The Governor lowered his voice:
"Serve me as well when occasion requires, Captain Dion; and if Elkiah's daughter does not reward your service with her favor, tell her what she owes to Apollonius, and I will cast my bait."
The revellers dispersed to their various quarters, some to the citadel, some to the camps outside the walls, and some to the mansions from which they had ejected the owners. One or two of the slaves lighted torches of resinous wood to guide the feet of their masters along the stones, which were slippery with the sewage thrown from the doorways, or poured over the roof parapets into the street. But most of the servants were fully occupied in supporting the limp bodies of their lords, and now and then lifting them out of the holes where, once fallen, they insisted upon sitting, while they called for more wine, or relieved themselves of what they had already taken.
VII
IN THE TOILS OF APOLLONIUS
Dion hastened toward the house of Elkiah, leading the blind child by the hand. As they threaded their way through the narrow streets, Caleb told his story of the day's adventures. He had been seized in the afternoon, and taken somewhere beyond the walls, among the soldiers in the tents. He overheard his captors talking of the reward that Elkiah would give for the return of his son, and intimating how much more they could wring from Glaucon, when some one claimed him in the name of Apollonius. He was led away, as he supposed, to be killed, and was surprised at being conducted to the palace.
Dion plied him with questions, but could elicit no further information. The Captain knew Apollonius too well to believe that the introduction of a Jewish Cupid at the feast, and the rescue of the lad, were all there was to his purpose. He pondered the problem in the light of the Governor's well-known selfishness and sensuality. Did his design reach to the possession of Deborah?
Coming to the house of Elkiah they were surprised to find the outer door unfastened. Caleb ran up the stairs and heralded his coming with many shouts.
Elkiah was sitting beside the wounded Benjamin in the darkness.
"The Lord be praised! His mercy endureth forever!" ejaculated the father as Caleb flung himself into his arms.
"But where is Deborah?" cried the lad.
"Is not your sister with you? Then how came you hither, child?" replied the old man, in that quick terror to which the events of recent days had made him susceptible.
"I brought him here, sir. I, Dion."
"Met you not my daughter? You sent for her? No? I understand it not. One came bringing as a token a bit of the lad's clothing, and pledged to take her where the lost might be found. I thought the messenger had come from you. Ere I could detain her, Deborah was gone. Was it not you that sent? May I believe a Greek? Trifle not, I beseech you, with one whose life-thread can endure but little more. My daughter! O give me my daughter! If harm has come to her through thee, the curse of the Lord rot thy bones! O my child! My child!"
"It is the trick of the soldiers. They thought to get Deborah too," cried Caleb.
"Alas," said Dion, "that you were not blind, and could see to take me to the place where they kept you before the General sent for you."
"That I can do," said the boy. "I saw all the way."
"Saw?"
"Aye, with my feet and with my nostrils and with my ears, I saw everything. Outside the walls we went down, down, down; it must have been to cross the Kedron. Then we went up, up, up, fully halfway the ascent toward Bethany. We went close to a cactus hedge, for I felt on my cheeks the cool air the cactus breathes. Then over a broken wall, for I fell among the stones. Next a house, high and of smooth mortar walls, for I can tell such things by the echo one's footfall makes. The tent we stopped at was near where horses, as many as threescore, were tethered; this I knew from their neighing. It is an old camp, for the odor of the dung was old."
"I have the spot," said Dion. "It is the camp of Cleanthes. Let me away! But Glaucon, your Benjamin, does well?" bending a moment over the sleeping form.
"So said the surgeon you brought," replied Elkiah. "But haste! O God of Abraham, take my son if Thou wilt, but spare, oh, spare, my Deborah! God be merciful! Thy billows are gone over me. Spare me that I may see again the face of my child, and gather strength before I go hence, and be no more!"
Caleb's judgment that Deborah had been decoyed by the soldiers proved true. Her guide led her to the palace of Apollonius. On the way she passed the roysterers returning from the banquet. The presence of the soldier did not shield her from the insult of their tongues so well as did her preoccupation with anxiety for her brother. She was left alone in the antechamber of the Governor. Now and then she inquired in vain of the passing servants for the blind child. Growing suspicious, she endeavored to make her escape, but found the exits fastened, as she tried them one by one.
At length the Governor came to her. He was flushed and unsteady from the effects of his debauch, and accosted her with maudlin insolence.
"Ah, my pretty Jewess!"
"I came, sir, to claim the blind child, son of Elkiah."
"But suppose I should first claim the daughter of Elkiah. On the street I let you go, but since you have come to me, well—that is different. My will must rule in my own palace."
"Aye, the will of Apollonius, who has given his word for the safety of the house of Elkiah," replied the girl undaunted.
"True, my fair one, and Apollonius will keep his word. You are in danger anywhere else than here. None are safe in Jerusalem but those who come beneath my shadow. To-morrow the soldiers will be let loose. I cannot hold them back any longer. Elkiah's house may go with the rest of the damned Jews. Apollonius' friendship is better than the sword of his soldiers, eh, is it not?"
He put out his hands.
This terrible threat and the hideous alternative it presented to her were too much for the girl to take in at once. She sank at the monster's feet.
"Ah, my sweet one, don't do that. No slave shall you be to me; but I will give you as many jewels as—as the fair Clarissa, the Queen of the Grove of Daphne, wears. And I swear by your bright eyes, you shall outshine the very goddesses of Antiochus' palace."
He stooped and touched her. Then she quivered as if stung by a scorpion.
"Mercy, sir! Mercy for the house of Elkiah! An old man, a blind child, a wretched girl—these are not enemies for the great Apollonius to crush. Brave men would despise him for harming such."
"Humph!" grunted the Governor, "and they would despise me more for letting such a splendid woman as you go to another—even to Dion."
At this word Deborah leaped to her feet.
Apollonius held out his arms to her, but recoiled as he saw her whole frame the impersonation of hatred and rage. He would as soon have ventured to grasp a sheet of flame. Then his face hardened. Fixing upon her a pair of cold, steely eyes, he assumed the pose of a bargainer.
