"Come from?" echoed the irrepressible pilot; "why he has come with us; he has come from where we have been drinking."
My patience was exhausted, and I struck him a sharpish blow across the mouth, a hint that he took that he had better keep quiet.
According to what I could make out from the sailor's version of things, he had come from an unfrequented bay some 150 stadia to the south-east; that Bodmilcar had been there, at first with one gaoul, the Melkarth, but afterwards he had three galleys besides; that he had forced a number of the natives of Tarshish into his service; and that by some means he had collected a great body of criminals and deserters. He had himself, he said, been kidnapped by Bodmilcar, but had contrived to escape, and having made his way on foot along the coast, was now going to make his deposition before the naval suffect at Gades.
I inquired how long it was since he had run away from Bodmilcar, and whether he knew anything of Bodmilcar's movements. He replied that it was a week since he effected his escape, and that he knew that it was the Tyrian's intention to make for the country of the Rasennæ, and thence to proceed to Ionia.
Telling the man that I was returning to Tyre, I offered him a passage with me, if he liked, as one of my crew, to which he agreed with apparent pleasure; he not only assured me of his fidelity, but declared that nothing would gratify him more than to be able to avenge himself upon Bodmilcar.
On the third day after this, having thoroughly revictualled the ships, we set sail with our hearts all elated at the prospect of seeing our native shores. We sighted Calpe and Abyla, but the wind having freshened, we were obliged to beat to windward to enter the strait. Next evening I noticed a large galley sailing in the direction opposite to ourselves, and tried to hail her; but as the weather did not permit us to get near, I made Himilco take half-a-dozen sailors in one of the boats and row towards her; a circumstance that struck me was the extreme readiness with which the new sailor volunteered to take an oar.
The boat had not long pushed off before one of the crew rushed up to me with consternation written in his face, and exclaimed:
"Captain, we have sprung a leak!"
I lit a lamp, and in a minute was making my way down into the hold. Two sailors and one of the helmsmen followed. My heart sunk within me at what I saw. The water had not only got into the hold, but it was already knee-deep; worst of all, it was still rising rapidly. The sea was rough, and the ship was labouring hard against the wind. Unless the evil could be remedied, another quarter of an hour would see us at the bottom. Almost beside myself with agitation, I caught hold of a handspike and plunged it wildly about in every direction; the ill-tidings soon ran through the ship, and there was a general rush towards the hold, but I drove every one back, and suffered nobody to remain except the three men who had first come down with me, and young Dionysos, who had slipped in unobserved, and was paddling about in the water, which was up to his shoulders.
In the midst of my frantic endeavours to ascertain the position of the leak, my attention was arrested by voices above speaking hurriedly in a tone that indicated alarm, and I distinctly caught the names of Bodmilcar and the Melkarth. Almost at the same moment the man standing on the ladder to hold the lamp moved on one side to allow by-way for some one who flew, rather than ran, into the hold. The light was not so dim but that I recognised Himilco, his head bare, his hair dishevelled, and his cutlass in his hand. Before I had time to speak to him a trumpet was sounding overhead, and Hannibal's stentorian voice was shouting: