'Let's have a look.' The keleustes went through the canvas sack till he found Alexidamos' money bag. He hefted it. 'Not as much as Kallikrates, but a couple minai, easy.' 'I wonder how much is his by right, and how much he's stolen,' Sostratos said. 'By the gods, it's mine,' Alexidamos said. 'You're not in the best position to be believed,' Sostratos pointed out. 'No, you're not,' his cousin agreed. 'Here's what I'll do. For stealing from the cargo, I fine you a mina of silver. Diokles, count out a hundred drakhmai. Take Athenian owls like he paid us before or turtles from Aigina: we'll make it a nice, heavy mina. And we'll keep him in bonds except when he eats or eases himself till we sight land. Then we'll put him ashore by himself wherever it happens to be, and many good-byes to him, too.' 'You might as well kill me now,' Alexidamos muttered. 'If that's what you want, you'll have it.' Menedemos' voice held no hesitation. If anything, it held eagerness. Alexidamos quickly tossed his head. 'No?' Menedemos said. 'Too bad.' He took a hand off one steering oar to gesture to the sailors. 'Tie him up.' They did, ignoring the mercenary's yelps of pain and protest. Diokles counted coins. They clinked musically as he stacked them in piles of ten. Sostratos took the eggs back to the peafowl cages on the foredeck. He got pecked twice replacing them. As far as he was concerned, Diokles was welcome to make a few drakhmai, or more than a few, disappear on his own behalf, too. Maybe the oarmaster would. Diokles was a practical man in every sense of the word. Alexidamos kept whining and complaining till Menedemos said, 'If you don't shut up, we'll put a gag on you. You did this to yourself, and you've got no cause to moan.' The mercenary did quiet down after that, but the look on his face was eloquent. Flying fish jumped from the water and glided through the air. One unlucky fish, instead of falling back into the sea, landed in a rower's lap. 'Isn't that nice?' the fellow said, grabbing it. 'First time I ever had my opson come to me.' Dolphins leaped from the water, too. Sostratos recalled that Arion had set out from Taras on the journey where the dolphins carried him to shore at Cape Tainaron. When he said as much to Menedemos, his cousin answered, 'Well, of course. That's why the Tarentines put a man riding a dolphin on their coins.' Sostratos made an irritated noise. He'd forgotten that, and he shouldn't have. He said, 'Now that we've bailed out the ship, may I start exercising the peafowl again? We'll want them at their best when we get in to Taras.' 'Yes, go ahead,' Menedemos said. 'It does look to do them good.' Sure enough, the birds seemed eager to run up and down the length of the Aphrodite. After a while, Sostratos wasn't so eager to run after them. But he and the sailors he detailed to help him stayed with the peafowl. Each one got its exercise and went back into its cage. Sostratos hoped being away from the peahens hadn't hurt the eggs Alexidamos had purloined.
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