asped.

"I came to place my body at thy service, O Caesar," replied Taurus
Antinor quietly. "I have been sick for nigh on twenty-four hours, else I
had come to thee before. They told me that thou wast cut off from those
whose duty it is to guard thy person. An thou wilt grant me leave I'll
conduct thee to them."

"Aye! thou'rt ready enough to conduct me to my death, thou treacherous
son of slaves," snarled the Caesar from behind the safe bastion of the
stone altar. "I have learnt thy treachery, I, even I, who trusted thee.
Thou didst lie to me and plan my death even whilst I heaped uncounted
favours upon thee."

"On my soul, O Caesar, thou dost me infinite wrong," rejoined the
praefect calmly. "But, an it please thee, I am not here to justify
myself before thee, though God knows I would wish thee to believe me
true; rather am I here to serve thee, an thou wilt deign to accept my
help in thy need."

"To accept thy help. Nay! By Jupiter, I would as soon trust myself to
the snakes that creep under the grasses of the Campania, as I would
place my life in the keeping of a traitor."

"Had I thought to betray thee, O Caesar," said Taurus Antinor simply, "I
had not come unarmed and alone. Even the dagger wherewith thou didst
threaten my life lies at my foot now, ready to my hand for the mere
picking up of it."

As he spoke he gave the dagger a slight kick with his foot, so that it
slid clinking and rattling along the smooth floor, until its progress
was stopped by the corner of the altar steps against which the Caesar
cowered in abject fear. "My guard is in the next room," said Caligula
with an evil sneer, "an I call but once and they will kill thee at my
word."

"That is as thou commandest and as God wills," said Taurus Antinor, "but
remember ere thou strikest, O Caesar, that with my death thou wilt lose
the one man who can save thee now."

He spoke quite calmly nor did the tone of deference ever depart from his
speech. He stood in the dim light which came in a straight shaft down
through the opening above, his splendid person in full view of the Caesar
who still crouched in the shadow. The power of his individuality imposed
itself upon the miserable coward who threatened him. Caligula--tyrant
and half crazy though he was--had sufficient shrewdness in his tortuous
brain to recognise the truth of what the praefect had told him. Had this
man come with evil intent he would not have come alone and unarmed: had
he wished