I can take in place of
these." She looked at me sidelong, tossing back the short red hair from
her eyes. "What think you of my wisdom in coming where we have come
without an escort?"

"The Empress can do no wrong," I quoted the old formula with a smile.

"At least I have shown you that I can fight. I caught you looking your
approval of me quite pleasantly once or twice. You were a difficult man
to thaw, Deucalion, but you warm perceptibly as you keep on being near
me. La, sir, we shall be a pair of rustic sweethearts yet, if this
goes on. I am glad I thought of the device of going near those smelly
fishers."

So she had taken me out in the litter unattended for the plain purpose
of inviting a fight, and showing me her skill at arms, and perhaps, too,
of seeing in person how I also carried myself in a moment of stress.
Well, if we were to live on together as husband and wife, it was good
that each should know to a nicety the other's powers; and also, I am too
much of an old battler and too much enamoured with the glorious handling
of arms to quarrel very deeply with any one who offers me a tough
upstanding fight. Still for the life of me, I could not help comparing
Phorenice with another woman. With a similar chance open before us, Nais
had robbed me of the struggle through a sheer pity for those squalid
rebels who did not even call her chieftain; whilst here was this Empress
frittering away two score of the hardiest of her subjects merely to
gratify a whim.

Yet, loyal to my vow as a priest, and to the commands set upon me by the
high council on the Sacred Mountain, I tried to put away these wayward
thoughts and comparisons. As I rowed over the swingings of the waves
towards the forts which guard the harbour's mouth, I sent prayers to the
High Gods to give my tongue dexterity, and They through Their love for
the country of Atlantis, and the harassed people, whom it was my deep
wish to serve, granted me that power of speech which Phorenice loved.
Her eyes glowed upon me as I talked.

This beach of the fishers where we had had our passage at arms is safe
from ship attack from without, by reason of a chain of jagged rocks
which spring up from the deep, and run from the harbour side to the end
of the city wall. The fishers know the passes, and can oftentimes get
through to the open water beyond without touching a stone; or if they
do see a danger of hitting on the reef, leap out and carry their light
boats in their ha