horseman to-day?... then mayhap a
hunchback acrobat from Pannonia, bronzed as the tanned hide of an ox,
with arms so long that his finger-nails will scrape the ground as he
runs; he can turn a back somersault, walk the tight-rope, or ... Here,
Pipus the hunchback, show thine ugly face to my lord's grace, maybe
thou'lt help to dissipate the frown between my Lord's eyes, maybe my
lord's grace will e'en smile at thine antics.... Turn then, show thy
hump, 'tis worth five hundred sesterces, my lord ... turn again ... see
my lord, is he not like an ape?"

My lord was smiling, so the auctioneer prattled on, and the deformed
creature upon the catasta wound his ill-shapen body into every kind of
contortion, grinning from ear to ear, displaying the malformation of his
spine, and the hideousness of his long hairy arms, whilst he uttered
weird cries that were supposed to imitate those of wild animals in the
forest.

These antics caused my lord to smile outright. He was willing to expend
two thousand sesterces in order to have such a creature about his house,
to have him ready to call when his guests seemed dull between the
courses of a sumptuous meal. The deal was soon concluded and the
hunchback transferred from the platform to the keeping of my lord's
slaves, and thence to my lord's household.

CHAPTER III

"Fairer than the children of men."--PSALM XLV. 2.

"Hun Rhavas, dost mind thy promise made to Menecreta?" whispered a timid
voice in the African's ear.

"Aye, aye!" he replied curtly, "I had not forgotten."

There was a lull in the trade whilst the scribes were making entries on
their tablets.

The auctioneer had descended from the rostrum. Panting after his
exertions, perspiring profusely under the heat of the noonday sun, he
was wiping the moisture from his dripping forehead and incidentally
refreshing his parched throat with copious drafts from out a leather
bottle.

His swarthy skin streaming with perspiration shone in the glare of the
noonday sun like the bronze statue of mother-wolf up aloft.

An elderly woman in rough linen tunic, her hair hidden beneath a simple
cloth, had succeeded in engaging his attention.

"It had been better to put the child up for sale an hour ago, whilst
these rich folk were still at the bath," she said with a tone of
reproach in her gentle voice.

"It was not my fault," rejoined the African curtly, "she comes one of
the last on the list. The praefect made out the lists.