Side by side with the remaining gladiators Tarzan fought to hold the legionaries back from the little doorway until the balance of his party had won safely to the garden and seized the ballista. Glancing back he saw Mpingu leading Dilecta from the room in the rear of the escaped prisoners. Then he turned again to the defense of the doorway, which his little party held stubbornly until Tarzan saw the ballista in the hands of his own men, and, giving step by step across the room, he and they backed through the breach in the wall. At a shout of command from Praeclarus, they leaped to one side. The hammer fell upon the trigger of the ballista, which Praeclarus had lined upon the window, and a heavy rock drove full into the faces of the legionaries. For a moment the fates had been kind to Tarzan and his fellows, but it soon became apparent that they were little if any better off here than in the room they had just quitted, for in the garden they were ringed by legionaries. Pikes were flying through the air, and though the ballista and their own good swords were keeping the enemy at a respectful distance, there was none among them who believed that they could for long withstand the superior numbers and the better equipment of their adversaries. There came a pause in the fighting, which must necessarily be the case in hand-to-hand encounters, and as though by tacit agreement each side rested. The three whites watched the enemy closely. "They are preparing for a concerted attack with pikes," said Praeclarus. "That will write finis to our earthly endeavors," remarked Cassius Hasta. "May the gods receive us with rejoicing," said Caecilius Metellus. "I think the gods prefer them to us," said Tarzan. "Why?" demanded Cassius Hasta. "Because they have taken so many more of them to heaven this night," replied the ape-man, pointing at the corpses lying about the garden, and Cassius Hasta smiled, appreciatively. "They will charge in another moment," said Maximus Praeclarus, and turning to Dilecta he took her in his arms and kissed her. "Good-by, dear heart," he said. "How fleeting is happiness! How futile the hopes of mortal man!" "Not good-by, Praeclarus," replied the girl, "for where you go I shall go," and she showed him the slim dagger in her hand. "No," cried the man. "Promise me that you will not do that." "And why not? Is not death sweeter than Fastus?" "Perhaps you are right," he said, sadly. "They come," cried Cassius Hasta. "Ready!" shouted Tarzan. "Give them all we have. Death is better than the dungeons of the Colosseum." _Chapter Twenty_