Talbot Mundy

“ We die unless you win for us all tonight!"
It was her action that restored Tros' trust in her. She slipped a phial into his hand, a tiny thing not bigger than a joint of her own finger.
"Three drops from that are enough," she remarked. "It is swifter than crucifixion or being butchered at the games!"
"I go to Simon's house," Tros answered, pocketing the phial. He understood enough of the Samothracian teachings to despise the thought of suicide, but he did not propose to chill her friendliness by refusing such proof of it. "Go you to Pkauchios' eunuch. Lie to him as to where I am. ”

“ Quintillian approached to reassure them both:
"We nineteen and the few we keep in our employ are not ingrates," he said. "Balbus tortured one of our people all day yesterday. He betrayed no one. We will protect you in all ways possible."
Quintillian led Tros and Simon out by tunnels and devious passages to a walled yard where Simon's litter waited; there he told off four men to follow the litter secretly as far as Simon's house, which they approached by a back street so as not to be seen by Pkauchios' eunuch. ”

“ Tros answered. "I must leave my Northmen on the ship, and to man the long-boat and the barge."
"Take care! Take care!" urged Simon. "Chloe will turn that Briton and your Eskualdenak against vou if she sees advantage in it!"
"She will have shot her bolt and earned her pay," Tros answered, "if she has persuaded Pkauchios that I went from his house straight to yours. I will see that the eunuch has no chance to carry tales. Those Balearic slingers on the beach shall guard him and the litter bearers until I need them again to carry me to Balbus' house. ”

“ It was an almost typically eastern house—all squalor on the outside, with windowless walls and doors a foot thick, fit to be defended against anything less than Roman battering-rams. The plaster on the walls was peeling off; there was no paint, nothing except size to offset the appearance of mean shabbiness. ”