nik. "One ought to
take us toward the camp of Caesar, the other away from it."

Reflecting an instant, the young woman answered:

"Climb yonder oak. The camp fires will show us our route."

"True," said the mariner, and confident in his agility he was about to
clamber up the tree. But stopping, he added: "I forgot that I have but
one hand left. I cannot climb."

The face of the young woman saddened as she replied:

"You are suffering, Albinik? Alas, you, thus mutilated!"

"Is the sea-wolf[3] caught without a lure?"

"No."

"Let the fishing be good," answered Albinik, "and I shall not regret
having given my hand for bait."

The young woman sighed, and after looking at the tree a minute, said to
her husband:

"Come, then, put your back to the trunk. I'll step in the hollow of your
hand, then onto your shoulder, and from your shoulder I can reach that
large branch overhead."

"Fearless and devoted! You are always the dear wife of my heart, true as
my sister Hena is a saint," tenderly answered Albinik, and steadying
himself against the tree, he took in his hand the little foot of his
companion. With his good arm he supported his wife while she placed her
foot on his shoulder. Thence she reached the first large bough. Then,
mounting from branch to branch, she gained the top of the oak. Arrived
there, Meroe cast her eyes abroad, and saw towards the south, under a
group of seven stars, the gleam of several fires. She descended, nimble
as a bird, and at last, putting her feet on the mariner's shoulder, was
on the ground with one bound, saying:

"We must go towards the south, in the direction of those seven stars.
That way lie the fires of Caesar's camp."

"Let us take that road, then," returned the sailor, indicating the
narrower of the two ways, and the two travelers pursued their journey.
After a few steps, the young woman halted. She seemed to be searching in
her garments.

"What is the matter, Meroe?"

"In climbing the tree, I've let my poniard drop. It must have worked out
of the belt I was carrying it in, under my blouse."

"By Hesus; we must get that poniard back," said Albinik, retracing his
steps toward the tree. "You have need of a weapon, and this one my
brother Mikael forged and tempered himself. It will pierce a sheet of
copper."

"Oh; I shall find it, Albinik. In that well-tempered little blade of
steel one has an answer for all, and in all languages."

After some search up the foot of the