d not take long to get
across to Europe."

Tob slapped his leg. "No savage Europe for me, my lord. Now, see the
advantage of being a mariner. I found once some islands to the north
of Europe, separated from the main by a strait, which I called the Tin
Islands, seeing that tin ore litters many of the beaches. I was driven
there by storm, and said no word of the find when I got back, and here
you see it comes in useful. There's no one in all Atlantis but me knows
of those Tin Islands to-day, and we'll go and fight honestly for our
ground, and build a town and a kingdom on it."

"With Tob for king?"

"Well, I have figured it out as such for many a day, but I know when I
meet my better, and I'm content to serve under Deucalion. My lord would
have done wiser to have brought a wife with him, though, and I thought
it was understood by the good lady that spoke to me down at the harbour,
or I'd have mentioned it earlier. The savages in my Tin Islands go naked
and stain themselves blue with woad, and are very filthy and brutish to
look upon. They are sturdy, and should make good slaves, but one would
have to get blunted in the taste before one could wish to be father to
their children."

"I am still husband to Phorenice."

Tob grinned. "The Gods give you joy of her. But it is part of a
mariner's creed--and you will grow to be a mariner here--that wedlock
does not hold across the seas. However, that matter may rest. But,
coming to my Tin Islands again: they'll delight you. And I tell you, a
kingdom will not be so hard to carve out as it was in Egypt, or as you
found in Yucatan. There are beasts there, of course, and no one who
can hunt need ever go hungry. But the greater beasts are few. There
are cave-bears and cave-tigers in small numbers, to be sure, and some
river-horses and great snakes. But the greater lizards seem to avoid the
land; and as for birds, there is rarely seen one that can hurt a grown
man. Oh, I tell you, it will be a most desirable kingdom."

"Tob seems to have imagined himself king of the Tin Islands with much
reality."

He sighed a little. "In truth I did, and there is no denying it, and I
tell you plain, there is not another man living that I would have broken
this voyage for but Deucalion. But don't think I regret it, and don't
think I want to push myself above my place. This breeze and the ebb are
taking the old ship finely along her ways. See those fire baskets on the
harbour forts? We're abreast