By him now stood Lysias, and he said: "O jarl of the Saxons, linger not. The Jew hath found a stone which must be lifted. He waiteth for thee."
No message had Ben Ezra sent, but he was stooping over a flat slab in the place of sacrifice. Upon it there were marks of fire and the stone was crumbling.
"Why lift it?" asked Ulric, drawing nearer. "What have we to do with the secrets of the gods? Why should we anger them?"
"They are dead," said Ben Ezra, "but I think this to be a door of the priests. It is but a broken stone. Give me thy spear."
"Nay," said Ulric, "I can pry with a spear shaft. We will have it up if anything may be hidden here for us."
The fire-broken limestone yielded in several pieces to the prying of the tough spear shafts. As its pieces were lifted, or as they fell away, behold stone steps, from which all shrank back save the Jew and the son of Odin and the Greek. Even Sigurd held back a moment, saying:
"I like it not. It is the jarl's place. Let him venture first. He knoweth runes that we know not. So doth the Jew, but the Greek is a young fool."
Dangerous indeed it was for any man to step into a chamber under the altar of a strange god, but when they went down and entered it and looked around there was but little to see.
"A store of broken weapons and rust-eaten armor," said Ulric. "Some of the hilts and shields are good enough. But there are many skulls and bones."
"A crown!" shouted Ben Ezra, with a round thing in his hand glittering. "Here placed they the ashes of kings from the altar. I know not why they should have buried with one the diadem of his realm. It may be that his dynasty was ended. Many of these stones are rare and precious. Here is gold, also, but the silver is of no great value. Let us bear all to the ship, for the spoil of this sacred tomb of the kings would buy a Roman province."
The vikings in the outer air were summoned, and now they were not unwilling to venture, for the fear of the place had departed when they heard again the voice of the jarl. Neither did they care overmuch to find merely the remains of the dead, and they were greatly pleased with the treasures.
Ben Ezra bore away one shield which was heavy with gold, and in the middle of it was a jewel so like a great red eye that the vikings said it was looking at them revengefully, and they would not touch it.