Prisoners of Chance

"The spirit is of greater value than the body," he persisted doggedly. "Yea, 'tis better the flesh perish miserably in the flame than surrender up the soul unto the devil."

"That is no issue here; you seek to deceive yourself by false words. I denounce you openly as a false follower, for if I read rightly the language of Holy Writ, it was He whom you so delight to term Master who gave his life freely for His friends. But you--you are all words, a charnel-house of dead men's bones."

Had he been free I might have rued my hasty words, for his eyes were hot with anger, and he strained fiercely at his bonds in effort to break free. Yet I felt safe enough beyond the sweep of his great arm, rejoicing that my tongue was sharp enough to penetrate so thick a hide, and make the man squirm beneath his outer vestment of piety.

"You speak falsely," he bellowed, nearly beside himself. "Satan puts those foul words upon your lips tempting me to do evil."

"Nay; the words are true," I went on, determined to drive him by taunts. "They are neither foul nor false, and right glad I am to discover your real character even at this eleventh hour. I make no loud boasting of my religion, dinning it into the ears of all I meet as if I were the only righteous man on earth, but I do thank God from the depths of my heart I have never yet basely deserted a friend in time of trouble. I did consider you a good comrade, but I know now you are nothing but a whited sepulchre, a miserable hypocrite, a Judas betraying his master with a kiss. Pah! go your way, you are unclean; nor ever hope again for word of fellowship from lips of honest men. I shall die having performed my duty to the extent of my knowledge, but you as a dog, a traitor to your comrades, the betrayer of a woman in time of peril."

"'Tis false, I say; I would yield life gladly to aid her."

"Zounds! that sounds good from such lips. Why, you have just refused much less."

"Yonder is an emissary of the Evil One."

"Keep your cowardly excuses to yourself. Whatever the woman may be, she offers us a chance for our lives, provided only you will perform her will in sundry matters."

He hesitated, his uncertain eyes shifting from her face to mine.

"What does this scarlet priestess of Baal require that I do?" he questioned sullenly.

"Good lack, 'tis little enough even to satisfy your conscience. Merely that you stand beside her on the platform, pretending converse, marking carefully her every signal, and obeying it."