Nothing was to be feared from the coast guard, for since Abus's death the
authorities believed that piracy had vanished from these waters, and the
ships commanded by Satabus and his sons had been admitted from Pontus
into the Tanite arm of the Nile as trading vessels.




CHAPTER XI.

While Hanno was discussing these considerations, he rowed the boat past
the landing place from which the "garden" with the Alexandrian's tent
could be seen.

The third hour after midnight had begun. Smoking flames were still
rising from the pitch pans and blazing torches, and long rows of lanterns
also illumined the broad space.

It was as light as day in the vicinity of the tent, and Biamite huntsmen
and traders were moving to and fro among the slaves and attendants as
though it was market time.

"Your father, too," Hanno remarked in his awkward fashion, "will scarcely
make life hard for us. We shall probably find him in Pontus. He is
getting a cargo of wood for Egypt there. We have had dealings with him
a long time. He thought highly of Abus, and I, too, have already been
useful to him. There were handsome young fellows on the Pontine coast,
and we captured them. At the peril of our lives we took them to the
mart. He may even risk it in Alexandria. So the old man makes over to
him a large number of these youths, and often a girl into the bargain,