XIII.
THE SEARCH.
Rachel went and sat by the bedside, in long silence. At length she began unconsciously to think aloud—at first slowly and with long pauses; then more rapidly.
“They have not killed him. Then they have taken him out of the city to confine him somewhere.... The shortest and least embarrassed way out of the city would be by the gate of the Moon to Mareotis.... Here boat would be taken. Where would it go? There is no place where a prisoner could be confined on the islands of the lake or on the southern shore—none in the pleasure-villas on the banks of the canal connecting the lake with the Nile—none on the Nile itself till one comes to the fortress that once belonged to the family of Seti, but now is in possession of the Roman governor. I have it—there are dungeons there, and Sextus Flaccus has access to them, and they are well away from observation. That is the place where they have carried him.”
Her face flushed, and her eyes flashed with sudden decision. “Grandfather’s way may be sure, but it is slow; and by the time he finds his way up the Nile to the Setian stronghold it may be too late. I will leap to a conclusion.”
She at once summoned all the domestics of the household. Did any of them know of a traveling merchant, accustomed to carry his wares from house to house along the east bank of the Nile? Several knew of such a person. Was he a Jew? Was he of the Diapleuston? Was he quick-witted and prudent? Was he now in the city? Receiving an affirmative answer to all these questions, she at once dispatched a man who professed to know where the peddler could be found, to bring him without delay.
In less than an hour her messenger returned with the very peddler whose acquaintance we made in the first chapter of this narrative. She looked at him narrowly. He was not an attractive object—what with his poor clothes, his unkempt hair, and his excessive obsequiousness. But he did look shrewd and to a degree reliable. At all events she must try him. So she told him that she had heard a favorable account of his intelligence and discretion; that she wanted to employ such a man to go up the Nile as far as the Setian palace on a confidential mission. She wished to find out, without the knowledge of any armed force that might be there, whether a young man is held in confinement in the palace. And she thought that, if he would furnish himself with such a pack of goods as seemed most likely to attract the servants and others about the premises, he might incidentally contrive to get from them the desired information. She would furnish the goods, and, besides, reward him richly for the service.
“Is the young man tall and marvelously well proportioned?” inquired the Jew.