The apparition lifted a palsied hand on which the skin was yet fair
and young and pointed after the Maccabee, losing himself in the
groaning mass in the city.
"If I believe, I must tell him!" he said.
"Whatever thou hast done against that man must be amended," the
Christian declared.
The palsied figure shrank and wringing his hands about each other said
in a whisper that sounded like wind among dried leaves: "I, who saw the candor of perfect trust in his eyes, once, I can not
behold their reproach--I, who love him, and sold him--for a handful of
gold!"
The old Christian laid his hand on the other's arm.
"Another Judas?" he said. The apparition made no answer.
"Nay, then; tell it me," the Christian urged. But the other shrank
away from him, while distrust collected in his eyes.
"I fear thee; the evil man fears the good one, even more than the good
man fears the evil one. I will not tell thee."
"But thou hast thy bread from this Hesper; thou hast thy shelter from
him. He will not injure thee."
"Injure me! Not with his hands, perhaps. But he would look at me, he
would kill me with his eyes! Thou canst not dream what evil I have
done him!"
The old Christian looked at him for a time, but with the hopefulness
of the spiritually confident.
"Christ spare thee, till thou hast the strength to do right!" he
exclaimed. But the palsied man covered his face with his hands and
groaned. The old Christian took him by the arm and led him down from
the wall and back to the cavern under the ruins.
"In thy good time, O Lord," he said to himself, beginning with that
incident a ministry that should not end.
It was dark when the Maccabee came down into the ravine in which the
Greek's house was builded. In the shadow the house cast before it he
saw some one pass the sentry lines. The soldiers looked after that
figure. Presently, emerging into the lesser darkness of the open
streets, it proved to be a woman. The Maccabee stopped. By the
movements, now hurried, now slow, he believed that the night was full
of apprehension for this unknown faring into the disordered city. She
was coming in his direction. He stepped into shadow to see who would
come forth from shelter at such an hour.
The next instant she hurried by his hiding-place and the Maccabee saw
with amazement that it was the girl he loved. He sprang out to speak
to her, but the sound of his footsteps frightened her and she ran.
The whole hilly foreground of Jerusalem was lifted like a black and
impending cloud over her, a-throb with violence and strife. Here and
there were lights on the bosom of the looming blackness, but they only
emphasized the darkness pressing on the outskirts of the radiance.
Every area way and alley had its sound. The air was full of footsteps;
behind her a voice called to her. She dashed by yawning darkness that
was an open alley, hurried toward lights, halted precipitately at
signals of danger and veered aside at unexpected sounds. Once she
stumbled upon the body of a sleeper who had come down into the
darkness of the ravine to pass the night. At her suppressed cry the
Maccabee sprang forward, but she caught herself and ran faster.