They jabbered. Danilo sounded and looked as if he didn’t believe what he heard, got persuaded apparently, and looked at me with a different expression from any he had had for me before. Deducing that I was being admired for my prowess with small arms, I yawned to show that it was nothing out of the ordinary. Then they got into a hot argument. After that was settled, Wolfe did most of the talking, and there was no more arguing. Evidently everything was rosy, for they shook hands as if they meant it, and Danilo offered me a hand and I took it. He was absolutely cordial. When he went he turned twice, once at the far edge of the wide space and once just before he disappeared into the defile, to wave at us.
“He’s a different man,” I told Wolfe. “Report, please?”
“There isn’t time. I must talk with that man, and we must get away. I told Danilo what happened. He insisted on going down to look at them, but I said no. If he had gone alone he might have come back with a collection of fingers, including Zov’s, and if we had gone along and Zov had been conscious he would have seen us together on friendly terms, which wouldn’t do. We’re going to take Zov out the way we came, and Danilo is going to try to stop us and fail.”
“I’m not going to shoot Danilo.”
“You won’t have to, if he does as agreed, and he will. I would prefer not to go back down there. Will you go? If he can move, bring him here.”
“Leave his wrists tied?”
“No. Free him.”
I entered the fort by the door, crossed to the entrance to a narrow passage, and after a couple of turns was in the long corridor. At the top of the fifteen steps I turned on my flashlight. Why I got a gun in my hand as I approached the door of the room I don’t exactly know, but I did. The lantern on the shelf was still burning. I made the rounds of the three casualties, checked that they still weren’t shamming, and then went to Zov. He was stretched out, in a different position from when we left him, with his eyes shut, motionless. I took my knife and cut the rope on his ankles, and then the cord on his wrists, which were red and bruised and swollen, and when I let go of them he tried to let them fall dead to the floor but botched it.
I stood and looked down at him, thinking how much I could simplify matters if I forgot doctrines for just two seconds. Another thought followed it. Was it possible that Wolfe had had that in mind when he sent me down alone, on the chance that I would come back up and report that Zov had kicked off? Let Archie do it? I decided no. I had known him to pull some raw ones, but no.
“Nuts,” I told Zov. “Open your eyes.”