"The knife flashed as he lifted it, whether for me or the rope I was never to know, for Colin flew yelling out of the dark like a mad terrier, and fastened on the knife-arm with – apparently – arms, legs, and teeth combined.

          It harldy checked the Cretan. He stumbled, brough his free hand round in a smashing blow which brushed the boy off like a fly from a bull’s flank, then, a mad bull charging, he hurtled towards me down the last stretch of rock".

          A hunt through the savage countryside of Crete. Two Englishmen who have stumbled upon a scene of private vengeance. And a beautiful girl – who for the first time in her life meets a man and a situation she cannot deal with.