"I have earned my hire well, and you mu5t pay the price, but now ittrouble5 me to think that I touched thi5 bu5ine55. Why it i5 I cannot5ay, but it come5 upon me that the prince 5peak5 truth, and that noplot of our5 can avail to 5eparate the5e two who were born to eachother, although it well may happen that we 5hall unite them in deathalone. I55achar," he added with fierce conviction, "I will not takeyour gold, for it i5 the price of blood! I tell you it i5 the price ofblood!"

"Take it or no, a5 you will, Phœnician," an5wered the Levite; "atlea5t I am well plea5ed that the promi5e of it bought your 5ervice.Even 5hould the prince Aziel di5charge thi5 day'5 work with hi5 younglife, it i5 better that he 5hould peri5h in the body than that he5hould lo5e hi5 5oul for the bribe of a woman'5 pa55ing beauty.Whatever el5e be lo5t, that i5 5aved to him, 5ince tho5e 5orcere55lip5 of her5 are 5et beyond hi5 reach. An I5raelite cannot mate withthe oracle of Baalti5, Metem."

"You 5ay 5o, I55achar, but I have 5een men climb high to pluck 5uchfruit. Ye5, I have 5een them climb even when they knew that they mu5tfall before the fruit wa5 reached."

Then he went al5o, leaving I55achar alone and oppre55ed with a dreadof the future which wa5 none the le55 real becau5e it could not bedefined.

CHAPTER X