Phoebicius looked down gloomily considering the matter.  The news had reached him too that the sons of the desert were preparing for a new incursion, and he cried to Talib angrily but decidedly, as he turned his back upon Hermas, “You must ride alone to Klysma, and try to capture her.  I cannot and will not neglect my duty for the sake of the wretched woman.”

Hermas looked after him as he went away, and laughed out loud when he saw him disappear into his inn.  He hired a boat from the old man for his passage across the sea for one of the gold pieces given him by Paulus, and lying down on the nets he refreshed him self by a deep sleep of some hours’ duration.  When the moon rose he was roused in obedience to his orders, and helped the boy who accompanied him, and who understood the management of the sails and rudder, to push the boat, which was laid up on the sand, down into the sea.  Soon he was flying over the smooth and glistening waters before a light wind, and he felt as fresh and strong in spirit as a young eagle that has just left the nest, and spreads its mighty wings for the first time.  He could have shouted in his new and delicious sense of freedom, and the boy at the stern shook his head in astonishment when he saw Hermas wield the oars he had entrusted to him, unskilfully it is true, but with mighty strokes.

“The wind is in our favor,” he called out to the anchorite as he hauled round the sail with the rope in his hand, “we shall get on without your working so hard.  You may save your strength.”

“There is plenty of it, and I need not be stingy of it,” answered Hermas, and he bent forward for another powerful stroke.

About half-way he took a rest, and admired the reflection of the moon in the bright mirror of the water, and he could not but think of Petrus’ court-yard that had shone in the same silvery light when he had climbed up to Sirona’s window.  The image of the fair, whitearmed woman recurred to his mind, and a melancholy longing began to creep over him.

He sighed softly, again and yet again; but as his breast heaved for the third bitter sigh, he remembered the object of his journey and his broken fetters, and with eager arrogance he struck the oar flat on to the water so that it spurted high up, and sprinkled the boat and him with a shower of wet and twinkling diamond drops.  He began to work the oars again, reflecting as he did so, that he had something better to do than to think of a woman.  Indeed, he found it easy to forget Sirona completely, for in the next few days he went through every excitement of a warrior’s life.

Scarcely two hours after his start from Raithu he was standing on the soil of another continent, and, after finding a hiding-place for his boat, he slipped off among the hills to watch the movements of the Blemmyes.  The very first day he went up to the valley in which they were gathering; on the second, after being many times seen and pursued, he succeeded in seizing a warrior who had been sent out to reconnoitre, and in carrying him off with him; he bound him, and by heavy threats learned many things from him.