‘And when they came to the disciples they saw a great crowd about them, and scribes questioning with them.'
The fact that scribes were there suggests that this took place somewhere in Northern Galilee, from where they would ‘pass through Galilee' (Mark 9:30) to Capernaum. The Scribes would have limited authority outside Galilee. It is not impossible, however, that they had travelled further North although less likely. From this point of view we can ignore the time references. ‘And He said' in Mark 9:1 has divided this episode from what happened at Caesarea Philippi, so that we have no time reference as to when that was. The time reference in Mark 9:2 simply links back to Mark 9:1. But even were we to relate the incidents the six days mentioned would have given them time to get back to Galilee. We thus do not know on which ‘high mountain' this took place. The lack of article may suggest that there only two or three scribes present. They were probably suggesting that the disciples were using the wrong methods for exorcising spirits and taking the opportunity of drawing the crowds attention to their failure. Note that now that Jesus had returned to Galilee the crowds had gathered once more.
‘They came --- they saw.' Some important manuscripts have the singular ‘He'. The latter is very possible, placing the emphasis on the presence of the Unique One. But the point is probably that the three, having been in the mountain and seen the certainty of the glory of Jesus, had now descended and together with Him saw a scene of doubt, need and despair.