But Thrasyllus, on the other side, whispered:
"He's not mad, Lucius.... He is a seer.... He has seen.... He has perhaps seen the new God of Whom all the sibyls speak...."
"I don't know His name," said Thrasyllus.
"My dear nephew, that great monstrous fellow frightens me, here in the dark, in the desert, in front of this awful statue. Egypt gives me too many impressions. I feel like a sponge full of water, so soaked am I with impressions. Egypt will be the death of me, Lucius, you'll see it will! Meanwhile I propose to mount my camel."
And Uncle Catullus called his guards and drivers and bade them make his camel kneel down for him.
But Lucius went to the prophet and drew him aside:
"Do you know the past?" he asked, anxiously.
"The past?" echoed the Jewish seer, in an uncertain voice; and his eyes were as though blind.
"Do you see and can you tell me if that which I think has happened ... is undoubtedly true?"
"I no longer see either the past or the future," said the seer. "I see nothing but the present. And the present for me is nothing but ... the radiant Child yonder!"
"I do not know, unless He be Jahve's Son!" cried the seer. "He was like Habel, he was like Horus. But I do not know, unless He be Jahve's Son!"
"Lucius," he said, "let us go. The night is falling and the guards have warned us against wild animals and robbers."
"Let Caleb give the prophet a gold piece," said Lucius.
Caleb produced a stater; but the prophet's laugh of thunder sent him staggering back:
"Gold!" cried the prophet, laughing like thunder. "What do I want with dead gold! I have seen living gold; I have seen the Child That was radiant gold as the sun itself, radiant as the burning bush! What do I want with dead gold!"
"He's mad! He's mad!" cried Caleb. "He doesn't want gold!"
And, terrified, Caleb slipped back the stater--but into another purse, in which he collected his savings--and rushed to his camel, which was already kneeling in the sand.
In the light of the stars that twinkled over the sea of sand the travellers rode back to Memphis.
It was very early one morning and Lucius was walking alone on the opposite bank of the river. In the tender dawn the vast grey lines of Memphis became visible in rose-red silhouette.