mself through.

And now he found himself in the outer court of the old temple, across
which the thick Doric columns threw broad shadows, under cover of which
he succeeded in reaching the centre and principal building.

He peeped through a chink in the wall, which a current of air had
betrayed to him. Within all was dark.

But suddenly he was blinded by a dazzling light.

When he again opened his eyes, he saw a bright stripe amid the
darkness; it issued from a dark lantern, the light of which had been
suddenly uncovered.

He could distinctly see whatever stood in the line of light; but not
the bearer of the lantern.

He saw Cethegus the Prefect, who stood close to the statue of the
Apostle, and appeared to be leaning against it. In front of him stood a
second form, that of a slender woman, upon whose auburn hair fell the
glittering light of the lantern.

"The lovely Queen of the Goths, by Eros and Anteros!" said the spy to
himself. "No disagreeable meeting, be it for love or politics! Hark!
she speaks. What a pity that I came too late to hear the beginning of
the conversation!"

"Therefore, mark well," he heard the Queen say, "the day after
to-morrow some great danger is planned to take place on the road before
the Tiburtinian Gate."

"Good; but what!" asked the voice of the Prefect.

"I could learn nothing more exactly. And I can communicate nothing more
to you, even if I should hear anything. I dare not meet you here again,
for----"

She now spoke in a lower tone.

Perseus pressed his ear hard against the chink; his sword rattled
against the stone, and immediately a ray of the lantern fell upon him.

"Hark!" cried a third voice--it was a female voice, that of the bearer
of the lantern, who now showed herself in its rays as she quickly
turned in the direction of the wall where stood the spy.

Perseus recognised a slave in Moorish costume.

For one moment all in the temple were silent.

Perseus held his breath. He felt that his life was at stake. For
Cethegus grasped his sword.

"All is quiet," said the slave; "it must have been a stone falling on
the iron-work outside."

"I can also go no more into the grave outside the Portuensian Gate. I
fear that we have been followed."

"By whom?"

"By one who, as it seems, never sleeps--Earl Teja."

The Prefect's lips twitched.

"And he is also one of a secret company who have sworn an oath against
the life of Belisarius; the attack on the Gate of St.