Their morning devotions and meal had been finished, and they were conferring as to Seti’s proposal that they should remove to the Serapeum, when a knock was heard on their door, and the high priest himself made his appearance.
“What means all this?” he exclaimed, as he closed the door behind him and took the rude stool which was all that Aleph had to offer him; “the whole khan behind time, everything in a litter, the staging in the court in the last stages of a debauch; above all the clubs before your door and the battered state of the door itself, to say nothing of the broken seat before it!”
Cimon explained.
“Now you see why I am here so early this morning,” resumed the priest. “My thoughts were so full of apprehension on your account during the night that I could not sleep; and I determined that as soon as possible in the morning I would seek you out and again urge you to remove at once to the Serapeum. This evidently is no place for you. It is plain that Malus and the son of the governor have gotten into communication with each other and have joined their forces—plain that the chief object of the doings here last night was a three-fold assault on you through your fears, through magical powers, and through human assassins. These were the three strings to their bow. They hoped that if the others failed the clubs of Draco and his helpers would do the work and the magical powers which you defied take all the blame of it. You see with what characters you have to deal. Behold a fair sample of what these men are capable of doing. So come to the Serapeum without delay.”
“We were speaking of your kind offer just as you came in,” said Cimon, “and were debating whether we could properly accept it; and had about come to the conclusion that we could not do so without dragging the only friends we have in Alexandria into trouble with powerful people—which would be a poor return for the kindness we have received.”
“Leave me to judge,” returned Seti coolly, “as to the amount of trouble I can afford to be at for your sake. The offer I make is made freely in view of the circumstances.”
“We have been afraid,” said Aleph, “that your view of the circumstances is not as complete as it should be before we allow your generous kindness to embroil you with perhaps the government itself. You already know that Malus supposes himself seriously in danger from us, and that so we are seriously in danger from him. But you have not known distinctly who we are, and what we propose to do. As to who we are, we are still compelled to be silent; but it is fitting that you learn now the nature of Cimon’s relations to Malus. Cimon is the dear friend and business manager of an eastern trader who for many years has had large dealings with Malus—consigning to him a large amount of costly eastern goods yearly. We now find, what has long been suspected, that the consignee has made false returns as to the amount of goods received, and prices obtained for them, and the duties levied on them at this port. Complete proof of this, as we suppose, is contained in the parcel of papers put into your hands yesterday. We also cannot doubt that a comparison of these papers with the custom house registers (which comparison we have not been able to make) would show that Malus has defrauded the government as well as ourselves, and perhaps that officials are in collusion with him. The interests he has at stake, therefore, are so large that he is sure to be as bitterly hostile to our friends as to us. And besides, as you see, he seems to have secured a hold of some sort on the Roman authorities themselves. So the man who undertakes to befriend us undertakes a great deal. We are very reluctant to embroil you, and perhaps the family of the Alabarch in so serious a trouble. On this account we have refrained from asking advice from you in regard to our preliminary movements.”
“The case as stated by you,” replied Seti, still with the utmost coolness, “is not worse than I supposed; and I still press my invitation. Trouble there will be, no doubt; but, then, if I do not accept this trouble I shall have a greater from another quarter; for my granddaughter sent a messenger to me this morning as soon as it was light to stir me up to do what I am now doing. If I were to be backward in this matter,” he added with a smile, “I am afraid she would rouse all my students against me; which she could easily do, for she is a queen to P. Cornelius. Moreover, it is barely possible that both Alexander and myself have just a little of that generous indignation at wickedness that led certain persons of our acquaintance to stand up for us without counting the cost. Who gave Greeks and Chaldeans a monopoly of that sort of thing? No, friends, you must not ask me to do what you would not, I am confident, be willing to do yourselves.”
Of course nothing more was to be said. And our friends said nothing more—save thanks. It was agreed that they should send their effects at once to the Serapeum by certain servants whom Seti had left without, and follow them in person in the course of the day.
This matter being disposed of, Seti continued, “Now tell me what steps you have taken to bring that arch-rogue to justice.”