The Vintage: A Romance of the Greek War of Independence by E. F. Benson

  CHAPTER VII

  MITSOS DISARRANGES A HOUSE-ROOF

  From Panitza to Grythium it was reckoned two days of twelve hours,or three of eight, but Mitsos, who set off about ten at night, gotthere within thirty hours of the time he started, thus arriving wellbefore daybreak on the second morning; and at sundown that day, lookingover the valley of Sparta from the hills leading up to the pass intothe plain of Tripoli, he timed himself to be there two hours beforesunrise, thus allowing plenty of time for Yanni and himself to get outof the town before the folk were awake. But for the present, as themoon was up, he pushed forward along the road, reserving his halt forthe two dark hours after midnight. He had eaten but little that day,and his eyelids felt like the eyes of dolls, laden with weights thatwould drag them down; but knowing that if he slept he would gravelyrisk an over-sleeping, he paced up and down by the edge of the fieldwhere he had tethered Demetri's pony, eating a crust of bread, which hewashed down with some rather sour wine he had got at Gythium. Now andthen he would pause for a moment, but he felt physically incapable ofkeeping awake except by moving, and fearing to fall down and sleep ifhe stopped, he began tramping up and down without cessation. Luckilyhe had a pouch of tobacco and his pipe and tinder-box, and he smokedcontinuously.

  But it was better to be moving than waiting, and when he judged thathis pony--of which, like all wise men, he was more careful than ofhimself--had had sufficient rest, he set out again. He had wrappedhis capote close round him, for the night was cold, and he was justbeginning to feel that if he hoped to keep awake, he had better getdown and trot by the pony's side, when the beast stumbled on a heap ofstones, and in trying to recover itself stumbled again, and pitchedforward right onto its knees, throwing Mitsos off.

  Mitsos was unhurt and picked himself up quickly, but the poor brute wascut to the bone, and stood trembling with pain and terror as Mitsosexamined it. For one moment the boy broke down.

  "Oh, Holy Virgin!" he cried. "But what shall I do?" But the next momenthe steadied himself, and paused to think. It was still four hoursbefore daybreak, but by that time he and Yanni would have to be out ofthe town, and Tripoli was still a two-hours' ride distant. To get therein time with the pony was hopelessly out of the question, and to getthere on his own legs seemed out of the question too, for he was asweary as a young man need ever hope to feel. But if there was a choiceit lay there. Meanwhile, what to do with the beast? To leave it there,all cut, bleeding, and in pain, through the night, only to die on thosebare hills, was a cruel thing, and Mitsos decided quickly. He led itvery gently off the road among the trees, and with a strange feelingof tenderness, for that it had carried him gallantly, and done all itcould do for him and Yanni, and had met death in the doing, kissed thewhite star on its down-dropped head. Then drawing his pistol, he put itto its ear, and, turning his eyes away, fired. The poor beast droppedlike a log, and Mitsos, with a sob in his throat, looked not behind,but went back through the trees, and throwing away his coat, which onlyencumbered him, set his teeth and went jog-trotting to Tripoli.

  How the next hours passed he scarcely knew. He felt so utterly tiredand beaten that he was hardly conscious of himself, his very wearinessprobably dulled his powers of sensation, and all he knew was that ashe pushed on with limbs dropping from fatigue, eyes aching for veryweariness, and a hammering of the pulse in his temples, the treesby the road-side seemed to pass, of their own movement, by him likeghosts. Now and then he tripped over the uneven, stony road, and itscarce seemed worth while to make any effort to recover himself; andmore than once he felt and knew, but only dimly, that his trousers weretorn on the stones, and his knees were cut and bleeding. He thought ofthe pony which had fallen and cut itself, and felt vaguely envious ofits fate.

  Lower down the pass where the hills began to melt into the plain itgrew warmer, and in a half dream of exhaustion for a moment he thoughtthat a treeless hollow of the hills was the bay of Nauplia, lying cooland dark beneath the night. Nauplia, the bay, the white wall--it seemedthat that time belonged to a boy called Mitsos, but not himself; a boywho had been happier than the kings of the earth, whereas he was afoot-sore, utterly beaten piece of consciousness, that would plod alongthe white ribbon of road forever.

  Then suddenly as he thought the sky lightened and grew gray with dawn,and the next moment the day had broken with the swiftness of the South,and when the sun lifted itself above the hills to the east, it showedhim Tripoli all shining in the dawn, still about a mile off.

  Mitsos stopped dead. He was too late. During the day it would beimpossible for him to get into the governor's house, and during theday, some time before the blessed night fell again, the soldiers fromPanitza would be there; Petrobey would have escaped, trusting to hisgetting to Tripoli first; and Yanni would be.... Who was Yanni? Oh,a boy he had travelled with once; they had had a fine time, and hebelieved he had promised to come and get him out of Tripoli....

  Then suddenly with a sob he beat his hands together.

  "Oh, Yanni, Yanni!" he cried; "little Yanni!"

  There had been a white frost during the night, and the fields wereall stiff and glistening. He had just enough sense to strike off theroad and lie down under the shade of a tree, sheltered from the sunand untouched by the frost, and there rolled over on his side, andnext moment was sleeping deep and dreamlessly like a child tired withplay. There he lay without moving, one arm shielding his face from thelight, and when he woke it was past mid-day, the blessed gift of sleephad restored him body and mind, the trouble in his brain had run downlike the tainted water of a spate, leaving it clear and lucent, and thestrength had come back to his limbs.

  He sat there some quarter of an hour longer, thinking intently. Hehad no self-reproach to interpose itself between him and his quest;the accident had been purely out of his own control, and he had donewhat would have seemed to himself impossible if he had not done it.Then he took stock of the position; and the position was that thesoldiers might be expected at any time after four that afternoon; andas it would not be dark till six, there was nothing to do but go on toTripoli and wait, watching the road from Sparta. If they came beforedark he determined to make an attempt to get in, desperate though itmight be, for when once they had given their report to Mehemet Salik,there would be no more Yanni.

  So he went on and ate at a Greek khan within the town, and thenstrolled back to the square and examined the house again. Once the dooropened, and he went quickly down a side street for fear the porter, whohad seen him before, might recognize him; then he took another lookat the wall by which he hoped to get access to the house. Under theinfluence of food and sleep the spirit of his courage had revived, andabout two o'clock he went back again down the street leading into theSparta road, and sitting down a little distance from it, kept his eyesfixed on the point where it vanished round the first hill-side. Threeo'clock passed, four and five, and thin white clouds in the west beganto be tinged with rose, and Mitsos' heart tapped quicker; in anotherhour it would be dark, and time for his attempt. He sat on there tillnearly six, and the darkness began to fall in layers over the sky, andthe colors to fade out of things; then giving one last look up theroad, he turned and went into the town again.

  When he arrived at the square the little oil-lamps at the corners werealready lit, and the figures of men seemed like shadows. He turneddown the street where the low wall stood, but found to his annoyancethat only a few paces down was a cafe, which had been empty duringthe day, but was now beginning to fill with guests--for the most partTurkish soldiers; and he was obliged to wait. But these had apparentlyonly come in for a glass of mastic before dinner, and in a quarter ofan hour there were only left there the cafe-keeper, who seemed to bedozing over his glass, and an old Greek countryman in fustanella dress.Mitsos, who had stationed himself some hundred yards off, drew a deepbreath, and stole noiselessly back in the shadow of the wall.

  By standing on a heap of rubbish which lay there he could get hisfingers on the top of the wall, and slipping off his shoes, so that histoes mig
ht more easily make use of the crevices between the stones, heworked himself slowly up, and in a moment was crouching on the top.Then came the easier but the more dangerous task, for as he crept alongthe roof of the house where Yanni was his figure would be silhouettedagainst the sky; but the roof was not more than four feet above the topof the lower garden wall, and bending over it he raised himself up andwriggled snake-wise along the edge. Yanni's room, in front of whichstood the pillar by which he meant to climb down into the balcony, wasthe second room from the end, and, judging the distance as well as hecould, he glided along for about nine feet, and then began to makehis way slowly down the roof. He had calculated the distance well,and when he was about half-way down, the tiled roof, which was butlightly built over laths, and was not constructed to bear the weight ofsuperincumbent giants, suddenly creaked beneath him, and next momentgave way, and with a crash fit to wake the dead he was precipitatedwith a shower of tiles right into Yanni's room, and within a few feetof where Yanni was sitting, with his arms tied behind him.

  Mitsos did not think whether he was hurt or not, but picked himself upand showed himself to Yanni. Yanni gave one wild gasp of astonishment.

  "Oh, dear Mitsos," he said, "you have not come too soon. Quick, cutthis rope!"

  He whipped out his knife, and had hardly cut the rope when they heard akey grate in the lock, and Mitsos, taking one step to behind the door,sprang out like a wild-cat on Yanni's keeper--who lived next door, andhad not unnaturally come in to see what had happened--and threw him tothe ground, while Yanni without a second's hesitation bound a thickscarf round his mouth by way of a gag.

  "Now the rope," said Mitsos, and they tied his arms to his sides andhis legs together, and looked at each other a moment.

  "There is the porter!" said Yanni; "he will be here. Shut the door,Mitsos, and lock it inside."

  Next they moved the bedstead and all the furniture they could againstthe door, and barred the windows, and Yanni gave an additional twist tothe scarf that bound the Turk's mouth.

  "There is not much time," said Mitsos; and pulling the table out of theheap of furniture they had piled at the door, he climbed onto it, andwith one vigorous effort brought down all the tiles which were lyingloosely between the hole his entrance had made and the outside wall.From the table he could easily spring up onto the top of the wall, andlying along it reached down two great hands to Yanni. Yanni graspedthem, and with much kicking and struggling, not having Mitsos' inches,he got himself on the top.

  Mitsos turned to him with a suppressed bubble of laughter.

  "Eh, Yanni," he whispered, "but it was truth you said when you told meyou would grow very fat. Come quickly. Ah, but there's the porter atthe door--one outside and one inside, and we two on the roof."

  The descent was easily accomplished; by good luck the street was empty;and waiting a moment for Mitsos to put on his shoes again, the two ranas hard as they could down it, away from the square, keeping in theshadow of the walls. From the end of it a cross street led out to thewestern gate of the town, and drawing near cautiously they saw it hadbeen already shut, and a sentry was standing by it.

  Once again Yanni's wit, wedded to Mitsos' strength, was to stand themin good stead.

  "Mitsos," he whispered, "he will open the gate for you, for it has beenmarket-day. Go, then, down the road, and I will follow in the shadow ofthe wall. Then, when he opens the gate to you, hold him very fast, andI will take the key from him and run through. And oh, cousin--but wemust be quick."

  Mitsos did not quite understand the object of taking the key, but,walking straight on, he asked to be let out.

  "From the market?" asked the sentry.

  "Surely, and going home to Thana," said Mitsos, naming a village near.

  The man took out the key, unbarred and unbolted the door, and themoment the lock was turned Mitsos grasped him tightly round the armsfrom behind. The sentry was but a little man, and his struggles inMitsos' grasp were of the faintest; and when Mitsos, with a brilliantsmile, whispered, "You scream, I kill!" enforcing his fragmentaryTurkish with a precautionary nudge of the elbow, he was as silent asthe grave. In the mean time Yanni had passed them, and taking thekey from the lock fitted it into the outside of the gate and said,hurriedly, to Mitsos:

  "Quick, cousin! throw him away!"

  Mitsos, still smiling kindly, lifted the Turk off his feet, and, witha mighty swing, threw him, as Yanni suggested, onto the road, where hefell, pitiably, in a heap, and, once free from Mitsos, called, in alamentable voice, for Mohammed the Prophet. Next moment Yanni had shutthe gate, locked it, and thrown the key away into the bushes that linedthe road.

  The two looked at each other for a moment, and then Mitsos brokeinto a roar of good, wholesome laughter, as unlike as possible tothe exhibition to which he had treated Yanni after the affair of thepowder-mill. Yanni joined in, and for a few seconds they stood thereshaking and helpless. Mitsos recovered himself first.

  "Oh, Yanni!" he cried, "but I could laugh till morning were there notother things to do! Come away; there will be no sleep for us thisnight. No, we keep to the road at present and go westward. Come, wewill talk afterwards."

  For two hours they jogged on as fast as Yanni could, for a month ofliving in the confinement of a house and garden "has made a hole," ashe said, "in my bellows; and as for the fat of me, why, Mitsos, it'sa thing of shame." But there was no wind in him for more than therunning, and it was in silence they climbed the steep road into themountains between Tripoli and the plain of Megalopolis. These were cutin half by a small valley lying between the two rows of hills, witha sharp descent into it from each side, going down into which Yannirecovered his wind a little. On the edge of the valley, as Mitsos knew,stood a small khan, the keeper of which was his father's friend, and asa light still shone in the window he and Yanni entered to rest awhileand get provisions for the morning. Anastasis was glad to see him, andasked him what he was doing there and at that time; and Mitsos, knowinghis man, told him in a few words the story of the escape, and beggedhim, if there was pursuit from Tripoli, to say that they had justpassed, going to Megalopolis. "For you see," put in Yanni, observingthat their host's wits were not of the quickest, "we are not going toMegalopolis, and it will be a fine gain of time to us if they seek usthere."

  After an interval this appeared to Anastasis to be a most admirablejoke, and for five minutes more, as he was cutting them bread and meat,he kept bursting out into a chuckle of delight, and turned to Mitsos,saying, "Then they'll find you not at Megalopolis. Eh, who would havethought it?"

  But Mitsos hurried Yanni off again. They had not probably more thanhalf an hour's start, "though it will take them not a little time toclear a way into your room," said Mitsos; and though, through thesteepness of the ascent, a horse could go no quicker than a man,there was no time to waste, and they struck off the road a littlesouthward, straight in the direction of Taygetus. All night they went,sometimes walking, but more often running, and when morning dawnedthey found themselves on the lower foot-hills of Taygetus, but stilla day's journey from their rendezvous. But Yanni declared he could gono farther for the present. His eyes were full of sleep; his stomachwas dust within him, and his legs were one ache. So Mitsos, after afive-minutes' climb to the top of a neighboring ridge, came back withthe tidings that he could not discern man, beast, or village, anddecreed that they should lie here all day and not start again till nearsunset.

  Then said Yanni: "It will be a long talk we shall have before sunset;but, Mitsos, if the day of judgment was breaking not one word could Isay for myself till I have slept. Ah, but it is good to be with youagain!"

  And he turned over and was asleep at once.

  Mitsos was not long in following his example, but he woke first, and,seeing by the sun that it was not much after mid-day, got up quietly,so as not to disturb Yanni, and went in search of water. This he foundsome quarter of a mile below and returned to Yanni, who had just awoke.They took their food down to the spring and ate there, and then, atMitsos' suggestion,
went back again to their first camping place, "forwhere there is a spring," he said, "there may be folk, and we want folkbut little."

  "And now," said Yanni, as they settled themselves again, "begin at thebeginning, Mitsos, and tell me all."

  "I went straight to Nauplia the first night," he said, "and arrivedthere very late--after midnight; then, next day, I went off."

  "Next day?" asked Yanni. "Is that all you care about Suleima? Oh, tellme, how is Suleima?"

  Mitsos frowned.

  "Oh, never mind Suleima," he said. "She is my affair. Well, next day--"

  But Yanni interrupted him.

  "Did you not see Suleima?" he asked.

  "No."

  "Why did you not wait that night and see her?"

  "Uncle Nicholas had other work for me to do."

  Yanni looked at Mitsos a moment and then laid his hand on his shoulder.

  "Mitsos, dear Mitsos!" he said. "Oh, I am so sorry! It was not that,you know, that made you go; it was the oath of the clan you swore tome. Mitsos, don't hate me for it. Surely there is no one like you."

  Mitsos looked up, smiling.

  "Nonsense, Yanni! Is a promise and an oath a thing to make and break?Besides, it seems to me it is pretty lucky I came when I did. What doyou suppose I should be thinking now if I had got back to Panitza andfound it was too late, for, in truth, I was not much too soon? Whatif I had come to Tripoli, as it were, to-night, instead of last night?"

  "'AH, BUT IT IS GOOD TO BE WITH YOU AGAIN!'"]

  "I will tell you afterwards what you would have found," said Yanni,suddenly looking angry. "Go on, little Mitsos."

  Mitsos grinned.

  "Little, who is little? I have a cousin smaller than I. Well, for mystory."

  And Mitsos told him of his journey, of his expedition to Patras and themonastery, and of the coming of the soldiers to Panitza.

  "And for the rest," he concluded, "we shall have to ask Uncle Nicholasand your father. There are not many things in the world of which I amcertain, Yanni, but one is that we shall find them safe and sound onTaygetus."

  Yanni pulled up a handful of sweet-smelling thyme and buried his facein it for a moment.

  "Ah, but it is good to be on the hills again, Mitsos," he said, "andto be with you. I shall not forget the Mother of God. My story is veryshort; I am glad it has not been longer."

  "Tell me," said Mitsos.

  "Well, for a week, or perhaps a fortnight, I ate and slept, and one daywas like another. I saw Mehemet Salik not more than once or twice, andhe used always to ask me if I was comfortable and had all that I wishedfor. It is true that I wished for the hills and for you, but they werethings which he would not have given me, so I always said I wantednothing. Then for another week or so he would come and see me oftener,and asked me about my father and the clan, and whether Nicholas hadbeen seen there again. And I, you may be sure, always told him that theclan were good men and quiet livers, who worked hard in the fields,and thanked God every day that their masters, the Turks, were kind andjust to them. That, it seems, was a mistake, for he smiled--these Turksknow not how to laugh, Mitsos, not with an open mouth--and said it wasvery interesting to hear that from one of the clan themselves. Andabout Nicholas, I said I had seen him when I was little."

  "You were never otherwise," remarked Mitsos.

  "Oh, cousin," said Yanni, "but your mother bore a silly loon. Am I notto go on with my story, then?"

  "Go on, big Yanni," said Mitsos.

  "And so it went till but five or six days ago. And then on onemorning," said Yanni, suddenly flushing with anger, "he came in lookingwhite and cunning, with an evil face. The Turk who was my guardianfollowed him--he is a good man, Mitsos, save that he comes of theaccursed race--and Mehemet said to me, 'So the clan are good men andquiet, and they thank their God that they have such kind masters. Andyou, Yanni, who are of the clan, you think they do wisely?'

  "I don't think I answered him, for it seemed to me he wished for noanswer. And at that his anger suddenly flared up, and he said, 'Answerme, you dog, or I will have your hide flayed off you.' And I noticedit as curious, Mitsos, that his face grew white as he got angry,whereas when a proper man is angry his face is as a sunset. But hedid not give me time to answer, for he went on, 'You are dogs, thoughyou are handsome dogs, you Greeks. But it is necessary to tie dogs upsometimes. Thank God you have such a kind master, Yanni, and let yourhands be tied behind you quietly.'

  "'Why should you do this?' I asked.

  "'Be wise,' he said; 'I do not threaten twice.'

  "So as there was none to help me, I let it be done."

  Mitsos gave a great gulp.

  "Oh, Yanni, by a cross-legged Turk!" he said.

  "What was I to do? Would it have helped me to fight, and afterwards tobe beaten? But Mehemet, I saw, was more at his ease when it was done,and drew his chair a little closer.

  "'We shall soon teach you to be quiet and obedient like the rest ofyour clan,' he said. 'And now for what I came to say. You will soon seeNicholas again, for I have sent for him and for your father. If theycome, well and good; I do not really care whether they come or not--forbarking dogs hurt nobody. However, they have been barking too loud. Andif they do not come, my little Yanni, we shall have to think what todo with you. I have not decided yet'--and the devil came closer to me,Mitsos, and looked at me as a man looks at the fowls and sheep in themarket. 'Perhaps there will be a rope for that big brown neck of yours;and yet I do not know, for you are a handsome boy, and I should like tosee you about the house, perhaps to hand the rose-water after dinner.Let us see, we would dress you in a blue waistcoat with silver braid,and a red kaftan, I think, and red leggings, with yellow shoes; but Ithink we would give you no knife or pistol in your belt, for I fancyyou have a temper of your own. It is a pity that a handsome boy likeyou should be so fierce. Perhaps we might even arrange that you werefitted to attend on the women-folk. In any case you will be mine--youwill belong to your good, kind masters.'"

  Yanni's voice had risen, and he spoke quickly, with a red-hot angervibrating and growing.

  "He said it to me!" he cried, rising to his feet. "To me--free-bornof the clan, who have never had any dealings with the accursed race,except to spit at them as they went by! And I--I sat there and saidnothing, but for this reason, Mitsos, that I remembered the oath of theclan you had sworn, and I believed, as I believe that the holy Motherof God hears me, that you would come, be it soon or late, and that heshould eat his words with a sauce of death to them--the black curse ofher who mocked at Christ upon him!"

  "Steady, Yanni!" said Mitsos, looking up at his blazing eyes. "Sit downand tell the rest."

  "What, Mitsos," cried Yanni, "are you a block of stone or a log, youwho are of blood with us?"

  "You know I am not. But Mehemet Salik is not on this hill-side.Tell me the rest. If he was here he should never more return to thebestialities of his daily life."

  Yanni sat down again.

  "Even so. Then day after day he would come in all white and cursingas before, and say, 'The time is drawing near, my little Yanni. Theywill be here to-morrow or the next day,' as it might be. And yesterdaymorning he said, 'They will be here to-night.' And I--for I neverdoubted you, Mitsos--I thought to myself, 'Then I shall not be hereto-night'; and as for them, I knew that they would never sit in thehouse of a Turk. And--and that is all, I think."

  There was a short silence, and Yanni stretched out his hand to Mitsos:

  "So to you, dearest of all," he said, "I owe my life--once at the mill,and now, once again, life and honor and freedom. Yet is the debt noburden to me, because I love you. But still I would it were the otherway. I have no skill of speech, Mitsos, but I know certainly thatgladly would I give my eye or my right hand for you, and this is nofigure of talk only."

  Mitsos took the hand held out to him and shut it between his, lookingat Yanni with a serious mouth, but a smile in his dark eyes.

  "God send me tears for water and salt for bread," he said, againquoting the oath o
f the clan, "if I fail you in your need, or love notthose who love you and hate not those who hate you."

  The sun was already declining to the western hills, and presently afterthey went down to the spring to eat and drink before they began thetramp through the night. Neither of them had been over this groundbefore, but it was likely that they would soon come into some pathleading from the Arcadian plain to one or other of the villages nearthe Langarda pass; in any case, even though there were a night'splunging through the heather undergrowth before them, it could scarcelybe more than a twelve-hours' journey. Thus, starting at six, theywould be at the place by dawn; and, after stowing the remains of theirprovisions in their pockets, they began the ascent.

  Upward they went out of the day into the sunset, and through thesunset into moonrise, and from moonrise into the declining of themoon. The air, warm below, soon grew colder, and their breath, as theywalked, hung frostily in the still night. Now and then a whiff ofsome sweet-smelling shrub streamed across them, or again a roostingpigeon, with a bold noise of its uprising, started still sleepy fromits perch in among the whispers of the fir, or a hawk, more cautious,slid into the air. To Yanni, born on the mountain and bred in the open,the spell of the sounds and scents that wander along the hill-sideat night was unutterably sweet, and sweet the comradeship of theincomparable cousin. In Mitsos, too, the feeling towards the friend hehad saved from death, and worse than death, was father to a very tenderaffection, for it was a gentle heart that beat so boldly at the hint ofdanger, and the sweetness of self-sacrifice made him most content. Thechild within him spoke to his spirit of Suleima, but the boy found hiswants fulfilled in the comradeship of Yanni, and made answer with talkof brave adventures done in part and more to do.

  About midnight they halted, and already they could see the heights nolong distance above them, dappled with snow, and Mitsos, observingthis, knew that they had come as high as they had need to go, for thebeacon-ground, he remembered, was itself just below the line where thefresh snow lay. They had, an hour before, struck a sort of sheep-trackwhich led in the right direction, but they found that here it wentstill upward, and leaving it to climb by itself, they struck off to theright, after eating the remains of their food, to follow the contourof the mountain through tracts of pines and open places, and acrossthe scolding streams that rattled down from the snows above, and rounddeep-cut ravines that broadened out into the larger valleys. By degreesthe stars paled at the approach of day, and the dark velvet-blue ofthe Southern night brightened to dove-color; a few birds awoke in thebushes with sleepy, half-tuned twitterings, and then the sun, great andbold, looked up over the rim of the mountain.

  "Look, it is day," said Yanni. "Are we nearly there?"

  "Yes," said Mitsos, "there is the beacon-hill. And who is that?"

  Swiftly down the hill-side towards them came a great man, leaping andrunning like a boy.

  "Oh, quick, down with you," said Mitsos. "I think there is but one manwho can go like that; but it is best. Ah, I thought so; show him we canrun, too."

  And in two minutes Nicholas, with a face as welcome as morning, waswith them.