ground, whose duty it was to drag the cages to the openings of tunnels
in the masonry through which the animals emerged into the sunlight.
There were ten such openings on either side of the arena, closed by
trapdoors, set in grooves, that could be raised by ropes from overhead.

Commodus picked up one javelin and poised it. Half-a-dozen gladiators
watched him, paying no attention to the doors, through any one of which
the animal might come. They knew their Paulus, and were trained,
besides, to look at death or danger with a curious, contemptuous calm.
But the courtiers were nervous, grouping themselves where the sunlight
threw a V-shaped shadow on the sand, as if they thought that semi-
twilight would protect them.

A wooden door rose squeaking in its grooves but Commodus kept his back
toward it.

"Women!" he exclaimed.

His sudden scowl transformed his handsome face into a thing of horror.
He began to mutter savagely obscene abuse. A leopard crept into the
sunlight, tried to turn again but was prevented by the closing trap, and
crouched against the arena wall.

"Beware! The beast comes!" said a gladiator.

"Hold your presumptuous tongue, you slave-born rascal!" Commodus
retorted. "Take that yapping dog away and have him whipped!"

A man stepped from the entrance gate to beckon the offending gladiator,
who walked out with a look of hatred on his face. He paused once,