Just what he expected from his new Master Tor could have told no one. He did not put the question to himself. He was again both hungry and thirsty; but he had cared little for either hunger or thirst in his evil past. Now he tightened the rags cheerfully about his middle in the old familiar way and trotted noise[pg 56]lessly after the little group of men, in the midst of which walked his Master.
The child was trying dully to recall what the Galilean had said concerning this man on the day he had delivered him out of the hand of Chelluh by the Damascus gate.
The thought of Chelluh brought a new purpose uppermost. “When I find a convenient season from following my Master I will return and beat the blind beggar even as he beat me,” he promised himself, with a new and savage joy in his restored sight. “He that hath eyes is truly a god, and to know this one might well be blind for a season.”
His new Master, surrounded by his little guard, had passed quite out of the city by this time, and all were walking swiftly on one of the level Roman roads which bound Jerusalem to its heathen [pg 57]Emperor. Tor followed unperceived in the gathering dusk of evening. After a little the party reached a small village, entered it, and paused before a large and beautiful garden enclosure, where they were evidently expected, for they were immediately admitted and the doors shut fast behind them.
Tor marked the place well, then, not knowing what else to do, he returned to Jerusalem, found Baladan, and spent the night in one of his old haunts near the Damascus Gate.
When the child awoke in the morning the marvelous events of the previous day floated before his wide eyes like the misty fragments of a half-forgotten dream. “Was I indeed blind?” he asked himself; “or was that also an evil dream of night?” Baladan’s anxious whine recalled him more fully to his waking [pg 58]senses, and he sprang up to find Dan shying olive-stones at him from a neighboring wall. “Sleepy-head!” quoth the gamin, discharging another volley of stones. “Look you, lad, there is much to be seen in Jerusalem to-day—if, indeed, the man restored thy sight—the passover pilgrims are coming in by thousands. I have already begged breakfast for me and for thee.”
“I can see as well as ever,” said Tor briefly. “But I must first find my Master. Give me the loaf and I will go.”
“Beggar!” cried Dan, tossing his comrade a fragment of a loaf and half a dozen olives, “what hast thou to do with a King? Come, we will lead a merry life this week; the pilgrims are laden with goods, and one with light fingers and lighter heels need lack nothing.” The boy snapped his brown fingers and [pg 59]executed a sort of savage dance in the exuberance of his spirits.
“He said, ‘Do not beat thine enemy; but if thine enemy smite thee, let him smite thee again, if he will,’ ” said Tor, munching his bread reflectively. “There is Chelluh; he hath beaten me, not once nor twice only, but many times.”
“Who said ‘Do not smite thine enemy’?” demanded Dan, staring.