Part 25 (1/2)
Opening her eyes, once more behind that ridge of rock she saw, not one white-bearded face, but two, staring at her and Miriam. As she sat up they vanished. She remained still, pretending to sleep, and again they appeared, scanning her closely and whispering to each other in eager tones. Suddenly one of the faces turned a little so that the light fell on it. Now Nehushta knew why in her dream it had seemed familiar, and in her heart thanked G.o.d.
”Brother Ithiel,” she said in a quiet voice, ”why do you hide like a coney in these rocks?”
Both heads disappeared, but the sound of whispering continued. Then one of them rose again among the green gra.s.ses as a man might rise out of water. It was Ithiel's.
”It is indeed you, Nehushta?” said his well-remembered voice.
”Who else?” she asked.
”And that lady who sleeps at your side?”
”Once they called her Queen of the Essenes; now she is a hunted fugitive, waiting to be ma.s.sacred by Simon, or John, or Eleazer, or Zealots, or Sicarii, or any other of the holy cut-throats who inhabit this Holy City,” answered Nehushta bitterly.
Ithiel raised his hands as though in thankfulness, then said:
”Hus.h.!.+ hus.h.!.+ Here the very birds are spies. Brother, creep to that rock and look if any men are moving.”
The Essene obeyed, and answered, ”None; and they cannot see us from the wall.”
Ithiel motioned to him to return.
”Does she sleep sound?” he asked of Nehushta, pointing to Miriam.
”Like the dead.”
Then, after another whispered conference, the pair of them crept round the angle of the rock. Bidding Nehushta follow them, they lifted the sleeping Miriam, and carried her between them through a dense growth of shrubs to another rock. Here they moved some gra.s.s and pushed aside a stone, revealing a hole not much larger than a jackal would make. Into this the brother entered, heels first. Then Nehushta, by his directions, taking the feet of the senseless Miriam, with her help he bore her into the hole, that opened presently into a wide pa.s.sage. Last of all Ithiel, having lifted the gra.s.ses which their feet had trodden, followed them, pulling the stone back to its place, and cutting off the light. Once more they were in darkness, but this did not seem to trouble the brethren, for again lifting Miriam, they went forward a distance of thirty or forty paces, Nehushta holding on to Ithiel's robe. Now, at length, the cold air of this cave, or perhaps its deep gloom and the motion, awoke Miriam from her swoon-like sleep. She struggled in their hands, and would have cried out, had not Nehushta bade her to be silent.
”Where am I?” she said. ”Is this the hall of death?”
”Nay, lady. Wait a while, all shall be explained.”
While she spoke and Miriam clung to her affrighted, Ithiel struck iron and flint together. Catching the spark upon tinder he blew it to a flame and lighted a taper which burnt up slowly, causing his white beard and face to appear by degrees out of the darkness, like that of a ghost rising from the tomb.
”Oh! surely I am dead,” said Miriam, ”for before me stands the spirit of my uncle Ithiel.”
”Not the spirit, Miriam, but the flesh,” answered the old man in a voice that trembled with joy. Then, since he could restrain himself no longer, he gave the taper to the brother, and, taking her in his arms, kissed her again and again.
”Welcome, most dear child,” he said; ”yes, even to this darksome den, welcome, thrice welcome, and blessed be the eternal G.o.d Who led our feet forth to find you. Nay, do not stop to talk, we are still too near the wall. Give me your hand and come.”
Miriam glanced up as she obeyed, and by the feeble light of the taper saw a vast rocky roof arching above them. On either side of her also were walls of rough-hewn rock down which dripped water, and piled upon the floor or still hanging half-cut from the roof, boulders large enough to fas.h.i.+on a temple column.
”What awful place is this, my uncle?” she asked.
”The cavern whence Solomon, the great king, drew stone for the building of the Temple. Look, here are his mason's marks upon the wall. Here he fas.h.i.+oned the blocks and thus it happened that no sound of saw or hammer was heard within the building. Doubtless also other kings before and since his day have used this quarry, as no man knows its age.”
While he spoke thus he was leading her onwards over the rough, stone-hewn floor, where the damp gathered in little pools. Following the windings of the cave they turned once, then again and yet again, so that soon Miriam was utterly bewildered and could not have found her way back to the entrance for her life's sake. Moreover, the air had become so hot and stifling that she could scarcely breathe.
”It will be better presently,” said Ithiel, noticing her distress, as he drew her limping after him into what seemed to be a natural crevice of rock hardly large enough to allow the pa.s.sage of his body. Along this crevice they scrambled for eight or ten paces, to find themselves suddenly in a tunnel lined with masonry, and so large that they could stand upright.
”Once it was a watercourse,” explained Ithiel, ”that filled the great tank, but now it has been dry for centuries.”