in a moment.

"No," said he, "there is but one entrance."

Then, putting his hands together, he said, "I implore thee, lord, by
Jupiter, Apollo, Vesta, Cybele, Isis, Osiris, Mithra Baal, and all the
gods of the Orient and the Occident to drop this plan. Listen to me--"

But he stopped on a sudden, for he saw that Vinicius's face was pale
from emotion, and that his eyes were glittering like the eyes of a wolf.
It was enough to look at him to understand that nothing in the world
would restrain him from the undertaking. Croton began to draw air into
his herculean breast, and to sway his undeveloped skull from side to
side as bears do when confined in a cage, but on his face not the least
fear was evident.

"I will go in first," said he.

"Thou wilt follow me," said Vinicius, in commanding tones.

And after a while both vanished in the dark entrance.

Chilo sprang to the corner of the nearest alley and watched from behind
it, waiting for what would happen.

Chapter XXII

ONLY inside the entrance did Vinicius comprehend the whole difficulty
of the undertaking. The house was large, of several stories, one of the
kind of which thousands were built in Rome, in view of profit from rent;
hence, as a rule, they were built so hurriedly and badly that scarcely
a year passed in which numbers of them did not fall on the heads of
tenants. Real hives, too high and too narrow, full of chambers and
little dens, in which poor people fixed themselves too numerously. In a
city where many streets had no names, those houses had no numbers; the
owners committed the collection of rent to slaves, who, not obliged by
the city government to give names of occupants, were ignorant themselves
of them frequently. To find some one by inquiry in such a house was
often very difficult, especially when there was no gate-keeper.

Vinicius and Croton came to a narrow, corridor-like passage walled in on
four sides, forming a kind of common atrium for the whole house, with a
fountain in the middle whose stream fell into a stone basin fixed in the
ground. At all the walls were internal stairways, some of stone, some of
wood, leading to galleries from which there were entrances to lodgings.
There were lodgings on the ground, also; some provided with wooden
doors, others separated from the yard by woollen screens only. These,
for the greater part, were worn, rent, or patched.

The hour was early, and there was not a living soul in the yard. It