As he finished a sudden sound reached their ears and Marco sprang to his feet.
"A wolf is at my goats!" he cried. "I must go. Zoe, fly quickly down the mountain; but no--it is too late for you to go alone, there are wild beasts abroad. You should not have stayed so late!"
"Go quickly to your goats, Marco. That is your duty. I shall be safe, for I shall pray to the saints and the Holy Virgin, and I shall run very fast."
"Go to your herd, good shepherd, and I will take your sister home," said the stranger, putting up the remains of his meal, but Marco did not look reassured. He looked helplessly from one to the other. "I may be out all night," he said, when another squeal, sharp and shrill, came through the air.
"Go at once, Marco, I shall be quite safe with this gentleman," said Zoe.
"I will promise that she shall go straight home," said the stranger, and Marco unwillingly turned to the mountain.
Zoe and her strange companion walked hastily down the steep path which led to the village.
"Child," said the stranger, "why did you tell your brother to go? Are you not afraid of me?"
"He is not my brother, but my cousin, and I am not at all afraid," she said.
"But you were afraid at first," he said. "You thought I was a brigand."
"That was before I had seen your face," said the little girl. "And now that I have seen you and heard you talk, I know that you are not."
"You are a good man, because you keep the Lenten fast, you speak well of God and you are kind to a little girl. So I know you have a white heart. You may perhaps be a brigand, but you are a good one."
He threw back his head and laughed aloud.
"You are a strange little one," he said. "Tell me your name."
"Zoe Averoff of Argolis! Child, what are you doing here?"
She looked at him in wonder as she answered, "My mother is dead, my father is gone and comes no more; he must be dead too. I live here with my uncle, the father of Marco."
The stranger's eyes were fixed upon her and she saw them fill with hot tears.
"Child," he said, "I believe you are my little niece. I am Andreas Averoff, and your father was my brother. I feared that I would fail to find you, since all they could tell me at your old home was that you had gone to Thessaly. Do you remember me, since I went to your house once long ago?"