long, I’ve forgot.’
The donkey reappeared, apparently none the worse for dragging the three heavy drums through the village. As they loaded the last drum on to the cart, Gully looked round the shed to see if there were anything he could scrounge.
‘Come on,’ Duff said. ‘Let’s be having you.’
Gully spat and emerged with a tyre.
‘What the hell do you think you’re goin’ to do with that?’ Duff demanded.
‘Be worth a bit in Alex,’ Gully said. ‘Them Gyppos’ll give a lot for this.’
‘Shove it back,’ Duff said. ‘We depend on these bloody people for their good will. And they’d be delighted, wouldn’t they, if they found we’d been pinching things?’
Gully replaced the tyre unwillingly and they set off back towards Claudia. Docherty and the two RASC privates had manhandled the first three drums on board when they arrived.
‘We’ll top up at Aeos,’ Shaw said. ‘That’ll give us full tanks for the return trip.’
The sun was high now in a sky that had become startlingly blue. More men and boys had appeared on the jetty to watch them and, at the landward end, the women stood like black vultures, obviously discussing them.
‘We’ll move among the caiques,’ Shaw said, ‘and wait until dark before leaving.’
But the fishermen resented the movement of the boat among their vessels. They were well aware that the Germans weren’t far away and had obviously decided that if a prowling German plane spotted her and returned to drop a bomb, their own boats would suffer.
A large man in a jersey and wearing ear-rings acted as spokesman. He was obviously enjoying his position and the fact that the women were giving him admiring glances.
‘Philotimo,’ Patullo explained. ‘The Greek male’s sense of honour and pride in his own worth. A self-image that keeps him in conceit of himself and demands revenge for insult. It gets a bit swollen by a loud voice and great physical strength.’
It took a great deal of concentrated arguing to make it clear that it was best for everybody if they managed to hide Claudia rather than moor her separately across the harbour, and it was Cotton who pulled the trick in the end.
‘If we moor over there,’ he said, pointing, ‘and a German plane comes, they’ll spot her at once. And if bombs are dropped they’re as likely to hit your boats as ours. If we hide her among the caiques, they’ll probably never see her and then there’ll be no bombs at all.’
‘You should take an interpreter’s course, Cotton,’ Patullo said as the fishermen unwillingly withdrew their objections. ‘It would be worth a bit extra, and we might be glad of a few Greek speakers in the Med before the war’s over.’
The idea struck a spark. If nothing else, Cotton thought, it would mean he’d be relieved of sentry duties and might even get three stripes on his arm. To Cotton that was the very pinnacle of military glory and he decided to make enquiries when he got back.
Then he paused. If he got back, he thought.
4
The plain of Kalani on the north side of the island of Aeos was like a plate, with the Phythion Hills running along the south coast and dropping steeply to the sea over narrow bays overhung by trees. The north coast, less rugged, less open to the sea because of the shelter of the mainland of Greece, was fringed by more hills, but these were gentle slopes rising to the port and capital of the island : Kalani, a sprawling town of white houses round the Bay of Xinthos.
The plain was fertile but low-lying and intersected by marshes, so that across its whole length it was studded with windmills with small triangular-shaped sails, oddly like the celluloid toys children placed on their sandcastles on English beaches in summer. It was said that here Odysseus set up camp after landing on his journey to Ithaca. In addition to lemon, orange and olive trees, it contained cherry, almond, fig and quince as well as bougainvillaea and oleander. In one part of the plain,
The donkey reappeared, apparently none the worse for dragging the three heavy drums through the village. As they loaded the last drum on to the cart, Gully looked round the shed to see if there were anything he could scrounge.
‘Come on,’ Duff said. ‘Let’s be having you.’
Gully spat and emerged with a tyre.
‘What the hell do you think you’re goin’ to do with that?’ Duff demanded.
‘Be worth a bit in Alex,’ Gully said. ‘Them Gyppos’ll give a lot for this.’
‘Shove it back,’ Duff said. ‘We depend on these bloody people for their good will. And they’d be delighted, wouldn’t they, if they found we’d been pinching things?’
Gully replaced the tyre unwillingly and they set off back towards Claudia. Docherty and the two RASC privates had manhandled the first three drums on board when they arrived.
‘We’ll top up at Aeos,’ Shaw said. ‘That’ll give us full tanks for the return trip.’
The sun was high now in a sky that had become startlingly blue. More men and boys had appeared on the jetty to watch them and, at the landward end, the women stood like black vultures, obviously discussing them.
‘We’ll move among the caiques,’ Shaw said, ‘and wait until dark before leaving.’
But the fishermen resented the movement of the boat among their vessels. They were well aware that the Germans weren’t far away and had obviously decided that if a prowling German plane spotted her and returned to drop a bomb, their own boats would suffer.
A large man in a jersey and wearing ear-rings acted as spokesman. He was obviously enjoying his position and the fact that the women were giving him admiring glances.
‘Philotimo,’ Patullo explained. ‘The Greek male’s sense of honour and pride in his own worth. A self-image that keeps him in conceit of himself and demands revenge for insult. It gets a bit swollen by a loud voice and great physical strength.’
It took a great deal of concentrated arguing to make it clear that it was best for everybody if they managed to hide Claudia rather than moor her separately across the harbour, and it was Cotton who pulled the trick in the end.
‘If we moor over there,’ he said, pointing, ‘and a German plane comes, they’ll spot her at once. And if bombs are dropped they’re as likely to hit your boats as ours. If we hide her among the caiques, they’ll probably never see her and then there’ll be no bombs at all.’
‘You should take an interpreter’s course, Cotton,’ Patullo said as the fishermen unwillingly withdrew their objections. ‘It would be worth a bit extra, and we might be glad of a few Greek speakers in the Med before the war’s over.’
The idea struck a spark. If nothing else, Cotton thought, it would mean he’d be relieved of sentry duties and might even get three stripes on his arm. To Cotton that was the very pinnacle of military glory and he decided to make enquiries when he got back.
Then he paused. If he got back, he thought.
4
The plain of Kalani on the north side of the island of Aeos was like a plate, with the Phythion Hills running along the south coast and dropping steeply to the sea over narrow bays overhung by trees. The north coast, less rugged, less open to the sea because of the shelter of the mainland of Greece, was fringed by more hills, but these were gentle slopes rising to the port and capital of the island : Kalani, a sprawling town of white houses round the Bay of Xinthos.
The plain was fertile but low-lying and intersected by marshes, so that across its whole length it was studded with windmills with small triangular-shaped sails, oddly like the celluloid toys children placed on their sandcastles on English beaches in summer. It was said that here Odysseus set up camp after landing on his journey to Ithaca. In addition to lemon, orange and olive trees, it contained cherry, almond, fig and quince as well as bougainvillaea and oleander. In one part of the plain,
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