winnings, must go with me to speed me on my way.  I have never stolen very much before.  But I believe you, sir, are an Epicurean, who teach that pleasure is the highest good, and that all things are the result of chance.  Now,” and here he detached the purse, and counted over a very considerable sum, “you will observe that Fortune has thrown this money in my way, and it is my pleasure to take it.  Therefore I am fulfilling the highest good.  And you, as a philosopher, should be quite reconciled.”

Artemisia came back into the room, having completed the few simple preparations.

“Now, my excellent sir,” continued Agias, suiting his actions to his words, “I will stand you on your feet—­so.  I will push you, still bound, into this closet—­so.  I will pile furniture against the door, so that, when you have worked clear of your bonds, as I imagine you will in a few hours, even then you will not get out too quickly.  And now, as your dear Roman friends say, Vale! We are off!”

Artemisia flung herself on the form of Sesostris, and covered the black, ugly face with kisses.

“He’s growing cold,” she lamented.  “What is the matter?  I can’t leave him this way!”

But Agias did not dare to admit the least delaying.

“Dear Artemisia,” he said, “we can’t do anything for Sesostris.  I will explain to you by and by about him.  He is not feeling cold now at all.  You must come at once with me.  I will take you where Pratinas will never touch you.”

III

If Agias had been a trifle more reckless he would have cut short Pratinas’s thread of life then and there, and greatly diminished the chance of unpleasant consequences.  But he had not sunk so low as that.  Besides, he had already worked out in his versatile head a plan that seemed practicable, albeit utterly audacious.  Cornelia was at Baiae.  Cornelia owed him a great debt of gratitude for saving Drusus.  Cornelia might harbour Artemisia as a new maid, if he could contrive to get his charge over the hundred long miles that lay between Rome and Baiae.

In the street he made Artemisia draw her mantle over her pretty face, and pressed through the crowds as fast as he could drag her onward.  Quickly as he might he left the noisy Subura behind, and led on toward the Palatine.  At length he turned in toward a large house, and by a narrow alley reached a garden gate, and gained admission to the rear.  By his confident movements he showed himself familiar with the spot.  The dwelling, as a matter of fact, was that of Calatinus.

As Agias pushed open the gate, and led Artemisia into a little garden enclosed with a high stone wall, he surprised a dapper-appearing young slave-lad of about his age, who was lying idly on the tiny grass plot, and indulging in a solitary game of backgammon.[129]

  [129] Duodecim scripta.

“Hem! Iasus,” was Agias’s salutation, “can you do an old friend a favour?”