"Caleb," said Lucius, "I was just about to propose to you what you are proposing to me, that you should be our guide to the pillars of Sesostris and hire me a barge to sail up the Nile."
"O my lords!" cried Caleb, overjoyed and obviously relieved. "How glad I am of that! For now I am convinced that you will be comfortable and travel pleasantly and that you, O my Lord Catullus, will dine as you have been wont to do here ... especially as we shall not forget to take our own wines on board, the purple Mareotis wine, thick as ink, and the topaz-yellow liqueur of Napata."
"But is the last really necessary, Caleb?" asked Uncle Catullus, mischievously. "After all, we are going to Ethiopia!"
"And on the way, my lord? Before we reach Ethiopia? And above all let me also explain that the Ethiopian liqueurs ... must first descend the Nile, to acquire the perfume and the rich flavour which they do not possess in Ethiopia itself."
"If only they don't lose that perfume, Caleb, when they ascend the Nile again!" said Uncle Catullus, jestingly.
"I shall see to that, my lord," said Caleb, who saw through Uncle Catullus quite as plainly as Uncle Catullus saw through Caleb. "I'll see to that. You just leave it to me."
"We are leaving everything to you, Caleb. Get the barge ready for to-morrow," said Lucius.
"Then we shall go up the Nile next day, my lord," said Caleb, happy and delighted.
And Master Ghizla, in the palm-garden, pretending to be busy with the little canal, but in reality full of eagerness to know the result of Caleb's advice, whispered:
"Well, Caleb, well?" asked Ghizla, anxiously and looking a little pale.
"They're hiring the thalamegus ... they're alighting at no other diversorium ... they're sleeping in our tents, they'll travel with our camels and...."
"Well, Caleb, and what else?" asked Ghizla, rubbing his hands.
"They're drinking our wines ... all the way to Napata!"
"Where you'll pretend to lay in a fresh stock of liqueurs?"
"You leave that to me, Brother Ghizla, you just leave it to me!"
"May the gods bless you, Brother Caleb; may Thoth, Hermes and Serapis bless you! Quick, let us look in the cellars if we have enough in store!"
There came a sudden shower, as though poured from an urn in the sky by an invisible water-god; and the two brothers, with their garments girdled up, rushed bare-legged through the puddles of their palm-garden to their wine-cellars, which lay warm as stone cupolas in the sun, or else were kept cool with double walls filled with snow.