“Tell your chief, or thief, or whatever ruffian he is, that none of us will pay a penny. Our friends at Athens will miss us, and you’ll have the palikari after you all in hot haste if I’m not back to-night safe.”
“The English lord forgets that he left word that he might remain for two days on the mountains, and his friends will not think him missing before to-morrow night: at that time, the English lord and his friends, and the little lords, will be all dead men if the ransom be not paid.”
“What on earth shall I do, Buncombe?” asked dad of the captain. “Shall I write an order on my bankers for the money to be sent? One hundred thousand piastres will be about five thousand pounds—I don’t know whether my credit will be good for that amount?”
“Your credit and mine will be sufficient,” Captain Buncombe said; “one can’t trifle with these fellows, for the villains keep their word, I’m told.”
The guide again spoke by the chief’s order to dad, as if the tenor of the captain’s words were understood.
“The Albanian chief declares that if the ransom be not paid by sunset to-morrow at latest, every one of you shall be shot, and your heads cut off and sent back to Athens in token of your fate.”
“Ugh!” said Mr Moynham, shuddering; “I certainly have been a Tory throughout all my life, but I should not like to follow Charles the First’s example.”
“I declare it’s disgraceful,” said Captain Buncombe; “I’ll apply to the ambassador. This brigandage is the curse of Greece. I’ll—”
“That won’t help us now,” said dad. “I suppose we must write for the ransom, although under protests; for, however much we have to pay, we must remember that our lives are in jeopardy; and that’s the main consideration.”
The advice was good; so, a joint letter was despatched to certain influential friends, as well as dad’s banker at Athens, urging that the ransom should be sent in a certain way, to be handed over, as the brigand chief arranged, as we were given up, so that there should be no treachery on either side. The false guides then went off cheerfully down hill towards the plains, whilst our cavalcade, encompassed by the brigands, moved towards those mountain fastnesses, “where they resided when they were at home,” as Mr Moynham said.