ords done in stern pantomime. The officer laughs, sends in the note,
and the messenger soon returning, signifies that the present is
acceptable and the slave bearing it shall be shown in. Appolidorus
shifts his burden to the other shoulder, and follows the soldier
through the gate, up the marble steps, along the splendid hallway,
lighted by flaring torches and lined with reclining Roman soldiers.

At a door they pause an instant, there is a whispered word--they enter.

The room is furnished as becomes the room that is the private library
of the King of Egypt. In one corner, seated at the table, pen in hand,
sits a man of middle age, pale, clean-shaven, with hair close-cropped.
His dress is not that of a soldier--it is the flowing white robe of a
Roman Priest. Only one servant attends this man, a secretary, seated
near, who rises and explains that the present is acceptable and shall
be deposited on the floor.

The pale man at the table looks up, smiles a tired smile and murmurs
in a perfunctory way his thanks.

Appolidorus having laid his burden on the floor, kneels to untie the
ropes. The secretary explains that he need not trouble, pray bear
thanks and again thanks to his master--he need not tarry!

The dumb man on his knees neither hears nor heeds. The rug is
unrolled.

From out the roll a woman leaps lightly to her feet--a beautiful young
woman of twenty.

She stands there, poised, defiant, gazing at the pale-faced man seated
at the table.

He is not surprised--he never was. One might have supposed he received
all his visitors in this manner.

"Well?" he says in a quiet way, a half-smile parting his thin lips.

The breast of the woman heaves with tumultuous emotion--just an
instant. She speaks, and there is no tremor in her tones. Her voice is
low, smooth and scarcely audible: "I am Cleopatra."

The man at the desk lays down his pen, leans back and gently nods his
head, as much as to say, indulgently, "Yes, my child, I hear--go on!"

"I am Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, and I would speak with thee, alone."

She pauses; then raising one jeweled arm motions to Appolidorus that
he shall withdraw.

With a similar motion, the man at the desk signifies the same to his
astonished secretary.

-------------------------------------

Appolidorus went down the long hallway, down the stone steps and
waited at the outer gate amid the throng of soldiers. They questioned
him, gibed him, railed at him, b