For it I beguile Eleanor our Queen,

roof, was no more than a shapeless blur in the opposite corner of the stone-flagged room. Andrea smiled to himself, without mirth. Taken prisoner again, and for the second time that dayand with the same ease and surprise that gave no chance at all of resistance: Completely unsuspecting, they had been captured in an upper room, seconds after Casey had finished talking to Cairo. The patrol had known exactly where to find themand with their leader's assurance that it was all over, with his gloating explanation of the part Panayis had played, the unexpectedness, the success of the coup was all too easy to understand. And it was difficult not to believe his assurance that neither Mallory nor Miller had a chance. But the thought of ultimate defeat never occurred to Andrea. His gaze left Casey Brown, wandered round the room, took in what he could see of the stone walls and floor, the hooks, the ventilation ducts, the heavy grille door. A dungeon, a torture dungeon, one would have thought, but Andrea had seen such places before. A castle, they called this place, but it was really only an old keep, no more than a manor house built round the crenelated towers. And the long-dead Franldsh nobles who had built these keeps had lived well. No dungeon this, Andrea knew, but simply the larder where they had hung their meat and game, and done without windows and light for the sake of . . . The light! Andrea twisted round, looked at the smoking oil lamp, his eyes narrowing. "Louki!" he called softly. The little Greek turned round to look at him. "Can you reach the lamp?" "I think so. . . . Yes, I can." "Take the glass off," Andrea whispered. "Use a clothit will be hot. Then wrap it in the cloth, hit it on the floorgently. The glass is thickyou can cut me loose in a minute or two." Louki stared at him for an uncomprehending moment, then nodded in understanding. He shuffled across the floorhis legs were still boundreached out, then halted his hand abruptly, only inches from the glass. The peremptory, metallic clang had been only feet away, and he raised his head slowly to see what had caused it. He could have stretched out his hand, touched the barrel of the Mauser that protruded threateningly through the bars of the grille door. Again the guard rattled the rifle angrily between the bars, shouted something he didn't understand. "Leave it alone, Louki," Andrea said quietly. His lumix tz3 digital camera australia voice was tranquil, unshadowed by disappointment "Come back here. Our Mend outside is not too pleased." Obediently Louki moved back, heard the guttural voice again, rapid and alarmed this time, the rattle as the guard withdrew his rifle quickly from the bars of the door, the urgent pounding of his feet on the flagstones outside as he raced up the passage. "What's the matter with our little friend?" Casey Brown was as lugubrious, as weary as ever. "He seems upset." "He is upset." Andrea smiled. "He's just realised that Louki's hands are untied." "Well, why doesn't he tie them up again?" "Slow in the head he may be, but he is no fool," Andrea explained. "This could be a trap and he's gone for his friends." Almost at once they heard a thud, like the closing of a distant door, the sound of more than one pair of feet running down the passage, the tinny rattling of keys on a ring, the rasp of a key against the lock, a sharp click, the squeal of rusty hinges and then two soldiers were in the room, dark and menacing with their jackboots and ready guns. Two or three seconds elapsed while they looked round them, accustoming their eyes to the gloom, then the man nearest the door spoke. "A terrible thing, boss, nothin' short of deplorable! Leave 'em alone for a couple of minutes and see what happens? The whole damn' bunch tied up like Houdini on an off night!" There was a brief, incredulous silence, then all three were sitting upright, staring at them. Brown recovered first. "High time, too," he complained. "Thought you were never going to get here." "What he means is that he thought we were never going to see you again," Andrea said quietly. "Neither did I. But here you are, safe and sound." "Yes," Mallory nodded. "Thanks to Dusty and his nasty suspicious mind that cottoned on to Panayis while all the rest of us were asleep." "Where is he?" Louki asked. "Panayis?" Miller waved a negligent hand. "We left him behindhe met with a sorta accident." He was across at the other side of the room now, carefully cutting the cords that pinioned Brown's injured leg, whistling tunelessly as he sawed away with his sheath knife. Mallory, too, was busy, slicing through Andrea's bonds, explaining rapidly what had happened, listening to the big Greek's equally concise account of what had befallen the