galley. Two rowers descended into it,
with the soldier and the interpreter; Albinik and Meroe embarked in
their turn; and the boat drew away from the Roman fleet, which was
disposed in a crescent, waiting on its oars, for the pilot's return.
Meroe, seated at the helm, steered the boat according to the directions
of her husband. He, kneeling and hanging over the prow, sounded the
passage by means of a ponderous lead fastened to a long stout cord.
Behind the little islet which the boat was then skirting stretched a
long sand-bar which the tide, then ebbing, was beginning to uncover.
Beyond the sand-bar were several rocks fringing the bank. Albinik was
just about to heave the lead anew; while seeming to be examining on the
cord the traces of the water's depth, he exchanged a rapid look with his
wife, indicating with a glance the soldier and the interpreter. Meroe
understood. The interpreter was seated near her on the poop; then came
the two rowers on their bench; and at the farther end stood the man with
the axe, behind Albinik, who was leaning at the bow, his lead in his
hand. Rising suddenly he made of the plummet a terrible weapon. He
imparted to it the rapid motion that a slinger imparts to his sling. The
heavy lead attached to the cord struck the soldier's helmet so violently
that the man sank to the bottom of the boat stunned with the blow. The
interpreter rushed forward to the aid of his companion, but Meroe seized
him by the hair and pulled him back; loosing his balance he toppled into
the sea. One of the two rowers, who had raised his oar at Albinik,
immediately rolled headlong overboard. The movement given to the rudder
by Meroe made the boat approach so close to the rocky islet that she and
her husband both leaped on it. Rapidly they climbed the steep rocks.
There was now but one obstacle to their reaching shore. That was the
sand-bar, one part of which, already uncovered by the sea, was in
motion, as could be seen from the air bubbles which continually rose to
the surface. To take that way to reach the rocks of the shore was to die
in the abyss hidden under the treacherous surface. Already the couple
heard, from the other side of the island, which hid them from view, the
cries and threats of the soldier, who had recovered from his daze, and
the voice of the interpreter, whom the rowers had doubtlessly pulled out
of the water. Thoroughly familiar with these coasts, Albinik discovered,
by the size of the gravel and