Page:The Song of the Sirens.djvu/209

 risen superior to disaster. He never will. One failure will be the end of him, and his one failure is not two hours off. At this moment he is the hero who has swept the seas clear of all our enemies, abased our most dangerous foemen, avenged the massacre of our slaughtered countrymen, gathered the vastest treasure any Roman general ever captured and brought home the biggest army that ever claimed a triumph. By sunset he will be only the bungler who permitted the most dangerous mutiny a Roman army ever burst into. Whether they kill him or he survives he will be remembered only as a colossal failure. Either way Mucia will know him for the imitation he is. Either way I get her, for she will realize what it is to be loved by a real man."

"You are not a man," Crassus retorted. "You're a reptile."

"Mind your words, Crassus," Clodius warned him. "You don't want to quarrel with me. Our interests are identical."

"As far as Pompey goes, they are," Crassus admitted. "When I think of his cold scorn I rage."

"You hate him politically," Clodius added, "as much as I hate him personally. To-day is the end of Pompey. His sanctimonious assumption