"Why did you not seek to kill the Chief of the Hundred Valleys, being able to approach him in the Gallic camp?" suggested the interpreter. "You would have been revenged." "Immediately after the mutilation of my husband," answered Meroe, "we were driven from the camp. We could not return." The interpreter again conversed with the Roman general, who, while listening, did not cease to empty his cup and to follow Meroe with brazen looks. "You are a mariner, you say!" resumed the interpreter. "You used to command a merchantman?" "Yes." "And--are you a good seaman?" "I am five and twenty years old. From the age of twelve I have traveled on the sea; for four years I have commanded a vessel." "Do you know well the coast between Vannes and the channel which separates Great Britain from Gaul?" "I am from the port of Vannes, near the forest of Karnak. For more than sixteen years I have sailed these coasts continuously." "Would you make a good pilot?" "May I lose all the limbs which the Chief of the Hundred Valleys has left me, if there is a bay, a cape, an islet, a rock, a sand-bank, or a breaker, which I do not know from the Gulf of Aquitaine to Dunkirk." "You are vaunting your skill as a pilot. How can you prove it?" "We are near the shore. For him who is not a good and fearless sailor, nothing is more dangerous than the navigation of the mouth of the Loire, going up towards the north." "That is true," answered the interpreter. "Even yesterday a Roman galley ran aground on a sand-bank and was lost." "Who pilots a boat well," observed Albinik, "pilots well a galley, I think." "Yes." "To-morrow conduct us to the shore. I know the fisher boats of the country; my wife and I will suffice to handle one. From the top of the bank Caesar will see us skim around the rocks and breakers, and play with them as the sea raven plays with the wave it skims. Then Caesar will believe me capable of safely piloting a galley on the coasts of Brittany." Albinik's offer having been translated to Caesar by the interpreter, the latter proceeded: "We accept your test. It shall be done to-morrow morning. If it proves your skill as a pilot--and we shall take all precautions against treachery, lest you should wish to trick us--perhaps you will be charged with a mission which will serve your hatred, all the more seeing that you can have no idea of what that mission is. But for that it will be necessary to gain the entire confidence of Caesar." "What must I do!" "You must know the forces and plans of the Gallic army. Beware of telling an untruth; we already have reports on that subject. We shall see if you are sincere; if not, the chamber of torture is not far off."