“We ran into a little trouble,” Lomax gasped, “but he’s all right. For God’s sake let’s get out of here.”
She gunned the motor and drove away very rapidly across the square. As they entered the narrow road that led out of town and across the bridge, another truck started to emerge. Lomax caught a brief glimpse of the driver’s startled, frightened face before the man swung the wheel, crashing his vehicle into the wall and blocking the road.
Katina reversed quickly and started back across the square. The other truck had already breasted the hill and was moving rapidly to block the only remaining exit. The road to the other side of the island.
At the last moment, the driver braked to avoid a crash and Katina took the jeep through the dark, twisting street between the houses and out along the dirt road that led to the farm.
Whatever happened now, there was only one way they could reach the villa. Across the mountain and on foot.
The Run for Cover
They reached the farm a good five minutes in front of the truck and Katina braked to a halt in the yard beside the barn. Lomax got out and leaned over the trough to splash water on his face. When he raised his head, he saw that she was looking at him, a slight frown on her face.
“What is it?” he said.
“We stood together here once before,” she replied slowly.
He nodded. “I remember.”
She shivered slightly. “Is it then or now, Hugh?”
“I don’t know, Katina,” he said soberly. “Perhaps hi some strange way each is a part of the other.”
She reached out and took one of his hands and in that moment he knew with complete certainty that she was all he would ever want. He kissed her on the mouth and behind them the truck came over the run of the hollow and started down towards the farm.
They crossed the yard, ducked under the fence and went up the slope through the olive trees. Katina led the way, moving expertly over the familiar ground in spite of the darkness.
Thunder rumbled ominously like gunfire in the distance, but otherwise a strange unnatural stillness hung over everything like a cloak. The truck came to a halt in the yard below, the engine was turned off and a door slammed.
Katina moved out of the shelter of the olive grove and started across the bare hillside and Lomax followed her. At that moment, a bank of cloud rolled away from the moon, bathing everything in a hard white light.
A sudden cry sounded from below as they were seen and he turned and glanced down. He could see the truck quite clearly in the middle of the yard and the white faces of the men who looked up. Behind them, another truck was moving down the track to the farm.
Katina was already half-way across the barren hillside and he loosened the loop on the Winchester, slung it over his back and went after her.
It was a strange sensation to be hunted again and he was conscious of the old, familiar nervous excitement that crawled across his flesh and sharpened all the senses. He paused on the rim of a small plateau and looked down for a moment and saw the hunters already strung out in a ragged line as they moved up the hillside. Some of them carried lanterns and when the second truck came to a halt, he heard the excited barking of dogs.
A shot whined into the night, spending itself in space, hopelessly off target, and he stepped back so that he could no longer be seen.
Katina moved beside him, her face troubled. “Kytros can’t be with them. He would never allow that.”
Lomax wiped sweat from his brow with the back of one hand. “There’s nothing to worry about. We’ve got a good start.”
She shook her head. “Don’t be too sure. Many of them are farmers and shepherds. They know the mountain. They can move across it at twice our speed.”
Instead of working her way diagonally across the steep hillside, she went straight up, and Lomax followed her. The slope lifted steeply until it was almost perpendicular with rough tussocks of grass sticking out of the bare rock.