"Wait," she repeated. "Thou hast built gigantically on no foundation. Let something happen. And if I am pleased to follow thy plans, I may; but be assured if I am not, I will not. My debt to thee is less than thy demands, Avillus."
She arose and put on her mantle, while he stood watching her every movement.
"I shall wait," he said presently, "only a little time."
She made a motion of impatience and withdrew from the atrium.
He stood motionless for a long time; then he called his atriensis.
"Send hither the chief apparitor," he said.
The captain of the proconsul's personal guard appeared and saluted. Flaccus, in the meantime, had searched through the documents on the floor and by the dim light identified one.
"Take this," he said, handing the apparitor the parchment, "and make search for the man herein described. Seek him in Ptolemais, wherever a Nazarene warren hides, in Jerusalem, in Alexandria—meet every incoming ship, spend the half of my fortune, wear out my army—but find him, or lose thy life!"
The chief apparitor looked unflinching into the proconsul's gray-brown eyes.
"I hear," he said.