"What do you think of that, Felix?" the _Villicus_ asked me.

"As good horse-wrangling as can be seen anywhere," I replied. "Up to

standard and even above normal. But I can do better."

"Bold words," said the _Villicus_; "we'll give you a chance to prove

them."

Another filly was roped, bitted, bridled, and saddled, and her captors

invited me to mount.

"Pooh!" said I. "Let some one else ride her. I don't need all those

preliminaries. I can walk right out into that bunch of colts, catch any

young stallion you point out, hold him by the nose, gentle him without any

rope or thong on him, mount him by vaulting onto his back, and ride him

about unbitted, unbridled, bareback, and as I please, without his rearing

or backing or kicking."

"Son," said the _Villicus_, "you are either a lunatic or a demigod. Go in

and try what you boast you can do. Show us."

"Point out your stallion," I suggested.

He indicated a beautiful bay with a white face. He let me approach him at

my first attempt, let me take him by the nose, let me lead him close to my

dumbfounded audience, let me mount him. I rode him about, turning him to

right or left as the _Villicus_ ordered, at my suggestion. When I got off

I lifted each of his hoofs in succession, crawled under his belly, crawled

between his fore-legs, and then between his hind-legs, while the onlookers

held their breath; finally I stood behind him, slapped his rump and pulled

his tail.

"Is he broken?" I queried.

"Apparently he is gentle as a lamb to you," the _Villicus_ admitted, "but

how about the rest of us?"

"Bring in a saddle and bridle," I suggested, "and I'll bit him and hold

him while two of you saddle him and until one of you mounts him. He should

be no more dangerous than a roped filly."

They did as I suggested and I then rode him about until he appeared used

to the saddle and bit and already, at once, bridle-wise. Then one of the

wranglers rode him.

I gentled colt after colt all that day till sunset, with a very brief

pause for food and rest. Also I kept it up next day until mid-afternoon,

when the last colt had been tamed.

Then, as we stood breathing, one of the horse-wranglers suggested:

"Try him on Selinus."

"That would be plain murder," one of the others cried.

"I am not so sure," the _Villicus_ ruminated. "I am almost ready to feel

that he might even tame Selinus."

Off we trooped to the stable of the choice breeding-stallions. There, in a

darkened box-stall, I was shown a beautiful demon of a horse, four years

old, a sorrel, with a white face and white forefeet. He certainly looked

wicked enough.

"Will you try him?" the _Villicus_ asked me.

"Of course," I said. "Let him out into the yard or the paddock."

Into the paddock he was let out, by means of a door in his stall worked by

winches from above. In the afternoon sunlight he pranced and curvetted

about, a joy to see.

"Let me show Felix what he is like," one of the younger horse-wranglers

suggested.

"You can," the _Villicus_ agreed. "We all know how agile you are and how

quick at vaulting a fence."

The fellow vaulted into the paddock when Selinus was at its further

corner. The moment the beast saw him he charged at full-run, screaming

like an angry gander, the picture of a man-killer, ears laid back,

nostrils wide and red, mouth open, teeth bared, forehoofs lashing out high

in front, an equine fury. The lad vaulted the fence handily when Selinus

was not three yards from him and the brute pawed angrily at the palings

and bit them viciously.

"Want to try, Felix?" the _Villicus_ asked me again.

Without a word I vaulted the enclosure within two yards of Selinus. He

stood, ears cocked forward, nostrils quiet, mouth shut, all four hoofs on

the ground, quivering all over.

Inch by inch I neared him till my hand touched him. He trembled like an

aspen-leaf, but did not attack me.

"Hercules be good to us all!" exclaimed one of the men.

After that I did with Selinus all I had done with the first stallion-colt,

gentling him, leading him by the nose, mounting him, riding him, crawling

under his belly, between his fore-legs and hind-legs, pulling his tail,

slapping him liberally all over. Then, timidly, urged by their comrades'

jeers, the two wranglers whom I invited brought me a saddle and bridle and

I bitted him and held him while they saddled. Then I rode him.

Afterwards, with much misgiving, but shamed into boldness, the chief

horse-wrangler mounted him and rode him.

Selinus was tamed!

"Felix," said the _Villicus_, "you are too valuable to set to herding

cattle. You are henceforward chief horse-wrangler of this estate. I'll

give you a house all to yourself and a girl to keep house for you. When

not horse taming here or wherever I lend you out, you can spend your time

as you please."

The onlookers acclaimed his award and the displaced chief horse-wrangler

shook hands with me and declared that he was proud to be second to such a

wonder as "Felix the Wizard."

After that I lived a life of ease. My dwelling was a neat cottage well

shaded with fine trees and bowered in climbing vines, with a tiny

courtyard, a not too tiny atrium with a hearth, a kitchen, a store-room

and two bed-rooms. It was as clean as possible and well furnished for a

slave's quarters. The girl and I liked each other at first sight. I am not

going to tell her name, but a jest we had between us led me to call her by

the pet name of Septima. If she had been a free-woman, she would have been

described as a young widow. Her former mate, one of the horse-wranglers,

had been killed by Selinus the previous autumn. Their child, not a year

old, had died before his father. Septima had recovered from her grief

during the winter and had become normally cheerful before she was assigned

to me. I found her constitutionally merry, very good company, always

diligent, a surpassing cook, magical with the garden, especially with her

beloved flowers, a capable needle-woman, always neat, and very good-

looking. We got on famously together.

With her beehives only, Septima had trouble. She understood bees

perfectly, but was afraid of them, and with reason, for she was manifestly

obnoxious to bees and was far too often stung. Of course, bees, like all

other living creatures, were mild to me. I tended her hives, under her

supervision, for I knew nothing of bees; according to her directions I

captured several swarms for her. Also I, when the time came, removed combs

from such hives as she designated.

Spring was in its full glory and I felt the exhilaration of it. Each home-

coming was a delight. And I was much away, for the _Villicus_ had me

convoyed about the countryside to every estate which possessed an unbroken

colt or an intractable horse. I gentled successfully every one I

encountered.

After all the bad horses and raw colts for miles around had been tamed I

spent some days idling about my cottage and getting acquainted with it and

with Septima. But within not many days I grew restive. I told the

_Villicus_ I wanted something to do.

"Well," he said, "five steers have eluded one of my herd-gangs and no one

can find them. Question the men (he named them) so as to get the right

start, and try your luck."

I was off, trailing those five steers, for three days and two nights. By

sunset of the third day I had them back at the villa.

After that I was called on to hunt down and round up all stampeded cattle

and all strays, whether cattle, horses, goats, sheep or swine. I enjoyed

my lone outings and between them basked contentedly in the comfort of my

cottage and the amenity of Septima's cheeriness. During my stays at home I

thoroughly familiarized myself with the villa, its outbuildings and all

their inhabitants. Also I put a good deal of time on Selinus, whom I

transformed from an insane man-killer into one of the gentlest stallions I

ever heard of. I taught him all the niceties of obedience acclaimed in

perfect parade horses till he would stand, sidle, back, sidle diagonally,

curvet and execute all the show-steps promptly at the signalling touch or

sound. I tamed him till he would let anybody gentle him, till it was

perfectly safe for anyone to ride him. I even trusted Septima on him and

he justified my confidence in my training of him and in him. In fact, from

being a man-killer who had to be kept penned up in the dark, whom not even

the boldest horse-master dare approach, he became so gentle and so

trustworthy that he could be let run at large, mild to all human beings,

even to strangers.

He grew to love me like a pet dog, followed me about when I was not riding

him, and would come to me from far away to a call or gesticulation; and he

could see me and recognize me at such distances that I revised my notions

as to the powers of sight possessed by horses, for I had held the common

opinion that no horse can see clearly or definitely any object at all far

from him. Selinus repeatedly saw and recognized me a full half-mile away

and galloped to me, approaching with every demonstration of joy.

During my horse-wrangling expeditions and my excursions after wandering

stock I had grown well acquainted with the country-side and its

inhabitants. I was on terms of comradeship with all my fellow-slaves, of

easy sociability with the yeomanry; while I was treated by the overseers,

the _Villicus_, and inspectors with marked consideration. Thus I rapidly

learnt all there was to know of the idiosyncrasies of the locality, since

everybody seemed to trust me and no one held aloof or was reticent with

me.

I found conditions in the Umbrian mountains as amazing, as incredible as

in the _ergastulum_ at Nuceria. There the two vital facts were the

negligence and impotence of the warders and the secret system for cheating

and thwarting them. Here all the thoughts of slaves, peasants and yeomen

on the one hand, and of overseers, inspectors and landowners on the other,

pivoted on the existence in the district of a post of road-constabulary on

the lookout for bandits and of a camp of brigands owing allegiance to the

King of the Highwaymen.

The wealthy proprietors, the gentlemanly landowners, the inspectors of the

Estate, its _Villicus_ and his overseers all suspected the presence of the

bandits and were doing all they could to assist the road-constabulary to

locate them, pounce on them and capture them. Their efforts were

completely futile. Neither any of the constabulary nor any of the well-to-

do persons who sided with them, could ever get an inkling of the location

of the outlaws' various camps nor was any of them ever able to be really

sure that bandits were actually within a few miles. For the whole body of

yeomanry, peasants and slaves, even the slaves of those proprietors

keenest on the scent of the brigands and most eager to nab them, were

leagued to bamboozle, thwart and oppose their masters and betters, and to

aid the outlaws, to keep them posted on everything said and proposed by

the loyal inhabitants, and to assist them in outwitting the authorities,

the constabulary and all persons who sided with them. In this they were

notably successful.

It is my keen recollection of this condition of things which determines me

to omit from this part of my narrative all names of persons and places.

The generality of the population made a sort of religion out of their

complicity with the outlaws. They took an almost religious pride in

cooperating with them and in antagonizing their adversaries. They hated

all the adversaries of the outlaws, whether landowners, constabulary or

inspectors. But, above all, they loathed, abhorred, abominated and

detested with a white-hot animosity any yeoman, peasant or slave who

failed to do all in his power to foster the interests of the outlaws;

regarding such persons, male or female, as traitors to the cause of the

populace. Especially did they cherish an envenomed and malignant grudge

against anyone who actually sided with the constabulary, gave them

information or betrayed the outlaws: or even against anyone who helped or

shielded any such informer.

As I was the means of spoiling the long-prepared and much-hoped for coup

on which the robbers had set their highest hopes, as not a few men and

women assisted me with information, aided me in other ways and protected

me afterwards, I dare not name any names for fear that some survivor or

some son or grandson of some participant in these doings might learn

through me of long suspected but never verified treason to the unwritten

law of the country-side and might bloodily avenge it on a surviving helper

of mine or on any such helper's children or grandchildren. The Umbrian

mountaineers are spleenful, tenacious of a grudge and ferociously

acrimonious.

I learnt all these amazing facts without difficulty, for slaves, peasants

and yeoman alike assumed that I was of their party and was heart and soul

with the outlaws. I was not subject to suspicion because I visited the

post of the constabulary, became acquainted with every man of them, their

sergeants and their officers and frequented their company. All the

yeomen, peasants and slaves whose abodes were near the post, were, on the

surface, on the best of terms with the road-constables; pretended to help

them with information, retailing to them as rumors all sorts of inventions

calculated to throw them off the scent of the outlaws, always with an air

of the friendliest good-will; and loitered, idling about the post,

chatting of local gossip.

I was so entirely trusted that I was taken to the outlaws' camp and made

acquainted with the entire band. Paradoxically the members of the band

were all hulking burly ruffians of twenty-five to thirty-five years,

whereas their chief, while big and brawny enough, was inferior in size to

any of his subordinates and younger by six full years than the youngest of

them. To him I was boisterously presented as a brother, for his name also

was Felix. In fact, he was the man since famous as Felix Bulla, for long

the most redoubtable outlaw in Italy. Then he was hardly more than a lad,

for all his bulk and strength and ferocity. He had been appointed chief of

the band by the King of the Highwaymen in person, who held him in the

warmest regard for his ruthlessness, courage, skill, and cunning,

especially for his cunning, rating him, as I was told by all the band, and

having proclaimed him to them, as the most subtle and crafty outlaw alive

after himself.

Bulla, like everybody else, appeared to take to me and treated me as an

equal, after conversing with me for hours at a time. I was always a

welcome guest at any of the bandits' camps and they often made me show off

my admired powers on fox-cubs, badgers, weasels and other such wild

creatures which they or their peasant friends had trapped alive. My

ability to tame, handle, fondle and make tractable to anyone such animals

appeared a source of unflagging interest and unceasing entertainment to

these ruffians.

As I was allowed to dispose of my time as I chose, whenever I was not busy

rounding up strayed stock or taming raw colts, I had plenty of leisure to

ride about the country-side, make friends, get intimate with the

constabulary and the outlaws and idle many of my days as appeared most

pleasant. I took full advantage of my partial liberty.

The weather, from my arrival at the Imperial estate, was mostly fine and

often glorious. Spring came early and merged beautifully into summer. I

enjoyed myself hugely. Besides local peculiarities and the humors of the

tacit league to thwart the constabulary and foster the interests of the

outlaws, I derived much entertainment from the traffic on the Flaminian

Highway. Of course, there were Imperial couriers, travellers of all sorts,

and convoys of every kind of goods, long strings of wagons, carts or pack-

mules laden with wheat, other grains, wine, oil, flax, charcoal, firewood,

ingots of bronze, lead or iron, and countless other commodities on their

way to Rome; or convoys of clothing, hangings, furniture, utensils and the

like, going northwards from the City.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE OUTLAWS

From early spring, however, all this normal traffic was interfered with,

delayed, hindered and even totally blockaded by column after column of

wains and wagons passing southwards, huge wagons, drawn by six or eight or

even ten horses or mules or by as many big long-horned white oxen, every

wagon laden with a cage or two or more cages containing beasts being

conveyed to the Colosseum in Rome. This amazing procession roused my

interest as soon as it began to pass; filling, clogging, blocking the

highway and continuing without intermission day after day, ceasing its

movement, indeed, each night, but making the roadside almost a continuous

camp of teamsters and caretakers, barely half of them sleeping, the moiety

busy about their draft-cattle or the cages of their charges.

The endless stream of caravans amazed me. I had seen beast-fights without

number in the Colosseum, but had never thought of the enormous labor and

expense incident on the preparations for even one morning's exhibition of,

say, a hundred lions and other beasts in proportion. Now I meditated over

the thousands of trappers and other hunters who must scour the forests of

Dacia, Moesia, Thrace, Illyricum, Pannonia, Noricum, Rhaetia and Germany

to gather such a supply of beasts for exhibition. I saw wolves, bears and

boars by the thousand, and hundreds of lynxes, elk and wild bulls, both

the strange forest-bisons, unlike our cattle, with low rumps and high

shoulders and their horns turned downwards and forwards, parallel to each

other, and the huger and even fiercer bulls, much like farm bulls, but

larger, taller and leaner and with horns incredibly long, so that their

tips were often two yards and more apart. I had no idea of the vast

numbers of such beasts which were yearly poured into Rome from all the

mountains and forests to the north and east of the Alps. I was amazed.

Even more was I amazed to see hundreds upon hundreds of cages containing

beasts not from northern Europe, but from Africa, or even from Asia: lions

without number, panthers and leopards by the hundred, many tigers,

antelopes of all kinds by scores of each kind, rhinoceroses, and

hippopotami in enormous cages on gigantic wains drawn by twelve yoke of

oxen; even a dozen huge gray elephants pacing sedately, their turbaned

_mahouts_ rocking on their necks.

I knew that the traffic in beasts from the northern forests concentrated

at Aquileia and I had a hazy notion that they were customarily shipped

from there by sea round Italy and through the straits to the Tiber. My

curiosity was excited as to why they were now coming overland instead of

going by sea. Still more was I curious as to why these hordes of animals

from the south should be traversing Italy from the north.

I asked questions and could get no satisfaction from the natives of the

district: slaves, peasants, yeomen, proprietors, overseers, _Villicus_ and

all, they one and all knew nothing. If they claimed to know, what they

alleged merely emphasized their ignorance.

The constabulary knew, but were inclined to be reticent and, when they

spoke, were laconic. Yet their briefest utterances contained hints which

confirmed the only fact I had elicited from the natives: namely, that this

traffic was not only unusual along the Flaminian Highway, but had never

been seen on it before; was a complete novelty, even a portent. They also

confirmed my impression that few animals destined for beast-fights in the

amphitheatres reached Rome overland; as I had thought, practically all had

hitherto come by sea and up the Tiber.

Still curious, I made friends with the teamsters. Some were from Ravenna,

and even these grumbled at the two hundred and fifty miles as ruinous to

their cattle. The animals they convoyed had come overland from Aquileia to

Altinum and from there to Ravenna by sea. In this way had come the

crocodiles, hippopotami and rhinoceroses.

More teamsters were from Aquileia itself. Some of these with the lighter

wagons for the cages containing wolves, lynxes, small antelopes, hyenas

or African apes, had been able to take the shorter though poorer road by

way of Patavium and Ateste to Bononia, which made their total journey

under five hundred and twenty miles. But most, including all those

conveying bears, boars, panthers, leopards, lions or tigers, had come by

the more northerly road through Verona. Those with panthers, leopards or

small stags had come from Verona, by way of Hostilia to Bononia and from

there southward as did all, making their journey about five hundred and

fifty miles; the men conveying cages of tigers, lions, bears, boars, elk,

or wild bulls had mostly come from Verona through Cremona; from there some

through Regio to Bononia, others through Placentia; and for these their

total teaming did not differ much, about six hundred and twenty miles for

the ones and ten miles more for the others. Teams tugging wains carrying

the heaviest cages containing unusually large elk, boars, bears or bulls,

had had to go by way of Milan and had been put to it to keep their teams

fit for a journey of over seven hundred miles.

Besides the difference in weight of the loads, chiefly depending on the

needed strength of the cages, I found that their divergence of routes was

due, in part, to the efforts which the procurator of all this teaming had

made to avoid choking the roads. The teamsters averred that they knew

nothing as to why the beasts were being brought this way; and no more as

to why animals brought all the way from Africa to Aquileia, a voyage far

longer than the voyage to Rome, should then be conveyed overland from,

Aquileia to the Colosseum.

I enjoyed idling about the teamsters' camps chatting with them and the

attendants who cared for the beasts. One hot evening, just about sunset,

when I was already thinking of riding off home to bathe and dine, while I

was lingering to watch his keepers urging their little gang of slaves to

pour more and more water over a gasping hippopotamus, there was a yell of

alarm all along the line and a scampering, scattering rush of fleeing men;

teamsters, attendants and keepers. A panther had broken out of its cage,

when a wagon overset.

He came down the middle of the highway, keeping to it, as everyone ran off

it to right and left. I had strolled some distance from where I had

tethered my horse. Naturally, as I could not mount and dash off, I did not

run. I stepped into the middle of the road and faced the beast. Of course,

he stopped, stood still and stared at me. I walked towards him, very

deliberately, even pausing between paces, till I was an arm's length from

him. He cringed and cowered. I took him by the scruff of his neck, turned

him round, led him back to his cage, which was not broken, only jarred

open, made him enter it, and closed the door on him.

Thereupon the fugitives flocked back, acclaiming me as a sorcerer. The

superintendent of that caravan insisted on my giving him my name. I told

him I was Felix, the horse-wrangler of the Imperial estate. He gave me a

broad gold piece.

Unable to elicit anything from the natives or the teamsters I resorted to

the outlaws. I had been admonished before I saw any of them that it was

not according to the etiquette of the district for anyone to ride a horse

into the outlaws' camp. If anywhere near it one visited it on foot. If too

far one carefully avoided appearing to ride towards it or from it. When

the camp, for instance, happened to be south of my cottage I would ride

off north, east, or west, fetch a long compass about, tether my horse at

least half a mile from the camp, generally farther away, and stroll

towards it. On leaving I invariably departed by a path different from that

by which I had come. When I reached my horse I was careful similarly to

choose a return route which would bring me home some direction other than

that towards which I had gone off. Of course, I always observed these

precautions, since any neglect of them, if known, would have not only made

me unwelcome to the brigands, but also gotten me into disfavor with the

whole countryside.

When I reached the outlaws' camp I was careful to let them do most of the

talking and to wait for the talk to come round to the subject of the

beast-caravans. I had not long to wait, and, when I expressed my amazement

and curiosity, they showed no reluctance about informing me. Bulla himself

explained that Commodus had become so interested in beast-fighting, had

developed such transcendent skill at fighting beasts and had grown so

infatuated with the sport that he spent most of his time in the arena,

displaying his dexterity to invited audiences composed of senators,

nobles, notabilities and their wives and even children; in which

exhibitions he had killed so many creatures that he had not only depleted

but had almost exhausted the normal reserves constantly kept at Rome,

Ostia and the other Tiber ports. When the procurators in charge of the

supplies of beasts for the arena realized that the Emperor was killing his

victims faster than they normally were brought in, even lavishly as they

had always been provided, they sent out orders urging greatly increased

efforts at hunting, capturing, caring for and rapidly transporting all

sorts of creatures destined for the Colosseum. The Emperor's killing

capacity and love of enjoying and exhibiting his knack so outran their

measures that, by the time the increased supply began to come in, the

royal sportsman's unerrancy and swiftness outran their best results, so

that hasty messages had to be sent to Marseilles, Aquileia, Byzantium,

Antioch and Alexandria ordering the instant despatch to Rome, with the

utmost speed, regardless of expense, not only of all newly captured beasts

as they came in, in contravention of the long-established regulations by

which Rome and the provincial capitals shared each variety of animal, but

also the concurrent despatch of the local reserves, even the emptying of

the beast despositories attached to each amphitheatre. As the voyage from

Aquileia to Rome was of variable duration, owing to the uncertainty and

shiftiness of the winds, orders had been given to forward all its reserves

and supplies, at once, overland. Hence the spectacle which had so excited

the countryside and so amazed me. As Commodus was still slaughtering all

sorts of beasts daily not only with arrows and spears, to show off his

accuracy as a marksman but, even with sword or club, to display his

incredible swiftness of movement and unerrancy in directing and timing a

blow, he was taxing the capacities of his procurators and their gigantic

organization of transports, teams, detention-pens, and hunters merely to

stave off the apparently inevitable day when, whatever might run wild in

the deserts, forests and mountains, there would be, at Rome, far too few

beasts to maintain the autocrat's daily sport.

When I expressed my astonishment at the certainty with which these

explanations were uttered and my wonder as to how they came to be so sure,

Bulla said:

"Why, our King of the Highwaymen has reliable, capable and secret agents,

entirely unsuspected, in every city of Italy. He has a brother and sister

in Rome and equally devoted and unfailing helpers in Capua, Aquileia,

Milan, Brundisium and Naples. He maintains a road service of swift

couriers who bring him promptly all the information collected for him in

the cities, where his backers catch every breeze of rumor and are

forehanded in getting advance information on all important moves of the

authorities as well as in sifting truth from falsehood. Equally prompt are

his couriers in disseminating to subsidiary bands like mine whatever he

judges we should learn; thus we know more of goings-on in Rome and at

Court than do provincial nobles and highway-police."

As I trudged from the camp to my horse, as I trotted homewards, I was

despondent. I had no right to be so, for I was merely one of the

innumerable slaves held by the _fiscus_ as the property of Caesar. As such

I was notably well off. Even in my proper person I congratulated myself on

my amazing luck. I was alive, unsuspected, secure, well-housed, well-clad,

well-cared for, freer than many a freeman, than many a nobleman,

pleasantly busy at occasional tasks very congenial to me and blest with

much leisure among a companionable population in a lovely region full of

diversified and charming scenery set off by an exhilarating climate; I

should have been gay.

Yet my thoughts were those of a Roman nobleman. I was horrified at the

state of the Republic. I knew that Italy had never been entirely free from

outlaws. Even under Tiberius highwaymen had perpetrated successful

robberies and had captured and held for ransom wealthy persons or even

notabilities. But under most of the Emperors these outrages had been few

and had occurred only in the wilder districts. During the civil wars

between Otho and Vitellius brigandage had become rife all over Italy, even

up to the gates of Rome, and Vespasian had had much ado to exterminate the

outlaws. Again, under Nerva, bandits had multiplied and prospered. But

none had ventured into any populous district during the principates of

Trajan, Hadrian and their successors until after the death of Aurelius.

Now, because of the negligence of his son, outlaws had so prospered that

they had a sort of organization among themselves, like a commonwealth

inside the Republic, as I had seen during my captivity with Maternus and

now glimpsed again in Bulla's revelations. It argued a horrible

disintegration of the governmental mechanism of the Republic and of the

Roman character that such things had become possible.

Equally horrifying to me was the contemplation of Caesar's extravagance. I

knew that the Republic's income from all sources was insufficient to keep

up the court establishment and ceremonials at their normal cost; to defray

the expenses of the state festivals with befitting magnificence of games

in the circuses, amphitheatres and theatres; to maintain the Praetorian

guards, city police, road constabulary and frontier garrisons. I knew that

all these branches of the necessary structure of the state were constantly

in want of more funds than could be supplied to them. I knew that this

want of supplies crippled our commanders along the Euphrates, the Danube,

the Rhine and the Wall, as well as far up the Nile and in the Euxine and

made possible the insolence of the Ethiopians and Caledonians as well as

the greater insolence of the Parthians, Goths and Germans.

Yet, when conditions so urgently called for greater expenditures along our

frontiers and for close economy at home, I beheld our Prince stinting his

commanders and their heroic legions and lavishing upon his own pleasure

and the gratification of his amazing vanity sums which would have enabled

our eagles not only to defy all assailants of our frontiers but to humble

and subdue every threatening foe, even to penetrate and subjugate Nubia,

Parthia and inner Germany. I sickened at the thought of our shame along

the frontiers as at the thought of the energies of thousands upon

thousands of hard-muscled, bold-hearted young men wasted on capturing

beasts and the like energies of thousands upon thousands of hardy peasants

who ought to have been busy at productive labor on farms or in forests or

mines, wasted on caring for and transporting swarms of beasts for Commodus

to kill.

Those thoughts were depressing. I could not banish them.

The next day the mood persisted. I had nothing to do, did not feel like

doing anything in particular and yet felt restless. The weather was

perfect. I set off afoot for a place not far from my cottage, not far

enough to be called a long walk, where a big gray crag or small cliff like

an inland promontory, a spur of a forested mountain, towered up from the

southeastern side of the Flaminian Highway. At that point the road was the

boundary of the Imperial estate; the crag lay outside it, and, at that

part of its foot which projected farthest, was not a hundred yards from

the highway. The mountain rose a thousand feet or more from the meadows

along the road. The crag was full three hundred feet high. It was

perfectly possible to toil up the steep wooded slope of the mountain and

walk out on either of two bush-covered shelves which ran round the crag.

From the lower of these, where it belted the front of the vertical cliff,

there was a fine view down upon the highway and along it both ways; from

the upper more of the highway could be seen; from the very top of the

crag, which was bare except for two clumps of gnarled trees and starved

bushes near its brow, the view included a full two miles of the highway in

each direction.

I climbed the slope to the lower shelf and ensconced myself where I was

shaded from the sun and had a clear view of the road both ways. From my

coign I watched the traffic. I judged that the northern supply of arena-

beasts was already overtaxed. The procession of wagons was no longer

continuous. They came now in trains of a hundred or so with some miles

between the convoys. Just as I settled myself no beast-wagons were in

sight, the road-traffic was normal. An Imperial courier dashed into view

from the south, tore past at full gallop, and vanished northwards; three

family travelling carriages, also bound north, pulling to the side of the

road to let him pass; as did a train of a score of mules laden with

charcoal.

The first sign of arena-beasts which I saw after I settled myself to watch

was a string of eight elephants, each with a turbaned mahout rocking on

his back, and seven each with his trunk clasping the tail of the elephant

before him. This was the second batch of elephants I had heard of; the

former, I had been told, came by way of Ateste, since the elephants could

swim the Po and all the other rivers had strong stone bridges. These

looked well after their four hundred mile tramp and fit for the hundred

and odd ahead of them.

Before they were out of sight there came into view the head of a column of

wagons which turned out to be loaded with cages of bears, lynxes, bison,

aurochs, elk, wolves and other northern animals. I watched them pass and

meditated. After they were gone the road was normal for a full two hours,

during which I pondered the thoughts which obsessed me and gloomed with

shame over the condition of the Empire. I had brought food and water with

me and ate about noon, slept an hour or more and woke to watch the passage

of two trains of cages full of lions, tigers, leopards and panthers. The

second train was overtaken and passed by two Imperial couriers from the

north, racing each other, the former more than a half mile ahead of the

latter, and, apparently lengthening his lead. I spent the day on the crag.

Also I spent other days there, sometimes on one shelf, sometimes on the

other, sometimes on the top.

Not many days elapsed before I again visited the outlaws' camp and had

another chat with Bulla; not we two alone, for there was always an easy

sociability about the bandits and, if none took part in or broke into

their chief's talk, usually two or more lay or sat about listening and

sharing our interview.

In the course of our talk Bulla discoursed of his importance, of the

importance of the band, of the warm regard in which he and they were held

by their head chief, the King of the Highwaymen.

Some quirk inside my head made me venturesome.

"What is his name?" I queried. "You never name him."

"His orders!" Bulla snapped. "I know his name; not another man of our band

knows it. He never uses it and takes great pains to keep all outsiders who

know his name from suspecting that he is King of the Highwaymen; and

similarly to make sure that all outsiders who know him as King of the

Highwaymen get no inkling of his name. If the knowledge got abroad the

usefulness to him of his brother and sister in Rome would be destroyed."

I apologized for my question.

"No harm done," Bulla smiled. "I don't have to answer any questions unless

I want to, and I don't mind questions from you."

"If you don't," I pursued, emboldened, "perhaps you'll be willing to

explain how it can be that your king holds you and your band in such high

esteem, whereas, to all appearances, you have not acquired a sesterce-

worth of loot since long before I reached this neighborhood; in fact, as

far as I can hear, have not succeeded in robbing anyone since you located

your camp here?"

"I am perfectly willing to explain," laughed Bulla, looking more

formidable when he smiled or laughed than when expressionless. "We are no

cheap bandits to rob market-women, poor farmers, ordinary travellers or

such small fry. We angle for bigger fish. We bide our time. We are here to

make three big strokes and then a quick disappearance. Once we have our

hands on our chosen prisoners to be held for ransom we shall be off for

the mountain heights and the thickest forests; once we have the booty we

hope for, those in charge of it will ride fast and far and get clear out

of this part of Italy. Is that intelligible?"

"Entirely," said I, and was mute.

Bulla gazed at me almost genially.

"I don't in the least mind telling you," he said, "just what we are

waiting for. Half the countryside knows and are alert to help us all they

know how.

"In the first place we have word of a big consignment of gold on the way

to Rome; ingots from the mines in the mountains of Noricum, nuggets and

dust washed from the rivers of Dacia and Pannonia and Moesia. Of course it

is in charge of a wary official and has a strong guard, but we have good

hopes of getting it. If we do, it will be the biggest haul that any of our

bands ever made, and that he has put me here to try for it is proof of my

King's esteem for me.

"In the second place a wealthy senator, just the right man to capture and

hold for ransom, is coming up from Rome in charge of a big chest of gold

coin to be paid out by the administrators of Asia and Macedonia and

Achaia. He himself is going out as propraetor of Asia. With him is a

wealthy widow, going north to be married at Aquileia, and taking with her

a big jewel-chest full of the finest and largest gems in the most

magnificent settings. So we have in prospect three prisoners for ransom

and three rich treasures.

"The difficulty is that it will be almost impossible to make both

captures. If we nab the propraetor and widow, with the coin and gems, the

rumor or report of it is almost certain to warn the procurator with the

raw gold so that he will elude us. Similarly if we get him, news of our

presence will most likely reach and alarm the propraetor and the widow. If

one comes ten days or even five before the other we can scarcely hope for

complete success. If fewer days intervene we might get both. I am here to

get both. The King thinks me capable of the feat. His instructions are

that, in case I judge that I can get but one, I am to try for the

procurator and his gold, as it is estimated that his gold is worth at

least twice the coin and gems together, even adding the possible ransoms

of the widow and the propraetor.

"I am hoping they will come only a day apart or even the same day; all our

couriers with letters about the progress of the gold convoy and the

widow's preparations indicate that they will reach this part of the road

at about the same time. They might meet each other right here where, we

want them together. I keep nursing that hope.

"Now you know as much as you need to know about our plans."

I thanked him and marvelled at his frankness. But, as I rode home, I

reflected that thinking me the Imperial slave I appeared, he thought me

certain to be secret and, if possible, helpful.

I spent the next day and the next on my crag, watching the fascinating

spectacle afforded by the highway.

On the third day the _Villicus_ chided me for having told my name to the

sub-procurator after I had recaged the panther.

"An Imperial courier has just passed," he said. "He is a close friend of a

trusty friend of mine in Rome. Like most couriers he is obliging and will

carry letters for his friends, even packets. He dropped here a note for

me, warning me that I am likely to lose you. My friend is a crony of some

of the upper slaves in the Palace and of others in the Beast Barracks.

"Your manumission, which was urged by the aldermen of Nuceria, has been

favorably reported and may be ordered. On the other hand, the procurator

in charge of the reserves of arena-beasts has heard of you and vows he

must have you for service in or for the Colosseum. I am likely to lose you

either way. I don't mind your manumission; I'll wager that I can induce

you to stay on as you are. But I am all worked up over the prospect of a

requisition for you from the Beast Barracks. If one comes it will be your

fault."

I told him I was more stirred up about it than he was; that I should hate

to leave him and loathed the very idea of being cooped up in Rome amid

fetid cages; caring for lions and such like. We thoroughly understood each

other, and he said:

"I'll have to manage to report you killed, if the requisition comes. I'm

determined to keep you. I'll have to set my wits to work to arrange for

it."

I hoped he might, but I felt nervous. I dreaded being dragged to Rome and

recalled the prophecy of the Aemilian Sibyl. I had a feeling that to Rome

I was going, my situation was too good to last. I thought of leaving

Septima with much regret. Not that I loved her or even cared for her; but

she was a girl no man could but respect and admire and wish well to. If I

must leave her I resolved to leave her as well off as I could.

Making sure that I was far from any human being and unobserved I opened my

amulet-bag, looked over the gems it contained, selected a medium-sized

emerald of perfect color, sewed it into the hem of my tunic and sewed up

the amulet-bag with the rest of the gems inside it.

At the first opportunity, I revisited the outlaws' camp, with the usual

precautions, and found Bulla idle and genial. I told him I needed cash,

all the cash I could get, and had an emerald I thought would be worth a

noble store of gold and silver coin.

"Show it to me!" he commanded.

I took out my sheath-knife, ripped the emerald out of its hiding-place and

passed it to him.

He conned it.

"You are right, brother," he said; "this is a fine gem. I tell you what

I'll do. I'll ride, myself, to Sentinum and exchange this for cash, part

gold and part silver. Sentinum seems an unlikely place in which to find a

cash purchaser for a gem like this, but our King has a friend there who

acts as his agent in several respects; among others he keeps cash in hand

to exchange any time for precious loot; especially jewelry. He'll hand me

the cash without hesitation.

"But if I am to do it for you, you must agree in advance to accept his

valuation of the jewel and to divide with me, share and share alike,

whatever he pays me for your emerald. In a case like this I charge half

the proceeds of the sale as my commission for making the deal and as my

fee for my time, risk and trouble. Do you agree?"

"Certainly," I said, "and I am amazed at your offer. How can you be away

three days or more at this juncture? Might not your prizes: procurator,

propraetor, widow, jewels, coin, and gold all slip through your hands

during your absence in my behalf?"

"No fear, lad!" he laughed; "our advices never deceive us. The procurator

with his gold is far away and approaching slowly; neither the widow nor

the propraetor is ready to leave Rome; both are occupied with endless

preparations. I have plenty of time. And it won't take me any three days

to reach Sentinum and return. I'll set off at sunset. About the third hour

tomorrow I'll be at Sentinum, my mount lathered and blown, but far from

used up; about the ninth hour I'll pass out of one of the gates of

Sentinum on my return, completely refreshed myself and with my mount fit

for the return journey: I'll be here in camp at dawn day after tomorrow,

with the coin bags. You can come for your cash any time after the third

hour day after tomorrow. Is it a bargain?"

"Done!" said I.

"Then get home," he said. "If I'm to go two nights without sleep I'll give

orders now, post my out-pickets and what not and snooze till dusk."

I spent the next day on my crag. Several trains of wagons with arena-

beasts passed, but they were farther apart than ten days before. The other

traffic on the road was normal.

Next day, not long after the third hour, I was in the outlaws' camp. Bulla

I found awake and with no signs of drowsiness or fatigue. In full sight of

all of his men he spread a blanket, and, on it placed four coin-bags, two

small and two full size. From the larger he spilt their contents on the

blanket and, each of us taking a bag, we picked up the silver one piece at

a time, both keeping count together. There was an odd piece.

"It's yours, lad!" said Bulla. "I've enough here."

The gold pieces similarly spilled and counted, came out even.

"Are you satisfied?" Bulla queried.

"Both with the amount and the division," I replied, "and now I'll be off.

You must need sleep."

"Sit still!" Bulla commanded.

He rose and went into his tent, for the outlaws had excellent hide tents.

He returned with a fine new coin-belt of pigskin leather.

"Here," he said as he squatted down and handed it to me, "is a little gift

from Bulla. Wear it next your skin. And remember to keep it flat and

loose. Many a man has lost his life with his coin in a tight place because

a bulging belt betrayed him to greedy ruffians. My lads will respect you,

but you may encounter bandits who have no inkling that you are under my

protection. Don't attempt to carry too much, of your coin about your

waist."

I thanked him and tramped off.

CHAPTER XXVII

THE POINT OF VIEW

That evening, after our dinner, a perfect dinner eaten under a grape-

arbor, lingering over the fruit and honey in the mingled light of waning

dusk and a clear crescent moon, I showed Septima my belt and bags, put in

the belt what silver would fill it to a flaccid and comfortable flatness,

and gave her all the gold and the rest of the silver. I had already

explained to her what impended over us, and had emphasized my wish to

remain with her and my anxiety to know that she was provided for, if we

were to be separated.

I did not visit the post of the road-constabulary as often as the camp of

the outlaws. Next day I rode over to their post and chatted with one of

the sergeants and several of the men. They were in doubt between, two

opinions: most held that their presence in the district had frightened the

bandits away and that they had left the neighborhood and transferred their

attention to a wholly different region; only a few maintained the view

that the brigands had been lurking near from before their arrival and that

all their efforts had failed to locate their hiding place. I heard nothing

which led me to believe that they had any inkling of the location of the

outlaws' camp, of their purposes, or of their intended coup.

After a day of happy idling on my crag I visited Bulla. He was gay.

"It promises well," he volunteered. "The procurator and his gold are well

on this side of Ariminum and the propraetor and widow left Rome yesterday.

They'll he here within two days of each other, if he holds the rate he has

kept all the way from Bononia and they travel as such luxurious folks

generally do. Come over as often as you like. No one will suspect you or

follow you. I'll keep you posted as to what our advices promise us. You

may be able to help us."

By this time I was so interested in Bulla and his plans that I oscillated

between my crag, the outlaws' camp and the constabulary post, with no more

other occupations than what I judged absolutely needful to forestall any

unwelcome interest in my doings and the possibility of too many persons

knowing of my visits to the outlaws.

When next I visited them Bulla told me that something had alarmed the

procurator. Either some rumor of their presence along the road had reached

him or he knew of the bad reputation of the stretch of the Flaminian

Highway through the Umbrian mountains between Forum Sempronii and Nuceria,

which it had acquired some years before when the King of the Highwaymen

himself had made on it a succession of valuable captures which had yielded

him princely booty and the reports of which had spread all over Italy.

Anyhow their advices informed them that he had packed his bullion-chests

with stones and old-iron and had parcelled out his packets of dust and

nuggets among the wagons of a long train of arena-beasts.

"We'll fool him!" Bulla boasted. "We'll nab him and hold him for a big

ransom. Also we'll not only make sure of his bullion chests in case our

information is false, or based on an intentional rumor he has given out as

a blind; but we'll get that bullion, too, if it is not in the chests, but

hidden in the wagons in the guise of dusty packets of provender for the

draft-cattle or of meat for the caged beasts. We'll get it!"

Prom his mention of the wagons we fell into talk of the increasing

difficulty of getting fresh meat for the lions and other beasts, of the

depletion of the flocks and herds along the roads from Aquileia, to Rome;

and he told me that his advices reported that the whole country near the

highways was already swept clean of all goats, sheep and cattle, except

breeding stock, milch stock and their choicest young kept for breeding.

The inhabitants could get no beef, mutton or goats' flesh for themselves;

all had gone into the maws of hyenas, tigers, wolves and the rest; and the

procurators were insisting on the farmers selling their kids, lambs,

calves, ewes and cows-in-milk, any stock, even mules and horses; any

animals fit to butcher for lion-food.

From this we came round to chatting of my talks with the teamsters and of

my prospect from my crag. I had told Bulla of the crag long before, but he

did not seem to have taken in the idea. Now he was delighted.

"If I'd paid attention to you soon enough," he said, "I'd have put in a

day or two with you watching the show. It's too late now. Our prayed for

chances are coming soon, and not far apart."

Next day he was gleeful.

"It's all going to work out like the end of a theater-play," he said. "The

procurator and the propraetor and his charge are practically certain to

come along tomorrow afternoon. I calculate that they will meet not far

south of your crag. I've planned to post one ambush near the foot of your

crag, just south of it, another at a judicious interval down the road

nearer Rome. I'll have 'em between the two ambushes about the middle of

the afternoon or between that and sunset. We'll nab all three ransom

prizes at once and we'll lay our hands on the jewels, coin and gold almost

at the same instant. I've arranged to lead the constables off on a false

scent about noon and they'll be miles away up a lonely crossroad when we

pull off our coup. We'll make our getaway, with the swag, hours before

they can get wind of the occurrence and follow on our trail. We'll have a

long start of them.

"You can watch the whole thing from your crag. This ideal weather is going

to last many days yet. And the moon will be full two nights from now, so

its light will help us two nights on our getaway. I envy you up on that

crag watching the show, comfortable as a senator at a theater, aloft like

Jupiter on Olympus in the Iliad."

Next day I made sure that the _Villicus_ would not want me, had Septima

put up for me an abundant supply of her inviting food and set off about

the middle of the morning for my crag, on foot, of course. I climbed to

the very top and ensconced myself under and among sheltering bushes so

that I was certain that I could not be seen from the road in either

direction, yet could view it both ways as far as the horizon, except just

at the foot of the crag and where, in the distance, hilltops hid the

hollows behind them. Close by me I placed my precious kidskin of much

watered wine, I might say of water flavored with wine, so that it would

keep cool in the thickest shade. The day was hot, clear and still and the

rays of the sun fierce. The occasional slight breezes were very welcome.

The outlook was really magnificent; a broad prospect of rolling pasturage,

hilly pasturage, and wooded mountains; the grass-lands and grassy

hillsides diversified by scattered trees, clumps of trees and small

groves; the lower levels of woodland broken by grassy glades; the brighter

green of the forests of chestnut, beech, and oak merging imperceptibly

into the darker green of the pine-forests; the score of farms in sight

brilliant in the green landscapes like semi-jewels; all the wide prospect

glowing under a deep blue sky, varied by a very few very white clouds, the

intense sunlight beating down on everything. It was a perfect summer day.

I conned the road, on which I saw only the rear of a column of wagons

convoying arena-beasts receding over the hilltops to southwards, and the

normal traffic, horsemen or two-horse carriages or wagons far apart and

few. I dozed.

I must have slept a full hour. I waked hot, but much refreshed, feeling

lively and full of interest in what was to come. Just after I waked I saw

the constabulary, the officers and about a third of the men on horseback,

the rest afoot, come up the road from the direction of their post, which

was south of the crag. The infantrymen, tramped their fastest and the

mounted men kept pace with them. They were evidently off on their wild-

goose chase. As they came into sight below me, after passing my perch, I

watched them double-quick northwards and wheel to their right into the

first crossroad. They were barely out of sight among the forested hills

when I saw momentarily, on the Highway, fully four miles to northward, on

a sunlit hilltop, what I took to be the first wagon of a train of teams

drawing cages of arena-beasts. I watched the road in that direction. What

I saw confirmed my conjecture. Soon the road to northward was filled from

its farthest visible hilltop to just below my crag with wagon-teams such

as I had many times watched transporting cages of lions, tigers, leopards,

panthers and the like. I made out also some cages which I was certain

contained hyenas.

Every little while I glanced the other way. Just as the first wagons of

the long train vanished from my sight into that section of the road

immediately below me where my crag hid it from my view, I saw appear on a

hilltop to southwards what I made sure was the travelling carriage of a

wealthy noble. I conjectured that it had inside of it the ransomable

propraetor. I kept my eyes on the road in that direction, only glancing

northward from time to time. One such glance caught a glimpse of a

travelling carriage among the beast-wagons; probably the procurator in

charge of the bullion.

After I had caught glimpses of it on several successive hilltops the

propraetor's carriage was near enough, on one of them, for me to recognize

it. Of course, I had known from childhood the travelling carriages of our

senate and nobility. As everybody knows, each, has a certain unmistakable

individuality. Our makers of travelling carriages never make two precisely

alike, and, what is more, the tastes of different families are so

different that patterns are very unlike. I recognized the carriage for

that of Faltonius Bambilio.

Why he was going out as propraetor of Asia so long after his term as

praetor was a puzzle to me. I accepted it as one of the countless

eccentricities of Imperial administration under Commodus. The

irregularities of the management of the provinces ruled in the name of

Caesar by prefects and procurators had notoriously extended to the

provinces ruled by proconsuls and propraetors in the name of the senate. I

had always disliked, despised and even hated Bambilio for his pomposity,

self-esteem and bad manners. I rejoiced at the opportunity to look on at

his capture.

It was by this time past the middle of the afternoon, the day still

surpassingly fair and lovely, with few clouds in the sky, a steady light

breeze, the mellow afternoon sunlight bathing the world and the sun

already visibly declining towards the western horizon.

While I was grinning at my thoughts and watching the advance of Bambilio's

carriage, glancing back at intervals at the beast-train and the

procurator's coach, I caught sight, on the highway behind Bambilio's

carriage, of another travelling carriage of which I had descried no

glimpse before, though I must have missed seeing it as it topped several

hills further south. When I caught sight of it, it was near enough for me

to recognize it at first view.

Vedia's travelling coach!

Between the first and second beat of my thumping heart, I went through an

amazing variety of complex, shifting and lucid thinking. And my thinking,

multifold and effective as it was, was but as a chip on the surface of a

freshet in a mountain gorge amid the torrent of emotions which inundated

me.

Since I had begun to mend as the result of the succour and medication of

old Chryseros Philargyrus I had resolutely refrained from, thinking of

Vedia. I had argued with myself that it was impossible for me to forget or

ignore the daily and hourly contrasts between my former status as a

wealthy nobleman and my present condition as a fugitive always in danger

and generally in acute discomfort. Amid the inevitable resultant

depression I might keep alive, healthy and sane if I concentrated my

thoughts on self-congratulation at my survival. If I dwelt on my downfall

I should lose my wits. If, in addition to thoughts of my loss of rank,

wealth, friends and ease I yielded to my inclination to brood over my loss

of Vedia, I should infallibly go insane. I resolutely put thoughts of her

away. I succeeded in keeping them away. During my winter at the hut in the

mountains, during my succeeding adventures, I had not thought of Vedia;

thoughts of her had crossed my mind but seldom and fleetingly.

Now, all at once, I was overwhelmed by the realization of how ardently,

how unalterably I loved her, how keenly I longed for her, how tenderly I

felt towards her. Nothing, past, present or future, mattered to me except

Vedia and her welfare. I had been thinking with relished amusement of the

dismay of some pampered beauty haled from, her luxurious coach and off

through the wild mountains, immured in some lonely cave in the forests,

guarded by coarse ruffians, reduced to the most primitive diet and

bedding, forced to endure all sorts of discomforts, and threatened with

death or worse if an enormous ransom were not forthcoming promptly. I had

been chuckling at the prospect of getting a far-off glimpse of the first

act of this comedy.

My revulsion of feeling was dazing. I was hot and cold with horror at the

thought of Vedia's agony, terror and misery and of her danger among

Bulla's swarthy, brutal ruffians with their black curly hair and beards

intensifying the villainy of their lowering faces, with their mighty hands

always close to their daggers. Vedia I must save!

How?

Almost as I recognized her carriage, my eyes, instinctively sweeping my

entire outlook, caught sight of Selinus feeding among a small herd of

young mares on a hillside midway of the extensive pasture on the other

side of the road just to north of my crag. I knew there was, a little to

the north of the crag, on the same side of the road, a knoll from which

that bit of hillside was plainly visible at no great distance. I had my

plan worked out in all its details.

I drank all I could hold of my watered wine, left my cloak by the kidskin,

tucked a small packet of food into my belt-wallet, and raced down, the

steep slope of the mountainside to the north of the crag, leaping from

rock to rock under the huge forest trees. I reached the gentler slopes

near the highway and gained the top of the knoll. Selinus was in plain

view, grazing among his brides, and by good luck, all were headed towards

me. I stood on the summit of the knoll and waved my arms. Selinus caught

sight of me and galloped joyously down the slope of the pasture towards

me. When he was near I ran towards him down the slope of the knoll, being

careful that he should not lose sight of me. My luck held and he and I

approached the highway and each, other where there was a comfortable

interval between the lion's cage on the wagon which had been passing when

I topped the knoll and the leading yoke of the team tugging the wagon next

behind. The wind, also, was towards me, so that Selinus did not smell the

lions till he and I met in the highway and I had mounted him. Like a

hunting dog bounding over a fallen tree Selinus had leapt the tall thorn

hedge which bordered the highway to keep stock off it and in the meadow.

Once I was on his back we set off northward at full gallop, which almost

at once quickened into a maddened run. He had shied violently as we passed

the first cage and he winded the lion in it, but I stuck on him. Also I

stuck on at each, less violent sideways lurch as we passed cage after

cage: tiger, panther, leopard, hyenas or lion; all smelt equally

terrifying to him, but he only ran faster and his terror went into speed

ahead rather than into leaps aside.

When we reached the crossroad, up which the constabulary had turned, the

procurator's carriage was still somewhere up the highway; I had not seen

it since I left the top of the crag. The train of beast-wagons seemed

endless.

Into the crossroad we turned and up it Selinus tore. I chuckled. No road-

police, no matter how young, nimble and long-winded, could maintain a

double-quick any distance on that up-slope. Selinus mounted the hills like

a grayhound after a hare. We were sure to overtake the detachment soon.

They could not have gone far.

Overtake them we did and the maddened run at which Selinus scaled those

steep hills caught their officer's attention. I had rehearsed what I meant

to say and wasted no words. What I said conveyed the whole situation to

him.

"We are too few horsemen to overcome them," he said, "but we can scare

them from their booty and maybe from their captives. We'll ride our

fastest and we have time to reach them before they are thinking of flight.

The complete surprise will save the jewels, coin and gold and most likely

the lady and the officials.

"But you fellows must double-quick after us to support us in case they

recover from their amazement, rally and round on us from some near

vantage-ground. You can retrace your steps in a tenth of the time it took

us to reach here. Race!

"And you, Felix, give me that racer of yours. Fall in with the men. Here

Caius, give Felix your saddle and bridle. Your mare is giving out. Felix,

saddle and bridle your horse for me. Caius, take my horse."

In a moment I was afoot among the infantry constables, the officer was in

the saddle on Selinus, the reins in his hands, and the horsemen were off

at a tearing gallop, with us footmen after them at a run which carried us

almost by leaps down the steep slope.

When we reached the highway neither the mounted police nor any outlaws

were anywhere in sight. But it was plain that more time than I had

realized had elapsed since I vaulted on Selinus. Not only was the sun near

the horizon, but the bandits had evidently been further up the road than

this. For an instant I marvelled that they had come this far at all when

both their ambushes were south of the crag. Then I realized that they had

been searching the wagons for the bullion. Every wagon was stalled, half

were overset, the tongue-yoke of each was hamstrung, every cage was empty,

not a lion, tiger or leopard, panther or hyena to be seen; all,

apparently, let out that their cages might be ransacked. I conjectured

that letting them out had taken less time than it would have taken to kill

them.

Panting, sweating, nearing exhaustion, we hastened along the highway at a

jolting run not much faster than the quick walk of untired men, but our

best speed. We passed scores of stalled wagons, every cage empty, two

hamstrung oxen or mules or even horses lying in agony before each wagon,

the rest of the cattle either loosed and gone or held fast by the stalled

wagons behind them. We saw not one teamster, not one beast. The long

series of stalled wagons, with their hamstrung or stalled cattle and empty

cages extended to the foot of the crag and beyond it. Beyond it we came on

the procurator's carriage, empty; no horse to it or by it. Still we had

seen no human being.

A half-mile further, midway of a flat stretch of road, on one side of

which was an expanse of swampy ground, varied with pools bordered by

sedge, reeds and bushes, with areas of tussocks and with clumps of willows

and alders, we came on Bambilio's and Vedia's carriages, their gilded

decorative carvings, coral-red panel-bars, pearl-shell panel-panes, gilded

rosette-bosses, silver-plated hubs and gilded spokes and fellies

glittering in the late sunshine.

His coach was without any sign of a horse near it, hers with all four

hamstrung; their white leather harness, with its gold and silver bosses,

horridly stained with the blood they had spattered all over them as they

lay struggling and trying to kick. Both carriages were empty, their

cushions and mattresses and other contents scattered about on the roadway.

The sun was near setting. Our sergeants, blown as their men and as I,

paused and mopped their faces. We scanned the outlook. Far away well up

the mountain side we caught sight of a group of burly men, and among them

a slender figure clad in a garb of pale lavender hue with the sheen of

silk. Below and close a similar group among which were two figures

conspicuous for crimson cloaks or the like. Far below and much nearer us

we glimpsed the pursuing horsemen.

Off we set, and our fresh excitement seemed to put fresh vigor into all of

us. We ran a full mile straight across pastures and wooded hills towards

the point where I had glimpsed Vedia.

The sun set.

The constables ran on, panting, but by no means failing.

I gave out.

The hopelessness of such pursuit took all the heart out of me.

I stopped.

I could not hope to keep up with the excited police. I could not believe

that they would give any effective support to their mounted comrades or

even that they could overtake the outlaws after sunset in such broken and

wooded country, or that any or all of them could rescue any of the

prisoners I shuddered to think of Vedia in the clutches of such ruthless

villains. But I could accomplish nothing towards helping her. I turned to

slink homewards.

Half way to the spot where we had left the highway I encountered a lion.

He did not attack me or menace me and I was not afraid of him. But the

sight of him brought to my attention that the light was waning and that I

was, for a man afoot, a considerable distance from my cottage in broken

country full of escaped beasts of prey. I had never understood my power

over all animals, but I had always conceived that it depended on the way I

looked to them when they gazed at me. I was totally unafraid of the most

ferocious beast by daylight, but by no means comfortable in twilight or

dusk, while after dark I had no reason to think that a lion, or tiger

would prove more tractable to me than to any other man. I felt that I must

hasten home, if I was ever to reach it alive. With what breath I had left

I ran the rest of the easy downhill path to the highway.

When I reached it twilight had not yet deepened into dusk and I could see

fairly well. The four hamstrung horses were struggling pitifully to rise

and screaming at intervals. With my sheathknife I put them out of their

misery; as also the four pack-mules which lay, similarly hamstrung, in the

roadway, behind the carriage.

In spite of my dread of carnivora after dark I examined the coach and what

lay about it on the road. There were two kidskins, bulging roundly,

presumably with wine. Three covered food hampers, unopened; and, intact, a

beautiful little inlaid chest, such as ladies have for their combs,

brushes, ointment-pots and similar toilet articles. From their condition I

conjectured that the bandits had just commenced to rummage the coach when

the unexpected approach of the mounted constables, whose small numbers

they most likely did not realize, had scared them away.

Reluctant to be off and fearing to remain, I glanced about, irresolute. In

a clump of willows and alders in the midst of the swampy tract I caught

sight of a bit of color out of keeping with anything which naturally

belonged there and suggesting a woman's garment. There was a dryshod way

to that clump of trees and bushes. I threaded it towards what I had

glimpsed. When I was hardly more than half way from the road to the clump

I thought I heard a sob. I made haste.

Hearing the place I saw a young and slender and graceful woman dressed as

a slave girl. Somehow the sight of her brought to my mind's-eye vivid

recollections of my convalescent outings in Nemestronia's water-garden.

She looked terrified and yet hesitating to flee from me, as if she feared

the swamp. A step nearer I realized that Vedia's maid, a woman not unlike

her in build, as faithful to her as Agathemer was to me and amazingly

astute, had had the shrewdness and also the time to fool the brigands by

exchanging clothes with her mistress in the carriage.

"Vedia!" I exclaimed. "Caia!"

"Castor!" she screamed. "You know me? You call me Caia? Are you a ghost?

Are you alive? And that voice! Oh, are you real?"

"Real and alive," I answered. "I am myself. I am Hedulio."

To my amazement there, in the dusk under the willows, among the alders,

she gave a half-smothered shriek and the next instant her arms were round

my neck and mine round her, and she was sobbing on my shoulder, repeating:

"Call me Caia again. This is too good to be true."

CHAPTER XXVIII

MOONLIGHT

When our transports had abated a little I was aware that the twilight was

deepening into dusk and that I must somehow save Vedia from the roaming

wild beasts. I guided her along the twisting track from her hiding-place

to the road. As we gained it I heard a loud snarl of a lion or tiger or

panther far off towards the crag. We must make haste.

I reflected that it would be a very strong and enterprising beast, even if

a lion, which would break into Vedia's coach when its panels were slid and

fastened.

"We are too far from any habitation," I said, "for us to reach any while

the light holds. I dare not make the attempt with you among all these

freed wild beasts. I should be afraid to try it alone in this deepening

dusk. The best thing we can do is to get inside your carriage, slide the

panels and trust to them to keep out any inquisitive leopard or lion. With

the carcasses of four well-fed horses and as many mules laid ready to eat,

no tiger ought to be hungry enough to be eager after us."

"I had thought that, too," she agreed.

I peered through the open door into the coach, which was roomy. Then I

replaced in it its mattresses and cushions, Vedia showing me how they

fitted and, going round to the other door and opening it, helping me to

lay smooth the unmanageable feather-stuffed upper-cushions. She also

showed me the receptacles for her toilet-box, the food hampers and the

kidskins. While we were thus busied the almost full moon rose clear and

bright over a distant mountain. I helped Vedia into the coach and she

disposed herself at full length on its cushions, sinking into the

feathers. I walked round the coach and slid all the panels except the

front panel through which the moonlight entered, then I climbed inside,

shut and fastened the door, shut the panels, fastened each and stretched

out by Vedia, like her with plenty of cushions and pillows under my head

and shoulders.

As I fastened the last panels we heard the hunting-squall of a leopard at

no great distance. Vedia clung to me, shuddering.

"You have saved me, Caius," she said. "As you did on the terrace at

Nemestronia's."

Naturally, for a while, we exchanged kisses and caresses without any

intermingled words.

When, she spoke she said:

"How do you come to be alive?"

"That," I said, "is thanks to Agathemer and is a long tale. I am faint

with hunger and thirst, you yourself should be in need of nourishment and

might be the better for it. There should be food in those hampers and wine

in the kidskins."

"There is," she said, "and plenty. I am as hungry and thirsty as you, now

I am no longer terrified and am recovering from my panic. But I am

intensely eager to hear your story. Do begin at the beginning just as soon

as you can, and tell it while we eat."

Then she showed me how to dispose the hampers as they were designed to be

arranged while the occupants of the coach ate. They were very generously

filled with the most luxurious fare: hard-boiled eggs, ham, cold roast

pork, sliced thin; breast of roast goose, breast of roast duck, young

guinea-fowls, broiled whole and cut up, broiled chickens, broiled squabs;

half a. dozen kinds of bread, a quarter loaf and different sorts of rolls;

lettuce and radishes; bottles of oil, vinegar, garum sauce, and other

sauces; salt smoked fish; figs, both big green figs and small purple figs;

a jar of strained honey, several kinds of cakes, and plenty of salt,

pepper, other relishes, and a lavish provision of knives and of silver,

plates, spoons, cups and other utensils.

"Why all this profusion?" I queried. "You have enough here for a party of

ten."

"I always have a variety like this," she explained. "I generally have very

little appetite on a journey so I tell Lydia to put in all the things she

can get which she knows I like. Then something is likely to tempt me."

We feasted by moonlight, while I told my story from the moment when I had

received her warning letter.

"I knew that you mounted the horse in front of Plosurnia's Tavern," she

said, "but I have never heard of you after that. Tanno and I did all we

could to find out what had become of you; all we could without risking the

secret service getting an inkling that we had a hope that you were not

dead.

"In fact it was not only advertised from the Palace in due course, but

circumstantially reported to us privately, that the secret service had

learned that you had arranged for a fishing-vessel to take you to sea from

Sipontum. They had then set three detachments of Praetorians to intercept

you, one on each road, with watchers to warn them if you were recognized.

You were seen or betrayed somewhere between Hadria and Auximum, one

account said at Ortona, and the Praetorians killed you.

"Tanno said that the secret service always gave out such an account if

they failed to locate and capture any man they should have arrested. But

the confirmation of the story by three different private agencies plainly

destroyed his hopes that you might still be alive. I tried to keep on

hoping, but, after a whole year, I stopped lying awake and sobbing in the

dark; while I felt more grief for you than I ever felt for Satronius

Patavinus and more truly widowed than when he died, I ceased to grieve and

regained my interest in gaieties and suitors. Don't you think that was

natural?"

"Very natural," I admitted and went on with my story.

The moon rose higher and its rays no longer struck on our faces, but,

striking through the open panel, diffused from what part of the cushion or

sides of the coach they fell on directly, lit up the whole interior with a

pearly glimmer. By this subdued light Vedia looked bewitchingly charming

and coquettish, all the more because of the contrast between her elaborate

coiffure and the simple costume her maid had worn.

I ate liberally and with relish and she appeared to enjoy her food as I

did.

"You don't seem a bit worried," I remarked, "over the loss of your

jewels."

"Loss!" she exclaimed. "I haven't lost them, they are all in the secret

compartment under us inside the coach body, just where Lydia put them

before we left Rome. The bandits had barely begun to ransack the coach

when we heard the yells of the constabulary and then the hoof-beats of

their horses. They and their horses made so much noise that the brigands

thought they had to do with a hundred or more and fled, dragging off

Bambilio and Lydia and leaving me and the hampers, even the wine-skins.

They never were near laying hands on those jewels. They had Bambilio's

coin-chests, to be sure; but not my jewelry nor so much as a nugget of the

bullion they had expected. They were preparing to torture the procurator

to make him reveal the hiding place of his bullion, when the yelling and

galloping horsemen scared them away."

I congratulated her and we ate with even more relish. Both of us, however,

were sparing of the wine, though I gloated at the savor of the first

really good wine I had tasted for more than two years.

And garum sauce! I had not realized how I had craved such luxuries as

garum.

I told my story to an accompaniment of Vedia's exclamations. She was

amazed at all of it; at our crawl through the drain, at the loyalty of old

Chryseros, at my involvement with Maternus, at my encounter with

Pescennius Niger, at my involvement with the mutineers; but most of all,

at my having been present in the great circus, an eyewitness of the most

spectacular day of racing Commodus ever exhibited under his transparent

pseudonym of Palus and his last day of public jockeying; and, equally, at

Agathemer's device by which we survived the massacre.

We had finished our leisurely meal and I had finished my story, neither

our appetites nor the flow of my narrative marred by the distant squalls

of leopards and roars of lions, nor by the uncanny sounds made by the

hyenas, when, all of a sudden, a lion uttered a powerful and prolonged

roar within a dozen yards of us. Vedia shrieked and clung to me, clutching

me so I had to remonstrate with her in order to be able to slide shut and

fasten the open front panel. I had barely fastened it when another roar as

loud, sudden, and long answered the first from the other side of us,

somewhere in the swamp tract. This time Vedia did not shriek, she only

clung closer to me. I held her as close as she held me and, so clinging to

each other, in the pale glimmer of the moonlight striking on the shell

panes in the panels, we listened to repetitions of the roars, each time

nearer, till the two beasts were roaring at each other not much more than

its length from the carriage, apparently facing each other across the dead

pole-horses. I expected a fight, but they ceased roaring, and, by the

sounds they made, fell to gorging themselves on horse-meat.

When we had become used to their proximity, since, after a lapse of time

which seemed like half an hour or more, they kept on crunching and rending

without any roarings and without coming nearer the carriage, Vedia, her

arms still about me, told me the story of her doings since my downfall.

Most of it was taken up with social gaieties and with rejections of

tolerated suitors.

Then she, shyly, told me of her liking for Orensius Pacullus, of Aquileia,

and her promise to marry him. She explained at length why she had been

called imperatively to Aquileia, why he felt bound to remain there and how

it was that she had agreed to travel to Aquileia to be married there,

instead of his returning to Rome, which would have been the most

conventional arrangement.

While she was telling me this we heard not only the noise of the feeding

of the two lions which were eating the dead horses, but heard also a third

animal as noisily tearing at one of the dead mules behind the coach.

"I cannot believe," she said, "that I ever consented to marry anybody

else, even when I was certain you were dead. But you know, Caius, it is

natural to be married; and to live alone, as maid or widow, is not only

lonesome and unnatural, but unfashionable and absurd.

"But, now that I know you are alive, I shall not care who thinks me

ridiculous or who calls me silly; I shall feel lonely, but lonely merely

because I cannot live with you. I shall jilt poor dear Pacullus, who is as

good a man and as good a fellow as ever lived, and I shall stick to my

widowhood until I die or Commodus joins the company of the gods and we can

arrange for your full rehabilitation and the restoration of your estates

and rank."

Just as she said this we distinctly heard clawing and snuffing against the

panels behind our heads, opposite where the lions were feasting. Vedia did

not shriek, she was too scared to make any sound: she merely clutched me

closer.

Both lions roared in front of the coach; a tiger's rasping yarr answered

from behind it and almost instantly there were noises alongside the coach

indicating that a lion and tiger were at grips; growls, snarls, more

growls and more snarls, each choked off in the middle as it were, half

swallowed and left unfinished. For some reason the noise of the fight

immediately started a chorus of hyenas, emitting their strange cries, much

like human laughter, but the laughter of maniacs. Our situation and

environment was to the last degree uncanny.

The fight lasted no long time. We could not conjecture which combatant was

victorious, but they dashed off, one pursuing the other. The remaining

lion roared twice; long, choking, snarling torrents of thunderous noise;

then it also went away. Except for distant snarls, squalls and roars, we

were in a silent moonlit world, almost peaceful. I ventured to unfasten

the other front panel and slide it a little way open. The rays of the high

moon, poured in on our feet, we looked out on a magical prospect.

Vedia put a relishing warm arm round my neck.

"Call me Caia again," she whispered. "Where you are Caius I am Caia!"

[Footnote: From the Roman marriage-ritual.] The implication thrilled me.

It was as if we were married, had been man and wife for long past.

It may have been midnight, was near midnight when she said:

"I don't want to go to sleep at all. We can do without one night's sleep.

We can sleep tomorrow night, when we are not together. Let's try to keep

awake every minute till daylight."

In fact it was not easy to sleep, for a pack of hyenas, apparently as

friendly with each other as if they had hunted together since they were

weaned, came and picked the bones of the horses and mules, even ate the

bones, which cracked loudly between their powerful jaws. The noise of

their gluttony would have kept awake a pair sleepier than we.

But, when the moon was almost half way down the sky, when the roars and

squalls and snarls of lions and leopards and tigers and the horrid

laughter of hyenas had ceased to sound, when the night silence was so

complete that we could hear the cocks crowing near distant farmsteads and

the faint breezes rustling in the willows, we did sleep, she first, her

arms round me and her head on my shoulder.

When we woke, with the slanted moon rays on the back corner of the coach

behind me, she cuddled to me luxuriously, patted me and presently

whispered, in a bantering, roguish tone which I detected even in her

softest whisper:

"You remember that old sweetheart of yours?"

"I don't remember any sweetheart except you," I retorted. "I never had any

sweetheart except you."

"I mean," she said, "that minx who made eyes at you and all your country

neighbors and certainly tried to marry you and most of your Sabine

friends."

"You mean Marcia?" said I.

"Ah," she said, playfully and teasingly, "I thought you would remember her

name. If you remember her name you must remember her."

"Of course I remember Marcia," I said. "How could I forget her after the

way she led my uncle by the nose, had half the countryside mad for her,

set us all by the ears, rebuffed Ducconius Furfur, and married Marcus

Martius?

"If I had never known her before I'd be bound to recall the creature who

embroiled me with you. My! You were in a wax!"

"I certainly was," she whispered, "and I thought I had reason to be

indignant. But now I believe your version of her relations with you and

feel no qualms at recollecting the slanders I then credited. But, the

point is, you remember her."

"My dear," I said, "if I had never set eyes on Marcia except when I

encountered her in the Baths of Titus the day you rescued me from drowning

when I fainted in the swimming pool, I'd remember her for life. She is too

beautiful to forget."

"Am I so hideous?" she demanded.

"You are the loveliest woman alive," I vowed. "But Marcia is amazingly

spectacular and the pictures she makes impress themselves on one's memory

and eyesight. I could never forget her in that brilliant tableau on the

camp-platform facing the mutineers, even if I had never seen her before."

"I was coming to that," Vedia said. "Marcia, who was a foundling and a

slave as the adopted child of a slave, has risen so high that she is truly

Empress in all but the official title. She has all the honors Faustina or

Crispina ever had, except that she keeps out of those religious rites,

participation in which is confined to women married with the full old-time

ceremonies and observances."

I then told her what Agathemer and I had heard about Marcia while

domiciled with Colgius, and of the absence from all talk about her of any

mention of or allusion to Marcus Martius; I asked if she knew what had

become of him or, indeed, anything about him.

"Oh, yes," she said, "all Roman society knew the main facts and dear old

Tanno supplied me with many of the intimate details. Commodus made a point

of having Martius specially presented to him because he had heard that he

had been, with you and Tanno, one of the foremost fighters in your affrays

in Vediamnum and near Villa Satronia. At his private audience he

congratulated and bepraised Martius and acclaimed his prowess. Martius,

who seems to have been a very fine fellow, disclaimed any pretensions to

such laudations and modestly stated that he had, at the beginning of each

fight, been far in the rear in your travelling-coach, with Marcia; that

she had clung to him and so delayed his getting out; that each time he had

gotten out and picked up the staff of a disabled combatant, but that, in

each combat, he had arrived barely in time to land a few blows on some of

the routed enemy; that in neither affray had he done any real fighting or

been in any danger or performed any exploits.

"Commodus, in his blunt way, had asked whether he was good for anything,

anyhow. Martius had replied that he was considered more than a mediocre

horse-master.

"Commodus had then invited him to demonstrate his prowess in the Stadium

of the Palace. There Martius had shown such skill, courage, agility,

judgment, grace and ease that Commodus was delighted. He had Martius ride

a number of wild, fierce and unmanageable horses and was more and more

charmed with him.

"Next day he had another batch of intractable mounts for him. As Martius

was manoeuvring one which he had almost subdued Commodus stepped too near

the plunging brute and, in saving the Emperor from being run down and

trampled, Martius was somehow thrown and his neck broken.

"Commodus was very penitent, felt that he had caused Martius' death, had

him given a funeral of Imperial magnificence and, as soon as her grief had

quieted enough, paid Marcia a ceremonial visit of condolence, as if she

had been the widow of a full general killed in battle on the frontier.

"One sight of Marcia was enough. Within a very short space of time her

wiles had ensnared him and Crispina raged in vain."

Then she told me all the story of the intrigues by which Marcia poisoned

the Emperor's mind against the Empress, until Crispina fell under all

sorts of suspicion in the eyes of Commodus: of how at the same time Marcia

subtly laid snares for Crispina and enticed her into injudicious behavior

with several gallants, until finally the Emperor put her under

surveillance, later relegated her to Capri, then to some more distant

island, and finally had her brought back to Rome, publicly tried,

convicted and executed.

I told her my conjectures as to the queer outcome of the arrest of

Ducconius Furfur and as to who Palus really was and who occupied the

throne while Palus exhibited himself as wrestler, boxer, charioteer and

what not.

"I know nothing to confirm your surmises," she said, "but we about the

Court have often been puzzled at the way Commodus appeared to be in two

places at once. You set me thinking."

After the second cockcrow, since dawn was not now far away, we fell to

talking of the future.

"I shan't marry anybody, ever, except you, dear!" she promised, without my

asking it and again and again: "I'll remain a widow until I die unless we

outlive Commodus, and Tanno and I succeed in having you rehabilitated. I

have many consolations in my wealth and social position and friends."

"And suitors," I put in, mimicking her tone when she bantered me about

Marcia.

"And suitors!" she replied. "Caius, I love you, and I'll never marry

anyone else, but I do love attention. I love to keep a dozen good catches

dangling about me; their wooings and their gifts and their behavior

generally are no end of good fun. And it's good fun to have half the

marriageable belles furious with me. I cannot help encouraging any man, or

even lad, who moons about after me. But you have never had any reason to

be jealous, you have none now, you never will have."

I expressed my faith in her the best I could.

"You are a dear, dear boy," she said, "and it is good of you not to be

jealous, even when you have so little reason to be jealous. I have much

more. Suppose I raged about Nebris or Septima?"

I tried to change the subject and succeeded, when I suggested that we must

plan what we were to do at dawn and in the future. After a full discussion

and the airing of her ideas and mine, we agreed that there was little or

no likelihood of the road-constables returning or of anyone else

approaching her carriage before full daylight. As soon as there was

sufficient light for it to be safe, I would open the panels enough for us

to keep watch up and down the highway and in the direction the constables

had taken. When we saw them returning I was to wait till they were near

enough to assure her safety and then, at the last moment, I was to slip

out on the other side of the coach. That was next the swamp and I could be

out of sight among the willows and alders when less than two score yards

from the road; also I knew the path across the swamp and could cross it

and go off home through the meadows and pastures beyond it. This was our

plan.

She said she would, whenever the road-constables returned, behave as if

she had been alone in the coach all night. She had no doubt that the

police would give her every assistance in their power.

"Of course," she said, "my intendant galloped off somewhere, somehow and

the coachman and outrider and mule-drivers ran away; you couldn't expect

any or all of them to make a stand against all those armed brigands. If

the constables return, as they will, all my men will come back. Osdarus

will manage to get me horses from the nearest change-station or somewhere

else, somehow. Once at an inn I can get fresh horses. I can buy a team at

Nuceria."

"Can you pay for a team?" I interrupted. "Have you the cash?"

"My gold and silver," she laughed, "are in the other secret compartment.

The outlaws did not get my coin any more than my jewelry. Why look!

Lydia's earrings are in my ears now and her necklace round my neck and her

bracelets on my wrists and her rings on my fingers. The rascals were so

sure of not being interfered with and so much at ease that they were

startled frantic by the galloping horsemen and scuttled off with

Bambilio's coin-chest, dragging him and poor Lydia and totally forgetting

me, thinking me the maid, not even noticing these little trinkets, which

are mostly silver and some of gold and so worth stealing.

"I have the cash to pay for two teams or three: I brought plenty for the

journey to Aquileia, because we could learn little of the state of the

roads beyond Bononia and I thought I might have to travel by Placentia or

even by Milan. I'll get back to Rome, as fast as I can. I don't want to be

married now, so I don't want to go on to Bononia, let alone all the way to

Aquileia. If I did want to go on, the bandits have run off with my maid,

and I could hardly get along without her, and they have also removed my

escort, and I certainly could not keep on without a proper escort. I have

every excuse for turning about at once and making haste to get out of this

dangerous neighborhood and getting back home.

"Poor Lydia! I hate to think of her at the mercy of those brutal ruffians.

They may maltreat her horribly if they discover that they have the maid

instead of the mistress, and by the maid's device. I'll tell everybody I

see that I'll pay any ransom in reason, even beyond reason, for poor

Lydia, if the brigands will restore her to me safe and sound. I fancy

their friends hereabouts, and almost every inhabitant of the district is a

friend of theirs, by your account, will speedily have conveyed to them the

news that their capture is worth almost as much ransom as they hoped to

extort for me. That news ought to protect Lydia while she is among the

outlaws and ought to help me to get her back without much delay.

"As soon as I am in Rome I'll send a trusty agent up here to set on foot

negotiations with the outlaws and to rescue Lydia by paying what they ask

for her.

"And, the moment I reach Rome I'll set in motion all the forces I can

control or enlist, and I can influence many men in high places, I'll have

all I can influence working quietly and most unobtrusively for that

official manumission, of yours. Once you are free you had best travel

secretly and without haste to Bruttium. No folk are more secretive or more

loyal than the herders and foresters of Bruttium. Not only your former

slaves on your uncle's estate there, but all their neighbors will do as

much to keep secret your presence among them, and shield you and to make

you comfortable and happy as the Umbrians hereabouts have been doing to

help and protect Bulla and his band and to shield them from the

constabulary and authorities. In Bruttium you can lurk in safety as long

as Commodus lives and it will even be safe for us two to exchange letters.

In Bruttium it can be arranged that no secret-service agent or Imperial

spy can ever get wind of your existence, let alone of your hiding-place.

You can be free, in a way, housed comfortably, with no duties, able to

pass your time as you please, and well cared for. Tanno and I will see

that you are supplied with cash for the journey and for your needs after

you reach your haven."

The cocks crowed vociferously at all the neighboring farmsteads and we

could hear them plainly across the considerable distances from us to each.

The moon hung low and the pale first light of day began to overcome the

moonlight.

Vedia petted me and I petted her and she repeated her vows of unalterable

fidelity to her pledge to marry no one else and to hope to marry me.

As dawn brightened the hyenas burst into a belated chorus and a lion

roared far away. After that the beasts made no sounds which came to our

ears.

Vedia insisted on my eating more of her delicacies and, I confess, I ate

liberally and with relish. A night with almost no sleep and much

excitement causes an unnatural hunger at dawn and the delicious rarities

tempted me.

She explained, over and over, that I was to behave precisely as if we had

not encountered each other and be sure not to mistake some secret-service

agent for her emissary. The watchword was to be, in memory of that used at

my escape from Rome, that whoever came from her or Tanno to me would ask:

"Can you direct me to the leopard-tamer who rode the horse with the blue

saddle-cloth?"

I was to reply:

"The blue saddle-cloth was bordered with silver."

He was then to respond:

"I have silver for the leopard-tamer."

I was then to say:

"I am the leopard-tamer and I have a pouch for your silver."

After we had rehearsed the passwords till both were sure neither could

forget or misplace a word, as the day was coming on, we kept a keen

lookout through the partly opened panels. Before sunrise I saw the mounted

constables approaching down the mountain trail, for there were several

points on it where horsemen could be seen through the trees, even from

where we were.

I unfastened the coach door next the swamp, we kissed each other again and

again, and, as the horsemen came in sight away across the meadows where

they emerged from the woods, we exchanged a last farewell kiss and I

slipped out and across the swamp.

BOOK IV

DISSIMULATIONS

CHAPTER XXIX

FELIX

From the marsh my path homewards led me past the villa, for it was

directly between my cottage and the swamp. The very first human being I

encountered was the _Villicus_ himself.

"Hullo, Felix," he said. "I've been looking for you. We need you. Septima

says she hasn't seen you since early yesterday. Where have you been all

night?"

"Up a tree," I replied. "Bulla told me day before yesterday that he and

his lads planned a spectacular capture and robbery on the highway south of

Diana's Crag for yesterday afternoon. Most of the days lately on which you

haven't wanted me I have spent on top of the crag, watching the traffic on

the road. I went up there about the third hour yesterday morning, to view

the show Bulla had promised me. I expected to enjoy it, but, somehow, when

I saw the victims' coaches come in sight, the idea of a Roman lady in the

clutches of Bulla's gang went against my gorge. I ran down alongside the

crag towards where Selinus was grazing in the roadside pasture. He came to

me and I galloped up the highway and up the first crossroad to warn the

constabulary, who had gone up that road about noon, on some false

information given them by someone at Bulla's suggestion. Their officer

took my horse and I had to run with the infantrymen. My breath gave out

and my legs too and I dropped behind when they left the highway south of

the crag and struck off across country after the bandits, who had been

scared off by the cavalrymen. It took me a long time to get my breath and

rest my legs. When I felt able to walk it was after sunset. I can gentle

any beast by daylight, but after dusk I'm no better off than any other man

facing a lion or tiger. The brigands had opened scores of cages and the

freed beasts began to roar and snarl soon after sunset. I climbed a maple

and spent the night in a fork about six yards from the ground, where I

felt safe as long as I could keep awake. I dreaded to fall if I dozed, and

I was frightfully drowsy after such a hot day and such a long run. When

the sun rose I started home."

"Come along, prudent youth," he said, "we need you. The sub-procurator in

charge of the beast-train which the brigands interfered with is at the

villa: so are half his beast-tenders and teamsters. The animal-keepers vow

they dare not attempt to recapture their charges and the procurator is

angry and worried and anxious about his responsibility and what will be

expected of him by his superiors. He does not want to lose one single lion

or tiger or even hyena; wants them recaged at once. So do I. I've lost

more stock than I like to think of. The hyenas and panthers and leopards

have slaughtered a host of my sheep and goats, and the lions and tigers

have banqueted on some of my most promising colts and on many of my

cattle.

"Can you duplicate your feat with the panther loose on the highway?"

"I can repeat it as often as I can get anywhere near any of those beasts

by daylight," I said. "Let us start at once. There is no hurry, for the

beasts will do little damage in daytime, as most of them will hide till

dark. But there seems to be a large number loose; I doubt if I can catch

all of them before dusk."

"It'll take you two days, Felix, or three," the _Villicus_ laughed. "The

procurator states that his train had in its cages twenty-five panthers, as

many leopards, fifty tigers, a hundred lions and two hundred hyenas.

That's four hundred beasts for you to catch as fast as they can be located

by their keepers, assisted by my whole force of horse-wranglers, herdsmen,

shepherds, and the rest and all the farmers hereabouts, and all their

slaves. We'll have plenty of help. Three farmers are at the villa now

raving over the loss of sheep or cattle; every farmer will turn out with

his men to help us; anyhow, every bumpkin and yokel will want to enjoy the

fun and they'll all flock to the scene."

I do not know how many days I spent catching the escaped beasts for the

procurator. I enjoyed the first day, did not mind the second and was not

painfully weary on the third; but the rest passed in a daze of exhaustion;

though I had good horses, a fresh horse whenever I asked for it, wine and

good wine as often as I was thirsty, plenty of good food and every

consideration; and although the various farms at which I spent the nights

(for we did not once return to the villa) did all they could for my

comfort, the repetition, for hundreds of times, of dismounting,

approaching a lion or tiger in his daylight lair among reeds or tall grass

or bushes, catching him by the mane or the scruff of his neck, leading him

to his cage and caging him, was extremely, even unbelievably exhausting.

Whenever any of our searchers located a beast in hiding the teamsters

drove their wagons with his cage as near as might be; in no case did I

lead a cowed captive half a mile; seldom two furlongs. But I walked a

great distance in the course of each of these days, rode many miles in the

course of all the riding I did between recaptures, and was never calmed

between my recurrent periods of tense excitement. I felt limp.

My condition was not improved by the occurrence and recurrence of

perturbing excitement from a more disquieting cause. Early on my third day

of animal-catching, just as I stepped back from bolting the door of a cage

on a lion, I felt rather than saw out of the tail of my eye someone rush

towards me from behind, trip when a few yards from me and fall flat. I

whirled to look and beheld a mere lad, one of my fellow-slaves at the

villa, a stable cleaner, scrambling to his feet. When he was half up the

man nearest him, another of my fellow-slaves, an assistant colt-wrangler,

apparently the man who had tripped him, dealt him a smashing blow on the

ear with his clenched fist and felled him again. As he went down I saw

that he had a long-bladed, keen-edged, gleaming dagger in his right hand.

It flew from his grasp as he plowed up the ground with his face. The colt-

wrangler picked it up.

We were on a crossroad, some distance from the highway, in the woods. The

wagon and cage were surrounded by almost a score of the slaves of the

estate, with nearly as many more helpers; farm-slaves, farmers, teamsters,

beast-warders, yokels and stragglers; the _Villicus_ was near.

"Napsus," he said to the colt-wrangler, "kill him with his own dagger!"

Instantly Napsus stabbed the fallen lad between the shoulders. The thrust

went home neatly, under the left shoulder-blade, deep and inclined a

little upward. It must have reached his heart, for he died after one

violent convulsion which threw him into the air, and turned him completely

over, his corpse slapping the ground like a flopping fish on a stream-

bank.

"Hand me that rope!" the _Villicus_ ordered a teamster.

He knotted a hangman's noose at one end of the rope, tried it to make sure

it worked properly and ordered the estate slaves to hang the body to a

convenient limb of a near by tree. They did.

I stood, gazing questioningly, first at the swinging corpse, then at the

_Villicus_.

"Felix," said he, "I perceive that you do not understand. Tiro meant to

kill you, and would most likely have succeeded had not Napsus first

tripped him and then killed him. Napsus shall be handsomely rewarded in

every fashion within my power. Tiro has been dealt with as he deserved, as

any similar fool deserves. I propose to protect you to the extent of my

abilities and authority, which includes peremptory execution of any estate

slave whom I so much as suspect; I don't have to wait for any overt act,

nor for any threat, uttered or whispered or hinted. You can rely on all

the protection I can give you and I fancy it will suffice. If there is any

other fool about let him take notice."

He spoke loudly, so as to be audible to everyone of the gathering.

I stared numb, puzzled, almost dazed.

"But," I blurted out, "why did he try to kill me? Why should anyone want

to kill me?"

"You don't know Umbria, lad," spoke the _Villicus_, indulgently. "Many

eyes in addition to those of the teamsters and beast-wardens beheld you on

Selinus, galloping your fastest northwards along the highroad. Many saw

you turn Selinus up the crossroad the _viarii_ had taken. Many saw their

officer on Selinus when the cavalrymen charged down the highroad and

scattered the bandits. Many saw you afoot among the infantrymen when they

turned from the crossroad into the highway and as they double-quicked down

it. Every partisan of the outlaws blames you for their discomfiture, and

regards you as a detestable traitor, many a one is looking for such a

chance at you as Tiro thought he saw. I'll give you a body-guard of men I

can trust, for the rest of this beast-catching job. But keep a bright

lookout, yourself. You may need all your own strength and quickness to

save yourself."

The strain of this surprise and anxiety was a hundredfold as trying as the

most daunting beast-catching. I felt it.

I felt it more after a second similar attempt that very afternoon. I had

threaded a dense patch of undergrowth, approached a lurking leopard,

caught her and led her out of the thicket, led her almost to her waiting

cage. By this time our helpers were so used to seeing me cage lions,

panthers, leopards and tigers that they no longer, as at first, hovered at

a distance, gaping at me as I, completely alone with my catch, led it

towards its cage, set ready by its wagon, from which the team had been

loosed and removed: no longer drew off some yards beyond the cage and

wagon and stood ready for instant flight if my capture escaped me; they

now merely drew aside as I approached and opened a lane for me and my

charge, no more afraid than if I had been leading a calf.

As I drew near the cage, my mind intent on the leopard and my eyes on the

open cage door and its fastenings, a slave of one of the neighboring

farmers dashed at me, sheath-knife uplifted. He came from my left side,

from a little behind me. I whirled round to face him, pulling the leopard

round roughly, so that she snarled. I let her go. She was face to face

with my reckless assailant and they were close together. She gave one

joyful, gloating, triumphant squall and one mighty leap. Her claws sank

into his shoulders, her long white fangs met, horridly crunching, in his

throat, and she bore him to the earth where she crouched flat on him,

greedily gulping his blood.

The bystanders fairly fell over backwards in their panic as they

scattered. I stood by the leopard, and when she had exhausted the supply

of hot blood, succeeded in caging her; but dropped limp on the earth once

I had fastened her in her cage, for a beast of prey which had just tasted

human blood was a ward with which I had felt very uncertain of being able

to cope.

After that no one attempted to molest me while out catching the escaped

beasts. But the night before my last day of beast-catching, as I lay abed

very fast asleep at a villa fully ten miles from the Imperial villa where

I belonged, I became gradually aware of some noises, then slowly I

wakened. There was a fight going on at my door. Soon after I got out of

bed our host and my master, the _Villicus_, came with a light and three or

four slaves. The light revealed One of my fellow-slaves flat on his back

and another throttling him. A dagger lay on the floor. Evidently the one

had saved me from the other.

Late next afternoon, far up in the hills near Helvillum, I caught and

caged the last hyena. These, being smaller and more cowardly than the

nobler animals, were harder to locate. It was after sunset when we reached

the villa where we found the procurator in charge of the beast-train; and

along with, him and his men were welcomed and entertained.

After our bath and a lavish dinner the _Villicus_ exchanged a few

whispered words with our host and then he and I had a long conference

alone. He explained that my life was in danger, not only from local

friends of Bulla and partisans of the King of the Highwaymen who all not

merely regarded me with detestation and hatred as a traitor but suspected

me of being a government spy, but also from the King of the Highwaymen

himself, who was certain to be informed by Bulla of how they had been

discomfited and who had a long arm and countless capable and intrepid

agents. He was of the opinion that the three attempts at assassination

which I had escaped were a mere beginning. He was emphatic that I could

not remain on the Imperial estate and survive many days. He advised me

strongly not to return to the villa.

Then he told me that the procurator of the beast-train had sent to Rome by

an Imperial courier, whom he had managed to intercept at a change-station,

a letter setting forth my powers over fierce animals and asking that an

order be sent for my transfer from the horse-breeding estate to the Beast

Barracks attached to the Colosseum, where the animals are housed from

their arrival in Rome, until their display in the arena; that this letter

had come into the hands of the same officials who already had under

consideration the requisition for me made by the procurator in charge of

the Beast Barracks; that somehow these same officials appeared to know

nothing of my identity with the slave who had foiled the conspirators who

were fomenting a mutiny in the _ergastulum_ at Nuceria, and for whose

manumission a request had been made by the aldermen of that town, and

indeed appeared to know nothing of any such request for manumission; that

a requisition for my transfer from the horse-breeding estate to the Beast-

Barracks at Rome had been made out, approved by the higher officials,

sealed, stamped and sent out by an Imperial courier and received that very

afternoon by the procurator of the beast-train, who consequently had

authority to take me to Rome with him as one of the attendants on the

animals of his train, which was now again in order, I having recaged all

the four hundred escaped beasts, except five hyenas, one panther and one

lion which had been killed by stock-owners and their slaves while

attacking stock.

The _Villicus_ went on to say that this fell out very advantageously for

me, in his opinion. He advised me not only to go with the procurator

without demur, but to arrange with him that I drop the name of Felix and

adopt some other. He pointed out that, if it was known that Felix the

Horse-wrangler of Umbria had gone to Rome as Felix the Beast-Tamer, then

the King of the Highwaymen would be able without difficulty to trace me

and set on me his ruthless agents until one of them assassinated me.

I felt that he was right. The danger to my former self as Andivius

Hedulio, implicated in a conspiracy against Caesar, appeared now far off

and unimportant, in spite of the fact that the secret service might still

be keen to catch me and the hue and cry out after me from the Alps to

Rhegium; the danger to my present self from the enmity of Bulla, of his

ruffians, of their partisans in Umbria, of their Chief, the King of the

Highwaymen, whoever he might be, appeared close and menacing. A change of

name would make it impossible for Tanno and Vedia to carry out her plan

for my manumission by the _fiscus_, my clandestine journey to Bruttium and

my comfortable and unsuspected seclusion there until some other prince

succeeded our present Emperor. I had grasped eagerly at the thought of

this plan and had built much on it. But I realized that Bulla's admirers

or the agents of the King of the Highwaymen would make an end of me long

before Vedia's influence could obtain my manumission; and that, if she did

accomplish all she expected, I could never hope to escape the vigilance of

the tenacious and expert pursuers who would inevitably dog my footsteps.