29
That's done. Gracious heaven, the door has opened as if with a key!
29
Go in first. There, do you see him keeping vigil over his accounts?
29
Yes! by Zeus, with a feeble, ill-fed lamp. And he is pale, I don't know why, and he has fallen away to a skeleton. It must be from anxiety, for I never heard he was ill otherwise.
29
Hear what he says. Then you will know why he is thus.
29
So that seventy thousand dollars is pretty safely buried under the bed, and nobody at all knows about it; but I have an idea that Sosylos the groom saw me burying the sixteen thousand under the manger. Anyhow, he is forever about the stable now, though he was not so very careful or fond of his work before. And probably I am being plundered of a good deal besides this; for where did Tibios get the money for those large fish they say he bought yesterday, and those ear-rings for his wife, worth a dollar at least? It is my money they are snatching, unlucky wretch that I am! Even my plate is not safely stored, and there is so much of it! I am afraid a house-breaker will get it. A great many people envy me and plot against me, particularly my neighbor Mikyllos.
29
Yes, by Zeus! I am going off with a basin under my arm just as you did!
29
Hush, Mikyllos, he will know we are here.
29
The best plan is to sit up all night myself and look after everything. I will get up and make the round of the house. Who is that? I see you, you thief— Good heaven, you are only a pillar-that's all right. I will dig up my money and count it again, lest I overlooked any the day before yesterday. There, I hear some one coming to attack me again. Every one is besieging me and plotting against me. Where is my dagger? If I catch any one- Come, I must bury the money again.
30
Such, Mikyllos, is the state of affairs with Simon. Let us be off to some one else while there is still a little of the night left.
30
Poor devil, what a life he leads. May my enemies get rich like him! I want to give him one good thump and then go off.
