At that moment a slave with a sword, helmet, dart, and shield (the banker loved military dress), announced the worthy Rabsun, a Phoenician merchant then settled in Memphis.
The guest entered, bowed profoundly, and dropped his eyelids in such fashion that Dagon commanded the scribe and the slaves to withdraw from the veranda. Then, as a man of foresight, he surveyed every corner, and said to the visitor,
"We may talk."
Rabsun began without prelude,
"Dost thou know, worthiness, that Prince Hiram has come from Tyre?"
Dagon sprang up from the couch.
"May the leprosy seize him and his princeship!" shouted the banker.
"He has just reminded me," continued the guest, calmly, "that there is a misunderstanding between him and thee."
"What misunderstanding?" cried Dagon. "That thief has robbed, destroyed, ruined me. When I sent my ships after other Tyrian vessels to the west for silver, the helmsmen of that thief Hiram cast fire on them, tried to push them into a shallow. Well, my ships came back empty, burnt, and shattered. May the fire of heaven burn him!" concluded the raging banker.
"But if Hiram has for thee a profitable business?" inquired the guest, stolidly.