, on account of his mother's near presence, he would
scarcely consent to enter into the peril. Should the venture fail,
everything would be over; but if it succeeded, the old man could only
praise the courage and skill with which it had been executed.

Nothing was to be feared from the coast guard, for since Abus's death
the authorities believed that piracy had vanished from these waters,
and the ships commanded by Satabus and his sons had been admitted from
Pontus into the Tanite arm of the Nile as trading vessels.

CHAPTER XI.

While Hanno was discussing these considerations, he rowed the boat past
the landing place from which the "garden" with the Alexandrian's tent
could be seen.

The third hour after midnight had begun. Smoking flames were still
rising from the pitch pans and blazing torches, and long rows of
lanterns also illumined the broad space.

It was as light as day in the vicinity of the tent, and Biamite huntsmen
and traders were moving to and fro among the slaves and attendants as
though it was market time.

"Your father, too," Hanno remarked in his awkward fashion, "will
scarcely make life hard for us. We shall probably find him in Pontus.
He is getting a cargo of wood for Egypt there. We have had dealings with
him a long time. He thought highly of Abus, and I, too, have already
been useful to him. There were handsome young fellows on the Pontine
coast, and we captured them. At the peril of our lives we took them to
the mart. He may even risk it in Alexandria. So the old man makes
over to him a large number of these youths, and often a girl into
the bargain, and he does it far too cheaply. One might envy him the
profit--if it were not your father! When you are once my wife, I'll make
a special contract with him about the slaves. And, besides, since the
last great capture, in which the old man allowed me a share of my own,
I, too, need not complain of poverty. I shall be ready for the dowry. Do
you want to know what you are worth to me?"

But Ledscha's attention was attracted by other things, and even after
Hanno, with proud conceit, repeated his momentous question, he waited in
vain for a reply.

Then he perceived that the girl was gazing at the brilliantly lighted
square as if spellbound, and now he himself saw before the tent a shed
with a canopied roof, and beneath it cushioned couches, on which several
Greeks--men and women--were half sitting, half lying, watching with
eager attention