CHAPTER XXX.

THE JAVELIN OF HEROD.

The Saxons and their jarl in the palace by the Sea of Galilee were now more impatiently awaiting the orders of Caius of Thessalonica. It was at the close of a day that he came to have speech with Ulric, the son of Brander, and to wonder again at his swift healing. He examined the scars, touching them, and asking many things concerning this learned rabbi of Nazareth and of his marvelous cures, for these were things which no reasonable man might easily believe.

"Thou hast thy strength again," he said at last. "Never have I thought much concerning the gods, but I shall deem it prudent to make sacrifices to such as I think may aid me. I have never found them profitable. Take now thy weapons and walk out along the shore with me, for I am restless. I linger here too long on thy account. Come!"

"I shall delay thee no longer, O noble Caius," said the jarl, "but well am I assured that thou doest well to wear mail and to have thy good sword at thy side. Put on thy helmet."

"So do thou," said Caius. "But what said to thee the Jew, thy interpreter? Was it aught more important than thou hast told me?"

"Not so," said Ulric, "but the keeper of the tiger's den told much unwittingly. The beasts were prepared to win more than sesterces. Had I been slain, and Tostig, thou wouldst now have less perfect guarding. I will tell thee, O Caius: I like thee well and I am jarl; not another will my men obey. I think thee a good fighter, and such as I am agree not well with cowards or with those who deal in subtleties."

"O jarl," said Caius, "speak not of Julius, the centurion, as if he were a coward, but he is exceedingly deep in his counsels. There is more than thou knowest in this matter. Thou mayest yet have a chance to use thy long, sharp sword again."

"That might please me well," said the jarl. "I like not to leave a blade too long in the sheath lest it might rust. But glad am I as we walk to feel no more any hindrance from the work of the tearing claws."

"Well with thee, O jarl!" exclaimed Caius. "And now look without looking and mark well without seeming to mark. Seest thou the men in armor who have landed from yonder boat at the shore? They walk not overrapidly, but they aim to come between us and the palace. Canst thou read a riddle?"

"I had noted them already," said the jarl. "Men have told me that the other shore of this Sea of Galilee belongeth to Herod Antipas, the brother of the Herod who ruleth here under Cæsar. I have heard that men who are hated by the Herods die at distances. But thinkest thou that either of them would dare to send a sword against a Roman, and such as thou art?"

"Consider, O jarl," said Caius, calmly. "Who then would know concerning the sword or him who sent it if thou and I were slain upon this beach and our bodies conveyed in yonder boat to be sunken in the sea? Would not the thing be well hidden if the doers of it were shortly also slain by Herod Antipas or by his brother, whichever sent them?"

"Great would be the inquiry," said Ulric.

"Thou art young!" said Caius. "Cæsar might demand my blood of him of Machærus, in whose land we are, or even of this Julius. What if Antipas thus plotted harm to both of them? He could strike them no deeper stab than this! Thy spear, Saxon! O for my shield! I was imprudent!"

"Take mine!" said Ulric, casting his spear. "I need it not. There are now but four. Ha! A javelin! I caught it! Out with thy sword!"

Even while talking had they permitted the five men from the boat to draw much nearer and as if unobserved. Sudden and fierce had then begun this assailing. The javelin had been well aimed, but the quick sword of the jarl had parried it. These were men of war who were coming and they had deemed themselves sure of victory, for one had said:

"On! With him is no one but his tiger-torn gladiator. He hardly may stand erect. The centurion is at our mercy. End him!"

"Use well the shield," said Ulric. "Thou art thyself a good swordsman."

Now he who seemed the leader of these murderers drew back astonished to see how this Saxon, whom he deemed crippled, sprang toward him with a war cry. He was no match for such a one, and his next comrade, turning affrighted to see him fall, left his own neck unguarded against the sword of Caius. What then were the two who remained against two mighty men of valor?

Ill advised had been he who had sent them upon this errand, for the jarl laughed exultingly to find how well his strength had come back to him.

"O noble Caius!" he shouted. "Thou art a good swordsman. They are all down. But these fellows are Jews. How is this?"

"None the less are they from Antipas," said Caius. "I can read his cunning. He will say they are but robbers from the rebel bands beyond the Jordan. Therefore I may bring no accusation against him. But I think thou art enough for five such as these. Well is it for me that thou art healed. Now will I send word to Julius, and his servants may have the care of this carrion."

Ulric was silent, looking down upon the slain. "Jews?" he said. "I think now that they are not so, but they are like them. What is thy thought, O Caius?"

"Samaritans!" suddenly exclaimed the centurion after a closer examination. "Not from Antipas. Here is a deeper treachery. These are from the elder Herod, the fox of Galilee. O jarl, haste! To the palace! We will make ready for our journey. But know thou that our road to Jerusalem passeth through Samaria, whence these came. Verily I have a new tale to tell the procurator."

"And I have a new thought concerning the keeping of thy life," said Ulric. "But there will be more than one round shield with thee in Samaria. A man needeth to have many eyes in this land."

At that moment, while they still gazed down at the dark yet pallid faces of the dead, they heard near them shouts of angry chiding, but the tongue was not the tongue of that country.

"O jarl!" shouted Lars, the son of Beolf, "we saw thee afar! We came in haste! What doest thou here with thy sword in thy hand--thou that wert torn by the Roman tiger?"

"Woe to thee, O jarl!" shouted another. "Thy men should have been with thee!"

"O Caius," exclaimed Tostig the Red, "thou didst fight for our jarl? Then will we fight for thee. Thou hast made good friends this day."

Sufficiently well did Caius understand Tostig and the others who now came running to see how it might be with the son of Brander, and it pleased him greatly.

"I may now depend upon these wolves of the North," he thought, "and sore may be my need of such as they who think not but strike, knowing only a friend and a foe and taking no account of numbers against them."

The jarl explained the matter and he seemed to be forgiven, but he and the centurion returned to the palace surrounded by spears ready for the casting.

"It is well, O jarl," said Caius. "Let all be ready to depart upon the morrow; but I may not go in unseemly haste as in fear."

"Thou wilt go as becometh thee," said Ulric. "He who fleeth unduly from a sword loseth the regard of brave men. We will be ready."

Nevertheless, Caius of Thessalonica rode swiftly to the house of Julius at Tiberias and was himself the bringer of this tidings.

Julius listened to him in a white wrath. "O thou, my friend!" he shouted. "Seest thou not that this thing is aimed at me as much as at thee? If thou hadst thus been slain, it had been my utter ruin. Woe to these Herods! They shall both fall by the sword of Cæsar. The gods be with thy Saxons. Thou needest them. Commend me unto Pontius and say to him that thou and I are henceforth one in all these matters. The Herods now seek to stab him also. Let him guard well his head."

So talked they long together in a nearness which they had not known before, finding themselves in the same peril from the serpents which bite in the dark.

From the gate of Tiberias on the morrow went out a company worth the seeing. Not without armed Roman escort and many bondservants might the chariots of so important a man as Caius of Thessalonica set forth. When to all these were added the vikings, in their best armor and well mounted, it was as if a small army had been ordered southward. To the place of parting and of farewell came, also, Julius and many men of note to do all honor to the friend of the procurator.

"O Caius," said Julius, "I already have a swift messenger from Antipas. He hath sent his horsemen to search the hills beyond the sea and Tarichæa. They will ride with all diligence, and beyond doubt they will find some to slay, but thy shield must be nearer to thee than is the Jordan."

"It will be very near," said Caius, smiling, for near him rode Tostig the Red watching all keenly, and his spear was in his hand.

This, too, saw Julius, and he laughed.

"O my friend," he said, "it is even so. Fare thee well; but they who come to meet thee should have due warning, for thy protectors are no respecters of persons."

All then rode on, and the Saxons talked much among themselves concerning the things which they had already seen in this land. They had visited all towns and villages around the sea, but none of them were more splendid than Tiberias.

"I would have visited Capernaum," said Ulric.

"There is no great thing there," said Tostig the Red. "What hadst thou in thy mind?"

"Only this," said the jarl: "that this son of the old god of the Jews, this rabbi of Nazareth, dwelleth there at times. I owe him thanks and gifts for my healing. Also I have it in mind to ask him questions concerning my father, and Hilda, and Valhalla, and Asgard. Hilda I have not seen but in my dream on _The Sword_."

"One was with her, I heard thee say when thou didst meet her. It was well to give her thy ring. I would have done so. But what would this god of the Jews know concerning thy maiden? The gods care not for such things. She was fair to look upon. But, O Ulric the Jarl, I would I were on the sea again!"

So said all the vikings many times, but they told the jarl that not in any of their goings to Capernaum had they seen Jesus, the rabbi. They had heard of him, that he was away in other places, here and there, teaching and preaching and healing many and casting out evil spirits.

"It is good that he so doeth," said Lars, the son of Beolf, "and that he healed the tiger scratches upon the jarl, but what good is it for him to sing sagas to these people of no account?"

There was none to answer him, for even Ulric himself was silent. Nevertheless, the son of Brander had many thoughts which he did not utter and he forgot not any of the words which he had heard spoken by this one who had healed his hurts.

"I understand them not," he said to himself. "He bade us think of the gods, and that I do. Even now I am seeking their city and that I may get acquainted with my kindred. How shall I do so completely before I am slain? And he who dieth a cow's death, so say the sagas, shall not enter Valhalla, but shall find his place in Hel. I would join the heroes of the old time and dwell with Thor and Odin. I think I shall know more after I have seen the city Jerusalem, which Ben Ezra saith is like Asgard. At all events I will sacrifice horses and oxen and sheep in the temple of Jehovah as if he were Odin himself, for he is the chief god of this wonderful land."

More and more wonderful indeed did it seem to the Saxons as they rode onward all that day, for it swarmed with inhabitants and the villages and towns were many in number.

It was at the gate of Jezreel that their company halted, at the setting of the sun, and Ulric sat upon his horse looking toward Carmel. Behind the city arose Gilboa, wooded and craggy. Before it stretched Esdraelon.

"O Wulf the Skater," said the jarl, "do you bear in mind the things which were said of this city and plain by Ben Ezra and Abbas?"

"More was said to thee than to others," replied Wulf. "It is a city of sieges and a plain of many battles. I can see the blue ridge of Carmel and beyond is the Middle Sea. I would I might see waves this hour and smell the salt air. This is a woeful land, where never is good ice or deep snow. We go on into the winter and we may yet see a snow squall if we are fortunate. But Knud will need no bearskins and Wulf will need no skates--and I sicken when I think of such a winter."

"The great battle of the end of the world and the twilight of the gods!" exclaimed Ulric. "O ye! If Ben Ezra's Jewish sagas lie not, here shall we witness the greatest of all the feasts of swords. Here shall we have for our jarl a god, the son of a god, and there will be gods and heroes to fight with. I, the son of Odin, will be here! Hael, Odin!"

"I will be with thee, then," said Knud, "but if it is soon to come, it were better for some of us to go back to the Northland and return with many keels full of men like ourselves. This god will need Saxons if he is to fight Romans. These Jews will go down like wheat before the sickle, for I have been looking at them and at the legionaries."

"Thou art right!" exclaimed Tostig the Red. "But there is room on this plain for great armies to meet. They will come from many places, Abbas told me, and among them will also be black and yellow men, and there will be great beasts, and the eagles that are wide-winged, and creatures whereof he could not tell me the shape. They may be like the one we saw come up from under the ice to tear the whales, only that such as he do not come out upon the land."

"No man knoweth from whence these will come," said Knud, "but some of them are as great serpents with wings. I like not to think of them, for they are full of fire and sulphur, and who can fight well in a smoke that choketh him?"

After this they entered the city of Jezreel, and they wondered greatly at the strength of its walls and towers, but they saw not many soldiers.

"The land is at peace," thought Ulric, "and garrisons may be small. I am learning something of war cunning from these Romans. What they take they will hold until a stronger people shall come against them. I know of no such people except in the Northlands."

Yet another thought was in the mind of the jarl, and his eyes wandered anxiously wherever he went. In all towns and villages and whenever companies had been met by the way he had seemed to be searching, and a sadness of disappointment was growing upon his face.

"I heard her say she would see me at Jerusalem," he told himself, "but now the time is long. She may have come hitherward. Of these damsels whom I have seen as I came many are fair to look upon, but none are as beautiful as Miriam. Cannot Hilda lead me to her? Shall I indeed not see Miriam until I meet her in Asgard? I would that Caius were in greater haste. We travel slowly."

If he had looked upon fair faces inquiringly with his sad blue eyes, also had all the Saxons laughed to one another quietly to note how many women put aside their veils a little to turn for another look at the face of the jarl.

"Never before have these seen any like him," they said. "They will not see him again, and he careth not for women save for the one to whom he gave a token. He will forever keep his troth with the dark one, the beautiful one, in whose hand he put the ring of the bright red stone as we came through Esdraelon."

Good welcome was given to Caius of Thessalonica and his company by the governor of Jezreel, but the vikings went to their quarters listlessly, for they had all looked across the plain toward Carmel, and the thought within them was that beyond Carmel was the sea and that upon the sea were ships.