"O Greek!" said a deep, stern voice. "What is this that thou sayest? Put on the mail!"
"O most noble Pontius!" exclaimed Lysias, turning, but lifting the armor. "Thou didst not send for me, therefore I came not."
"Speak not," said Pontius, "save to tell me all that thou hast seen and heard here and at Joppa and at Cæsarea. I have a work for thee."
Lysias told all save his meeting with Sapphira, and the procurator listened.
"Thou hast ears and thou hast eyes," he said at last. "I set thee free of all other service but this that I now tell thee. Thou wilt have another abiding place than this, but thou wilt come and go freely among my servants, being known to them as my messenger whom none may hinder. Now hath one come from the Damascus gate saying that my friend Caius of Thessalonica draweth near, and with him his Saxon gladiators. He is wounded, and my physician meeteth him. Go thou. Hear all. See all. Report to me of his swordsmen.
"Now hearken! Among the female slaves of my wife is one in whom is a peril, for she is fair. For women I care not, but there are men who are fools before bright eyes. In the banquet room and in the balconies get thou speech with this Sapphira. She will be spoken to by my wife that she may hide nothing from thee lest she die in the arena. Judea and Samaria are worth more to me than is the blood of one fair serpent. Come!"
Lysias now stood before the procurator in mail and helmet, girded with a light sword and bearing a silver-gilded buckler. It was the arms and armor of the Syrian mercenaries of Pontius, but as of an officer among them, ordered to duty at the palace.
"Thou wilt go on foot to the Damascus gate," said Pontius. "The physician waiteth Caius at his house. Deliver this scroll to Caius and remain with his company until thou canst bring me exact tidings concerning his wound."
"O most noble Pontius," said Lysias, "I pray thee permission to say this word."
"Say on!" said the Spearman.