Phroso Part 7

He shrugged his shoulders again. 'That,' he seemed to say, 'is not worth answering.' But I had a second shot in the locker for him, and I let him have it for what it was worth. I knew it might be worth nothing, but I tried it.

'And secondly,' I went on, 'how many wives does Constantine propose to have?'

A hit! A hit! A palpable hit! I could have sung in glee. The fellow was dumbfoundered. He turned red, bit his lip, scowled fiercely.

'What do you mean?' he blurted out, with an attempt at bl.u.s.tering defiance.

'Never mind what I mean. Something, perhaps, that the Lady Euphrosyne might care to know. And now, my man, what do you want of me?'

He recovered his composure, and stated his errand with his old cool a.s.surance; but the cloud of vexation still hung heavy on his brow.

'On behalf of the Lady of the island--' he began.

'Or shall we say her cousin?' I interrupted.

'Which you will,' he answered, as though it were not worth while to wear the mask any longer. 'On behalf, then, of my Lord Constantine, I am to offer you safe pa.s.sage to your boat, and a return of the money you have paid--'

'How's he going to pay that?'

'He will pay it in a year, and give you security meanwhile.'

'And the condition is that I give up the island?' I asked; I began to think that perhaps I owed it to my companions to acquiesce in this proposal however distasteful it might be to me.

'Yes,' said Vlacho, 'and there is one other small condition, which will not trouble you.'

'What's that? You're rich in conditions.'

'You're lucky to be offered any. It is that you mind your own business.'

'I came here for the purpose,' I observed.

'And that you undertake, for yourself and your companions, on your word of honour, to speak to n.o.body of what has pa.s.sed on the island or of the affairs of the Lord Constantine.'

'And if I won't give this promise?'

'The yacht is in our hands; Demetri and Spiro are our men; there will be no s.h.i.+p here for two months.' The fellow paused, smiling at me. I took the liberty of ending his period for him.

'And there is,' I said, returning his smile, 'as we know by now, a particularly sudden and fatal form of fever in the island.'

'Certainly you may chance to find that out,' said he.

'But is there no antidote?' I asked, and I showed him the b.u.t.t of my revolver in the pocket of my coat.

'It may keep it off for a day or two--not longer. You have the bottle there, but most of the drug is with your luggage at the inn.'

His parable was true enough; we had only two or three dozen cartridges apiece.

'But there's plenty of food for Constantine's rifle,' said I, pointing to the muzzle of it, which protruded from the window.

He suddenly became impatient.

'Your answer, sir?' he demanded peremptorily.

'Here it is,' said I. 'I'll keep the island and I'll see Constantine hanged.'

'So be it, so be it,' he cried. 'You are warned; so be it!' Without another word he turned his pony and trotted rapidly off down the road.

And I went back to the house feeling, I must confess, not in the best of spirits. But when my friends heard all that had pa.s.sed, they applauded me, and we made up our minds to 'see it through,' as Denny said.

The day pa.s.sed quietly. At noon we carried the old lord out of his house, having wrapped him in a sheet; we dug for him as good a grave as we could in a little patch of ground that lay outside the windows of his own chapel, a small erection at the west end of the house.

There he must lie for the present. This sad work done, we came back and--so swift are life's changes--killed a goat for dinner, and watched Watkins dress it. Thus the afternoon wore away, and when evening came we ate our goat-flesh and Hogvardt milked our cows; then we sat down to consider the position of the garrison.

But the evening was hot and we adjourned out of doors, grouping ourselves on the broad marble pavement in front of the door. Hogvardt had just begun to expound a very elaborate scheme of escape, depending, so far as I could make out, on our reaching the other side of the island and finding there a boat which we had no reason to suppose would be there, when Denny raised his hand, saying 'Hark!'

From the direction of the village and the harbour came the sound of a horn, blowing long and shrill and echoed back in strange protracted shrieks and groans from the hillside behind us. And following on the blast we heard, low in the distance and indistinct, yet rising and falling and rising again in savage defiance and exultation, the death-chant that One-Eyed Alexander the Bard had made on the death of Stefan Stefanopoulos two hundred years ago. For a few minutes we sat listening; I do not think that any of us felt very comfortable. Then I rose to my feet, saying:

'Hogvardt, old fellow, I fancy that scheme of yours must wait a little. Unless I'm very much mistaken, we're going to have a lively evening.'

Well, then we shook hands all round, and went in and bolted the door, and sat down to wait. We heard the death-chant through the walls now; it was coming nearer.

CHAPTER IV

A RAID AND A RAIDER

It was between eight and nine o'clock when the first of the enemy appeared on the road in the persons of two smart fellows in gleaming kilts and braided jackets. It was no more than just dusk, and I saw that they were strangers to me. One was tall and broad, the other shorter and of very slight build. They came on towards us confidently enough. I was looking over Denny's shoulder; he held Constantine's rifle, and I knew that he was impatient to try it. But, inasmuch as might was certainly not on our side, I was determined that right should abide with us, and was resolute not to begin hostilities.

Constantine had at least one powerful motive for desiring our destruction; I would not furnish him with any plausible excuse for indulging his wish: so we stood, Denny and I at one window, Hogvardt and Watkins at the other, and quietly watched the approaching figures.

No more appeared; the main body did not show itself, and the sound of the fierce chant had suddenly died away. But the next moment a third man came in sight, running rapidly after the first two. He caught the shorter by the arm, and seemed to argue or expostulate with him. For a while the three stood thus talking; then I saw the last comer make a gesture of protest as though he yielded his point unwillingly, and they all came on together.

'Push the barrel of that rifle a little farther out,' said I to Denny.

'It may be useful to them to know it's there.'

Denny obeyed; the result was a sudden pause in our friends' advance; but they were near enough now for me to distinguish the last comer, and I discerned in him, although he had discarded his tweed suit and adopted the national dress, Constantine Stefanopoulos himself.

'Here's an exercise of self-control!' I groaned, laying a detaining hand on Denny's shoulder.

As I spoke, Constantine put a whistle to his lips and blew loudly. The blast was followed by the appearance of five more fellows; in three of them I recognised old acquaintances--Vlacho, Demetri and Spiro. These three all carried guns. The whole eight came forward again, till they were within a hundred yards of us. There they halted, and, with a sudden swift movement, three barrels were levelled straight at the window where Denny and I were stationed. Well, we ducked; there is no use in denying it; for we thought that the bombardment had really begun. Yet no shot followed, and after an instant, holding Denny down, I peered out cautiously myself. The three stood motionless, their aim full on us. The other five were advancing warily, well under the shelter of the rock, two on the left side of the road and three on the right. The slim boyish fellow was with Constantine on the left; a moment later the other three dashed across the road and joined them.

In a moment what military men call 'the objective,' the aim of these manuvres, flashed across me. It was simple almost to ludicrousness; yet it was very serious, for it showed a reasoned plan of campaign with which we were very ill-prepared to cope. While the three held us in check, the five were going to carry off our cows. Without our cows we should soon be hard put to it for food. For the cows had formed in our plans a most important _piece de resistance_.

'This won't do,' said I. 'They're after the cows.' I took the rifle from Denny's hand, cautioning him not to show his face at the window.

Then I stood in the shelter of the wall, so that I could not be hit by the three, and levelled the rifle, not at my human enemies, but at the unoffending cows.

'A dead cow,' I remarked, 'is a great deal harder to move than a live one.'

The five had now come quite near the pen of rude hurdles in which the cows were. As I spoke, Constantine appeared to give some order; and while he and the boy stood looking on, Constantine leaning on his gun, the boy's hand resting with jaunty elegance on the handle of the knife in his girdle, the others leapt over the hurdles. Crack! went the rifle, and a cow fell. I reloaded hastily. Crack! and the second cow fell. It was very fair shooting in such a bad light, for I hit both mortally; my skill was rewarded by a shout of anger from the robbers.

(For robbers they were; I had bought the live stock.)