ness.

Without warning Nicanor increased his speed and danced faster. He also
was panting hard, the strain of towing two hundred odd pounds of
unwilling flesh being great. His arms and shoulders shone with sweat; on
his forehead his hair was plastered and damp.

"Julia, Julia," he cried, "I pray you stop! I can dance no more. Thou
art trained to this work, but I--I faint with weariness. Though our lord
flay me, I can dance no more!"--and danced the faster.

"Stop! I stop!" gasped Hito, purple in the face. "_Deae matres!_ Am I
not trying to stop? Stop thyself, or I die! I am exhausted--I have no
breath--have a little pity--Oh, nay, nay, I did not mean it! It is as
thou sayest, of course! I--was wrong--to thwart thee! I will do whatever
thou sayest, if thou wilt let me go! I--I do not think our lord--likes
to see--such rapid motion. It maketh his head to swim. I, Julia, pray
thee, not--quite--so fast!"

He lurched and nearly fell, and Nicanor jerked him up again. There was
the noise of a door being opened. Nicanor knew it must be the door
leading to the passage, since the other was locked. He dropped Hito, who
crumpled into an abject heap upon the floor, past speech or motion, and
went on dancing by himself. From the tail of his eye he saw Wardo the
Saxon and Quartus enter and stand gaping, dumb with amazement. Hito
shook his fist at them from the floor and stuttered. When breath enough
had entered into him, he screamed at them.

"Bind me this madman! He hath a devil in him. Hold him, I say, until I
can speak!"

"Why, he's mad!" said Wardo, staring in awe at Nicanor, who,
expressionless, danced invincibly.

"Thou sayest!" Quartus agreed, and stared also. "What hath seized him?
Here, lad, what means all this? Stop thy prancing and say what thou hast
done to our lord Hito, here."

But Nicanor answered nothing, and danced.

"Chain him!" wheezed Hito. "Stop him, or I shall go mad, also, with
looking at him! I'll have him strung by the thumbs for this!"

And so it had been done, instantly, madness or no madness, since Hito's
word was law, and Hito was very wrathful, but that interruption came
from a quarter least expected. A tall figure blocked the open doorway,
and a deep voice said:

"What is the meaning of all this?"

Every slave knew it for the voice of their lord's guest, and every slave
wheeled and crossed his arms before his face, and wondered what their
lord's guest should be doing there,--every slave ex