, passing the senator to lead the
way. "I know every path from our mountain to the oasis, and to the sea. A
panther had its lair in the ravine behind your quarries."

"So we have learnt," said Petrus. "The thievish beasts have slaughtered
two young camels, and the people can neither catch them in their toils
nor run them down with dogs."

"They will leave you in peace now," said the boy laughing. "I brought
down the male from the rock up there with an arrow, and I found the
mother in a hollow with her young ones. I had a harder job with her; my
knife is so bad, and the copper blade bent with the blow; I had to
strangle the gaudy devil with my hands, and she tore my shoulder and bit
my arm. Look! there are the scars. But thank God, my wounds heal quicker
than my father's. Paulus says, I am like an, earth-worm; when it is cut
in two the two halves say good-bye to each other, and crawl off sound and
gay, one way, and the other another way. The young panthers were so funny
and helpless, I would not kill them, but I did them up in my sheepskin,
and brought them to my father. He laughed at the little beggars, and then
a Nabataean took them to be sold at Clysma to a merchant from Rome. There
and at Byzantium, there is a demand for all kinds of living beasts of
prey. I got some money for them, and for the skins of the old ones, and
kept it to pay for my journey, when I went with the others to Alexandria
to ask the blessing of the new Patriarch."

"You went to the metropolis?" asked Petrus. "You saw the great
structures, that secure the coast from the inroads of the sea, the tall
Pharos with the far-shining fire, the strong bridges, the churches, the
palaces and temples with their obelisks, pillars, and beautiful paved
courts? Did it never enter your mind to think that it would be a proud
thing to construct such buildings?"

Hermas shook his head. "Certainly I would rather live in an airy house
with colonnades than in our dingy cavern, but building would never be in
my way. What a long time it takes to put one stone on another! I am not
patient, and when I leave my father I will do something that shall win me
fame. But there are the quarries--" Petrus did not let his companion
finish his sentence, but interrupted him with all the warmth of youth,
exclaiming: "And do you mean to say that fame cannot be won by the arts
of building? Look there at the blocks and flags, here at the pillars of
hard stone. These are all to be sent t