A Hero for Leanda

will only come through reason and negotiation—however long it may take. And that, as Victor told you, is why we need Kastella.”
    Conway said, “Do you know Kastella? Have you met him?”
    “I met him once,” she said, her dark eyes lighting up. “The struggle was just beginning. I’d helped to organize a meeting for him, and afterward he shook hands with me. He is a fine, humane man, and a wonderful leader. He hates violence—he worked in the Resistance against the Nazis during the last war and saw more than enough of it then. He is clever and farsighted and patient. Once he is free, he will end the terror—he will negotiate a settlement, and the English will go. Then we shall have a peaceful and happy country again.”
    Conway said, “H’m!”
    “You sound unsympathetic, Mr. Conway—yet you are an Irishman; you should understand what it feels like to live under the English.”
    “In Ireland ,” Conway said, “that was a bit before my time. I can’t say I’ve any personal grudge against the English. There are no martyrs in my family.”
    “But you can’t have any love for them.”
    “I wouldn’t say I’d any love for them, no. I don’t like the way they’re always pushing other people around from the highest moral motives. I don’t like being pushed around myself, and I don’t like pushers. So I’m with you most of the way—I can quite understand why you want to get rid of them. Anyway, all countries want to run their own affairs—it’s natural.”
    “Then why did you look so cynical just now?”
    “You were so sure that everything would be fine afterward. You’re an idealist, Miss Sophoulis, you have belief and faith. Free Kastella, you say, and then we shall have a peaceful and happy country. Then, everything will be all right. But it never is. Often, it’s worse. Slavery can be comfortable and freedom can be hell. The dreams never come true.”
    “One can always hope.”
    “Oh, sure.... What I’m trying to say is that our angles on this thing are different. If I did decide to go off on this crazy mission, it wouldn’t be because I thought I was doing a great service to someone or making people any happier .“
    “You mean it would be for the money.”
    “For the money, and only for the money. I’d be a mercenary, and that would have to be quite clear from the
    start . Not that I think I’d ever need twenty thousand pounds, but I could certainly use a fine ship.”
    “Does that mean so much to you?”
    “It means pretty well everything to me. It’s my way of life.”
    “Aren’t you ever lonely?”
    “Oh, yes, sometimes, when the weather’s good and there’s not much to occupy me. But the feeling passes .“
    “What’s attractive about the life?”
    “To me? Absolute freedom and independence. Never having to study anyone’s wishes but my own.”
    “It sounds selfish, the way you put it.”
    “Maybe it is—but I can’t help that. I ask very little of the world and I don’t think I owe it anything. At least, the way I live doesn’t harm anybody else.”
    “But surely,” Leanda said, “one has to do something in the world. Not just go round and round it.”
    “I don’t see why. It seems to me there are far too many people doing far too much already. Wasn’t it Lord Melbourne who once said, ‘Whenever I hear a man say something must be done, I know he’s about to do something damn silly!’? I prefer just going round and round.”
    “But one can’t live happily without responsibility or friends or affection.”
    “I get by,” Conway said. “I’m used to traveling light. There’s all the responsibility I want getting my ship safely to port. And I have a lot of friends round the world, even though I don’t look them up very often—or perhaps because!”
    “Don’t you ever get bored?”
    “Not for long—the contrasts are too sharp for that. When
    I’ve been at sea for a week or two I can’t bear the sight of it and long for the shore. Then I go ashore, and I enjoy it much more than most landsmen, I can tell you. When I’ve been ashore for a few days I can’t bear the sight of that either. So I go to sea again, and it feels marvelous.”
    “It all sounds very pointless,” Leanda said.
    “What isn’t?”
    “In my view, freeing Alexander Kastella.”
    Conway laughed. “Well, we seem to be back where we started. You’re dedicated—I’m not. At least we have no illusions about each other—which is just as well if we’re to go