His face seemed a little thinner, the hair and moustache snow-white now, but the eyes seemed very blue in the tanned face and when Lomax took the proffered hand, the grip was surprisingly firm.
"What happened?" he said.
"To the amphora?" Van Horn shrugged. "When the
Germans came to arrest me they got a little rough. The astonishing thing was that when I returned after the war, I found the pieces in a box in the cellar. It was a good thing hi a way. Piecing it together again gave me something to do during that first year. I had to take things pretty steady."
"After Fonchi?" Lomax said.
Van Horn nodded. "Let's go out on the terrace. It's rather pleasant as the evenings draw in."
Katina had withdrawn quietly and Lomax followed him outside. The view was quite breathtaking, the sun like a great orange ball dropping to meet the sea, Crete and its mountains faintly in the distance, shimmering in. the heat haze.
Lomax leaned on the concrete balustrade and looked down. The cliffs dropped a good two hundred feet into a small funnel shaped inlet. From that height he was able to see quite clearly the different shades of blue and green in the water caused by the dark basalt ledges at varying depths. A thirty-foot sea-going launch floated motionless beside a stone jetty that pushed out from the bone-white Sand.
Van Horn sat in a canvas chair beside a table on which stood a tray containing ice-water and several bottles and a portable typewriter.
Lomax picked up several sheets of paper, blown by the breeze, and put them back on the table. "I don't seem to have read anything new by you in quite some time."
"My dear chap, I said everything I wanted to say a long time ago." Van Horn poured gin into two glasses. "You know, we were given to understand by the Germans that you were dead. That the boat in which you were sent to Crete never reached there. What happened?"
Lomax sat down and took out a cigarette. "We ran across a Greek fishing caicque that shouldn't have been where it was and the captain decided to investigate. Unfortunately for him it turned out to be a wolf in sheep's clothing. The Special Boat Service outfit that was supposed to take us off Kyros when we'd completed our mission."
"So the E-boat was sunk? What happened to you after that?"
"The SBS commande'r got me to Alexandria as quickly as he could. My legs were in pretty bad shape so they flew me home to England for special treatment. I wasn't fit for active service again until the beginning of 1945. By that tune things in Europe were moving pretty fast and they decided they could make better use of me in Germany."
"And why not?" Van Horn said. "After all, the Aegean was never anything more than a side show. They didn't even bother vto invade Crete. When the end came the Germans simply surrendered as they did on all the islands."
"And a projected invasion of Crete was the excuse for the whole Kyros operation," Lomax said. "Presumably you think the whole thing was a waste of time?"
Van Horn looked mildly surprised. "Did I ever pretend anything else? Things were all very romantic here in the Aegean with your landings by night and your legalised brigandry, but don't let's pretend it had the slightest effect on the course of the war."
Blind, unreasoning anger sparked inside Lomax. "It's a pity Joe Boyd and one or two more I could mentioa aren't around to hear you say that."
"I could give you a few names myself," Van Horn said calmly. "Old Maria, Alexias's wife and several more. Innocent bystanders who hardly knew what it was all about. Fonchi was bad enough, but what about the women, and young girls like Katina who were sent to the troop brothels in Greece? They were the real victims."
His voice moved on, but Lomax didn't hear it. He closed his eyes and was sucked into a dark vacuum of quiet. The agony was almost physical, a hard ball that rose into his throat, threatening to choke him, and he lurched to the balustrade and was violently sick.
He stayed there for a little while, staring down into the void, and slowly, sounds came back to him and he was aware of Van Horn at his elbow holding out a glass.
As the contents burned their way down into his stomach, Van Horn said quietly, "I'm sorry, I thought you knew."
"The one thing she omitted to tell me," Lomax whispered.
Van Horn put a hand gently on his shoulder and then returned to his chair and Lomax lit a cigarette and stayed there staring blindly into space.
After a while he turned and said quietly, "Katina tells me you're the only other person she knows who believes I didn't betray you all to Steiner."
Van Horn poured himself another drink. "That's right."
"May I ask why?"
Van Horn shrugged. "Let's just say it didn't seem in character."
"And you think that a sufficient reason?"
"I'm a professional writer, remember. People are my business."
Lomax sat down again at a table. "Tell me what happened when they arrrested you."
"A rather officious young officer arrived with a squad of men and searched the house without giving me any explanation. That's when the amphora got smashed. Afterwards, they took me to headquarters to see Steiner. He simply said that he had information to the effect that I'd harboured you and Boyd. Naturally, I told him I didn't know what he was talking about."
"And when was it first suggested that I'd given him the information?"
"I first heard it about a month later from one of the guards at the town gaol."
.They didn't send you to Fonchi straight away then?"
"I was in prison here for three months before they transferred me. Most of the others were already there when I arrived." "Including Alexias?"
"He was never at Fonchi. They sent him direct to the Gestapo prison in Athens. I suppose they thought they could squeeze him dry in time. They knew he'd been working with the EOK in Crete."
"But why did they keep you here in the town gaol after the others had left?"
"That was Steiner's doing. He knew my health wasn't good and the garrison doctor told him I wouldn't last three months at Fonchi. I think he was trying to do the best he could for me."
"Why should he?" Lomax demanded bluntly. "He liked me, it was as simple as that." Van Horn shrugged. "We played chess every week, remember. When I needed them, he obtained scarce medical supplies that saved many lives. He was ruthless, even cold-blooded, but he was not a bad man."
"Then why the change of heart after three months?" "There was none. He left the island on an E-boat one morning bound for a military conference on Crete. Like you, he was never heard of again. His successor had me transferred to Fonchi as soon as he took over. I was there until the German surrender in Greece the following year." "That garrison doctor was pretty wide of the mark when he said you wouldn't last three months," Lomax said.
His challenge was unmistakable and the fact of it lay between them like a sword. Out of the silence Van Horn said calmly, "There would appear to be some doubt in your mind as to the truth of my story. Perhaps I can convince you with something a little more concrete than words."
He stood up, unbuttoned his cream linen beach shirt and turned. From his shoulders to the base of the spine, his back was a mass of scar tissue, great raised weals crossing each other to form an ugly web that could have had only one possible cause.
He pulled on his shirt again. "Not very pleasant, eh? Fifty lashes for striking a guard and that was mild compared to what they did to some people."
"And you survived that?" Lomax said slowly. Van Horn started to button his shirt. "I reached rock-bottom, Lomax. The ultimate in degradation. It's a funny thing, but when you're that low, you become so full of hate for the people who've put you there that it gives you new life. I swore I'd live to walk out through the gates of that place. As a matter of fact they had to carry me, but at least I was alive."
Lomax got to his feet and went to the balustrade and stood there, seeing again in his mind's eye the scars criss-crossing Van Horn's back, thinking of those who had died and of Katina and her own private agony.
After a moment, Van Horn moved beside him and said softly, "I'm afraid you'll have to look elsewhere for your traitor."
"Any suggestions?" Lomax said.
Van Horn shook his head and sighed. "Even if I knew, I'm not sure that I'd tell you."
For a long moment Lomax looked down into the fine face and the blue eyes so full of compassion and then he turned quickly and went back into the house.
To the Other End of Time
He went down the steps from the terrace and moved through the garden, conscious of its freshness after the heat of the day. The sky was an angry red towards the horizon, the cypress trees by the wall etched against it like black lace, but just above them, the crimson faded into a dark blue vault in which a single evening star was already shining.
He could hear the splash of water from a fountain hidden somewhere among the bushes and moving on through a narrow gate, found himself standing at the top of the cliffs.
At that moment Yanni came over the edge and cannoned into him. He glanced up in surprise and then grinned impudently. "Oh, it's you, Mr. Lomax."
"And where are you off to in such a hurry?" Lomax demanded.
"To the kitchen." The boy's grin widened. "Katina's asked me to tell the cook she can start to get supper ready."
"Is she on the beach?" Lomax said.
Yanni nodded. "I've been helping her to get the boat ready. She and Mr. Van Horn are sailing to Crete on Saturday. Katina says I can crew for them if I behave myself."
"See that you do." Lomax ruffled the boy's hair and Yanni grinned and darted through the archway towards the house.
The beach was reached by a series of stone steps that lit zig-zagged in a haphazard way across the face of the cliff. Lomax was sweating slightly when he reached the bottom. He started along the jetty and saw her at the water's edge half-way round the curve of the bay.
She was standing knee-deep in the sea and held the skirt of her frock bunched in front of her with one hand, her face turned towards the sunset.
There was something indomitable about her, something eternal with its roots deep in this ancient land as she stood there, the proud curves of her body dark against the sky, the sea spilling orange fire around her bare thighs.
She turned her head and saw him and his throat went dry. It was with almost a sense of revelation, of wonder, that he realised she was beautiful.
She smiled. "You and Oliver didn't talk long."
"Why didn't you tell me, Katina?" he said simply.
For a long moment they gazed at each other and then she waded out of the water and crossed the beach to a hollow in the sand surrounded by a horseshoe of boulders. Her shoes and a towel lay on an old travelling rug and she sat down and started to dry her legs.
Lomax crouched beside her and lit a cigarette. After a moment she held out her hand. "Do you mind?"
He gave her the cigarette without speaking and there was silence between them while she smoked it.
After a while she sighed and tossed it away. "What do you want me to say? That my life was ruined? That each day was a torment?"
"Wasn't it?"
"It was all so long ago that it might have happened to someone else," she said. "In any case, I was lucky. I became pregnant after a couple of months and they turned me out to fend for myself."."And the child?"
"I had a miscarriage." She shrugged. "It wouldn't have lived anyway. In those days half Greece was starving."
"I'm sorry, Katina," he said. "You'll never know sorry."
"But there's nothing to be sorry about."
"Isn't there? Remember what Father John said that day at The Little Ship? How men like me always left Other people to pay for our glory?"
She shook her head and said firmly. "Only the war was to blame. I told you once that it was a dark dream in which nothing that happened made any sense."
"And from which some people never manage to awaken."
"You mean my uncle?" She sighed. "Yes, I'm afraid he's never been able to forget. He lives on his own too much and broods."
"On his own?"
"At the farm. He's leased !t from me ever since the war. He's come to spend an increasing amount of tune there over the years. It isn't good for him."
"Surely he must employ a housekeeper and labourers to work in the vineyard."
"Only during the day. At night he prefers to be alone."
"What about The Little Ship?"
"He took Nikoli into partnership years ago. He and Pimitri Paros run it between them."
Lomax frowned. "Why Dimitri?"
