which I have seen; she goes belted
with flame that dazzles the eyes. On her arms are an hundred
bracelets--"

"Of a truth, I do think the wine is in thine eyes, Wardo mine," said
Wulf. His laugh was careless, but his eyes were keen.

Wardo flushed angrily.

"Not so!" he cried. "For these six months and more have not goods been
coming to us from all the world?" He boasted vaingloriously.

Wulf nodded.

"I have heard that that is so. There must indeed be great store of
plunder--of wealth within thy master's house."

"Verily!" said Wardo, somewhat appeased. He told all that he knew, and
much that he did not know, fired with eagerness to impress upon this
casual stranger the magnificence of the lord whom he served. From mere
loquacity he became argumentative, finally quarrelsome. But Sada wound
white arms about his neck and soothed him.

But by now the wine was reaching Wulf's head also, although compared to
Wardo he was sober.

"That house of thy lord's will be fat pickings for the men of Evor when
they come to claim the blood of Felix for the blood which he hath shed.
Light of my eyes! it would be worth--"

"What is this thou sayest?" Wardo demanded. He strove to sit upright,
but fell back against Sada in drunken laxity. "Speak louder, thou! There
be a million bees that buzz within my head."

Wulf waved the women away.

"Leave us, pretty ones, awhile. Is it the first time men have left your
arms to discuss affairs?"

Eunice, the tall Greek, went willingly, but Sada clung to her lover and
would not go.

"Nay, I'll not leave thee. Speak as ye will--what is it to me? I have no
call to remember."

"See, friend, I like thee, and I see no reason why we should not be
comrades, for the better gain of both," said Wulf, with all frankness.
"We be of one nation, as against these haughty Roman lords who soon must
yield to us the field. Oh, but I long for a half-hundred kindred souls
to take with me this chance! What chance, say you?--the chance of gain,
of wealth and fortune past all dreams. Why should they have all, these
haughty lords, while we have nothing? Why should not something of their
wealth profit us?"

Wardo shook his muddled head solemnly over this problem old as the ages.

"They have gained it," he muttered, with an air of profound wisdom.

"They have gained it, quotha! Ay, truly, but how? By rapine, taxation,
wars, plunder! Therefore why shall not others use like means? If it be
fair for them, I