"So it was a signal! Danger is near," thought the spy. "But where is the danger? and where the warner?"
And he turned and stepped from beneath the wall, looking to the left, on which side the Gothic camp was situated.
But in doing so he stepped into the moonlight, and in sight of Syphax, the Moor, who stood in an empty niche before the entrance of the building, and who, until now, had also been looking sharply in the direction of the camp.
From thence a man walked slowly forward.
His battle-axe glittered in the moonlight.
But Perseus saw a second weapon flash; it was the sword of the Moor, as he softly drew it from its sheath.
"Ha!" laughed Perseus; "before those two have done with each other, I shall be in Rome with my secret."
And he ran towards the gap in the wall of the court by which he had entered.
For a moment Syphax looked doubtfully to right and left. To the right he saw a man escaping, whom he had only now discovered; to the left a Gothic warrior, who was just entering the court of the temple. It was impossible to reach and kill both.
He suddenly called aloud: