CHAPTER VII
THE SECRET OF THE STEFANOPOULOI
Was this a pantomime? For a moment I declared angrily that it was nobetter; but the next instant changed the current of my feelings,transforming irritation into alarm and perplexity into the strongestexcitement. For Phroso's laugh ended--ended as a laugh ends that issuddenly cut short in its career of mirth--and there was a second ofabsolute stillness. Then from the front of the house, and from theback, came the sharp sound of shots--three in rapid succession infront, four behind. Denny rushed out from the kitchen, rifle in hand.
'They're at us on both sides!' he cried, leaping to his perch at thewindow and cautiously peering round. 'Hogvardt and Watkins are readyat the back; they're firing from the wood,' he went on. Then he fired.'Missed, confound it!' he muttered. 'Well, they don't come any nearer,I'll see to that.'
Denny was a sure defence in front. I turned towards the kitchen, formore shots came from that direction, and although it was difficult todo worse than harass us from there, our perpendicular bank of rockbeing a difficult obstacle to pass in face of revolver-fire, I wantedto see that all was well and to make the best disposition against thisunexpected onset. Yet I did not reach the kitchen; half way to thedoor which led to it I was arrested by a cry of distress. Phroso'slaugh had gone, but the voice was still hers. 'Help!' she cried,'help!' Then came a chuckle from Denny at the window, and atriumphant, 'Winged him, by Jove!' And then from Phroso again,'Help!'--and at last an enlightening word, 'Help! Under the staircase!Help!'
At this summons I left my friends to sustain the attack or the feignedattack; for I began to suspect that it was no more than a diversion,and that the real centre of operations was 'under the staircase;'thither I ran. The stairs rose from the centre of the right side ofthe hall, and led up to the gallery; they rose steeply, and a mancould stand upright up to within four feet of the spot where thestaircase sprang from the level floor. I was there now; and under me Iheard no longer voices, but a kind of scuffle. The pick was in myhand, and I struck savagely again and again at the boards; for I didnot doubt now that there was a trap-door, and I was in no mind tospend my time seeking for its cunning machinery. And yet whereknowledge failed, chance came to my help; at the fifth or sixth blow Imust have happened on the spring, for the boards yawned, leaving aspace of about three inches. Dropping the pick, I fell on my knees andseized the edge nearest me. With all my strength I tugged and pulled.My violence was of no avail, the boards moved no more. Impatient yetsobered I sought eagerly for the spring which my pick had found. Ah,here it was! It answered now to a touch light as Phroso's own. At theslightest pressure the boards rolled away, seeming to curl themselvesup under the base of the staircase; and there was revealed to me anaperture four feet long by three broad; beneath lay a flight of stonesteps. I seized my pick again, and took a step downwards. I heardnothing except the noise of retreating feet. I went on. Down six stepsI went, then the steps ended, and I was on an incline. At that momentI heard again, only a few yards from me, 'Help!' I sprang forward. Aloud curse rang out, and a shot whistled by me. The open trap-doorgave a glimmer of light. I was in a narrow passage, and a man wascoming at me. I did not know where Phroso was, but I took the risk. Ifired straight at him, having shifted my pick to the left hand. Theaim was true, he fell prone on his face before me. I jumped on andover his body, and ran along the dark passage; for I still heardretreating steps. But then came a voice I knew, the voice of Vlachothe innkeeper. 'Then stay where you are, curse you!' he criedsavagely. There was a thud, as though some one fell heavily to theground, a cry of pain, and then the rapid running of feet that flednow at full pace and unencumbered. Vlacho the innkeeper had heard myshot and had no stomach for fighting in that rat-run, with a girl inhis arms to boot! And I, pursuing, was brought up short by the body ofPhroso, which lay, white and plain to see, across the narrow passage.
'Are you hurt?' I cried eagerly.
'He flung me down violently,' she answered. 'But I'm not hurtotherwise.'
'Then I'll go after him,' I cried.
'No, no, you mustn't. You don't know the way, you don't know thedangers; there may be more of them at the other end.'
'True,' said I. 'What happened?'
'Why, I came down to hide from you, you know. But directly I reachedthe foot of the steps Vlacho seized me. He was crouching there withSpiro--you know Spiro. And they said, "Ah, she has saved us thetrouble!" and began to drag me away. But I would not go, and I calledto you. I twisted my feet round Vlacho, so that he couldn't go fast;then he told Spiro to catch hold of me, and they were just carrying meoff when you came. Vlacho kept hold of me while Spiro went to meet youand--'
'It seems,' I interrupted, 'that Constantine was less scrupulous aboutthat oath than you were. Or how did Vlacho and Spiro come here?'
'Yes, he must have told them,' she admitted reluctantly.
'Well, come along, come back; I'm wanted,' said I; and (without askingleave, I fear) I caught her up in my arms and began to run back. Ijumped again over Spiro--friend Spiro had not moved--and regained thehall.
'Stay there, under the stairs; you're sheltered there,' I said hastilyto Phroso. Then I called to Denny, 'What cheer, Denny?' Denny turnedround with a radiant smile. I don't think he had even noticed myabsence.
'Prime,' said he. 'This is a rare gun of old Constantine's; it carriesa good thirty yards farther than any they've got, and I can pick 'emoff before they get dangerous. I've got one and winged another, andthe rest have retired a little way to talk it over.'
Seeing that things were all right in that quarter I ran into thekitchen. It was well that I did so. We were indeed in no danger; fromthat side, at all events, the attack was evidently no more than afeint. There was desultory firing from a safe distance in the wood. Ireckoned there must be four or five men hidden behind trees andemerging every now and then to pay us a compliment. But they had notattempted a rush. The mischief was quite different, being just this,that Watkins, who was not well instructed in the range of fire-arms,was cheerfully emptying his revolver into space, and wasting ourprecious cartridges at the rate of about two a minute. He was somagnificently happy that it went to my heart to stop him, but I wascompelled to seize his arm and command him very peremptorily to waittill there was something to fire at.
'I thought I'd show them that we were ready for them, my lord,' saidhe apologetically.
I turned impatiently to Hogvardt.
'Why did you let him make a fool of himself like that?' I asked.
'He would miss, anyhow, wherever the men were,' observed Hogvardtphilosophically. 'And,' he continued, 'I was busy myself.'
'What were you doing?' I asked in a scornful tone.
Hogvardt made no answer in words; but he pointed proudly to thetable. There I saw a row of five long and strong saplings; to the headof each of these most serviceable lances there was bound strongly,with thick wire wound round again and again, a long, keen, brightknife.
'I think these may be useful,' said Hogvardt, rubbing his hands, andrising from his seat with the sigh of a man who had done a goodmorning'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 hisfeelings. So he might just as well amuse himself while I made thelances.'
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; itwas 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 impressionwas amply confirmed. It had been no more than a device for occupyingour attention while those two daring rascals, Vlacho and Spiro, armedwith 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 shelteragain before we could
retaliate, or with the design of carrying offPhroso. Her jest had forestalled the former idea, if it had been intheir minds, and they had then endeavoured to carry out the latter.Indeed I found afterwards that it was the latter on which Constantinelaid most stress; for a deputation of the islanders had come to him,proposing that he should make terms with me as a means of releasingtheir Lady. Now since last night Constantine, for reasons which hecould not disclose to the deputation, was absolutely precluded fromtreating with me; he was therefore driven to make an attempt to getPhroso out of my hands in order to satisfy her people. This enterpriseI had happily frustrated for the moment. But my mind was far fromeasy. Provisions would soon be gone; ammunition was scanty; against anattack by day our strong position, aided by Denny's coolness andmarksmanship, seemed to protect us very effectually; but I could feelno confidence as to the result of a grand assault under the protectingshadow of night. And now that Constantine's hand was being forced bythe islanders' anxiety for Phroso, I was afraid that he would notwait long before attempting a decisive stroke.
'I wish we were well out of it,' said I despondently, as I wiped mybrow.
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 passed 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 theirmeal. Danger was an idea which found no hospitality in Denny's brain;Hogvardt was as cool a hand as the world held; Watkins could notbelieve that Providence would deal unkindly with a man of my rank.They toasted our recent success, and listened with engrossed interestto my account of the secret of the Stefanopouloi. Phroso sat a littleapart, saying nothing, but at last I turned to her and asked, 'Wheredoes the passage lead to?'
She answered readily enough; the secret was out through Constantine'sfault, 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 therocks on the seashore, near the creek where the Cypriote fishermencome.'
'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 heknows that you have the secret.'
'We might force our way.'
'There is no room for more than one man to go at a time; andbesides--' she paused.
'Well, what besides?' I asked.
'It would be certain death to try to go in the face of an enemy' sheanswered.
Denny broke in at this point.
'By the way, what of the fellow you shot? Are we going to leave himthere, 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 nottime 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 willshow you if you like. Bring a torch; you must keep behind me, andright in the middle of the path.'
I accepted her invitation eagerly, telling Denny to keep guard. He wasvery anxious to accompany us, but another and more serious attackmight be in store, and I would not trust the house to Hogvardt andWatkins alone. So I took a lantern in lieu of a torch and prepared tofollow. At the last moment Hogvardt thrust into my hand one of hislances.
'It will very likely be useful,' said he. 'A thing like that is alwaysuseful.'
I would not disappoint him, and I took the lance. Phroso signed to meto 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 wayinto the passage. I prayed her to let me go first, for it was justpossible that some of Constantine's ruffians might still be there.
'I don't think so,' she said. 'He would tell as few as possible. Yousee, we have always kept the secret from the islanders. I think that,if you had not killed Spiro, he would not have lived long afterknowing 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 alongand edged by the body of Spiro which lay, six feet of dead clay, inthe path.
'In the first place, we could escape by it,' she answered, 'if anytumult arose in the island. That was what Stefan tried to do, andwould have done, had not his own kindred been against him andovertaken him here in the passage.'
'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 becamevery powerful--too powerful, you know--then the ruling lord would showhim great favour; and, as a crowning mark of his confidence, he wouldbid him come by night and learn the great secret; and they two wouldcome together down this passage. But the lord would return alone.'
'And the other?'
'The body of the other would be found two, three, four days, or a weeklater, tossing on the shores of the island,' answered Phroso. 'Forlook!' and she held the lantern high above her head so that its lightwas projected in front of us, and I could see fifteen or twenty yardsahead.
'When they reached here, Stefanopoulos and the other,' she went on,'Stefanopoulos would stumble, and feign to twist his foot, and hewould pray the other to let him lean a little on his shoulder. Thusthey would go on, the other a pace in front, the lord leaning on hisshoulder; and the lord would hold the torch, but he would not hold itup, as I hold the lantern, but down to the ground, so that it shouldlight no more than a pace or two ahead. And when they came there--doyou 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, sosuddenly that the other would start and be for an instant alarmed, andturn his head round to the lord to ask what it meant.'
Phroso paused in her recital of the savage, simple, sufficient oldtrick.
'Yes?' said I. 'And at that moment--'
'The lord's hand on his shoulder,' she answered, 'which had restedlightly before, would grow heavy as lead and with a great suddenimpulse the other would be hurled forward, and the lord would be aloneagain with the secret, and alone the holder of power in Neopalia.'
This was certainly a pretty secret of empire, and none the lessalthough the empire it protected was but nine miles long and fivebroad. I took the lantern from Phroso's hand, saying, 'Let's have alook.'
I stepped a pace or two forward, prodding the ground with Hogvardt'slance before I moved my feet: and thus I came to the spot where theStefanopoulos used with a sudden great impulse to propel his enemydown. For here the rocks, which hitherto had narrowly edged andconfined the path, bayed out on either side. The path ran on, a flatrock track about a couple of feet wide, forming the top of anupstanding cliff; but on either side there was an interval of seven oreight feet between the path and the walls of rock, and the path wasunfenced. Even had the Stefanopoulos held his hand and given notreacherous impulse, it would have needed a cool-headed man to walkthat path by the dim glimmer of a torch. For, kneeling down andpeering over the side, I saw before me, some seventy feet down as Ijudged, the dark gleam of water, and I heard the low moan of its wash.And Phroso said:
'If the man escaped the sharp rocks he would fall into the water; andthen, if he could not swim, he would sink at once; but if he couldswim he would swim round, and round, and round, like a fish in a bowl,till he grew weary, unless he chanced to find the only opening; and ifhe found that and passed through, he would come to a rapid, where thewater runs swiftly, and he would be dashed on the rocks. Only by amiracle cou
ld he escape death by one or other of these ways. So I wastold when I was of age to know the secret. And it is certain that noman who fell into the water has escaped alive, although their bodiescame out.'
'Did Stefan's body come out?' I asked, peering at the dark water witha fascinated gaze.
'No, because they tied weights to it before they threw it down, and sowith the head. Stefan is there at the bottom. Perhaps anotherStefanopoulos is there also; for his body was never found. He wascaught by the man he threw down, and the two fell together.'
'Well, I'm glad of it,' said I with emphasis, as I rose to my feet. 'Iwish the same thing had always happened.'
'Then,' remarked Phroso with a smile, 'I should not be here to tellyou about it.'
'Hum,' said I. 'At all events I wish it had generally happened. For amore villainous contrivance I never heard of in all my life. WeEnglish are not accustomed to this sort of thing.'
Phroso looked at me for a moment with a strange expression ofeagerness, hesitation and fear. Then she suddenly put out her hand,and laid it on my arm.
'I will not go back to my cousin who has wronged me, if--if I may staywith you,' she said.
'If you may stay!' I exclaimed with a nervous laugh.
'But will you protect me? Will you stand by me? Will you swear not toleave me here alone on the island? If you will, I will tell youanother thing--a thing that would certainly bring me death if it wereknown I had told.'
'Whether you tell me or whether you don't,' said I, 'I'll do what youask.'
'Then you are not the first Englishman who has been here. Seventyyears ago there came an Englishman here, a daring man, a lover of ourpeople, and a friend of the great Byron. Orestes Stefanopoulos, whoruled here then, loved him very much, and brought him here, and showedhim the path and the water under it. And he, the Englishman, came nextday with a rope, and fixed the rope at the top, and let himself down.Somehow, I do not know how, he came safe out to the sea, past therocks and the rapids. But, alas, he boasted of it! Then, when thething became known, all the family came to Orestes and asked him whathe had done. And he said:
'"Sup with me this night, and I will tell you." For he saw that whathe had done was known.
'So they all supped together, and Orestes told them what he had done,and how he did it for love of the Englishman. They said nothing, butlooked sad; for they loved Orestes. But he did not wait for them tokill him, as they were bound to do; but he took a great flagon ofwine, and poured into it the contents of a small flask. And hiskindred said: "Well done, Lord Orestes!" And they all rose to theirfeet, and drank to him. And he drained the flagon to their goodfortune, and went and lay down on his bed, and turned his face to thewall and died.'
I paid less attention to this new episode in the family history of theStefanopouloi than it perhaps deserved: my thoughts were with theEnglishman, not with his too generous friend. Yet the thing washandsomely done--on both sides handsomely done.
'If the Englishman got out!' I cried, gazing at Phroso's face.
'Yes, I mean that,' said she simply. 'But it must be dangerous.'
'It's not exactly safe where we are,' I said, smiling; 'andConstantine will be guarding the proper path. By Jove, we'll try it!'
'But I must come with you; for if you go that way and escape,Constantine will kill me.'
'You've just as good a right to kill Constantine.'
'Still he will kill me. You'll take me with you?'
'To be sure I will,' said I.
Now when a man pledges his word, he ought, to my thinking, to lookstraight and honestly in the eyes of the woman to whom he ispromising. Yet I did not look into Phroso's eyes, but staredawkwardly over her head at the walls of rock. Then, without any morewords, we turned back and went towards the secret door. But I stoppedat Spiro's body, and said to Phroso:
'Will you send Denny to me?'
She went, and when Denny came we took Spiro's body and carried it towhere the walls bayed, and we flung it down into the dark water below.And I told Denny of the Englishman who had come alive through theperils of the hidden chasm. He listened with eager attention, noddinghis head at every point of the story.
WE TOOK SPIRO'S BODY AND FLUNG IT DOWN.]
'There lies our road, Denny,' said I, pointing with my finger. 'We'llgo along it to-night.'
Denny looked down, shook his head and smiled.
'And the girl?' he asked suddenly.
'She comes too,' said I.
We walked back together, Denny being unusually silent and serious. Ithought that even his audacious courage was a little dashed by thesight and the associations of that grim place, so I said:
'Cheer up. If that other fellow got through the rocks, we can.'
'Oh, hang the rocks!' said Denny scornfully. 'I wasn't thinking ofthem.'
'Then what are you so glum about?'
'I was wondering,' said Denny, freeing himself from my arm, 'howBeatrice Hipgrave would get on with Euphrosyne.'
I looked at Denny. I tried to feel angry, or even, if I failed inthat, to appear angry. But it was no use. Denny was imperturbable. Itook his arm again.
'Thanks, old man,' said I. 'I'll remember.'
For when I considered the very emphatic assertions which I had made toDenny before we left England, I could not honestly deny that he wasjustified in his little reminder.