They got into Salonika early afternoon of the next day, after many hours
upon an antique railroad train that puffed and grunted and groaned among
interminable mountains. Coburn got a taxi to take Janice to the office
of the Breen Foundation which had sent her up to the north of Greece to
establish its philanthropic instruction courses. He hadn't much to say
to Janice as they rode. He was too disheartened.
In the cab, though, he saw great placards on which newspaper headlines
appeared in Greek. He could make out the gist of them. Essentially, they
shrieked that Bulgarians had invaded Greece and had been wiped out. He
made out the phrase for valiant Greek army. And the Greek army was
valiant enough, but it hadn't had anything to do with this.
From the police station in Serrai--he had been interviewed there until
dawn--he knew what action had been taken. Army planes had flown
northward in the darkness, moved by the Mayor's, and Coburn's, and
Janice's tale of Bulgarian soldiers on Greek soil, sleeping soundly.
They had released parachute flares and located the village of Naousa.
Parachutists with field radios had jumped, while other flares burned to
light them to the ground. That was that. Judging by the placards, their
reports had borne out the story Coburn had brought down. There would be
a motorized Greek division on the way to take charge of the
four-thousand-odd unconscious raiders. There was probably an advance
guard there now.
But there was no official news. Even the Greek newspapers called it
rumors. Actually, it was leaked information. It would be reasonable for
the Greek government to let it leak, look smug, and blandly say "No
comment" to all inquiries, including those from Bulgaria.
But behind that appearance of complacency, the Greek government would be
going quietly mad trying to understand what so fortunately had happened.
And Coburn could tell them. But he knew better than to try without some
sort of proof. Yet, he had to tell. The facts were more important than
what people thought of him.
The cab stopped before his own office. He paid the driver. The driver
beamed and said happily: "_Tys nikisame, e?_"