Milk & Water

When civil war came to their village in central Greece, both Costas Psofios and Dimitrios Golfis lost their homes by fire. Like thousands of other homeless Greeks, they took to the road, eventually settled down on a rocky hillside near Athens. Psofios prospered, soon had a sizable herd of goats, whose milk he sold in an Athens suburb. Golfis did not fare so well; his small plot of land barely supported him and his son Andreas. Finally, 64-year-old Golfis was forced to go to work for 34-year-old Psofios, tending his goats.

The old man's pride was hurt, but Golfis lived in peace with his neighbor until last month, when a vein of water was discovered under their land. In Greece's dry, sun-parched hills, where water is as precious as life, it was a great event; Psofios announced he would sink a well. Old Golfis, who was too poor to drill a well of his own, feared that all the water under his land would be drained off by his neighbor's well, that the meager springs on his own plot would dry up. For days, he brooded. Then he decided on a plan to ruin Psofios.

One day last March, 50 people in the Pangrati section of Athens were seized with violent stomach pains, fever and nausea. It was found that they all bought their milk from Psofios. Police questioned Psofios, who insisted that his milk could not possibly be impure. Ten days later, Pangrati's first-aid stations and hospitals were again jammed by more than 150 men, women & children, all showing the same agonizing symptoms. Chemical analysis showed that they had been drinking milk poisoned by Trionol (a poisonous chemical used in Greece to clean marble and porcelain objects, including toilets). None of the victims died, but the police closed Psofios' milk distributing plant, prepared charges against him. Things looked black for Psofios; old Golfis was sure that his plot had succeeded. But he had reckoned without a conscience sterner than his own. One night, Golfis' son Andreas had come upon his father near their neighbor's milk cans. "Tell no one you have seen me," old Golfis had said angrily, "and don't drink any milk tomorrow." For days Andreas kept quiet, but when it looked as if the police would arrest Psofios, Andreas finally told the story of how his father had poisoned the milk.

Last week, old Dimitrios Golfis was in jail awaiting trial. Prosperous Costas Psofios planned to go ahead with the drilling of his well.

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