14
Well, my noble sir, arrest me and take me off to the general as a pirate or a rogue who tipped you overboard and made such a wreck of her—and that on shore on the road from Piraeus to town. But look, I’ll make amends for my mistake: take here and now, if you will, five ships better and bigger than the Egyptian and, best of all, unsinkable. Let them bring perhaps five times the cargo of corn from Egypt every year, even if, most glorious of shipowners, you then become unbearable to us, as you clearly will. When you still owned this one ship you couldn’t hear our shouts, and if you get five more, all three-masters and indestructible too, you’ll obviously not even see your friends. A good voyage to you, good friend! We shall sit in Piraeus and ask new arrivals from Egypt or Italy if anyone has seen Adimantus’s big ship the “Isis” anywhere.
15
You see? That’s why I hesitated to tell you what I was thinking. I knew that you would laugh and make fun of my wish. So I’ll stay with you a little until you go on, and then sail away again on my ship. It’s much better to talk to sailors than be laughed at by you.
15
Don’t do that. We’ll stay too and go on board with you.
15
Then I shall go on board first and pull up the gangway.
