She drew the hanging aside. It had
hidden the black mouth of a tunnel, closed by a brass wicket which was
locked.
"Here," she said rapidly, "is what strengthens John in his folly. This
is a passage that leads under the Temple through Moriah into Tophet.
The whole city is underlaid with these galleries, but this is the only
one which leads to safety."
She dropped the curtain and approached him.
"But thou canst not go out of that passage alone!"
He smiled, and then with that boyish impulsiveness that he had
cultivated to cover the evil in his nature, he thrust out his hand to
her.
"Here is my hand on it!" he exclaimed.
"Go, then, and cease not till you have found her. Then, by any or all
the gods, I shall see that you do not go out of that passage
empty-handed."
He smiled at her radiantly and went at once to his chambers.
When he reached the apartments, he found them silent and deserted. He
seized upon the opportunity as most propitious for a search for the
possible hiding-place of the dowry of two hundred talents.
When he opened first the great press in which his lady kept her
raiment he was confronted by emptiness. Dismayed, he turned to look
into the room and found the chests for the most part open and rifled.
On the brazier, now cold, lay a wax tablet. He snatched it up and read:
Received of Julian of Ephesus the appended salvage in good repair.
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