eight of the waves into a shapeless bundle of sticks, and would
take half a day to replace. So that, let us but get the other craft
afloat, and we should be free from further embroiling. But the fishers
were quick to see the object of this new manoeuvre. "Guard the boat,"
they shouted. "Smash her; slit her skin with your knives! Tear her with
your fingers! Swim her out to sea! Oh, at least take the paddles!"

But, if these clumsy fishers could run, Phorenice was like a legged
snake for speed. She was down beside the boat before any could reach
it, laughing and shouting out that she could beat them at every point.
Myself, I was slower of foot; and, besides, there was some that offered
me a fight on the road, and I was not wishful to baulk them; and
moreover, the fewer we left clamouring behind, the fewer there would be
to speed our going with their stones. Still I came to the beach in good
order, and laid hands on the flimsy boat and tipped her dry.

"Fighting is no trade for, me," I cried, "whilst you are here,
Phorenice. Guard me my back and walk out into the water."

I took the boat, thrusting it afloat, and wading with it till two lines
of the surf were past. The fishers swarmed round us, active as fish in
their native element, and strove mightily to get hands on the boat and
slit the hides which covered it with their eager fingers. But I had a
spare hand, and a short stabbing-knife for such close-quarter work, and
here, there, and everywhere was Phorenice the Empress, with her thirsty
dripping sword. By the Gods! I laughed with sheer delight at seeing her
art of fence.

But the swirl of a great fish into the shallows, and the squeal of
a fisher as he was dragged down and home away into the deep, made me
mindful of foes that no skill can conquer, and no bravery avoid. Without
taking time to give the Empress a word of warning, I stooped, and flung
an arm round her, and threw her up out of the water into the boat, and
then thrust on with all my might, driving the flimsy craft out to
sea, whilst my legs crept under me for fear of the beasts which swam
invisible beneath the muddied waters.

To the fishers, inured to these horrid perils by daily association,
the seizing of one of their number meant little, and they pressed on,
careless of their dull lives, eager only to snatch the jewels which
still flaunted on Phorenice's breast. Of the vengeance that might come
after they recked nothing; let them but get the wherewi