“Aristonikè,” he announced, “passed into ecstasy suddenly without any rites and prophesied wonderful things. They carried her to the tripod even while she prophesied. The crowd of priests coming from our house reached the adytum just in time to hear her cry out: “‘The god will care for his own.’ “Then she fell forward into old Akeretos’s arms and was dead.” Nikander shuddered. “Poor child,” he said, “poor, poor little girl.” “But, Father, think what that means!” said Dryas. “‘The god will care for his own’!” Nikander put his hand on Dryas’s shoulder. “Yes, yes, my son, you are right, but had any one asked a question? How did it happen?” “But, Father, don’t you know that Akeretos himself has been asking a question for days? He is so old, I suppose he knows the Oracle better than any of us. He says that in his youth this method was tried and answer received beyond all hope. “But what did he do?” asked the dazed Nikander. “He made sacrifice right in front of the Pythia House, not as usual on the Great Altar. The question which he was to ask was: ‘What shall we do to save the treasures of the god? Shall we hide them in the hills?’ But he repeated not this question at all, but instead, the while he was sacrificing, he kept repeating to himself the answer which he desired—thinking only of this answer: ‘The god will care for his own. The sacred things must not be touched by mortal hands. The god will care for his own.’ And sure enough within the house, locked within it indeed, Aristonikè awoke from sleep with a low cry and began to say those very words: “Touch not the sacred things, The god will care for his own!” “So when Tuchè came running out to tell him, Akeretos brought Aristonikè forth to the tripod.” Dryas paused, taking a long breath. “And now all the Delphians say there is no need to stay to defend our Delphi. We may all flee to the mountains while the god alone fights for us. We of the household also must make haste to go.” It was almost a pleading look which poor Dryas bent upon his father. “You can go if you will, Dryas. For my part, I shall not leave the shrine.” Again Dryas took a long breath. His cheek paled and he looked down, then he said: “I might have known you would answer that. I shall stay with you.” CHAPTER XXXIII AT EËTÍON’S CALL What Dryas reported was true. The Delphians were deserting their town, whether from great faith or great fear, who could say? Their temple guard could not be called an army. It seemed as vain to wait for the Persian as to wait for the onsweep of a flood at the breaking of a dam. The dam had broken at Thermopylæ and the flood was coming. Men sent their wives and children across the gulf to Corinth and thence to Achaia, and when there were no more boats others sent them to Amphissa in Locris. The men of Delphi hurried up into Mount Parnassos, to the Korykian cave and to other fastnesses known only to themselves.