Argos by Ralph Hardy Read Free Book Online

finally reach the harbor.
    Throngs of fishermen and sailors stand on the beach, watching my master’s ship and companion boats come ever closer. They cheer and wave their arms, and flap tunics as flags. Children run along the jetty, screaming, “Odysseus! Odysseus! Theking of Ithaka has returned!”
    Then, just as the crowd’s noise has reached its peak, there is silence. The children’s words are lost; the shifting wind carries their sounds away. A tunic is torn from a fisherman’s hands and is blown out over the sea. I look up. Above me, the gulls, which had been flying so strangely, are now fighting to stay aloft as the wind rips through their flock. Suddenly I hear a terrible whooshing sound and feel the sting of sharp pebbles scouring me. Sand chokes my nose. Telemachos shouts something, but even my ears cannot hear it. I look out toward the breakers and see that the wind is driving the waves back away from the shore. All around me, men lean into the wind, fighting to stay upright.
    â€œNo!” I hear Telemachos cry. “Father! Father!”
    Through half-closed, sand-filled eyes, I see what made Telemachos cry. My master’s ship, along with its small fleet, is being blown back to sea. I can see the flash of twenty oars, but the wind is too strong even for the finest rowers. There is no resisting it. Soon we see nothing but the wind-tossed sea.
    I have seen storms lash Ithaka before with strong wind and rain, but this is not a storm. No clouds fill the sky, nor is there a drop of rain. There is only the terrible wind, unlike I have ever felt, and only the gods could have sent it.
    â€œFather! Come back!” I hear Telemachos cry again, and suddenly he is running toward the sea.
    â€œTelemachos, stop!” Eumaios screams.
    I run after the boy. Just before he reaches the water, I leap on his back and he topples to the sand.
    â€œNo, Argos,” he yells, pushing me off him and rising to his feet. Again he tries to dive into the sea, but I take his tunic in my mouth and pull him back.
    â€œArgos,” he cries. “Let me go! Let me go!”
    By then Eumaios reaches us. He takes Telemachos’s arm and leads the sobbing youth away. We find shelter from the wind by huddling next to the jetty, as do the gulls. After a few minutes, even the sharpest-eyed men on the beach lose sight of my master’s ships, and they gather around us, trying to console Telemachos.
    â€œThe wind will die down soon enough, boy, and when it does, the Wily One will sail once again into the harbor,” one old fisherman says gently.
    â€œIt’s been more than twelve years, lad,” another adds. “What’s one more day?”
    Telemachos says nothing; he just strokes my back while the darkness comes in around us. After an hour or more passes, Eumaios whispers, “Come, Telemachos. We must returnhome and tell your mother what happened. She will be worried about you. In the morning the winds will calm, as they always do, and we will see your father. I am sure of it.”
    We rise and make the long trek up to my master’s estate. The wind continues to blow mercilessly around us, and at times we have to hold on to the trees along the trail to keep from being blown back. When we reach the courtyard, my mistress wraps Telemachos in her arms and weeps bitter tears. This time it is he who speaks words of consolation.
    â€œTomorrow, Mother,” I hear him say. “He will return tomorrow, I know he will.”
    They go inside to escape the wind, but I have work to do. I spend the first part of the night calming sheep, and later, when a tree blows over and knocks down part of their pen, I keep the goats from escaping. Every time I think the wind might finally be subsiding, I hear a howl and the winds pick back up, blowing harder than ever.
    Apollo’s chariot passes nine times before the wind stops.

CHAPTER IX
An ill wind
    O n the morning of the tenth day, the wind