"Nobody sent us. We're lost," cried poor Daphne.

"Humph!" said the other priest. "That's a likely story."

"Did you hear what we were talking about?" asked Lampon. He took Dion by
the shoulder, and as he did not answer at once, shook him.

"Come, yes or no," he said.

"Ye-e-es," stammered Dion.

The two priests looked at each other, and Lampon said: "They are the
children of the farmer who brought the lamb to Pericles. They live on his
farm."

"It will be a long time before they see the farm again," answered the
other shortly. "They say they are lost. Very well, we will see to it that
those words are made true. What do you say to shipping them to Africa?
They would make a pretty pair of slaves, and a ship sails for Alexandria
to-morrow. It can easily be arranged. I know the captain."

"A good idea!" said Lampon. "Since these children are in a sense wards of
Pericles, they are for that reason the more likely to be enemies of the
Gods. It would be an act of piety to send them where they could do no
harm by betraying the secrets of the temple."

The children were speechless with fright. Their two captors pushed them
roughly before them into the temple and drove them through the great
gloomy interior, lighted only by a few torches, to a small closet-like