At the same moment a frenzied scream was heard:
"Let him through! Let him through!"
The squealing, breathless scream like that of a woman in hysterics or of a child in a fit was so strange that Dio did not recognize the king's voice. With a distorted face he jumped up and stamped with both feet, as the little girls had done when they played blind man's buff to the sound of the threshing song. And the ringing cry went on:
"Let him through! Let him through!"
Mahu made another sign to the lancers and they lifted their spears, making way. The man crawled between them and advanced almost as far as the top landing where the king's tabernacle stood. He raised his head and Dio recognised the long red curls, the red goat's beard, the prominent ears, hooked nose, thick lips and burning eyes of Issachar, son of Hamuel.
The king was quiet now and, bending forward, looked straight into Issachar's eyes intently and, as it were, greedily, just as Issachar looked at him.
"Your servant has a secret message for you, sire!" Issachar whispered.
"Speak, I listen."
"No, for you, for you alone."
"Leave us alone," the king said to the dignitaries who stood on the landing.