Marsyas stood frozen; he did not want to hear more, after the rabbi had spoken, but when the reviving current of life stirred in his veins, it was turned to a fever for vengeance. Now! Not to wait for safety, or for circumstances or for men or things. It seemed that he should not eat or sleep till his work was done. Eleazar, seeking to turn the current of the young man's thoughts, which he believed, being unable to see his face, must be sorrowfully retrospective, asked presently: "Art thou here with--them?" "With whom?" "The Nazarenes." Marsyas seized the rabbi's shoulder with a fresh grasp. "Where are they?" he demanded. "Dost thou--in truth, dost thou not know?" he demanded. "Accused though I am, I am a good Jew, Rabbi. Never until now have I wished to know where they house themselves. But even were it the powers of darkness which alone could help me, now, I should not hesitate! Where are these apostates?" "Here, in Ptolemais. What wilt thou have of them, Marsyas?" "Were not heathen and idolaters instruments for the Lord's work? Have not even the beasts of the fields served His ends?" "What dost thou meditate?" "Saul's undoing!" Eleazar heard him thoughtfully and answered after a silence. "So be it, then; if thou choosest that spirit, it must serve. Thou hast a dead friend to avenge and I, the guiltless oppressed to justify. So the one end, the prevention of Saul's work, be attained, what matter if the spirit be mine or thine!" "Well enough; the means, then! Where are these Nazarenes?" "They--they meet on the water-front, nightly, since the oppression hath been instituted against them," Eleazar answered reluctantly, as if he doubted the propriety of betraying a knowledge of the apostates' habits. "Nightly!" Marsyas repeated. "So then to-night! Where is the place? We will go there!" Eleazar stood undecided and debated with himself. But the pressure of the young man's impelling firmness assumed material force against him and he yielded doubtfully. "Come, then," he said, and his hesitation melted in the face of the other's decision. Marsyas put himself at the rabbi's side and together they tramped through the dark streets toward the poorer districts of Ptolemais, along the harbor. It was poor indeed; the houses were the smallest in the city, low, square boxes of sun-dried earth little higher than a man's head and mere stalls for space and comfort. Each, however, had a numerous tenantry, and wherever doors were opened the two men saw within, now Jews, now Greeks or Romans. Although uproar and disorder common in the lower walks of the city went on in the environments, the particular passage Marsyas and the rabbi walked was quiet though not deserted. But it was a veritable black well, that maintained a swift slope for many rods and indicated the proximity to the water. "How found you them, in this hole?" Marsyas asked, astonished, in spite of his intent thoughts, at the black labyrinth.