“I hope your cousin will be a better guide than you are,” said Armitage drily. “How am I to know what gun to take?”
“Lord, your wisdom is great, you know what it will be best to say. Only tell me, that Sotīri may say the same. Shall it be wolves?”
“Bears, I think. They haven’t begun their winter sleep yet, and their skins are better. On the whole, I think it will be enough if you say one particular bear.”
“Oh no, lord!” she cried in a panic for which Armitage could not account. “I will tell him bears. Then when you are ready, and waiting at the gate, will you call out loudly and angrily for Sotīri, and he will come?”
“Certainly I shall be very angry if he keeps me waiting,” said Armitage, with great gravity, and bidding her good-day, went on. His evening was a cheerless one, with Zoe and Wylie, both haggard with hope deferred, each trying to keep up for the sake of the other. As he had said, if there was the slightest chance of relieving their anxiety, it was worthwhile following up the slenderest clue. That Kalliopé believed she had hold of one was evident, but to him, remembering the close search that had been made already, the probability of success seemed but faint. And Danaë herself, now that she had taken the desperate step of enlisting Armitage’s support was little more hopeful. Petros was at present among the gipsies, and might be expected, since she had declined to help him in securing Janni, to have left them to-morrow on his way to Therma; Harold was also concealed among them, and in a hiding-place so cunningly contrived that the police had passed quite close to it without suspecting his presence. That was all she had to go upon—that, and the idea which had darted into her mind that afternoon, as she listened to the talk in the courtyard; an idea monstrous, incredible, but just possible.
Armitage was conscious of a disconcerting suspicion that he was a fool when he found himself at the gate the next day, laden with his gun, a thick coat, and a basket of provisions. He was quite certain that the man on guard thought him one.
“I am looking for a Greek boy who was coming with me, Gavril. Sotīri is his name. Have you seen him?”
“There are plenty of the young rascals about, lord, but I don’t know all their silly names. What should a Greek know of our mountains? Better take an honest Slav. I myself, if you would ask leave for me from the Lord Glafko——”
“That must be another day. The boy shall have his chance. He has promised to show me a bear. Sotīri!”
“Take care that he isn’t a brigand spy, lord, hired to lead you into an ambush. The ransom of a Milordo——”