A VALIANT HELPER
being specially noticed, for there had been a fall of snow, and most folk were glad to stay indoors. And before long the hunters and their comrades were assembled in Charon's dwelling, forty-eight in all. In the evening they had put on their breastplates, and buckled their swords to their sides, when a loud knocking was heard at Charon's door.
"Who is there?"
"The rulers of Thebes have sent me," said a voice, "to command you, O Charon, to attend before them immediately."
At once they supposed the plot was found out. Some of the young men looked in doubt at Charon. Could they trust him? Would he betray them? When Charon read their thoughts by the expression of their faces, he took his little son, and gave the child to Pelopidas.
"Here," he said, "is my son, and, if you find I am a traitor, you may slay my child."
Some of them shed tears, and cried:
"No, no! Put your son in a place of safety, lest the tyrants kill both him and you."
"I could not," he answered, "wish any better fate for my boy than to die with his father and so many friends for the sake of Thebes."
Now, a letter had been brought all the way from Athens to the leader of the tyrants, to warn him of the doings of Pelopidas. But the chief
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