 from
him at a handsome profit to the vendor, looked as if he had been
insulted when the consuls were mentioned. As well he might, since those
astute gentlemen had done their best to keep all possible material out
of his hands, had blandly checkmated the armies of occupation at every
turn, even preaching a holy war against them among the owners of Turkish
baths in the Via Egnatia. They had financed Hellenic Turks who laid
injunctions on rights-of-way, issued writs against movement of goods,
and sought to inflame French against English and Italian against both.
The consuls had been the curse of every executive at Headquarters, for
their resources and nerve seemed unlimited. They worked together like a
team of experienced crooks on a steamship, and never for a moment were
the invaders permitted to forget that the local government was neutral.
The major was happier than he had been for a long while, though he
lacked the emotional demonstrativeness proper to such a mood. All three
of these men, by their reports, had aided in the grand _coup_ which had
culminated that evening in the expulsion of the consuls across the
frontier. But their first thought, when Mr. Dainopoulos mentioned
consuls, was that by some ghastly mischance the consuls had got back
into Saloniki and the whole weary business was to begin again.

"Eh?" said the major, snarling up his upper lip so that his moustache
looked more like a nail-brush than ever, and looking as if he were about
to spring up and fasten his teeth in his visitor's neck. "What's that?"

Thus having evoked a suitable interest in his affairs, Mr. Dainopoulos
drew a small notebook from his pocket and began to enumerate the list of
goods the sudden departure of the consuls had left on his hands. In the
midst of it, the major nodded to a chair and said, "Sit down over here,
please." Mr. Dainopoulos came forward, sat down, and proceeded. The
naval lieutenant reached over to the dressing table, took up a Turkish
dagger and began turning it over in his hands, examining the edge with
an intense stare. The censor drew steadily at his pipe and looked Mr.
Dainopoulos up and down. He was a novelist, and of the three may be said
to have had some practice in the gauging of character. He was aware, in
spite of a life spent exclusively in southern England and among one
small exclusive caste of English people, that this Levantine might have
a view of his own. He was interesting. Where had he picked up that
English wife? A slight shudder passed over him in spite of himself at
the thought of an English woman in a Levantine's arms. No doubt,
however, she was a house-maid or something of that sort. Must be making
a lot of money. The censor felt a surge of indignation over this. His
own family's resources had been quadrupled by the war; but that of
course was the reward of patriotic endeavour. He found it intolerable
that a neutral should make money out of bloodshed. Mr. Dainopoulos
proceeded as calmly and collectedly as though he were a salesman in
Birmingham or Liverpool. He certainly was unaware of inspiring horror
and contempt. He even mentioned a thousand yards of Indian cotton drill
which he had in his warehouse and which he had purchased for a song from
a German firm in Alexandria a few days before the English had
sequestered the business. The only point on which he was reticent was
the fact that he had already been paid in gold for most of it by the
consular agents; a most satisfactory arrangement for him, but
unfortunate for them in the present juncture, since they had no receipt
and the goods were to be held against their order. There was something
exasperating in the spectacle of this man sitting there, with all the
marks of clandestine knavery about him, merely offering _bona fide_
goods for sale. He was a Greek in Greece, transacting business which,
although he did not yet know it, was of vital importance to them, for a
whole string of vessels bound for Saloniki had been sunk inside of two
days, from the Start to Karaburun. They were at a loss for a week or so,
and a week or so in war is not to be ignored. And here was an
unprepossessing person offering them, at a comparatively reasonable
rate, a remarkable consignment of material. Apart from their own needs
in Macedonia they had recently sent a few thousand men to an island in
the AEgean to prepare a base, and the ships bearing their stores were
unreported. Sunk, of course. They sat in various poses thinking of all
this, and Mr. Dainopoulos closed his notebook and took out a cigarette.

It should be said for him that if he had known their actual position his
price would have been slightly higher, just as later on English
merchants' prices became so high that men spat at the sound of their
names. But he was not a profiteer in the modern sense. He knew nothing
of advertising, for example. He thought 100 per cent. an adequate
reimbursement for the risks of trade.

He was asked when he could effect delivery. He said in a week or ten
days, some of it being on board a steamer on its way now from
Alexandria.

"What steamer is that?" demanded the lieutenant.

"The _Kalkis_, four hundred tons," he replied. "I have had her a year
now."

"What speed?"

"Oh, four. Perhaps four and a half. A very old ship. No good except for
my business to the Islands."

"Don't know about that, my friend," muttered the major. "You may have to
give up your business to the Islands. We commandeer our own ships; I
don't see how you are going to get out of it."

"That would suit me," said Mr. Dainopoulos promptly. "She costs me
fifteen thousand francs a month insurance. And coal is four hundred
francs a ton in Port Said. I make very little out of her."

This was scarcely the literal truth, though Mr. Dainopoulos might be
pardoned for depreciating his profits at a moment when a purchaser
appeared. As a matter of fact he had made already out of that small ship
about seven times her original purchase price and he had a neat scheme
in hand which would make her a very good investment indeed.

"We have some business in the Islands, too, you see," the major remarked
abstractedly. "I think you had better come to my office say about
ten-thirty to-morrow. You know the place. Next to the Ottoman Bank, eh?
G. O. S. Room Fourteen. Ask for Major Begg."

Mr. Dainopoulos, who would probably have done a thousand francs' worth
of business before the major had had his bath, expressed his willingness
to appear.

"Will you have a drink?" said the major in a harsh, brow-beating tone
which was believed by himself and many others of his class to evoke the
very soul of bluff hospitality. Mr. Dainopoulos, however, had a strange
feeling of having been good-humouredly kicked in the face. He declined
the refreshment, not because he felt insulted, but because he knew the
only drink these men had was whiskey and the smell and taste of the
stuff made him sick.

"All right," said the major, regarding an abstainer with disfavour. He
liked a man to take a drink. "To-morrow at ten-thirty. You might close
the door. Thanks."

As he closed the door behind him, as requested, Mr. Dainopoulos
reflected that he would have time to lay the matter before a French
colonel he knew before reaching Room Fourteen. But he believed the best
price was to be had from the British. He had found out that much in the
course of his career--they did not haggle.

The three men he had left did not speak for a moment, waiting for him to
get out of earshot.

"Looks like Providence," observed the lieutenant, making a lunge with
the dagger at a knot in the bedstead.

The major pulled up his trouser leg and scratched a hairy calf. "These
infernal fleas!" he muttered. "Yes, as you say, Providence. An angel
very much in disguise."

"What about that ship, the _Kalkis_?" asked the censor.

"Oh, we shall probably charter her," said the major bitterly. "Take all
the risk and pay him a princely sum for sitting tight here and doing
nothing. We ought to buy, but we won't."

He sat silent for a moment. He was thinking of those men in Phyros,
waiting for their stores, eating sparingly of their emergency rations,
sampling the local cheese and bread and keeping a bright look-out for
transports which were lying