five thousand, clear, of which about three thousand goes in
book auctions."

"Any family?"

"No. Lives with two ancient colored servants who look after him."

"How did our friend from B. C. connect up with him?"

"Oh, he ran to the old colonel like a chick to its hen. You see, there
aren't so very many Latinists in town during the hot weather. Perhaps
eighteen or twenty in all came from about here and from Washington
to see the prodigy in 'the Park of the Boar,' after the advertisement
appeared. He wouldn't have anything to do with any of us. Pretended he
didn't understand our kind of Latin. I offered him a place, myself, at
a wage of more denarii than I could well afford. I wanted a chance to
study him. Then came the colonel and fairy grabbed him. So I sent for
you--in my artless professional way."

"Why such enthusiasm on the part of Colonel Graeme?"

"Simple enough. Livius spoke Latin with in accent which bore out the old
boy's contention. I believe they also agreed on the ablative absolute."

"Yes--er--naturally," drawled Average Jones. "Does our early Roman speak
pretty ready Latin?"

"He's fairly fluent. Sometimes he stumbles a little on his
constructions, and he's apt to be--well--monkish--rather than classical
when in full course."

"Doesn't wear the toga virilis, I suppose."

"Oh, no. Plain American clothes. It's only his inner man that's Roman,
of course. He met with bump on the head--this is his story, and he's
got a the scar to show for it--and when he came to, he'd lost ground
a couple of thousand years and returned to his former existence.
No English. No memory of who or what he'd been. No money connection
whatsoever with the living world."

"Humph! Wonder if he's been a student of Kippling. You remember 'The
Greatest Story in the World; the reincarnated galley slave?' Now as to
this Colonel Graeme; has he ever published?"

"Yes. Two small pamphlets, issued by the Classicist Press, which
publishes the Classical Weekly."

"Supporting his fads, I suppose."

"Right. He devoted one pamphlet to each."

Average Jones contemplated with absorbed attention an ant which was
making a laborious spiral ascent of his cane. Not until it had gained a
vantage point on the bone handle did he speak again.

"See here, Professor Warren: I'm a passionate devotee of the Latin
tongue. I have my deep and dark suspicions of our present modes of
pronunciation, all three of 'em. As for the ablative absolute, its