nt
about the treasure, and promised to come again ere long.

He now turned his steps to the other side of Tiber, and, after passing
through poor streets, where some show of industries was still kept up
by a few craftsmen, though for the most part folk sat or lay about in
sullen idleness, came to those grinding-mills on the slope of the
Janiculum which were driven by Trajan's aqueduct. Day and night the
wheels made their clapping noise, seeming to clamour for the corn which
did not come. At the door of one of the mills, a spot warmed by the
noonday sun, sat a middle-aged man, wretchedly garbed, who with a burnt
stick was drawing what seemed to be diagrams on the stone beside him.
At the sound of a footstep, rare in that place, he hastily smeared out
his designs, and looking up showed a visage which bore a racial
resemblance to that of Sagaris. Recognising the visitor, he smiled,
pointed to the ground in invitation, and when Sagaris had placed
himself near by, began talking in the tongue of their own Eastern land.
This man, who called himself Apollonius, had for some years enjoyed
reputation in Rome as an astrologer, thereby gaining much money; and
even in these dark days he found people who were willing to pay him,
either in coin or food, for his counsel and prophecies. Fearful of
drawing attention upon himself, as one who had wealth in store, he had
come to live like a beggar in this out-of-the-way place, where his
money was securely buried, and with it a provision of corn, peas, and
lentils which would keep him alive for a long time. Apollonius was the
only man living whom Sagaris, out of reverence and awe, would have
hesitated to rob, and the only man to whom he did not lie. For beside
being learned in the stars, an interpreter of dreams, a prophet of
human fate, Apollonius spoke to those he could trust of a religion, of
sacred mysteries, much older, he said, and vastly more efficacious for
the soul's weal than the faith in Christ. To this religion Sagaris also
inclined, for it was associated with memories of his childhood in the
East; if he saw the rising of the sun, and was unobserved, he bowed
himself before it, with various other observances of which he had
forgotten the meaning.

His purpose in coming hither was to speak of Stephanus's dream. The
astrologer listened very attentively, and, after long brooding,
consented to use his art for the investigation of the matter.

* * * *

End of the P