He could hear the sound of feet above him and the
laughter of men who, no doubt, were drinking on this almost their
last night in port.
A sound came from another portion of the hold, and Heraklas
listened, trying to discover whether the living being in that
direction were a beast or a person. While he listened, a faint light
began to shine in the hold. There descended softly into the hold two
men, one bearing a light. Heraklas drew back farther into the
darkness. The men passed on, their light held so that Heraklas did
not see their faces. But the hasty glimpse that the lad had of his
surroundings told him that the beast he had crept away from was a
lion that was securely caged in one portion of the hold.
Softly the two men proceeded toward the direction from which
Heraklas had heard sounds. Stealthily Heraklas rose. He surmised
where the two men were going. He wished, yet hardly dared, to
follow.
The light swung one side. One man turned to speak to the other, and
the light fell full on the speaker's face.
Heraklas leaped softly forward, and followed without hesitation. For
the face he had seen was the face of Athribis!
There were eight of the Christians. Heraklas, peering from a
distance behind, saw the light held high, as the men paused beside
the Christians. Absolutely exhausted, most of them, by the forced
march of the desert, and by the lack of enough food, they were
asleep, and Heraklas noted with a great pity their gaunt faces.
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