“The women and children are being sent away every hour,” the King answered. “I know that my men here are staunch, and so far as they are concerned the Turks will find nothing but a heap of smoking ruins when they enter Theos. It is not the actual fighting which troubles me, Brand.”
Brand looked into the King’s anxious face, and found there some clue to his doubtful words. He pointed with his riding whip to the distant city.
“It is treachery which you fear?” he remarked softly.
Ughtred nodded.
“I will tell you,” he said, “there is something going on there which I cannot understand. It is Domiloff’s work. I am sure of that. At the meeting of the Council last night I seemed to be somehow conscious of a general atmosphere of intrigue. There is something going on behind my back. Doxis plainly hinted that it would be better to make terms than waste the whole country by an impossible resistance, and when I asked him ‘terms with whom?’ he was silent. We know that the Turks have no terms to offer save unconditional surrender. What did he mean, then?”
“I fear,” Brand said, “that Domiloff’s schemes are more deeply laid than we at first believed. What a pity that he was ever allowed to remain in Theos.”
“I sent him to the frontier once,” Ughtred said. “He came back secretly.”
“But your police?”
“Theos has no police now,” Ughtred answered. “They are fighting at Althea. We could not afford to leave a hundred able-bodied men in the city.”