“No,” answered Saturius with a snarl, “but until he is in a position to relay the floors, he must find chalk for his sandals and ointment for his back. I want the purchaser’s name, and thought perhaps that you might have it, for the old woman has vanished, and that fool of an auctioneer knows absolutely nothing.”
“Why do you want his name?”
“Because Domitian wants his head. An unnatural desire indeed that devours him; still one which, to be frank, I find it important to satisfy.”
Of a sudden a great light seemed to shine in Caleb’s mind, it was as though a candle had been lit in a dark room.
“Ah!” he said. “And supposing I can show him how to get this head, even how to get it without any scandal, do you think that in return he would leave me the lady’s hand? You see I knew her in her youth and take a brotherly interest in her.”
“Quite so, just like Domitian and the two thousand sestertia man and, indeed, half the male population of Rome, who, when they saw her yesterday were moved by the same family feeling. Well, I don’t see why he shouldn’t. You see my master never cared for pearls that were not perfectly white, or admired ladies upon whom report cast the slightest breath of scandal. But he is of a curiously jealous disposition, and it is, I think, the head that he requires, not the hand.”
“Had you not better make yourself clear upon the point before we go any further?” asked Caleb. “Otherwise I do not feel inclined to undertake a very difficult and dangerous business.”
“With pleasure. Now would you let me have your demands, in writing, perhaps. Oh! of course, I understand—to be answered in writing.”
Caleb took parchment and pen and wrote:
“A free pardon, with full liberty to travel, live and trade throughout the Roman empire, signed by the proper authorities, to be granted to one Caleb, the son of Hilliel, for the part he took in the Jewish war.