om the
rear."

He rode unarmed into their midst and slid unconcernedly from his saddle
to the ground.

"Put up your weapons, brothers," he said; "I was joking. It seems that I
am in danger, not you."

The young men, upon whom "brigand" was written in no uncertain signs,
were very much embarrassed. One of them smiled nervously and showed a
great many very white teeth.

"Lucky for us," he said, "that you weren't what you said you were."

"Yes," said Asabri; "I should have potted the lot of you with one
volley and reported at head-quarters that it had been necessary, owing
to the stubborn resistance which you offered."

The three young men smiled sheepishly.

"I see that you are familiar with the ways of the police," said one of
them.

"May I sit with you?" Asabri asked. "Thanks."

He sat in silence for a moment; and the three young men examined with
great respect the man's splendid round head, and his face of a Roman
emperor.

"Whose tomb is this?" he asked them.

"It is ours," said the one who had first smiled. "It used to hallow the
remains of Attulius Cimber."

"Oho!" said Asabri. "Attulius Cimber, a direct ancestor of my friend and
associate Sullandenti. And tell me how far is it to Rome?"

"A long way. You could not find the half of it to-night."

"Brothers," said Asabri, "has business been good? I ask for a reason."

"The reason, sir?"

"Why," said he, "I thought, if I should not be considered grasping, to
ask you for a mouthful of soup."

Confusion seized the brigands. They protested that they were ungrateful
dogs to keep the noble guest upon the tenterhooks of hunger. They called
upon God to smite them down for inhospitable ne'er-do-weels. They plied
him with soup, with black bread; they roasted strips of goat's flesh for
him; and from the hollow of the tomb they fetched bottles of red wine in
straw jackets.

Presently Asabri sighed, and offered them cigarettes from a gold case.

"For what I have received," said he, "may a courteous and thoughtful God
make me truly thankful.... I wish that I could offer you, in return for
your hospitality, something more substantial than cigarettes. The case?
If it were any case but that one! A present from my wife."

He drew from its pocket a gold repeater upon which his initials were
traced in brilliants.

"Midnight. Listen!"

He pressed a spring, and the exquisite chimes of the watch spoke in the
stillness like the bells of a fairy church.

"And