"Surely not, if a lie save him."

"Tell me what is the gain to me if this man come to Troy."

"Without this bow and these arrows Troy falleth not. For though it is
the pleasure of the Gods that thou take the city, yet canst not thou
take it without these, nor indeed these without thee."

And when the Prince had mused awhile, he said, "If this be so with the
arms, I must needs get them."

Then Ulysses said, "Do this, and thou shalt gain a double honour."

And the Prince said, "What meanest thou by thy 'double honour'? Tell
me, and I refuse no more."

"The praise of wisdom and of courage also."

"Be it so: I will do this deed, nor count it shame."

"'Tis well," said Ulysses, "and now I will despatch this watcher to the
ship, whom I will send again in pilot's disguise if thou desire, and it
seems needful. Also I myself will depart, and may Hermes, the god of
craft, and Athene, who ever is with me, cause us to prevail."

After a while Philoctetes came up the path to the cave very slowly, and
with many groans. And when he saw the strangers (for now some of the
ship's crew were with Prince Neoptolemus) he cried, "Who are ye that are
come to this inhospitable land? Greeks I know you to be by your garb;
but tell me more."

And when the Prince had told his name and lineage, and that he was
sailing from Troy, Philoctetes cried, "Sayest thou from Troy? Yet surely
thou didst not sail with us in the beginning."

"What?" cried the Prince. "Hadst thou then a share in this matter of
Troy?"

And Philoctetes made reply, "Knowest thou not whom thou seest? Hast thou
not heard the story of my sorrows?" And when he heard that the young man
knew nothing of these things: "Surely this is sorrow upon sorrow if no
report of my state hath come to the land of Greece, and I lie here
alone, and my disease groweth upon me, but my enemies laugh and keep
silence!" And then he told his name and fortunes, and how the Greeks had
left him on the shore while he slept, and how it was the tenth year of
his sojourning in the island. "For know," he said, "that it is without
haven or anchorage, and no man cometh hither of his free will; and if
any come unwilling, as indeed it doth sometimes chance, they speak soft
words to me and give me, haply, some meat; but when I make suit to them
that they carry me to my home, they will not. And this wrong the sons of
Atreus and Ulysses have worked against me; for which may the Gods who
dwell in Olympus make th