They removed the seat, unlocked the door, and with the aid of the two Jews dragged inside the bodies which their feet had encountered on the floor. Closing the door, they struck a light and proceeded to examine their still insensible assailants. In one of them Aleph had no difficulty in recognizing Antis: in the other Shaphan and his brother knew Draco, a noted bully of the city, at present teacher of fence at the Museum, formerly a trainer of gladiators at Rome, and well known as a dissipated companion of the son of the Governor. Having satisfied themselves that the men were not seriously injured, and needed only the open air to fully recover, they drew them out again on the piazza and there left them to themselves—or their friends.
The brothers then explained that the lady Rachel had sent a servant to them after their return home to recall them; and had begged that they would be present at the khan in the evening with some of the family servants and give aid to her friends if they should have need. But various circumstances had delayed them so that they did not arrive till after the performance had begun; when they found no admission to the piazza, and the court so densely packed that it was almost impossible to wedge their way to the neighborhood of Aleph and Cimon. This, however, in the course of the evening they had, by dint of constant effort, succeeded in doing, and were quite near when the assault was made and the assembly broke up. They then dashed violently through the crowd, and over the hurdles—fearing the worst, for they had heard the blows, the groans, and the heavy falls. Thank Heaven, it was the enemy that fell!
Very cordial acknowledgments were made to the friendly Jews. In addition, Aleph sat down and wrote on a piece of papyrus the following:
“Aleph the Chaldean, to the daughter of Alexander, sends greeting:
“This is to express my sense of the kindness you have shown to the eastern strangers in sending help to them this night in their supposed danger. And truly the danger was considerable; but through the favor of the Most High we have escaped the assault made upon us, and have come to understand better than before the difference between the marvels of Jesus and the marvels of the magician. The latter are due partly to illusion and ventriloquism, partly to occult natural law, and partly to diabolism. They are favored by darkness and distance, depend on preparations and compacts and machinery, proceed from an unworthy person, seek unworthy objects, are aided by unworthy Powers, are connected with phenomena that betray a diabolic origin, and are wholly depraving and mischievous in their tendency.
“When the bearers of this give you an account of what they have seen and heard, you will, I doubt not, see new reason to believe in Him who casts out devils instead of invoking them.
“May the God of Abraham and Daniel, the Chaldeans, keep you!
“Farewell!”
When the Jews stepped out on the piazza they found that the bodies were no longer there. Doubtless they had recovered consciousness and taken themselves off.
Magic and miracle! Two very different things, thought Aleph again, as he recalled, in the solitude to which he was now left, the account which Nathan had given of the storm on the Sea of Galilee.