, so set his name down."

"Never mind me," said Galen. "They will need me."

Marcia stood over Pertinax, watching him write. She snatched the
document and sanded it, then watched him write the order to the guard,
releasing Sextus.

"There!" she exclaimed. "You have your price. Go in and kill him!
Give him your dagger, Pertinax."

"I hoped for heroism, not expecting it," said Galen. "I expected
cunning. Is it absent, too? If he should use a dagger--many men have
heard me say that Caesar has a tendency to apoplexy--"

"Strangle him!" commanded Marcia.

She thrust the palms of her hands against Narcissus' back and pushed him
toward the bedroom door, now almost at the end of her reserves of self-
control. Her mouth trembled. She was fighting against hysteria.

"Light! Lamp! Guards!" roared Commodus, and again the ebony-posted bed
creaked under him. Narcissus stepped into the darkened room. He left
the door open, to have light to do his work by, but Marcia closed it,
clinging to the gilded satyr's head that served for knob with both
hands, her lips drawn tight against her teeth, her whole face tortured
with anticipation.

"It is better that a gladiator did it," remarked Pertinax, attempting to
look calm. "I never killed a man. As general, and as governor of Rome,
as consul and proconsul, I have spared whom I might. Some had to die
but--my own hands are clean."

There came an awful sound of struggle from the inner room. A monstrous
roar was shut off suddenly, half-finished, smothered under bedclothes.
Then the bed-frame cracked under the strain of Titans fighting--cracked
--creaked--and utter silence fell. It lasted several minutes. Then the
door opened and Narcissus came striding out.

"He was strong," he remarked. "Look at this."

He bared his arm and showed where Commodus had gripped him; the lithe
muscle looked as if it had been gripped in an iron vise. He chafed it,
wincing with pain.

"Go in and observe that I have taken nothing. Don't be afraid," he
added scornfully. "He fought like the god that he was, but he died--"

"Of apoplexy," Galen interrupted. "That is to say, of a surging of
blood to the brain and a cerebral rupture. It is fortunate you have a
doctor on the scene who knew of his liability to--"

"We must go and see," said Marcia. "Come with me, Pertinax. Then we
must tidy the bed and make haste and summon the officers of the
praetorian guard. Let them hear Galen say