Leonidas made no answer, but shook his bridle rein free and plunged his spurs into the flanks of his horse.
"Way! Way!" Chares cried in a mighty voice, as they thundered down upon the obstinate group. "Follow us, my lads!" he shouted to the servants as he swept past.
The officious man with the sharp nose dropped his sword and scrambled up the steps of a house, but before the rest could follow his example the five horsemen were among them, and they were rolling under foot with their torches. Chares swerved his horse skilfully against the litter in such a manner that it was overturned. Its occupant pitched head foremost into the street, and the litter fell on top of him, burying him beneath a mass of curtains and silken cushions, among which he struggled like some gigantic insect caught in a web.
"You shall pay for this!" he gasped from the wreckage, shaking his fist after the little cavalcade. "I am Phradates!"
Chares laughed until the street echoed, and even Leonidas could not forbear a smile when he glanced back upon the havoc their passage had caused.
"We must ask Clearchus who this fellow is," Chares said. "Here is the house."
He sprang down in front of a dwelling of white marble and ran to the gate.
"Hola!" he shouted. "Let us in! Do you intend to keep your master's guests all day at his door? Open, then!"
After a slight delay there was a sound of falling bars, and the grating swung back, revealing a drowsy slave in the entrance.
"Is it you, my master? Enter; you are welcome," the man said, bowing before Chares.