A Hero for Leanda

incentives! A little for trying—a lot for succeeding.”
    “A ‘lot’ is right,” Conway said. “What makes this man Kastella so important?”
    “I can tell you that in a few words. Kastella is the only man who can give my country genuine freedom. Since his arrest, the liberation movement has taken a wrong turning. It has got into the hands of unscrupulous and violent men who are using it for their own ends. The British government will never negotiate with them. If they succeeded in gaining independence by force, the outcome could be a worse tyranny than anything we have known. Kastella’s return to active control would put the struggle back on the right road, the democratic road—and Spyros would soon be free. That, at least, is my view.”
    “Twenty thousand pounds seems a great deal to pay for a political view,” Conway said.
    “Not to me, Mr. Conway. I can assure you I’ve already paid very much more than that just to publicize the Spyros case throughout the world. Money means very little to me —money for its own sake. It has never been difficult for me to acquire it. I have the Midas touch. Nothing ever seems to go wrong with my ventures. If I take over a shipping concern, inevitably some world crisis develops and there is a shortage of ships. If I start a new airline, my competitors run into a series of misfortunes which bring me traffic. If I buy oil wells, my rivals’ pipelines are cut and mine are not. People say I have a flair , an instinct. Perhaps I have. Whatever it is, the money flows in—and I am left with the greatest problem of all: How to spend it with any satisfaction!”
    “Yes, I guess that could be a problem,” Conway said.
    “It has been so for me. One soon tires of personal luxury. Wealth by itself brings no happiness—that is a commonplace. It can have the opposite effect. It can bedevil one’s private relationships. I have been married three times, Mr. Conway—three times, and I am not yet forty. Each time I have hoped for success, and found only failure.... Of course, I have given a great deal of money away to good causes, but large-scale philanthropy is a remote and unsatisfying thing. The cause of Spyros is different. It is something I can feel about intensely, personally. I should like to be known in history as the man who gave Spyros its freedom. I shall never deserve that, but at least I can play my part, and when Spyros is free, safely and happily free, that freedom will be a memorial to me, as well as to others... He broke off, smiling a little shyly. “It is only too easy to talk to strangers, Mr. Conway—and I am talking too much. Let us get back to practical matters. What do you think of the enterprise?”
    “I couldn’t be more dubious about it,” Conway said.
    “If you weren’t dubious at this stage, I should have very little faith in you.... But try to be more specific. What exactly are you concerned about?”
    “Well, in the first place,” Conway said, “I doubt if I could rescue Kastella. He’s bound to be very closely guarded.”
    “I understand not, Mr. Conway. According to the newspapers, he has very considerable freedom of movement on Heureuse—and why not, since there’s nowhere for him to escape to? My guess is that once you had succeeded in contacting him, the rest would be easy.” Metaxas smiled. “What the English call ‘a piece of cake’!”
    “Contacting him might not be easy. Does he speak English?”
    “As fluently as I do. Don’t forget that English is our second language in Spyros. Besides, he is a highly educated man. He was formerly a lawyer, and a brilliant one.” Conway grunted. “Well, I still see nothing easy about it.... Just suppose for the sake of argument that I managed to take him off. They’d send out planes and boats directly they missed him, and we’d be caught in no time.” Metaxas shook his head. “There are no airplanes on Heureuse, Mr. Conway. There is no ground flat enough for an airfield. There is not even a helicopter. There might be a launch or two, but a launch would have great difficulty in finding you. If you left under cover of darkness, I think
    you would have an excellent chance of getting clean away.“
    “Where would I make for? You’re not suggesting I should try to put him ashore on Spyros?”
    “Good gracious, no—the coast is much too well guarded. Smuggling him in would be a major operation, to be carried out later by those who are used to it.... No, my suggestion would be