t--went out and met the
caravan--bought low--sold high, and the price is falling. But as I was
saying, your story is simply a string of coincidences. All the robbers
use Maternus' war-cry, because of the terror his name inspires; they
probably had not heard he had been crucified."

"Well, that was what the caravan folk thought, until they passed the
place of execution and saw no body there."

"The robbers possibly themselves removed it and were seeking to avenge
Maternus."

"Much more likely somebody was bribed to let him escape! We all know
Maternus was scourged, for that was done in Antioch; but they did not
scourge him very badly, for fear he might die on the way to the place of
execution. There is no doubt he was crucified, but he was only tied,
not nailed. It would have been perfectly simple to substitute some
other criminal that first night--somebody who looked a little like him;
they would give the substitute poppy juice to keep him from crying out
to passers-by."

"Substitution has often been done, of course. But it takes a lot of
money and considerable influence to bribe the guard. They are under the
authority of a centurion, who would have to look out for informers. And
besides, you can't persuade me that a man who had been scourged, and
crucified, if only for one day, could walk into Daphne two or three
nights afterward and carry on a conversation. Why should he visit
Daphne? Why should he choose that place, of all places in the world,
and midnight, to destroy the identification parchment? Having destroyed
it, why did he then tell the slaves who he was? It sounds like a tale
out of Egypt to me."

"Well, the priests are saying--"

"Tchutt-tchutt! Priests say anything." "Nevertheless, the priests are
saying that Maternus, after he was captured, managed to convey a message
to his followers commanding them to offer sacrifices to Apollo, who
accordingly intervened in his behalf. And they say he undoubtedly went
to Daphne to return thanks at the temple threshold."

"Hah-Hah! Excellent! Let us go to the baths. You need to sweat the
superstition out of you! Better leave word where we are going, so that
our factors will know where to find us in case any important business
turns up."

In the palace, in the office of the governor, where the lapping of water
and irises could be heard through the opened windows, Pertinax sat
facing the governor of Antioch across a table heaped with parchme