"Granted," said Croft. "But were one to place a device upon it, to do the work of the rowers with ten times their strength?"
"Zitu!" Sinon lifted himself on his couch. "What, Jasor, is this? What mean you, my son? What is this device?"
"One I have in mind," Croft told him. "Come. You make your money with ships. Apply some of it to making them more swift of motion. Let me make this device, and they shall mount the Na more swiftly than now they run with the current and the wind."
Sinon turned his eyes to the woman at his side. "And this is our son, who was a dullard!" he exclaimed.
"In whom I always have had faith," Mellia replied with a smile of maternal joy on her face.
"You have faith in this thing he proposes?" Sinon went on.
"Aye. I think Zitu himself spoke to him in his deathlike sleep," the woman said.
"Then, by Zitu—he shall make the attempt!" Sinon roared. "Should he succeed, the king himself would make him a knight for his service to the state."
Croft's heart leaped and ran racing for a minute at the words. Knighthood! That was the answer to the question in his brain—the bridge which should cross the gulf between Naia of Aphur and himself. He crushed back his emotions, however, and faced Sinon again. "Then I may carry out my plan?"
"Aye—to the half of my wealth," Sinon declared. "Jasor, I do not understand the change which has come upon you. But this thing you may do if you can."