Happily, the next morning was wonderfully cool, for July, for though
they had all got up at impossible hours, by the time all the baskets
were packed and all the last recommendations given to Kyria Penelope
to look after poor Deko who had run a big thorn into his foot and had
to be left behind, it was nearly nine o'clock. In fact the clock of
the Naval School had just boomed out the three-quarters when Iason
turned the big key in the lock of the hill gate.
They passed out in single file; all except Philos, who had found it
simpler to climb up the wall and jump down on the other side.
Iason hid the padlock safely in a big lentisk bush just outside the
gate, and then, standing up, faced the others, pointing up the thickly
wooded hill.
"Listen you! We are going straight up there, and down on the other
side towards Vayonia. I am going to find that cave of which Lambro
the shepherd told me."
Andromache and Nikias gave a united whoop of joy and were rushing
forward in the direction of the pointing finger, when Chryseis cried:--
"Stop! Stop! It will be ever so much too far. We had better go to
the little chapel of Saint Stathi."
"We have been there hundreds of times; and I tell you we may never
get such a splendid opportunity for the cave again."
"But to Vayonia! So far ...!" objected Chryseis.
"Now, listen!" persisted Iason. "What did father say last week,
when I said we wanted to go to Vayonia?"
"He said, 'We shall see.'"
"Well, that does not mean 'no,' does it? Only when the grown-ups say,
'We shall see,' sometimes it does not happen for a long time, and we
want this to happen now, to-day, at once!" Then as Chryseis still
hung back, he added, "Of course we will say where we have been,
directly we get back. Come, then!"
And Chryseis came.
The first part of the climb was uneventful. Kerberos plodded on heavily
and sedately, Philos of course stopped to dig round the roots of
nearly all the thyme and lentisk bushes on their way. Andromache, who
considered him her special dog, would catch him by the neck and pull
him off by main force, but in an instant he was back again, digging
frantically, shaking his head, sneezing and beginning all over again.
After some time there was a rest under a clump of pines, and Nikias
suggested opening the baskets. But when the others all told him he
was "A greedy little pig!" he explained that he had only wanted to
see if Athanasia had not forgotten the peaches which he had seen on
the pantry shelf.
"And of course you would run back for them if she had!" said Iason
derisively.
"Wait till we get to the top," said Chryseis.
So they started off again.
"Where shall you look for the big cave?" asked Andromache, who was
beginning to find her basket heavy and the sun hot. "Did Lambro say
if it were high on the hills above Vayonia, or to the right near
the vineyards?"
"Did you ever hear of a cave near vineyards, stupid?" answered Iason,
whose basket was heavier still as it had the bottles of water in
it. "Lambro said near the sea; so of course it will be to the left
in the big rocks."
"You do not know really," persisted Andromache, "you only say 'it
will be.'"
"I never said I knew; I said 'let us go and find it!'" Suddenly he
pointed some way above them, "There is a shepherd! No, not there; on
that little footpath where the hill is bare. Let us ask if he knows!"
"Perhaps," suggested Pavlo hopefully, "it may be Lambro himself."
"No," answered the Four in chorus, "Lambro is lame. See how this man
jumps from one rock to another! Bah! Whatever is he doing?"
The distant shepherd who seemed taller than any man they knew, was
waving his arms above his head, and the movements looked curious and
almost startling against the sky. When he caught sight of the children,
instead of continuing on his way quietly and heavily as most peasants
do, he seemed to stop short, to hesitate, and then suddenly using
his long shepherd's crook as a vaulting pole he leapt over a piece
of rock in his way, and came running towards them.
"Good-day to you!" cried all the children as soon as he was within
hearing distance. He swung himself down to the little plateau on
which they were standing.
"May your day be good!" he answered, but as he said it, he laughed
a little.
The children looked at him curiously. At first sight he seemed one of
the ordinary shepherds of the hills with his short "foustanella,"[19]
his coloured kerchief knotted over his head, and the long "glitsa"[20]
in his hand; but certainly they had never seen such a strange-looking
shepherd before. He was extraordinarily tall and broad, a matted
unkempt reddish beard covered most of his face, and round the pale
blue eyes nearly all the white seemed to show. The "foustanella"
was incredibly dirty and ragged, the red kerchief greasy with age,
half fallen off his head. A brightly striped "tagari"[21] was slung
over his shoulder.
"Perhaps you know," asked Iason, "where there is a big cave over on
the other side of the slope, near Vayonia?"
"A cave?" the man twisted his fingers in the tangled beard as he spoke,
"Who told you of a cave?"
"Lambro, the shepherd, told me."
"Many things does Lambro, the lame one know! Did he tell you perhaps
how one enters into this cave?" and the pale blue eyes peered eagerly
into the boy's face.
"No; why? One enters by the entrance I suppose."
The shepherd laughed.
"You say well! By the entrance of course, ... by the entrance. Ask
also of Lambro who is so wise, how you may find the road to the cave!"
Andromache pushed forward.
"And is Lambro here that we may ask him?" she said impatiently. "What
foolish talk is this? If you know where the cave is, speak!"
The man turned his pale blue eyes on her.
"I must speak, must I? The little hens are crowing to-day, as well
as the little cocks!"
Iason turned to the others.
"Come!" he said, speaking in French, "the man knows nothing, and he
is trying to amuse himself with us."
And they turned to continue their way up the hill. But the shepherd
touched the last one, who happened to be Chryseis, on the shoulder,
and unslinging his "tagari" offered it to her.
"Take one!" he said; "let me befriend you with one."
He was still laughing, and he pushed his face close to hers as he
spoke. Chryseis, who was rather dainty, shrank back a little, but the
familiar words reassured her. The tagari evidently contained figs, or
perhaps almonds; and she knew what an insult the peasants consider it,
that one should refuse anything with which they offer to "befriend"
you. So she stretched out her hand over the half-closed tagari,
but drew back in alarm. It was full of earth and stones!
The man threw his head back and laughed loudly and discordantly.
Iason turned on him, like the little cock he had been called.
"Now then!" he cried, pushing the huge man violently, "now then! What
foolishness is this? Leave us alone and go your way! Do you hear?" And
when he raised his voice Pavlo thought it sounded just like the master
of the Red House.
The shepherd's laugh died off in a silly cackle, and he stood where
Iason had pushed him, looking after the children as they climbed on
rather hurriedly; but to Pavlo's intense relief, he made no attempt
to follow them.
"Who was it?" asked Andromache.
"I am not sure," said Iason, "but I think it must be one of the
Pelekas. His brother Yoryi had our pasture land for his sheep last
year. I saw him when I went up to the 'stania'[22] with father. They
are all red-haired, and there are many brothers; but I do not know
this one."
"He was horrid!" said Chryseis, shifting her basket to her other arm;
"he must have been drinking too much 'ouzo.'"[23]
"Father says they never drink, these shepherds, except on big holidays
when they come down to the villages," said Iason, "but I suppose this
one must have."
It was worth the long hot climb, when they reached the top of the
hill, to feel the cool air blowing in their faces. As they scrambled
over the very last ridge, Nikias, who was first, pulled at a falling
sock which threatened to cover his shoe, then stood up and pointing
far below, shouted triumphantly:--
"There is the other sea!"
And there, if not the "other sea" as the children called it, was the
other side of the island, where there were no houses, no gardens, no
lemon orchards, no olive trees, no signs of familiar every-day life,
nothing but pines, of all shapes and sizes, from the dark green rugged
old pines, to the pale green baby ones; and lentisk, and arbutus,
and thyme bushes on the slopes, and far below them the wide-sweeping
beautiful beach of Vayonia with the open sea beyond. The soft plash
of the little waves against the rocks came up to them where they stood.
Pavlo was told that on a bright clear winter day you could distinguish
all Athens and the Acropolis perfectly well, "over there," and four
outstretched fingers pointed to the exact direction behind Ægina.
Just then a big white caique, all sails open to the wind, was
gliding majestically across the opening of the bay, its little
landing boat dancing and skipping on the waves behind it. And closer
to the shore was a tiny puffing steam launch belonging to the Naval
School. Andromache, whose eyes were the best, declared that she could
recognize the officers on board.
"I am sure that one there is the Admiral," she said, "I can see his
hair white in the sun."
"Now then!" jeered the others, "can you not count the stripes also
on the sleeve of his uniform?"
But Chryseis had been unpacking the baskets.
"We will eat now," she announced quietly, and there was not one to say
"no" to her.
Before they had left the house even the children themselves had
exclaimed at the quantity of cold "keftedes" which Athanasia
had prepared for them, but there were very few left when they had
eaten as much as they wanted. There were some "skaltsounia"[24] too,
smothered in fine sugar; and of these there were none left at all;
but there never are, of course. There were plenty of grapes, and the
peaches about which Nikias had been anxious. Pavlo amused himself by
digging holes in the hard sun-baked earth, and planting the kernels
as far down as he could reach,--
"So that when you come up here another time, you will find peaches
growing ready for you."
The boys laughed at him.
"We had better not come here for two or three months, and by then
your trees will of course be laden with fruit."
Pavlo had lived much alone, and he was accustomed to people who meant
exactly what they said.
"No," he said slowly, "I did not mean in two or three months, but
some time."
"Even if they were ever to become trees, without watering or digging
or anything," said Andromache, struggling with Philos, who had left
his dinner to attack the roots of a monster lentisk bush, "do you
think the shepherds would leave any peaches on them?"
But the word "shepherd" reminded Iason of their object.
"I am going down there," he said, pointing to the left, where the
bushes were rarer and the gray crags began. "It looks cave-y. Leave
the baskets there under that bush. No one will touch them."
The children began to scramble down towards the rocks, and the scent
of the thyme as they crushed it mingled little by little with the
fresh smell of the sea, as they got nearer and nearer the shore.
The search for the cave was very thorough. Every big bush growing
near a rock was pushed aside, every shadow was peered into.
"You never know," as Iason said, "how small the entrance may be!"
But after all it was by pure accident that they found it.