hopeful at last of shelter. "You're too late--I'm full. Best go
to the Black Cock--a step further down the street. There you'll find all
you ask for."

"The Black Cock be full also," the man protested sulkily. "You have room
to spare! See then, friend, we'll pay 'ee well."

But Nicodemus, fearful lest his golden geese should fly, turned on him
fiercely.

"Get ye gone! I've no time to dicker over coppers. I'm full, I tell you,
and that's all there is to it.--This way, lords."

He led his guests into the house, shouting for Myleia to come and put up
the horses. Two wore the dress of private citizens of wealth; the
equipment of the third and youngest proclaimed him a military tribune.
The face of this one, the most noticeable of the trio--a man of some
seven-and-thirty years--was pale and aristocratic, with high nose, thick
and level brows, a thin-lipped mouth at once refined and sensual. And
the eyes were the eyes of a son of Rome the Mighty, dark, keen,
dominant, impatient of restraint. Behind them one might read what the
man himself stood for; the epitome of centuries of culture, of severest
physical training and the restraint of the discipline of the mightiest
machine the world had ever seen; and, at the same time, of equal
centuries of indulgence and luxury and vice--a curious mingling of
ascetic and sybarite. Of the other two, one bore a marked resemblance to
the soldier, with the pride and passion of the younger face tempered by
years to a mellower dignity. He was richly dressed, and on his thumb
was a large and heavily chased signet ring. The third man, who at first
spoke little, keeping his eyes cast down, was small and shrivelled, with
a scholar's face and a distinct cast in the right eye.

These three sat at the table, whence Valerius had hurriedly removed
himself and his wine, and were served obsequiously by Nicodemus and his
wife with the best the house afforded. For a while they ate and drank in
silence. Then the tongue of the small old man, loosened by the wine,
began to wag. He spoke abruptly, in a voice husky and somewhat
over-precise.

"I had not looked to see thee here, friend Marius. Thy father made no
mention of thy coming."

"He knew nothing of it," the young tribune answered shortly. "There was
no time to send word from Gaul--where I have been stationed these last
two years--that I had been ordered into Britain. And when I arrived, he
was travelling, and my letter did not reach him."

"He c