Hannibal's Elephant Girl. Charley Brindley

the right. He turned his head to bring the right eye in alignment with me, still holding his open-mouthed grin, and I realized he was as mad as a deranged stump cat. I dipped the bowl in my bucket and put it in his hands, while keeping a wary eye on Horus the Egyptian.

      Sulobo made an angry gesture at the hortator with his whip, and the bowlegged little man started up his drumbeat.

      Boom, boom, boom-paboom, boom, boom, boom-paboom...

      As the slaves slowly took up their oars and worked them into the rote unison of their labor, Calogo and Tin Tin Ban Sunia came down the companionway, each with a bucket of water. I knew from Tin Tin’s glance at me that she sensed trouble, but I shook my head and kept my wounded arm from her sight—we could talk about what happened after we finished our work on the slave deck.