what faces they were that she saw!  One, a fat face, framed in thick hair and a short, thick and ragged beard, was of a dusky brown and as coarse and brutal as the other was smooth, colorless and lean, cruel and crafty.  The eyes of the first of these ruffians were prominent, weak and bloodshot, with a fixed glassy stare, while those of the other seemed always to be on the watch with a restless and uneasy leer.

These were Euergetes’ assassins—­they must be!  Spellbound with terror and revulsion she stood quite still, fearing only that the ruffians might hear the beating of her heart, for she felt as if it were a hammer swung up and down in an empty space, and beating with loud echoes, now in her bosom and now in her throat.

“The young gentleman must have gone round behind the tavern—­he knows the shortest way to the ’tombs.  Let us go after him, and finish off the business at once,” said the broad-shouldered villain in a hoarse whisper that broke down every now and then, and which seemed to Klea even more repulsive than the monster’s face.

“So that he may hear us go after him-stupid!” answered the other.  “When he has been waiting for his sweetheart about a quarter of an hour I will call his name in a woman’s voice, and at his first step towards the desert do you break his neck with the sand-bag.  We have plenty of time yet, for it must still be a good half hour before midnight.”

“So much the better,” said the other.  “Our wine-jar is not nearly empty yet, and we paid the lazy landlord for it in advance, before he crept into bed.”

“You shall only drink two cups more,” said the punier villain.  “For this time we have to do with a sturdy fellow, Setnam is not with us now to lend a hand in the work, and the dead meat must show no gaping thrusts or cuts.  My teeth are not like yours when you are fasting—­even cooked food must not be too tough for them to chew it, now-a-days.  If you soak yourself in drink and fail in your blow, and I am not ready with the poisoned stiletto the thing won’t come off neatly.  But why did not the Roman let his chariot wait?”

“Aye! why did he let it go away?” asked the other staring open-mouthed in the direction where the sound of wheels was still to be heard.  His companion mean while laid his hand to his ear, and listened.  Both were silent for a few minutes, then the thin one said: 

“The chariot has stopped at the first tavern.  So much the better.  The Roman has valuable cattle in his shafts, and at the inn down there, there is a shed for horses.  Here in this hole there is hardly a stall for an ass, and nothing but sour wine and mouldy beer.  I don’t like the rubbish, and save my coin for Alexandria and white Mariotic; that is strengthening and purifies the blood.  For the present I only wish we were as well off as those horses; they will have plenty of time to recover their breath.”

“Yes, plenty of time,” answered the other with a broad grin, and then he with his companion withdrew into the room to fill his cup.