Ben Hur by Lew Wallace (best romance ebooks TXT) 📕

There is a sign which all persons not Romans, and who have moneys or goods subject to despoilment, accept as warning⁠—that is, the arrival at a seat of power of some high Roman official charged with authority.

Today comes the Consul Maxentius.

Be thou warned!

Another word of advice.

A conspiracy, to be of effect against thee, O friend, must include the Herods as parties; thou hast great properties in their dominions.

Wherefore keep thou watch.

Send this morning to thy trusty keepers of the roads leading south from Antioch, and bid them search every courier going and coming; if they find private despatches relating to thee or thine affairs, thou shouldst see them.

You should have received this yesterday, though it is not too late, if you act promptly.

If couriers left Antioch this morning, your messengers know the byways, and can get before them with your orders.

Do not hesitate.

Burn this after reading.

O my friend! thy friend,

Simonides

Ilderim read the letters a second time, and refolded them in the linen wrap, and put the package under his girdle.

The exercises in the field continued but a little longer⁠—in all about two hours. At their conclusion, Ben-Hur brought the four to a walk, and drove to Ilderim.

“With leave, O sheik,” he said, “I will return thy Arabs to the tent, and bring them out again this afternoon.”

Ilderim walked to him as he sat on Sirius, and said, “I give them to you, son of Arrius, to do with as you will until after the games. You have done with them in two hours what the Roman⁠—may jackals gnaw his bones fleshless!⁠—could not in as many weeks. We will win⁠—by the splendor of God, we will win!”

At the tent Ben-Hur remained with the horses while they were being cared for; then, after a plunge in the lake and a cup of arrack with the sheik, whose flow of spirits was royally exuberant, he dressed himself in his Jewish garb again, and walked with Malluch on into the Orchard.

There was much conversation between the two, not all of it important. One part, however, must not be overlooked. Ben-Hur was speaking.

“I will give you,” he said, “an order for my property stored in the khan this side the river by the Seleucian Bridge. Bring it to me today, if you can. And, good Malluch⁠—if I do not overtask you⁠—”

Malluch protested heartily his willingness to be of service.

“Thank you, Malluch, thank you,” said Ben-Hur. “I will take you at your word, remembering that we are brethren of the old tribe, and that the enemy is a Roman. First, then⁠—as you are a man of business, which I much fear Sheik Ilderim is not⁠—”

“Arabs seldom are,” said Malluch, gravely.

“Nay, I do not impeach their shrewdness, Malluch. It is well, however, to look after them. To save all forfeit or hindrance in connection with the race, you would put me perfectly at rest by going to the office of the Circus, and seeing that he has complied with every preliminary rule; and if you can get a copy of the rules, the service may be of great avail to me. I would like to know the colors I am to wear, and particularly the number of the crypt I am to occupy at the starting; if it be next Messala’s on the right or left, it is well; if not, and you can have it changed so as to bring me next the Roman, do so. Have you good memory, Malluch?”

“It has failed me, but never, son of Arrius, where the heart helped it as now.”

“I will venture, then, to charge you with one further service. I saw yesterday that Messala was proud of his chariot, as he might be, for the best of Caesar’s scarcely surpass it. Can you not make its display an excuse which will enable you to find if it be light or heavy? I would like to have its exact weight and measurements⁠—and, Malluch, though you fail in all else, bring me exactly the height his axle stands above the ground. You understand, Malluch? I do not wish him to have any actual advantage of me. I do not care for his splendor; if I beat him, it will make his fall the harder, and my triumph the more complete. If there are advantages really important, I want them.”

“I see, I see!” said Malluch. “A line dropped from the centre of the axle is what you want.”

“Thou hast it; and be glad, Malluch⁠—it is the last of my commissions. Let us return to the douar.”

At the door of the tent they found a servant replenishing the smoke-stained bottles of leben freshly made, and stopped to refresh themselves. Shortly afterwards Malluch returned to the city.

During their absence, a messenger well mounted had been despatched with orders as suggested by Simonides. He was an Arab, and carried nothing written.

“Iras, the daughter of Balthasar, sends me with salutation and a message,” said a servant to Ben-Hur, who was taking his ease in the tent.

“Give me the message.”

“Would it please you to accompany her upon the lake?”

“I will carry the answer myself. Tell her so.”

His shoes were brought him, and in a few minutes Ben-Hur sallied out to find the fair Egyptian. The shadow of the mountains was creeping over the Orchard of Palms in advance of night. Afar through the trees came the tinkling of sheep bells, the lowing of cattle, and the voices of the herdsmen bringing their charges home. Life at the Orchard, it should be remembered, was in all respects as pastoral as life on the scantier meadows of the desert.

Sheik Ilderim had witnessed the exercises of the afternoon, being a repetition of those of the morning; after which he had gone to the city in answer to the invitation of Simonides; he might return in the night; but, considering the immensity of the field to be talked over with his friend, it was hardly possible. Ben-Hur, thus left alone, had seen his