learned you spy on Marcia. I know, too, that you keep a
spy in Britain,--one in Gaul, another in Severus' camp. I read the last
nine letters they sent you. I showed them to Marcia."

"I kept one," Marcia added. "It came yesterday. It compromises you
beyond--"

"I yield!" said Livius, his knees beginning to look weak.

"To whom? To me?" asked Sextus, standing up abruptly and confronting
him with folded arms. "Who stole the list I sent to Pertinax, of names
of the important men who are intriguing for Severus, and for Pescennius
Niger, and for Clodius Albinus?"

"Who knows?" Livius shrugged his shoulders.

"None knew of that list but you!" said Sextus. "You heard me speak of
it to Pertinax. You heard me promise I would send it to him. None but
you and he and I knew who the messenger would be. Where is the
messenger?"

"In the sewers probably!" said Marcia. "The list is more important."

"If it isn't in the sewers, too," said Livius, snatching at a straw.
"By Hercules, I know nothing of a list."

"Then you shall drown with Sextus' slave in the Cloaca Maxima, the great
sewer of Rome," said Marcia. "Not that I need the list. I know what
names are written on it. But if it should have fallen into Caesar's
hands--"

She shuddered, acting horror perfectly, and Livius, like a drowning man
who thinks he sees the shore, struck out and sank!

"You threaten me, but I am no such fool as you imagine! I know all
about you! I perceive you have crossed your Rubicon. Well--"

"Summon the decurion and two men!" Marcia interrupted, glancing at
Cornificia. But she made a gesture with her hand that Cornificia
interpreted to mean "do nothing of the kind!"

Livius did not see the gesture. Rage, shame, terror overwhelmed him and
he blurted out the information Marcia was seeking--hurled it at her in
the form of silly, useless threats:

"You wanton! You can kill me but my journal is in safe hands! Harm me--
cause me to be missing from the palace for a few hours, and they may
light your funeral fires! My journal, with the names of the
conspirators, and all the details of your daily intriguing, goes
straight into Caesar's hands!"

The climax he expected failed. There was no excitement. Nobody seemed
astonished. Marcia settled herself more comfortably on the couch and
Galen began whispering to Sextus. The two other women looked amused.
Reaction sweeping over him, his senses reeled and Livius stepped
backward,