“I say, you must be wounded. What is it?”
“No, merely fever. I’m afraid I must ask you to let one of your men give me an arm down the hill. But there was one of our fellows I hoped wasn’t dead.”
Together they examined the bodies strewn about the ruins of the sangar, but no life remained in any of them. To those acquainted with Roumi methods of warfare, their disposal presented a difficulty, but one of the two remaining insurgents suggested a cairn, and the corpses were laid in the centre of the space which had witnessed their last fight, and the stones piled over them. Then the man drew a circle round the heap with his knife, and scrawled cabalistic figures inside and outside it, muttering the while. “It is magic,” he said, as he rose from his knees. “Even the accursed will not dare to disturb that grave, and in the years to come the relics of the martyrs shall be carried to a shrine worthy of them.”
“Your people seem to be full of spirit still,” said Lieutenant Cotway as he helped Wylie down the hill, a sailor supporting him on the other side; “but I’m afraid your cause is in a bad way. What’s your Prince doing?”
“He was proposing to surrender to-day, as being more dignified than finding himself handed over by traitors on his own side,” said Wylie.
Mr Cotway whistled. “Isn’t it slightly confiding to treat with the Roumis without giving the Admirals a chance to see fair?” he asked.
“Unfortunately the Admirals were at an Olympian distance, and the Roumis in between. We simply couldn’t get at you. But there is just a chance that you may be in time to prevent a massacre yet.”
“With twenty-five men? Oh, I see, you mean the representatives of Europe generally. Well, my orders are to escort the ladies on board, but I think old Point Seven would agree that it was a case for discretion. I shall send you aboard with Suter, and hold Ephestilo, for fear our landing should be disputed. The Roumis will hardly yearn for publicity.”
“You will want a guide,” said Wylie thickly.
“Well, I don’t intend to engage you for the post. One of your men might do. I suppose there’s a straight road from Ephestilo to your headquarters?”