ears of rage that _would_
spring into his blue eyes. He held a pretty wooden sword in his right
hand, and shook it threateningly at a black-browed slave who stood
opposite to him, with his head insolently thrust forward and his fists
clenched. "What is the matter here?" repeated Wachis, crossing the
threshold.

"The chesnut has again nothing to drink; and only look! Two gadflies
have sucked themselves fast upon his shoulder, where he cannot get at
them with his tail, and I cannot reach with my hand; and that bad Cacus
there won't do what I tell him; and I am sure he has been scolding at
me in Latin, which I don't understand."

Wachis drew nearer with a threatening look.

"I only said," said Cacus, slowly receding, "that I must first eat my
millet. The beast may wait. In our country men come before beasts."

"Indeed, thou dunce!" said Wachis, as he killed the gadflies; "in our
country the horse eats before the rider! Make haste!"

But Cacus was strong and obstinate; he tossed his head and said:

"Here, we are in _our_ country, and _our_ customs must be followed."

"Oho, thou cursed blockhead! wilt thou obey?" asked Wachis, raising his
hand.

"Obey? Not thee! Thou art only a slave like me. And my parents lived in
this house when such as thou were stealing cows and sheep on the other
side of the mountains."

Wachis let his cudgel fall and swung his arms to and fro.

"Listen, Cacus, I have another crow to pluck with thee besides; thou
knowest wherefore. Now it can all be done with at the same time."

"Ha, ha!" cried Cacus with a mocking laugh, "about Liuta, the
flaxen-haired wench? Bah! I like her no longer, the barbarian. She
dances like a heifer!"

"Now it's all up with thee," said Wachis quietly, and caught hold of
his adversary.

But Cacus twisted himself like an eel out of the grasp of the Goth,
pulled a sharp knife from the folds of his woollen frock and threw it
at him. As Wachis stooped the knife whistled only a hair's-breadth past
his head, and penetrated deeply into the door-post behind him.

"Well, wait, thou murderous worm!" cried the German, and would have
thrown himself upon Cacus, but he felt himself clasped from behind.

It was Davus, who had watched for this moment of revenge.

But now Wachis became exceedingly wroth.

He shook the man off, held him by the nape of the neck with his left
hand, got hold of Cacus with his right, and, with the strength of a
bear, knocked the heads of his ad