Mr. Spokesly paused in the shadow of the wall enclosing the house they
had left. On either hand extended an obscure and empty street. From that
retired vantage the suburbs of Saloniki were wrapped in a peace as
complete as that of the harbour. A faint hum, as of a distant
trolley-car, came along the wires overhead. Mr. Spokesly reflected
quietly, noting the landmarks, getting his bearings. The Dainopoulos
house was a little farther on, he guessed. As he took a step forward, a
door banged some distance off, and a dog gave a few ringing howls.
"Is it far?" asked Plouff in a tense whisper. Mr. Spokesly looked at
him. He was very much excited, and looked foolish, with his round eyes
and extraordinarily pretentious moustache.
"No, I don't think it is," said Mr. Spokesly. "I got an idea it's just
along on the other side." And then, as they moved up the road and the
view changed somewhat, opening out on a familiar clump of trees, he
added, "Yes, it's just along here," and mended his pace.
And he advanced upon the place where he believed Evanthia to be waiting
for him, in a mood of mingled fear and pleasure. Perhaps there was shame
in it, too, for he almost felt himself blush when he thought of himself
sitting there on the _Kalkis_ waiting. And but for an accident--Plouff
was the accident--he might have been waiting there still. He grew hot.
He saw that his long habitude of regarding women as purchasable adjuncts
to a secular convenience had corrupted his perception of character. Why
had he not seen immediately that she would expect him to carry out the
whole enterprise? Where had his wits been, when the amber eyes
smouldered and broke into a lambent flame that seemed to play all round
his heart? That was her way. She never supplicated, evoking a benign
pity for her pathetic and regretted womanhood. Nor did she storm and
rail, getting what she desired as the price of repose. She simply
accepted the responsibility with a flickering revelation of her soul in
one glance from those amber eyes. And left him to divine the purpose in
her heart. He thought of all this in the few moments as he moved up to
the house with the active and enthusiastic Plouff at his heels like a
shadow. And he wondered if she would keep him waiting. That, at any
rate, was not one of her faults.
There was no light in the front of the house. That was not promising. He
crossed over and took an oblique view of the windows behind the trees of
the garden. And she was there. He saw a shadow on the ceiling, a shadow
that moved and halted, with leisurely deliberation. He walked to the
gate and tried it. It was shut.
"Listen Bos'," he said, holding that person's shoulder in a firm grip.
"You've got to give me a leg over. Then--listen now--go back and get the
boat out, and lay off the end of the garden. Savvy?"
"Yes. Now, up you go," said Plouff. "What do you want to hold me like
that for? Over?"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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