“All right, Miss Kolin,” he said; “what do you think happened?”
“I think that he was taken prisoner with the driver and that both were wounded. I think that the Sergeant died of his wounds or was killed trying to escape on the way to the andartes’ rendezvous with Phengaros. Naturally Phengaros would think that only one prisoner had been taken.”
“What about the Sergeant’s papers? They would have been taken to Phengaros.”
“They would also take the papers of those they had killed here.”
George considered. “Yes, you may be right. At least it’s a reasonable explanation. There’s still only one way we can find out for certain though, and that’s by getting hold of someone who was there.”
Miss Kolin nodded towards the pedlar. “I have been talking to this man. He says that the andartes who did this were from Florina. That agrees with the Colonel’s information.”
“Did he know any of them by name?”
“No. They just said they were from Florina.”
“Another dead end. All right, we’ll go there tomorrow. We’d better start back now. How much money do you think I should give this old man?”
It was early evening when they arrived back in Salonika. Something unusual seemed to have happened while they had been away. There were extra police on duty in the streets and shopkeepers stood in the roadway conferring volubly with their neighbours. The cafés were crowded.