The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1923-04-01

they'd only stop squabbling over
each others piety and purity and
wondering whether so-and-so
washed his hands after catching
fieap'
Evan, bent over likewise, his
chin on his fist, was studying the
map.
Against the roof parapet Joel
sat, his arms clasped round his
knees. His face was upturned to
the perfect round of the full moon
and his expression was like that
Of q person taken with cramps in
the stomach--tragic and tense.
"Ai-yahl Aioe-e-Yahw The,
amorous whine of a night-prowling
lover came up from below. It was
q night for love.
what is the strength of the
Roman garrisons ?" said Evan.
The other began to quote fig
ures-very rapidly and with the
manner of a person thoroughly ac-
quainted with his subject. Joel
unclasped his knees, locked his
hands behind his head and looked
the nectareous white moon more
fully in the eye. In spite Of the
stamp Of internal anguish that he
bore he maintained q close-lipped
silence. He might have served as
a model for the Spartan boy who
was gnawed by the hidden fox cub.
= Question and answer, low
voiced, terse, continued for some
time across the sheet Of parchment.
The moon rode higher. A dog
howled. A futing pipe twittered
like the trill Of nocturnal insect
in midsummer and then was
abruptly hushed. Suddenly the
dark, square-jawed young man
smote the parchment with his
clenched fist. His voice rose
warranty:
This IL not . question of Jew
and Conflicts . question Of
freedoml I'm . Jew-God knows
what you are, but you're . clean
fighter, q straight speaker and no
friend Of Rome. Are you with i1s
on this? Is Rome to stamp every
small nation into the dust, saddle
it with reeking mercenaries, wiring
tribute money from 1t like 50 much
blood, strangle It's soul? This
country had history and ideals
that may be true or false, but It
has as much right to them as you
and have to the thoughts in our
hearts. Are you with Us? Some
of as are Greeks, some Samaritans,
some Syro-Phoenicians, but we're
all pledged to the one cause.
We're not many yet, but we're in
creasing, and a. we increase we'll
organize and arm the bulk of the
people. You saw that crowd at the
Jordan q week ago-infammable
as cauldron of pitch! Wen har-
ness that fervor, turn it against
Rome-and sweep the country as
clean of her mercenaries as a
broom sweeps the floor. Are you
with us?"
There was a little gap of silence,
definite as knife-cut. Evan was
looking in his level, brooding way
at the other. Since his first men,
ory-the shadow of a helmeted
Roman falling across him as he sat
naked in the sun, playing with lit
tie stones, and his mother catching
him up to her suddenly as though
to save him from some nameless
evil-the whole current of his life
had been setting steadily toward
this moment. He answered as
evenly-as automatically-as a
person uttering something that has
been long learned.
eyes," he said.
His hand was gripped-an ut
terly frank, dynamic pressure that
somehow was like a draught of I'M
sweetened wine.
"We'll work the Jordan Valley
first" said the dark young man.
"These pilgrims are like oil wait
ing for a flame. Then We'll go
north to Galilee. Lysander is in
prison at Tiberias under sentence
for sedition, but Carus and Mica
nor are working for US and there
are two hundred and fifty swords
hidden in the"
Joels voice broke in:
ooh. yes, Joseph, We'll go north
to Galilee because, of course, I'm
coming, too, but there's something
to be done first. There's-there's
that girl-Adah. She's alone now.
She-she should go back where
she came from-shouldn't she?"
He spoke, as it were, in gulps.
His utterance was deprecatory and
had sort of half strangled quail
ity.
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