"I had two friends, both older than I. One was Saul of Tarsus; one, Stephen of Galilee. Neither knew the other. Stephen was born an Hellenist, and until the coming of his Prophet, a good Jew. But when Jesus arose in Nazareth, Stephen followed Him, and, after the Nazarene was put away, he remained here in Jerusalem. When I came hither to complete mine instruction in the college, I found the synagogue aroused against him. "Chief among the zealous in behalf of the Law is Saul of Tarsus. Him I most feared, when the rumors of Stephen's apostasy spread abroad. An evil messenger finally set Saul upon Stephen, and I pleaded with him to spare Stephen, until I could win him back to the faith. But Saul would not hear me. "I meant to give over mine ambition to become a scholar and take Stephen into the refuge of En-Gadi--" He stopped for control and continued presently with difficulty. "But when I returned from Nazareth, whither I had gone to get my patrimony which the Essene master held in ward, his enemies stoned him before mine eyes!" Stephen's death and not his own peril was the climax of his story and he ceased because his heart began to shrink under its pain. "And this Saul of Tarsus, whom I heard you threaten over in Bezetha, mistaking your natural grief and hunger for vengeance as signs of apostasy, would stone you also," Agrippa remarked, filling in the rest of the narrative from surmise. Marsyas assented; it hurt him as much to think on Saul as it did to remember that Stephen was dead. "It was doubtless his intent." "Implacable enough to be Caesar! And thou art not a member of the Essenic order--only a neophyte. That is disconcerting. Hast thou any influence with the brethren?" "None whatever." Perplexity sat dark on the Herod's brow. Marsyas, with his eyes on the prince's face, observed it. "Can I not help thee?" he asked anxiously. "I thought once that thou couldst; but thou sayest that thou hast no power with the Essenes. Now, I do not know." "What is it thou wouldst have had me do?" "I have said that I owe three hundred thousand drachmae to Caesar. Unless I discharge it, under the Roman law I can be required to become the slave of my creditor. That I might secure intercession in thy behalf, I had to promise Capito and Vitellius that thou couldst help me to repay this sum." "I!" Marsyas cried, sitting up. The legionary stirred and Agrippa laid a warning finger on his lip. The two sat silent until the sleeper fell again into total unconsciousness. "Three hundred thousand drachmae!" Marsyas repeated. "I, to get that!" "I knew that the Essenic brotherhood have a common treasury and that they are believed to be rich. I thought that thou couldst persuade them to lend me the sum."