Part 13 (1/2)
”Good!” Commodus remarked ”First blood to the braver! Who would like to bet with me?”
”I!” Varronius retorted from between set teeth, his eyes fixed on the leopard that had reco movement
”I have betted you the consulshi+p already Who else wants to bet?” asked Co in again at Varronius, who stepped aside and drove his spear with very well ti The point slit the leopard's skin andhim the way a spur-prick turns a horse His snarlhis chance to attack and drive the spear-point home The infuriated leopard watched hi, then shot to one side and charged straight at the group of courtiers
They scattered They were almost unar with each other The nearest to the leopard drew a dagger with a jeweled hilt, a er than his hand He threw his toga over his left forearid and his eyes ablaze The leopard leaped-and fell dead, hardly writhing Coht hi, exactly at the point behind the shoulder-bone that leaves a clear course to the heart
”I would not have done that for a coward, Tullius! If you had run I would have let him kill you!”
Co one foot on the leopard and exerting all his strength
”Look here, Varronius Do you see how deep ainst reat Jove with his thunderbolts! Life isn't a game between Maltese kittens; it's a spectacle in which the strong devour the weak and all the Gods look on! Loose another leopard there! I'll show you!”
He took the spear from Varronius, balanced it aits point with his thumb There was a squeak of pulleys as they loosed a leopard near the end of the arena He charged the aniious leaps; there was no guessing which way he would ju, slunk away, atteainst the wall He forced it to turn at bay No eye was quick enough to see exactly how he killed it, save that he struck when the leopard sprang The next thing that anybody actually saw, he had the writhing creature on the spear, in air, like a legion's standard
Then the ed into his brain
”So I rule Roladiators' feet ”Because I pity Rome that could not find another Paulus! I strike first, before they strike me!”
They flattered hienuinely mad for flattery to take effect ”If you orth a barrelful of rats I'd have a senate that ht remain away from Rome and live more like a God I've more than half a lanced up at the box, where his substitute lolled and yawned and senerates need is so for a bowl ofthat willout the new Spanish tealadiators to scatter themselves all over the arena Not yet satisfied, he ordered all the guards fetched froed them in a similar disorder, so that finally no stretch of fifty yards was left without ait There was no spina down the est to a teaht be
”Let none move!” he commanded ”I will crush the foot of anyto the heads of four gray stallions that fought and kicked, brought out his chariot and others shut the gate behind it Coh wheels of the gilded chariot, that was hardly wider than a coffin-a thing that a man could upset with a shove and built to look as fli shell Suddenly he seized the reins and leaped in, throwing up his right hand
If he could have ruled his eustus, for whose ed the the reins to play with the dynay of four mad stallions as Gods amuse themselves with men If empire had amused him as athleticism did there would have been no equal in all history to Commodus
In a chariot no other athlete could have balanced, on a course providing not one unobstructed stretch of fifty yards, he drove like Phoebus breaking in the horses of the Sun, careering this and that eaving patterns in ahtened men who stood like posts for him to drive around He ht in driving at the at a blanched face as he wheeled and wove new figures down another zigzag avenue of men The frenzy of the team inspired him; the rebellion of the stallions, made mad by the persistent, sudden turns, aroused his own astonishi+ng enthusiasm He acco the the team until it had no consciousness of any self- will, or of any i will of genius
The tea speed that wearied him at last The mania that owned hi effort, so his ed He became morose-indifferent He reined in, tossed the reins to an attendant and began to walk toward the tunnel entrance, clothed as he was in nothing but the practise loin-cloth of a gladiator
A dozen senators implored him to wait and clothe hi his cloak and overtake hiate, waiting to suladiators for an exhibition:
”Not this time, Narcissus Next tiave the substitute ti ahead into the tunnel-mouth; he went so fast (for he knew the emperor's moods) that the attendants found it hard to keep up; ave Commodus his cloak He took Narcissus by the ar noisy protests frouards were not yet there
Then there was sudden silence; possibly a consequence of Caesar's mood, or the reaction caused by chill and tunnel-darkness after sunlit sand Or itscrea from an unseen world Instantly Narcissus leaped ahead into the darkness, weaponless but armed by nature with the muscles of a panther Coain Now emulation had hiladiator He let his cloak fall and a senator tripped over it
There were no laht, deepened here and there by shadow, filled the tunnel By a niche intended for a sentry the attendants were standing helplessly around the body of a ainst the wall Narcissus and another, like knotted snakes, rithing near by There was a sound of choking Pavonius Nasor was silent He appeared already dead
”Pluto! Is there no light?” Commodus demanded ”What has happened?”
”They have killed your shadow, sire!”
”Who killed hi out of the darkness suddenly”
”One man Only one I have him here He lives yet, but he dies!”