in his boyhood had drawn upon him the jeers of
the companions of his own age, did not abandon him now.

Reluctantly obeying his command, the Midianite helped him bandage the
sufferer's head, in which a wound could be felt, as well as it could be
done in the darkness, and lift him on the artist's horse. During this
time fresh groans issued from the bearded lips of the injured warrior,
and Hermon walked by his side, guarding the senseless man from the
danger of falling from the back of the horse as it slowly followed the
Midianite's.

This tiresome walk, however, did not last long; the landing place
was reached sooner than Hermon expected, and the ferryboat bore the
travellers and the horses to Tennis.

By the flickering light of the captain's lantern it was ascertained that
the wounded man, in spite of his long dark beard, was probably a Gaul.
The stupor was to be attributed to the fall of a beam on his head, and
the shock, rather than to the wound. The great loss of blood sustained
by the young and powerful soldier had probably caused the duration of
the swoon.

During the attempts at resuscitation a sailor boy offered his
assistance. He carefully held the lantern, and, as its flickering light
fell for brief moments upon the artist's face, the lad of thirteen or
fourteen asked if he was Hermon of Alexandria.

A curt "If you will permit," answered the question, considered by the
Hellenes an unseemly one, especially from such a youth; but the sculptor
paid no further attention to him, for, while devoting himself honestly
to the wounded man, his anxiety about his invalid friend increased, and
Ledscha's image also rose again before him.

At last the ferryboat touched the land, and when Hermon looked around
for the lad he had already leaped ashore, and was just vanishing in the
darkness.

It was probably within an hour of midnight.

The gale was still blowing fiercely over the water, driving the black
clouds across the dark sky, sometimes with long-drawn, wailing sounds,
sometimes with sharp, whistling ones. The rain had wholly ceased, and
seemed to have exhausted itself here in the afternoon.

As Archias's white house was a considerable distance from the landing
place of the ferryboat, Hermon had the wounded warrior carried to it by
Biamite sailors, and again mounted his horse to ride to Myrtilus at as
swift a trot as the soaked, wretched, but familiar road would permit.

Considerable time had been spent in obt