“‘No matter,’ said I, ‘it is enough that I do know it; and know further that if you would oblige Seti and Alexander, who have such claims on you, as well as wonderfully advantage yourselves, you have now an opportunity. If you will help them in this matter, they can and will do great things for you. It is the opportunity of a life-time.’
“‘But what can we do?’ exclaimed both custodes at once.
“‘I will tell you. But first tell me whether you have seen that goodly young man with your own eyes, and know him to have been safe and sound when he was put into the dungeon.’
“‘So he seemed by the torch-light,’ said the Jewess. ‘A goodly young man, you may well say. I never saw one half so goodly. He stood like a king among his slaves, with his great staff for a sceptre. The soldiers seemed almost as much afraid of his eye as of his staff, and plainly felt relieved when the key was turned upon him.’
“‘Has he had food and drink since then?’ I asked.
“They hesitated; and the woman looked in a troubled way at her husband.
“‘Now, by all the patriarchs,’ cried I in great excitement, ‘have they been starving this friend of Seti and Alexander all these days, and you doing nothing to help him?’
“‘Not so,’ she hastened to exclaim. ‘We thought we could not let the young man perish; and as soon as we found out that no food of any kind was being given him we managed to introduce some secretly through a grated opening in the wall originally made for that purpose. But it has been at the risk of our lives. We cannot continue. If we should be discovered he would kill us.’
“‘Whom do you mean by “he”?’ I asked.