Sotīri obeyed, and Armitage struck a match and looked at his watch. “A quarter past twelve. Better not start for a hour or so, for no one will be awake in the town, and we don’t want to have to wait about when once we have got the child. We will have something more to eat, Sotīri—lighten the basket a little.”
Sotīri laughed again. “I have not eaten nearly all you gave me, lord. I think I must have gone to sleep in the middle. I will go back and finish it.”
“Get another nap, and I will tell you when it is time to start,” Armitage called after him in a low voice, and then moved nearer the edge of the cleft, whence he could look down the gorge, and see the few remaining fires dying out one by one. Here, away from the shadow of the trees, he could just distinguish the time without striking a light, and he sat and shivered, restraining his impatience manfully, until two o’clock. Then he went back to the wood and called Sotīri, who appeared shamefacedly.
“I did not think I could have gone to sleep again, lord, but if it had not been for your voice I believe I should not have waked till morning. Then we may really start now? I have everything ready here.”
From the recesses of his coat he produced two parcels, at which Armitage glanced in surprise. He unfastened one.
“Honey cakes for the bear, lord. They are what he likes better than anything. Holy Nicholas! how Artemisia must have cursed when she found half her batch gone! That was really what made me late in starting—Kalliopé was getting them, you see. And this—” indicating the other parcel—“is meat for the dogs.”
“To keep them quiet, of course—I never thought of that. But then you and Kalliopé have kept me so entirely in the dark as to what we were going to do that I had not much chance. It is a pity she didn’t tell me about the dogs, for we might have sprinkled something on the meat that would send them to sleep.”
“Oh, is there something that will do that?” asked Sotīri in dismay. “I am sorry, lord; I—we did not know.”
“Well, we must hope the meat alone will be enough. Now, before we start, tell me exactly what we are going to do.”
“This is my plan, lord. I will go on first, if you please, my moccasins making little noise on the path, and give the meat to the dogs. You will follow, and when we reach the ledge of rock you will graciously take from me the gun and the coats, so as to leave me quite free. Then I will go into the bear’s den, and fetch the child out.”