Vasti severed the rope that tied up the boat, and, with a strong thrust of her hands against the piling, pushed the boat away from the wharf. But she did not take up the oars. She left them to Marsyas, trained on the blue waters of Galilee.
In a moment he had pulled out into the black expanse of the bay, and, with the prince's ship in mind, rowed among the sleeping shipping.
"How came the prince in this plight?" Marsyas demanded of Eutychus.
The charioteer, with his head in his hands, groaned and murmured unintelligibly. Lydia dipped an end of the wonderful silk that enveloped her into the water and pressed the wet corner to the charioteer's temples.
"Nay, but thou canst answer, Eutychus," he said shortly.
After further murmurings, the charioteer brought out between groans an avowal that he was completely mystified.
"How came Agrippa in the street?" Marsyas insisted.
"He was with Justin Classicus; I attended him. When Flora danced and chose her lover, and the two fled into the Temple of Rannu, the Alexandrian cried to my lord that there was another passage into the Temple, by which they could go in, or the Flora and her lover come out. And he proposed for a prank that he and the prince go thither and discover Flora and her lover. We were on the roof of a bath and could get down at once, so we ran through private passages, my lord and I, outstripping Classicus, whom the crowd swallowed. And when we got into this dark street, two fell upon us without warning and killed us both!"
"But it was Agrippa who struck that blow," Marsyas declared.
"Some one struck me," he said finally; "mayhap the prince, not knowing friend from foe in the street."
"Of a surety, this stiff old Roman took chances," Marsyas averred after thought, "with but one apparitor to aid him against Agrippa, palestræ-trained and this young charioteer! Art sure thou didst not play the craven, Eutychus?" he demanded.
"Or should I be blamed," Eutychus groaned, "when it was three against me, with the prince striking at his single defender?"
Marsyas fell silent. It was not like Agrippa to be confused under any circumstances.
He pulled up beside Agrippa's vessel, roused the watchman and had the prince and Eutychus taken aboard; but Vasti and Lydia he left in the borrowed punt, out of sight of the crew that had returned.