“And do you think, my dear friend,” said the king, “that a great institution like the Hamburg Botanical Gardens would let a man of your worth perish rather than pay his ransom of L600?  Happy young man!  You now see the value of a sound, scientific education.  Had you been an utter ignoramus as I am, I wouldn’t have asked the ransom of a penny.”

The king listened neither to my objections nor to the cries of Mrs. Simons.  He rose up and departed; and one of his secretaries led us to a plot of green sward, where a meal had been laid for us.

“The king has ordered everything to be done to make your sojourn as pleasant as possible,” he said.  “He is sorry that his men were so ill-mannered as to rob persons of your importance.  Everything they took will be returned to you.  You have thirty days in which to pay your ransom.  Write to your friends without delay, as the king never grants an extension of time.”

“But if I can’t get the money?” I asked.

“You will be killed,” said the secretary.

I did not know what to do.  I knew nobody with L100, much less L600.  Then I thought of John Harris.

“Tell Christodulos,” I wrote, “that Hadgi Stavros won’t let me go.  If he will not intercede for me, I leave myself, dear friend, in your hands.  I know you are a man of courage and imagination.  You will find a way to get me out of this fix.”

All the same, I had very little hope; and Hadgi Stavros came up and found me looking very gloomy.

“Courage, my boy,” he said.

“You know I can’t raise L600,” I exclaimed.  “It’s simply murder.”

“You’re a young fool,” said the King of the Mountains.  “Were I in your place, my ransom would be paid in two days.  Don’t you understand?  Here you have an opportunity of winning a charming wife and an immense fortune.”

Mary Ann was sitting with her mother outside one of the caves in the rocky enclosure, which were to serve as bedrooms.  Close at hand was a stream, which ran through a hole in the rocks, and went tumbling down the precipitous side of the plateau.  I saw that the stretch of green sward between the rocks had been a lake.  This suggested to me a way of escape.

“Suppose,” I said to Mary Ann, “that I closed up the hole in the rocks with turf, and let the water run into this hollow ground, do you think we would be able to climb down by the empty river bed?”

She got on the rocks and gazed over the precipice.  “I could do it if you would help me.”

“But I couldn’t,” said Mrs. Simons, very snappishly.  “The whole thing’s utterly ridiculous.  I’ve written to the British Ambassador, and we shall be rescued by the royal troops in two days at the latest.”

I then told her of the “King of the Mountains Co., Ltd.”

“No doubt,” I said, “many of the gallant officers in the Greek Army have shares in it.”

III.—­A Way of Escape