"It was a bolt from heaven assuredly which smote him; for there is naught missing save the man," said the other, looking keenly about in his turn at the familiar scene; "Let us get away from this place; I am sick of it."
"Ay! we will return to Greece where the old gods yet rule; I like not the ways of the god of this land; but first--" And the speaker cautiously approached the body of Gestas. "He hath something about him, which we shall have more need of than he. Ah! here it is, ten good pieces--if he have not already spent some of them."
"But there were to have been thirty pieces more."
"Ay! and more's the pity that they be lost to us."
"Why need they be lost to us, man?"
"What meanest thou?"
Joca whispered something in his companion's ear, whereat the other chuckled hoarsely.
"Why not?" he cried, "thou art a son of Minerva to have thought it."
The servant of Annas had waited outside the Jaffa gate for nearly two hours; he was growing impatient at last.
"I will not stay longer," he muttered, "something hath miscarried in the matter; it will be to-morrow--if the knave hath not failed me altogether."