that the other was purposely disparaging the property and trying to
tempt him into an equal stake; and yet he suffered himself to be
tempted. The luck might this time be with him. It were worth while to
try it, at least. If he lost, it would be but one more buffet of
fortune. And if he won, how easily would those two hundred sestertia
have been regained, and what a triumph over the one who had enticed him!
And therefore they threw--five times a piece; and after a moment of
breathless excitement, the play was decided in favor of the captain.

'The quarry is mine, therefore,' he said, endeavoring to assume a
nonchalant air of indifference. 'Would you still win it back, Sergius?
And the sesteria also? Well, there is that vineyard of yours on the
slope of Tivoli, which--'

'Stay!' exclaimed the proconsul Sardesus, who, of all the party had not
as yet touched the dicebox. 'Let this be enough. Will you plunder him
entirely? Have you no regard for my rights over him? Do you not know
that to-morrow, at the amphitheatre, Sergius and I are to match
gladiators against each other for a heavy wager, and that I expect to
win? How, then will I get this money, if you now strip him of all that
he owns?'

Probably the proconsul felt no fear about collecting what he might win,
and spoke jestingly, and with the sole intention of putting a stop to a
system of pillage which seemed to him already too flagrant and
unscrupulous. But his words were too plainly spoken not to give offence
at any time, more particularly now that all present were heated with
excitement; and the usual consequence of disinterested interference
ensued. The other guests in no measured language, began to mutter their
displeasure at the insinuations against themselves; while the host, for
whose benefit the interruption had been intended, resented it most
strongly of all. He needed no counsel, but was well able to take care of
himself, he intimated. And he remembered that he had entered into some
sort of a wager about the result of a gladiatorial combat, and he had
supposed that no one would have doubted his ability to pay all that he
might lose therein. It was proper, at least, to wait until there had
been some precedent of the kind proved against him. No one, so far, had
found him wanting. And the like.

'And yet,' he continued, as after a moment of reflection he began to
realise the value of the wager, and how inconvenient it would be to
lose, and that he had not ye