Dillon said distressedly: "One can't let them slit the throats of
sleeping men! I'll have to stay here to keep them from going at it
again. I say, Coburn, will you take one of their staff cars and run on
down somewhere and tell the Greek government what's happened here?
Something should be done about it! Soldiers should come to keep order
and take charge of these chaps."
"Yes," said Coburn. "I'll do it. I'll take Janice along, too."
"Splendid!" Dillon nodded as if in relief. "She'd better get out of the
mess entirely. I fancy there'd have been a full-scale massacre if we
hadn't come along. The Greeks have no reason to love these chaps, and
their intentions were hardly amiable. But one can't let them be
murdered!"
Coburn had his hand on his revolver in his pocket. His finger was on the
trigger. But if Dillon needed him to run an errand, then there obviously
were no others of his own kind about.
Dillon turned his back. He gave orders in the barbarous dialect of the
mountains. His voice was authoritative. Men obeyed him and dragged
uniformed figures out of a light half-track that was plainly a staff
car. Dillon beckoned, and Coburn moved toward him. The important thing
as far as Coburn was concerned was to get Janice to safety. Then to
report the full event.
* * * * *
"I ... I'm not sure ..." began Janice, her voice shaking.
"I'll prove what I said," raged Coburn in a low tone. "I'm not crazy,
though I feel like it!"
Dillon beckoned again. Janice slipped off the donkey's back. She looked
pitifully frightened and irresolute.
"I've located the chap who's the mayor of this village, or something
like that. Take him along. They might not believe you, but they'll have
to investigate when he turns up."
A white-bearded villager reluctantly climbed into the back of the car.
Dillon pleasantly offered to assist Janice into the front seat. She
climbed in, deathly white, frightened of Coburn and almost ashamed to
admit that his vehement outburst had made her afraid of Dillon, too.
Dillon came around to Coburn's side of the vehicle. "Privately," he said
with a confidential air, "I'd advise you to dump this mayor person where
he can reach authority, and then go away quietly and say nothing of what
happened up here. If the Greeks are using some contrivance that handles
an affair like this, it will be top secret. They won't like civilians
knowing about it."
Coburn's grip on his revolver was savage. It seemed likely, now, that
Dillon was the only one of his extraordinary kind about.
"I think I know why you say that," he said harshly.