But Robert said, 'My magic will not bring up great waves, but I can show
you how to steer without stars.'

He took out the shilling compass, still, fortunately, in working order,
that he had bought off another boy at school for fivepence, a piece of
indiarubber, a strip of whalebone, and half a stick of red sealing-wax.

And he showed Pheles how it worked. And Pheles wondered at the compass's
magic truth.

'I will give it to you,' Robert said, 'in return for that charm about
your neck.'

Pheles made no answer. He first laughed, snatched the compass from
Robert's hand, and turned away still laughing.

'Be comforted,' the Priest whispered, 'our time will come.'

The dusk deepened, and Pheles, crouched beside a dim lantern, steered by
the shilling compass from the Crystal Palace.

No one ever knew how the other ship sailed, but suddenly, in the deep
night, the look-out man at the stern cried out in a terrible voice--

'She is close upon us!'

'And we,' said Pheles, 'are close to the harbour.' He was silent a
moment, then suddenly he altered the ship's course, and then he stood up
and spoke.

'Good friends and gentlemen,' he said, 'who are bound with me in this
brave venture by our King's command, the false, foreign ship is close
on our heels. If we land, they land, and only the gods know whether they
might not beat us in fight, and themselves survive to carry back the
tale of Tyre's secret island to enrich their own miserable land. Shall
this be?'

'Never!' cried the half-dozen men near him. The slaves were rowing hard
below and could not hear his words.

The Egyptian leaped upon him; suddenly, fiercely, as a wild beast leaps.
'Give me back my Amulet,' he cried, and caught at the charm. The chain
that held it snapped, and it lay in the Priest's hand.

Pheles laughed, standing balanced to the leap of the ship that answered
the oarstroke.

'This is no time for charms and mummeries,' he said. 'We've lived like
men, and we'll die like gentlemen for the honour and glory of Tyre, our
splendid city. "Tyre, Tyre for ever! It's Tyre that rules the waves." I
steer her straight for the Dragon rocks, and we go down for our city,
as brave men should. The creeping cowards who follow shall go down as
slaves--and slaves they shall be to us--when we live again. Tyre, Tyre
for ever!'

A great shout went up, and the slaves below joined in it.

'Quick, the Amulet,' cried Anthea, and held it up. Rekh-mara held up the
on