Yanni wrinkled up his face with an expression of pungent disgust.
"I want no Turk smelling round me," he said. "It is the devil's business. How long must I be there, think you?"
"Not long, I hope. A month, perhaps. It will be an experience worth paying for, even for you. They will treat you royally, for they have no desire to make enemies among the clan. I want Mitsos to go with you as your servant for a day or two, so that he too may have free access to the governor's house and know where you will be in case they get more alarmed and keep you close, so that when the time comes for your escape he may easily find you."
"That will be a fine day for me," said Yanni.
"And what for me," asked Mitsos, "after I leave Yanni there?"
"You go to Nauplia with a letter from me for Nicholas, but I expect you will stay there just as long as the gull when he dips in the sea and out again. There will then be another journey for you northward to Patras to speak with Germanos. However, Nicholas will tell you all that."
"O lazy dog," he said, "is it for this I pay you wages, that you should lie in the grass by your master"--and he felt in his pouch and found his tobacco gone--"and, by the Virgin! take his tobacco, and then not be able to fill a pipe fit for a Turk to smoke?"
"Fill it for me, Yanni," said the other, returning the tobacco, "and let go my hair before there is trouble for a little cousin of mine."
"You shall brush my clothes and sew my buttons," continued Yanni, "and lay my supper, and eat of my leavings. It is a fine thing to have a good strong servant. There's your pipe."
Mitsos reached out a huge hand, plucked Yanni's pipe from his mouth, and lit his own at it.
"There is a good clean smell abroad to-day," he said. "It is the first of spring. Just think; last year only I went out picking flowers with the little boys and girls on this day, and here am I now a man of war. It was good to sleep under the pines and wake to them whispering; was it not, Yanni? Perhaps that will come again when the kennel-work is over."
"Easter candles give I to the Mother of God," said Yanni, "for the days that are gone, and a candle more for every day we journey together, Mitsos."
"The Blessed Mother of God will have a brave lighting up one night, then," said Petrobey, "if things go well with us. There's many a tramp for you both yet. And who will be paying for the candles, little Yanni?"