it is my only gift. It was my voice that first brought
me to Irene's notice, when I was but the daughter of a poor Greek
gentleman who had been her father's friend and therefore was given a
small place about the Court. Of late we have sung many songs together,
have we not, certain of them in that northern tongue, of which you have
taught me something?"

"Yes, Martina; but what of it?"

"You are dull, Olaf. I have heard that these Easterns love music,
especially if it be of a sort they do not know. Why, therefore, should
not a blind man and his daughter--no, his orphaned niece--earn an honest
living as travelling musicians in Egypt? These Prophet worshippers, I
am told, think it a great sin to harm one who is maimed--a poor northern
trader in amber who has been robbed by Christian thieves. Rendered
sightless also that he might not be able to swear to them before the
judges, and now, with his sister's child, winning his bread as best he
may. Like you, Olaf, I have skill in languages, and even know enough of
Arabic to beg in it, for my mother, who was a Syrian, taught it to me as
a child, and since we have been here I have practised. What say you?"

"I say that we might travel as safely thus as in any other way. Yet,
Martina, how can I ask you to tie such a burden on your back?"

"Oh! no need to ask, Olaf, since Fate bound it there when it made me
your--god-mother. Where you go I needs must go also, until you are
married," she added with a laugh. "Afterwards, perhaps, you will need me
no more. Well, there's a plan, for what it is worth, and now we'll sleep
on it, hoping to find a better. Pray to St. Michael to-night, Olaf."

As it chanced, St. Michael gave me no light, so the end of it was that I
determined to play this part of a blind harper. In those days there
was a trade between Lesbos and Egypt in cedar wood, wool, wine for the
Copts, for the Moslems drank none, and other goods. Peace having been
declared between the island and the Caliph, a small vessel was laden
with such merchandise at my cost, and a Greek of Lesbos, Menas by name,
put in command of it as the owner, with a crew of sailors whom I could
trust to the death.

To these men, who were Christians, I told my business, swearing them
to secrecy by the most holy of all oaths. But, alas! as I shall
show, although I could trust these sailors when they were masters of
themselves, I could not trust them, or, rather, one of them, when
wine was his master. In