long enough for the
escort to turn, take in the sails--for they went against the wind
now--and form an outer parenthesis. Then with another shout the
triumphant return began.

The other fleet absorbed the attention of each voyager. Every barge
had a new-comer alongside and near enough to talk across the water.
Therefore a great babel and confusion arose in which rational
conversation became impossible. Then vessels essayed to approach
nearer one another and the formation began to break. The right oars of
one boat and the left of another would be withdrawn and the vessels
lashed together. Then they were permitted to drift, with some poling
to keep them in the proper direction. When this proceeding was
impracticable because of the construction of the barges, one boat would
take another in tow until the occupants of one had joined those of the
other by a gang-plank laid from prow to stern. By sunset the
merrymaking had developed into indiscriminate boarding. Only the
vessels of the king and the nomarch and the barge of Senci were not
involved in the uproarious revel that followed. The fates were amiable
and no mishaps occurred in spite of the recklessness of the pastime.
Men and women alike took part in the play, and the general temper of
the merrymakers was good-natured and innocent.

The dusk fell and the shadows of night were made seductive by the dim
lamps that began to burn from mast-top and prow. On the barge of Senci
only a single and subdued light was swung from a bronze tripod in the
bow, and the fourteen charges of the young sculptor, wearied with the
long day's excitement, were disposed in graceful abandon under its
glow. Senci sat with Ta-meri's head in her lap, and three or four
drowsy little girls were tumbled about her feet. Only Io was wide
awake, and even her sweet face wore a pensive air. Kenkenes had
retired to the stern, where, under the high up-standing end, stood a
long wooden bench. The young sculptor had flung himself on this, and
with the whole of the boat and its freight within range of his vision,
he listened to the riot about him.

Suddenly the sound of cautiously wielded oars attracted his attention.
In the end of the boat was a hawser-hole, painted and shaped like the
eye of Osiris. Kenkenes turned about on his couch and watched through
this aperture.

A barge, judiciously darkened, emerged into the circle of faint
radiance about Senci's boat. There were probably a dozen T