APOLLODORUS. Caesar: I cannot return. As I approached the lighthouse, some fool threw a great leathern bag into the sea. It broke the nose of my boat; and I had hardly time to get myself and my charge to the shore before the poor little cockleshell sank. CAESAR. I am sorry, Apollodorus. The fool shall be rebuked. Well, well: what have you brought me? The Queen will be hurt if I do not look at it. RUFIO. Have we time to waste on this trumpery? The Queen is only a child. CAESAR. Just so: that is why we must not disappoint her. What is the present, Apollodorus? APOLLODORUS. Caesar: it is a Persian carpet--a beauty! And in it are--so I am told--pigeons' eggs and crystal goblets and fragile precious things. I dare not for my head have it carried up that narrow ladder from the causeway. RUFIO. Swing it up by the crane, then. We will send the eggs to the cook; drink our wine from the goblets; and the carpet will make a bed for Caesar. APOLLODORUS. The crane! Caesar: I have sworn to tender this bale of carpet as I tender my own life. CAESAR (_cheerfully_). Then let them swing you up at the same time; and if the chain breaks, you and the pigeons' eggs will perish together. (_He goes to the chain and looks up along it, examining it curiously._) APOLLODORUS (_to Britannus_). Is Caesar serious? BRITANNUS. His manner is frivolous because he is an Italian; but he means what he says. APOLLODORUS. Serious or not, he spake well. Give me a squad of soldiers to work the crane. BRITANNUS. Leave the crane to me. Go and await the descent of the chain. APOLLODORUS. Good. You will presently see me there (_turning to them all and pointing with an eloquent gesture to the sky above the parapet_) rising like the sun with my treasure. _He goes back the way he came. Britannus goes into the lighthouse._ RUFIO (_ill-humoredly_). Are you really going to wait here for this foolery, Caesar? CAESAR (_backing away from the crane as it gives signs of working_). Why not? RUFIO. The Egyptians will let you know why not if they have the sense to make a rush from the shore end of the mole before our barricade is finished. And here we are waiting like children to see a carpet full of pigeons' eggs. _The chain rattles, and is drawn up high enough to clear the parapet. It then swings round out of sight behind the lighthouse._ CAESAR. Fear not, my son Rufio. When the first Egyptian takes his first step along the mole, the alarm will sound; and we two will reach the barricade from our end before the Egyptians reach it from their end--we two, Rufio: I, the old man, and you, his biggest boy. And the old man will be there first. So peace; and give me some more dates. APOLLODORUS (_from the causeway below_). Soho, haul away. So-ho-o-o-o! (_The chain is drawn up and comes round again from behind the lighthouse. Apollodorus is swinging in the air with his bale of carpet at the end of it. He breaks into song as he soars above the parapet._)