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The light! Andrea twisted round, looked at the smoking oil lamp, his eyes narrowing.
«Louki!» he called softly. The little Greek turned round to look at him.
«Can you reach the lamp?»
«I think so… . Yes, I can.»
«Take the glass off,» Andrea whispered. «Use a cloth — it will be hot. Then wrap it in the cloth, hit it on the floor — gently. The glass is thick — you can cut me loose in a minute or two.»
Louki stared at him for an uncomprehending moment, then nodded in understanding. He shuffled across the floor — his legs were still bound — reached out, then halted his hand abruptly, only inches from the glass. The peremptory, metallic clang had been only feet away, and he raised his head slowly to see what had caused it.
He could have stretched out his hand, touched the barrel of the Mauser that protruded threateningly through the bars of the grille door. Again the guard rattled the rifle angrily between the bars, shouted something he didn't understand.
«Leave it alone, Louki,» Andrea said quietly. His voice was tranquil, unshadowed by disappointment «Come back here. Our Mend outside is not too pleased.» Obediently Louki moved back, heard the guttural voice again, rapid and alarmed this time, the rattle as the guard withdrew his rifle quickly from the bars of the door, the urgent pounding of his feet on the flagstones outside as he raced up the passage.
«What's the matter with our little friend?» Casey Brown was as lugubrious, as weary as ever. «He seems upset.»
«He is upset.» Andrea smiled. «He's just realised that Louki's hands are untied.»
«Well, why doesn't he tie them up again?»
«Slow in the head he may be, but he is no fool,» Andrea explained. «This could be a trap and he's gone for his friends.»
Almost at once they heard a thud, like the closing of a distant door, the sound of more than one pair of feet ru
«A terrible thing, boss, nothin' short of deplorable! Leave 'em alone for a couple of minutes and see what happens? The whole damn' bunch tied up like Houdini on an off night!»
There was a brief, incredulous silence, then all three were sitting upright, staring at them. Brown recovered first.
«High time, too,» he complained. «Thought you were never going to get here.»
«What he means is that he thought we were never going to see you again,» Andrea said quietly. «Neither did I. But here you are, safe and sound.»
«Yes,» Mallory nodded. «Thanks to Dusty and his nasty suspicious mind that cottoned on to Panayis while all the rest of us were asleep.»
«Where is he?» Louki asked.
«Panayis?» Miller waved a negligent hand. «We left him behind — he met with a sorta accident.» He was across at the other side of the room now, carefully cutting the cords that pinioned Brown's injured leg, whistling tunelessly as he sawed away with his sheath knife. Mallory, too, was busy, slicing through Andrea's bonds, explaining rapidly what had happened, listening to the big Greek's equally concise account of what had befallen the others in the keep. And then Andrea was on his feet, massaging his numbed hands, looking across at Miller.
«That whistling, my Captain. It sounds terrible and, what is worse, it is very loud. The guards—»
«No worry there,» Mallory said grimly. «They never expected to see Dusty and myself again… . They kept a poor watch.» He turned round to look at Brown, now hobbling across the floor.
«How's the leg, Casey?»
«Fine, sir.» Brown brushed it aside as of no importance. «I got through to Cairo, to-night, sir. The report—»
«It'll have to wait, Casey. We must get out as fast as we can. You all right, Louki?»
«I am heart-broken, Major Mallory. That a countryman of mine, a trusted friend—»
«That, too, will have to wait. Come on!»
«You are in a great hurry,» Andrea protested mildly. They were already out in the passage, stepping over the cell guard lying in a crumpled heap on the floor. «Surely if they're all like our friend here—»
«No danger from, this quarter,» Mallory interrupted impatiently. «The soldiers in the town — they're bound to know by now that we've either missed Panayis or disposed of him. In either case they'll know that we're certain to come hot-footing out here. Work it out for yourself. They're probably half-way here already, and if they do come …» He broke off, stared at the smashed generator and the ruins of Casey Brown's transmitter set lying in one corner of the entrance hail. «Done a pretty good job on these, haven't they?» he said bitterly.
«Thank the Lord,» Miller said piously. «All the less to tote around, is what I say. If you could only see the state of my back with that damned generator—»
«Sir!» Brown had caught Mallory's arm, an action so foreign to the usually punctilious petty officer that Mallory halted in surprise. «Sir, it's terribly important — the report, I mean. You must listen, sir!»
The action, the deadly earnestness, caught and held Mallory's fully attention. He turned to face Brown with a smile.
«O.K., Casey, let's have it,» he said quietly. «Things can't possibly be any worse than they are now.»
«They can, sir.» There was something tired, defeated about Casey Brown, and the great, stone hail seemed strangely chill. «I'm afraid they can, sir. I got through to-night. First-class reception. Captain Jensen himself, and he was hopping mad. Been waiting all day fbr us to come on the air. Asked how things were, and I told him that you were outside the fortress just then, and hoped to be inside the magazine in an hour or so.»
«Go on.»
«He said that was the best news he'd ever had. He said his information had been wrong, he'd been fooled, that the invasion fleet didn't hold up overnight in the Cyclades, that they had come straight through under the heaviest air and E-boat escort ever seen in the Med., and are due to hit the beaches on Kheros some time before dawn to-morrow. He said our destroyers had been waiting to the south all day, moved up at dusk and were waiting word from him to see whether they would attempt the passage of the Maidos Straits. I told him maybe something could go wrong, but he said not with Captain Mallory and Miller inside and besides he wasn't — he couldn't risk the lives of twelve hundred men on Kheros just on the off chance that he might be wrong.» Brown broke off suddenly and looked down miserably at his feet. No one else in the hail moved or made any sound at all.
«Go on.» Mallory repeated in a whisper. His face was very pale.
«That's all, sir. That's all there is.. The destroyers are coming through the Straits at midnight.» Brown looked down at his luminous watch. «Midnight. Four hours to go.»
«Oh, God! Midnight!» Mallory was stricken, his eyes for the moment unseeing, ivory-knuckled hands clenched in futility and despair. «They're coming through at midnight! God help them! God help them all now!»