That is true, in the
sense that its galleys were beset by a terrible storm on the return
voyage. Though the Red Sea is usually a fair-weather lake, you can have
a stiff blow there at times, I believe, Captain Stump?"
Thus appealed to, Stump had to open his mouth.
"I've known it blow like sin," he said. "Isn't that so, Tagg?"
"Wuss nor sin, cap'n. Ord'nary manslaughter isn't in it with a nor'-
east gale on a dark night off them islands north o' Perim."
"Exactly," agreed the Baron eagerly. "That is where the Roman triremes
were caught. They were driven ashore in a little bay in what is now
Italian territory. Their vessels were wrecked, but they saved the loot
they had taken from the Sabaeans. The nature and value of that loss can
hardly be estimated in these days, but you can draw your own
conclusions when you learn that the city of Saba is more familiar to us
under its Biblical name, Sheba. It was thence that the famous queen
came who visited Solomon. Nearly a thousand years later, when the Roman
legion sacked it with fire and sword, it was at the height of its
glory.
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