“If you have time while you are here you should take a drive. I shall be happy to arrange a car for you.”
“Very kind of him. Say that we heard in Salonika that there was excellent hunting to be had near the lakes to the west.”
“The gentleman is intending to go hunting?”
“Not this time, unfortunately. We are on business. But we were told that there was plenty of game up there.”
The little man smiled. “There is game of all sorts in the neighbourhood. There are also eagles in the hills,” he added slyly.
“Eagles who do a little hunting themselves, perhaps?”
“The gentleman learned that in Salonika, too, no doubt.”
“I have always understood that this is a most romantic part of the country.”
“Yes, the eagle is a bird of romance to some,” the proprietor said archly. Obviously, he was the kind of person who could not let the smallest joke go, once he had got his teeth into it.
“It’s a bird of prey, too.”