“You cannot, sir,” said Dr Terminoff. “They would only ascribe your denials to diplomacy. Many years of disappointment have not been able to destroy their confidence in the goodwill of England, and they believe that she has just given a superlative proof of it at Czarigrad. Only the personal assurance of the British Admiral will convince them.”
“Backed by a shell or two, I suppose?” said Maurice. “Well, Armitage, it’s very clear that you must be off at once. It isn’t only that you mustn’t be caught at Skandalo, but we don’t want to give them a chance to recognise the yacht if they meet her again.”
“The ironclads will have to lie about a mile out,” said Armitage reflectively. “We must hug the shore to the southward and slip round them. There will just be time.”
“And when you come back,” said Maurice, “bring provisions, whatever you have to leave behind. We find that the Skandalo people have been turning an honest penny by shipping all their spare supplies to Therma, where prices are enormous, of course, while we have been at our wits’ end to feed our refugees. We shall have to establish an embargo if it goes on, for it’s almost certain that news leaks out as well; but it would be horribly difficult to enforce, and make a fearful amount of ill-feeling.”
“Our recruits are not a success as police,” explained Wylie, as they returned to the monastery. “They are most zealous in hunting evil-doers, but then I have to hunt the police. Just wait till I get my Sikhs, though!”
“I say, you know,” said Armitage, “you fellows have really done a lot in this short time. You’ve got the beginnings of an army, and public works, and a judicial system, and you’re contemplating tariff reform!”
“Until the British fleet comes and blows the peninsula out of the water,” said Maurice. “Well, I never expected to fight against the Union Jack, nor did you, Wylie, I’m sure,—but we mean to stick to this job unless we’re turned out. To have got Greeks and Slavs to drill shoulder to shoulder is a bigger thing than it looks.”
CHAPTER X.
THE INTERVENTION OF THE ADMIRAL.
Before the long dark shapes, dimly discernible from the highest point of the rock above the monastery, had been apparently floating in the air on the horizon for more than a day, events began to move in Hagiamavra. On the isthmus connecting the peninsula with the mainland stood a village, or rather its remains, for it had formerly been inhabited by Moslems, and these had required more than merely moral suasion to induce them to quit it. It served now as an outpost of the insurgents, and its garrison was surprised by the approach of a small body of Roumi troops, accompanied very unwillingly by the elders of the dispossessed community. Much elated by the prospect of a fight at last, the garrison prepared to let the foe approach within short range and then annihilate them, but the troops had not come out to be killed. They remained in cover, while the wretched villagers were driven forward, to be turned back in confusion by a few contemptuous shots from the ruins. To the intense disappointment of the defenders, the Roumis were not stirred to action even by this defiance, and retired in safety, merely exchanging shots with them at long range. The next visitor was a Greek pope from Therma, who came as the mouthpiece of Jalal-ud-din to inquire the reason for the extraordinary reception given to the soldiers whom he had deputed to restore the evicted villagers to their homes. In the mild reasonableness of this demand the insurgents saw the hand of the Powers, restraining the Pasha from the vigorous measures he would naturally have taken, and triumphed accordingly. The priest was sent back with the message that the peninsula now recognised only the authority of the Constitutional Assembly, and that no stranger would be permitted to set foot on it, with the exception of properly accredited ambassadors.
The next two or three days and nights were spent by the insulted authorities outside in testing the reality of the Assembly’s occupation. A steamer crowded with troops appeared off Skandalo, but was fired upon both from the redoubt above the town and from the water’s edge, and withdrew with dignity. Two attempts were made either to surprise Karakula, the ruined village, or to slip past it under cover of darkness into the interior, but these were frustrated by the watchfulness of the garrison. The steamer foiled at Skandalo proceeded slowly along the coast, sending a boat ashore at various possible landing-places, but in every case an outburst of firing met it from the positions previously selected by Wylie, and the would-be invaders retreated. The exultation of the insurgents was unbounded, and their self-complacency seemed to be justified when a resplendent dragoman, approaching Karakula under a flag of truce, announced that the Consuls of the Powers at Therma were desirous of offering their mediation, and wished to meet representatives of the Assembly. Over the election of these delegates there was much excitement, the general desire being to choose the men who could be trusted to insist most obstinately on the most extravagant demands, and on the matter of their instructions there was something like a battle, when Maurice and Prince Romanos, supported by the more moderate members, refused even to put forward such points as the instant withdrawal of the Roumis from Czarigrad and from Europe.