"
"I'll play you any number of lively tunes," Agathemer promised, possessing
himself of the flageolet.
We all went down into the lower _triclinium_, where we had left the wine,
and Agathemer charmed the girls with his music and, indeed, enlivened me
as much as them.
After a score of tunes, while our first goblets of wine were not yet
emptied, Agathemer said:
"Felix, I believe I see a way out of our troubles."
"Asper," I replied, "I leave it all to you."
"Doris, my dear," said Agathemer, "we are not Imperial Couriers at all."
Doris stared.
"You mean it?" she asked.
"So help me Hercules," said Agathemer solemnly.
"Well," she meditated, with a sharp intake of her breath. "You fooled me.
I thought you were genuine. How did you come in this rig?"
"We belong in Rome, both of us," Agathemer began. "How we came in
Placentia is no part of the story. But we were in Placentia and we got
into trouble. It wasn't serious trouble; we hadn't killed anybody, or
stolen anything, or cheated anybody; but it was trouble enough and aplenty
and we decided to get out of Placentia. Roads, road-houses, the towns
wouldn't have been healthy for us just then, so we took to the mountains.
Not as brigands, you understand, but we hadn't much cash and coin will go
farther in the mountains than anywhere else; and the weather was fine and
we meant to camp out all we could and stay out all summer and let things
blow over.
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