f the great city had vanished; the yacht was well on her way
down the river to Ostia. Save for the need to avoid a belated
merchantman anchored in midstream for the night, there was little
requiring the master's skill. Agias told his cousin how Fabia had sent
him away.

"_A!_ Poor lady!" replied the pirate, "perhaps she was the Vestal I
saw a few days since, and envied her, to see the consuls' lictors
lowering their rods to her, and all the people making way before her;
she, protected by the whole might of this terrible Roman people, and
honoured by them all; and I, a poor outlaw, massing gold whereof I
have no need, slaying men when I would be their friend, with only an
open sea and a few planks for native land. And now, see how the Fates
bring her down so low, that at my hands she receives hospitality, nay,
life!"

"You did not seem so very loath to shed blood to-night," commented
Agias, dryly.

"No, by Zeus!" was his frank answer. "It is easy to send men over the
Styx after having been Charon's substitute for so many years. But the
trade was not pleasant to learn, and, bless the gods, you may not have
to be apprenticed to it."

"Then you will not take me with you in your rover's life?" asked
Agias, half-disappointedly.

"Apollo forbid! I will take you and the lady to some place where she
can be safe until she may return vindicated, and where you can earn an
honest livelihood, marry a wife of station, in accordance with the
means which I shall give you, dwell peaceably, and be happy."

"But I cannot accept your present," protested the younger Greek.

"_Phui!_ What use have I of money? To paraphrase AEschylus: 'For more
of money than I would is mine.' I can't eat it, or beat swords out of
gold, or repair my ships therewith."

"Then why amass it at all?"

"Why drink when you know it is better to keep sober? I can no more
stop plundering than a toper leave a wine-jar. Besides, perhaps some
day I may see a road to amnesty open,--and, then, what will not money
do for a man or woman?"

"Quintus Drusus, my patron, the Lady Cornelia, and the Lady Fabia all
are rich. But I would not take up their sorrows for all their wealth."

"True," and Demetrius stared down into the inky water. "It will not
give back those who are gone forever. Achilles could ask Hephaestus for
his armour, but he could not put breath into the body of Patroclus.
_Plutus_ and _Cratus_[162] are, after all, but weaklings. _A!_ This is
an unequal