“Yes, and I heard that the Turks were attacking one of the Christian villages on the north-western corner of the island. It was some way up on Mount Olympus, a few miles from the coast. Morphou Bay is the nearest point to it. I hear it is naturally a strong place, and Christians from other villages round have gone in there. The people attacking it are not troops, who I fancy have nothing to do with these massacres, but the natives of the Mussulman villages. Some of the poor devils may have got down to the coast, and you might pick some up if you were to cruise along there.”
“Perhaps we might,” Horace said; “at any rate it would be worth a try. We will go on board again at once.”
“Will you have a glass of wine first? I got hold of some good stuff at Larnaca. Good wine is cheap there now.”
“No, thank you, we will be off at once,” Miller said.
“Well, good-bye, gentlemen, and good luck to you! There is nothing I would like better than to be going for a cruise with you for a few months, for no vessel can do better work than that which you are engaged on.”
Miller and Horace dropped down into their boat, and were rowed back to the schooner.
CHAPTER VIII
A BESIEGED VILLAGE
AS soon as they gained the deck of the Misericordia Miller reported the advice the skipper of the English brig had given as to their taking their station near the southern coast, to pick up vessels hugging the shore on their way to Alexandria and the west.