Then Ibycus the poet raised his arms to his brothers the birds.

'Ye cranes, flying between earth and heaven, avenge shed blood, as is right!' "Hoarse screamed the cranes flying overhead.

Ibycus the poet closed his eyes, pressed his lips to Mother Earth, and died.
The cranes screamed again, circling the wood, then in a long line sailed southward through the blue air until they might neither be heard nor seen.

The robbers stared after them.
They laughed, but without mirth.

Then, stooping to the body of Ibycus, they would have rifled it when, hearing a sudden sound of men's voices entering the wood, they took violent fright and fled." Strickland looked still at the reader.