“Well, we went down and turned in, for it gets pretty parky now after dark. I talked a little to Stephnos, but it’s not too easy as yet. I wish I could patter Greek like you birds. However, we were both pretty sleepy, and it didn’t take us long to get off.
“Somewhere about four we woke up, hearing a lot of noise upstairs. Then down came one of the men with a lantern and jabbered something to Stephnos, who jumped out of bed and started pulling on his kit.
“I asked him what was up, and he said that the sentries reported fire in the distance. We hurried on our clothes and ran upstairs. There we found the officer man and several N.C.O.’s all looking out to the north, where some miles away—we were on a bit of hill—there was a big flare in the sky.
“They bucked a bit—which, of course, I couldn’t understand—and then Stephnos told me they thought it was a raid.
“About ten minutes later we heard horses’ hoofs on the stones below, and then the sentries at the lower gate challenged. Then we heard the gate being opened, and after that men coming up the stone stairs.
“They came up into the light of the torches on the platform below us, a couple of soldiers and another chap—a local by the look of him—splashed with mud and covered with dust, and still breathing hard.
“He talked to the officer for about half a minute, and then an N.C.O., who was listening, ran to the beacon with a torch and lit it. Soaked in oil, I fancy, for it went up in a blaze straight off.
“The officer turned and said something to Stephnos, and they talked for a few seconds and then the officer shouted out some orders, an N.C.O. blew a whistle, down below from the lower gate some one sounded a horn, and then I heard the men below turning out. Pretty slick they were, for five minutes later, looking down from the parapet, I saw them leading out the horses. The whole place was red light now from the blazing beacon.
“I asked Stephnos what was up, and he said an enemy party had got through the line of posts and raided a village about six miles away—the one we could see blazing. The man who had just galloped in was a watchman from the next village. They seemed to have a regular system of alarm-posts, for five minutes after our beacon went up there were two more twinkling away to the south of us.
“Stephnos said he was taking his men and twenty more from the fort and going off at once to the village. Firoz had come up by this time, anxious to know what it was all about, so I told him to come along, too.