Читать книгу The Robber - Bertram Brooker - Страница 15

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She was unlike any woman Barabbas had ever seen. He had never given thought before to what a palace woman would be like. He was not prepared for such fragility, which seemed to him like the preciousness of a nurtured flower, growing in a sheltered shady spot. And yet her mouth was generous. Her dark warm eyes seemed to dance mischievously. Her black hair was drawn upward, bound in the manner of the Greeks.

Silently he watched her throbbing liveliness as though she were a rare creature of the woods whose capture would delight a hunter's heart.

"The Princess Jerith," Judas said, interrupting his thoughts. "My friend, Jeshua."

"You are welcome in our house," said Jerith. "Judas has often spoken of you."

Barabbas bowed his head. Jerith looked long at Judas's friend. She had heard much of him, and had built in her mind an image of a tall rebellious youth, a slave who had burned not only for his own freedom but for the liberty of all. His disappearance for years had added mystery to Judas's praise of him, giving the name Jeshua a heroic ring in Jerith's youthful ears. Regarding him almost as a creature of legend, it had always seemed strange to her that a youth of such strength and fierceness could ever have been the friend of poor ailing Judas. It seemed unbelievable that he had ever been a slave. He had the appearance of a sheykh.

She felt his measuring gaze linger at her throat, and for a moment she was abashed, thinking that the low-bosomed stola she had worn to the governor's had struck him as being shameless. Then she remembered her jewels, a rare necklace of Egyptian emeralds which had been her mother's. It had caught his scornful glance. She suddenly felt vexed that Joseph had prevailed upon her to attend a reception for Pilate, for it meant that she was formally attired and laden with jewels she seldom wore.

Fumbling with the emeralds at her throat, she became aware of the intense silence that hung in the air between them. Her blood leapt, sending a flush of frightened joyousness tingling in every vein. "How quiet you are," she murmured.

There was a stir in the grass beside her. It was Judas stepping close. His upward worshipping glance sent a pang of pity through her. But she moved quickly away to the farthest end of the seat. As she sat down Joseph came toward her and she saw wonder in his eyes.

He laughed softly. "Strange!" he murmured. "We have talked without ceasing since Judas and Jeshua came." He directed them to be seated with a gesture which betrayed his impatience to go on.

Jerith motioned to the place beside her and looked up at Barabbas questioningly.

"I am a lover of the earth," Barabbas said shortly, stretching himself out on the grass so that the disfigured side of his face was hidden.

"Judas has told us of you," Jerith returned, lowering her eyes. "You have been away a long time."

Barabbas gave no indication of having heard.

"Six years," burst out Judas. "But he has come, today, with a message from John of Jordan."

"Tomorrow I hope to procure him an audience with Antipas," said Joseph. "He will stay the night with us."

Jerith leaned forward, her clasped hands sliding over her knees.

"May I ask you, Jeshua?..." she began, but seeing in the strange eyes a sudden resolve which clouded their gleam, she broke off immediately.

"My name is no longer Jeshua!"

"No, no!" exclaimed Judas, jumping up. "There is no need to tell her."

"I am not the man you have heard of from Judas."

"Why tell her?" entreated Judas.

"Because I abhor lies. My name was Jeshua," the deep voice broke out again. "But my father was a rebel and I have become a rebel. My name is Barabbas."

Jerith leaned forward and clenched her hands.

"The robber?" she cried in astonishment.

Barabbas nodded.

Bending forward, she said in a wondering voice: "You are both Jeshua and Barabbas?"

"Yes."

"You are the Barabbas we have heard of who preaches against possessions?"

"And princes," said Joseph, with a smile.

"Have you been talking of this to my brother?"

"Your brother was lamenting the sense of lost power in man," said Barabbas, his glance lifting to hers. "He has not seen that his possessions have robbed him and chained him, and that the loss every man senses is that of one who grasps the fragment and loses the whole. That is what we have lost ... the sense of oneness with the earth ... which gives a man the joy and innocence of the creatures of the wild."

Jerith was scarcely listening to his words, but her whole heart seemed to open to the rhythm and resonance of his voice.

Barabbas continued, "Your brother has been seeking something in far fields that is under his feet; for some great change to come ... beyond man as he is now. But he has sought too far. Man as he is can change himself with one step!"

Judas sprang up from the seat. "Man as he is! Man alone!" he cried out. "He believes that man can be changed by a gospel of folly and force and death!"

Jerith turned in astonishment to stare at Judas's blazing eyes.

Joseph was saying, calmly: "Whereas you, Judas, you believe in what?"

"Man cannot be saved by any gospel. Only a miracle will save us," muttered Judas, in a faltering voice; he had covered his face with his hands and the last words were lost in mumbling. He sank back on the seat.

Barabbas looked scoffingly at Judas.

"What is the one step you speak of?" Jerith broke in expectantly.

"The one step," Barabbas said, "is to turn your back on all this. Sell your possessions and give what you gain to relieve the miseries of the poor. Then you will be free."

The strange eyes had lost their wariness. They were open and glowing with an overwhelming faith in the richness of the freedom he was offering her. His ardour seemed to be reaching up to her, encompassing her.

She wrenched her glance away from the burning pools of his eyes. Turning, she sought the calm of her brother's face, but his thin lips were drawn in an anxious line. His eyes were sorrowful. His fingers were knotting and unknotting in the lap of his robe between his knees.

"How did you answer, Joseph?" said Jerith in a low voice.

"I have not answered."

His head was held in an attitude of listening which Jerith knew well. It meant that he was wrestling with himself.

She spoke quickly. "Why have you not?" she asked. "Jeshua speaks truly. You have felt chained here and robbed of your freedom, because of me. Is it not true? You were thinking of me."

"I was asking Jeshua," said the prince slowly. "I was wondering what we could do, how we could begin."

"Let us begin now," said Jerith, abruptly turning toward Barabbas; and lifting her arms behind her neck, she loosened the clasp of the necklace. Three glistening strands of emeralds tumbled into her cupped hands, and she held the sparkling heap of stones within Barabbas's reach.

Barabbas leapt to his feet, shaking his head.

The prince laid a restraining hand on her wrist.

Turning to her brother she said meaningly, "Let us rid ourselves of our chains, Joseph."

Judas leaned toward her muttering and gesticulating.

She faced Barabbas again and thrust the necklace nearer. "This will feed many," she said.

Barabbas shook his head a second time. "No!" he uttered with finality.

"You think I am hasty?" said Jerith.

Barabbas said: "I do not quarrel with haste."

"But you think I will regret it?"

Barabbas did not speak.

"If you had come upon us on the road, not as the friend of Judas, but as the robber Barabbas, who befriends the poor," said Jerith, "you would have taken it from me. There is a sense of guilt in possessing so much, while others starve. I have felt it. And my brother has felt it. We have given alms, but we have been chained by luxury all our lives. Were it not for me, my brother would have fled from all this long ago."

"Jerith!" cried the prince, in a warning voice.

Her glance fell and lingered a moment on the necklace in her hand. Turning to Joseph at last, she said: "Let us part with the things that are most precious first. The rest will be easier."

The prince protested. "There is much to consider, Jerith. We must talk. We must think of what this means."

"Have you not sought long enough?" said Barabbas. "Your sister sees the path you were seeking."

"Ah! but what will become of her?" murmured Joseph, uneasily.

"You said that you seek a change," said Barabbas. "But you do not seek it in yourself. You look beyond man, because you are not truly on the side of men. While you remain a prince you are an enemy of man."

Judas took a step forward. He was trembling. "You shame me," he cried, stamping on the ground. "Remember, I brought you to this house ... the house of a friend."

"But not the friend of man," said Barabbas.

"You have grown like a thorn since you have lived in the wild," cried Judas. "You speak only to prick and wound. Take the thorns from your mouth and speak to my friends as ... as ..."

"I told you I was not fit for the presence of a prince," said Barabbas with a derisive smile.

Jerith said, softly: "He jests, Judas."

"I will not stay! I will not listen to his jests!"

Judas raised his hands in a fretful gesture. Flinging a despairing look at Jerith, he turned and stumbled away through the trees toward the house.

"Wait, Judas!" cried Joseph, gathering up his robe and hastening after him.