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The stout man looked at Denny and me; then he looked at Demetri and Spiro, who stood near us, smiling their usual grim smile. And he answered my question by another, a rather abrupt one: "What do you want, sir?" And he slightly lifted his tasselled cap and replaced it on his head. "I want to know the way to the inn," I answered. "You have come to visit Neopalia?" he asked.
Moreover, the postponement gave me exactly time to go over and settle affairs in the island. For I had bought it. It cost me seven thousand five hundred and fifty pounds rather a fancy price, but I could not haggle with the old lord half to be paid to the lord's bankers in London, and the second half to him in Neopalia, when he delivered possession to me.
They would only let us go, I felt sure, if Constantine were outvoted, for he could not afford to see me leave Neopalia with a head on my shoulders and a tongue in my mouth. Then they probably would fight. Well, I calculated that as long as our provisions held out, we could not be stormed; our stone fortress was too strong.
A day or two was spent in arranging our stores and buying what more we wanted, for we could not expect to be able to procure anything in Neopalia. I was rather surprised to find no letter for me from the old lord, but I had no thought of waiting for a formal invitation, and pressed on the hour of departure as much as I could.
"Did you not know that he died a week ago?" asked Vlacho, with apparent surprise. "Died!" we exclaimed, one and all. "Yes, sir. The Lady Euphrosyne, lady of Neopalia, bids you go." "What did he die of?" "Of a fever," said Vlacho, gravely. And several of the men round him nodded their heads, and murmured, in no less grave assent: "Yes, of a fever."
Bennett Hamlyn, a rich young man who gives promise of seeing that Miss Hipgrave does not wholly lack a man's attentions in the absence of her lover, sets put to enter possession of a remote Greek island, Neopalia, which he has purchased of the hereditary lord, Stefanopoulos. But on arriving he finds himself anything but welcome.
One was that my tall neighbor was named Stefanopoulos; another, that he had made good use of his ears better than I had made of mine; for a third, I guessed that he would go to Neopalia; for a fourth, I fancied that Neopalia was the place to which the lady had declared she would accompany him.
The pasha received me with great kindness. "You are the purchaser of Neopalia, aren't you?" he asked, after a little conversation. "The matter came before me officially." "I'm much obliged," said I, "for your ready consent to the transfer." "Oh, it's nothing to us. In fact, our tribute, such as it is, will be safer. Well, I'm sure I hope you'll settle in comfortably." "Oh, I shall be all right.
It was the old man's fault, because he tried to sell the island." "He did sell the island," I corrected. "And a good many other people will hear of what happened to him." He looked at me again, smiling. "If you shouted in the hearing of every man in Neopalia, what would they do?" he asked, scornfully.
For me, she might stay there as long as she likes, for I care for her just as little as, between ourselves, I believe she cares for me." Really, this fellow was a very tidy villain; as a pair, Vlacho and he would be hard to beat in England, at all events. About Neopalia I had learned to reserve my opinion. Such were my reflections as I turned to resume my interrupted crawl to safety.
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