"Its faith," Saul suggested quietly. The Levite nodded eagerly. "Its faith," Saul continued, as if speaking to himself, "and after that there is nothing more. Yea, restore unto it its kings and its dominions, yet withhold the faith and there is no Judea. Desolate it until the land is sown in salt and the people bound to the mills of the oppressor, so but the faith abide, Judea is Judea, glorified!" "What then, O Rabbi," the Levite persisted, "if the land be sown in salt and the people bound to the mills of the oppressor, if the faith be abandoned--what then?" "God can not perish," Eleazar put in. "Fear not; it can not come to pass." "Nay, but evil can enter the souls of men and point them after false prophets so that God is forgotten," the Levite retorted. His lean figure bent at the hips and he thrust his face forward with triumph of prophecy on it. Saul looked at him. "What hast thou to tell, Joel?" he asked with command in his voice. The Levite accepted the order as he had worked toward it--with energy. "Listen, then," he began in a whisper. "Dost thou remember Him whom they crucified at Golgotha, a Passover, four years ago?" Eleazar nodded, but Saul made no sign. "Know ye that they killed the plant after it had ripened," the Levite hastened on. "The seed of His teaching hath spread abroad and wherever it lodgeth it hath taken root and multiplied. Wherefore, there is a multitude of offspring from the single stem." Saul stood up. He did not gain much in stature by rising, but the temper of the man towered gigantic over the impatience of Eleazar and the craft of the Levite. "What accusation is this that thou levelest at Judea?" he demanded. "A truth!" Joel replied. "That Israel hath a blasphemer among them, which hath been spared, concealed and not put away?" questioned Saul. "Dare ye?" the Levite cried. "Dare ye not!" Saul answered sternly. "It is the Law!" The Levite came toward him. "Go thou unto the High Priest Jonathan," he whispered evilly; "he hath work for thee to do!" Eleazar doubled his huge hand and whirled his head away. There was tense silence for a moment. "Is there a specific transgression discovered?" Saul demanded. The Levite weighed his answer before he gave it. "Rumor hath it," he began, "that certain of the sect are in the city preaching--" "Rumor!" Saul exclaimed. "Hast rested on the testimony of rumor?" "Can ye track pestilence?" he asked craftily. "By the sick!" was the retort. "Go on!" "It is the High Priest's vow to attack it," Joel declared. "He hath no other thought. It is said that one of the disputants, who yesterday troubled them in the Cilician synagogue with an alien doctrine, preached the Nazarene's heresy." "In the Cilician--in mine own synagogue!" Saul repeated, in amazement. "In thine, in the Libertine, the Cyrenian and the Alexandrian." "And they suffered him?" Saul persisted with growing earnestness.