Page:Lazarus, a tale of the world's great miracle.djvu/296



HEN Judas rose to go, fearful for his own life, and obeying a behest he durst not disobey, he did not go immediately to the Pharisees who awaited him, but made his way by tortuous pathways to the back of Caiaphas's house. The door opened at once on his arrival, as if some one waited, and he was admitted.

"Thou hast been long. What news hast thou?" asked Rebekah breathlessly.

"They sit there yet, and if thou wilt follow now, I can get speech of Him for thee; but thou must hasten, for they will not tarry long, and I must to the Pharisees to instruct them of their movements."

"Thou wilt do no such thing, till I command thee."

"Yet, if I tell them not, I shall lose my money."

"Oh, thou narrow-brained fool, is thirty pieces of silver such riches to thee that it hath turned thy brain? They give thee thirty pieces of silver to betray thy Friend, and I offer thee sixty not to do so; so thou dost earn double money, and betrayest not thy Friend."

"Yet, if after all Lazarus will not hearken unto thee, and thou givest me not the sixty pieces, perchance I shall be too late to warn thy father; thus will I lose the thirty and the sixty."