"There is no hammer," said Sigurd. "It is not Thor. See the jarl!"
They had paused, looking, but the son of Brander the Brave had walked curiously to the side of the god and was studying his marks, for there were many.
"I would," he muttered, "that Hilda were here, for I think she would read. These are like the runes upon the old Odin stone beyond the fiord, and they were made when he came from the East. I think this to be one of the Asas; but how came He to make this temple and place it here? The gods do strangely at times."
By him now stood Lysias, and he said: "O jarl of the Saxons, linger not. The Jew hath found a stone which must be lifted. He waiteth for thee."
No message had Ben Ezra sent, but he was stooping over a flat slab in the place of sacrifice. Upon it there were marks of fire and the stone was crumbling.
"Why lift it?" asked Ulric, drawing nearer. "What have we to do with the secrets of the gods? Why should we anger them?"
"They are dead," said Ben Ezra, "but I think this to be a door of the priests. It is but a broken stone. Give me thy spear."
"Nay," said Ulric, "I can pry with a spear shaft. We will have it up if anything may be hidden here for us."
The fire-broken limestone yielded in several pieces to the prying of the tough spear shafts. As its pieces were lifted, or as they fell away, behold stone steps, from which all shrank back save the Jew and the son of Odin and the Greek. Even Sigurd held back a moment, saying:
"I like it not. It is the jarl's place. Let him venture first. He knoweth runes that we know not. So doth the Jew, but the Greek is a young fool."