at my frame, and when I have scraped
enough together I shall soon find a ship that will carry me to Gaul, to
my own people. Do you not see that I cannot go back to Phoebicius, and
can you help me?"

"Most willingly, and better perhaps than you fancy," said Paulus. "I
cannot explain this to you just now; but you need not request me, but may
rather feel that you have a good right to demand of me that I should
rescue you."

She looked at him in surprised enquiry, and he continued:

"First let me carry away the little dog, and bury it down there. I will
put a stone over the grave, that you may know where it lies. It must be
so, the body cannot be here any longer. Take the thing, which lies there.
I had tried before to cut it out for you, for you complained yesterday
that your hair was all in a tangle because you had not a comb, so I tried
to carve you one out of bone. There were none at the shop in the oasis,
and I am myself only a wild creature of the wilderness, a sorry, foolish
animal, and do not use one.

"Was that a stone that fell? Aye, certainly, I hear a man's step; go
quickly into the cave and do not stir till I call you."

Sirona withdrew into her rock-dwelling, and Paulus took the body of the
dog in his arms to conceal it from the man who was approaching. He looked
round, undecided, and seeking a hiding-place for it, but two sharp eyes
had already detected him and his small burden from the height above him;
before he had found a suitable place, stones were rolling and crashing
down from the cliff to the right of the cavern, and at the same time a
man came springing down with rash boldness from rock to rock, and without
heeding the warning voice of the anchorite, flung himself down the slope,
straight in front of him, exclaiming, while he struggled for breath and
his face was hot with hatred and excitement:

"That--I know it well-that is Sirona's greyhound--where is its mistress?
Tell me this instant, where is Sirona--I must and will know."

Paulus had frequently seen, from the penitent's room in the church, the
senator and his family in their places near the altar, and he was much
astonished to recognize in the daring leaper, who rushed upon him like a
mad man with dishevelled hair and fiery eyes, Polykarp, Petrus' second
son.

The anchorite found it difficult to preserve his calm, and composed
demeanor, for since he had been aware that he had accused Sirona falsely
of a heavy sin, while at the same time