s; their interest is threatened as well as yours. I
am commissioned to pay handsomely all who do their best for the cause,
and I promise you that you and your sons shall earn as much in four
days' work as in a month's toiling on the sea. The Barcine Club is known
to be the true friend of Carthage, the opponent of those who grind down
the people, and it will spare no money to see that this matter is well
carried out."

The fisherman at once went round with Malchus to the abodes of several
men regarded as authorities by the sailors and stevedores. With these,
partly by argument, but much more by the promises of handsome pay for
their exertions, Malchus established an understanding, and paved the way
for a popular agitation among the working classes of the waterside in
favour of Hannibal.

CHAPTER IV: A POPULAR RISING

Day after day Malchus went down to the port. His father was well pleased
with his report of what he had done and provided him with ample funds
for paying earnest money to his various agents, as a proof that their
exertions would be well rewarded. He soon had the satisfaction of seeing
that the agitation was growing.

Work was neglected, the sailors and labourers collected on the quays and
talked among themselves, or listened to orators of their own class, who
told them of the dangers which threatened their trade from the hatred of
Hanno and his friends the tax collectors for Hannibal, whose father and
brother-in-law had done such great things for Carthage by conquering
Spain and adding to her commerce by the establishment of Carthagena and
other ports. Were they going to stand tamely by and see trade ruined,
and their families starving, that the tyrants who wrung from them the
taxes should fatten at ease?

Such was the tenor of the orations delivered by scores of men to their
comrades on the quays. A calm observer might have noticed a certain
sameness about the speeches, and might have come to the conclusion that
the orators had received their instructions from the same person, but
this passed unnoticed by the sailors and workmen, who were soon roused
into fury by the exhortations of the speakers. They knew nothing either
of Hannibal or of Hanno, but they did know that they were ground down
to the earth with taxation, and that the conquest of Spain and the trade
that had arisen had been of enormous benefit to them. It was, then,
enough to tell them that this trade was threatened, and that it was