"When, O Harpalos?"
"Do not worry, best one. A transaction like this takes at least a few days. You will have to confer with my man Pygmalion, to reckon the cost of your remaining journey. And he, alas, is not here."
"Where then is he?"
"Ah—he went home to Byblos for a visit. I expect him back soon. Meanwhile, make yourselves comfortable. I hear you are camped in the mud on the Kappadokian road. Surely we can find space for you in the city?"
The man seemed so friendly and charming that it was hard to refuse. Even Elisas, who took no sunny view of human nature, cast me a longing glance. I found myself weakening.
But, as says Hippokrates, appearances are deceptive. Just then the lamplight caught a huge ruby in a ring on Harpalos' thumb. This was the kind of gem one would look for in the headcloth of an Indian king. Harpalos had not, I thought, bought that jewel in the open market on his salary. I said:
"I thank you, my lord treasurer. But I think we'll stay where we are."
"My dear old chap, why make life so hard for yourself?"
I smiled. "I've found it best to keep the lads roughing it. Then they mind it not. But, if once I bed them down on soft cushions, they hate to move on. When they do strike the road again, I get nought but sulks and grumbles over lack of comfort. Nay, you'd best let us be, for we yet have a long hard road before us."
He seemed a little hurt, but accepted my refusal on condition that I would take dinner with him. He wanted all the officers at once.
Remembering Babylon, I refused again, allowing him only one at a time.
"A man of grim and austere principles you must be," he said. "Would I had more such men to serve me! Perhaps someday we can do something about that." He winked one bulging green eye.
That night I dined with Harpalos and some of his officials. Although I expected an oriental orgy like that in Babylon, nothing of the sort occurred. Nor did "Queen" Glykera appear.
Yet I was struck by the sumptuousness of this dinner. Off golden plates we ate delicacies from as far away as Babylonia and Persia. Though the rigors of the journey had rendered me almost slim, a month of Harpalos' dinners, I thought, would make me too fat to mount a horse.
My couch mate was a man named Sabiktas, clad as a Hellene but speaking with a strong accent that led me to class him as some sort of Thracian or Bithynian. He was, he explained half jestingly, Alexander's viceroy of Kappadokia.
"I was legally and officially appointed," he said, "and I can prove it. But what good does that do me, when that whipworthy rogue Arivarates holds sway in my province? If Antigonos, whose duty it is, would rouse himself to drive out the dog-faced usurper, I could rise to my just position in the world. Every year we hear of some stunning victory Antigonos has won over the Kappadokians. But then it turns out that the boundaries remain where they were, and the usurper is as firm on his throne as ever."
After the meal, some of the officials got a puckle drunk and rallied Harpalos on his success with women. To hear them talk, one would think him a satyr and a Herakles rolled into one. He lolled on his couch, soaking up the praise with a bland smile, until he fixed his fishlike stare on me.
"Leon!" he said. "I am told there is a handsome girl in your hipparchia; the sister of that Persian officer."
"Well?" I said.
"Fetch her here some evening; we will have a mixed dinner. Some really lively entertainment. Ah—I will find a good bouncing wench for you."
This was only one of several remarks which showed that Harpalos knew more about our expedition than he had any right to know. Pie must, I thought, have spies everywhere. If he wanted me to fetch Nirouphar and then provide me with another woman, one needed not the wisdom of Solon to see that he had lewd intentions towards the Persian maid. As we say at home, wine is wont to reveal the mind of man.
Back at the camp next morn, I called my friends together. "Bring your sister," I told Vardanas.
"Now," I said, "our great sausage of a treasurer is fain to entertain our Nirouphar at dinner the night—"
"Oh, good!" cried the lass. "I have not seen a party since Vardanas so cruelly dragged me forth from that one in Babylon."
"I'm sorry, Nirouphar dear, but I fear you cannot go to this one, either."
"You are a beast, Rheon of Atrax! Why can I not?"
"Because Harpalos, though no athlete, needs no mounting block to vault upon his chosen steed." I reminded them of Harpalos' repute as a judge of many-gaited women, and told them of his proposal to me.
"Oh," said Nirouphar.
Vardanas said: "I have heard rumors of this man's lechery. His fellow officials did not unduly puff up his prowess. We must hide my sister."
"But where?" said I. "In the bottom of a cart?"
After we had talked the matter over without agreement, I called in Elisas and put the problem to him.
The Syrian smiled. "No need to hide her in a cart, noble Hipparch. Let me fix her up, and you shall see."
"What do you mean?" said Vardanas.
"No harm, Lord Vardanas. I will not hurt her honor."
Two hours later, Elisas led in a shuffling beldame with straggly gray hair hanging down before her face.
"Arimanes!" cried Vardanas. "What has he done to you, Nirouphar?"
"A little flour in the hair," said Elisas. "Some of the shabbier clothes from the soldiers' women, a touch of cosmetics, a little practice in acting like a crone, and behold!"
I suppose Elisas had once been involved in some sort of slaving or kidnaping, so well did he know the art of hiding a woman while she walks about in plain view. We were none too soon with our disguise. Ere noon, our Dahan picket galloped in to warn us of a party approaching from Tarsos.
Then a group of Harpalos' mercenaries arrived with a wagonload of wineskins and the treasurer's compliments. The wine was Rhodian, fine stuff albeit not Chian. I put it under guard, for swifter than the flight of a falcon can a generous supply of liquor ruin a military unit.
I accompanied the mercenaries back to the palace to send my thanks in to the treasurer and ask about Pygmalion. No, he had not returned. When I got back to camp, Vardanas said:
"A fellow was around here with a bid from Harpalos to dinner. All the officers are to come; also Pyrron and Nirouphar."
"What said you?"
"That we could do nought without you. He asked after my sister, too, saying he wanted a look at her. We showed him Nirouphar in her haggish guise, and he went away frowning."
"Go you to this dinner and represent the rest. Pick up what news you can."
"That's no all, Leon," said Thyestes. "I just had a whin of a talk with the Persian lass, and she has something to tell you."
"Fetch her, then," I said.
When Nirouphar came in, she said: "Do you remember the man in charge of the gift of wine this morning?"
"Aye."
"Well, whilst the men were unloading the skins, this fellow got Kronios and a few other troopers aside and quizzed them about camping here in the mud. He said: did they not think it uncommonly cruel of the hipparch to keep them out in the rain when nice soft berths awaited them in Tarsos? Kronios told me about it, for he has been aiming a stiff spear at me ever since his woman ran away."
"I will show the baseborn lout!" said Vardanas, but the rest of us shushed him. Nirouphar continued:
"I also heard Porygonos say: if you, Rheon, love sleeping out, nobody is stopping you, but they like a little comfort ere they die."
I said: "That's serious. What think you I should do, Thyestes?"
"Call the ruckle together and make a speech, telling them as much about our true plight as you dare."