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"Nearer," Ledscha ordered the pirate in a stifled voice, and he rowed the boat noiselessly under the shadow of aon the bank But the skiff had scarcely been brought to a stop there when an elderly matron, who shared the couch of an old Macedonian uished, soldierly appearance, called the name "Niobe"

The Hellene on the pedestal took a cloth from the hand of one of the female attendants, and beckoned to the boy, who obediently drew through his girdle the short blue chiton which hung only to his knees, and sprang upon the platforirl h upon her head, and confined above the brow by a costly gold diade slave handed to her over her head, wound her arm around the shoulders of the raven-locked boy, and drew him toward her with passionate tenderness At the same time she raised the end of the linen drapery with her left hand, spreading it over hi canopy

The mobile features which had just smiled so radiantly expressed mortal terror, and the pirate, to whom even the name "Niobe" was unfa the innocent child, fro it with loving devotion

The her power of her child could scarcely be hty defiance hovered around her slightly pouting lips; the uplifted hands seemed not only anxiously to defend, but also to defy an invisible foe with powerless anger

The pirate's eyes rested on this spectacle as if spellbound, and thecreatures--boys and girls--on his ship to sell the of the tears which he thereby caused in huts and h hand to attack the base wretch as robbing the poorto look around him for the invisible evildoer, the loud shouts of lanced toward the pedestal; but now, instead of the hapless mother, he found there the bold woreat piece of good fortune had befallen her, bowing and waving her hand to the other Greeks, ere thanking her with loud applause

The sorely threatened boy, bowing round; but Hanno put his hand on Ledscha's arreat perplexity whispered, "What did that mean?"