d shaken, on the very spot which had
been occupied scarcely a minute past by the suspected spy.

At the same point of time in which the conspirator fell, the person,
whosoever he was, in pursuit of whom he had plunged so heedlessly into the
ruins, darted forth from his concealment close to the body and within
arm's length of the fierce Cethegus, whose attention was for the moment
distracted from his watch by the catastrophe which had befallen his
companion. Dodging by a quick movement--so quick that it seemed almost the
result of instinct--so to elude the swift attempt of his enemy to arrest
his progress, the spy was forced to rush almost into the arms of Cassius.

Yet this appeared not to cause him any apprehension; for he dashed boldly
on, till they were almost front to front; when, notwithstanding his
unwieldy frame and inactivity of habit, spurred into something near to
energy by the very imminence of peril, the worn-out debauchee bestirred
himself as if to seize him.

If such, however, were his intention, widely had he miscalculated his own
powers, and fatally underrated the agility and strength of the stranger--a
tall, thin, wiry man, well nigh six feet in height, broad shouldered, and
deep chested, and thin flanked, and limbed like a Greek Athlete.

On he dashed!--on--right on! till they stood face to face; and then with one
quick blow, into which, as it seemed, he put but little of his strength,
he hurled the burly Cassius to the earth, and fled with swift and
noiseless steps into the deepest gloom. Perceiving on the instant the
necessity of apprehending this now undoubted spy, the fiery Cethegus
paused not one instant to look after his discomfited companions; but
rushed away on the traces of the fugitive, who had perhaps gained, at the
very utmost, a dozen paces' start of him, in that wild midnight race--that
race for life and death.

The slave, for such from his dark tunic he appeared to me, was evidently
both a swift and practised runner; and well aware how great a stake was on
his speed he now strained every muscle to escape, while scarce less fleet,
and straining likewise every sinew to the utmost, Cethegus panted at his
very heels.

Before, however, they had run sixty yards, one swifter than Cethegus took
up the race; and bruised although he was, and stunned, and almost
breathless when he started, ere he had overtaken his staunch friend, which
he did in a space wonderfully brief, he seemed to have sha