“Where is the man who heals the blind?” demanded Chelluh, leaning heavily on the child.
Tor trembled, but he answered boldly enough. “He will be in the court of the Gentiles healing the blind.”
There was a great concourse of people crowding the street which led up to the temple, and amongst them numerous cripples, palsied men on litters, sick children in the arms of anxious, wild-eyed mothers, and blind beggars, led like Chelluh by willing guides.
“Yes, the King is in the temple,” re[pg 65]peated Tor confidently. Then he shouted “Hosanna!” in his shrill childish voice, as he had done the day before. The cry was echoed by myriads of voices both far and near.
Chelluh’s heavy hand descended upon his guide’s curly head. “Be silent, fool,” he hissed. “There is tumult ahead. Keep clear of the crowd, I say, and look sharp!”
They were near the main entrance of the temple now, and the stream of newcomers was met by an excited mob of people coming out. Imprecations, shouts, and loud angry cries blended confusedly with the whir of moving wings, for a great cloud of doves hovered uncertainly over the place, now flying, now settling on the roofs and pinnacles of the marble porticoes. Chelluh stopped determinedly and snuffed the air like an animal.
[pg 66]“What is going on within?” he demanded of Tor.
The question was answered by a woman in a foreign head-dress who chanced to pause in the crowd beside them. “The Nazarene has thrust out the sellers of doves and the money-changers from the great court,” she said laughingly. “With these eyes I saw it. The Prophet cast down the tables with no gentle hand, loosed the doves, and drove out the craven Jews before him like a flock of frightened sheep. ’Twas a great sight. Also, the money was scattered all over the court among the multitude. Even I, a Gentile, am the richer for it.”
“Money?” exclaimed the blind beggar greedily. “Come, let us go in, I would I had eyes that I might glean of this harvest.”
[pg 67]“The man gives eyes also for the asking,” said the woman indifferently. “I have witnessed miracles of healing till I am weary of them. The Jew is a great magician, surely; but his own countrymen hate him, and the Romans care naught for miracles, so betwixt the two he will perchance fall to the ground.”
Tor was not listening, he was watching for a good opening through which to pilot his blind charge. “When thou art healed, thou wilt become a servant of the King,” he said softly in the ear of the blind beggar.
“Ay, and will I?” sneered Chelluh; “and what will I do then?”
“Fetch blind folks to be healed,” said the child simply. “Now I see him,” he added, with joyful certainty. “Do but follow quickly and thou shalt be blind no longer!”
[pg 68]Like the showers and sunshine of the Father which bless the good and the evil alike through all the years of all the ages, so was the healing power of him who manifested the Father in every act of his life. And so it came to pass that many came to be healed of blindness in those last great days, and went away with seeing eyes and blind souls.
Chelluh’s first act after receiving his sight was to stare hard at Tor. “I am minded to know thee again,” he said thoughtfully.
The boy shivered beneath his gaze. Chelluh with seeing eyes was even more terrible than Chelluh blind. Those devouring eyes were roving like the eyes of a beast of prey over the excited crowd. They fastened at last on a man who stood not far from the Nazarene. “I know [pg 69]that man’s voice,” said Chelluh. “Who and what is he?”
“He is a servant of the King,” said Tor. “His name is Peter.”
“His name is Peter,” repeated Chelluh, and struck his palms together softly. He turned and without another word plunged into the crowd and was gone.
Tor forgot him presently. He was edging his way nearer and nearer to the wondrous Voice. Jesus was teaching the people, and his words fell upon the child’s ignorant ears with a strange and potent charm. He could not understand; but he listened because he loved; and, listening and loving, he comprehended something of what was being said, even as a babe discerns the speech of its mother. Love answereth love, as deep calleth unto deep.
At night Tor followed his Master and [pg 70]the twelve when they went forth out of the city to lodge in the house of his friends in Bethany. This time the child slept on the ground in the shelter of the garden wall, begging a crust and a cup of water from one of the villagers at dawn. No one questioned the boy and so he was able again to follow almost at their heels when the little party set out for Jerusalem.
There was a withered fig-tree near the wayside, and Tor heard the Galilean, Peter, pause and say to his Master, “Rabbi, behold the fig-tree which thou cursedst is withered away.”
And Jesus looked upon the withered tree and answered the Galilean on this wise: “Have faith in God; for I tell thee that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart, but [pg 71]shall believe that what he saith cometh to pass; he shall have it. Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them. And whensoever ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have aught against any one; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”
Tor was crouching in the shelter of a bush and heard every word distinctly. His thin face burned with excitement. “He said ‘whosoever,’ ” he murmured. “He said ‘whosoever.’ ” Tor knew something of the custom of prayer. Many times he had seen the rich Pharisees standing motionless at the street-corners praying. Also, he had begged in the temple court, where many persons prayed aloud. For himself, he never prayed. The God of the Jews regarded not beg[pg 72]gars, he told himself. Now as he crouched behind the bush, listening to the departing footsteps of the thirteen men, he began to say over to himself the word “Father,” which the man who had opened his eyes said so often.
He repeated it softly to himself many times. Then he sprang up and followed hard after his Master, vaguely comforted and glad at heart.
The day was a long one, passed mainly in the great Court of the Gentiles, and Tor, mingling with every gaping crowd which surrounded the Nazarene, was puzzled and troubled by much that he saw and heard. There was no shouting of Hosanna to-day, no royal acclamations. The people stood close in serried ranks and listened doubtfully to the strange teachings of the King in the seamless robe—the King who wore no [pg 73]crown and whose followers bore no arms. He was telling stories to the multitude, stories so simple that even a beggar could understand them. The child pressed close, so close that he could have touched the sandaled feet of the man who had opened his eyes. And so he listened to the stories of the father and his two undutiful sons; the absent lord of the vineyard and his wicked servants; the generous king who made a marriage feast for his son, and how it befell that the very beggars were gathered into the feast. The child smiled and trembled and wept aloud beneath the power of that wondrous Voice; more than once the Master’s deep eyes rested upon the small upturned face with its wistful look of adoration.
And once, as he was speaking, the hand of Jesus rested for a moment on the [pg 74]rough curls of the beggar’s head. Ah, the rapture of that moment! Tor knew now deep in his heart that he was the accepted servant of the King. He could have remained there forever listening to the stories; but the temple police began to clear away the crowd with loud authoritative cries and random thrusts of their gilded poles of office.
“Make way!” they shouted. “Make way for the holy and reverend chief priests and the honorable elders of the Sanhedrim!”
Through the narrow passage thus cleared there came presently in great pomp and glory a stately delegation from the supreme council of the Jewish hierarchy. The chief priests wished to question publicly this worker of miracles—this teller of strange parables, who openly wrought his mighty works in the [pg 75]temple of Jehovah without their will or permission. “By what authority doest thou these things?” they demanded. “And who gave thee this authority?”
And Jesus, calm and unafraid, answered them after their own custom with another question. “I also will ask you one thing,” he said, “which if ye tell me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven or from men?”
The gorgeously-robed official who had put the question glanced about him at the hostile faces of the multitude, with a truculent air of scorn and contempt. Thus mumbling and stammering angrily in the midst of his great beard, he turned and conferred in a whisper with his companions. “If we say, From heaven,” he [pg 76]muttered, “the fellow will ask, Why then did ye not believe him?”
“Ay,” quoth another, “but if we say, From men, there is the multitude to be reckoned with, for all hold that John was a prophet.”
And so they presently faced the Master, their fierce eyes under the glittering insignia of the priestly office glaring at the calm, pale Man of Nazareth. “We know not,” they said.
And Jesus replied, “Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.”
The priests withdrew in sullen silence, and the telling of strange stories went on; but Tor, somehow swept from his position by the shifting crowd, found himself near the defeated priests. They had paused to listen with the others, and were standing with folded arms and [pg 77]sneering faces by one of the great pillars of the portico.
Tor slipped behind the column, of a sudden all ears. These men were speaking in a half whisper of the King, his Master. They hated him; Tor was sure of it. “The fellow will ruin us if we cannot stop his blatant mouth,” said one. “Listen now to his open threats: ‘The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.’ ”
“And he calleth himself our King,” sneered another. “A pretty pass hath the chosen people come to when the rabble choose a Nazaritish carpenter for King. Aha, I laugh at him!”
“’Tis no time for mirth,” growled another. “The multitudes are ever agog for some new thing; stoning or cruci[pg 78]fixion is better than laughter for such an one. Hark you, the thing must be put down and speedily. I know a way and a man; he—” The voice dropped to low whispers, and Tor, trembling with vague fright, and scarce knowing what he did, wriggled his way through the crowd toward the white-robed figure of Jesus.
Peter, the Galilean, was also talking excitedly with a man in the outskirts of the crowd. Tor fixed his eyes upon the tall, broad-shouldered fisherman with some confidence. “I will tell him,” he said to himself, and hovered expectantly near, waiting for an opportunity to speak. “He must declare himself unmistakably and at once,” the small, dark-faced man was saying with an impatient gesture. “This telling of pretty tales and working of miracles has gone [pg 79]on over long, say I. We should arm ourselves and make ready, and the Sanhedrim must be won over by some great sign from heaven. We can do nothing without them.”
“And I say let the Master work out his plans as it pleaseth him,” said Peter boldly. “Saw you not his kingly air on Sunday, Judas? He is every inch a King, I tell thee, and able to make of us princes and high priests—ay, and to sweep away all oppressors by the word of his mouth.”
“Able, perhaps,” muttered Judas shaking his head, “but I doubt him. The man careth nothing for money—nothing for power. I know him. What are his plans? Does any one know them? Do we who are nearest him dare ask him? He is, perchance, nothing more than a dreamer, and our ambitions and hopes [pg 80]are founded upon the shifting sands of his visions. Nay, I know what thou wouldst say, Simon. But thou art no statesman—no patriot. I hear the chosen people groaning in their slavery. I see the iron heel of Rome about to crush out the last lingering life of the nation. Will this man save us? Can he, I ask? Or is he—” Judas choked convulsively, and tore at the neck of his garment with quivering hands. “I am half mad with the torture of it,” he groaned, “the—the waiting—the doubt; I—I fear that he—”
“Nay, thou art a truculent and unbelieving fellow at heart,” said Peter easily. “Didst hear how the Master answered the priests but now? I could have laughed aloud to see them slink away like whipped curs.”
“Like whipped curs—yes,” muttered the other. “But they will return anon [pg 81]like ravening wolves, unless he declare himself. ’Tis folly—folly!” He turned and plunged hastily into the crowd, and Peter, left to himself, began to smite his great hands softly together. “He hath the power to put them all to silence,” he said half aloud. “He will do it—let no one fear!”
“I fear,” said Tor, suddenly speaking at the fisherman’s elbow. “I fear—for him.”
“What now, small one,” quoth Peter, staring down at the child with a displeased shrug. “Have I not told thee to keep thy distance?”
“Yes, but I will not,” said Tor doggedly. “Listen, Galilean. I heard the men in long robes speak of him. They hate him. They will kill him, if they can. Take care of him—thou.”
“My Master can take care of himself, [pg 82]boy,” said Peter boastfully. “He is a King; also, I am his servant.”
“Where is thy sword, servant of a King?” demanded Tor, eyeing him doubtfully.
“My sword—my sword?” stammered the fisherman. “I have no sword.”
“Then get one,” advised Tor briefly.
The Galilean shook his great shoulders doubtfully as he stared after the small, agile figure of the boy, darting and doubling, twisting and turning through the huddled masses of people gathered about his Master. “By the double veil—” he began, and stopped short with a perplexed frown. “ ‘Swear not at all,’ saith my Master, yet my unruly tongue doth ever betray me. Truly, the tongue is a fire, tamed by no man, not even its owner.”
There was some new excitement brewing, for the fisherman was thrust rudely to one side by a guard of brawny temple [pg 84]police, who advanced as before, crying out to the people to fall back in the name of the Sanhedrim. The group of men which followed close on the heels of the guard forced another profane exclamation from the unguarded lips of the Galilean. “Herodians!” he muttered, “and Pharisees. Now, what doth this portend?”
The question was answered by Judas, who reappeared at the moment, his dark face distorted by a savage sneer. “Wouldst know why these courtiers of Herod have come to the Nazarene, fisherman? Well, I can tell thee. Our chosen Master hath of late permitted himself to be hailed King of the Jews, yet hath he not pledged the nation to the support of his claim, nor even armed us, his chosen followers. What then? Herod is a paltry tetrarch of Galilee, he plots and [pg 85]schemes at Rome for his father’s crown. Thou mayst know, fisherman,—unless thy head be too thick for understanding—that the pretensions of the carpenter’s son have been widely noised abroad, and have already reached the ears of royal Herod. Jesus of Nazareth must take heed to himself or he will presently be dealt with after the manner of John the Baptist—or worse.”
“Get thee behind me, prophet of evil,” growled Peter; “thou hast ever the dismal croak of the raven. What if Herod intends to acknowledge Jesus as the lawful descendant of David and the promised Messiah? The tetrarch is, after all, a Jew, and looks for the deliverance of Israel.”
Judas laughed silently, his narrow eye-slits shooting arrows of scorn at the big fisherman. “What if the stones of [pg 86]the temple should suddenly become armed troops for the defense of our sapient Master?” he asked.
“It might well be so,” murmured Peter thoughtfully. “Did he not walk upon the sea? Did he not control the lightnings and the tempest? Did he not feed the five thousand with one man’s victual? Hist now, they are speaking to him!”
The courtiers of Herod, garbed as Roman exquisites, perfumed and smiling, were addressing themselves to the man of Nazareth. They prefaced their words with extravagant obeisances, tendered with mock humility. Behind them stood the Pharisees alert and watchful.
“Listen!” repeated the fisherman, his honest face flushed with expectancy.
“We know that thou art true, Rabbi,” began the spokesman of the party, “and [pg 87]carest for the opinion of no man; for thou regardest not the person of men, but teachest the way of God in truth. Is it lawful to give tribute unto Cæsar, or not? Shall we give, or shall we not give?”
Jesus faced his inquisitors, erect and calm, his deep eyes searching their hypocritical hearts. There was silence for a full minute, while the crowded listeners craned their necks for his reply, and Judas clenched his knotted hands in a very agony of suspense. This was the supreme moment. Tribute to Cæsar, or no? Tribute to the usurping heathen emperor, or allegiance to the throne of David—which?
The carpenter’s son whitened slowly under the fiery eyes which scorched him with their brutal passions. Then came his answer—spoken slowly, deliberately: [pg 88]“Why tempt ye me? Give me a penny, that I may see it.”
The perfumed exquisite from Herod’s court languidly fingered the gold pieces in his pouch, with a pitying smile for this penniless pretender to a throne, and presently, drawing therefrom one of the lesser coins of the empire, gave it to the Nazarene.
“Whose is this image and superscription?” demanded Jesus, his voice ringing out in the crowded place like the peal of a great bell.
“Cæsar’s,” replied the courtier, bowing servilely at mention of that name of power.
Then came the wondrous answer, forever solving all questions of human fealty: “Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”
[pg 89]Instantly there arose from the multitude a great hum of approval. “Well spoken!” “Thou hast said!” “Behold a Solomon in our midst!” burst from one and another in deep-throated chorus. And the Pharisees, wrathful and menacing, withdrew with the crestfallen Herodians.
“Said I not that he was a match for the best of them?” cried Peter, showing his white teeth in a great laugh of relief and triumph. “Aye, our Master is king of a surety, wiser than any scribe is he, keener than a Damascus blade having two edges.”
But Judas groaned aloud. “What a moment to have declared himself!” he muttered. “And lost—ay, lost forever. My God! what and who is the man?”
Tor had wriggled his small body through the dense crowd back to the feet [pg 90]of Jesus, where he crouched ready to spring like a faithful dog at the throat of any man who should threaten his Master. “I have no sword,” muttered the child to himself, “but I have two hands well furnished with nails, also, I have teeth like the teeth of Baladan. Let the men in long robes beware.”
But as yet no man durst lay so much as a finger on that seamless robe. Other tempters wearing great turbans, bearded, scowling, came to ask mocking questions concerning the resurrection. And on the insensate ears of the multitude fell those significant words which the world has neither comprehended nor believed to this day: “But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? [pg 91]God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”
Afterward the Pharisees, rejoicing in the discomfiture of their hated rivals, the Sadducees, gathered again like barking wolves about a hunted quarry. “Master,” asked one of them hypocritically, “which is the great commandment in the law?” For, they argued, if we can but draw this witless carpenter’s son into a discussion on the law we shall be able to put him to open shame before the multitude.
Jesus answered the scribe without hesitation: “The first commandment is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one; and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. The second is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as [pg 92]thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.”
He who had asked the question trembled under the searching eyes of the Nazarene. Of a sudden those familiar words of the temple ritual blazed within his darkened soul like a great light. And he answered truth with truth. “Master, thou hast well said that he is one; and there is none other but he; and to love him with all the understanding, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbor as himself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
And Jesus said to this man: “Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.” But upon the others, who were openly sneering at their spokesman and muttering anathemas in their great beards, he presently launched the most terrible words ever spoken to man. Ghastly woes upon [pg 93]woes reverberated in their astonished ears, while all the rottenness of their guilty hearts was suddenly torn open and laid bare for the rabble to gaze upon. “Serpents, offspring of vipers,” he called them; and hissing, crawling, stinging, they crept away to their dens in murderous haste, while the fickle multitude, roused to a very frenzy of excitement, rocked and wept under the prophetic wail of his closing words, heavy with swift-approaching doom: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killeth the prophets, and stoneth them that are sent unto her! how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed [pg 94]is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.”
And Judas, who had heard and seen all, staggered away, blind and crazed with anger and despair. “Ruin—ruin!” he muttered. “I see naught but black ruin! In his rash folly the man hath cut the last rope of safety. There is but one chance—one. He must again quell the storm he has raised about our ears with the word of his power, and I—yes, I will force him to it. I swear it!”
In that same hour the beggar, Tor, saw and heard what he has never forgotten to this moment of his eternity—nor yet will forget. Certain Greeks had come up to keep the passover at Jerusalem, for they had abandoned the pagan rites of Rome and Athens, and were trying to serve the invisible Jehovah. These heard speedily of the new prophet who [pg 95]gathered the whole city to hear him in the temple, and they desired mightily to see him.
When one will see Jesus, even to this hour, his desire is granted to him. So then these Gentiles presently set their longing eyes upon the man they sought. And Jesus, looking with prophetic gaze adown the vista of coming centuries, saw in these foreigners, with their clear, fair faces and candid eyes, those who should truly accept him as their king, understanding as the Jews could not the glories of his invisible kingdom. And seeing thus all that must be, he said to those about him: “The hour is come that the Son of man should be glorified.”
And again he said: “Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit. He that loveth his [pg 96]life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will the Father honor. Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name.”
Then came a great Voice out of the unseen. “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”
The people heard the sound of the Voice and trembled. But not to every man is it given to hear aright; so some said, “It thundered,” and rolled foolish eyes toward the cloudless heavens.
Others, awe-stricken, whispered, “An angel hath spoken to him.”
To these Jesus spake presently. “This [pg 97]voice hath not come for my sake, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”
Then one of the scribes, shaken out of his hypocrisy by the thunder of that celestial Voice, asked in all sincerity: “We have heard out of the law that the Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou, The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man?”
And Jesus, divinely patient, answered once again: “Yet a little while is the light among you. Walk while ye have the light, that darkness overtake you not: and he that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye have the light, believe on the light, that ye may become sons of light.”
[pg 98]And with that word he went away and hid himself, and no man saw him for many hours.
Stronger even than the cords of love are the cords of habit. If a man has shaken a brazen cup and bellowed for alms for more than a score of years, the cup and the cry will have become a part of himself, not lightly to be shaken off. Chelluh, with eyes, hungered as before, and as before he coveted money for his few and evil pleasures. So it came to pass that after a day spent in sight-seeing, he was again squatting comfortably in his familiar corner by the Damascus gate, his eyes closed, his horny knuckles beating a monotonous accompaniment to the familiar mendicant’s [pg 100]whine: “Have mercy, kind lords of Jerusalem! Have mercy on the sorrows of one born blind! Kind lords, beautiful ladies, only a denarius, I beseech of you!”
Tor, searching anxiously for his new Master in every corner of the city, came upon the beggar unawares, and stopped short in indignant amaze. “Did not the King, my Master, give thee sight but yesterday?” he demanded.
Chelluh opened his eyes with a muttered malediction. “Who art thou,” he snarled, “to question me? How else shall I live?”
Tor looked hard at the man’s great bulk. “There are many laborers working in the great quarries yonder,” he answered slowly. “The Romans pay every man of them a silver penny.”
Chelluh replied to this suggestion with [pg 101]a string of curses spoken in three languages. He ended by hurling a great stone at the lad’s head. Badly aimed, the missile crashed over the wall of a garden hard by.
There was a moment of silence, during which Chelluh scuttled rapidly away. Then a small door in the wall was suddenly thrown open and two men darted out. They looked up and down the narrow street, and seeing no one but Tor, who stood staring in stupefied silence after the beggar, they seized the boy and dragged him into the enclosure, locking and barring the door behind them.
“’Tis an evil offspring of beggars that hath done this mischief,” exclaimed one of the men angrily. “Did I not say it?”
The other man fixed his eyes on Tor. “Didst thou throw the stone that broke the great vase yonder?” he asked.
[pg 102]Tor’s wild, bright eyes followed the man’s accusing finger to the spot where an urn carven from costly marble lay in ruins amid a tangle of bright flowers. “I did not throw the stone,” he said.
“Lies!” cried the first man, stamping his foot. “Why question a dog? Give the fellow to me; I will scourge him soundly and thrust him forth. His bleeding back will, perchance, warn others of his sort to keep their distance from the palace.”
“I am not a dog,” said Tor boldly. “I am the servant of a King. I was looking for my Master, and another hurled the stone at me. But because the man was lately healed of blindness he could not throw a stone with ease, and, therefore, it came over the wall.”
One of the men shook with laughter at this speech. “Nay, but thou art a pretty [pg 103]liar,” he said at last. “The servant of a King! aye, thou dost look the part rarely! May I ask thee the name of thy royal Master?”
“His name is Jesus,” said Tor. “I was blind, and he gave me eyes. Therefore, I serve him.”
The faces of both men had grown suddenly serious. They exchanged significant glances. “Better hold the boy till my lord’s return; he will, perchance, wish to question him of the matter,” said one. And the other nodding, gripped the child roughly by the shoulder, and presently thrust him into an empty scullery of an inner court.
Tor flung himself against the heavy door in a sudden fury of despair. “Let me out!” he screamed. “Let me out! I must find my Master.”
Then, as no one paid the slightest heed [pg 104]to his outcries, he began to look about him for some means of escape. The one window high in the wall was heavily barred, and there was no opening in the small, dark chamber save the door by which he had entered, and this was fast locked on the outside.
The boy tore at his rags like a trapped animal. Then spying a great sealed jar in one corner he began to scratch savagely at its cover. “If it be wine,” he muttered, “I will drink my fill for once. Nay, I will do more. I will spill upon the earth all that I cannot drink. I hate the men who have thrust me into this place! Also, I hate Chelluh; some day I will kill him.”
“Forgive, if ye have aught against any one; that your Father may forgive you.”
Who had spoken? The beggar child [pg 105]ceased his beast-like clawing at the sealed lid of the jar; his flushed face paled slowly. “Forgive—forgive!” The words rang clearly in his bewildered ears. He sank slowly to the floor, and dropped his head to his lean knees in an effort to remember. “It was my Master who said it,” he muttered at last. “He said ‘Forgive, that your Father may forgive.’ Father—my Father!”
The child’s face lighted with sudden joy. “He said whosoever asks shall have. I will ask, for I want to get out of this place that I may follow my Master.” Then in a loud, clear voice, after the fashion of the Pharisees he had heard praying in the temple and on the corners of the streets, he cried aloud: “Father, I want to get out of this place! My Father! I want to get out—Father! Father!”
[pg 106]There was a soft fumbling sound at the door. “Who is calling?” asked a sweet, imperious voice.
“I am calling,” answered Tor expectantly. “I want to get out.”
“I can’t unlock the door,” answered the voice, “but Oonah can. Be quiet till I fetch her.”
A moment later the sunshine streamed in through the open door, revealing the figure of a very beautiful child on its threshold. Behind the child stood a young girl attired like a servant. She was smiling broadly. “How didst thou come in here, boy?” she asked, staring curiously at the beggar’s tear-stained face and scant rags.
“The fat man with the red tunic put me here,” said Tor. “He said I broke the vase with a stone, but I did not.”
“It was Marcus who shut him up,” [pg 107]said the maid, pursing up her lips knowingly. “I must shut him in again, and make fast the door before Marcus finds out that I have opened it. Come, princess, we—”
“Be silent, Oonah, I wish to speak to the boy,” said the child with a gesture of command. “Where is thy father?” she continued, fixing her blue eyes on Tor. “I heard thee calling him. I thought it was Set, the slave boy; he is always getting into trouble.”
Tor pointed upward vaguely. “I called my Father who is in heaven,” he said. “I have not seen him, but he causes what one asks to be done; my Master said it.”
“Who said it?”
“My Master. His Name is Jesus. He is a King. He made me see. I was blind.”
“Thou wast blind?” cried the serving-[pg 108]maid, laughing incredulously. “Nay, but thine eyes are bright as stars.”
“They were not bright,” said Tor soberly. “They were smitten into darkness. The Roman did it with his chariot-whip. But the King, my Master, touched them. So I see. I must find him. I pray thee let me go!”
“Let him go,” said the child imperiously. “Dost thou hear me, Oonah? And, stay, I will give the boy my gold bracelet that father gave me yesterday. Nay, I have said it!”
The maid clasped her hands. “But, princess,” she entreated, “what would the honorable lady, thy mother, do with me if the bracelet be missing? And to a beggar lad—for thou seest that he is nothing more. The boy would be scourged or stoned if found with such a jewel in his hand.”
[pg 109]The child glanced doubtfully at Tor from under the curling gold of her hair. “What shall I give thee, boy?” she asked. “For I will give thee something; thou hast amused me, and Oonah here is so stupid. I am quite weary of her.”
“I am hungry,” said Tor promptly. “Also, I am thirsty. Also, I want to get out of this place.”
The little princess burst into a silvery laugh. “Come with me,” she said imperiously. And, before the maid could stop her, she seized the beggar child by the hand and drew him away up the steps of a marble terrace. Oonah followed in terrified silence.
Beneath the shadow of a silken canopy, on a couch of ivory and silver cushioned with rose-colored damask reclined a lady. The most beautiful lady, thought Tor, that the sun ever shone upon. The [pg 110]beggar’s brilliant eyes sparkled with amazement and pleasure; his white teeth glimmered through his scarlet lips in an innocent smile, which faded before the look of haughty displeasure on the lady’s fair face.
“What is this, Felicia?” she demanded, raising her head from the pillow to a white hand loaded with gems.
“Oh, my worshipful lady,” began Oonah, trembling under the cold, questioning eyes which were bent upon her. “I beseech of thee to listen to me, while I—”
“Be silent, Oonah,” said Felicia, stamping her small foot. “I will explain. I was trying to amuse myself in the gardens, as usual, with this foolish Oonah,” she went on rapidly, “and I heard some one call. It was this boy. That ugly, meddlesome Marcus had shut [pg 111]him into the cellar without food or drink. He has done nothing at all, and more than that he is the servant of a King. I wished to give him my bracelet and let him go. But Oonah disputed the matter with me, as I have forbidden her to do. May I not do as I will with my own?”
“Stay, my child, I will call Marcus,” said the lady, smiling. “He will explain.”
“Nay, he shall not interfere,” cried the spoiled child. “The boy hath amused me, and Marcus shall not have him. Heigho! this Jerusalem is so dull. I am weary of it.” The child threw back her head with an exaggerated gesture of lassitude which brought another smile to the lady’s lips.
“How hath the boy amused thee, little one?” she asked languidly. “If there is [pg 112]anything diverting about this place I would fain hear of it.”
“The boy was blind, mother, and the King, his Master, touched his eyes and they became bright, as thou seest them. Is not that an amusing story?”
“What King in Jerusalem can heal blind eyes?” asked the lady, turning with some curiosity to Tor.
“His name is Jesus,” said Tor simply.
The lady drew her delicate brows together. “I have heard of the man,” she said coldly. “He is arousing sedition among the turbulent Jews, as hath many a one before him. He will shortly be dealt with after his kind, I doubt not.”
“He will not be hurt,” said Tor positively. “My Father will not permit anything to befall him.”
“Thy Father?” repeated the lady. “And who, pray, is thy Father?”
[pg 113]“He is in heaven,” explained Tor. “He listens to me, and to any one who calls. It was because I prayed to him, as my Master said, that the door was opened. And now, let me go. I must find my Master.”
“Stay,” said the lady frowning, “I will be further amused. Wast thou always blind—before the King, thy Master, touched thee?”
“No,” said Tor. “I had my eyes as now. Then one day I pursued the Roman Pilate, as he rode in his chariot, and asked for denarii. He struck me with his whip, and the lash blinded me. I cursed the man many times in my blindness with strong curses that blight like a flame. But now I have forgiven him, because my Master commands me to forgive if I have aught against any one. For this saying I have forgiven the cruel [pg 114]Gentile, who is hated of all Jerusalem; also, I have forgiven—”
Tor was interrupted by a smothered exclamation from the lady. Her blue eyes were blazing with sudden anger. “Take him away,” she commanded. “Thrust him into the street—at once. Dost thou hear, Oonah!”
The child, Felicia, stood as if rooted to the ground in amazement, her large eyes brimming over with tears, while Oonah, roused to action by the wrath in her mistress’s face, seized Tor by the shoulder and hurried him through the garden, pausing only to unlock a small door in the wall. “Run, now, beggar, for thy wretched life,” whispered the girl, as she pushed the boy into the street. “This is the house of Pilate, and yonder was his wife and child.”