'And you are sure of that, Dilecta?' demanded Praeclarus. 'What do you know of him?'
'I know that he came in time to save me from this swine who would have harmed me,' said the girl haughtily, casting a withering glance at Fastus.
'I do not understand,' said Praeclarus. 'This is a barbarian prisoner of war who calls himself Tarzan and whom I took this morning from the Colosseum to the palace at the command of the Emperor, that Sublatus might look upon the strange creature, whom some thought to be a spy from Castrum Mare.'
'If he is a prisoner, what is he doing here, then?' demanded the girl. 'And why are you here?'
'This fellow attacked the Emperor himself and then escaped from the palace. The entire city is being searched and I, being in charge of a detachment of soldiers assigned to this district, came immediately hither, fearing the very thing that has happened and that this wild man might find you and do you harm.'
'It was the patrician, Fastus, son of Imperial Caesar, who would have harmed me,' said the girl. 'It was the wild man who saved me from him.'
Maximum Praeclarus looked quickly at Fastus, the son of Sublatus, and then at Tarzan. The young officer appeared to be resting upon the horns of a dilemma.
'There is your man,' said Fastus, with a sneer. 'Back to the dungeons with him.'
'Maximus Praeclarus does not take orders from Fastus,' said the young man, 'and he knows his duty without consulting him.'
'You will arrest this man who has protected me, Praeclarus?' demanded Dilecta.
'What else may I do?' asked Praeclarus. 'It is my duty.'
'Then do it,' sneered Fastus.
Praeclarus went white. 'It is with difficulty that I can keep my hands off you, Fastus,' he said. 'If you were the son of Jupiter himself, it would not take much more to get yourself choked. If you know what is well for you, you will go before I lose control of my temper.'
'Mpingu,' said Dilecta, 'show Fastus to the avenue.'
Fastus flushed. 'My father, the Emperor, shall hear of this,' he snarled; 'and do not forget, Dilecta, your father stands none too well in the estimation of Sublatus Imperator.'
'Get gone,' cried Dilecta, 'before I order my slave to throw you into the avenue.'
With a sneer and a swagger Fastus quit the garden, and when he had gone Dilecta turned to Maximus Praeclarus.
'What shall we do?' she cried. 'I must protect this noble stranger who saved me from Fastus, and at the same time you must do your duty and return him to Sublatus.'
'I have a plan,' said Maximus Praeclarus, 'but I cannot carry it out unless I can talk with the stranger.'
'Mpingu can understand and interpret for him,' said the girl.
'Can you trust Mpingu implicitly?' asked Praeclarus.
'Absolutely,' said Dilecta.
'Then send away the others,' said Praeclarus, indicating Axuch and Sarus; and when Mpingu returned from escorting Fastus to the street he found Maximus Praeclarus, Dilecta, and Tarzan alone in the garden.
Praeclarus motioned Mpingu to advance. 'Tell the stranger that I have been sent to arrest him,' he said to Mpingu, 'but tell him also that because of the service he has rendered Dilecta I wish to protect him, if he will follow my instructions.'
'What are they?' asked Tarzan when the question had been put to him. 'What do you wish me to do?'
'I wish you to come with me,' said Praeclarus; 'to come with me as though you are my prisoner. I shall take you in the direction of the Colosseum and when I am opposite my own home I shall give you a signal so that you will understand that the house is mine. Immediately afterward I will make it possible for you to escape into the trees as you did when you quit the palace with Sublatus. Go, then, immediately to my house and remain there until I return. Dilecta will send Mpingu there now to warn my servants that you are coming. At my command they will protect you with their lives. Do you understand?'
'I understand,' replied the ape-man, when the plan had been explained to him by Mpingu.
'Later,' said Praeclarus, 'we may be able to find a way to get you out of Castra Sanguinarius and across the mountains.'
Chapter Ten
THE cares of state rested lightly upon the shoulders of Validus Augustus, Emperor of the East, for though his title was imposing his domain was small and his subjects few. The island city of Castrum Mare boasted a population of only a trifle more than twenty-two thousand people, of which some three thousand were whites and nineteen thousand of mixed blood, while outside the city, in the villages of the lake dwellers and along the eastern shore of Mare Orientis, dwelt the balance of his subjects, comprising some twenty-six thousand Negroes.
Today, reports and audiences disposed of, the Emperor had withdrawn to the palace garden to spend an hour in conversation with a few of his intimates, while his musicians, concealed within a vine-covered bower, entertained him. While he was thus occupied a chamberlain approached and announced that the patrician Fulvus Fupus begged an audience of the Emperor.
'Fulvus knows that the audience hour is past,' snapped the Emperor. 'Bid him come on the morrow.'
'He insists, most glorious Caesar,' said the chamberlain, 'that his business is of the utmost importance and that it is only because he felt that the safety of the Emperor is at stake that he came at this hour.'
'Brim: him here then,' commanded Validus, and, as the chamberlain turned away, 'Am I never to have a moment's relaxation without some fool like Fulvus Fupus breaking in upon me with some silly story?' he grumbled to one of his companions.
When Fulvus approached the Emperor a moment later, he was received with a cold and haughty stare.
'I have come, most glorious Caesar,' said Fulvus, 'to fulfill the duty of a citizen of Rome , whose first concern should be the safety of his Emperor.'
'What are you talking about?' snapped Validus. 'Quick, out with it!'
'There is a stranger in Castrum Mare who claims to be a barbarian from Germania , but I believe him to be a spy from Castrum Sanguinarius where, it is said, Cassius Hasta is an honored guest of Sublatus, in that city.'
'What do you know about Cassius Hasta and what has he to do with it?' demanded Validus.
'It is said—it is rumored,' stammered Fulvus Fupus, 'that—'
'I have heard too many rumors already about Cassius Hasta,' exclaimed Validus. 'Can I not dispatch my nephew upon a mission without every fool in Castrum Mare lying awake nights to conjure motives, which may later be ascribed to me?'
'It is only what I heard,' said Fulvus, flushed and uncomfortable. 'I do not know anything about it. I did not say that I knew.'
'Well, what did you hear?' demanded Validus. 'Come, out with it.'
'The talk is common in the Baths that you sent Cassius Hasta away because he was plotting treason and that he went at once to Sublatus, who received him in a friendly fashion and that together they are planning an attack upon Castrum Mare.'
Validus scowled. 'Baseless rumor,' he said; 'but what about this prisoner? What has he to do with it and why have I not been advised of his presence?'
'That I do not know,' said Fulvus Fupus. 'That is why I felt it doubly my duty to inform you, since the man who is harboring the stranger is a most powerful patrician and one who might well be ambitious.'
'Who is he?' asked the Emperor.
'Septimus Favonius,' replied Fupus.
'Septimus Favonius!' exclaimed Validus. 'Impossible.'
'Not so impossible,' said Fupus, boldly, 'if glorious Caesar will but recall the friendship that ever existed between Cassius Hasta and Mallius Lepus, the nephew of Septimus Favonius. The home of Septimus Favonius was the other home of Cassius Hasta. To whom, then, sooner might he turn for aid than to this powerful friend whose ambitions are well known outside the palace, even though they may not as yet have come to the ears of Validus Augustus?'
