A small hatchway--fitted with silver ornaments--now opened on to the deck from the cabin between decks; a fat round head with short hair showed itself in the opening, and a pair of blinking eyes looked curiously round in every direction. Presently the head was followed by a body, of which the squat rotundity matched the odd head. “Well, Chrysostomus, is Puteoli[4] in sight yet?” asked the stout man, stepping on to the deck and looking across to the blue-black rocks of Capreae. “Ask again in three hours time,” replied the steersman. “Unless you can succeed in looking round the corner, like the magician of Tyana,[5] you must need wait till we have the island yonder behind us.” “What!” exclaimed the other, drawing a little ivory map[6] from his tunic.[7] “Are those rocks only Capreae?” “Thou sayest, O Herodianus! Out there on the heights to the right, hardly visible yet, stands the palace of the glorified Caesar Tiberius.[8] Do you see that steep cliff, straight down to the sea? That was where such useless fellows as you were dropped over into the water by Caesar’s slaves.” “Chrysostomus, do not be impudent! How dare you, a common ship’s-mate, make so bold as to scoff at me, the companion and confidential friend of the illustrious Caius Aurelius? By the gods![9] but it is beneath me to hold conversation with you, an ignorant seaman--a man who carries no wax-tablets[10] about him, who only knows how to handle the tiller and not the stylus--a common Gaul who is ignorant of all history of the gods--such a man ought not even to exist, so far as the friend of Aurelius is concerned.” “Oho! you are dreaming! you are not his friend, but his freedman.”[11] Herodianus bit his lip; as he stood there, his face flushed with anger and turned to the growing day, he might have been taken for an ill-natured and vindictive man. But good temper and a genial nature soon reasserted themselves. “You are an insolent fellow,” he said laughing, “but I know you mean no harm. You sea-folks are a rough race. I will burn a thank-offering to all the gods when this accursed sea-saw on the waves is over at last. Was there ever such a voyage! from Trajectum[12] to Gades[13] without landing once! And at Gades hardly had we set foot on shore, when we were ordered on board again! And if Aurelius, our noble master, had not had business to settle in Panormus[14] with his deceased father’s host, I believe we should have made the whole voyage from Hispania to Rome without a break. I will dance like the Corybantes,[15] when I am once more allowed to feel like a man among men! How long will it be yet before we reach Ostia?”[16] “Two days, not more,” replied Chrysostomus. “Aphrodite Euploia be most fervently thanked!” “What are you talking about? Who is that you are blessing?”