'All right.' He scrambled in beside her, and shut the door. Then he said: 'There's not much to tell. I was ambushed down at the villa and had to run for it. They caught up with me and there was a fight, but I had the luck to get away. What about you, though? How did you come to be in the car with that swine Barak?'
'Is that his name?'
'Yes. Didn't you know?'
'How could I? He didn't introduce himself, and I hadn't been talking to him for more than a few minutes before you came on
the scene.'
'Well, that is his name, and he is my enemy No. 1. He is a Czech, and the top man in this rival oil set-up.'
'Good gracious! I thought he was simply a friendly Greek.'
'Friendly!' Robbie turned to stare at her. 'You can't . . . you can't mean that he had just scraped acquaintance with you and asked you to drive him somewhere?'
'Of course not.' Stephanie's tone was indignant. 'Even if this were my car, is it likely that I would take a strange man for a drive in it at this time of night?'
'I know, I know. But you say he was friendly. Then he hadn't threatened you; he wasn't forcing you to go off with him against your will. If that is so, what the devil was he doing in the car with you?'
'He was going to show me the way to the hospital.'
'What in the world for?' After a moment's pause, Robbie added with quick concern: 'You're not feeling ill or anything, are you?'
'Not unless you count frayed nerves. No; he was taking me to the hospital to see you.'
'Me! But I wasn't there. I don't even know where it is.'
'Neither did I. That's why I asked him to show me the way to it.'
Robbie groaned. 'I don't understand. Please start from the beginning.'
'Very well. About twenty minutes ago, I was sitting in that stuffy little lounge reading. Then this Mr. Barrat came in-'
'Barak; Vaclav Barak.'
'All right, Mr. Barak. He came over to me and said in a low voice: "Please come outside for a moment, I have a message for you from your husband." Assuming he could only mean you, I went out with him to the hall. Then he said: "I'm afraid it's not a message, but bad news. Your husband has been knocked down by a car and badly hurt. I was among those who picked him up. I chanced to see you lunching together here today and-" '
'But we didn't lunch here,' Robbie interrupted. 'We picnicked among the ruins of the new city.'
'Yes, of course we did. Being so worried about you has driven out of my mind exactly what he said. Perhaps it was yesterday he saw us lunching at one of the tables outside, or having drinks there earlier this evening. What does it matter? Anyhow, he recognized you at once when they were picking you up, because you are such a big man. Then, as he was passing here on his way home, it occurred to him that, as you were unconscious, you might be at the hospital all night, while I worried myself silly wondering where you had got to; so it would be a kindness to come in and let me know what had happened.'
Robbie considered this for a moment, then he said: 'By the time he did his friendly act with you, he obviously counted on his thugs having done their stuff on me. But what I don't understand is why he should have gone out of his way to bring you to my bedside.'
'Surely that was part of a plan to cover up the attack on you?' Stephanie suggested. 'Evidently it was intended that, after knocking you out, the thugs should dump you at the hospital and say that they had seen you run over by a hit-and-run driver. When you recovered consciousness, you would have said that you had been beaten up; but the fact that I had been brought to your bedside by someone who had witnessed the accident would have led the authorities to believe that you were imagining things— that your brain had been slightly affected—then the police would probably not have bothered to start an investigation that might have led to Barak's people.'
'That certainly sounds plausible,' Robbie agreed. 'Anyway, I'm fortunate not to be lying in the hospital now with a broken head and ribs.' He went on to give Stephanie a full account of his visit to the Villa Dione, and how a lucky break had enabled him to escape from his attackers. Then he said:
T'm puzzled, though, about how they got on to me. Of course, it may have been pure chance that one of them happened to be standing just inside the postern gate; but the fact that all the others were in a downstairs room at the back of the house, ready to dash out at a moment's notice, seems to make that unlikely. I'm pretty sure they were lying in wait for me.'
'It could have been the gardener,' Stephanie suggested. 'He must have missed the key thaf you made off with and, in mentioning that to the tenants, he probably told them about your visit to the villa yesterday evening. You say that this Sudeten-lander, Stoll, already knew you; so he could have recognized you from the gardener's description. Stoll would have jumped to it then that it was you who had stolen the key, and that you meant to pay the villa another visit.'
'By jove, you're right!' Robbie gave her a glance of admiration. 'That never occurred to me, but it's odds-on that it explains the ambush I ran into.'
There was a moment's silence, then Stephanie said in a low voice: 'You haven't told me yet what happened when you ran off after Barak. Did he get away?'
'No,' Robbie replied grimly. 'I caught up with him in a cul-de-sac and he won't worry us again.'
She stiffened suddenly and gave a cry of apprehension. 'Good God! You didn't kill him, did you?'
'Good Lord, no! I'm much too fond of my own life to risk being charged with murder. I just gave him a darn' good pasting and left him to crawl home.'
Again they fell silent for a minute or more, until Stephanie gave a slight shiver and said: 'Well, now we know where we are. But it's getting awfully cold; let's go in.'
'Let's,' Robbie agreed. 'I could do with a drink.'
She backed the car round into the garage and they walked back to the front entrance of the hotel. As they were about to go in, her glance fell on his right hand. It was dark red with congealed blood. Her eyes distended, she grasped his arm, pulled him to a halt and cried:
'Look at your hand. What have you done? I believe you did kill him.'
'I didn't,' he assured her. 'Most of that is from the broken skin of my knuckles. I admit, though, that I lammed into him quite a bit. Something came over me, a sort of vicious feeling. I've never felt like that about anyone before, but I couldn't stop myself. I kept on hitting him until I'd made a horrid mess of his face.'
'You . . . you. Oh well, I suppose he deserved it. But Robbie,' she drew a sharp breath before going on, 'he was a very good-looking man and . . . and I should think rather vain. If you
o 189 have permanently spoiled his face he'll never forgive you. And he has all those thugs under his orders. It's certain hell do his utmost to be revenged on you. We mustn't stay here. If we do you'll be in real danger. I'm sure of it. Please let's get away from Corinth.'
Robbie nodded. 'I think you're right again. In any case, I wouldn't risk another visit to the Villa Dione; so there is not much point in staying on here. But Barak won't be up to planning any further mischief tonight. It will be time enough if we leave in the morning.'
Stuffing his bloody hands into his trouser pockets, Robbie followed Stephanie into the hotel. She ordered drinks for them and went into the lounge, while he went up to his room and cleaned himself up. When he came down and joined her he found that the couple she said had been reading there had gone up to bed, so they had the room to themselves.
She asked him where he intended that they should go on leaving Corinth, and he replied: M haven't had time to think yet. I reckon that I've rendered Barak hors de combat for the best part of a week, and after his fall Stoll must be in pretty bad shape, too. Of their three top chaps, that leaves only Cepicka, and all the odds are that he is either at Pirgos or has gone down to Kalamai to superintend the arrangements for other groups of Czechs who are to land at those ports. If so, that would leave me a free field at Patras, and by this time the group there must be getting busy; so we might go back there and I could try to find out what they are up to.'