Part 15 (1/2)

”Yes,” muttered Alcibiades to himself, as his companion left the room, ”if you get the chance of drawing it. I rather think that with that fox Lysander in command, you will do nothing more for Athens than bring one more mouth to be fed.”

Callias made his way to the coast with no difficulty. a.s.suming, at the suggestion of Alcibiades, a citizen's dress, he joined a caravan of traders which was on its way westward, and in their company travelled pleasantly and safely. Arrived at Miletus he took pa.s.sage in a merchant s.h.i.+p that was bound for aegina, hoping if he could only get so far, to be able to make his way somehow into the city. At one time, indeed, he was terribly afraid that this hope would be disappointed. The _Swallow_--this was the name of the vessel of aegina--was challenged and overhauled by a Corinthian s.h.i.+p of war. Callias made no attempt to conceal his nationality. Indeed it would have been useless, for an Athenian in those days was about as easily recognized over the whole of the Greek world as an Englishman is recognized in these, anywhere in Europe. To his great surprise the Corinthian captain simply said: ”You can go; I have no order to detain you.” That there was no kindness in his permission Callias was perfectly well aware, for the hatred of Corinth for Athens was tenfold more bitter than that of Sparta.

It was a quarrel between Athens and Corinth, on the tender point of a rebellious Corinthian colony, that had been the immediate cause of the Peloponnesian War; and even before this there had always been the potent influence of commercial rivalry to set the two states against each other. The young Athenian noticed also a sinister smile on the captain's face; but what it meant he was at a loss to determine.

Landed at aegina he lost no time in enquiring how he might best reach his destination.

”Oh! you will get in easily enough,” said the aeginetan merchant, the owner of the _Swallow_, to whom he stated his case.

”Is not the city blockaded then?”

”Yes, in a way,” replied the man.

”Please to explain what you mean,” said Callias, who was getting a little heated by these mysterious remarks.

”Well,” said the merchant, ”King Pausanias is encamped outside the city in some place that they call the Grove of Academus, I think. Do you know it?”

Callias a.s.sented with a nod.

”And Lysander has a hundred and fifty s.h.i.+ps off the Piraeus. Still I think that you will be able to get in. The blockade is not kept very strictly.”

”Had I best go by night?”

”Perhaps it would be better.”

”Can you help me to a boat?”

”Certainly; but you will have to pay the boatman pretty highly, for, of course, it is a risk, though it can be done.”

”Will you make the arrangements if I pay you the money in advance?”

”Certainly, if you do not mind going so far as a _mina_. It is really worth the money.”

Callias paid the money, and was told to be in readiness to embark at midnight.

It would have enlightened him considerably if he could have seen the merchant's behavior as soon as he was safely out of the room.

”Ah, you young serpent,” the man cried, ”you will be allowed to creep into your hole easily enough; but if we don't suffocate you and your whole brood when we have got you there, my name is not Timagenes.”

The fact was that a revolution of which Callias knew nothing had taken place at aegina. An old rival and enemy of Athens, the city had been conquered many years before, and the anti-Athenian party expelled. And now everything was changed. Lysander had brought back the exiles, and though Athens had still friends, it was the hostile party that was in power. Callias had observed a certain change in the demeanor of the people, but was too much engrossed in his own affairs to think much about it.

The blockade was run as easily as the aeginetan had foretold. The boat pa.s.sed within fifty yards of one of the squadron, and Callias could have sworn that he saw a sentinel on the watch pacing the vessel's deck. But the man did not challenge, and the Piraeus was reached without any difficulty.

It was not long before all the mystery was explained.

”This is just what I feared,” said Hippocles, to whose house the young Athenian hastened. ”I knew that you would come back, and I could not warn you.”

”What do you mean,” cried the young man in astonishment. ”Was it not my duty to return?”

”Yes, in one way it was. But tell me how you got here?”

Callias related the incidents of his journey, and expressed some surprise that the Corinthian captain had not taken him prisoner, and that the blockade was so negligently kept.