Panayota saw only Aglaia coming down the road, waving her arms. She lost all fear and ran to meet her.
"It's the English," cried the woman. "They are arresting Turks right and left. They are throwing the leaders into prison and taking the guns away from the Bashi Bazouks."
"Now God be praised!" laughed Panayota.
"The Turks are hiding like hares. Not one dare show his head. Papa-Spiro says that all the principal Turks will be hanged and the rest driven into the sea."
Panayota's eyes blazed and she held her head high as she marched back to the leper's hut, unconsciously keeping step to the tune of "Tommy Atkins."
CHAPTER XXXIX
TO A PLACE OF SAFETY
"I will walk with you to the other end of the village," said Aglaia. Papa-Spiro had returned also from the roadside. He had talked with a young man from Canea. The English were thoroughly angry because their soldiers had been killed. They were going to send over a great army.
"O yes, it would be perfectly safe for a Christian to go anywhere now. Not a Turk would dare peep."
Panayota had long ago formed her plans, when she had dreamed of escape in the house of Kostakes. Her mother's brother, Kyrios Kurmulidhes, lived at Asprochori, a little village about twenty miles from Canea. She had often heard her father speak of him as a godly man, and now Papa-Spiro said that Asprochori had not fallen into the hands of the Turks. In the early days of the insurrection the Cretans had held that region, and since the arrival of Colonel Vassos from Greece the Mohammedans had not been able to get out there at all. It was still early morning; she would be able to reach the place before nightfall.