stock in the Greens. In the Greens, likewise, Brinnaria owned stock;
and, having entered into inheritances from more than seventy
different wealthy relatives who had died during the pestilence, she
happened to own stock in every one of the six great companies. She
had personal friends among the directors of each of the six.
Therefore it was especially easy for her to enlist their help in her
efforts to find Almo. It would have been easy, anyhow, since to be
able to oblige a Vestal was a refreshing novelty for almost anyone
at Rome and to find a Vestal seeking one's influence and one's help,
equally novel and refreshing; generally the shoe was on the other
foot--most persons in public life in Rome were used to attempting
to enlist the help and the interests of the Vestals for their purposes
and were generally utterly at a loss for any means of requital, if
the interest of a Vestal was enlisted and her help obtained.

Consequently all that the racing-companies could do to find Almo
was done as well as all that could be done by the private detective
agencies and by government officials.

All that was done was utterly in vain. No trace of Almo could be
discovered after he had sailed from Hippo with Jegius.
No slave-dealer named Jegius could be found nor anyone who knew
such a slave-dealer. No clue, no ghost of a clue came to light. The
Greens, like the other companies, could find among their
charioteers, their jockeys, their free employees, their slaves,
no individual in the least answering to descriptions of Almo.
All governmental efforts, all professional efforts, all private
efforts, all Vocco's efforts, all Brinnaria's efforts, were
completely baffled.