red Herculanus.

"No," said the Tribune, "it was done by my order."

But Rignomer had flushed crimson with rage and shame. Shaking his
clenched fist at Herculanus, he said, laughing grimly: "Just wait--you
fellow with your patched mantle. The child came down from the tree
before my eyes. I was standing, hidden by the tent, six paces opposite
to it. Two men came from the right and left, glided under the pine,
whispered together, and then separated."

Davus grew even paler than before; he tottered and would have fallen
but for the hands which grasped him. But Herculanus asked defiantly:
"Did you recognize the two men in the dark? Or, at six paces distance,
understand their whispers?"

"Neither. But the child slid down the tree directly after in the most
frantic terror, called 'Murder! They will poison Ausonius!' and ran
with me here. The last part of the way I carried her."

"So the two Barbarians conspired against me!" cried Herculanus.

Saturninus went up to the slave, who hung with shaking knees between
the two Thracians. "You know what terrible tortures threaten the slave
who tries to murder his own master?"

Davus sank to the ground; the two men could scarcely drag him up again.

"Well then! What matters your miserable body! I will secure your safety
of life and limb--in the Emperor's name--you shall merely go to the
lead mines, if you confess at once."

"Thank you, my lord, a thousand thanks," groaned the slave. "Yes, yes.
It is all as they say. For a year he has been tempting and urging! The
demon of gold blinded me. It is all true!"

"Ha," shouted Herculanus, struggling against his guards, "so the slave,
too, is in the conspiracy against me?"

"Give the wine in the Emperor's goblet to a dog, and see how long it
will live," said Davus. "It is hemlock! In my tunic--feel there--I have
a small vial which contains the rest."

"I don't doubt it: poison in the goblet--the same poison in the vial.
Of course," cried Herculanus with an angry laugh, "the slave put it
into both. But Ausonius will not die until he has altered his will and
disinherited his nephew; for the Barbarian girl appeared just at the
right moment as a deliverer."

Meanwhile the Tribune had taken from the slave's breast a little amber
vial and placed it on the table beside the goblet. Ausonius glanced at
it mournfully; he seemed to recognize it.

"And what he put in there," Herculanus went on, "is to convict me?"
"No," cried Davus, now an