United States or Bahrain ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
But above all things speed was needful. The athlete put his strength upon the oars till the heavy skiff shot across the black void of the water. It was little short of midnight when Glaucon swung the skiff away from the tall trireme of Ariabignes, the Barbarian’s admiral. The deed was done. He had sat in the bobbing boat while Sicinnus had been above with the Persian chiefs.
Having made this communication, Sicinnus went on board his boat again, and returned to the Greek fleet as secretly and stealthily as he came. The Persians immediately determined to resort to the measures which Themistocles had recommended to prevent the escape of any part of the Greek fleet.
Confidence, yes, power came through the tones of the admiral’s voice. Themistocles went away to the belated council. Sicinnus led his charge through the crooked streets of the town of Salamis. Sailors were sleeping in the open night, and they stumbled over them.
Glaucon sat mutely in the pinnace which had headed not for the Nausicaä, but toward the shore, where a few faint beacons were burning. “I must confer with the strategi as to the morning,” Themistocles declared after a long interval, at which Sicinnus broke in anxiously:— “You will not sleep, kyrie?”
Themistocles even took it upon himself to send Sicinnus to run down several suspects, and just on the morning of the day preceding the Panathenæa—the great summer festival—Democrates received a hint which sent him home very thoughtful. He had met his chief in the Agora as he was leaving the Government-House, and Themistocles had again asked if he had smelt aught of the Persian agent. He had not.
“Then you would well devote more time to finding his scent, and less to convicting a pitiful embezzler. You know the Alopece suburb?” “Certainly.” “And the house of Phormio the fishmonger?” to which Democrates nodded. “Well, Sicinnus has been watching the quarter. A Babylonish carpet-seller has rooms opposite Phormio.
The pinnace crew had brought the skiff alongside, Sicinnus entered it, Glaucon took the oars, pulled out a little, as if back to the Nausicaä, then sent the head of the skiff around, pointing across the strait, toward the havens of Athens. Sicinnus sat in silence, but Glaucon guessed the errand. The wind was rising and bringing clouds. This would hide the moon and lessen the danger.
Rejoicing in his strength, he was bending her head toward his—but here he wakened. Sicinnus had disappeared. A bar of gray gold hung over the water in the east. “This was the day. This was the day!” Some moments he lay trying to realize the fact in its full moment. A thin mist rested on the black water waiting to be dispelled by the sun.
He had a slave in his family named Sicinnus, who was an intelligent and educated man, though a slave. In fact, he was the teacher of Themistocles's children.
The man is suspicious, does no trading, and Phormio’s wife told Sicinnus an odd tale.” “What tale?” Democrates glanced at a passing chariot, avoiding Themistocles’s gaze. “Why, twice the Barbarian, she swears, has had an evening visitor—and he our dear Glaucon.” “Impossible.” “Of course. The good woman is mistaken. Still, question her. Pry into this Babylonian’s doings.
Word Of The Day