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By Root 10737 0

ends don't lie." It was getting very short. "Oh. Yes. I forgot." She took a last puff, then stubbed it out on the abalone shell beside the bed. She stood, and touched the ends of the belt of her dressing gown. "Would you mind turning the light off?" "I see you better with it on." She looked down. "It seems so coldblooded." "Poker is a coldblooded game." "Poker?" Thunder interrupted us again. "I thought that was what we were playing." She fiddled with the ends of her belt. "At least you could kiss me." "I shall. Later." Silence; she took a breath. I thought for one moment... but she gave me a quick look and said, "I'm afraid I must go along to the loo first." I immediately unlocked the door and opened it. She checked for a moment as she passed me; an oblique look. "I shan't be a moment." I grinned, to tell her I could see the trick a mile off, but she had gone. I took the key out of the lock and went back to the window. There was the strange smell in summer Greece of wet stone, almost a London smell. Steady rain; I imagined it running down the walls of hundreds of thirsty cisterns. The excited eels. A minute passed. There was a sound. I flicked a look round, and although I allowed myself only a glimpse of the girl in the black dressing gown in the doorway, I knew I had been right from the beginning. The door was closed, the light turned off. I kept my back turned; almost silent footsteps behind me, and then two cool hands reached round and touched my cheeks, my eyes, ran down to my mouth.

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The hands caressed my cheeks again; then my ears; playfully pulled them, as June might have pulled them. I thought of various clever things to say; of pretending that I did not know. But in the end I just said, "Julie." The hands stopped; there was a little silence. "She said you'd guessed." I turned and she was smiling at me; the Leonardo smile; dressed exactly as June had been, her hair down. I put a quiet offence into my voice. "Why?" "Just a little last surprise." "Or a test?" She bowed her head in a not altogether mock shame; and then I kissed her. A long minute, the receding thunder, the mild rain; silence and her warm mouth, the feel of her body through the thin cotton. I had and held her. There was a discreet knock. "It's June." She went to the door, switching on the light. June stood there holding a tray with a bottle of Greek cognac on it and three glasses. She had put on another identical black shirt and blue skirt--her sister's. Julie said reproachfully, "He knew at once." June pulled a face at me as she came in, as if I was to blame. "You could have pretended, Nicholas. I think you're a cad." "I'm past pretending. And could I be told what's happened?" But Julie came and took my arm. "It was a shame. It was her idea." June poured me a full glass of koniak; fingers for herself and her sister. She handed me mine, then sat on the bed, where Julie joined her. "Weren't those men fantastic?" She turned to Julie. "I told him I was being followed. And suddenly three sinister men appeared." "They weren't sinister. They were just out for the air." "Oh, you've no imagination." We raised glasses, clinked them. I said, "What exactly are we celebrating?" They glanced at each other, grinned. Julie smiled up at me. "Can't you guess?" June said, "Look, we have come through." They sat on the bed like a pair of sphinxes, enjoying their secret, their silence, and my impatience. Julie finally had mercy. "It was Maurice." "Everything?" "He couldn't resist a last joke. On both of us." "But that business on Sunday... did they hurt you?" She clasped her heart. "Oh, the shock. When I saw those men. How long did they make you stay down there?" I told her. "There were four of them. Germans. But they were all right, they didn't hurt me. There was a ca�e waiting." "And Maurice?" "He was in Athens when we got there. With June. We've spent the last two days with him." "And we've agreed to help him next year," said her sister. "And I said you would help, too. I'd convince you." "Did you indeed?" "I will." She smiled. "And where's Maurice now?" "He's really