TARZAN AND THE LOST EMPIRE
and far to the south a little monkey shivered from cold and terror in the topmost branches of a jungle giant, while Sheeta the panther crept softly through the black shadows far below.
In the banquet hall of his host, Maximus Praeclarus reclined upon a sofa far down the board from Fastus, the guest of honor. The prince, his tongue loosed by frequent drafts of native wine, seemed in unusually good spirits, radiating self-satisfaction. Several times he had brought the subject of conversation around to the strange white barbarian, who had insulted his sire and twice escaped from the soldiers of Sublatus.
“He would never have escaped from me that day,” he boasted, throwing a sneer in the direction of Maximus Praeclarus, “nor from any other officer who is loyal to Caesar.”
“You had him, Fastus, in the garden of Dion Splendidus,” retorted Praeclarus. “Why did you not hold him?”
Fastus flushed. “I shall hold him this time,” he blurted.
“This time?” queried Praeclarus. “He has been captured again?” There was nothing in either the voice or expression of the young patrician of more than polite interest, though the words of Fastus had come with all the unexpected suddenness of lightning out of a clear sky.
“I mean,” explained Fastus, in some confusion, “that if he is again captured I, personally, shall see that he does not escape,” but his words did not allay the apprehensions of Praeclarus.
All through the long dinner Praeclarus was cognizant of a sensation of foreboding. There was a menace in the air that was apparent in the veiled hostility of his host and several others who were cronies of Fastus.
As early as was seemly he made his excuses and departed.
Armed slaves accompanied his litter through the dark avenues of Castra Sanguinarius, where robbery and murder slunk among the shadows hand in hand with the criminal element that had been permitted to propagate itself without restraint; and when at last he came to the doorway at his home and had alighted from his litter he paused and a frown of perplexity clouded his face as he saw that the door stood
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