"He has gone?" demanded Agias.
"Gone, early this morning!"
"Then,--the G.o.ds reward you for your news,--I am gone too!"
And without another word to Artemisia or the old slave, Agias had rushed out into the street. He had a double game to play--to prevent Phaon from ever reaching Praeneste, and then get such help to Drusus as would enable him to beat off Dumnorix and his gang. For Agias felt certain that the hard-hitting Gaul would execute his part of the bargain, whether he met Phaon or not, and afterward look into the consequences of what--unmitigated by the freedman"s _finesse_--would take the form of an open clumsy murder. But Phaon had started that morning; and it was now well into the afternoon. Time was dangerously scanty. Cornelia he felt he should inform; but she could do nothing really to help him. He turned his steps toward the Forum and the Atrium Vestae. He had some difficulty in inducing the porter to summon Fabia, to meet in personal interview a mere slave, but a gratuity won the point; and a minute later he was relating the whole story and the present situation of Drusus to Fabia, with a sincere directness that carried conviction with it. She had known that Drusus had enemies; but now her whole strong nature was stirred at the sense of her nephew"s imminent peril.
"If you were a freeman, Agias," were her words, "and could give witness as such, Pratinas and Ahen.o.barbus--high as the latter is--should know that my influence at the law outweighs theirs. But they shall be thwarted. I will go to Marcellus the consul, and demand that troops be started to Praeneste to-night. But you must go after Phaon."
"You will send word to Cornelia?" requested Agias.
"Yes," said Fabia, "but not now; it is useless. Here is an order on Gallus, who keeps a livery-stable[102] by the Porta Esquilina. He will give you my new white Numidian, that I keep with him. Ride as you have never ridden before. And here is money. Twenty gold philippi in this bag. Bribe, do anything. Only save Drusus! Now go!"
[102] Such establishments were common near the gates, and the Vestals often had their horses at such places.
"Farewell, lady," cried Agias, "may I redeem the debt of grat.i.tude I owe you!"
Fabia stood looking after him, as he hastened out from the quiet atrium into the busy street. Little Livia had cuddled up beside her aunt.
"Oh, Livia," said Fabia, "I feel as though it were of no use to live good and pure in this world! Who knows what trouble may come to me from this day"s doings? And why should they plot against your brother"s dear life? But I mustn"t talk so." And she called for her attendants to escort her abroad.
Chapter VIII
"When Greek Meets Greek"
I
Cornelia had surmised correctly that Pratinas, not Lucius Ahen.o.barbus, would be the one to bring the plot against Drusus to an issue. Lucius had tried in vain to escape from the snares the wily intriguer had cast about him. His father had told him that if he would settle down and lead a moderately respectable life, Phormio should be paid off.
And with this burden off his mind, for reformation was very easily promised, Lucius had time to consider whether it was worth his while to mix in a deed that none of Pratinas"s casuistry could quite convince him was not a foul, unprovoked murder, of an innocent man.
The truth was, Ahen.o.barbus was desperately in love with Cornelia, and had neither time nor desire to mingle in any business not connected with the pursuit of his "tender pa.s.sion." None of his former sweethearts--and he had had almost as many as he was years old--were comparable in his eyes to her. She belonged to a different world from that of the Spanish dancers, the saucy maidens of Greece, or even the many n.o.ble-born Roman women that seemed caught in the eddy of Clodia"s fashionable whirlpool. Lucius frankly told himself that he would want to be divorced from Cornelia in five years--it would be tedious to keep company longer with a G.o.ddess. But for the present her vivacity, her wit, her bright intelligence, no less than her beauty, charmed him. And he was rejoiced to believe that she was quite as much ensnared by his own attractions. He did not want any unhappy accident to mar the smooth course which was to lead up to the marriage in no distant future. He did not need Drusus"s money any longer to save him from bankruptcy. The legacy would be highly desirable, but life would be very pleasant without it. Lucius was almost induced by his inward qualms to tell Pratinas to throw over the whole matter, and inform Dumnorix that his services were not needed.
It was at this juncture that Cornelia committed an error, the full consequences of which were, to her, happily veiled. In her anxiety to discover the plot, she had made Lucius believe that she was really pining for the news of the murder of Drusus. Cornelia had actually learned nothing by a sacrifice that tore her very heart out; but her words and actions did almost irreparable harm to the cause she was trying to aid.
"And you have never given me a kiss," Lucius had said one morning, when he was taking leave of Cornelia in the atrium of the Lentuli.
"Will you ever play the siren, and lure me to you? and then devour, as it were, your victim, not with your lips, but with your eyes?"
"_Eho!_ Not so bold!" replied Cornelia, drawing back. "How can I give you what you wish, unless I am safe from that awful Polyphemus up in Praeneste?"
When Ahen.o.barbus went away, his thoughts were to the following effect: "I had always thought Cornelia different from most women; but now I can see that, like them all, she hates and hates. To say to her, "Drusus is dead," will be a more grateful present than the largest diamond Lucullus brought from the East, from the treasure of King Tigranes."
And it was in such a frame of mind that he met Pratinas by appointment at a low tavern on the Vicus Tuscus. The Greek was, as ever, smiling and plausible.
"Congratulations!" was his greeting. "Dumnorix has already started. He has my orders; and now I must borrow your excellent freedman, Phaon, to go to Praeneste and spy out, for the last time, the land, and general our army. Let him start early to-morrow morning. The time is ample, and unless some malevolent demon hinder us, there will be no failure. I have had a watch kept over the Drusus estate. An old sentry of a steward, Mamercus,--so I learn,--has been afraid, evidently, of some foul play on the part of the consul-designate, and has stationed a few armed freedmen on guard. Drusus himself keeps very carefully on his own premises. This is all the better for us. Dumnorix will dispose of the freedmen in a hurry, and our man will be in waiting there just for the gladiators. Phaon will visit him--cook up some errand, and inveigle him, if possible, well out in the colonnade in front of the house, before Dumnorix and his band pa.s.s by. Then there will be that very deplorable scuffle, and its sad, sad results. Alas, poor Drusus!
Another n.o.ble Livian gathered to his fathers!"
"I don"t feel very merry about it," ventured Lucius. "I don"t need Drusus"s money as much as I did. If it wasn"t for Cornelia, I would drop it all, even now. Sometimes I feel there are avenging Furies--_Dirae_, we Latins call them--haunting me."
Pratinas laughed incredulously. "Surely, my dear fellow," he began, "you don"t need to have the old superst.i.tions explained away again, do you?"
"No, no," was his answer; Lucius capitulating another time.
So it came to pa.s.s that Pratinas had an interview with Phaon, Lucius"s freedman, a sleek, well-oiled Sicilian Greek, who wore his hair very long to cover the holes bored in his ears--the mark of old-time servitude. He was the darling of waiting-maids; the collector of all current scandal; the master spirit in arranging dinners, able to tell a Tuscan from a Lucanian boar by mere taste. He used also to help his patron compose _billets-doux,_ and had, by his twistings and sc.r.a.pings, repeatedly staved off Phormio, Lucius"s importunate creditor. As for Phaon"s heart, it was so soft and tender that the p.r.i.c.ks of conscience, if he ever had any, went straight through, without leaving a trace behind. And when Pratinas now informed him as to his final duties at Praeneste, Phaon rubbed his beringed hands and smoothed his carefully sc.r.a.ped chin with ill-concealed satisfaction.
"And a word more in closing," said Pratinas, as he parted with Phaon in the tavern--while Lucius, who had been drinking very heavily, nodded stupidly over his goblet of amber Falernian, in a vain attempt to gulp down eight _cyathi_ at once, one measure to each letter in the name of Cornelia--"a word more. Dumnorix is a thick-skulled knave, who is, after all, good for little but blows. I have made an arrangement which will ensure having a careful man at his elbow in time of need.
You, of course, will have to do your best to save the unfortunate Quintus from inevitable fate. But I have asked Publius Gabinius to leave for Praeneste very early on the morning when Dumnorix pa.s.ses through that place. Gabinius has a small villa a little beyond the town, and there will be nothing suspicious in a journey to visit one"s country house. He will meet Dumnorix, and be at his side when the pinch comes. You see? He is an adventurous fellow, and will help us just for the sake of the mischief. Besides, I believe he has a grudge against the Drusian family as a whole, for he lately tried to pa.s.s some familiarities with Fabia the Vestal, Drusus"s aunt, and she proved disgustingly prudish."
"And how much will you and I," said Phaon, with a sly smirk, "gain out of this little business, if all goes well? Of course one should help one"s patron, but--"
"It is folly to divide the spoils of Troy before Troy is taken,"
laughed Pratinas. "Don"t be alarmed, my good fellow. Your excellent patron will reward us, no doubt, amply." And he muttered to himself: "If I don"t bleed that Lucius Ahen.o.barbus, that Roman donkey, out of two-thirds of his new fortune; if I don"t levy blackmail on him without mercy when he"s committed himself, and becomes a partner in crime, I"m no fox of a h.e.l.lene. I wonder that he is the son of a man like Domitius, who was so shrewd in that old affair with me at Antioch."
So it came to pa.s.s that the next morning, long before Pratinas and Ahen.o.barbus met in the Forum and reviewed the steps taken in the words that gave Sesostris the key to the situation, Phaon was driving toward Praeneste. Of course a mere freedman, on a journey preferably kept quiet, travelled in not the least state. He rode alone, but had borrowed from his patron two of those small but speedy Gallic horses called mammi, that whirled his gig over the Campagna at a rapid trot.
Still there was no great call for haste. He wished to get to Praeneste about dark, and there make a few inquiries as to the whereabouts and recent doings of Drusus. Pratinas had had considerable espionage kept up over his intended victim, and the last results of this detective work were to be reported to Phaon by the slaves of Ahen.o.barbus performing it. Perhaps there would be no real harm in driving straight through to Praeneste in the open daylight, but it was better not to show himself until the right time. So it was that, halfway on the road, Phaon turned in to the tavern of the decaying little town of Gabii, gave his team to the hostler, and rested himself by fuming over the squalor and poor cooking of the inn.
II
Agias secured the fast Numidian from the stables of Gallus, and was soon away. His frequent journeys between Rome and Praeneste, in service of Cornelia and Drusus, made him a fairly expert rider, and his n.o.ble mount went pounding past the mile-stones at a steady, untiring gallop.
The young h.e.l.lene was all tingling with excitement and expectation; he would save Drusus; he would send the roses back into his beloved mistress"s cheeks; and they would reward him, give him freedom; and then the future would be bright indeed.
But it grew late, fast as the horse bore him. He felt it his duty to press on with all speed to Praeneste. He had still a very vague notion of the final form of the conspiracy, especially of the role a.s.signed to Phaon. Of one thing he was certain: to intercept Phaon was to deprive Dumnorix of an essential ally; but how to intercept the wily freedman was nothing easy.
As the Numidian swept into Gabii, Agias drew rein, telling himself that the horse would make better speed for a little rest and baiting.
The tavern court into which he rode was exceedingly filthy; the whole building was in a state of decay; the odours were indescribable. In the great public-room a carter was trolling a coa.r.s.e ditty, while through the doorway ran a screaming serving-maid to escape some low familiarity.
A shock-headed boy with a lantern took Agias"s bridle, and the Greek alighted; almost under his eyes the dim light fell on a handsome, two-horse gig, standing beside the entrance to the court. Agias gave the vehicle close attention.
"It belongs to a gentleman from Rome, now inside," explained the boy, "one horse went lame, and the veterinary[103] is coming." Agias"s eye caught a very peculiar bend in the hollow in the neck-yoke. He had seen that carriage before, on the fashionable boulevards--along the Tiber, in the Campus Martius--the carriage of Lucius Ahen.o.barbus.
Phaon was waiting in the tavern!
[103] _Equarius_.
"Care for my horse at once," remarked Agias, a little abruptly. "Time presses." And he turned on his heel, and leaving the boy gaping after him, went into the squalid public-room of the tavern.
The landlord of the establishment, a small, red-faced, bustling man, was fussing over some lean thrushes roasting on a spit before the open fire that was roaring on the hearth. The landlady, lazy, muscular, corpulent, and high-voiced, was expostulating with a pedler who was trying to slip out without settling. Four other persons, slaves and peasants, were sitting on two low benches beside a small, circular table, and were busy pouring down the liquor which a young serving-boy brought them in tumbler-shaped cups, or eating greedily at loaves of coa.r.s.e bread which they s.n.a.t.c.hed from the table. It was so late that little light came into the room from the door and windows. The great fire tossed its red, flickering glow out into the apartment and cast a rosy halo over the hard brown marble pavement of the floor. Upon the dingy walls and rafters hung from pegs flitches of bacon, sausages, and nets of vegetables. Agias stopped in the doorway and waited till his eyes were fairly accustomed to the fire-light. Over in a remote corner he saw a lamp gleaming, and there, sprawling on a bench, beside a table of his own, well piled with food and drink, he distinguished in solitary majesty Phaon--too exquisite to mingle with the other guests of the tavern.
The landlord quickly noticed his new customer, and sprang up from the fire. Agias had on a coa.r.s.e grey woollen cloak over his light tunic, and he drew his hood up so as partly to cover his face as he stepped into the room.
"_Salve!_" was the landlord"s salutation. "What hospitality can the Elephant[104] afford you?"
[104] Inns were known by such signs.