Chapter 13
" Rosa!”
The girl stayed for a moment in Georgiades’s hands, then pulled herself away.
“What are you doing here?” she demanded fiercely.
“What are you doing here?” countered Owen.
“I told you to stay away!”
“This is not a place for someone like you,” said Georgiades.
“I told you to stay away. Why have you come?”
“We did not expect to find it was you.”
“It makes no difference. I told you to leave us alone. Why do you keep persecuting us?”
“I have no wish to persecute you,” said Owen.
“Then go! Go quickly!”
“Tell me first why you are here.”
“Why do you think?” She faced him defiantly. “They want more money. They want all she has. And then they say they will release him. Tonight. Please go!”
“What have you done with the money?”
“Left it. Left it where they told me.”
“Where was that?”
She stayed silent.
“You had the bag with you,” said Georgiades. “Or was that deceit?”
“Deceit?” She looked surprised. “I left it where they told me. They told me to put it down under a rock in a special place and then to walk around while they counted.”
“You spoke to them?”
“No. This was in the message.”
“You were to leave the bag and then walk around?”
“For half an hour. I have my watch.” She showed it to them, almost proudly. “Then I was to go back. And then I would find my father.”
She began to weep.
Owen could see Georgiades looking at him in the darkness. “We have no wish to hurt you or your family,” he said gently, “nor to stop your father being released.”
“Then you will go? Please go, in case they see you. Go now.”
Owen hesitated. He could not make up his mind. He felt unusually at a loss.
“Why do you not go?”
“Is there no servant with you?”
“No. I came on my own. We were to tell no one. How did you find out?”
“Why did not your mother come?” asked Georgiades.
“I would not let her. She-she is not strong enough.”
“Have you done it before?”
“No. We used Abou.”
“Why did not you use Abou this time?”
“We were to tell no one. It was too important.”
“Yet you knew your way.”
“I came here this morning. In the light so that I could see.”
“You should not be in a place like this,” said Georgiades again. Owen realized suddenly that where the family was concerned Georgiades was still very much a traditional Greek.
“You must go!” Rosa began to cry again. “You will ruin everything!”
Owen made up his mind.
“Continue on your walk,” he said to her roughly. “Keep to the time they set. Call out if you need help.”
“You-you will not stop me?”
“No. Do as they told you. But we will be near.”
Rosa turned obediently and started to walk away. Then she stopped.
“You will not interfere?” she demanded.
“We will be near. You may need help to take your father home.”
“You do not think-?” she whispered.
“No. But he may be weak. It has been a long time.”
“Very well,” said Rosa. “But do not let them see you.”
“I shall be near,” said Georgiades.
Rosa considered him.
“I quite like that,” she said softly. Then left.
“Follow her,” Owen said to one of the trackers. “See that she does not come to harm.”
The tracker came running back.
“I have seen Abbas,” he gasped excitedly.
“You were told to stay with the girl.”
“Yes, but I saw Abbas.”
“He was the one who was with the donkey-boy,” said Georgiades. “They were looking for that camel.”
“I thought you would like to know,” said the tracker, crestfallen.
“Well, yes, thank you. But keep with the girl.”
“Where was Abbas?” asked Georgiades.
“By the liwan. He made signs that he would speak with me. But I came straight back to you,” said the tracker, with an air of hard-done-by virtue, “that I might not leave the girl for long.”
“Go back to her now. You have done well.”
Appeased, the tracker sloped off.
“We’d better find Abbas. We don’t want him breaking in on things.”
Abbas had had enough sense to stay where he was. They found him and the donkey-boy sheltering among the pillars. “Allah be praised!” said Abbas. “You are here!”
“We are here,” said Owen, “but how do you come to be here?”
“I was looking for the camel,” said the donkey-boy, “as you bid me. And, effendi, I have found it. I saw the track and I said, By God, that is the track of the camel I seek. So I followed the track and it brought me here.”
“Where is the camel?”
“Over there, hidden among the stones.” The donkey-boy pointed. “Effendi, there are three good riding camels with it. It came into my mind that those you hunt may be intending to flee. I felt, therefore, that you should know at once. But this man-” he looked pointedly at Abbas’s direction- “would not go for you.”
“How could I go?” objected Abbas. “I was bidden to stay with you.”
“One of us had to go,” said the donkey-boy, “and it could not be me, for if the camels moved, only I could follow.”
“It could not be me,” said Abbas, “for the effendi told me to stay with you and not leave you.”
“Fortunately,” said Owen hastily, “I am here so the question does not now arise. You have done well,” he said to the donkey-boy.
The donkey-boy smiled with pleasure.
“The camel is in good condition, effendi, though I would like to look at the legs. The left hind leg drags a little. It may be nothing, just a habit of the beast. All the same I would like to look, for it could slow them down if they mean to travel far. But then, of course, they would not be traveling together, for the others are true riding camels whereas this is only a beast of burden. It is my belief they used it to bring the prisoner.”
“Prisoner?”
“Yes, effendi, they had a man with them who was bound. Did I not say?”
“No, you did not say.”
“The three riding camels came separately, I think. When we saw them there were four men, and also the one that was tied.”
“Where are they now?”
“Two walked off across the stones. Two stayed with the bound man near the camels.”
Four men. They could not take them all at the same time. They would have to take the two with the prisoner first.
“Rosa will be returning at any moment,” said Georgiades. “We haven’t got long.”
The two men were squatting in a gap among the stones. There was no light but Owen’s eyes were used to the darkness and he thought he could see a bundle lying a little to the men’s right. Tsakatellis would be bound and gagged. If he were still alive.
The two men were talking in low voices.
A stone moved in the darkness and the men were suddenly quiet. There was no further sound and after a little while the men resumed talking.
Owen made no move himself. Georgiades and the trackers would do it better. It would have to be done quietly. The two men who had gone to collect the money would return at any moment. He had stationed himself where he could intercept them.
He wondered why Georgiades was taking so long.
Someone had made their home in the rubble. It was quite some way away but their brazier blazed up for a few seconds and he could see the two men clearly.
They both looked up together as if something had startled them. A dark shape suddenly appeared behind them and one of them fell sideways. The other two shapes merged.
Owen went forward.
The man Georgiades had hit lay inert. The other man was pinioned by the two trackers. One of them had his hand over the man’s mouth.
Georgiades was bending over the bundle. The man was wrapped in a hooded galabeah. Georgiades pulled back the hood as Owen arrived.
The man was gagged but his eyes were open. And alive.