‘One basket will do.’ Cato took the purse off his belt and took out some of the silver coins that Petronius had issued to the flotilla to pay for supplies. ‘Here, ten obols.’

The headman’s eyes momentarily lit up and then his face formed a dismissive expression.

‘He says twenty. He has many mouths to feed in his village. If he sells his catch, some will go hungry tonight.’

‘Bloody haggling,’ Macro growled.

‘Twelve,’ Cato responded to Hamedes. ‘It’s a fair price. Tell him.’

The headman shook his head.

‘Fifteen. He says he’s robbing himself. But he can see that you are a good man, so he makes this price just for you.’

‘Fifteen obols,’ Macro puffed irritably. ‘Does he think we’re complete fools?’

‘Shhh,’ Cato hissed. ‘Fifteen it is.’

He counted out the coins and handed them over. The headman palmed them quickly and shoved them into a dirty linen haversack on the nearest of the boats.

‘Tell him there’s another five obols for him if he can tell us if he has heard anything about the location of the men who have been raiding the coast. Ask him if he has any idea where they might be hiding.’

The headman thought for a moment before responding.

‘He says he will tell you what he knows if you pay him ten obols.’

‘Cheeky bloody sod!’ Macro chuckled. ‘Cato, do you want me to persuade him to offer us a discount?’

‘No. We need all the goodwill we can get. Let’s not do Ajax’s work for him, all right, Centurion?’

‘Yes, sir.’

Cato handed over some more coins and waited for Hamedes to interpret.

‘He says that a village was attacked on the next tributary to the west two days ago. Most of the villagers managed to escape, and fled to his village. That’s why there are many more mouths to feed.’

‘We must have missed something,’ said Macro. ‘Perhaps he didn’t slip by us after all. Sir, we should turn back and search to the west.’

Cato was silent for a moment. His ships had scoured the coastline between Alexandria and here at the Mendesian mouth of the Nile. Every bay and inlet had been explored. Aside from the occasional evidence of one of Ajax’s earlier raids, there had been no trace of the fugitives. It was possible that they had scuttled their ship and ventured deeper into the delta but Cato felt convinced that his enemy would not risk abandoning the warship, his only means of escape to sea. If the headman’s information was accurate, that left two possibilities. Either Ajax had abandoned the delta and sailed north across the Mediterranean, or he had concealed his ship well enough to escape the eyes of Cato’s flotilla.