"Doth dissension come even into a brotherhood?"
"Art thou a kurios and knowest not this?" the torch-bearer asked quickly.
"It hath been so in Syria and Phoenicia, yet I hoped in Rome to find this evil remedied."
"Human nature is the same in Rome as in Syria. Yet there is always a way in a brotherhood to keep peace. Did not the 'Medici' stir up strife when the 'Mulo Medici' would join the Brotherhood saying these latter would bring ridicule to their honorable order? And did not the kurios say to them that so long as their fellow beings were allowed to live no better than mules, there was the greater need of having them in the Brotherhood. And when the gold and silver workers stirred up strife because the rag-pickers would come into the union, did not the kurios point out that, under an autocracy of masters they themselves might be picking rags on the morrow? But the actors and fun-makers have not yet wrangled. To-night a man from Delphi maketh a speech when this tablet is erected," and he turned out the face of a marble slab which leaned against the wall. "With great pride do these actors and musicians and dancers claim Delphi which they say still nestles at the foot of Mount Parnassus; a place where gorgeous birds spread rainbow wings over fragrant flowers, and everlasting springs feed the stream that foams and tumbles past the ruins of Apollo's temple. But the torches are now made ready."
"And what is the tablet?"
The two men examined it. Delicately cut in the marble was the face of a young girl, with flutes beside her. Three rows of curls hung from her wreath-bound head, and her lips were parted in a merry smile. "A dancing girl and her pipes," the guide said. "She belonged to the union and getteth burial and a memorial. But let us be going. Take up thy torch."
After no long walk the corridor ran into another chamber. "This is a place of initiation into some mystery," the torch-bearer said. "Wouldst see?" and he pointed across the room to an opening in the wall near the floor, scarce large enough for the body of a man to worm its way through. "Look thou beyond it," and the guide held his torch toward the opening.
The Phoenician hesitated. Then he dropped on his knees and thrust his shoulders into the hole. By the dim light he saw something on the floor which at first seemed to be the body of a man lying with feet close together and arms straight extended. A second look showed this man-like object to be a heavy cross of wood. At its side an open grave.
"What meaneth it?" the Phoenician asked, backing out of the hole.
"I know not save that those who enter there come wearing white and carrying green sprigs, and with them one not wearing white. And when they go, all but one who wears white and he who wore not white go out. Three days later these two go also both wearing white. Nothing more know I save that I be given orders at times to make the light. But let us hasten on to the big chamber."