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'Now, said he, 'I'm fit to be seen. Come along? 'Where to? said Jane cautiously. 'To Pheles, the great sea-captain, said the skipper, 'the man I told you of, who loves barbarians. Then Rekh-mara came forward, and, for the first time, spoke. 'I have known these children in another land, he said. 'You know my powers of magic. It was my magic that brought these barbarians to your boat.
'And we, said Pheles, 'are close to the harbour. He was silent a moment, then suddenly he altered the ship's course, and then he stood up and spoke. 'Good friends and gentlemen, he said, 'who are bound with me in this brave venture by our King's command, the false, foreign ship is close on our heels.
Pheles, the master of the house, went off that very evening, by the King's orders, to start on another voyage. And when he was gone his wife found the children amusing company, and kept them talking and singing and dancing till quite late. 'To distract my mind from my sorrows, she said.
Now four sons of his nurse plotted against him and slew him, the eldest of whom reigned twelve years: after them came Astartus, the son of Deleastartus; he lived fifty-four years, and reigned twelve years: after him came his brother Aserymus; he lived fifty-four years, and reigned nine years: he was slain by his brother Pheles, who took the kingdom and reigned but eight months, though he lived fifty years: he was slain by Ithobalus, the priest of Astarte, who reigned thirty-two years, and lived sixty-eight years: he was succeeded by his son Badezorus, who lived forty-five years, and reigned six years: he was succeeded by Matgenus his son; he lived thirty-two years, and reigned nine years: Pygmalion succeeded him; he lived fifty-six years, and reigned forty-seven years.
The dusk deepened, and Pheles, crouched beside a dim lantern, steered by the shilling compass from the Crystal Palace. No one ever knew how the other ship sailed, but suddenly, in the deep night, the look-out man at the stern cried out in a terrible voice 'She is close upon us!
'Yes, answered Pheles, 'he bade me set sail with half a score brave gentlemen and this crew. You shall go with us, and see many wonders. He bowed and left them. 'What are we going to do now? said Robert, when Pheles had caused them to be left along with a breakfast of dried fruits and a sort of hard biscuit.
When the dawn showed, dove-coloured, across the steely waves, they stood up as well as they could for the tumbling of the ship. Pheles, that hardy sailor and adventurer, turned quite pale when he turned round suddenly and saw them. 'Well! he said, 'well, I never did!
Rekh-mara held up the one he had snatched from Pheles. The word was spoken, and the two great arches grew on the plunging ship in the shrieking wind under the dark sky. From each Amulet a great and beautiful green light streamed and shone far out over the waves. It illuminated, too, the black faces and jagged teeth of the great rocks that lay not two ships' lengths from the boat's peaked nose.
'Give me back my Amulet, he cried, and caught at the charm. The chain that held it snapped, and it lay in the Priest's hand. Pheles laughed, standing balanced to the leap of the ship that answered the oarstroke. 'This is no time for charms and mummeries, he said. 'We've lived like men, and we'll die like gentlemen for the honour and glory of Tyre, our splendid city. "Tyre, Tyre for ever!
'My brother Pheles has just come back from Tarshish. He's at his garden house unless he's hunting wild boar in the marshes. He gets frightfully bored on shore. 'Ah, said the skipper, 'he's a true-born Phoenician. "Tyre, Tyre for ever! Oh, Tyre rules the waves!" as the old song says. I'll go at once, and show him my young barbarians. 'I should, said the dye-master.
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