In the course of the day another small comfort (small and transient like the scarcely perceptible shade of greenness that sometimes comes even in the heart of winter, for a few hours, to some sunny nook and then retreats as fast as it came) came with some scraps of information brought in by the servants. They reported that the company of soldiers had been noticed at different points in the Egyptian quarter; and, on comparing these points, the women saw that they meant a movement toward the gate of the Moon. This was a much-needed encouragement to Seti, who came in the evening to say that the students had as yet been able to draw no information from the people whatever. They seemed to regard all the inquiries with suspicion, as if they meant some College prank against which their best refuge was silence. What so many students wanted to know they would do well to conceal. So the young men spoke to deaf ears and silent tongues. Still they would not discontinue their inquiries. They hoped that all their ravens would not come home to roost.
The next day added considerably to the stock of information. Several street-boys who were hanging about the gate and wharves on the night in question had been ferreted out in their various dens by the servants, and agreed that a company of soldiers with a prisoner passed through the gate while they were there, and took boat to a larger craft lying out some little distance in the lake. On their part the students had discovered that the pleasure-galley of the Flacci had been absent from its station ever since the same evening, and had been seen by a waterman steering toward the canal and the Nile. Rachel was now so satisfied that her first movement was a wise one that she told Seti of it. He was glad that so time-saving a measure had been adopted; and returned to inform the students that such traces had been discovered that they need no longer continue their inquiries in the city, but should hold themselves in readiness to co-operate in another movement that might be necessary. He now felt quite sure that the soldiers employed in the abduction were discharged soldiers—men who from age and other reasons were no longer in active service—of whom there were not a few in the city quite ready to lend themselves to the purposes and the pay of such a man as Sextus Flaccus.
Immersed in her cares for Aleph, Rachel had neglected till to-day to inquire about Cimon and his affairs. For this she blamed herself roundly. But she was glad to learn that her father’s solicitor had found Cimon’s papers very complete as against Malus, had formally instituted a suit, had been able as Cimon’s official advocate to procure admittance to him and arrange for his comfort till his trial should come off, that the chief clerk of Malus, who had been discharged by him as soon as he learned how liberal of business information he had been to Cimon, had come to him with valuable evidence. Three suits were to come off in the following order—(1) The suit of Malus against Shaphan and Nathan, (2) the suit of Malus against Cimon, (3) the suit of Cimon against Malus. Marcus Piso was more than satisfied with this order; for he felt that the first two trials would throw much damaging light on the character and operations of Malus and prepare the way for the success of Cimon’s suit against him.
“But then those Roman courts! Who could guarantee their equity! Would not the Flaccan influence be supreme in them and in favor of the supreme criminal in whose misdeeds it had long participated! The Most High only knows! If possible, we must make the right of the case so plain that neither court nor government can go against it without the whole people crying shame on them. And this I am more and more inclined to think can be done.” ... So encouraged Marcus Piso. At the same time, with a shadow on his face, he admitted that the devil was strong.
The next day was the Sabbath. The family of Alexander were very strict in their observance of the day, but not so unreasonably strict as to refuse works of necessity and mercy. Miriam (now wonderfully improved) and Rachel would not have hesitated to plan and do, to any extent, in so urgent a case as that of Aleph if they could have seen opportunity. But, until they should hear from the peddler, what more could be done? Certainly nothing but praying. So they gave themselves wholly to this mighty form of working. The God of Israel, so pitiful and so powerful, and who had said, “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver thee,” was invoked that day with an energy and whole-heartedness that seemed bound to cross all the spaces and make its way to the very foothold of the Throne. Till the public services at the Diapleuston, the women were scarcely off their knees for a moment.
At the synagogue, to her surprise, Rachel found Seti seated where Cimon and Aleph had been placed on the last Sabbath. She went and sat down by him for a few moments, placing her hand in his; and then went to her own place. The selections from the Law and the Prophets by her uncle Philo, as well as his remarks that followed, seemed to her to have a most positive though veiled reference to the case, which she felt was by this time weighting all their minds with its certainties and uncertainties. She felt it good to be there. There was something soothing and supporting in the sympathetic atmosphere. And so she lingered after the conclusion of the services.
While thus lingering, she noticed a woman of the humbler class trying to make her way somewhat impatiently toward her through the slow-moving crowd. As soon as she came near enough the woman thrust into her hand a paper rudely folded and at once passed on with the rest of the retiring congregation. Rachel opened the paper at once, and with some difficulty deciphered the following:
“He is here. They are trying to starve him. I can prevent that for a little; but the custodes will take no decisive step till they have had my promises in your behalf confirmed by your own lips.”
When she had finished reading the scrawl she found Seti standing by her side and drawing her arm within his. It was timely. Unsupported she might have fallen. It was a flash of light that she had longed for, but it had in it something of the threat and terribleness of a flash of lightning. It revealed, but it revealed an urgent danger. Her agitation remained voiceless till they had reached home and Seti had read the letter. It lifted a cloud from his brow. Now they knew that Aleph was still alive, knew where to find him, could make some reasonable plan for his rescue. He congratulated her. Early to-morrow they would go up the river in the galley of Alexander, well-equipped with resolute men. Perhaps he would ask some of the students to follow at a distance in another galley. They might not be needed; but it was well to overlap emergencies with our provisions. At all events, the young men would be gratified—and they deserved to be. He had never thought so well of young men since he was a young man himself. Especially of Cornelius. Such unselfish enthusiasm and untiring effort in behalf of a confessed superior, such hearty use of his influence and leadership to further all plans in aid of Aleph—why, they spoke almost as loudly for Rome as Tiberius and the Flacci did against it!
The clouds on the horizon had begun to redden. Was it from the rising or the setting sun? Neither Seti nor Rachel could tell; for they did not know the east and west of Providence. It was indeed something to have found that Aleph was still living (a fact which they had compelled themselves to assume, but which phantoms with mocking faces and whispering voices were all the while challenging at both ears); also that he was at the Setian palace. Now they could localize and focalize their exertions in his behalf. This was at first a very sensible relief. But, in finding these facts, they had also found that their friend was in the hands of a body of desperadoes who were seeking his life. Might they not succeed before the swiftest help could reach him? Perhaps they had succeeded already. That single poor peddler was a mighty thin partition between life and death. So the clouds which had thinned away somewhat soon thickened up again into the old blackness. Through the live-long night the waves of hope and fear alternately beat on the vexed strands whose names were Seti and Rachel.