nd why do I tell thee this,
old man? To see thee writhe, thou also, at that shame; to have thee know
the whole, and never profit by thy knowledge. Again I say, I cannot kill
thee, but none the less I'll stop that tell-tale mouth of thine. Look
you, it's the choice between my life and thy eager tongue which even now
yearns to blab the tale of my sin and her disgrace. Therefore--"

He knelt above his captive, who glared at him with bloodshot eyes that
glittered in the moonlight. He tested the keenness of his blade, shook
back his shaggy hair, and with a sudden twist removed the gag from the
old man's jaws, choking back, at the same moment, with pitiless hands,
the cry which rose to his lips. Then he bent over, so that the bulk of
him hid from the moonlight his victim and his work. There was a single
glint of steel, a convulsion of the thin figure on the ground; a faint
click, and a choked and gurgling cry, instantly suppressed. Then Nicanor
cleaned his blade by driving it thrice deep into the soft ground, and
stood up; and Marcus rolled over and over in agony at his feet, with
inarticulate animal cries which scarcely rose above the silence of the
night. Nicanor unloosed his bonds and touched him with his foot.

"Hereafter thou'lt hold thy peace, old man! Neither good nor ill wilt
thou ever prate of mortal more, for I've drawn thy sting. Once thou wert
kind to me; twice, in return, did I steal for thee, and once took a
beating from thy shoulders. But thou wert more loyal to thy master than
thou wert friend to me--and in a matter such as this, I take no
chances. As I have served thee, so will I serve any man who crosses me.
Now go. Wash thy mouth with cold water and chew pounded leaves of betel.
It will stop the blood."

He left the garden with noiseless strides, a black shadow in the
moonlight. Marcus got himself slowly to his feet, moaning like an animal
in pain. He shook his fist at the vanishing figure, with uncouth and
terrible sounds which had once been speech, but even then were none the
less a curse. So, shuddering and crying, he crept from the sleeping
garden, where all was still and peaceful, and where pain and sorrow
should have had no place.

* * * * *

And never again was that garden so peaceful and so still, for Life had
entered it, by the little narrow door, bringing with it what Life must
bring.

IV

Nicodemus, the freedman, one-eyed, short, immensely broad,
beetle-b