Come along!"
He guided me in the utter blackness to a pile of damp straw. On it we sat
down, half reclining.
"If you are thirsty," he said, "I can guide you to the well. There is a
spring in here and plenty of good water."
"I thank you," I said. "I shall be thirsty enough before long. Just now I
am far more interested to hear how you came here. Nobody believed that you
would ever be caught."
"No more did I!" he ejaculated. "I had so easily defied the utmost efforts
of the government and officials under Aurelius, of the incompetents under
Commodus, of his vaunted Highway Constabulary; had so prospered, had so
come and gone as I pleased and robbed whom I pleased from the Po to the
Straits, that I thought no man could lay for me any snare I could not
foresee, thought myself impeccably wary and prescient, though I had always
taken and would always take all necessary precautions.
"But I was a fool. I comprehended Aurelius and Commodus and their
magistrates and officials and constabulary; I was right in fearing nothing
from Pertinax and Julianus; but I was an ass to think I could cope with
Septimius Severus. That man is deeper than the deepest abyss of mid-ocean!
"I thought I was certain of months of disorder, confusion and laxity in
which I could go where I pleased, act as I pleased, garner a rich harvest
and escape unscathed.
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