"You have not gone to all this trouble and taken up so much of my time and confided to me all the secrets of your heart merely to ease your mind. There's something you want me to do, some help you expect to gain from me. You have given me no inkling of what it is. What is it? Speak out!"

"He is certain to be killed sooner or later," she said, wringing her hands. "I want you to help me to save him."

"Save him!" Commodus echoed. "Isn't he competent to save himself? Hasn't he convinced you of his ability to protect himself--Sooner or later?

Much later, very much later. And he's more likely to be killed by old age than by any weapon in the hands of any man.

"I'll never understand women. No man can, I suppose. You're bent, bound and resolved that he must die. You pour out gold like water to compa.s.s his death. You have Italy ransacked for dexterous cutthroats. He never turns a hair. It's easy for him as for a Molossian dog to kill wolves.

He enjoys it; disposes of every man who dare face him. You can't find another bravo to take the risk, not for any money! Then, when he has proved himself the best fighter in Italy, you face about and all of a sudden you are in a wax for fear some one may kill him!

"n.o.body will ever kill him. You and I saw him dispose of more than a dozen expert gladiators, one after the other; you saw how daintily and adroitly he did, it. You have just described his fight with his predecessor. It was over almost before it was begun. The inc.u.mbent was a dead man from the moment he faced Almo. Both knew it, too, and, since then he has done for the pick of the blackguards from all Italy. If Ravax and his gang could find no one to face him, there is none; if no man of that crew could best him, not Ravax himself, no man can best him.

Don't you see?"

"No, I don't," she said. "It will be just like his fights in the arena.

No matter how often he wins, he is bound to lose at last."

"Don't you believe it," Commodus argued. "I remember him well. I was wild over him just after Father's triumph and saw a good deal of him before he set out for Britain. I was then no such all-round expert at weapon-play as I have become since, but I was good for my age. I fenced with him repeatedly and I know his quality. I had all the best swordsmen in the capital pitted against him and not one of them was his match.

Murmex Lucro did not come to Rome till after Father's death. So I never saw Murmex and Almo fence. But let me tell you this: Murmex is the only man alive who can fence with me for points and make anything like my score. And Almo is the only man alive, except me, who is fit to face Murmex on equal terms. There are only two men on earth who could kill Almo in a fight with any kind of weapons--Murmex is one and I am the other.

"Why, Almo is as safe in the Grove as I am in the Palace. Don't you worry about him. n.o.body will kill him; take it from me, I know."

Brinnaria, with a sharp intake of her breath, gazed about the room and collected herself to resume her argument and make her next point.

"Do you concede," she queried, "that I have the right to be solicitous about Almo's life?"

"Father said so," Commodus replied, "and I never knew him to be wrong. I took that opinion from him and I see no reason to change it."

"Do you concede," she pressed him, "that I have the right to looking forward to marrying him at the end of my service?"

"Like Father, I do," he admitted.

"How can I ever marry him," she demanded, "if he remains King of the Grove?"

The young Emperor laughed merrily.

"Don't you worry about that, either," he said. "I told you I'd do anything for you and I meant it. I told you I'd do anything for Almo, and I meant that too. But, as things are, doing what you want and what is good for him will be doing just what I most want myself. I have a frightfully poor memory. Barely seven years ago my Father triumphed after what was thought a complete, decisive and crushing victory over Avidius Ca.s.sius and a huge confederation of nomadic tribes. Ca.s.sius was certainly abolished; he was buried. But after scarcely five years the desert nomads were as active as ever and they have grown so pertinacious and c.o.c.ky that something must be done. I don't want to go myself, and I feel no confidence in my ability to accomplish anything if I went.

I have been on the rack to decide whom to send. I can't afford to send some bungler who'd mismanage and let the sand-hills devour a half a dozen of my best legions.

"My councillors and I have found no promising candidate. All the while I have been cudgelling my brains trying to remember something Father told me. I distinctly recalled that he said that he had in view the very paragon of a commander to dispatch against Avidius, but that some occurrence made it impossible to send him and he had to go himself. I couldn't for the life of me recollect what had happened to hinder the man going or what the man's name was. Since it was a verbal communication from Father I had no memorandum and no one else had ever known it.

"Now I remember that Almo was the man and that his infatuation with the life of a gladiator was what prevented.

"Do you see what I mean? I shall not have to go to Syria and I'll send the very best man for that job who can be found on earth. If anybody knows what I'm doing they'll say that Almo is a lunatic and I am another to send him. But n.o.body will ever know and if everybody knows, what do I care. Father knew a good man when he saw one. I'll take his word for it that Almo proved himself the greatest genius for desert fighting that the Republic has produced in a hundred years. And I'll follow my own intuition that a swashbuckler whose own thoughts prompted him to challenge the King of the Grove as a cure for tedium, who had the nerve to carry out the idea and the skill to win a hundred and six fights in ten months must be a good all-round man and a real man clear through.

I take it that being put in supreme command of a great expedition will brush the cobwebs from Almo's brain and restore him to himself. Do you follow my idea?"

"I cannot conjecture," Brinnaria replied, "how you expect to carry it out."

"Simple enough," said Commodus. "I'm not the man my Father was, not by a great deal. I am a natural all-round athlete, but I was never born to be an Emperor. All the same, when I buckle down to my job, I'm not such a bad hand at it. If I have a talk with Almo I'll swing him my way without half trying."

"But," Brinnaria interposed, "even you, even as Emperor and Chief Pontiff, cannot free a man who has become King of the Grove. There is no record of any form of exauguration for a Priest of Diana of the Underworld. There would be an outcry. Once King of the Grove a man must live out his life as King of the Grove."

Commodus grinned a school-boy grin.

"My dear," he said, "there are more ways of killing a dog besides choking him to death on fresh curds."

Brinnaria stared.

"You talk," he said, "as if you had gone over all the records. Don't you recall two cases where a King of the Grove died without being killed?"

"Yes," she admitted.

"Well," he continued, "what was done?"

"Two challengers were brought forward," she said, "and they fought each other."

"Just so," said he, "and don't you recall one case where a King of the Grove disappeared and was believed to have run away, but was never found, nor any trace of him?"

"I remember that, too," she agreed.

"Well," he pressed her, "what was done in that case?"

"Two challengers fought each other that time also," she allowed.

"Well," he summed up, "that's what we'll have done now. Almo will vanish. He's good at it, he's had practice. Two challengers can be found easily enough."

"But," she cavilled, wide-eyed, "there's all the difference in the world between egging on two challengers after the post is vacant and arranging to vacate the post. What you propose would be sacrilege, impiety."

"Don't you worry about that!" he soothed her. "The priesthood at Aricia is no part of our hierarchy; the safety of Rome in no way depends on its sanct.i.ty. It is important enough for the nine towns that share the cult, but it concerns no others. It's an alien cult, anyhow. Whether Orestes brought it to Aricia or Hippolytus or who else makes no difference, nor the tradition that it is four hundred years older than Rome. It's a disgrace to Italy and it exists on sufferance. Father told me that Grandfather and he were both in half a mind to have it suppressed as the Baccha.n.a.ls were suppressed. The curative repute of the Grove stood in the way. As for me, if it were not for the sporting character of the King's tenure, I'd see to it that Almo would be the last King. I feel free to do as I please in any matter that concerns it."

Brinnaria said nothing.

He resumed:

"Leave it all to me. I'll go to Aricia myself; I'll expostulate with Almo; I'll appeal to his manhood, to his pride, to his patriotism. Ten to one he's disillusioned by this time, sick of his job and ready to listen to reason. He'll promise to obey me and he'll obey me.

"The rest will be managed by men who will make no mistakes. They'll find two challengers each much like Almo in build and appearance. One dark night Almo will slip off in charge of the men I delegate for that duty; the two challengers will be guided so that each thinks he is fighting the King of the Grove. Whichever survives will be rigged up in the customary toggery. There will be a corpse properly offered on the altar.

n.o.body will suspect anything."

About a month later Lutorius conveyed to her a hint from the Emperor.

She at once applied for an audience.

Commodus was as expansive as a boy who has had a good day's fishing.

"It's all over," he said, "and everything went off just as I foresaw and planned. Almo was disgusted and tractable. We found two desperadoes of suitable make. While we steered them at each other Almo slipped out.

Besides you, your two friends, your agents, Lutorius and myself, no one knows that Almo was ever King of the Grove. I had him brought to the Palace and Lucro and I had no end of good fun fencing with him. I had the Senate pa.s.s a decree relieving him of all and sundry legal consequences of having been sold as a slave in Britain. I had him choose a full staff of the best possible aides, orderlies and such. He is off to Syria. I did not send for you until I had word that he had not only sailed from Brundisium but had actually landed at Dyrrhachium. I antic.i.p.ate that the job I have sent him on will take all of six years.

Just about when your service is drawing to an end he will return to Rome covered with glory and loaded with loot. The nomads have been plundering our cities and have acc.u.mulated in their strongholds immense amounts of treasure. He'll get it back. Meantime your mind should be at peace."

Brinnaria was properly grateful and expressed her feelings fervently.