He took from the seat of his chair, where he had placed it as he stood up, our despatch bag, opened it, and displayed its contents; the package of despatches, our credentials, and the diploma ent.i.tling us to change of horses, with the endors.e.m.e.nt of each change-master from Centumcellae onwards.
Pescennius examined these meditatively.
"These papers," he said, "are in perfect order. But they do not prove that you are the men named in them though they incline me to believe it. I should believe it, but these men deny that you are Bruttius Asper and Sabinus Felix."
"And why do they deny it?" Agathemer queried triumphantly. "Why, because they were caught by this busybody and asked whether they knew Bruttius Asper and Sabinus Felix and they said they did; then haled in here by him and confronted with us and asked whether they knew us and of course said they did not, as they did not. And why do they not know us? Because they are not couriers at all, but men pa.s.sing themselves off as couriers. Our papers are in perfect order, as you say. Ask them for their papers. They haven"t any!"
By the faces of the two I saw that Agathemer had guessed right. They, in fact, were impostors. They had no despatches, no credentials, no papers at all, except a diploma with entries from Bononia, through Parma, Placentia and Clastidium to Dertona and so onwards; a diploma so manifestly a clumsy forgery that, at sight of it, I wondered how it had fooled the stupidest change-master.
Pescennius barely glanced at it. To his apparitors, he said:
"Arrest these three!"
In a trice Donnotaurus and the two impostors were seized.
To us he said:
"Gentlemen, I apologize for having doubted you, even for a moment. And I thank you for having so cleverly and quietly exposed these precious gentry. I shall keep an eye on them and on this local meddler; I"ll investigate them in Ma.r.s.eilles.
"Meantime I must eat. So I"ll remain here. You are in haste and you have eaten. Your horses are ready. I need not detain you. I"ll see you at Ma.r.s.eilles tomorrow. I congratulate you on your horsemanship. To have overtaken me, even when I am travelling by carriage, is no mean exploit. I am pleased to have made your acquaintance."
And he bade us farewell, allowed us to pa.s.s out, and seated himself at our table.
CHAPTER XIX
Ma.r.s.eILLES AND TIBER WHARF
We rode the first mile at full gallop and then slowed to an easy canter which permitted of conversation. All the way to Calcaria we discussed our situation, prospects and plans. We revised our previous view and agreed that we had best not be too late entering Ma.r.s.eilles, as we might not have time to buy cloaks, hats and footgear, change and get rid of our equipment and find lodgings.
Then again, of course, we fell into a panic at the idea of riding into Couriers" Headquarters and perhaps facing a dozen men who knew Sabinus Felix and Bruttius Asper as well as we knew each other. We went over, for the tenth time, a series of absurd suggestions and tried to conceive some way by which we might sneak in at some other gate than that to which our road led, might avoid delivering our despatches and might find ourselves safe in ordinary clothes in some obscure lodging.
But we came to the conclusion that, it would be highly suspicious to act otherwise than as genuine couriers would act. There was nothing for it but to ask our way to Couriers" Headquarters, which would not arouse suspicion, since couriers unacquainted with Ma.r.s.eilles must be constantly arriving there, as green or shifted couriers did at all cities; to ride boldly in; to take what came if we were exposed, to deliver our despatches and stroll out for an airing if we had luck.
Even if we had luck so far I could not forecast our being able to buy ordinary clothing and change into it without causing suspicion, investigation, and our arrest and ruin. Agathemer argued that, if Maternus could find, in Rome, a bath where we could bathe without anyone so much as noticing our brand-marks and scourge-scars, he ought to be able to find in wicked, easy-going Ma.r.s.eilles a shop whose proprietor would ask no question except had we the cash. I was palpitating with panic and could foresee in a shopkeeper only an informer, greedy for a reward for our apprehension.
Agathemer asked:
"Didn"t I get us out of our troubles at Tegulata?"
"You certainly did!" I replied. "To a marvel."
"Well," he pursued, "I have full confidence in my intuition and my resourcefulness. I feel that I can get us out of our troubles at Ma.r.s.eilles, if you will let me alone and not interfere."
"I certainly won"t interfere," I said, "to spoil any chance you think you see. If you see one, signal me and I"ll let you use all your dexterity."
After that we rode evenly to Calcaria and even gaily from there to Ma.r.s.eilles, which we entered about two hours before sunset of a mild, fair, delightful afternoon.
The gate-guard took our questions as a matter of course and directed us to Couriers" Headquarters. There we found only one very stupid Gallic provincial in charge, with a few slaves.
"I," said he, "am Gaius Valerius Procillus."
And he fingered the package of despatches, eyeing us meditatively. I quaked, but kept my countenance.
He eyed us yet longer, but made no comment, wrote out a formal receipt for the despatches, handed it to Agathemer and said:
"Munatius will not be back here at Headquarters till tomorrow. So I cannot tell you whether you will have a day or more of rest, which you have earned, or must set off again at once. Nor can I tell you whether, when you do set off, it will be back to Rome, or onward with some of these same despatches to Spain or Britain or Germany.
"Make the most of your time for rest and refreshment. You are free till tomorrow at sunrise. Dromo will show you your quarters."
And he beckoned one of the slaves.
Headquarters was a low rectangle of two stories only, built of some stone like lime-stone, roofed with red tiles and set about a s.p.a.cious courtyard.
The ground floor seemed mostly stables; but, besides the office in which we had found Procillus, it had other office rooms, a common-room, and we glimpsed a bath and a kitchen. Dromo led us up the stone stair and along the colonnaded portico of the second floor to clean rooms, provided with comfortable cots, chests, stools, and not much else.
We threw our wallets on our cots and sat on stools. As soon as Dromo was gone we opened our wallets, made ourselves comfortable, disposed all our money about us in the body-belts we had bought at Genoa and went out, unopposed and apparently unremarked.
Through the lively streets of Ma.r.s.eilles, in the mellow glow of the evening sunshine, we made for the harborside, Agathemer nosing the air like a dog on the scent. Presently he remarked:
"We are not far from what I am looking for."
And he turned up a side street to our right. As we took turn after turn each street was less savory and more disreputable than the last till we were in a sort of alley populated it seemed by slatternly trulls and trollops.
"This," said Agathemer, "is the quarter of the town I am after, but not quite the part of it I want."
At the end of the alley he questioned a boy, a typical Ma.r.s.eilles street gamin. The lad nodded and led us still to our right, doubling back. After two or three turns Agathemer was for dismissing him. But the lad insisted on convoying us to some definite destination he had in mind.
Agathemer displayed a coin.
"Take that and get out and you are welcome to it," he said. "If you do not agree to get out and to take it, you get nothing."
The boy eyed his face, took the coin, and vanished.
Unescorted we strolled along a clean street, all whitewashed blank lower walls and latticed overhanging balconies; in the walls every door was fast; through the lattices I thought I discerned eyes watching us.
Ahead of us a lattice opened and two faces looked out. In fact two girls leaned out. Their type was manifest: well-housed, well clad, well fed, luxurious, loose-living, light-hearted minxes.
One was plump, full-breasted, merry-faced, with intensely black and glossy hair, a brunette complexion and in her cheeks a great deal of brilliant color, which I afterwards found was all her own, but which at first I took for paint. She wore a gown of a yellow almost as intense as the garb of the priests of Cybele in the Gardens of Verus. Its insistent yellow was intensified and set off by a girdle of black silk cords, braided into a complicated pattern, and by shoulder-knots of black silk, with dangling fringes, and by black silk lacings along her smocked sleeves.
Her companion was tall and slender and melancholy faced, her hair a dull reddish-gold or golden-red, her face without color and a bit freckled, her gown of pale blue.
The black-haired girl called:
"You"ve had a long ride and you deserve recreation and refreshment. Come in. We don"t know you two, but we have entertained couriers before this.
This is the place for you."