He knew the country and the language of the barbarians, and, disguised as a Persian sailor, it did not take him long to discover where his master was confined. He bought the three mountain ponies on the way, and brought them to Sardis, pretending he meant to sell them there. When he reached the satrap’s capital, he made friends with the sailors who formed the guard of the citadel, regaling them at the wine-shops on the supposed proceeds of a prosperous voyage, and after waiting many days, he at last found means of getting his message into his master’s hands. Then he gave the guard, who ought to have gone on duty an hour after sunset, so much of the strong wine that grows on the sides of Tmôlos, that he felt sure they would not trouble themselves to be too early at their post, and as soon as the tired guard went off, without waiting for their relief, the sailor’s rope had done the rest. So two days and nights passed in the rough cottage, till the rest and warmth, and such food as they could get, restored the unfortunate lieutenant sufficiently to let them journey on. In two days more they reached a small fishing-village to the eastward of Klazomenai. At dark they put off in a fishing-boat, and after cruising about all night, at daybreak they sighted the _Eros_ standing off the coast, about a mile north of Klazomenai. The sailors raised such loud cries of joy, when their strategos came on board, that their shouts were heard in the port, as with a head wind the _Eros_ made for the isle of Samos. The men of Samos were vainly vowing vengeance on the Persians if their chief was murdered. Just as the _Eros_ was seen sailing towards the port, the women were thronging the temple of Heré, where the great bronze statue of Alkibiades, the liberator of Ionia, was to be erected next year, and were sending up prayers for his safety to the all-powerful Queen of Olympos, who was born, they said, at Samos. When they heard that the _Eros_ was arrived, they left the altar of the goddess, in anxious hope that she had heard their prayers. There was the _Eros_ coming onward, with the north-west wind, in festive trim, and lo! standing on the deck, appeared the hero for whom such earnest, tearful prayers had for so many days been offered up. He was soon in their midst, as fair, as fresh, as beautiful, as though no trouble or danger had ever come upon him. He could not stay long at Samos. The tiresome necessities of glorious war called him away upon its ordinary business. He had to visit those of the islands which had not been true to Athens and which had now been abandoned by Sparta, enforcing contributions for the fleet which, he determined, should preserve them from both the Spartan and the Persian. He was at Lesbos when he received a pressing summons from those who were left in charge of the fleet in the north to come at once and take command.