Читать книгу The Robber - Bertram Brooker - Страница 16

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Barabbas watched Judas moving with rapid steps across the terraced grass. He was almost running, but the prince soon caught up to him and threw his arm around Judas's shoulders. The sleeve of his other arm rose and fell like a bird's wing as he gestured constantly all the way to the house.

Every moment, while he had been watching, Barabbas had grown more restlessly aware that he was alone with Jerith. Now that the two men were out of sight he had to turn and face her. He had been overwhelmed at first by her delicate beauty, but her jewels and finery had set up a barrier between them. Now, however, he once again marvelled at her loveliness. He felt all his animosities melt in a feeling of kinship and tenderness. He was astonished that a tiny delicate woman could so disarm him by one impulsive generous act.

"Poor Judas!" she murmured. Somehow through the air her severity reached and entered him. Her eyes were probing into his and in his heart there was a strange stirring unlike any he had ever known.

Her head scarcely reached his shoulder. He felt like a giant beside her, and all pride in his strength and height was driven from him as he gazed down at the swanlike whiteness of her bosom. The fragility of her body made him aware of his own heaviness. There was a deep-shadowed dimple at the base of her throat which had been covered by her necklace and the softness of it held his gaze.

She turned her head and looked toward the seat. Then she moved softly toward it, his glance following her. The innumerable folds of her garment made a mystery of every movement of her body. He sank on the grass at her feet.

"There is a bitterness in your eyes that burns like a flame—as though your heart were on fire," Jerith said softly, looking at him with a tenderness and understanding that aroused his wonder. "Has it been kindled by pity for the world?"

"No," replied Barabbas abruptly, shaking off the numbness which had kept him silent. "Loathing has kindled it—loathing of the evil lessons one learns from man."

Jerith's voice was clear and unfaltering as she said: "Surely they cannot all be evil. Have you forgotten love?"

For the first time since she had seated herself he raised his head. She was facing the great glow of the sky, and the splendour of the moon fell upon her so that the shadows under her brows and chin and bosom gave her the allure of marble. His dazzled eyes dropped.

"I know nothing of love," he muttered.

"You believe then that one man alone can change mankind—without pity—without love?" Jerith asked quietly.

"After hate of evil has done its work," he said sombrely, "after the tares are uprooted, after the fire has levelled the useless stubble and the chaff has been blown away, then the sower will come. In a world cleansed of shame the new seed will be sown, seed that will spring up straight and strong and good to behold."

"But you," she said, "you will not live to see the new shoots ..." Her voice trembled and stopped, as though a vague premonition of evil had silenced her.

"No. But the fire I bring, and the death I die, will hasten their growth," he declared, earnestly.

She came nearer still, so that he could have touched her. And when she spoke her voice was sorrowful like her brother's.

"Surely there must be another path," she said.

"No," he answered, bitterly. "But there are quiet cages for doves."

A deep sigh broke from her. "Joseph is ready to escape," she said. "It is I who have held him back. You did not know that."

"Yes. I knew it."

"This necklace," she was saying, "was meant as a sign to you, as well as to him, that I would chain him here no longer. But it was more than a sign. It is a beginning, a first step from the cage. Take it, Barabbas. It is for the wretched," she said, looking steadily into his face.

His voice sounded stifled. "I will not take it."

She shook her head at him and smiled strangely so that a dimple appeared in her cheek. Then she took a quick step, and before he knew what had happened she had slipped the necklace into the wallet he wore at his waist.

He caught at her hands and held them, thinking to oppose her, but the wild pulse beating in her wrists, and the smell of spice in her hair quickened the beat of his heart. Her nearness emptied him of strength.

"You make me forget the wretched of the world," he cried hoarsely.

Her fingers quivered in his grasp and she began to tremble.

"Why do you tremble?" he asked, but she lowered her head.

She swayed giddily and he caught her shoulders and held them. Drawing her gently closer he laid her head against his breast. Marvelling at himself, he stared down at the moonlit grass at her feet.

"I came here to this garden knowing nothing of love," he whispered, almost against her lips.

For a moment he let himself think of her as a jewel to be prized, a precious possession, but a sudden question thrusting through his thoughts quelled the waves of unaccustomed emotion that had been sweeping through him. "What have I to do with possessions?" he demanded of himself.

"I entered Jerusalem with hate in my heart," he said, half aloud, but she lifted her head to catch his words, and he held her face cupped in his hands, watching the anguish of bewilderment clouding her eyes. "In one hour I have learned what love might be like, but how can I speak of love, Jerith? If I were another man I could desire nothing more than to spend a lifetime at your side. But I am the man I am, and my lifetime is not my own. I must remember the wretched, and forget this meeting. Tomorrow I must go alone to Antipas and speak for myself."

He took a step backward, away from her, and added: "Tell Joseph to deny all knowledge of me. Forget me, Jerith."

"Will you not stay and tell Joseph yourself?" she urged.

"No. If I stayed ..." With an effort he silenced his voice and moved toward the shadow of the trees.

"But some day you will come to us, here or in Arimathea," she implored.

"No," Barabbas answered, in a voice tightened by inner torment. "It is not in me to pray, but if I ever pray it will be that our paths do not cross again."

He faced her a moment longer, shaken by the anguish in her eyes, then he turned and disappeared into the shadows.