lf--she could not repeat it often
enough--bound to fulfil what she had promised him.

With the exception of the two artists, only Myrtilus's servant, the old
doorkeeper, and Bias, Hermon's slave, remained during the night in the
house which was to be attacked, and Hanno would undertake the assault
with twenty-five sturdy fellows whom he commanded on the Hydra if his
brother Labaja consented to share in the assault, this force could be
considerably increased.

To take the old corsair into their confidence now would not be advisable,
for, on account of his mother's near presence, he would scarcely consent
to enter into the peril. Should the venture fail, everything would be
over; but if it succeeded, the old man could only praise the courage and
skill with which it had been executed.

Nothing was to be feared from the coast guard, for since Abus's death the
authorities believed that piracy had vanished from these waters, and the
ships commanded by Satabus and his sons had been admitted from Pontus
into the Tanite arm of the Nile as trading vessels.

CHAPTER XI.

While Hanno was discussing these considerations, he rowed the boat past
the landing place from which the "garden" with the Alexandrian's tent
could be seen.

The third hour after midnight had begun. Smoking flames were still rising
from the pitch pans and blazing torches, and long rows of lanterns also
illumined the broad space.

It was as light as day in the vicinity of the tent, and Biamite huntsmen
and traders were moving to and fro among the slaves and attendants as
though it was market time.

"Your father, too," Hanno remarked in his awkward fashion, "will scarcely
make life hard for us. We shall probably find him in Pontus. He is
getting a cargo of wood for Egypt there. We have had dealings with him a
long time. He thought highly of Abus, and I, too, have already been
useful to him. There were handsome young fellows on the Pontine coast,
and we captured them. At the peril of our lives we took them to the mart.
He may even risk it in Alexandria. So the old man makes over to him a
large number of these youths, and often a girl into the bargain, and he
does it far too cheaply. One might envy him the profit--if it were not
your father! When you are once my wife, I'll make a special contract with
him about the slaves. And, besides, since the last great capture, in
which the old man allowed me a share of my own, I, too, need not complain
of poverty