‘We appear to have little choice in the matter,’ Adam remarked.
‘None whatsoever,’ Rallis said.
Lascarides, now beaming from ear to ear as if he had just chanced upon a long lost brother, approached Adam and chucked him under the chin. Adam instantly made as if to strike the man a blow but, recalling their situation, he restrained himself and merely widened his mirthless smile. The Greek laughed.
Beneath his fixed grin, Fields was almost beside himself with fury.
‘Are we to allow this to happen?’ he said, forcing out his words like a novice ventriloquist making his first appearance on stage. ‘Are we going to stand by and do nothing while this ridiculous, tatterdemalion villain and his crew of scarecrows walk off with our horses?’
There was a burst of rapid chattering from Lascarides.
‘The wretch really does speak a version of Greek no gentleman could possibly understand,’ Fields dropped his pretence of grinning and spoke out loud. ‘What does he say, Rallis? Something about trees and guns?’
‘He says that he will tie the old man to the tree and get his men to use him for shooting practice unless he shuts up,’ Rallis translated impassively. ‘He is weary of hearing the old man’s voice.’
‘The impertinence!’ Fields exclaimed and then fell silent.
Lascarides and his men now wasted no time in further threats or intimidation. Three of them hitched the horses they had commandeered to their own mounts and they all prepared to depart. Lascarides tipped his hat ironically at the professor. One of his followers yelled and shot his pistol in the air. The bandits wheeled their horses about and cantered away.
The travellers watched as they disappeared into the distance. Shouts and outbursts of raucous laughter drifted back to them as they turned their attention to the ruins of their campsite. No more than half an hour had passed since Andros had first drawn his master’s attention to the riders approaching.
‘At least they did not kill us or kidnap us,’ Adam remarked.
‘They thought we were madmen,’ Rallis said. ‘I told them we came from Athens to look for ancient writings. They decided we were insane. And who would kill lunatics?’
‘Or pay a ransom for them?’
‘Exactly.’ Rallis smiled. ‘They were particularly certain that the professor was one who had lost his mind.’
‘Why did they not steal the mules as well as the horses?’
Rallis shrugged. ‘Too much trouble to take them. Too little profit to sell them. Who knows?’
Andros and Quint repacked the saddlebags and loaded them on the mules. With the horses gone, the beasts that were left were doubly laden. There was no chance now for any of the party to ride. All five men would have to walk. Rallis looked up at the position of the sun and then stretched out his arm.
‘That is the way we must go,’ he said.
As they set off, they disturbed a covey of partridges which flew suddenly upwards with a noisy flapping of wings. Above them an eagle soared in the air currents, looking no doubt for the very prey the men had just put to flight.
Rallis strode out in front. Behind him Andros and Quint guided the mules. Adam followed them and the professor brought up the rear. Soon the group was stretched, Indian file, across the plain. For nearly thirty minutes they travelled in a silence broken only by an occasional bray from one of the mules. Then Fields increased his pace and caught up with Adam.
‘What do you make of our Greek friend?’ he asked, in a conspiratorial whisper.
‘Of Rallis?’
‘Who else? Should we trust him, do you think?’
Adam was taken aback by the question. Was it not the professor who had first argued that he was the ideal person to assist them in organising the expedition to Thessaly and beyond?
‘I can see no reason why we should not.’
‘You do not find the arrival of those thieving wretches today somewhat surprising?’
‘We knew that we risked encountering bandits wherever we went in the countryside. Some of the regions in which we are travelling have an unpleasant celebrity for klephti and thieves and rogues of all kinds. But we made plans to evade them before we left Athens. Rallis made plans for us to evade them. Even so, we ran a risk. You are surely not suggesting that he deliberately arranged for those men to cross our path?’
‘I merely suggest that our Greek friend should be watched. And what he says must be taken cum grano salis.’
‘But you cannot think that he is conspiring against us?’
‘I do not know what to think, Adam. I do know that those rogues appeared to have been informed that we were travelling from the bay of Volos towards Meteora. How else could they have come across us so conveniently in hundreds of square miles of terrain?’
‘But what possible advantage could Rallis gain from the theft of our horses? Like us, he is now stranded miles from the nearest shelter. It makes no sense.’
‘Little does make sense in this benighted country,’ the professor said bitterly. ‘Nothing has made sense in it for the best part of two millennia.’
‘It is true that some of the most notable men of Athens have links with some of the greatest villains in the country. The Dilessi affair earlier this year proved that, if nothing else.’
‘It’s just as you say,’ said Fields with sudden excitement. ‘It’s extraordinary. Politicians in the city are shamelessly and almost openly in league with brigands who roam the country looking for foreigners to kidnap and murder. It’s as if Mr Gladstone were to be in charge of a gang of garrotters and send them out onto the streets of London to steal purses to add to the exchequer.’
‘However,’ Adam continued, striving to soothe the professor, ‘there is not the slightest evidence that Rallis has any connection with brigandage. He is a lawyer and an amateur archaeologist — not a politician.’
Thirty yards ahead, the man of whom they spoke had stopped and turned towards them. He waved his arm at the surrounding countryside.
‘The beauties of Thessaly, gentlemen,’ he shouted.
Adam returned his wave.
‘You will notice,’ the professor said, ‘that our friend seems remarkably cheerful in the circumstances. Our loss does not appear to have hit him as hard as it has the rest of us.’
With this parting shot, Fields increased his walking speed again and caught up with Quint and the mules.
Left alone in the rear, Adam wondered if there could be any basis for the professor’s sudden suspicions of the Greek lawyer. It was true that there had been times in the journey when Rallis had seemed uncertain of the path to take. There had been times when they seemed to be turning their faces in the direction of whichever point of the compass seemed momentarily appealing. There had been times, Adam was obliged to admit to himself, when he had thought that Rallis either did not know where he was leading them or, at the least, did not choose to tell them. And yet what purpose in travelling with them could the lawyer have other than the ones he had acknowledged? His love of his country’s past. His desire to unearth more examples of its former glory. These provided him with his motivation, did they not? There was no evidence to support Fields’s sudden distrust of Rallis.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
For the next two days, they continued to make slow progress. Thessaly, Adam knew, was populous and prosperous. The plain was fertile agricultural land but the travellers came across little evidence of this. Rallis insisted that they keep off frequented roads and travel across rough country instead. They saw few people. On the first afternoon, they happened upon a wagon, with spokeless wheels of solid wood, which had been abandoned by the roadside. As they stood by it, they noticed a distant caravan of horses making its way along the road, laden with sacks and bags. Three tiny figures accompanied it, occasionally chivvying the beasts with sticks. Adam looked enquiringly at Rallis.