ight? Fix your attention on these, it may help you," and
once more that fortunate clerk found five gold pieces thrust into his
hand.

"I don't know that they help me," he said, for he wished to be faithful
to his hire.

"Fool," said Demetrius in a changed voice, "remember quickly, or here
is something that will----" and he showed him a dagger glinting in his
hand. "Now then, do you wish to go the same road as they carried the
Jewish girl and the Eastern?"

"They turned to the right," said the clerk sulkily. "It is the truth,
but may that road you speak of be yours who draw knives on honest folk."

With a bound Demetrius left his side, and for the second time the clerk
stood still, watching him go.

"A strange business," he said to himself, "but, perhaps my master was
right and that old woman is a sorceress, or, perhaps, the young one is
the sorceress, since all men seem ready to pay a tribe's tribute to get
hold of her; or, perhaps, they are both sorceresses. A strange story,
of which I should like to know the meaning, and so, I fancy, would the
Prince Domitian when he comes to hear of it. Saturius, the chamberlain,
has a fat place, but I would not take it to-night, no, not if it were
given to me."

Then that young man returned to the mart in time to hear his master
knock down Lot thirteen, a very sweet-looking girl, to Saturius himself,
who proposed, though with a doubtful heart, to take her to Domitian as a
substitute.

Meanwhile, Nehushta, Miriam and the steward Stephanus, disguised as a
slave, went on as swiftly as they dared towards the palace of Marcus
in the Via Agrippa. The two women held each other by the hand but said
nothing; their hearts seemed too full for speech. Only the old steward
kept muttering--"Two thousand sestertia! The savings of years! Two
thousand sestertia for that bit of a girl! Surely the gods have smitten
him mad."

"Hold your peace, fool," said Nehushta at length. "At least, I am not
mad; the property that went with her is worth more than the money."

"Yes, yes," replied the aggrieved Stephanus, "but how will that benefit
my master? You put it in her name. Well, it is no affair of mine, and at
least this accursed basket is much lighter."

Now they were at the side door of the house, which Stephanus was
unlocking with his key.

"Quick," said Nehushta, "I hear footsteps."

The door opened and they passed in, but at that moment one went by them,
pausing to look until the door c