A Hero for Leanda

breakfast he asked to be given a job, and Conway gave him the mop and bucket and let him swab the decks down while Leanda cleared up below. Then, since the breeze was steady, Conway called him to the tiller and for an hour instructed him patiently in the theory and practice of sailing. Kastella absorbed the theory quickly, and showed quite a bit of practical skill. His main trouble was overconfidence—a tendency to go his own way and respond too slowly to Conway ’s instructions. Several times the big mainsail swung over in a light jibe as Kastella’s erratic steering put the wind behind the boom. But on the whole Conway found him promising, and said so. “Well all be sharing watches before the end of this trip,” he prophesied. “You must keep at it.”
    For a while, after lunch, Kastella retired to his cabin to do some writing. Then, at two o’clock, they tuned in again to Radio Heureuse. This time, Kastella’s disappearance took up almost the whole of the bulletin. There was no more talk of an island search. The marks of a rowing boat had been found in the sand below the bungalow, the announcer said, and it was now believed that Kastella had been taken off in a yacht named Thalia, owned by a Mr. and Mrs. Michael Cornford, which had arrived a few days earlier from Mombasa and had left without proper clearance shortly before the disappearance was reported. Inquiries in Mombasa , the bulletin said, had revealed that the yacht had been purchased only a week or two before. The former owner, a well-known Mombasa businessman named Paul Ionides, had told a news agency that he had bought it as a speculation and had sold it in good faith to a couple who had answered an advertisement he had inserted in an English yachting journal. They had said they were going for a holiday cruise, and he’d had no idea at all that they intended to use it for any nefarious purpose.
    Kastella frowned a little over the last item. “Did he put an advertisement in an English yachting paper?” he asked.
    “You bet he did,” Conway said. “He and Metaxas between them thought of just about everything.”
    “His Spyros-sounding name is bound to make people wonder. The Kenya police may well think he was involved .“
    “If they do, they can’t prove anything. Ionides has got documents to back up his story all the way through. Anyhow, the more they suspect him, the less likely they’ll be to think we’ll go back there. I’m sure you’ve nothing to worry about.”
    Kastella grunted. After a moment he turned the radio dial to the short-wave band and found other stations where the escape was being discussed. It had obviously caused a tremendous sensation, and was top news everywhere. Most of the interest seemed to be in where Thalia was making for. A French station thought it probable that the yacht was heading for India , where Kastella could be pretty sure of political asylum. A Dutch station suggested Ceylon . No one mentioned Kenya as a possible refuge. An American commentator reported that London was “stunned” by the news, and very concerned about the effect the escape had already had in Spyros. It seemed that a new wave of terrorism had swept over the colony, resulting in the deaths of three policemen and five terrorists.
    Kastella switched off the radio in sudden anger. “Idiots!” he exclaimed. “Worse than idiots! They’re not winning freedom, they’re sabotaging it.”
    “They don’t realize that,” Leanda said. She looked a bit shaken, too.
    “Some of them do. I could name a few, and so could you. So could our friend Metaxas. Men who look on violence as a short cut to power.”
    Conway said, “It often has been.”
    “This time it won’t be—not if I can help it.”
    “What do you plan to do,” Conway asked, “supposing you get the chance?”
    “I plan to form an orderly and democratic government in a free and independent Spyros, Conway.... If I can ever get the English to realize where their true interests lie.”
    Conway said, “Well, it sounds all right!”

    The afternoon passed quietly. There was a little excitement about three o’clock, when Conway suddenly spotted a sail on the starboard beam, but it was only a small fishing ketch from one of the islands and it soon faded into the blue of the horizon. Otherwise they saw nothing. Kastella had another spell at the tiller and then returned to his perch in the bows. Leanda, between watches, was absorbed in some document that Kastella had given her