“No, the obstinate old dog, he would not say a word; but before he was quite finished his wife brought the coins from her head-dress and bought him off. They say that he was the queerest figure when he came out of the water, with the skin hanging about him in folds. Well, at all events, it was a good washing for him. He had never been so clean in his life before.”
“Upon my word, I can’t remember. But I do know that we got the money.”(5)
“Well, I remember what your predecessor used to say. It was in this very room about two years ago that I asked him whether he felt quite safe. ‘Oh, yes!’ he answered, ‘I have got the last farthing that is to be got, and there is an end of it!’”
“Well,” replied the high priest, “there are other ways of getting money besides taxes. I will allow that Jason worked the taxes as well as a man could. No one can eat or drink, lie down or get up, walk or ride, travel or stay at home, be born or marry, or be buried, without having to pay for it. No! I do not see room for another, and I am sure that it is not for want of looking. But, as I said, there are other ways. Now—can you keep a secret?”
“A secret! I should say so—not the grave itself better!”
“Hush! my friend, good words! good words!” cried the high priest, who felt, or affected to feel, the common Greek superstition against words that seemed to carry an evil omen with them. “Well, if you can, come here.”
So saying, Menelaüs took his friend into an adjoining room, and opening a cupboard, secured, as the Greek observed, by an iron door and by a lock of elaborate construction, showed him a number of massive gold vases.
“And where do these come from?” asked Cleon, almost dazzled by the splendid array.
“Where should they come from, but from the Temple? Some of these have got a history of their own. You see that two-handled cup? King Artaxerxes gave it to Nehemiah: solid gold. And you see those splendid sapphires in the handles? The very biggest stones of the sort I have ever seen, and worth three talents each. Then there is that salver, Alexander of Macedon gave it to the Temple; and that casket there was a present from the first Ptolemy.”
“But, my dear sir,” said the Greek, astonished at the audacity of the whole affair, “is not this going a little too far? Suppose the people were to find it out? Would there not be a rather formidable uproar?”