“It’s all over with us! They are pirates, the craft is Thyamis’ ship from Coracesium. Once before I have been robbed by him and barely escaped with my life.”
At these words indescribable terror and confusion arose on board. Some covered their faces to await death, others uttered loud lamentations and wrung their hands irresolutely; a few tried to hide in the ship’s hold, others wanted to have the boats lowered to escape by flight, and some young slaves, in their fear of losing a life which scarcely seemed of any special value, ran to and fro as though out of their senses.
Amid this universal irresolution, the Myoparian came close behind.
Glaucus comforted his wife with a few soothing words and told her to stay inside of the tent with little Callias. He himself went to the stern, collected the passengers and sailors around him, and said:
“Friends, if we do not repulse that wretch’s attack, many of us must lose our lives. But we are numerous enough, if we only resolve to do so, to save ourselves and the ship. Besides the steersman and myself, there are on board five foreign merchants and six sailors; so in all, we have thirteen free men, while of slaves there are the fourteen oarsmen, four slaves of my own, and ten who accompanied the foreign merchants. As the Myoparian has no boats, we can only be attacked on one side and there only for a distance not exceeding the length of yonder little vessel. Twenty brave men would be enough to repel such an assault, and we,—including freemen and slaves—number more than forty! You can obtain weapons from the steersman; for though I have never met pirates until now, I have always been ready to receive them. If we repulse the attack, I will free my slaves and give each sailor a large reward. Show courage and firmness—and the victory will be ours. Besides, we shall fight from a higher position as if we were in a fortress.”
“Let them come,” said the steersman coolly, “we’ll receive them in such a way that hereafter they’ll avoid attacking an Attic ship.”
The crew, in answer to these words, maintained an ominous silence and, when the steersman distributed the weapons, he noticed that many of the men were reluctant to take them.
One of the rowers, a Cretan with a sly, crafty face, had alarmed the men on their way to him.
“Don’t be simpletons!” he had said. “Throw the swords into the sea in time. Those whom the pirates catch with arms in their hands will be killed at once.”
Meantime, twilight had begun to close in. The glowing colors in the sky had faded, the black storm-cloud had risen higher, and the sea stretched sullen and leaden-hued below.