"Will you try, at any rate?"

"Yes, for your sake."

"Will you promise to continue your treatment of that poor little girl,
whom I love dearly in spite of her forbears?"

"As long as I can endure the daily meeting with her--you know. . ."

"That, then, is a bargain.--Now, come and let us translate a few more
chapters."

The friends sat at work together till a late hour, and when the old man
was alone again he reflected: "So long as he can be of use to the child
he will not go away, and by that time I shall have dug a pit for that
damned siren."

.........................

Orion had his hands full of work for the next morning. Before it was
light he sent off two trustworthy messengers to Doomiat, giving each of
them a letter with instructions that a sailing vessel should be held in
readiness for the fugitives. One was to start three hours after the
other, so that the business in hand should not fail if either of them
should come to grief.

He then went out; first to the harbor, where he succeeded in hiring a
large, good Nile-boat from Doomiat, whose captain, a trustworthy and
experienced man, promised to keep their agreement a secret and to be
prepared to start by noon next day. Next, after taking council with