"Galen, have you—will that poison kill him?" Marcia demanded.
"No," said Galen. "Pertinax must kill him. I promised I would do my best for Pertinax. Behold your opportunity!"
Pertinax strode toward him, clutching at a dagger underneath his tunic.
"Kill me if you wish," said Galen, "but if you have any resolution you had better do first what you wanted me to do. And you will need me afterward."
Commodus was vomiting and in the pauses roaring like a mad beast. Marcia seized Pertinax by the arm. "I have done my part," she said. "Now nerve yourself! Go in now and finish it!"
"He may die yet. Let us wait and see," said Pertinax.
A howl rising to a scream—terror and anger mingled—came from the bedroom; then again the noise of vomiting and the creaking of the bed as Commodus writhed in the spasms of cramp.
"He will feel better presently," said Galen.
"If so, you die first! You have betrayed us all!" Pertinax shook off Marcia and scowled at Galen, raising his right arm as if about to strike the old man. "False to your emperor! False to us!"
"And quite willing to die, if first I may see you play the man!" said
Galen, blinking up at him.