Menedemos started to tell how Hipparinos had tried to cheat him on the price he'd paid for the two peafowl chicks. Just then, Sostratos had a coughing fit. Menedemos let the story go untold. For a Krotonite to disparage a rich fellow citizen was one thing. For him, a foreigner, to disparage that same man might prove something else again. After a little more chat, the roustabout did leave. Sostratos hurried back toward the stern and climbed up onto the poop deck. 'I don't think we ought to spend much time here at all,' he said. 'Hipparinos wasn't happy with us when we came here last. Now, thanks to that accursed dog, he'll like us even less.' 'And thanks to our giving him the lie about the price he paid,' Menedemos added. 'Yes, thanks to that, too,' Sostratos agreed. 'Besides, we did sell what we could when we were here last. I think we should push on straight to Kallipolis tomorrow morning.' 'You're probably right,' Menedemos said with a sigh. 'The wind's out of the north, though. That means either tacking or rowing, and a two-day trip across the gulf either way.' 'Things would be simpler if we could put in at Taras,' Sostratos pointed out. Menedemos glared. 'Things would be simpler if you'd keep your mouth shut, too. I'm getting tired of hearing about that.' Had Sostratos pushed it any further, Menedemos would have given him all he wanted and then some. But his cousin just shrugged and said, 'We both may be glad not to see each other for a while once we get back to Rhodes.' Sostratos pointed north. 'What do you make of those clouds?' After studying them, Menedemos shrugged. 'Maybe rain, maybe not. I don't think they look too bad. How about you?' 'They seem the same way to me, too,' Sostratos answered, 'but I know you've got the better weather eye.' That was true, but it was one more thing Menedemos wouldn't have admitted so casually. He tasted the wind, trying to read the secrets it held. 'I think we will get rain if it stays steady. No more than a little rain, though. It's still early in the year for one of those equinoctial storms - a bit early, anyhow.' 'Good,' Sostratos said. 'I was hoping you'd tell me something like that. Because you're so weatherwise, of course I believe you.' Menedemos felt proud of that till he remembered how fond of irony his cousin was. Sostratos woke before sunrise. The eastern sky was just going from gray to pink. Dawn didn't become spectacularly red. That eased his mind; a red, red, sunrise often warned of bad weather ahead. His gaze swung to the north. The clouds covered more of the sky than they had the day before, but not a great deal more. From behind him, Menedemos said, 'I'd like the weather better if we weren't likely to have to spend a night at sea.' Sostratos started. 'I didn't know you were awake.'
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