“Lamon,” he said, in so loud a tone that the officer and slaves could hear, “it is fortunate for you that I meet men like Thuphrastos and Xenocles here. I know them—they are plotting no evil. Your hetaeria does not seem to be of the sort we so rigidly pursue. You are office-seekers, not men striving to usurp the government. I have now seen with my own eyes.... Yet—did I not hear a chatterer shrieking among you? He has shouted intolerably long; I’ll close his lips.”
“If you heard that,” replied Lamon, “you must have heard our disapproval.”
“Well then,” continued Phanos, “speak frankly. To what places do you want to be elected?”
Lamon—and then the others—obeyed the command without hesitation.
“Very well!” Phanos then continued, “promise to break up the hetaeria, and you shall lose nothing. The places of which we dispose are not dependent upon election, but are appointments. But there must be no more meetings of the hetaeria. If, in spite of your promise, you secretly assemble, woe betide you! No punishment will be too severe for us.”
Without bending an inch, or condescending to flattery, Thuphrastos thanked the clerk for his consideration and, after having exchanged glances with Lamon and the others, promised, in the name of himself and his friends, to disband the hetaeria.
Phanos now turned towards Hipyllos, the youngest of the group.
“Bring me that shrieker,” he said to him, “the only one of you who fled.” And, with a smile that showed he had noticed everything, he pointed to the door of the bleaching-room and added, “You’ll find him in there.”
No command could have been more welcome to Hipyllos. His heart throbbed with joyous anticipation; he had a presentiment that he was near his aim.