He carried not only thee, but me,
in his arms."

"I intended to free him," answered Vinicius; "but do not mention him.
Let us speak of Lygia. Rome is a sea-"

"A sea is just the place where men fish for pearls. Of course we shall
not find her to-day, or to-morrow, but we shall find her surely. Thou
hast accused me just now of giving thee this method; but the method was
good in itself, and became bad only when turned to bad. Thou hast heard
from Aulus himself, that he intends to go to Sicily with his whole
family. In that case the girl would be far from thee."

"I should follow them," said Vinicius, "and in every case she would be
out of danger; but now, if that child dies, Poppaea will believe, and
will persuade Caesar, that she died because of Lygia."

"True; that alarmed me, too. But that little doll may recover. Should
she die, we shall find some way of escape."

Here Petronius meditated a while and added,--"Poppaea, it is said,
follows the religion of the Jews, and believes in evil spirits. Caesar
is superstitious. If we spread the report that evil spirits carried off
Lygia, the news will find belief, especially as neither Caesar nor Aulus
Plautius intercepted her; her escape was really mysterious. The Lygian
could not have effected it alone; he must have had help. And where could
a slave find so many people in the course of one day?"

"Slaves help one another in Rome."

"Some person pays for that with blood at times. True, they support one
another, but not some against others. In this case it was known that
responsibility and punishment would fall on thy people. If thou give
thy people the idea of evil spirits, they will say at once that they saw
such with their own eyes, because that will justify them in thy sight.
Ask one of them, as a test, if he did not see spirits carrying off Lygia
through the air, he will swear at once by the aegis of Zeus that he saw
them."

Vinicius, who was superstitious also, looked at Petronius with sudden
and great fear.

"If Ursus could not have men to help him, and was not able to take her
alone, who could take her?"

Petronius began to laugh.

"See," said he, "they will believe, since thou art half a believer
thyself. Such is our society, which ridicules the gods. They, too, will
believe, and they will not look for her. Meanwhile we shall put her away
somewhere far off from the city, in some villa of mine or thine."

"But who could help her?"

"Her co-religionists,"