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and the four contiguous states. I also have a lot more, but I’ve probably done a pretty good job of impressing you already, haven’t I, Mr. Guild?”
    There was no hint of irony in the man’s voice.
    â€œYou’d think so, wouldn’t you?” Guild said.
    Tom Adair leaned forward. There was something predatory about his face up close in the glow of the Rochester lamp. “I also have a lot of important friends.”
    â€œI’m sure you do.”
    As if he were a vaudevillian taking over his part of the act, Hollister asked, “Have you ever studied history, Mr. Guild?”
    â€œNot as much as I should have.”
    â€œWell,” Hollister said, “if you ever read about the Roman emperors, you’ll find that they all had one problem in common.” Guild didn’t say anything. Hollister looked at Adair and then continued. “They had a difficult time keeping their friends—and all the other citizens of Rome—amused. You’re familiar with the Coliseum and the games?”
    Guild nodded.
    â€œWell, during the reign of each emperor, the citizens and friends of the court got bored with the games and demanded new pleasures.”
    â€œI see.”
    â€œHave you ever heard of Tiberius?”
    â€œI’m afraid not.”
    Adair took over once more from Hollister. “He had a particularly bad problem, Mr. Guild. His palace courtiers were so bored with the games that they began to dislike Tiberius personally. He had to come up with something that was really unique.”
    Hollister said, “So that’s why he came up with the idea of the bear and the baby.”
    â€œThe bear and the baby?”
    â€œHe’d have his soldiers capture great black bears from the mountains and then bring them to Rome.”
    Guild wasn’t sure he wanted to hear the rest of this.
    Hollister continued, “Then he’d gather the elite citizens of Rome along the river’s edge. Before their eyes, he’d have the bears killed in a very brutal fashion, after which he’d have them gutted and laid open.”
    â€œI see.”
    Adair said, “Not yet you don’t, Mr. Guild. Do you know what he’d put inside the bears?”
    Guild said nothing. Knowing what was coming next, he felt sick.
    Leaning even farther forward so that Guild could feel the man’s spittle spray across his face, Adair continued. “He’d take the youngest infants of the palace slaves and have them sewn inside the empty bellies of the bears. The babies were alive inside there. You could hear them crying and screaming.”
    â€œAnd then the guards would take the bears and hurl them into the water,” Hollister took over, “and the crowd would watch the bears sink with the babies drowning inside.”
    â€œAnd it turned Tiberius’ fortune around. He was known, for the rest of his life, as one of the great games-givers of Roman history,” Adair said.
    Guild knocked his whiskey back. He wanted to reach across and slap Adair. Hollister was too much of a toady to even bother with.
    â€œWhat do you think of that, Mr. Guild?” Hollister asked.
    â€œI think Tiberius should have been killed. With somebody’s hands.”
    Hollister laughed. “Now don’t go and get moral on us, Mr. Guild. We told you that story for a reason.”
    The barmaid came, and Hollister ordered another round for the three of them.
    When the barmaid had gone, Adair said, “Important people tend to get bored easily, Mr. Guild. They’re too sophisticated to put up with things that would amuse ordinary people.”
    â€œTomorrow night there’s a birthday party out at the ranch for Mr. Adair. He’ll be forty-two,” said Hollister.
    â€œI haven’t been able to come up with any event that would really please my friends,” Adair said. ‘Till now, that is.”
    â€œWhat he’s got in mind is a real honest-to-God