CHAPTER 9
Payment
After lunch the children went down to have their last council of war with Yani.
“I really think,” said David as they made their way through the olive groves, “that we should tick Coocos off.”
“You will do no such thing,” said Amanda indignantly. “After all, he was only trying to help.”
“Yes, but he could have ruined everything if Father had put his foot down,” David pointed out.
“You are not to say anything to him,” said Amanda firmly. “How would you like to go through life wanting to talk and nobody letting you?”
“All right,” said David resignedly, “but that is just the sort of thing that makes first-class plans come unstuck.”
When they told Yani, he was as horrified as they had been, but he, too, sided with Amanda and agreed that they should say nothing to Coocos about the matter.
“Now,” said Amanda briskly, “it’s merely a question of claiming the reward. I suggest this evening would be a suitable time to discover the donkeys.”
“Now, let’s get this quite clear,” said David. “Yani must not be implicated in discovering the donkeys. If he is, the Mayor will know that he took part in pinching them. It’s got to be done by us.”
“All right,” said Amanda. “We’ll swim across to Hesperides about four o’clock and discover them on the island. Surprise! Surprise!”
“Yes,” said David, “because by the time we get back to the village with the news everyone will have had their siestas.”
“I wonder what their reactions are going to be?” mused Amanda.
“They’ll be grateful beyond belief,” said Yani, chuckling. “I don’t think they ever realised before how much they needed their donkeys.”
“It’s very unlikely that the Mayor is going to have twenty thousand drachma in his house,” observed David shrewdly, “which means that be will have to go into Melissa for it, which means that we really can’t get the reward until tomorrow.”
“Well, that’s all right,” said Amanda. “It doesn’t matter whether we get it to-day or to-morrow.”
“No. But if he sleeps on it,” David pointed out, “he might change his mind.”
“Well, he can’t go into Melissa this evening,” said Yani, “because the bank will be closed.”
David frowned and sighed.
“Yes. I can’t see any other way of doing it,” he said. “We’ll just have to risk it.”
So that afternoon Yani and Coocos made it patently obvious to those villagers they met that they were going to have a siesta and, as it grew towards four o’clock, Amanda and David swam out through the warm blue water to Hesperides.
“You must admit,” said Amanda, shaking her wet hair and surveying the donkeys and the Mayor’s little horse, “that they look worlds better for their rest.”
“Yes, they do,” agreed David. “In fact, I think it would be a good idea if this happened to them once a year.”
“What, you mean that they were brought out to Hesperides?” asked Amanda.
“Yes,” said David, “a sort of holiday camp for donkeys.”
“It would be a good idea,” said Amanda, musingly, “but I doubt whether we could get the villagers to adopt it.”
“Well,” said David, “the thing for you to do is to swim back and rush up to the village. Round about now the Mayor will be awake and having his first cup of coffee and everyone else will be around too. Remember to make it as dramatic as you can, and don’t for heaven’s sake giggle.”
“I never giggle,” said Amanda austerely.
“You do, you giggle incessantly.”
“I don’t giggle,” said Amanda. “I laugh.”
“Well, whatever it is you do, don’t do it,” said David.
So, after patting the furry rumps of the donkeys, Amanda ran down the stone steps from the church and plunged once more into the water. In order to give an air of authenticity to her part, she ran up the hill so that by the time she arrived in the village square, she was panting and exhausted.
As they had anticipated, Mayor Oizus, Papa Nikos and many other members of the village had just come from their siestas and had gathered round the tables at the café to discuss the burning question — when they would get information from the Communists as to the whereabouts of their donkeys. They were having a long and very complicated argument as to whether Communists could read or not when Amanda, perspiring profusely, came running into the village square.
“Mayor Oizus, Mayor Oizus,” she gasped, “we’ve found them.” She flung herself panting and exhausted into the Mayor’s lap.
“Found what, my golden one?” inquired the Mayor, startled.
It was obvious, however, from Amanda’s incoherence that she was in no condition to answer him, so they plied her with glasses of wine and patted her back and made reassuring noises until she had regained her breath.
“The donkeys,” gulped Amanda at last. “We’ve found them.”
The effect of this statement was electric. The Mayor rose to his feet spilling Amanda on to the floor and knocking over the table which held twelve ouzos and five cups of coffee.
“What?” he asked of the prostrate Amanda. “You have found them?”
“Where? Where?” shouted Papa Nikos.
“Where have you found them?”
“Tell us, tell us quickly,” said Papa Yorgo.
Amanda, who liked to have her dramatic effects just as the villagers did, rose to her feet and leaned tragically on the upturned table.
“We have found them,” she repeated with a sob in her voice.
“They have been found!” shouted the Mayor. “The donkeys have been found!”
Immediately the word was shouted from house to house and as if by magic the little square filled with villagers, all clamouring to know the truth.
“Where are they? Where are they?” asked Papa Nikos. Amanda drew a long shuddering breath and lifted up her head nobly.
“David and I,” she said in a trembling voice, “went for a swim this afternoon. We swam out to Hesperides. I think you all know it?”
There was a mutter of acknowledgment from the villagers, hastily stilled so that they would not miss a word of her story.
“We climbed up the steps to the little terrace by the church,” Amanda continued, dragging out the story as long as she could.
“Yes, yes,” said the villagers, “we know it, we know it.”
“And there,” said Amanda dramatically, “to our astonishment, we found all the donkeys and the Mayor’s little horse.”
“Saint Polycarpos preserve us,” shouted the Mayor. “It is a miracle.”
“Were there any Communists with them?” asked Papa Yorgo.