here before. It couldn't do any harm if she let her friend in on the mysterious things she had experienced during the last few days.
"I didn't want to tell you before we were here."
Joanna began to read the cards.
"They are all addressed to someone called Hilde Moller Knag."
Sophie had not touched the cards yet.
"What address?"
Joanna read: "Hilde Moller Knag, c/o Alberto Knox, Lillesand, Norway."
Sophie breathed a sigh of relief. She was afraid they would say c/o Sophie Amundsen.
She began to inspect them more closely.
"April 28 ... May 4 ... May 6 ... May 9 ... They were stamped a few days ago."
"But there's something else. All the postmarks are Norwegian! Look at that... UN Battalion ... the stamps are Norwegian too!"
"I think that's the way they do it. They have to be sort of neutral, so they have their own Norwegian post office down there."
"But how do they get the mail home?"