ESTATE OF POMPEII
185
but still thoughtfully, glancing up a moment at Vesuvius, "Christians
make-a the strong propaganda. They say their God have destroyed
Pompeii for its wickedness. Now Pompeiians they say: Pompeii is im–
moral town?
If
that were-a so, Vesuvius must-a come every day to
punish us."
Roderick smiled, liking the guide, and he also looked again at
Vesuvius which, now clear, with its conventional plume of smoke,
seemed too far away and insignificant to have done much damage
anyhow. StilI, out of fairness to the volcano it seemed proper to
note that its physical insignificance must be largely due to the damage
it had done, Roderick went on to say to Tansy.
Alas, poor old Vesuvius had really waged a war of attrition on
itself in the last century. No longer did the fire-spouting mountain
wax and grow taller on the sacrifice of those beneath him, all the
territory it had demolished of late years had been at its own expense,
every explosion and inundation it had sent forth had decreased its
own stature until now, having literally blasted its own cone off, it
appeared little more than a distant hill. Vesuvius was Paracutin in
reverse. Though it might still, even now at this moment, be working
up more fury, perhaps the god that wished to be believed in should
be wary too often of speaking through fire, of giving too many direct
signs of his presence.
Actually, he was frightened of Vesuvius, in so far as he could
bring himself to think of it at all. All of which caused him to re–
member that Tansy and he had climbed it only the day before yes–
terday in the company-"visiting their old stamping ground," Tansy
said--of some Greeks. And he certainly would not have cared to be–
little it then, Roderick thought, crossing himself as they passed the
Temple of Venus and went on into the Forum. The cinders got into
their shoes, the guides, with their staffs, shrouded in fog and resem–
bling black magicians, had urged them on with loud cries toward the
top, where Tansy lamented it was not now possible to descend, like
Lamartine, into the crater because a recent earthquake had caused
great clefts in the path down into the noisome and shattered abyss.
Roderick had, by placing it in the earth, lit a cigarette to bring
him luck.
It
was difficult to keep up with the guide who now seemed to
wear a somewhat different appearance, perhaps because his complete
