I.N.R.I Part 6

"He will see Jerusalem fall!"

"Woe is me!"

"He will see Rome burn!"

"Mercy!" she groaned.

"He will see the old world perish. He will see the barbarians of the north prevail. He will wander restless, he will be ill-treated and despised everywhere, he will suffer the boundless despair of universal misery, and he will not be able to die. He will envy men their death anguish and their right to die. He will learn how they suck sweet poison from the loveliest blossoms, and how twelve-year-old boys kill themselves from sheer weariness. He is the son of lies and is banished into the kingdom of lies. He will lament over the torments of old age, and he will not be able to die. He will call those children whom Herod slew blessed, and gnash his teeth at the memory of the woman who saved him through a lie."

"Oh, stop!" shrieked the woman. "When will he be redeemed?"

"Perhaps when the eternal Truth is come."

CHAPTER V

The desert lay under a leaden sky. The yellow undulating sandy plain was like a frozen sea that had no end, and so far as eye could see was only bounded by the dark orb of heaven. Here and there, grey, cleft, cone-shaped rocks and blunt-cornered stone boulders or blocks and flat-topped stones not unlike a table rose out of the sand-ocean. Two such stones were situated close together; one was partly covered by the yellow quicksand, the other stood higher out of the ground. On each of them lay a man stretched at full length. One, strong and sinewy, lay on his face, supporting his black-bearded cheeks with his hands so that his half-raised face could gaze over the barren plain. The other, a smaller-made man, lay on his back, making a pillow of his arms, and gazed at the gloomy sky. Both wore the Bedouin dress and were provided with arms which were fastened into, or suspended from, their clothes.

Their woolly heads were protected by kerchiefs. Their complexion was as brown as the bark of the pine-tree, their eyes big and sparkling, their lips full and red. The one had a snub nose; the nose of the other was long and thin. So do these men of the desert appear to my mind's eye.

"Dismas," said the snub-nosed man, "What do you see in the sky?"

"Barabbas," replied the other, "what do you see in the desert?"

"Are you waiting for manna to fall from the sky?" said Barabbas. "Do you know that I'm almost starved to death? I must go down to the caravan route."

"Well, go. I'll to the oasis of Sheba," said Dismas.

"Dismas, I hate you," growled the other.

Dismas said nothing, and steadfastly looked at the sky, which had not for a long while been so softly sunless as to-day.

"Since the day when you refused to help me hold up the caravan of Orientals with my men, I have hated you. They had much frankincense and precious spices and gold. With one blow we should have provided ourselves with enough for many a long year. And you----"

"Wanderers who were seeking the Messiah! I do not attack such as they," said Dismas.

"You, too, are seeking him, you pious highwayman."

"Of course, I seek him."

"Ha! ha! ha!" laughed he of the snub-nose, pressing his pointed chin into his hand. "The Messiah! the fairy-tale of dreaming old men. All weak men dream and believe. Don't you see that when you have to strive and struggle for your little bit of life there isn't time to wait for the Messiah!"

"That's just what I've believed for many a year and day," answered Dismas sadly. "I left my home to follow you; I've plundered men of silks and precious stones here in the desert, and time has flown nevertheless. All the treasure in the world cannot bid it stand still for an hour; comfort only makes the days fly quicker. We should not struggle for life, but hold it fast, for existence is a wondrous thing.

Oh, in vain--the days vanish. So I've determined to have nought to say to the hours which pa.s.s, but to a time that endures for aye. And only he whom G.o.d sends can bring such a time."

Barabbas pressed his face against the stone, and said with comfortable conviction; "We've only the life we have; there's no other."

"If it was as you say," returned Dismas, "we must make this one life great----"

"If there's no life to come," said Barabbas, "we must live this one out. That is nature, and to deny it folly. No, I will enjoy my life.

Enjoyment is a duty."

"That is what bad men think," said Dismas.

"There are no bad men," exclaimed Barabbas, "and no good men either.

Friend, look at the lamb, he harms no one; he would rather be torn to pieces by the lion than tear the lion to pieces himself. Is he good, therefore? No, only weak. And the lion who kills and eats the lamb?

Is he bad, therefore? No, only strong. And so it is his right to destroy the weak. Strength is the only virtue, and the only good deed is to exterminate the weak."

When he made an end of speaking, the other turned his face towards him and said: "What extraordinary words are those? I never heard such talk before. In whose heart were such ideas born?"

"They were not born in the heart," said Barabbas. "The heart is dumb.

Dismas, if I must dwell in desert caves and do nothing, I must search out and inquire. I break stones in pieces and search. I pull the corpses of animals and men to pieces and inquire. And I find that things are not as the old writings tell us. There's only one Messiah: the truth. Man is an animal like any of the lower creatures--that is the truth. Ha, ha, ha!"

A shudder went through Dismas's body. How he disliked this man! And yet, on account of his companion's strong will, and through the habit of years, he could not free himself. He had often fled away from him, but had always come back. Now he stood up, lifted his arms to heaven, and exclaimed: "Oh, Lord, in the holy heights, save me!"

"Invoke the stars," said Barabbas, with a scornful laugh. "You'll be right then. They know nothing of you and your G.o.d. They're made of common dust. They themselves, and all the beings on them, live in the same base struggle as does our earth and everything on it. An enormous dust-heap, swarming with vermin, that's all."

Dismas sat on his stone with folded hands, pale as a corpse.

"Barabbas, my comrade," he said at last, "it is your bad angel that speaks."

"Why don't you praise him, Dismas? Why don't you shout for joy? My message has redeemed you. You think because you've attacked, slain, and plundered unsuspecting travellers that everlasting h.e.l.l must be your portion. My strong message does away with h.e.l.l. Do you see that?"

The other replied: "I heard a prophet in the wilderness cry that a man whom G.o.d had d.a.m.ned could be saved by repentance. Your d.a.m.nation, Barabbas, never! No Almighty G.o.d! Everything a dry, swarming dust-heap, and no escape! Frightful, frightful!"

"Do you know, Dismas, your lamentations don't amuse me?" said the other, supporting himself on his hands and knees like a four-footed beast. "I have a more important matter on hand. I'm hungry."

Dismas jumped on his stone, and made ready for flight. "If he's hungry, he's capable of killing and eating me."

Barabbas had a.s.sumed a listening att.i.tude, and his eagle eyes stared out into the desert. A red banner was visible between the rocks and stones; it moved and came nearer. It was a woman's red garment. She rode on an a.s.s, and seen closer, carried a child in her arms. A man, tired out, limped beside her, leading the a.s.s.

"Dismas, there's someone," whispered Barabbas, grasping the handle of his weapon. "Come, let's hide behind the stone until they come up."

"You'll fall on those defenceless folk from an ambush?"

"And you're going to help me," said Barabbas coolly.

"We'll take what we need for to-day, no more. I'll only help you so far, mark that."

The little group came nearer. The man and the a.s.s waded deep in the sand, which in some places lay scantily over the rough stones, and in others had drifted into high heaps. The guide was leading the animal quickly, for during this sunless day he had lost his bearings, but said nothing about it, in order not to make his wife anxious. His eyes sought the right road. They ought to reach the oasis of Descheme that day. Now he saw two men standing on blocks of stone which reached up into the sky.

"Praised be G.o.d!" said Joseph of Nazareth, "these men will put me right."

Before he had time to frame his question, they quickly descended. One seized the a.s.s's bridle, the other grasped Joseph's arm, and said: "Give us what you have with you."

The pale woman on the a.s.s sent an imploring glance to Heaven. The little child in her lap looked straight out of his clear eyes, and was not afraid.

"If you've bread with you, give it us," said Dismas, who was holding the a.s.s.