friendship of twenty years agone. That for me, at any rate, has
always had a pleasant savour when called up into the memory."

Tatho bowed his head. "So be it," he said.

"And I would still charge myself upon your bounty for that
ship. Dawn cannot be far off now, and it is not decent that the
man who has ruled here so long, should walk in daylight through the
streets on the morning after his dismissal."

"So be it," said Tatho. "You shall have my poor navy. I
could have wished that you had asked me something greater."

"Not the navy, Tatho; one small ship. Believe me, more is
wasted."

"Now, there," said Tatho, "I shall act the tyrant. I am
viceroy here now, and will have my way in this. You may go naked
of all possessions: that I cannot help. But depart for Atlantis
unattended, that you shall not."

And so, in fine, as the choice was set beyond me, it was in
the "Bear," Tatho's own private ship, with all the rest of his navy
sailing in escort, that I did finally make my transit.

But the start was not immediate. The vessels lay moored
against the stone quays of the inner harbour, gutted of their
stores, and with crews exhausted, and it would have been suicide to
have forced them out then and there to again take the seas.