'Against any slave?'

'By Bacchus, no! I have enough of ordinary captives to suit me, and care but little for any accession to the rabble of them. But you have one whom I covet—a Greek of fair appearance and pleasing manners—fit not for the camp or the quarries, but of some value as a page or cupbearer. It was but lately that I saw him, writing at your lady's dictation, and I wished for him at once. Shall we play for him?'

'No! a thousand times, no!' exclaimed Sergius, striking the table so heavily with his open hand that the dice danced and the flagons shook. 'Were you to offer me thrice his value—to pay off my forfeit to Sardesus to the last sestertium—to gain me back my quarry and my vineyards—all that I have lost—I would not give up that slave. My purpose is sweeter to me than all the gold you could offer, and I will not be cheated out of it. That slave dies to-morrow in the amphitheatre—between the lion's jaws!'

'Dies? In the arena?' was the astonished exclamation.

'Is there aught wonderful in that?' Sergius fiercely cried. 'Have you never before known such a thing as a master giving up his slave for the public amusement? And let no man ask me why I do it. It may be that I wish revenge, hating him too much to let him live. It may be that I seek to be a benefactor like others, and furnish entertainment to the populace at my own expense. It is sufficient that I choose it. Will not any other slave answer, Emilius?'

'Nay, no other will do,' remarked the poet, throwing himself carelessly back, with the air of one dismissing a fruitless subject from his mind. 'This was the only one whom I coveted. For any other I would not care to shake the dicebox three times, though I might feel sure to win.'

'Will you offer the same to me, Sergius?' eagerly cried the comedian. 'I also have won heavily from you. Will you play any other slave than this page against fifty sestertia?'

For his only answer, Sergius seized the dice, and began impatiently to rattle them. The eyes of Bassus sparkled with anticipated victory.

'You hear?' he cried, to all around him. 'Against my fifty sestertia he will stake any of his slaves excepting this Greek page?'

'They all hear the terms,' retorted Sergius. 'Now throw!'