Vitellius turned his head toward the speaker; Capito drew up his lids and his lower jaw relaxed. Slowly then both men got upon their feet.
"By the bats of Hades--" Vitellius began.
"By the nymphs of Delphi!" Capito's aged falsetto broke in. "It is the Herod himself!"
"From the faces of you," Agrippa declared, "I might have been the shade of my grandsire. But I have been hunting you. I need help. And as thou hopest to return three hundred thousand drachmæ to Cæsar from my purse, do thou aid me in urging Vitellius to yield it, Capito."
"What manner of help?" Vitellius demanded, fixing Agrippa with a suspicious eye.
"Arrest me an Essene from the hands of Jonathan."
"Jonathan!" the proconsul exclaimed darkly.
"The High Priest, the Nasi, thy sweet and valued friend!" the Agrippa explained with amiable provoke. "He has arrested an Essene on a trifling charge of apostasy and he is my voucher before the Essenic brotherhood for a loan to repay Cæsar. I left him in the hands of the Shoterim, in Bezetha. If he be not speedily rescued, they will stone him without the walls to-morrow and my debt to Cæsar--" he drew up his shoulders and spread out his hands in a gesture highly Jewish.
Capito frowned and Vitellius glowered under his grizzled brow at Agrippa.
"It is one to me," Agrippa continued coolly, as he noted signs of dissent in the contemplation. "I am just as happy and as like to escape Cæsar's displeasure by failing to pay it, as thou wilt be, Capito, if thou failest to collect it."
Capito nervously fingered the tesseræ at his hand.
"Meanwhile," added the Herod, perching himself on the edge of the table, "the youth proceeds to Jonathan's stronghold."
Vitellius looked at Cæsar's debt-collector. "Dost thou see anything more in this than appears on the face of it?" he asked.
Capito scratched his white head. He had learned to look for ulterior motives in every move of this slippery Herod, but he was too little informed in the matter to see more than the surface.
"We--can look into it, first," he opined.
"Jonathan will not await your pleasure," Agrippa put in. "He is hurried now with the responsibility of executing enough blasphemers to save himself popular favor. The Sanhedrim may sit to-morrow, the prisoner come for trial and be executed--even more expeditiously because the Nasi expects thee to interfere, Vitellius."