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Timokles and the other two had been considered weaker in body, or else the persons who secured the Christians had been in haste to join the reveling of the mariners, and had thought cords strong enough. Yet what availed it that the feet of any of the Christians were free, if their bodies were securely bound? "Thou hast done all thou canst, Heraklas," whispered Timokles. "Go now, my brother.
Beneath the hand of the younger idol-maker, the hippopotamus grew in hideous perfection. Helplessly Timokles watched the process. The mouth of the hippopotamus-goddess was almost shut, but the teeth of the lower jaw were visible, and it was upon their making, as well as upon that of the wide nostrils, that the young man was expending his skill.
A man sprang forward, and the lash fell again and again on Timokles' prostrate body, but the boy did not stir. "Now see how the Christian would die in the desert, and cheat us of all the work he might do!" grumbled the vexed voice of a dismounted camel-rider. "He is young. There are many years of work in him!" "Leave him!" scornfully advised another, who held a torch. "Some beast will find him."
"Thou didst put it into her heart to save me!" whispered Timokles with a reverent look at the sky. He knew that as soon as his escape should be discovered there would be instant pursuit, therefore he sought to travel as swiftly as possible. Athribis the slave bent lower lower yet. What was this that he saw? He was on the roof of the house in Alexandria.
The man caught the object, a ring of gold, containing a scarabaeus. "Take it," said the giver to the appeased rival. "The Christian is mine." The unconscious Timokles was taken up at a sign from the camel-rider to one of his servants, and the cavalcade proceeded on its way. As his camel paced forward, Pentaur, the purchaser, glanced back twice or thrice.
"Where art thou?" savagely called the man. "Where?" He ran hither and thither with fiercely muttered imprecations. Now his footsteps sounded farther off, and now again he ran back and came softly stealing around among the rocks. Timokles laid his branded cheek against the gravel, and waited. The footsteps went, and came, and went again in the dark. Timokles trembled from head to foot.
With beating heart, Timokles pushed once more at the partition. It remained firm. Trembling with the shock of his sudden entrapping, Timokles looked toward the room's far end. It was as he thought. The beast was not chained.
Teach me to do thy will Because thou art my God; Because thou art the fountain of life In thy light shall we see light. Extend thy mercy to them that know thee." Timokles went toward the shore to call Cocce.
The merchant sprang up, and sped toward the edge of the roof where he had first appeared. His foot plunged to its ankle through a weak place in the mats. He shrieked aloud at the fear of falling through into the room below. Hurrying forward, he disappeared down the side of the building. Timokles heard the man running among the fallen stones. The footsteps grew faint, and ceased to be audible.
The oasis was composed of several disconnected tracts, and Timokles heard that in the western part of the oasis there was a lake. Suddenly the lad became aware of a number of angrily excited voices. At a short distance stood Pentaur the merchant, surrounded by a group of men, but what he said was lost in the confusion of tongues. At length the merchant made a careless gesture, and walked away.
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