"And Rome brooks no such men as you, traitor," said Rufinus. "Ay,
traitor, I say," he repeated, as Odaenathus started at the word.
"Think not to hide your plots to overthrow the Roman power in
your city and hand the rule to the base Sapor of Persia. Every
thing is known to our great father the Emperor, and thus doth he
reckon with traitors. Macrinus, strike!" and at his word the
short Gallic sword in the ready hand of the big German
foot-soldier went straight to its mark and Odaenathus, the
"head-man" of Palmyra, lay dead in the Street of the Thousand
Columns.

So sudden and so unexpected was the blow that the Palmyreans
stood as if stunned, unable to comprehend what had happened. But
the Roman was swift to act.

"Sound, trumpets! Down, pikes!" he cried, and as the trumpet peal
rose loud and clear, fresh legionaries came hurrying through the
Damascus arch, and the pilum[1] and spatha of Rome bore back the
shields and lances of Palmyra.

[1] The pilum was the Roman pike, and the spatha the short
single-edged Roman sword.


But, before the lowered pikes could fully disperse the crowd, the
throng parted and through the swaying mob there burst a lithe and
flying figure--a brown-skinned maid of twelve with streaming
hair, loose robe, and angry, flashing eyes. Right under the
lowered pikes she darted and, all flushed and panting, defiantly