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not that he might again drink. And they twain offered themselves as legionaries to a certain captain which was near. And having taken service, avowed eternal friendship each to each till death should them part. But when, on a day, together with many other mighty soldiers, their company went up fiercely against a small band of thieves, both Euryophthalmus and Trivialis fled backward apace (each by his several way of safety) and, for a time, were not seen of men.

CHAPTER XIII

ONLY FOR JAVAN, JAPHET'S SON, THE BEARER OF THE LIGHT

"STOP! I'll go no further." So said Samson of Cyrene unto Lampadephorus, the Athenian.

The Athenian answered and said, "Not for me? By the singing heavens! Listen therefore, and I will say to thee a thing."

"I will listen, by the splendor of Adonai!"

"My heart, O great Jew, is in the Phrygian mode. It is filled with the sound of trumpets."

"For whom wilt thou battle?”

"Listen."

"I hear thee."

"Have I not taught thee many things, been unto thee a schoolmaster, divided all my learning with thee?"

"Thou hast been in this matter generous."

"Lovest thou me, then, O Samson-Solomon of Cyrene?"

"I love thee, Lampadephorus, man of Athens. And never another friend have I that is like unto thee.'

"Wilt thou, then, not fight for me, fight for me most manfully, be my friendly dimachærus, live, or, it may be, die, in a glory of mighty combat by my side?"

Now the Jew was silent for a very long time. Then he looked up suddenly, asking: "Fightest thou because thou lovest me?"

At this the Greek was hurt. Yet he made not lamentation, but said only: "There was once a time when I did fight for that I well did love thee-no more of that. But now-let us reason—”

"Lampadephorus of Athens, friend of mine," brake in the Jew, "thou art very great and very wise, but thou art subtile also, and hast not dealt clearly by me. Thou saidst at the door of the Rabbi's house, that thou hadst taken for me a passage unto Joppa. Then broughtest thou me forth from the Nile, and joined both thee and me unto all these mighty men on horses. And thou as well as I didst

mount the Thessalian steeds, and eastward to these mountains didst thou bring me. And behold thou dealest but strangely with me even at the present moment, in which thou sayest unto me: 'Fight! Fight thou beside me. Fight in glory. Fight because thou lovest me.' Thou dost not speak of the manner of the men the which we should go up against, nor why we should oppose them, nor for what final purpose. Speak thou clearly unto me, O Lampadephorus, and say to me for whom thou fightest. So it may be that I will fight beside thee."

The Greek said, "Yonder! In and out among the rocks they come. Robbers, all that band. They are many more than we also." He signed to a trumpeter, giving stern command.

And the trumpeter blew, and all the strong men formed line of battle.

"We fight for Cæsar," explaineth the Greek, "for Cæsar, the Lord of All this World. Have I not said unto thee before that I am a servant unto Cæsar? There is none can hold his little finger, while the sands run, or stand within his presence and not quake. He is Cæsar."

"Is, then, Cæsar beautiful?"

"Unbeautiful it is to struggle against him. And some who have broken his treasury have hidden in this desert the pearls, the rubies, and the silver and the gold. And I am deputed to find these things." "A mere delator!"

"I am delator unto Cæsar, and not his chief one either. Ophidion is that. Now I see the men of might come winding up the rocks. In a twinkling they will be all about us. Samson of Cyrene, wilt thou fight for me?"

Samson looked off over to the mount whereon the Lord had given the Law to Moses, and all that was in that law came back to him, but mostly the plain command: "Thou shalt not kill."

He said to Lampadephorus, "Thee I love, but for Cæsar I will not fight."

So he rode to a place apart, which was higher than the rest of the battle ground.

And Lampadephorus looked up to him, and grew scornful.

But Samson said, "Behold, I saw these things in a dream last night, wherein one that was bearing a golden torch, placed in each of my hands a Roman sword, commanding me 'fight'."

"Then," said Lampadephorus up to him, "fight."

"But an angel also came," said Samson, "shouting, 'What will ye do! Thy swords be swords of mercy.' And he brake the points from the swords."

But Lampadephorus called once again, "There is pay. All this world is wholly at the charge of Cæsar: he will pay thee mightily.”

But the Jew cried back in anger, "Did I ask thee for pay? The Lord of the Heaven and Earth hath said unto me and unto mine: "Thou shalt not kill,' and again, 'He that liveth by the sword, shall die by the sword." "

"Then thou art a weakling, devoid of all skill, and a craven merely."

But Samson of Cyrene called after the Greek, as he went toward approaching battle: "I claim no warriorship, being priest."

And the Greek cried over his shoulder, "I have depended on thee. See! now they will wholly destroy me, thy teacher, and my bones shall be counted by the beasts."

He joined his singing men in loud battle.

And to and fro the contending forces swayed.

Samson drew still farther off, that he might not be tempted into the battle by the sounds. Against a mighty rock drew he, into its great hollow, with hands across eyes. He prayed, remembering both Temunah and Emah.

Shouted some of the forces of the Greek, "Lampadephorus is down, is slain."

The Jew awoke, then, from his dream of far things, and beholding his Master on the ground, saw that a crimson fountain played from his side, and that his lovely eyes were turning glassy.

Cried he, "Shall I behold the barbarians triumph? By the very Sheckinah, not so. For I have slept in the tents of Japhet and of Javan,' and Javan hath ministered unto me, and he is my friend."

Took he the swords up which Lampadephorus had aforetime offered him, and gat not up upon his horse again, but, running on his own legs only and shouting, "Stand back, all ye unrighteous," he drave a great path through the enemy.

And he brake the points from both his swords, but yet fought on and tired not, smiting all both hip and thigh, and from one portion of the field unto yet another.

And he slew a mighty force, and took many prisoners, and brought the captives unto Lampadephorus, who then said unto him: "My dimachærus, O my dimachærus! My friend, my friend!"

And the Jew kissed him, and bound his wounds. And the Master said unto him, "Thou, O son of Shem, didst not love Cæsar, but me, the son of Javan, the son of Japhet, me thou couldst not fail."

1 Javan, a son of Japhet, was the ancestor of the Greeks.

CHAPTER XIV

THE STAIR OF A HUNDRED AND ONE STEPS

THERE were, among the men that were captured, the leaders of a great piracy, Dysmas and Gestas and also Barabbas-men of violence and uproar.

And, in the night, while yet the whole company lay resting, the leaders of the captured band, escaping the watch, ran away. But Lampadephorus said, "What matter? We shall get them still, either now or in the months and years to come." And others of the captives pointed the man of Cæsar to where the treasure lay hid, an immense store.

And when the wound of Lampadephorus was healed (which was after many days) then said the Greek, "As we fare toward Petra (for thither, almost, shall we go, and thence thou mayest proceed unto Joppa, but I to Rhinocolura) I will teach thee things more useful and more beautiful by far than any I have hitherto shown thee. For behold! I now will no longer deal doubly with thee."

"Hast thou so done ever?"

"It is not good, generally, that any man should teach another all he knoweth, lest that other should on a day prove unfaithful and turn against his master's bosom that which he had from his lips.

"But now I am sure thou wilt never be unfaithful, and, as I have no son (at least I know not where he is-for one I had in early manhood, but he was stolen from me) to whom to leave these things, I will even now teach them unto thee-to thee who art better to me than many a son unto his father."

With that he began to teach again and Solomon to learn. And lo! the Greek taught the Jew better than any man was ever taught before, especially that the Jew might always be able to defend himself with skill as well as with strength against comers of whatsoever nation, so long as life was in him to be defended.

And these twain wrought together, at the rear of the caravan, in daily exercise and arduous practice for full many days. And the people of all the other nations which were in the caravan beheld them at their exercises; but they, on their part, though curious, did not much learn, or try. But the Jew learned willingly.

But when the Greek solicited the Jew that he should accompany him, the Greek, to Rhinocolura, thence to Joppa and Rome-in that latter place to be a dimacharus before Cæsar, then said Solomon: "I am truly but a sorry priest, and yet a priest indeed and in sober truth

am I-not a dimacherus. For behold, the Lord hath chosen me, and I have, as thou well knowest, in my very bosom, the credentials of my calling. And it was long ago prophesied by Betah, of whom I have spoken to thee before, that, even though I should seek but mine own mere purposes, I should, on a day, go up to Jerusalem, there to become Jehovah's priest. See now, how that prophecy hath been fulfilled! When I left Pentapolis, it was wholly (as I thought) because I had done a great murder and I sought to escape. And, later, I did follow thee because I loved thee-though thou wast a worshipper of idols. Later still, I did take me on to Crocodilopolis, both because I loved thee and because I sought the man on whom I would be revenged. Then broughtest thou me to the desert of Sin-myself being, as I believed, on the straight way to mine adversary. And now I have followed thee, both because of thy heathen learning (which I very much love) and also to find mine enemy again. But behold! we draw not far from Jerusalem, being anigh unto Petra. And now I will do the will of Betah (which is the Lord's will also) and go on to Jerusalem by the Petra way. First of all I will be a priest. Thenafter, I shall find mine enemy."

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Then said Lampadephorus, "Forgive me, for I have deceived thee. Thine enemy is not at Joppa, but at Rhodes. And they who said to thee 'Joppa,' (the captains of the ships in Crocodilopolis) were taught to do that thing by me, even for this purpose that I might deceive thee, and have thee by me where I fought-for who can stand against both Greek and Jew?"

The Jew forgave him, saying: "Could I hold aught against thee? thee who hast been my teacher in so many things? In no wise. But urge me not to accompany thee unto Cæsar, for I cannot go."

"Not now, haply," said the Greek, "but later, on a certain day, thou'llt fight upon the sand before great Cæsar, and before all men, for I comprehend thee and thine exceeding great strength, and I do see these matters as it were in the book of destiny.-But thou speakest of teaching. I have taught thee Hellenism (with all which I have received from both the Babylonians and the Egyptians) and thou hast taught me Judaism, O sublime Theophorus, and so I am deeply beholden unto thee-albeit I never could become even a proselyte of the gate. Thy God is a good and great god. Would that I were able to understand Him.

"And now, since thou dost journey to Petra, I will give thee letters for that place, unto a certain Philostephanus, a great philosopher, and a kind of chief among the many in that city which do profess philosophy, of whatever school. And he, for the sake of thy Lampa

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