Doctor Who_ The Romans - Donald Cotton [28]
In fact, a moment later, I wished that I had done; for, on my asking him, somewhat prematurely perhaps, if he now yielded, he ignored the question completely, and lumbered dumbly to his knees, simultaneously drawing a nasty-looking broad-sword from its scabbard, with which he proceeded to hack at the all-enveloping mesh.
Well, no net was ever woven which could stand that sort of treatment for long, so I reluctantly hefted my main armament preparatory to a pre-emptive strike.
I say ‘reluctantly’ because I had no wish to injure the man, and until this very last minute had continued to hope that we might have arrived at some sort of rapprochement whereby we could turn on our captors, and emerge victorious. But no - the chances of such an accord now seemed to have receded irretrievably; so with a loud cry of
‘Take that then, confound you!’, I launched the weapon in the direction of my erstwhile companion’s muscular midriff. Wherefrom it might well have bounced, for all I know; but unfortunately I had failed to notice that I was standing on a corner of the net, which my struggling adversary - whether intentionally or not, I cannot be sure -
now pulled from beneath me, at the very instant that the missile left my hand, effectively spoiling my aim.
Even as I fell flat on my back, I watched appalled, as the javelin’s deadly trajectory span sparkling in the morning sun to a target area some two inches to the left of Nero’s ear, where it stuck, vibrating like a metronome, in the woodwork of the Royal Box.
There was a moment’s silence, during which Delos muttered, ‘Well, you’ve really done it now, haven’t you?’; and then the Emperor squealed to his feet, advancing as his theory that treachery was at work, and that any right-thinking members of the public would do very nicely for themselves if they finished off the pair of us, thereby showing their loyalty to the throne and their allegiance to the established order of things, the... what’s the phrase he used?... the status quo, that’s it.
He and the rest of his party then disappeared down a sort of hatchway without bothering to stay for the sequel; which was that a murmuring mob of public spirited citizens, intent on adopting his recommendation in toto, leaped into the arena and sped towards us, whilst I hurriedly helped Delos divest himself of the rest of the reticulum, feeling that surely he must at last realise where his best interests lay, and stand beside me in this moment of crisis.
I then realised that the mob in question had stopped in its tracks for some reason, and was now sprinting right back where it came from; and looking round I discovered that, to add to our pleasure on this merry morning, some fool had let the lions out!
At the moment they were in mute pursuit of a bizarre figure in the dishevelled uniform of a member of the armed forces, who - absurdly, I thought, under the circumstances
- was making shoo-ing gestures at them with a broken lyre; whereas everyone knows that you really need a chair for that sort of thing.
But it was not time to argue over the various techniques of animal training; and, united once more, Delos and I joined the flying fugitive as he traversed the arena, and leaped the barricade at the far side, opposition melting before us, in view presumably of our huge pursuers; and finally, in a last burst of speed we passed through the turnstiles to seek anonymity and safety in the streets of Rome!
Later: I have been trying to explain to Delos that it is now necessary for us to go back to the palace and rescue Barbara, but he does not seem to see it my way, and refuses to do anything of the sort!
What a strangely ungrateful man he is to adopt this attitude, after all I have done for him these past days! But no he intends, he says, to return to Greece forthwith, and still grumbles about losing his expenses!
Very well, then: as usual I shall have to go on alone...
DOCUMENT XXVI
Seventh Extract from the Doctor’s
Diary
I did not linger long enough to witness the