He waved his hand to her gaily as he went down the hill-track with his custodians, and Zoe fell into a reverie, from which she roused herself with a vigorous mental shake.
“It’s a good thing he’s gone,” she said to herself. “We have been comrades, as he said, and it has been very nice. In a few days more I shouldn’t have been able to do without him, and that is out of the question. I have the world to see and my name to make before I think of anything of that sort. Yes, it is a good thing.”
But this decision was no sort of justification for Eirene’s taking it upon herself to remark that she was glad Captain Wylie was gone, because he ordered Maurice about. A coolness ensued between the two girls, which lasted until Eirene, who wanted to mend her torn shoe, was obliged to apply to Zoe to obtain a needle and thread from Zeko.
Very early on the morning after Wylie’s departure the other prisoners found that the brigands were not quite so simple as he had hoped. They had no intention whatever of remaining at the spot where he had left them until he might choose to return. The clearing and the huts were forsaken before dawn, and another day of painful wandering and climbing by devious tracks followed. Zeko, in a lordly and contemptuous way, hauled Zoe over the worst places, so that Maurice was free to look after Eirene, but both girls were utterly spent before the crowning trial of the march occurred. This was a long stiff climb up the bed of a torrent, which, in spite of the summer weather, had quite enough water in it to make the girls miserably wet, and destroy the last possibility of usefulness in their shoes. They were practically bare-footed when they staggered into the little valley from which the torrent flowed down the hillside, and discovered that they were now so high up in the mountains that cold was to be added to their other discomforts. Even the brigands were stirred to pity by their white faces and chattering teeth, or perhaps they feared lest hardship should release their prisoners before they could be ransomed, for they helped Maurice to collect wood for a good fire, and made the girls sit down close to it to dry their skirts. The chief went so far as to administer a small quantity of a potent, if smoky spirit, which took away their breath and made their eyes water, and he also requisitioned a pair of moccasins for each of them from two members of the band who were unwary or fastidious enough to carry more than was needed for immediate wear. The trees up here were too sparse to allow of building huts, but in the rocks by the side of the stream there were hollows which might almost be called caves, and Maurice swept one of these out with a branch, made a smaller fire in it, and arranged the rugs for beds. He himself was accustomed now to sleeping outside, wrapped in one of the brigands’ greatcoats, but although he was allowed to lie near the fire, he never forgot the piercing cold of that night, while inside the cave the girls lay close together with both the rugs over them, and shivered in spite of all. Their appearance alarmed the brigands in the morning, and greatcoats and leggings, such as the men wore, were allotted to them in addition to the moccasins. Their feet were so badly bruised that they could not walk alone, but they were helped up to a sort of ledge on the sunny side of the gorge, where they were at last able to feel warm again. Needles and thread were lent them to alter the clothes into some approach to fit, and on the return of three of the band from an absence of some duration, the chief presented them with large coarse handkerchiefs to replace their battered hats. Maurice, whose broken head was now sufficiently recovered to dispense with bandages, was invested with a fez, from which Stoyan solemnly removed the tassel with his knife, on the ground that it was unbecoming for a captive to wear a tassel to his fez.
Maurice had not been idle during the day. He had collected all the loose pieces of rock he could find, and built them up into a rough wall, cemented with mud from a spot where the stream formed a marshy pool, to keep the wind from blowing into the cave. The brigands who had brought the handkerchiefs had carried also a large truss of straw, and this was spread thickly on the floor, so that the girls found their second night’s quarters far more restful than the first. The exhaustion which was the result of the forced march was also passing away, and on the second day they were able to begin to practice walking in the moccasins, which was an art needing some caution.
A week passed quietly, varied only by the expeditions of the brigands to obtain food and news. They seemed to have a well-organised intelligence system, by means of which they learned that there was much activity among the Roumi authorities, civil and military, and that soldiers were being sent into the mountains in various directions. The brigands displayed amusement rather than apprehension over this news, and there was no lack of food, which would have argued that the peasants were losing their fear of their unacknowledged masters. The girls spent a good deal of time in patching their tattered garments with pieces of the rough brown stuff some of the brigands wore, and also relieved Maurice of his domestic duties, thus leaving him free to execute wonderful engineering works in connection with the stream, damming it in one place to make a pool where the girls might get water close to their cave, and arranging pieces of rock as steps. The energy of the prisoners astonished their captors, who seemed to think it the height of bliss to lie in the sun, smoking and quarrelling, or playing various rudimentary games of chance, and at first every movement was regarded with suspicion. But by degrees Maurice established with them a feeling almost akin to good fellowship, and would sit among them round the fire, listening to their talk, which he was beginning to understand without the intervention of Milosch. Eirene objected strongly to this habit of his, and, as was her wont, spoke her mind freely on the subject.
“It is so undignified, so contemptible!” she declared angrily. “A man of elevated soul would suffer anything rather than associate on familiar terms with wretches from whom he had received such vile treatment.”
“But it’s to please myself, not them,” said Maurice. “I want to find out why all these strapping fellows have turned brigands—to inquire into their grievances, in fact.”
“Grievances! What business have they with grievances?”
“I don’t know; but they have got some, unfortunately.”