take that pile of gold on a single cast."

The Greek's whole frame was tingling with excitement--yet he was
withheld by some lingering restraint of his promise to Faustus to
abandon play. Calphurnius again rattled the dice, the cast was a
complete blank--the worst possible combination.

"'Twas lucky for me you were not playing then," he said, laughing; "but
I'll risk another if you will."

"It must only be for a small stake--a single sesterce," said the
infatuated youth, quaffing a goblet of wine. "I have given up gambling."

"All right," said his friend, "it's only for amusement that I play," and
he cast again, and laughing paid over his forfeit.

Isidorus continued to win, each time taking a sip of the strong heady
wine. The baleful enchantment was upon him.

"Double the stakes!" he cried.

"I thought you would tire of our playing like slaves with jackstones,"
replied the cool-headed Calphurnius. "This is something like play," he
continued, as they doubled every time, till the stakes were soon
enormous. The tide of fortune now turned; but the Greek had become
perfectly reckless. Conscience was dead, a demon greed for gain had
taken possession of his soul, the gaming-madness surged through his
brain. He doubled and redoubled his stakes, till before he rose he had
lost even the gold received from Valeria the night before, and was
beggared to his last denarius. With blood-shot eyes and staggering gait
he reeled away from the table, his handsome features convulsed with rage
and wicked imprecations pouring from his lips.

"Don't be so vexed about it, man," said his tormentor, for so he
regarded Calphurnius. "Better luck to-morrow. Here I'll lend you enough
to set you up. Let us have a bath, we both of us need it to quiet our
nerves."

Isidorus, in his maudlin intoxication, accepted the offer, and declared,
with much idle babble, that there was more money where that which he had
lost came from--that his services were too valuable to the state to be
overlooked--and that he knew a thing or two--that he could tell some
secrets, if he would--and much more to the same purpose.

This was just what Calphurnius wanted. He had been set on by his father,
the Prefect Naso to worm from the Greek the secrets of the Palace and
the Catacomb, and this by a series of wheedling questions he completely
succeeded in doing. With some difficulty he got his victim home after he
had extorted from him all that he cared to know. When Isid