Nicanor - Teller of Tales Part 21

"Thou sayest!" Quartus agreed, and stared also. "What hath seized him?

Here, lad, what means all this? Stop thy prancing and say what thou hast done to our lord Hito, here."

But Nicanor answered nothing, and danced.

"Chain him!" wheezed Hito. "Stop him, or I shall go mad, also, with looking at him! I'll have him strung by the thumbs for this!"

And so it had been done, instantly, madness or no madness, since Hito's word was law, and Hito was very wrathful, but that interruption came from a quarter least expected. A tall figure blocked the open doorway, and a deep voice said:

"What is the meaning of all this?"

Every slave knew it for the voice of their lord's guest, and every slave wheeled and crossed his arms before his face, and wondered what their lord's guest should be doing there,--every slave except Nicanor, who still danced doggedly. It would have needed a quick eye to see that his step had faltered, if never so slightly.

"This fellow hath a devil, lord!" said Hito, with an effort at coherency. "Me he did force to dance until I am no better than dead. He called me Julia and made me to dance with him so that my life fainted in me. He is mad--most mad--and I will have him strung--"

Marius looked at Nicanor, and in his face was recognition and a merciless triumph. He broke Hito's speech midway.

"Who is this fellow?"

"Lord, he is called Nicanor," said Hito. "And he is mad--"

Again Marius's face changed, back to its former haughty calm, in which was mingled a certain satisfaction.

"So--Nicanor, is it? I have seen men seized this way before." He spoke to Hito, but his eyes were on Nicanor. "Most commonly it is the effect of over-severe discipline, but it may be that there are other causes.

Then if he is mad, friend Hito, it might be better not to slay him lest the G.o.ds take vengeance for him upon you. Were it not best to take him to the dungeons? So, you may see how long this madness of his will last; and when it is past will be the time to punish." His tone a.s.sumed sudden authority. "Look to it that you harm him in no manner, but hold him fast where you may deliver him at your lord's word. It will be your life for his life--remember that."

He gathered his cloak about him and strode away, and the three looked after him with wonder in their faces. Hito was first to voice it.

"Our lives for his life, is it?" he grunted. "So, master slave, you would be important, it seems. What have you done now, that our lord's favorite should give such orders for you? You'll not cheat me for long--promise you that! A little while and he'll forget you; so my turn will come. Quartus, put the chains upon him and take him to the cells."

"Please you, we are told to harm him in no manner," Wardo ventured.

Nicanor had done many a good turn to the fair-haired Saxon, as one comrade to another, and Wardo was not one to forget it. "Were he in chains, he would soon fret himself into worse raving, and likely do himself harm."

"Bring him without, then!" said Hito. The two seized Nicanor, and Wardo winked at him behind Hito's back, as the latter got painfully to his feet. Nicanor submitted, sullenly. He, who had trusted to no man save himself, was forced to pin what faith he might to the hint of succor that lay in Wardo's wink. And this was but a frail straw to trust.

They took him along a side pa.s.sage behind the storerooms, down damp and slippery steps to the depths of the cellars. Here were the dungeons, half of masonry, half of living rock, whose walls glistened with slime where the torchlight fell upon them. They thrust him into the smallest of the cells, and left him.

The light of their torch was shut out with the slamming of the iron door; and darkness, dense and tangible, fell upon him in a reeking pall.

Nicanor spoke aloud, with a laugh that jarred on the heavy stillness.

"When friend Hito gains wind enough after his gambollings to remember that lean lady of his, she should be far enough away to snap her fingers at him. So, the rat is trapped at last. Now to see whether he can fight or no; for if he cannot, he'll have no chance to try again."

Then silence fell; and other rats, boldened by the darkness, began to come forth to peer at the intruder in their midst.

THE LORD'S DAUGHTER AND THE ONE WHO WENT IN CHAINS

BOOK IV

Book IV

THE LORD'S DAUGHTER AND THE ONE WHO WENT IN CHAINS

I

Marius rejoined Eudemius in his library.

"I have given command to have the slave Nicanor sent to the cells," he said. "It was he, as I have just found, of whom the Lady Varia spoke in the early evening. When we left the torture chamber, it is now two hours ago, I saw him in the pa.s.sage outside, with another, a woman, I think.

He put out the lamp in the pa.s.sage, but I saw him first. It is as well to catch our bird before he flies, as without doubt he will now try to do, finding himself discovered, and keep him safely nested until we want him. He is a surly brute, but I know a way to get what we want out of him."

"And that is?" said Eudemius.

"Salt food and no water," said Marius curtly. "I have tried it before, in camp. We will let him recover from this so-called madness, first. But you said you would speak with me. I am at your command."

Eudemius shook his head.

"Not to-night," he said. "I am over tired, and it grows late. To-morrow, perhaps. Did the Africans tell me that the old man Marcus is dead?"

"They did," Marius answered, somewhat surprised at the question.

"Undoubtedly he was mad, for never did I see such actions in a sane man."

"And you believe that the G.o.ds will take vengeance on me for having brought to pa.s.s the death of such a haunted one?" Eudemius asked unexpectedly.

Marius shrugged.

"I did not say that," he answered. "Maybe they will, maybe not. If you believe that they will, it is probable that they will do so."

Eudemius laughed. As quickly he became grave once more.

"I had not meant to kill him! I was fond of him--I was even going to give him gold and have put upon him the pileus of a freedman, for he hath served me well. He had belonged to Constantia, my wife. Perhaps it was I who was mad to-night. Sometimes I have thought--I must ask Claudius if there is prospect of that--" He broke off. "Pardon! I forgot, and thought aloud. To-morrow I shall be myself, but to-night I am shaken. If you will excuse me, I shall leave you. The house is at your service, if you do not choose to retire yet. Summon Mycon--he shall fill Marcus's place--and give what commands you will."

"I think that I shall follow your example," Marius said, and stifled a yawn, "if you will tell me how to reach my rooms from here through these labyrinthine pa.s.sages of yours. This part of the house I do not know well."

Eudemius looked at him in silence a moment, so that Marius thought he had not heard his question. He was about to repeat it, when Eudemius said:

"From this door go to your left, until you come to the gallery which runs along the northern, not the southern, end of the large court. Go down this to your right, and you will reach your own apartments. Vale!"

Marius took his leave, wishing his host good rest. He strolled through halls on which looked numberless rooms, furnished richly, warm and silent, waiting for the guests who never came. Not a servant was in sight; the silence of midnight wrapped the place in slumber. Lamps, swinging from tall standards or from the ceilings, shed a mellow light around; his feet pressed rich woven rugs which hid the mosaic pavements beneath. Around him was a golden perfumed stillness. He went more slowly, steeping his senses in the aroma of luxury.

"How a man might welcome his friends to such a house as this!" he muttered. "I can see them here around me--Fabian, Julius, Volux, all the rest. Ye G.o.ds, how the walls would echo! Now it all lies fallow, its wealth unknown, its treasures unseen. It should be used--ay, used to the very top notch of its value. Where is the use of paintings, marbles, rugs, halls, gardens, wealth such as this, with none to enjoy them all, save a dying man and a fair-faced fool?" His thin lips tightened. The seed Eudemius had planted was springing to l.u.s.ty growth. "And they are mine, all mine, for the taking. By the soul of my mother, I will take them! I shall give feasts here such as Lucullus might have envied; I can win what legion and what station I will; whatever fields Rome hath left unconquered, I shall conquer for her. From the field I can reach the forum, with a name which without wealth I could never gain. The times are changing; it is time that men changed with them."