They parted one from another, and then came to pass a strange thing, for a servitor led Ben Ezra to the armory of the palace. Here he remained but briefly, and when he came out he was armed from head to foot in the panoply allotted to the Jewish servants of the temple under its Roman captain. So arrayed he might ride as if he were a Roman under the sure protection of the procurator. A horse was ready for him and he mounted, riding to the palace gate. At this place was now the procurator in his chariot.
"Go thou speedily as thou hast said," commanded the procurator. "Be not overhasty, but prudent. If it prove as thou tellest me, well with thee."
"On my head be it," said Ben Ezra, and he rode away northward.
"I have purchased him with a price," he said to himself, "but I will deal truly with the jarl. If some of his treasure and some of mine must be paid as tribute to this Roman governor, all that remaineth—and it will be enough for us—will be kept for our own uses. Now for the cavern in Carmel, and the journey will be neither long nor unsafe for a man traveling with the seal of Pontius."
As for the procurator in his chariot, he, too, had a thought upon his mind, and it made his face brighten.
"The gold is well," he thought, "but the jewels! There is naught else for which Cæsar hath so great a lust. I care little for such things. Of what value are bright stones except that they will sometimes buy more than will gold or silver? Let the Jew bring his gems and with them I will defeat Herod and Julius."
Far on along the southward highway rode Abbas, having a pack beast with him and two fellow-travelers. The Jerusalem road through Judea was accounted safe unless one rode alone or unarmed. Still was his face turned backward now and then as that of one who feareth lest he may be followed, for the words of Ben Ezra had been severe, and Abbas knew that he who uttered them had been much in conversation with the procurator.
"He is deep as a well!" he thought. "Can he know anything of my dealings with Herod? Even now I must go to the ford of the Jordan and to Machærus before I go to Jerusalem. Alas! The Black Castle! How many have entered it who never were seen again! Well is it set so near to the Sea of Death! I am a Jew! I hurt not my own people! But it is righteous to profit by the dissensions of the heathen. If Herod and his brother Antipas and this Pontius the Spearman were to slay one another, what harm to the children of Abraham? Ben Ezra doeth not well to keep faith with a Roman or an Edomite. They have defiled even the temple of the Most High."