Triads of faith

Chapter 3

A little cry broke from Charmides' lips. With the next flash he beheldthe galley heeled far upon her right side, oars shattered, sides stilluncrushed, while on her prow there stood at last a black swarm of men.

By this time a dozen of the young Greeks, stripped of their wet tunics,were making their way out into the breakers, intent upon saving thewrecked sailors from being dashed upon the rocks as they escaped fromtheir ship. Charmides hastily followed the example of his fellows andran into the chilly water after Phalaris, who stood in, shoulder-deep,fifty feet from the ship. It was nearly impossible to keep a footingthere. Breaker after breaker dashed over their heads, and Phalaris,expert swimmer as he was, found himself unable to stand upright, andfrequently struggled to his feet choking for breath, with sea-water inhis eyes, ears, and nose. Charmides fared worse still. Overbalanced bythe second wave that struck him, he was whirled round and round in it,and finally washed up on shore, half drowned. After a moment or two ofgasping and reeling, he returned pluckily into the water, this timefinding shelter beside a rock which he could also grasp. Phalarismanaged to reach his side and share his protection, and there the two ofthem stood, waiting.

A period of delay and general commotion on the deck of the galleyensued. Three men in the centre of the company of sailors were engagedin some altercation, in which all the rest seemed far more interestedthan in making an escape from the vessel, which, apparently, was in noimmediate danger of breaking up. Presently, however, to Phalaris'immense relief, for the useless battling with breakers was becoming toomuch, alike for his strength and for his patience, one of the men fromthe galley was seen to throw a rope over the vessel's side, make it fastupon the bulwark, and begin to lower himself, hand over hand, down tothe water. At the rope's end he stopped, hung there for a moment,waiting for a wave to go by, and then slipped lightly in. Like allPhoenicians he was a good swimmer. Phalaris knew, from the manner inwhich he threw himself forward, that there was little danger of his notreaching the shore. Yet when, presently, a wave dashed violently overhim, Charmides gave a little cry at seeing the man hurled helplesslyforward, and then roll over and over in the grasp of the sea. Phalarisshouted above the clamor of winds and waters:

"Watch, Charmides, to seize him!"

As the writhing body swirled towards them, both Greeks, leaning forward,caught and held it fast. The man was not drowned nor even unconscious.Accustomed to living more or less in the sea, he had swallowed butlittle water, and, being set upright again, with his feet touchingbottom, he stood still for a moment, said something in Phoenician to hisrescuers, and proceeded towards the shore, where most of the young men,less patient and less expert than Theron's sons, now stood.

Phalaris and Charmides, however, perceiving that they were likely to beof real use where they were, held their position; and, exhilarated bythe excitement and pleasure of the first rescue, they caught andassisted, one by one, nearly the whole crew of the galley. Phalaris,indeed, was amazed at the way in which his brother bore himself. Therhapsode worked as vigorously as the athlete, showed no fear at theonslaught of the waves, and was almost as successful as the other atcatching and holding the distressed swimmers as they came by. At lengththere remained upon the galley only the three men that had first beenengaged in the discussion. Of these, two presently disappeared fromsight in the hold of the ship, leaving one alone by the bulwark. As thisperson, the length of whose tunic showed him to be no common sailor,finally climbed over the ship's side and began to lower himselfleisurely to the water, Phalaris turned to look upon his brother.Charmides' form was dimly outlined in the gathering darkness, and hisfeatures were indistinguishable. A lightning flash, however, presentlyrevealed the face, pale and drawn with exhaustion. Phalaris perceived itsympathetically.

"For this one man we will wait. Then, if there are not to be two drownedGreeks, we must make our way ashore," he said, hoarsely, and Charmidesnodded assent.

The last man, for all his easy bearing, proved to be a far less expertswimmer than his predecessors. He had not accomplished more than asingle, uncertain stroke when a wave caught him, rolled over his head,and buried him completely from the straining vision of his would-berescuer. He was under water for what seemed to Charmides an eternity;and when, finally, by the light of a flash of lightning, the body wasseen to reappear from the foam of a

broken wave, it tossed there,lifeless, making no effort at resistance. Charmides rushed through thewater to the drowning man's side, and, before reaching him, foundhimself out of his depth. As he sent a despairing shout to Phalaris, thesupposed unconscious one addressed him, shouting above the surroundingroar, in Phoenician:

"Save yourself, youth! I shall float--" The sentence was interrupted bya rush of water, which threw Charmides forward, and once more buried thelight, limp body of this unusual person.

Acting upon the excellent advice of the floater, the Greek made hisdifficult way to the shore, arriving on the beach at the same time withPhalaris, and a moment later than the stranger, who had been washed upunhurt and apparently not much disturbed by his contest with the waves.

The two brothers, reaching dry land again, found but few of theirfriends left on the sand. As the wet and half-drowned sailors arrived,one by one, on the shore, they had been approached by the native Greeks,and, the relations between Carthage and Selinous being as yet of themost amicable nature, hospitably taken up to the city, where warmth,food, and rest were to be had. Among the group of three or four thatremained when the last Phoenician was washed up by the waves, was one whohastened to Charmides, as he stood dizzily on the sand looking back intothe sea that was in such a furious commotion.