he purpose of better pillaging their host. This seemed
now the general purpose; for, leaving each other in comparative freedom
from attack, they came forward one by one and pitted their purses, great
and small, against Sergius, who sat pouring down wine and shaking the
dicebox, while he called each by name, and contended against him. The
usual result followed; for, whether owing to secret signs among the
players, or to superior skill, the current of gold flowed but one way,
from the host to his guests. For a while he bore the continued ill luck
with undiminished gayety, deeming that in meeting their united prowess
he was doing a brave thing, and that, whatever befell him, he should
remember that in character of host, he must consent to suffer. But at
length he began to realize that his losses had been carried far enough.
He had never suffered so severely in any one evening before. Even his
duty to them as their host did not demand that he should completely ruin
himself, and he began to suspect that he had half done so already. With
a hoarse laugh he pushed the dice away, and arose.

'Enough--quite enough for one night,' he exclaimed. 'I have no more
gold, nor, if I had, could I dare to continue, with this ill run against
me. Perhaps after another campaign I may meet you again, and take my
revenge; which, if the Fates are just, must one day or another be
allotted me. But not now.'

He thought that he was firm in his refusal, but his guests had not yet
done with him. It needed but gentle violence to push him back again upon
his seat, and to replace the dicebox in his hand.

'Art weary, or afraid to continue?' said the praetorian captain. 'Well,
let there be one more main between us, and then we will end it all.
Listen! I have won this night two hundred sestertia. What is the worth
of that quarry of yours to the south of the Porta Triumphalis?'

'Three hundred sestertia--not less,' responded Sergius.

'Nay, as much as that?' rejoined the captain, carelessly throwing down
his own dice. 'Then it is useless to propose what I was about to. I had
thought that as the quarry had been well worked already, and was now
overrun with fugitive slaves and Nazarenes, and the like, to ferret out
whom would require half a legion, I could offer to put the two hundred
sestertia against it, so that you might chance to win them back. But it
is of little consequence.'

Sergius sat for the moment nervously drumming upon the table. He knew