Phroso Part 16

'What were you doing?' I asked in a scornful tone.

Hogvardt made no answer in words; but he pointed proudly to the table. There I saw a row of five long and strong saplings; to the head of each of these most serviceable lances there was bound strongly, with thick wire wound round again and again, a long, keen, bright knife.

'I think these may be useful,' said Hogvardt, rubbing his hands, and rising from his seat with the sigh of a man who had done a good morning's work.

'The cartridges would have been more useful still,' said I severely.

'Yes,' he admitted, 'if you would have taken them away from Watkins.

But you know you wouldn't, my lord. You'd be afraid of hurting his feelings. So he might just as well amuse himself while I made the lances.'

I have known Hogvardt for a long while, and I never argue with him.

The mischief was done; the cartridges were gone; we had the lances; it was no use wasting more words over it. I shrugged my shoulders.

'Your lordship will find the lances very useful,' said Hogvardt, fingering one of them most lovingly.

The attack was dying away now in both front and rear. My impression was amply confirmed. It had been no more than a device for occupying our attention while those two daring rascals, Vlacho and Spiro, armed with the knowledge of the secret way, made a sudden dash upon us, either in the hope of getting a shot at our backs and finding shelter again before we could retaliate, or with the design of carrying off Phroso. Her jest had forestalled the former idea, if it had been in their minds, and they had then endeavoured to carry out the latter.

Indeed I found afterwards that it was the latter on which Constantine laid most stress; for a deputation of the islanders had come to him, proposing that he should make terms with me as a means of releasing their Lady. Now since last night Constantine, for reasons which he could not disclose to the deputation, was absolutely precluded from treating with me; he was therefore driven to make an attempt to get Phroso out of my hands in order to satisfy her people. This enterprise I had happily frustrated for the moment. But my mind was far from easy. Provisions would soon be gone; ammunition was scanty; against an attack by day our strong position, aided by Denny's coolness and marksmanship, seemed to protect us very effectually; but I could feel no confidence as to the result of a grand a.s.sault under the protecting shadow of night. And now that Constantine's hand was being forced by the islanders' anxiety for Phroso, I was afraid that he would not wait long before attempting a decisive stroke.

'I wish we were well out of it,' said I despondently, as I wiped my brow.

All was quiet. Watkins appeared with bread, cheese and wine.

'Your lordship would not wish to use the cow at luncheon?' he asked, as he pa.s.sed me on his way to the hall.

'Certainly not, Watkins,' I answered, smiling. 'We must save the cow.'

'There is still a goat, but she is a poor thin creature, my lord.'

'We shall come to her in time, Watkins,' said I.

But if I were depressed, the other three were very merry over their meal. Danger was an idea which found no hospitality in Denny's brain; Hogvardt was as cool a hand as the world held; Watkins could not believe that Providence would deal unkindly with a man of my rank.

They toasted our recent success, and listened with engrossed interest to my account of the secret of the Stefanopouloi. Phroso sat a little apart, saying nothing, but at last I turned to her and asked, 'Where does the pa.s.sage lead to?'

She answered readily enough; the secret was out through Constantine's fault, not hers, and the seal was removed from her lips.

'If you follow it to the end, it comes out in a little cave in the rocks on the seash.o.r.e, near the creek where the Cypriote fishermen come.'

'Ah,' I cried, 'it might help us to get there!'

She shook her head, answering:

'Constantine is sure to have that end strongly guarded now, because he knows that you have the secret.'

'We might force our way.'

'There is no room for more than one man to go at a time; and besides--' she paused.

'Well, what besides?' I asked.

'It would be certain death to try to go in the face of an enemy' she answered.

Denny broke in at this point.

'By the way, what of the fellow you shot? Are we going to leave him there, or must we get him up?'

Spiro had been in my mind; and now I said to Phroso:

'What did they do with the body of Stefan Stefanopoulos? There was not time for them to have taken it to the end of the way, was there?'

'No, they didn't take it to the end of the way,' said she. 'I will show you if you like. Bring a torch; you must keep behind me, and right in the middle of the path.'

I accepted her invitation eagerly, telling Denny to keep guard. He was very anxious to accompany us, but another and more serious attack might be in store, and I would not trust the house to Hogvardt and Watkins alone. So I took a lantern in lieu of a torch and prepared to follow. At the last moment Hogvardt thrust into my hand one of his lances.

'It will very likely be useful,' said he. 'A thing like that is always useful.'

I would not disappoint him, and I took the lance. Phroso signed to me to give her the lantern and preceded me down the flight of stairs.

'We shall be in earshot of the hall?' I asked.

'Yes, for as far as we are going,' she answered, and she led the way into the pa.s.sage. I prayed her to let me go first, for it was just possible that some of Constantine's ruffians might still be there.

'I don't think so,' she said. 'He would tell as few as possible. You see, we have always kept the secret from the islanders. I think that, if you had not killed Spiro, he would not have lived long after knowing it.'

'The deuce!' I exclaimed. 'And Vlacho?'

'Oh, I don't know. Constantine is very fond of Vlacho. Still, perhaps, some day--' The unfinished sentence was expressive enough.

'What use was the secret?' I asked, as we groped our way slowly along and edged by the body of Spiro which lay, six feet of dead clay, in the path.

'In the first place, we could escape by it,' she answered, 'if any tumult arose in the island. That was what Stefan tried to do, and would have done, had not his own kindred been against him and overtaken him here in the pa.s.sage.'

'And in the second place?' I asked.

Phroso stopped, turned round, and faced me.

'In the second place,' she said, 'if any one of the islanders became very powerful--too powerful, you know--then the ruling lord would show him great favour; and, as a crowning mark of his confidence, he would bid him come by night and learn the great secret; and they two would come together down this pa.s.sage. But the lord would return alone.'

'And the other?'

'The body of the other would be found two, three, four days, or a week later, tossing on the sh.o.r.es of the island,' answered Phroso. 'For look!' and she held the lantern high above her head so that its light was projected in front of us, and I could see fifteen or twenty yards ahead.

'When they reached here, Stefanopoulos and the other,' she went on, 'Stefanopoulos would stumble, and feign to twist his foot, and he would pray the other to let him lean a little on his shoulder. Thus they would go on, the other a pace in front, the lord leaning on his shoulder; and the lord would hold the torch, but he would not hold it up, as I hold the lantern, but down to the ground, so that it should light no more than a pace or two ahead. And when they came there--do you see, my lord--there?'

'I see,' said I, and I believe I shivered a bit.

'When they came there the torch would suddenly show the change, so suddenly that the other would start and be for an instant alarmed, and turn his head round to the lord to ask what it meant.'

Phroso paused in her recital of the savage, simple, sufficient old trick.