Polygnotus touched his friend’s arm gently; “Icetes would probably have lost his life in the battle, for he was very daring. His was a noble though useless sacrifice, but let us rejoice that Ladice has been saved. You owe much to our new friend.”
“I am truly grateful, Zopyrus,” said Cimon grasping the hand of the other, “but how did you come to rescue the girl whom I love?”
There was a note of distrust in his voice though he strove to conceal it.
“That is a long story that I will tell you at some other time,” replied Zopyrus.
As the three walked away from the public square, Cimon placed an arm across the shoulder of Zopyrus, for he was involuntarily drawn toward this attractive stranger, in spite of his former suspicions. But Zopyrus was pained by his own duplicity as he thought of how recently he had been in Persian uniform. When he would tell his new friend “the long story, some other time,” his conscience would be clear, but for the present it hurt him to realize that Cimon’s arm had been laid in brotherly affection upon that same uniform, when not he, but the dead Icetes, had worn it.
CHAPTER XII.
The Prophet At Delphi.
“There is but one such spot; from heaven Apollo
Beheld; and chose it for his earthly shrine!”
Aubrey de Vere.
Instead of returning immediately to Athens, following the expulsion of the Persians, Zopyrus and his new-found friend, Cimon, turned their faces northward. Tempted by the beauty of the starry nights and the absence of wayfarers, the two usually journeyed after the golden orb of the sun had disappeared beyond the watery horizon of the Corinthian Gulf. Along this road that skirted the gulf, the hordes of Xerxes had marched.