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Two or three minutes later Mallory jerked to unmoving attention as he heard a stealthy sound outside-from the back of the house, he thought. The clacking of the looms next door had stopped, and the house was very still. Again there came the noise, unmistakable this time, a gentle tapping at the door at the end of the passage that led from the back of the room.
«Remain there, my Captain.» It was Andrea's soft murmur, and Mallory marveled for the hundredth time at Andrea's ability to rouse himself from the deepest of sleeps' at the slightest alien sound: the violence of a thunderstorm would have left him undisturbed. «I will see to it. It must be Louki.»
It was Louki. The little man was panting, near exhaustion, but extraordinarily pleased with himself. Gratefully he drank the cup of wine that Andrea poured for him.
«Damned glad to see you back again!» Mallory said sincerely. «How did it go? Someone after you?»
Mallory could almost see him drawing himself up to his full height in the darkness.
«As if any of these clumsy fools could see Louki, even on a moonlit night, far less catch him,» he said indignantly. He paused to draw some deep breaths. «No, no, Major, I knew you would be worried about me so I ran back all the way. Well, nearly all the way,» he amended. «I am not so young as I was, Major Mallory.»
«All the way from where?» Mallory asked. He was glad of the darkness that hid his smile.
«From Vygos. It is an old castle that the Franks built there many generations ago, about two miles from here along the coast road to the east.» He paused to drink another mouthful of wine. «More than two miles, I would say — and I only walked twice, a minute at a time, on the way back.» Mallory had the impression that Louki already regretted his momentary weakness in admitting that he was no longer a young man.
«And what did you do there?» Mallory asked.
«I was thinking, after I left you,» Louki answered indirectly. «Me, I am always thinking,» he explained. «It is a habit of mine. I was thinking that when the soldiers who are looking for us out in the Devil's Playground find out that the car is gone, they will know that we are no longer in that accursed place.»
«Yes,» Mallory agreed carefully. «Yes, they will know that.»
«Then they will say to themselves, 'Ha, those verdammt Englanders have little time left. They will know that we will know that they have little hope of catching us in the island — Panayis and I, we know every rock and tree and path and cave. So all they can do is to make sure that we do not get into the town — they will block every road leading in, and to-night is our last chance to get in. You follow me?» he asked anxiously.
«I'm trying very hard.»
«But first—» (Louki spread his hands dramatically) «but first they will make sure we are not in the town. They would be fools to block the roads if we were already in the town. They must make sure we are not in the town. And so — the search. The very great search. With — how do you say?--the teeth-comb!»
Mallory nodded his head in slow understanding.
«I'm afraid he's right, Andrea.»
«I, too, fear so,» Andrea said unhappily. «We should have thought of this. But perhaps we could hide — the roof-tops or—»
«With a teeth-comb, I said!» Louki interrupted impatiently. «But all is well. I, Louki have thought it all out. I can smell rain. There will be clouds over the moon before long, and it will be safe to move… . You do not want to know what I have donа with the car, Major Mallory?» Louki was enjoying himself immensely.
«Forgotten all about it,» Mallory confessed. «What did you do with the car?»
«I left it in the courtyard of Vygos castle. Then I emptied all the petrol from the tank and poured it over the car. Then I struck a match.»
«You did what?» Mallory was incredulous.
«I struck a match. I think I was standing too near the car, for I do not seem to have any eyebrows left.» Louki sighed. «A pity — it was such a splendid machine.» Then he brightened. «But before God, Major, it burned magnificently.»
Mallory stared at him.
«Why on earth--?»
«It is simple,» Louki explained patiently. «By this time the men out in the Devil's Playground must know that their car has been stolen. They see the fire. They hurry back to — how do you say?»
«Investigate?»
«So. Investigate. They wait till the fire dies down. They investigate again. No bodies, no bones in the car, so they search the castle. And what do they find?»
There was silence in the room.
«Nothing!» Louki said impatiently. «They find nothing. And then they search the countryside for half a mile around. And what do they find? Again nothing. So then they know that they have been fooled, and that we are in the town, and will come to search the town.»
«With the teeth-comb,» Mallory murmured.
«With the teeth-comb. And what do they find?» Louki paused, then hurried on before anyone could steal his thunder. «Once again, they will find nothing,» he said triumphantly. «And why? For by then the rain will have come, the moon will have vanished, the explosives will be hidden — and we will be gone!»
«Gone where?» Mallory felt dazed.
«Where but to Vygos castle, Major Mallory. Never while night follows day will they think to look for us there!»
Mallory looked at him in silence for long seconds without speaking, then turned to Andrea.
«Captain Jensen's only made one mistake so far,» he murmured. «He picked the wrong man to lead this expedition. Not that it matters anyway. With Louki here on our side, how can we lose?»
Mallory lowered his rucksack gently to the earthen roof, straightened and peered up into the darkness, both hands shielding his eyes from the first drizzle of rain. Even from where they stood — on the crumbling roof of the house nearest the fortress on the east side of the square — the wall stretched fifteen, perhaps twenty feet above their heads; the wickedly out- and down-curving spikes that topped the wall were all but lost in the darkness.
«There she is, Dusty,» Mallory murmured. «Nothing to it.»
«Nothin' to it!» Miller was horrified. «I've — I've gotta get over that?»
«You'd have a ruddy hard time going through it,» Mallory answered briefly. He gri
«And bleed to death on those six strands of barbed wire,» Miller interrupted. «Lould says they're the biggest barbs he's ever seen.»
«We'll use the tent for padding,» Mallory said soothingly.
«I have a very delicate skin, boss,» Miller complained. «Nothin' short of a spring mattress—»
«Well, you've only an hour to find one,» Mallory said indifferently. Louki had estimated that it would be at least an hour before the search party would clear the northern part of the town, give himself and Andrea a chance to begin a diversion. «Come on, let's cache this stuff and get out of here. We'll shove the rucksacks in this corner and cover 'em with earth. Take the rope out first, though; we'll have no time to start undoing packs when we get back here.»
Miller dropped to his knees, hands fumbling with straps, then exclaimed in sudden a
«This can't be the pack,» he muttered in disgust. Abruptly his voice changed. «Here, wait a minute, though.»
«What's up, Dusty?»
Miller didn't answer immediately. For a few seconds his hands explored the contents of the pack, then he straightened.
«The slow-burnin' fuse, boss.» His voice was blurred with anger, with a vicious anger that astonished Mallory. «It's gone!»
«What!» Mallory stooped, began to search through the pack. «It can't be, Dusty, it just can't! Dammit to hell, man, you packed the stuff yourself!»