Phroso

n-cut, aristocratic face; then I shook his attend

mean?' I deman

g up in alarm. Indeed we four, with our eager fi

e are my friends,' I answ

en-?' A wondering ga

ve bought the island. We

ill you if he

? W

will kill you, they-the peo

ack in confusion. And I spoke at a v

stantine Stefanopo

d. 'He may be here,

re,' said I grimly, for my blood wa

nswered. 'Alas, he is wounded, I fear, to deat

ed? By

became vacant an

e. My dear lord had yielded what they asked. Yet some one-no, by h

whole thing,'

is house and race, they were furious; and Vlacho raised the death chant that One-eyed Alexander the Bard wrote on the death of Stefan Stefanopoulos long ago. Then they came near with knives, demanding that my dear lord should send away the stranger; for the men of Neopalia were not to be bought and sold like bullocks or like pigs. At first my lord would not yield

t she drew herself up, and after a glance at the old man wh

Constantine fell on his knees beside him, crying, "Who stabbed him?" Vlacho smiled grimly, and the others looked at one another. But I, who had run out from the doorway whence I had seen it all, knelt by my lord and staunched the blood. Then Vlacho said, fixing his eyes straight and keen on the Lord Constantine, "It was not I, my lord." "Nor I by heaven," cried the Lord Constantine, and he rose to his feet, demanding, "Who struck the blow?" But none

that quivered with excitement; and I felt Denny's hand, whi

TABBED

loved him. She sat by him till Constantine came and told her that you would not go, and that you and your friends would be killed if you did not go. Then, weeping to leave my lord, she went, praying heaven she might find him alive when she returned. "I must go," she said

re was silence.

blow, woman? Who

me as though I

; I do not kno

dared not answer wa

groaned, 'Constantine! You, Constantine!' The old woman's

nded man. 'I had yielded, I had yielded

again, but met only to part. A moment later hi

inst his kinsman and an old man, did a thing so rash that it seems to me now, when I consider it in the cold light of memory, a

at I know his crime, that I know who struck that blow, that what I know all men shall know, and that I will not rest d

and Watkins, not making bold to speak, ranged up c

ooked at me wit

ld man, my lo

I. 'Such courage as is needed to tell a scound

w. You would go to Rhodes, and t

es, if need be. He shall di

suade me; the treachery of Constantine had fir

nd waste no time on it. We will watch

your own death. And you are young; a

en him look as he did then; for the gaiety was ou

her sad work; going back to our places, we waited there till dawn began to break and from the narrow windows we saw t

said she. 'Are you st

the same

down the road, between the high rocks that bounded the path on either side. Then we went and carried the old man to a room that opened of

five o'

live,' said I, smiling, 'if

ng back to the

'If we go this ruffian will

dt ended for me,

d himself as the shepherd, his employers as the sheep. I believe this atti

t a villain the fellow is, they'll turn ag

ined to do a rash thing, there is a great comfort in feeling tha

ied. 'Then that se

ved Watkins, appearing at this moment with a big loaf of

and its contents,' s

d a large lump of native cheese; wh

ows, there are two goats; and your lordship sees ther

, Watkins was so

mean?' I asked. 'Well, I

approvingly; the guns were useless, rusted, out of date; and there was no ammunition for them. But when he had almost completed

'"C. S." on the stock. I expect y

was employing himself in cutting imaginary lemons in two wit

aid I, 'perhaps they

dt, taking an aim with the

tch. It was five

settled. What a comfort!' I wonder whet

andary, should have been utterly overwhelmed by the burden on me. But I was not. Perhaps Hogvardt's assumption of responsibility relieved me; perhaps I was too full of anger against Constantine to think of the risks we ourselves ran; and I was more than half-persuaded that the revelation of what he had done would r

straight to the height of ten or twelve feet; from the top of this artificial bank they ran again in wooded slopes towards the peak of the mountain. I followed their course with my eye, and three hundred or more feet above us, just b

oman,' I

A peasant's w

she went into the house, appeared again, and levelled at us what was, if I mistook not, a large pair of binocular glasses. Now such things were not likely to be in the

to like the look

ith deference, 'she did not exp

hat's very likely

e survived all the disturbing features of the situation-by a call from Denny. In response to it I

roaching the house. It was a man riding a stout pony; when he came within about two hundred

handkerchief in return. The man, reassured, began to mop his brow with the flag of truce, and put his pony to a trot. I now p

or you,' he cried. 'I am wear

had chanced to take possession of

essage come t

equal meaning,

to speak to a gentleman

ne Stefanopoulos,'

dmitted with a careless shrug, 'but her message was for

hat she sai

n my Lord Const

knows it, I hope-t

smiled

ards me. 'Nobody has heard the message but the Lord Constantine and one man he told it

up this murd

it was an accident done in hot blood. It was the ol

ted; 'and a good many other people

at me agai

of every man in Neopalia, what w

'that they'd hang Constantine to

nod; and he began to sing softly th

t his savagery, b

the L

d, and will do as her cousin bids

ment, fixing a keen scrutiny on Vlac

ntly. 'And they will ru

ather annoyed. 'There are one or two obstacle

swering.' But I had a second shot in the locker for him, and I let him have

, 'how many wives does Co

ung in glee. The fellow was dumbfoundered. H

urted out, with an attemp

, that the Lady Euphrosyne might care to kn

rrand with his old cool assurance; but the c

e Lady of the is

ay her cousin?

he mask any longer. 'On behalf, then, of my Lord Constantine, I am to offe

going to

year, and give you

began to think that perhaps I owed it to my companions to acq

e is one other small conditio

You're rich

red any. It is that you

or the purpose

on your word of honour, to speak to nobody of what has pass

on't give t

ere will be no ship here for two months.' The fellow paused,

e, 'as we know by now, a particularly sudd

y chance to find

d, and I showed him the butt of my

nger. You have the bottle there, but most o

h; we had only two or thre

ne's rifle,' said I, pointing to the muzz

ly became

ir?' he demande

ll keep the island and I'

idly off down the road. And I went back to the house feeling, I must confess, not in the best of spirits. But when

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 din

t 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

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 Ba

ours must wait a little. Unless I'm very much m

bolted the door, and sat down to wait. We heard the d