The Moonspinners Read Online Free PDF

under the coat, and stood up to face the Greek. ‘I told you I’m asking no questions, but I am not going away from here and leaving him like this. When did this happen?’
    â€˜The day before last,’ sullenly.
    â€˜He’s been here two nights?’ I said, horrified.
    â€˜Not in here. The first night, he was out on the mountain.’ He added, as if defying me to go further: ‘Before I find him and bring him here.’
    â€˜I see. And you’ve not tried to get help? All right, don’t look like that, I’ve managed to gather that you’re in some sort of trouble. Well, I’ll keep quiet about it, I promise you. Do you think I want to get mixed up in whatever skulduggery you’re up to?’
    â€˜Oriste?’
    â€˜Whatever trouble you’re in,’ I translated impatiently. ‘It’s nothing to me. But I told you. I don’t intend to walk away and leave him like that. Unless you do something about him – what was his name? Mark?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Well, unless something’s done about your Mark, here and now, he will die, and that will be something more to worry about. Have you any food?’
    â€˜A little. I had bread, and some cheese—’
    â€˜And fine stuff it looks, too.’ There was a polythene mug lying in the dirt beside the bed. It had held wine, and there were flies on the rim. I picked it up.
    â€˜Go and wash this. Bring my bag, and my cardigan. They’re where I dropped them when you jumped on me with your beastly knife. There’s food there. It’s not sickroom stuff, but there’s plenty of it, and it’s clean. Oh, look, wait a moment, there’s a cooking-pot of a sort over there – I suppose the shepherds use it. We ought to have hot water. If you fill it, I can get some wood and stuff together, and we’ll get a fire going—’
    â€˜No!’ Both men spoke together. Mark’s eyes had flown open on the word, and I saw a look flash between them which was, for all Mark’s weakness, as electric as a spark jumping across points.
    I looked from one to the other in silence. ‘As bad as that?’ I said at length, ‘Skulduggery was the word, then. Fallen stones, what nonsense.’ I turned to Lambis. ‘What was it, a knife?’
    â€˜A bullet,’ he said, not without a certain relish.
    â€˜A bullet ?’
    â€˜Yes.’
    â€˜Oh.’
    â€˜So you see,’ said Lambis, his surliness giving way to a purely human satisfaction, ‘you should have kept away. And when you go, you will say nothing. There is danger, great danger. Where there has been one bullet, there can be another. And if you speak a word in the village of what you have seen today, I shall kill you myself.’
    â€˜Yes, all right.’ I spoke impatiently; I was scarcely listening. The look in Mark’s face was frightening me to death. ‘But get my bag first, will you? And here, wash this, and make sure it’s clean.’
    I thrust the mug at him, and he took it, like a man in a dream.
    â€˜And hurry up!’ I added. He looked from me to the mug, to Mark, to the mug again, then left the hut without a word.
    â€˜Greek,’ said Mark faintly from his corner, ‘meets Greek.’ There was the faintest definable gleam of amusement in his face, under the pain and exhaustion. ‘You’re quite a girl, aren’t you? What’s your name?’
    â€˜Nicola Ferris. I thought you’d fainted again.’
    â€˜No. I’m pretty tough, you don’t have to worry. Have you really got some food?’
    â€˜Yes. Look, is the bullet out? Because if it’s not—’
    â€˜It is. It’s only a flesh wound. And clean. Really.’
    â€˜If you’re sure—’ I said doubtfully. ‘Not that I’d know a damned thing about bullet wounds, so if we can’t have hot water, I’d better take your word for it, and