The Peculiar Exploits of Brigadier Ffellowes (18 page)

             
"It spoke the same strange archaic Greek as the girl did and like hers it was perfectly intelligible, if one concentrated.

             
" 'Why have you come here? We seek no visitors, except once in a long, long while. The
urge comes seldom. Keto, she who brought you here, was the last of the daughters for long, for many, many great tides. I say again, Strangers, what do you want?'

             
"Well,
d'you
know, I could make nothing of this speech. It sounded like raving of some kind. I gathered only two things, one being that the girl's name was Keto, a pretty name I thought, and that the person addressing us was female. Somehow, under all the grating and rumbling, the tone was that of a woman, an extremely old woman at that. Apparently some half-demented matriarch, some Miss
Faversham
of the Cyclades was now interviewing us.

             
"Tired, dirty and now cold as well, because this last room was like an ice chest, I had no idea what to say. Connie though was sitting bolt upright, staring fixedly at the dirty hanging and the shadows moving, or seeming to move, behind it. He spoke in answer and his classical Greek was really superb, although he didn't use the strange inflections these people did.

             
" 'I am sorry we may not see you, Lady,' he began. 'It is very dark in here and our eyes are used to the light. As for coming here, the sea brought us and we are thus in the lap of the Gods, castaways who ask protection.'

             
"There was a long silence, so long I thought the old creature must have gone to sleep. But the rasping, croaking voice boomed out from behind the curtain at last.

             
" 'Are you Greeks,
Acheans
or other kinds?' it said.

             
"
'I
am of Greek blood,' said Connie calmly. 'My companion is from the West and the other man is a barbarian of the far North.'

             
"Again there was a long silence. Then the unpleasant voice did something even more unpleasant; it laughed. The noise sounded to me like a barrel of old nails and broken glass dropping on wet cement. Then again, more speech:

             
" 'The other one is cold, cold as the House of the Eye. He plots and schemes and listens and pries. He cannot find me and the other sister and this makes him angry. And now a Greek has come and with him yet another from far away.'

             
"The voice died away for a moment and I caught only the word 'dream.' Then it strengthened.

             
" 'Greek, you wish to see me. Well, perhaps you will later, although I do not love the light. Now go and let me be in peace.' Again there came that decidedly nasty laughing noise. This was followed by a loud clatter and the sound of slow-heavy steps going away from us. We could hear them quite a long way off until they finally seemed to cease, lost in some far recess of this strange house.

             
"The light was good enough for me to see Connie clearly, although it was anything but bright. He was sitting, eyes shut, with his hands clenched on his knees and his face was very pale and drawn. He seemed to open his eyes with an effort and looked at me and tried to smile, but it
wasn't easy for him.

             
" 'Donald,' he said in a low voice, leaning over to tap my knee, 'we must get off this island at once. We are in terrible danger here, far worse than anything you possibly can imagine.'

             
" 'I thought the old lady sounded a bit bonkers, I agree,' I replied. 'But do you feel she's a real menace? Let's not get the wind up.'

             
"I know this bit sounds very stuffy and British of me, but I was trying to put some starch back in Connie. He was badly shaken and I didn't like it. It didn't work, though.

             
" 'A bit bonkers—old lady,'
he repeated in despairing tones. 'Damn you, Donald, you English idiot, did you see what the girl did to that German in the garden? The way he was made to stay put there? Well, did you?'

             
" 'Of course I did,' I answered. 'And a very useful bit of hypnotism, I thought. When we're rested up, we can get her to put him to sleep again, take his gun and do a bunk in one of the local boats. Now Connie, do get hold of yourself, old chap. What we both need is some rest, that's all.'

             
" 'Some rest?' he almost wailed. 'Donald, you cretin, we have to get out of here at once.
At once,
do you hear me! The German is nothing compared to what lives here!'

             
"A voice from behind me stopped whatever I was going to say. I turned and saw the girl, standing smiling at the entrance to the room.

             
" 'Have you talked with Euryale?' she repeated, when she saw I hadn't heard her. 'Let us go then and see the other man, the impatient one.'

             
"Connie pushed past me, rather rudely as a matter of fact, before I could answer and faced the girl from a very short distance. He spoke in the old language.

             
" 'So you are Keto, eh, young lady? And the ... the one whom we talked with was Euryale, then?' His voice was very gentle and low, as if he were anxious not to excite or annoy the girl.

             
" 'Then,' he continued still facing her, 'where is Stheno? Surely she dwells also in the House of the Eye, does she not?'

             
"Now I can, as I said earlier, understand slow-spoken Classic Greek, but what this rigmarole meant escaped me completely. However the girl answered quite calmly as if it all made perfect sense to her.

             
" 'Of course,' she said, looking mildly at us, 'And they have always needed one daughter. Euryale comes up seldom and Stheno never, so I must see the House is kept strong and safe and tell the folk in the village what to do and how to get food for us and themselves.'

             
" 'I wish,' she added slowly, 'that I had a sister, for it is often lonely. But that is for the Two
to decide.'

             
"Connie backed up until he was close to me, as if he wanted to lean on me, as perhaps he did. I was feeling pretty chipper again, but he was a bit older and a rather thin chap. His reserves of energy were about gone.

             
" 'Come,' said Keto again, more abruptly, 'we will go out and find a place where you can rest. You seem tired and not strong. We do not like people who are not strong. It will be better for you if you are strong. You are not old or weakened by sickness which is something we do not like either.'

             
"She turned on her heel, assuming we would follow and we did, in silence, back through that maze and jumble of dark rooms until we left the portico and were once more standing outside in the garden with the sun on our heads and a soft breeze ruffling our hair. It now seemed very hot, but it was the effect of that dank and frigid pile of stone on our systems for it was really a lovely day.

             
"Around a corner of the building, pacing fast, gun in hand, came the SS man, von
dem
Bruch-
Wiletzki
. He broke into a trot when he saw us, charged up and thrust that Browning practically up my left nostril. He was furious and his mean, narrow face was also frightened. There was no more 'cultivated-among-equals-of-good-birth-together' manner about him now, just suspicion and nastiness. He yelled in English, 'Where did she take you, Captain Ffellowes? Don't try to lie to me! I had an attack of dizziness and when I came out from it, you and that Greek were gone! I demand to know what you have been doing! Remember, I am in charge here and you two are nothing but my prisoners whom I can, and will, shoot out of hand if it should be necessary. Well?'

             
"I tried at least to appear calm. These
Teuton
hysterics are usually impressed by what they consider British phlegm, whether they admit it or not.

             
" 'Now see here,' I said, 'put that pistol away and please do try to be reasonable. We left you in the garden (I made no mention of
how
we had left him; if he was prepared to assume he had had a dizzy spell, that was his lookout) and were taken down to be interviewed by what must be one of the more unpleasant old ladies on record. She said a few words of dubious import from behind a dirty curtain and told us, in effect, to go away. That is absolutely and completely all, and now let's sit down and talk sensibly for a change.'

             
"His pistol drooped and he re-holstered it grudgingly and then actually did sit down, on a bench where we joined him. Keto sat on the grass nearby looking happily at us, apparently not bothered by our use of another language, simply content to gaze on her new toys, or possibly playmates.

             
" '
Himmelherrgottkreuzer
!"
suddenly burst out the German, 'This damned place is becoming intolerable. Every time I issue an order to this stupid girl I find myself an hour later sitting staring at the ground. The only thing that she has done which I wished was to tell those two
undermensch
to row out and pick you up. I can't even find out what the name of this place is!' His
voice had steadily risen until at the end it was almost a wail.

             
"I looked over at Connie in a questioning way, but he was staring at the German. He asked him a question and got a prompt answer.

             
" 'Yes, I talked with some old woman, some hag-like creature down in the dark,' he admitted.
'I
could scarcely understand her and when I shined my belt lamp,' he indicated a small torch clipped to his cross buckle, 'she had fled, vanished and there was nothing behind the curtain but a hideous statue.'

             
" 'A statue?' breathed Connie, his face taut, 'a statue of what?'

             
" 'How do I know?' yelled the Nazi, springing to his feet. 'Who cares anyway? A huge octopus with an awful sleeping face or something. I can't catalog these barbaric atrocities. It made me sick to look at it, with its shuttered eyes, so I called for the girl, this moron Keto, and demanded to be taken away.'

             
"He looked down at us angrily and then, apparently realizing that he needed us, tried to relax. He sat down again and almost visibly got a grip on himself.

             
" 'Listen, gentlemen,' he said, his voice trembling. 'This is a very remote island, wherever it is. Germany will absorb it in due course but there may be a longish time before that happens. I admit it, we may be here quite a while. I find this situation intolerable, personally. I have things to do, important things, and I do not doubt that you have also.

             
" 'Therefore,' he went on, trying to be as persuasive as he could,
'I
propose a temporary armistice. I could make you help me, but I will not. Two more Allied officers freed will not stop the Third Reich to any serious degree. Aid me in escaping and I swear to let you go, even to assist you to rejoin your forces, on the honor of a German officer. What do you say? Tell me you agree and we can develop a plan.'

             
"I looked at Connie and he looked at me and we read each other's minds. We could trust this bastard exactly the distance of a mosquito's antenna, but we had better play along and see what developed.

             
" 'Captain
Murusi
and I are agreeable, Major,' I said blandly (be damned if I'd use his idiotic SS title). 'We don't much care for this place either. Your offer sounds reasonable enough. What had you planned to do?'

             
"Well, while Keto smiled and gazed at us, like an ornithologist with three totally new species, all discovered together, we worked out a simple escape plan. It seemed that the German had been given a small ground floor room on the far wing of the great sprawling house. He felt sure we would be given similar rooms near or next to his. Although there were only very small windows, too small for a man, the rooms had no doors and were really only cells or cubicles made of stone. There was an exit to the outside at the end of a short corridor and at midnight (we all still had watches) we would rendezvous there and go down and simply steal a row boat. There were
several at the base of the path to the house and no one seemed to guard them.