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inward at this point to connect with the tower at the inner end of the gate. This made a curved entrance that forced an enemy attempting to enter to disclose its right or unprotected side to the defenders upon the rampart, a form of camp fortification that von Harben knew had been peculiar to the ancient Romans.

The officer’s quarters consisted of a single, small, bare room directly off a larger room occupied by the members of the guard. It contained a desk, a bench, and a couple of roughly made chairs.

“Sit down,” said the officer, after they had entered, “and tell me something about yourself. If you are not from Castra Sanguinarius, from whence do you come? How did you get into our country and what are you doing here?”

“I am from Germania,” replied von Harben.

“Bah!” exclaimed the officer. “They are wild and savage barbarians, They do not speak the language of Rome at all; not even as poorly as you.”

“How recently have you come in contact with German barbarians?” von Harben asked.

“Oh, I? Never, of course, but our historians knew them well.”

“And how lately have they written of them?”

“Why, Sanguinarius himself mentions them in the story of his life.”

“Sanguinarius?” questioned yon Harben. “I do not recall ever having heard of him.”

“Sanguinarius fought against the barbarians of Germania in the 839th year of Rome.”

“That was about eighteen hundred and thirty-seven years ago,” von Harben reminded the officer, “and I think you will have to admit that there may have been much progress in that time.”

“And why?” demanded the other. “There have been no changes in this country since the days of Sanguinarius and he has been dead over eighteen hundred years. It is not likely then that barbarians would change greatly if Roman citizens have not. You say you are from Germania. Perhaps